Scion Metal Zine 6

METAL ZINE VOL. 6 SCIONAV.COM

MELVINS / DECREPIT BIRTH PROSTHETIC RECORDS / ALL SHALL PERISH HOLY GRAIL

STAFF

Scion  Project  Manager:  Jeri  Yoshizu,  Sciontist       Editor:  Eric  Ducker Creative  Direction:  Scion Art  Direction:  BON Contributing  Editor:  J.  Bennett Graphic  Designer:  Gabriella  Spartos CONTRIBUTORS Writer:  Etan  Rosenbloom Photographer:  Mackie  Osborne

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Scion  Customer  Experience 19001  S.  Western  Avenue  Mail  Stop  WC12   Torrance,  CA  90501 Phone:  866.70.SCION  /  Fax:  310.381.5932 Email:  Email  us  through  the  Contact  page  located  on  scion.com Hours:  M-­F,  6am-­5pm  PST  /  Online  Chat:  M-­F,  6am-­6pm  PST Scion  Metal  Zine  is  published  by  BON.  For  more  information  about  BON,  email  contact@bon-­usa.com Company  references,  advertisements  and/or  websites   OLVWHG LQ WKLV SXEOLFDWLRQ DUH QRW DI¿OLDWHG ZLWK 6FLRQ  unless  otherwise  noted  through  disclosure.   Scion  does  not  warrant  these  companies  and  is  not  liable   for  their  performances  or  the  content  on  their   advertisements  and/or  websites. Š  2012  Scion,  a  marque  of  Toyota  Motor  Sales  U.S.A.,  Inc.    All  rights  reserved.  Scion  and  the  Scion  logo   are  trademarks  of  Toyota  Motor  Corporation.  00430-­ZIN06-­MT Cover:  Illustration  by  Pär  Olofsson

SCION A/V SCHEDULE MARCH

March  13:  Scion  A/V  Presents:  The  Melvins  —  The  Bulls  &  The  Bees  March  20:  Scion  A/V  Presents:  Meshuggah  —  I  Am  Colossus  March  31:  Scion  Label  Showcase:  Profound  Lore,  featuring  Yob,  the  Atlas  Moth,  Loss,   Wolvhammer  and  Pallbearer,  at  the  Glasshouse,  Pomona,  California

APRIL

Â&#x2021; $WODV 0RWK Âł<RXU &DOP :DWHUV´ Â&#x2021; &RUURVLRQ RI &RQIRUPLW\ Âł3V\FKLF 9DPSLUH´ Â&#x2021; 6DLQW 9LWXV Âł/HW 7KHP )DOO´ Â&#x2021; 7RPEV Âł 3DVVDJHZD\V´  $SULO 6FLRQ $ 9 3UHVHQWV 0XVLF 9LGHRV April  3:  Scion  A/V  Presents:  Municipal  Waste April  10:  Scion  A/V  Presents:  All  Shall  Perish  â&#x20AC;&#x201D;  The  Past  Will  Haunt  Us  Both  (in  Spanish) $SULO 6FLRQ $ 9 3UHVHQWV 3URVWKHWLF 5HFRUGV /DEHO 6KRZFDVH OLYH UHFRUGLQJ  April  24:  Municipal  Waste,  â&#x20AC;&#x153;Repossessionâ&#x20AC;?  video

MAY

May  15:  Scion  A/V  Presents:  Relapse  Records  Label  Showcase  (live  recording) May  19:  Scion  Label  Showcase:  A389  Records  Showcase,  featuring  Integrity,  Ringworm,  Young  and  In  the  Way,  Seven  Sisters  of  Sleep  and  the  Love  Below,  at  the  Glasshouse,  Pomona,  California

JUNE

June  19:  Scion  A/V  Presents:  Profound  Lore  Label  Showcase  (live  recording) June  23:  Scion  Label  Showcase:  Southern  Lord,  featured  acts  Pelican,  Black  Breath,  MartyrdÜd,  Burning  Love  and  Acephalix,  at  the  Glasshouse,  Pomona,  California Be  on  the  look  out  for  national  tours  by  Meshuggah,  the  Melvins  and  All  Shall  Perish   VSRQVRUHG E\ 6FLRQ $ 9 WKLV $SULO DQG 0D\

Over the course of ten years and four albums, Oakland quintet All Shall Perish has honed an increasingly powerful combination of death metal savagery, hardcore pit-incitement, neo-classical shred and sharp sociopolitical critique.

The title of their most recent album, This Is Where It Ends, may as well be their mission statement.

“When I was seven years old, I got put into an elementary school assembly. In walks a quartet of people, and they all have different instruments. They all start talking about playing music and what it means to them. I remember the trombonist was just tearin’ it up that day. I went home to my mom and I said, ‘I want to start playing music. I really love it.’ And she went and rented me a trombone and I joined up for elementary school band.

I started learning the basics from there. I actually ignored a lot of what my teachers were saying to me. I was like, ‘This doesn’t make any sense. I’ll do it my way.’ I think that mentality was what brought me to be a death metal singer. I’m not going to go by the guidelines of popular choice. I’m just going to go do what feels right. And here I am today.”

—Hernan “Eddie” Hermida, vocalist As told to Etan Rosenbloom allshallperish.com Download live tracks from All Shall Perish’s performance at Scion Label Showcase: Nuclear Blast in Hollywood at scionav.com/nuclearblast

Santa  Cruzâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  Decrepit  Birth  is  known  for  their  startlingly  colorful  take  on  death  metalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  often  monochromatic  musical  style.  Vocalist  Bill  Robinsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  lyrics  reach  for  metaphysical   planes,  while  t he  bandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  labyrinthine  r iff  structures  and  f usion-­forward  g uitar  harmonies  ensure  t hat  they  get  there. Âł,Q WKH EHJLQQLQJ D ORW RI WKH IHHOLQJV ZH ZDQWHG WR SXW LQWR WKH PXVLF ZHUH MXVW EUXWDO slamming,  technical  death  metal.  At  the  time,  a  lot  of  the  California  bands  that  were  playing  that  really  technical,  brutal  style  started  sounding  a  little  bit  alike.  I  wanted  to  branch  RII LQWR VRPHWKLQJ WKDW ZDV GLIIHUHQW ZLWK LQĂ&#x20AC;XHQFHV IURP PRUH (XURSHDQ VWXII DQG WKH Canadian  death  metal  scene.  That  was,  in  turn,  what  we  got  with  [2008â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s]  Diminishing  Between  Worldsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a  lot  more  melody.  It  was  more  about  structure  than  about  riff  salad  and  KRZ PDQ\ QRWHV FDQ , WKURZ RXW ´ ²0DWW 6RWHOR JXLWDULVW As  told  to  Etan  Rosenbloom facebook.com/decrepitbirth Download  live  tracks  from  Decrepit  Birthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  performance  at  Scion  Label  Showcase:  Nuclear  Blast  in  Hollywood  at  scionav.com/nuclearblast

STORY: DAVID BRODSKY

I’ve been making music videos for underground and indie bands since 2003. Most of my work has been in rock and metal. I’ve been into music for as long as I can remember. I spent a few years singing in bands and at the same time making those big 3D displays for Tower Records. Tower Records closed and I started doing corporate work for some ad agencies.

I learned way too much about renal failure and PowerPoint. I tried to put “art” into it, but overall, it was a soul-draining horror.

I transitioned into music videos as an editor, then became a “chair director” (a dude that sits in a chair and tells people what he wants to see), then grabbed the camera and learned to use a jib (a camera on a stick). I have now directed, shot and edited about 200 music videos. Here are some things I learned about music videos while making them that may help you if you want to make them.

MUSIC VIDEOS ARE STILL IMPORTANT Now that MTV has effectively decided against actually playing any music videos, many people feel that the music video is dead. That’s wrong.

A video I shot for GWAR over five years ago gets views and comments on YouTube every day.

This is far more exposure than the same video would have gotten on MTV, even in its heyday.

I don’t believe you need a million to make a good video, but a video presence is a must. One of the first things that people do when discovering a band is go straight to YouTube and watch the video. It’s an essential part of a modern artist’s ability to connect with their audience and to expose themselves to new fans as well.

We released a video for Devin Townsend that had fifty thousand views in a few hours. Is that an internet phenomenon? No, but that’s a ton of people.

REQUIREMENTS It’s my opinion that in order to properly make a music video, you have to love music. It helps to also love visuals, but a love of music is essential. The end result is not about you so much as it’s about the band. I try not to look at videos as short films with a soundtrack, but as a visual accompaniment to the music.

If you’re only making music videos in order

to get into film or to get something on your résumé then please find something else to do. You’re disrespecting the hard work and the art that the musicians have made. If you have to work with an artist you don’t like, try to find what he loves about the music. Do I love everything? No. But the only way I can hope to properly represent an artist is to do everything I can to appreciate their art.

CONCEPT Ask the band what they have on their mind.

Each band is unique. Some have amazing ideas. Some don’t even think about videos.

Regardless, it’s your job to represent the band’s music, so it makes sense to find out what they think. If they have an idea, great, run with it.

If they don’t, try to get an idea of what they like and what they hate. One thing I’ve learned is that it’s nearly impossible to guess what a band’s tastes are, so why bother guessing?

PRODUCTION On most shoots it is necessary to hire a producer to help arrange things that the director doesn’t necessarily have the time or inclination to handle. The producer’s role is getting all the ducks in a row so the director can show up and be creative with the band.

If I can offer just one piece of production advice, it’s this: Don’t shoot without insurance. It may appear needlessly expensive in many cases, but it is far less expensive than replacing a $10,000 camera or $20,000 in medical bills out of your own pocket. You can get insurance from a number of sources—I typically use Film Emporium—and you can get a variety of types of coverage.

Part of the producer’s job is to secure crew and gear. Having done over 200 videos, I have solid relationships with very talented crew people and a number of vendors. It pays to have a good working relationship with the crew. I find it important to allow them to be creative as well. A lighting designer got into

lighting design presumably because they love doing lighting design, so let that artist express himself as well. If as a director you can clearly communicate to your crew what you want them to be doing and allow them to enjoy their creativity, you’ll be golden.

SHOOTING These days, I generally shoot in HD. Way back I used film, but I have seen very little solid reason to do so for many years. Postproduction and digital cameras have come a long way and while this isn’t necessarily the forum for a film vs. digital discussion, I will say that digital is vastly more affordable.

The Panasonic AG-HVX200 camera may be the most famous camera in indie metal. It’s shot hundreds of videos. It shoots HD footage at 60FPS so you can get some awesome slow-motion effects without needing higher cost cameras. It’s about five years old now and is slowly aging out, but it’s still a terrific multi-purpose camera. More recently, the use of DSLRs, like the Canon 7D, has added an increased ability to get more “cinematic” looks for music videos with lower budgets.

Whatever your tool of choice, learn about its strengths and weaknesses and work with them. For instance, in the strength department, the HVX200 is durable as all hell. And digital cameras shoot compressed footage. This means that the footage, basically, is encoded using some complex math that’s beyond my understanding in order to crush all that information into usable data at a usable speed.

The HVX’s compression is crisp and typically footage from it can be used immediately within editing programs like Avid Media Composer.

The HVX200’s weakness is primarily the fixed lens. That means you cannot remove the lens and are therefore “stuck” with what that one lens is capable of. It does have a zoom with only a bit of light loss, but you cannot get the same kind of depth of field as you can with a DSLR. The Canons have much more flexibility in the “look” of the shot because you can swap lenses. So you not only have the option of using a zoom lens, but you can pretty easily swap out for a prime lens that yields better visual results at the expense of zooming.

A DSLR’s footage can only be immediately used, however, by supercomputers. Otherwise, the Quicktime files it generates need to be converted before editing. This takes a lot of time, but you can set it up to convert overnight if need be, so it’s not the worst thing in the world.

For each shoot, I assess which type of camera best suits it. Often I’ll use both and match them in post.

The point is, the more familiar you become with the tools available to you, the better you will be able to do solid work.

SHOOTING STYLE The music informs the shooting style and how to move the camera. Shooting style is purely a subjective thing, but my preference has always been to shoot “in motion.” One thing I try to do is make the camera another instrument in the band, but that’s another long esoteric conversation. If you’re going to be the shooter, it is imperative that you know the music. This should be obvious, but you’d be surprised.

THE PERFORMANCE Remember that in many cases you are trying to capture the band as they are. It is important that they are as comfortable as they can be given the situation. It has been my experience that if I try to drastically alter the way a band performs, even in the way they stand relative to one another, they get uncomfortable or overthink things and I cannot capture them as they are. I will suggest minor improvements, but I find that once the band is comfortable in a semi-familiar environment, they can let loose

and enjoy. I also let them know that I know that they may feel stupid, but that there’s no reason to feel that way. I let them know that we’re all here because we all want to be here, and we all love what we’re doing.

UNCOMFORTABLE OR NERVOUS ARTISTS I’ve found that bands can get uncomfortable because shooting a video can feel somewhat stupid to some people. I can’t argue this position and telling them to sack up will only make it worse. What I try to do is let them know that I understand and get them to think about what it is they are getting to do today.

I let them know that we are all here for them and that we want to watch them perform. If it helps, I ask them to think back to before they were in a band, when they were just discovering music and they’d blast their stereo as loud as it could go and air guitar or sing or bang on drums in the basement.

EDITING Get used to this idea: The best shot you ever took may get cut for the betterment of the video. I have a saying that goes, “I don’t edit ’til I’m editing.” That simply means that I work with the footage I shot as opposed to the footage I wanted to shoot. Expectations can be a funny thing, and while I certainly strive to accomplish what I planned to get, so many things can happen that it pays to be organic.

When editing music videos, I tend to prefer hearing more than the beat. Cutting on the beat is easy, and it can be effective, but it’s also obvious and dull. It’s important to me to be able to have the video flow within the music as opposed to sitting atop it.

I think that the single most important thing to know when making a video is how to edit.

Being an editor will inform your shoots. You’ll know how and what to shoot because you’ll have some idea of how it can all fit together in the edit room. Also you’ll know what you can get away with not shooting and still make it work. This is especially helpful when you’re running out of time. Directors that have no editing experience, in my opinion, tend to overshoot things simply because they can’t put it all together in their heads.

A good editor can make bad footage acceptable.

But the reverse is true as well: a bad editor can ruin good footage. And remember, not everything can be fixed in post.

COLOR Modern non-linear editors offer amazing color correction tools. One of the freedoms that a music video can afford is the ability to go beyond a “safe” color correction. It’s hard to describe, but color can change the mood of a visual. It’s surprising how powerful and beautiful complex colors can be. I have my preferences for many things, but I always try to work within the confines of the footage. Uncolored footage can look flat and dull, whereas a minor adjustment in the color, brightness, saturation and contrast, or the levels and curves can drastically alter and improve the look. mgenyc.com Watch David Brodsky’s workshop on making music videos from the Scion Music(less) Music Conference at scionav.com/mmc

Interview:  J.  Bennett Founded  in  1998  by  former  Columbia  Records  employees  E.J.  Johantgen  and  Dan  Fitzgerald,  Prosthetic  Records  has  grown  into  one  of  metalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  biggest  independent  labels.  Based  in  Los  Angeles,  Prosthetic  has  released  albums  by  metal  heavyweights  Lamb  of  God,  All  That  Remains  and  Kylesa  alongside  burgeoning  stars  like  Landmine  Marathon,  Skeletonwitch  and  Holy  Grail.  We  spoke  with  Johantgen  about  the  realities  of  running  an  independent  metal  label  in  an  era  of  downloads,  piracy  and  declining  album  sales.   Why  did  you  want  to  start  your  own  ODEHO LQ WKH ÂżUVW SODFH"  Because  I  saw  a  lot  of  major  labels  signing  acts  t hat  basically  appeared  to  be  w rite-­offs.  The  bands  t hat  should  have  had  the  money  and  the  marketing  spent  on  them  werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t  getting  it,  and  the  bands  that  really  didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t  deserve  any  of  that  had  millions  dumped  into  them.  And  much  like  anyone,  I  wanted  to  work  with  bands  that  I  love  and  put  everything  I  can  into  them  because  I  feel  they  deserve  it.  What  are  your  duties  at  Prosthetic  as  the  ODEHO VWDQGV WRGD\"  Dan  and  I  both  oversee  the  ins  and  the  outs  of  just  about  everything,  but  we  also  have  nine  employees  worldwide.  I  do  the  A&R,  Dan  does  a  lot  of  the  sales  stuff.  We  both  handle  the  marketing. Â

A&R-­wise,  what  are  you  looking  for  in  D EDQG" Stuff  thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  great,  stuff  thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  unique.  I  donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t  think  weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve  ever  really  followed  the  trends,  I  think  the  trends  have  come  after.  For  example,  I  asked  Tosin  [Abasi]  from  Animals  as  Leaders  to  do  an  instrumental  record  when  he  was  still  LQ KLV ROG EDQG DQG QRZ WKDWÂśV WKH Ă&#x20AC;DYRU RI the  month.  We  signed  Through  the  Eyes  of  the  Dead,  one  of  the  early  deathcore  bands,  and  that  EHFDPH WKH Ă&#x20AC;DYRU RI WKH PRQWK Prosthetic  puts  out  records  from  many  different  metal  subgenres,  but  do  you  feel  like  the  label  has  a  general  overall  DHVWKHWLF" I  think  the  core  of  it  is  stuff  thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  heavy,  stuff  thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  extreme,  even  though  thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  a  word  that  has  no  meaning  anymore.  But  if  you  look  at  a  band  like  Animals  as  Leaders,  7RVLQÂśV IRUPHU EDQG >5HĂ&#x20AC;X[@ ZDV RQH RI WKH HDUO\ metalcore  bands.  He  grew  as  an  artist,  and  what  he  delivered  to  us  was  light  years  beyond  what  he  had  done  before.  He  made  an  accessible  record,  in  a  way,  but  if  I  woke  up  one  day  and  decided  that  I  wanted  to  get  involved  with  radio  rock  bands,  how  could  I  compete?  Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  a  major  label  business.  Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  a  â&#x20AC;&#x153;go  big  or  go  homeâ&#x20AC;?  business.  All  That  Remains  evolved  into  a  radio  rock  band  over  time,  you  know?  If  an  artist  becomes  that,  like  Metallica  did,  thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  much  more  appealing  to  me.

How  do  you  strike  the  balance  between  putting  out  music  that  you  enjoy  and  making  sure  you  donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t  lose  your  shirt  LQ WKH SURFHVV" :HOO ZHÂśYH GHÂżQLWHO\ EHHQ involved  in  talking  to  bands  where  the  money  gets  a  little  ridiculous.  And  weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve  certainly  overspent  on  some  of  them.  But  I  donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t  know,  I  get  caught  up  in  stuff  that  I  like.  We  just  did  a  deal  with  a  band  that  I  canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t  mention  right  now,  and  I  overspent  on  them,  no  question.  But  I  love  â&#x20AC;&#x2122;em,  so  what  are  you  gonna  do?  You  gotta  do  what  you  love,  or  thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  no  point.  But  you  must  go  into  negotiations  like  that  with  a  cutoff  number  in  your  head.

Five  or  ten  years  ago,  it  was  easier  to  get  a  sense  of  what  a  bandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  ceiling  was  and  what  you  could  sell  initially.  If  you  could  get  to  this  sales  number,  you  could  spend  t his  much  money,  t hat  kind  of  thing.  But  now  itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  a  crapshoot.  No  one  can  tell  you. Â

industry.  On  the  plus  side,  you  can  have  the  music  you  put  out  heard  instantly  by  anyone  in  the  world  who  has  access  to  a  computer  and  an  internet  connection.  Conversely,  that  instant  availability  has  made  people  less  inclined  to  actually  buy  music,  because  itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  just  too  easy  to  steal.  Dude,  itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  always  been  hard  to  VHOO UHFRUGV :KHQ ZH ÂżUVW VWDUWHG WKH ODEHO metal  was  dead.  People  forget  that.  There  were  no  bands.  Lamb  of  God  couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t  get  arrested.  People  hated  them  because  they  couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t  tell  what  t hey  were.  A  hardcore  band?  A  death  metal  band?  There  was  them  and  Shadows  Fall,  and  that  was  basically  it.  Killswitch  Engage  came  a  little  later.  The  biggest  death  metal  band  at  the  time  was  probably  Six  Feet  Under.  Cannibal  Corpse  was  still  popular,  but  certainly  not  like  they  are  now.  And  today,  I  think  most  metal  is  back  underground.  Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re  not  gonna  see  the  huge  sales  t hat  you  used  to  see.  Some  bands  c an  go  out  there  and  do  well,  but  theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re  few  and  far  between.  I  think  the  next  wave  is  coming,  but  whether  it  will  generate  more  record  sales,  I  donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t  know.  Overall,  we  had  a  really  good  year  last  year,  but  who  knows  about  next  year?

As  far  as  the  internet  goes,  there  are  obviously  fewer  printed  metal  magazines  out  there,  so  weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re  spending  less  on  advertising.  But  Facebook  helps.  Twitter  helps.  You  just  have  to  get  more  creative.  You  know  youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re  going  to  sell  fewer  records,  but  I  think  if  the  record  is  good  you  can  sell  physical  product.  Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re  just  not  gonna  sell  it  at  Best  Buy  anymore.  If  the  band  is  out  there  DQG DFWLYH LW FDQ ZRUN 7KHUHÂśV D GHÂżQLWH FHLOLQJ if  the  band  doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t  tour,  though.  Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  hard  for  me  to  market  something  thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  not  visible. Â

Clearly,  the  record  industry  has  changed  quite  a  bit  since  you  started  Prosthetic  in  the  late  1990s.  In  what  ways  have  you  KDG WR DGMXVW WR WKH FXUUHQW FOLPDWH" You  try  not  to  overspend.  You  try  to  be  realistic.  Some  bands  want  this,  that  and  the  other  thing,  and  when  you  hear  that,  you  instantly  know  that  youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll  never  make  a  dime.  But  I  think  mail  order  has  been  a  positive  thing  for  labels  like  mine.  It  makes  it  a  little  easier,  letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  put  it  that  way.  It  gives  me  hope.  At  the  end  of  the  day,  the  hardest  part  of  running  a  record  label  is  that  thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  no  place  to  ship  records  anymore.  You  have  to  adjust,  and  the  way  that  weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve  adjusted  is  by  selling  direct  to  fans  through  mail  order.  It  seems  like  the  digital  age  has  been  a  double-­edged  sword  for  the  record Â

Is  that  a  conversation  you  have  with  EDQGV EHIRUH \RX VLJQ WKHP"  Yeah,  we  GHÂżQLWHO\ DVN WKHP LI WKH\ÂśUH JRQQD SXW LQ WKH work.  I  go  into  the  conversation  asking,  â&#x20AC;&#x153;What  are  you  looking  for?  What  do  you  want  to  do?â&#x20AC;?  If  they  say  they  want  X  number  of  dollars,  then  I  need  certain  things  to  happen  in  order  for  it  to  PDNH VHQVH 7RXULQJ LV GHÂżQLWHO\ RQH RI WKHP I  think  most  bands  want  to  be  successful,  and  they  want  to  build  something  up.  But  itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  always  a  gamble.  A  band  like  Agalloch  is  the  rare  exception  thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  been  able  to  do  it  their  own  way  without  touring  much.  Bands  like  Pelican  and  Converge  tour  regularly  and  a lso  do  t hings  t heir  own  way.  But  most  bands  canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t.  Do  you  do  360  deals  with  bands  where  you  take  a  piece  of  their  tour  revenue  and  merch  sales  to  make  up  for  the  fact  that  you  just  FDQÂśW VHOO DV PDQ\ UHFRUGV DQ\PRUH" No. Â

were  bands  we  didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t  think  would  sell  well  on  vinyl  at  all,  but  we  blew  through  the  copies  we  pressed.  Scale  the  Summit,  for  instanceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; amazing  band,  but  we  didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t  think  their  fans  would  buy  vinyl.  We  were  wrong.  Do  you  think  vinyl  sales  will  continue  to  increase,  or  do  you  think  itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  a  trend  WKDWÂśV SHDNLQJ ULJKW QRZ" I  donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t  know.  I  think  itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  always  getting  better.  I  mean,  my  11-­year-­old  is  into  v inyl  now,  a lthough  he  listens  to  mostly  electronic  music.  We  blew  through  a  thousand  pieces  of  Acacia  Strain  vinyl,  and  their  crowd  is  a  younger  crowd.  I  t hink  t hat  says  something.  So  I  think  itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  going  to  get  bigger,  and  I  donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t  think  itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  going  to  go  away  soon.  But  who  knows?  Maybe  this  yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  the  peak.  W h a t  d o  y o u  t h i n k  o f  t h o s e  t y p e s  R I G H D O V" 7 K H \ V H H P W R E H V W D Q G D U G p r a c t i c e  f o r  m a j o r  l a b e l s  n o w.  Well,  if  you  can  manage  all  those  assets  that  youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re  taking  from  the  band  and  account  for  everything  properlyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and  the  band  is  still  getting  everything  they  need  and  wantâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  the  big  deal?  If  a  band  wants  a  lot  of  money,  they  have  to  give  something  up.  Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  just  reality.  But  I  think  most  younger  bands  understand  that  thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  not  a  lot  of  money  to  be  had  these  days  in  terms  of  advances,  because  you  honestly  donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t  need  that  much  money  to  make  a  record  anymore.  The  death  of  the  record  industry  is  essentially  viewed  as  a  foregone  conclusion  at  this  point.  Do  you  think  record  sales  will  ever  actually  increase  again,  even  from  present  levels,  or  have  ZH RIÂżFLDOO\ EHJXQ WKH UDFH WR WKH ERWWRP" I  donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t  think  physical  product  will  ever  come  back  to  high  levels.  I  donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t  look  at  that  as  a  negative,  though.  Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d  much  prefer  if  things  were  digital.  I  have  issues  with  the  way  compensation  for  digital  sales  works  these  days,  but  I  think  thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll  get  worked  out.  Metal  kids  still  want  physical  productâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;whether  itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  CDs  or  vinyl  or  even  tapesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and  I  think  they  always  will,  to  a  certain  extent.  Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re  just  not  gonna  do  the  same  volume  as  before.  But  right  now,  our  vinyl  sales  are  through  the  roof.

Which  sells  best  for  you  these  days:  &'V GLJLWDO GRZQORDGV RU YLQ\O"  CD  sales  are  the  majority  of  what  we  do,  but  our  vinyl  sales  have  improved  considerably,  especially  internationally.  We  have  certain  bands  that  do  three  or  four  thousand  copies  on  vinyl,  which  I  think  is  phenomenal  in  this  day  and  age.  There Â

Have  you  ever  been  approached  by  a  PDMRU WKDW ZDQWHG WR EX\ 3URVWKHWLF"  Yes,  and  I  heard  what  they  had  to  say,  but  it  just  didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t  make  sense.  I  donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t  wanna  stop  putting  out  records.  And  once  a  label  becomes  DERXW SURÂżW WKH PXVLF JRHV WR V W GRHVQÂśW LW" That  offer  happened  years  ago,  though,  and  I  think  neither  partyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;me  or  themâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;really  had  an  idea  about  where  this  could  go  at  the  time.  But  if  I  had  taken  the  deal,  I  wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t  be  here  right  now.  I  think  if  you  do  what  you  love,  the  money  will  follow.  Did  you  think  youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d  get  this  far  when  \RX VWDUWHG WKH ODEHO" I  knew  we  could  get  here.  Working  at  a  major  label  was  very  weird.  I  just  saw  so  much  stupidity.  I  mean,  do  you  really  need  to  give  that  band  a  million  dollars?  Then  their  record  would  come  out,  no  one  would  care,  and  the  label  would  basically  lose  the  bandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  phone  number.  They  have  the  ability  to  do  that.  They  still  do  that.  But  if  youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re  an  indie,  youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re  committed  to  the  record.  Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re  in  it  to  win  it.  You  just  have  to  ¿JXUH RXW WKH EHVW ZD\ WR JHW LW JRLQJ

prostheticrecords.com Download  live  tracks  from  Prosthetic  acts  Holy  Grail,  Scale  the  Summit,  Last  Chance  to  Reason  and  the  Greenery,  recorded  at  Scion  Label  Showcase:  Prosthetic  Records  in  Hollywood  at  scionav.com/prostheticrecords

MELVINS Interview: J. Bennett Photography: Mackie Osborne Nearly 30 years into existence, the Melvins IZM WNÅKQITTa IV ]VLMZOZW]VL QV[\Q\]\QWV They’ve released dozens of super weird, super heavy records (including nearly 20 full-lengths) on labels of every size, from the majorest of majors and the smallest of indies. Over the course of those three decades, they’ve experienced several semi-infamous lineup changes— almost exclusively in the bass player department—but the band’s musical core has almost always comprised vocalist/ guitarist Buzz Osborne and drummer Dale Crover. We recently got up early to speak with Osborne about the Melvins’ ability to consistently defy conventions.

It’s about 9:30am right now, and you’re a notorious early riser. How long have been up? I got up at 4:30 today. I don’t even need an alarm clock to get up that early. I usually get up anywhere between 4:30 and 6, unless I’m on tour. Then I get up a lot later than normal. I do my best work before 9am—

well, my best work at home, anyway. It’s hard to get people to show up to the studio before 9am. But I’m a strange bird, you know? I’m not normal by any means. But I understand that.

Sleeping in for me is 7am. On tour, maybe 8:30 or 9:30 at the latest.

Which is still probably a couple of hours before the other guys. Yes. And I like to do a lot of the driving myself, unless we’re in Europe.

So I’ll just get up and take off. I usually travel separately from everyone else, besides the one other crew guy who I make get up early.

It’s the complete opposite of what you would expect from someone in a band.

Oh yeah. I’m the exact opposite of what you would expect from rock & roll people in every way. Nobody believes it, but I don’t care. I don’t think most people would actually enjoy walking a day in my shoes.

Because you’re far more on the straight and narrow? Well, it’s straight and narrow, but I’m by no means straight. Even straight and narrow people aren’t doing what I’m doing. I have a really hard time unwinding, and

I don’t do real well with idle time. I don’t watch TV or anything like that. I have no interest in it.

TV is great for some people, because it keeps them off the streets. Not me.

I’m at musically feels like a cross between George Clinton, Captain Beefheart, Venom and Lenny Bruce. A simpler way to say it would be Captain Beefheart playing heavy metal.

You were a KISS fan growing up. How did you go from the most commercial rock band of the 1970s to punk rock?

Well, I liked a wide variety of bands, and KISS was just one of them. They wrote good songs, and they were wild rock & roll to some degree.

But at the same time, I liked bands like Queen, Aerosmith, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles.

I still like all that stuff. But I started getting into bands like the Sex Pistols at a very early age, and at first it was solely because of the way they looked in Creem magazine. I remember I mail-ordered their record, and I didn’t think it was that much different from regular rock stuff at all. I thought the vocals were a little weirder, but that’s about it. I mean, if you like Mott the Hoople, you can like the Sex Pistols. From there, I kinda figured out what the Sex Pistols were into and discovered other punk bands.

The Melvins have gone through a lot of bass players over the years. Has that been a frustrating process for you and Dale? It’s always frustrating. You never want that kind of thing to happen, but it takes two to tango, you know? I’m an eclectic weirdo, and I understand that. I’m a strange person, a strange guy. I mean, my world seems fine to me, but when I get out into the rest of the world, I don’t have a lot of patience for things that drive me crazy, whatever they may be. I’m single-minded, but I’m not sorry I made any of those decisions. I made the right choice every single time. I wasn’t wrong about any of it.

People can think whatever they want, but I’m not making excuses for it. Those people knew the job was dangerous when they took it.

At the time I was 13, so I wasn’t really able to go to any of the huge rock shows because we lived so far away from the city. The town we lived in didn’t even have a record store. When I was finally able to go to a rock concert, I went to see all different kinds of bands. I would’ve gone to a lot more had I lived closer. I got into punk rock and realized that was more along the lines of what I wanted to do, because of the intimacy of the whole thing. ?PI\ _I[ \PM ÅZ[\ JQO KWVKMZ\ aW] went to? I think it was Three Dog Night or something. I thought it was cool. I saw a bunch of good bands back then—KISS, Van Halen—but then I also went to see punk bands like TSOL, Black Flag and the Damned. ?I[ \PMZM I [XMKQÅK UWUMV\ _PMV aW] thought, “I want to do this”? I didn’t even start playing guitar until I was 18 and almost out of high school, so I went pretty quickly from playing guitar to playing in a band. It was a matter of months, but it seemed a lot longer at the time. The first music I wrote in the early 1980s was relatively simple, and I think that had more to do with the fact that I wasn’t a very good guitar player. As I got better, I got more into weirder rhythms and strange music, and just kind of took it from there. At this point, where

Did that situation ever get so bad that you thought about packing it in?

Whenever I would think about packing it in, I’d realize that what I really wanted to do was just get rid of the bass player. And that was always the truth.

From a n outsider’s perspective, it seems like the current Melvins lineup has been the most hassle-free. Prior to Jared [Warren] and Coady [Wills], Mark [Deutrom] played with us from 1993 to 1998, and then Kevin [Rutmanis] played with us from ’98 to 2005. So it’s been the better part of 20 years with only three different lineups, so it’s not like every other week [there’s a new member].

Those other guys played with us for as long as most bands even exist. We’re not like the Brian Jonestown Massacre, where they’ve had like 900 different people in the band.

Has having Jared and Coady in the band opened up the songwriting process for you? Sure, but I was always open-minded about that sort of thing. I’ve always wanted people to contribute. It’s a band, you know?

But if nobody wants to contribute, I’ll be more than happy to fill up the gaps. I’m all for people bringing whatever they have to the table, always have been. I’ve never had a problem with that.

“My advice to bands is to be as peculiar as you can. You can’t be peculiar enough, as far as I’m concerned.”

Has having two drummers made for new possibilities? Sure. In that sense, we’re only limited by what we can come up with. And I have faith in those guys’ abilities to play whatever we come up with. I quit worrying about that sort of thing a long time ago. It’s not up to me whether people are gonna like it or not. What I have to do is keep working. So I just keeping making music, and it’s up to the public to decide if they like it or not. It’s got nothing to do with me, and I don’t want it to.

You can’t win in that scenario. But I know I’m right. I’ve never been wrong about anything, not as far as that’s concerned. I wouldn’t change anything on any of our records. I’m happy with every single one of them.

In 2009, you put out a remix record called Chicken Switch, on which you gave artists entire Melvins albums to create their own song. By doing that, it seemed like you were saying that music isn’t necessarily sacred.

Yes, absolutely. I believe in artistic freedom, which means I believe in letting people do what they want, whether you like it or not. If I hire somebody to paint a portrait of my wife, I’m not gonna stand over their shoulder and tell them what to paint. I already made that decision by hiring them. If I didn’t want them to do what they do, I’d paint it myself. Far too many people have way too many rules about music. But I think music should be malleable. Our albums are mere suggestions. That’s all they are.

Last year, you guys played a residency at Satellite in Los Angeles. At one of the shows, you did a set with original Melvins drummer Mike Dillard. How did that come about? We did that a couple of years ago, too, just for the hell of it. We thought it might be fun. I’m still really good friends with Mike, even though I’m not friends with Matt Lukin, who was the Melvins’ bass player at that time.

But if you look up Matt on Google or Facebook or something, you’ll know why we didn’t want to continue playing with him. So we got Dale to play bass [at Satellite] instead and did songs from ’83 and ’84. We actually just recorded a four-song record with him on drums and Dale on bass—three new songs and a song from back then. It’s sort of in the style of ’83, but it came out really good.

Have you always felt that way? I never really thought about it. At some point when we were playing songs live, I’d realize that there would be certain parts that I didn’t like anymore, so I’d play those parts differently. I don’t care, and no one else cares, either. If they do, they need to understand that there’s a massive difference between albums and playing live. I think most people subconsciously understand that they want a different thing, one way or the other. I don’t listen to albums thinking, “How are they gonna pull this off live?” Bands get hung up on that kind of stuff all the time. I can’t explain it. Musicians are some of the most conformist people you’ll ever meet. I don’t know why. It’s never made sense to me. My advice to bands is to be as peculiar as you can. You can’t be peculiar enough, as far as I’m concerned.

You’re also about to do a Melvins record with Trevor Dunn from Fantômas. Does switching up personnel help you keep a fresh musical perspective? Maybe, I’m not sure. Quite honestly, the way I’m wired, I don’t think I’m doing anything that’s that out of the ordinary in terms of the volume of music we make. I know it is, when you see how everybody else does it, but I don’t feel like I’m overstating myself by any means. I feel like I don’t do enough, as weird as that sounds.

You’ve consistently said that you’d rather have half the admiration you get in cash. Well, I don’t have any problem with admiration, but in the end, I’m not doing this so people think I’m cool. I hope they do, but if they don’t, that’s okay. The easiest thing in the world to do is to look around and do what everyone else will think is great. There’s nothing hard about that. But usually if it’s easy, it’s not good.

How has downloading and declining

music sales changed the way you approach the business side of the Melvins? Obviously you’re not gonna sell as many records, but there’s nothing I can do about that. All I can do is keep making music. I’m into the idea that the exchange of information now is better than ever, so we should be happy for what we get, not what we don’t get. I’m happy that there’s someone out there who likes what we’re doing at all.

At the Satellite residency, you were selling some limited-edition vinyl and CD box sets that you had put together yourselves. That’s the future. We’ve always done lots of different projects along those lines. Now you have to ask: Why should people buy our records?

The answer is that we should give them something that nobody else is giving them, whatever that may be. But packaging means nothing compared to what’s in the package.

I don’t care what vehicle people listen to my music in, I just want them to hear it. I think our music should be loved by everyone in the whole world, but I’m not trying to have mass appeal. There are a lot of things that should happen that don’t happen. That’s fine. That’s the way the world works.

Your wife [Mackie Osborne] often does the artwork for Melvins releases, but you’re okay if people don’t necessarily see it, as long as they hear the music? That’s the way it’s always been. If you hear a song on the radio, you’re not hearing the packaging.

To me, the music is what’s important, not if it’s on vinyl or CD, if it’s recorded analog or digitally. Most of the people in the world listen to music on computers. That’s just the way it is. I’m not a move-in-reverse type of person. I like to move forward. Embrace the new and take it from there. Right now, our music can be heard instantaneously by more people all over the world than ever before. But if you wanna sell them something, you gotta give them something they can’t get like that.

Then you gotta go the extra mile and give them something they can’t get at Best Buy. And I’m all for that, because there’s nothing I like better than working. Which means we sit down and make the stuff ourselves. We have a target audience of a very few people who appreciate that sort of thing, but it works. The problem is that most people are too lazy to do that sort of thing. So what’s impressive is that we sit down and make the stuff ourselves by hand, instead of getting a bunch of people in a

factory to do it. If you have money, anybody can do that. It’s less impressive than something that is handmade.

Last year, the Melvins were in New Zealand during the earthquake, and then in Japan during the earthquake and tsunami. Did that spook you? What are the chances of someone being present for both of those catastrophic events on two different continents? Gotta be billions to one. I’m still not over it. It was horrible. I’m still spooked by the whole thing, and I live in California, where we have earthquakes regularly. But we gotta be members of some kind of club now. We were actually in the middle of soundcheck when the Japanese one hit. It was the longest earthquake I’ve ever felt. It just went on and on and on. I’m not wired correctly anyway, never mind having that kind of stuff happen.

Do the Melvins mean something different to you today than when you started the band? Maybe. I’m more relaxed now than I was then. We spent a lot of time with a lot of people not really caring about what we were doing. It was sort of a reverse-entropy thing. I have pretty thick skin because of that. But I’ve had enough people—people I respect—tell me that they like what I’m doing, so it’s good to know I wasn’t wrong about it. It is possible to play weird, eclectic music and make a career out of it—as long as you’re careful. But we didn’t have high expectations when we started. I just wanted to play a show. So we surpassed all that relatively quickly. Now, I’ve been able to support myself by playing music for the better part of 25 years. I mean, we don’t have trust funds. I wish we did. I’d like the trust fund to kick in right about now. You’d never see me again. themelvins.net Hear Scion A/V Presents: Melvins — The Bulls & The Bees, a collection of new songs at s c i o n a v. c o m / m e l v i n s

Interview: J. Bennett

In a genre that has splintered into what seems like a million different cliques and subcategories, Holy Grail have more in common with the fist-pumping arena metal of the early 1980s than almost any of the bands formed in the past 20 years. Crisis In Utopia , Holy Grailâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s full-length debut released in 2010, is bursting with the kind of infectious riffs, twin-guitar harmonies and sky-scraping vocals that made bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest famous. We sat down with Holy Grail vocalist James Luna and drummer Tyler Meahl the night before they headlined the Scion Label Showcase: Prosthetic Records concert at the Roxy in Hollywood.

Since you play in a very traditional early ’80s style, are there certain things you feel like you can’t or won’t do when you’re writing songs?

Luna: I don’t think so. We try not to limit ourselves. The whole purpose of us starting this band was because we’d been in other bands where there were rules. But we have really unique tastes within the band—modern metal and a lot of classic metal and hard rock.

That fusion is what makes the Holy Grail sound. We’ll write a riff thinking it sounds like Pentagram, but once the band starts playing it, it’ll come out sounding like Amon Amarth or something.

Meahl: Freedom is a big part of this band because Luna and I were in a band before called Jet Fuel, and the guitar player in that band was trying to run everything, including our personal lives. He didn’t even want us to go out of town or do anything on our own.

We lived in this warehouse in Huntington Park together, and we had to be around to take out the trash because he was letting us stay there for like $100 a month. It was the worst year of both of our lives. After that, we were in a band called White Wizzard, which also had a guy who was trying to run everything. So now we have a band that’s a democracy.

The core of Holy Grail is you two and guitarist Eli Santana, but you’ve been through a string of bass players and second

guitar players in just a couple of years. Has it been difficult to keep the band together with so many personnel changes?

Luna: We’ve had trouble trying to find the perfect lineup. A lot of it was trying out different guys and seeing if we could get along with them on the road. It’s an interesting relationship, being in tight quarters with four other dudes for two, three or four months at a time. Any little nuance they have that you didn’t like before is amplified tenfold. If you’re in a band with someone who’s rude to people, it makes you look rude because he’s representing the band. So we had to weed out a lot of people. We just want the band to be a brotherhood, which I feel like we have now.

Everything’s awesome with Blake [Mount, bassist] and Alex [Lee, guitarist].

Meahl: It’s also hard when you’re going on tour in two weeks and you need to find a bass player quickly. We’d meet these guys that we wouldn’t be thrilled about, but we’d think, “Oh, it’ll work out on the road.” But it never did. We should’ve trusted our gut. Some of these guys made touring hell.

Southern California has a strong heavy metal and hard rock lineage. Being from here, do you feel any connection to that history?

Luna: There is a connection that we feel, just in the sense that Tyler’s parents and friends of my parents would go see Van Halen and party with them in their heyday. Growing up

near famous rock clubs like the Roxy and the Whiskey and knowing everything that happened there is part of our experience living here. It becomes a part of you without you knowing it.

Meahl: Yeah, my dad grew up with Eddie Van Halen and was good friends with him in high school. But the other side of being from here is that there are a lot of people who live in L.A. who are super jaded. They moved out here trying to make it, but it didn’t work out.

Luna: Being native to L.A., you see a lot of transplants moving here trying to make it, and you learn how to detect phonies right off the bat. You get to see exactly how you don’t want to act once you start getting some notoriety.

Download live tracks from Holy Grail’s performance at Scion Label Showcase: Prosthetic Records in Hollywood at scionav.com/prostheticrecords IDFHERRN FRP KRO\JUDLORI¿FLDO

You’ve been doing a ton of touring lately.

What kind of lessons have you learned from those experiences?

Meahl: Don’t lie about how much merch you have when you’re crossing the Canadian border. We didn’t learn that firsthand, but we did tour with bands that got fined for it.

Luna: People also think touring is a party every night in every city, but it’s not. Or at least it shouldn’t be, not when you need to perform every day. You don’t want to ruin that, because you want to put on the best show possible.

What kinds of things do you do to keep your voice in shape?

Luna: I do vocal warm-ups and these yogatype exercises. Some of the vocal exercises come from an instructional DVD by Melissa Cross called The Zen Of Screaming. It really lubes up the pipes, so to speak.

Many of the tours you’ve done recently have been as a support act. Is there a different protocol when you’re in that position as opposed to being the headliner?

Luna: There’s definitely an unspoken code that says you respect the headliner.

Meahl: Well, it’s an unspoken code for us.

We’ve been on tours like that where the band that’s even playing before us has no respect for anybody. I mean, you don’t go around calling the shots or eating all the food in the green room before everyone else has a chance to get there. You don’t use up all the towels. You don’t lock yourself in the bathroom with your girlfriend for an hour while everyone is waiting to use the shower. It’s just common sense.

“People think touring is a party every night in every city, but it’s not. Or at least it shouldn’t be, not when you need to perform every day. You don’t want to ruin that, because you want to put on the best show possible. ”

Pär Olofsson

..

Story: J. Bennett

Swedish artist Pär Olofsson i s k nown for illustrating incredibly detailed album covers. He’s created art for extreme metal titans Immortal, Exodus and Immolation, as well as rising stars the Faceless, Abysmal Dawn and Pathology. Though he says that it wasn’t always this way.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Back  in  2005,  I  emailed  maybe  ten  labels  looking  to  get  into  the  business,  but  the  only  person  who  got  back  to  me  was  Erik  [Lindmark]  at  Unique  Leader  Records,â&#x20AC;?  Olofsson  says.  â&#x20AC;&#x153;I  did  a  piece  that  Deeds  Of  Flesh  used  in  the  booklet  for  Crown  of  Souls  that  later  became  the  cover  for  their  Live  in  Montreal  DVD.  The  pay  was  a  joke,  but  it  gave  me  some  good  publicity.â&#x20AC;? Â

with  a  special  focus  on  oil  painting.  Afterwards,  he  underwent  a  year  of  digital  graphics  training  EHIRUH JRLQJ WR ZRUN IRU DQ DGYHUWLVLQJ ÂżUP UXQ by  one  of  his  instructors.  But  he  always  found  his  true  inspiration  in  listening  to  extreme  metal.  ³7KH HQHUJ\ Ă&#x20AC;RZ LW JLYHV RII LV D UHDO UXVK ´ KH VD\V â&#x20AC;&#x153;And  some  of  t he  work,  like  t he  Facelessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;  Planetary  Duality,  was  a  big  step  in  my  evolution  as  a  painter.â&#x20AC;? Â

Today,  Olofsson  specializes  in  horror  scenes  and  futuristic  landscapes  like  the  ones  he  created  for  Norwegian  thrashers  Harmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  Demonic  Alliance  and  Swedish  death  dealers  Coldworkerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  The  Doomsayerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  Call.  His  style  is  the  result  of  a  meticulous  artistic  process.  â&#x20AC;&#x153;I  very  often  make  D SHQFLO GUDZLQJ ÂżUVW WKDW , ODWHU VFDQ DQG SDLQW in  Photoshop  using  a  Wacom  tablet,â&#x20AC;?  he  explains.  â&#x20AC;&#x153;The  tablet  has  its  limitations,  and  t hatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  why  I  like  WR GUDZ ZLWK SHQFLO RQ SDSHU ÂżUVW ´

)RU DOO WKH KLJK SURÂżOH ZRUN KHÂśV GRQH 2ORIVVRQ VWLOO has  at  least  one  band  on  his  wish  list.  â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d  really  like  to  work  with  the  Egyptian  theme  that  Nile  has  JRLQJ ´ KH VD\V Âł, ZRXOG EOHQG VWRQH DQG Ă&#x20AC;HVK ´

Before  his  career  took  off,  Olofsson  attended  art  school  in  his  native  Sweden  for  two  years,  where  he  studied  drawing,  sculpting  and  photography, Â

parolofsson.se See  Pär  Olofssonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  art  on  the  cover  of   Scion  A/V  Presents:  Immolation  â&#x20AC;&#x201D;  Providence  at  scionav.com/immolation

T A M P A Sc ene Report For  almost  four  years,  promoters  Peter  Olen  and  Matt  Welch  have  been  putting  on  metal  shows  together  under  the  name  Two  Beards  Presents.  Here  the  Florida  natives  let  you  know  what  you  need  to  know  about  whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  currently  happening  in  Tampa.

The  Scene Tampa  is  a  weird  place,  but  we  like  it  like  that.  Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re  not  complaining.  The  shows  are  going  well.  /RFDO EDQGV DUH ÂżQDOO\ getting  out  on  the  road.  The  scene  is  pretty  strong.  A  hardcore  band  recently  came  through  and  the  vocalist  was  saying  that  you  go  through  a  lot  of  towns  and  you  always  see  new  faces,  but  when  you  come  to  Tampa  you  see  a  lot  of  the  same  faces.  Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  true,  across  genres.  Kids  are  dedicated.  They  become  the  heart  of  the  community  and  tend  to  stick  around.  Right  now  weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve  got  a  really  good  and  thriving  crust  and  grindcore  scene.  Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  a  local  band  called  Cellgraft,  theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re  starting  to  pop  up  on  some  radars  and  are  putting  out  some  records.  Flyingsnakes  are  kind  of  crust-­metal.  They  just  did  a  tour  and  have  another  one  coming  in  June,  plus  they  had  a  full-­length  come  out.  Party  Time  is  Jamie  Stewart  from  the  Absence  and  Troi  Benjamin  from  the  Holy  Mountain.  Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re  this  really  great  grind/death  metal  band.

The  Brass  Mug  Pub The  Brass  Mug  Pub  has  been  a  staple  in  the  metal  scene  for  about  30  years  now.  A  lot  of  t he  old  Florida  bands  used  to  play  t here  f requently.  Now  they  do  shows  there,  people  hang  out,  theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve  got  metal  karaoke...  It  is  metal  from  top  to  bottom.  There  are  no  posers  in  that  place,  from  the  owner  on  down.  On  any  given  night  you  are  likely  to  run  into  both  some  of  the  old  guard  and  the  young  pups  of  the  metal  scene.  Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll  see  members  of  Obituary,  Deicide  or  Cannibal  Corpse  hanging  out  and  watching Â

the  show.  They  just  recently  moved  to  a  larger  space,  because  in  typical  metal  fashion,  they  got  kicked  out  of  their  old  space.  Transitions  Art  Gallery Transitions  is  an  all-­ages  D.I.Y.  space.  Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  where  all  of  our  punk  shows  and  our  smaller  metal  shows  happen.  When  Torche  was  on  the  up  and  up,  thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  ZKHUH WKH\ SOD\HG WKHLU ÂżUVW Tampa  shows.  Saviours,  Wormrot,  Tombsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;they  all  played  there.  A  lot  of  WKHVH EDQGV ZKHQ WKH\ÂśUH ÂżUVW FRPLQJ WKURXJK WKH\ÂśUH Ă&#x20AC;\LQJ XQGHU WKH UDGDU VR WKDWÂśV ZKHUH WKH\ end  up  playing.

Swamp  Abyss  Sorcery  This  band  up  in  Gainesville  called  Hot  Graves  just  put  out  a  compilation  called  Swamp  Abyss  Sorcery.  Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  all  Florida  bands  and  a  lot  of  them  are  from  Tampa.

Psycho  Realms Our  buddies  in  the  band  Unkempt  have  a  radio  show  on  WMNF  called  Psycho  Realms.  They  play  metal,  hang  out  and  do  interviews.  They  have  a  very  metal  timeslot,  Sundays  from  1am  to  4am.  Only  metal  heads  are  up  at  those  hours.  WMNF  is  a  long-­standing  staple  of  the  community.  Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  a  community-­run  radio  station  thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  been  around  for  decades  and  itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  still  going  strong,  regardless  of  some  the  hippies  in  charge.   twobeardspresents.com

Royal Thunder at Scion Label Showcase: Relapse Records

Exhumed at Scion Label Showcase: Relapse Records

Guests at Scion Label Showcase: Prosthetic Records

Black Tusk at Scion Label Showcase: Relapse Records

Tombs at Scion Label Showcase: Relapse Records

ABOUT

TOWN

Last Chance to Reason at Scion Label Showcase: Prosthetic Records

Revocation at Scion Label Showcase: Relapse Records

The Greenery at Scion Label Showcase: Prosthetic Records

Revocation at Scion Label Showcase: Relapse Records

Scale the Summit at Scion Label Showcase: Prosthetic Records

Last Chance to Reason at Scion Label Showcase: Prosthetic Records