Metal News, New Releases and Brian Zimmerman from Atrophy

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Andrew and Eli are back! We have some new music reviews and news. We also have an update on the Pestilence AI album cover fiasco. We also welcome Brian Zimmerman from ATROPHY on the pod. The conversation was in depth and covered the span of almost 40 years!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everyone, it's March and you are listening to
the third episode of RIFs AcrossGenerations.
I'm your host, andrew, and I'mhere with my co-host.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Eli.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
So, eli, like I said, it's March, and down here in
Florida, that means one thingright it means the beginning of
allergy season.
It's especially bad right nowdown here if you are allergic to
oak trees and we have, likesome in our yard, a lot in our
yard actually, and we got arainstorm last night and that
pushed all the pollen out andeverything's green.
The cars are green, thedriveway's green, everything's

(00:35):
kind of crazy and it's reallyraising cane a lot right now
with our health issues.
How are your allergies doingright now, eli?

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Not good, not good.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Not good, they're so bad.
Last night, unfortunately, weended up missing a great concert
that we wanted to go see withFrog Mallet and Trash Panda
because of these damn allergies.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yeah bad.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah, pretty bad.
Well, besides the chaos andsniffles and we helped to get
Frog Mallet I messaged FrogMallet for the show and we
wanted to hook up with them atthe show and then get them on
the pod later on when they getoff tour.
Hopefully we can still get FrogMallet onto the pod when they
get dead done touring with TrashPanda.
But besides the chaos and thesniffles and the weeping eyes

(01:17):
and the sinus infections, we dohave some new metal releases to
let you all know about.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah, but before that , Rufus Across Generations is
celebrating women led or womenin metal.
The first post we did was for agreat band from New York named
Castrider.
They play old school deathmetal with no bullcrap attached.
We'll be posting great women inthe metal scene throughout the
month on our Facebook page.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah, that was our first one.
We've done a couple.
Yesterday and today we just putone up for Laurie Bravo, who
was in the great death noiseband Nuclear Death.
Then before that, yesterday weposted one for Terry B, who was
in Manhole and Toursatana and afew other bands.
Both Laurie and Terry B aredoing new music and of course,

(02:07):
castrider are still probablytouring.
They seem like a band that'salways going to be touring and
playing now.
Those ladies, we saw them awhile ago and they were in no
bullcrap.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, Like Eli said yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
So let's get on some new releases, shall we Eli?

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, shall.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
So Deaside has a couple new songs that they
launched on digital platformsfor their upcoming album.
Two songs that they releasedwere Sever, the Tongue, and
Berry, the Cross with yourChrist.

Speaker 4 (03:06):
And one another is your favourite in IP Star Zero.
Is that right?
Yeah, They으로 death.

(03:27):
Please forgive it.
The bottle is put enemiesGodедobeون Damn Vishen.
It says I don't have a healthvie To be miel ก weight.
I wonder if there is onedaughter In believing about you.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
They launched several the Tongue on Ash Wednesday,
which was pretty on brand forDeicide.
They just released Barry theCross with your Christ a few
days ago.
Founder Glenn Betten and SteveAhime remain and are joined in
the material by returningguitarist Kevin Kearon and
Taylor Nordberg.
I'm probably messing upeverybody's name, because that's

(04:29):
what I do I mess up people'snames.
Sometimes I can't even get yourname right, eli.
Taylor Nordberg is somewhat ofa musical wizard on guitars and
engineering of music.
You all might know him from hisdrumming.
Yes, he also plays drumming,plays drums in a band called
Gore Gang.
Then he has a lot of guitarwork with the band In Human

(04:49):
Condition.
Both these new Deicide songsare classic sounding Deicide
songs with raging double bass,driving guitar, glenn Betten's
deep layers of growls.
It amazed me how long this bandhas been writing tunes.
They can still come out withsongs that sound like Deicide
yet have a more modern spin andfeel to them and just, they're
hard hitting and very memorable.

(05:10):
So lyrically though, eli,lyrically, what should we expect
from Deicide this time around?

Speaker 2 (05:18):
Just everything against religion and
Christianity, just everythingagainst that.
Some of the lyrics of the songare Never the tongue, never the
tongue of Christ, never to speak, never to speak God's name,
never the tongue, never thetongue of Christ.
Never to speak, never to speakGod's name again.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yes, so it's about what I think we expected to be
about.
Right, no big wow's there.
I guess that's what do youexpect from Glenn Betten, who
does have the infamous upsidedown crossburn in his head.
Right Next up, here's somemusic from a new 72 Legions

(05:58):
album.
What a God Could Be.

Speaker 4 (06:24):
This is the song from Theaminelli's Black anderer
cookies by the jubilant of hopeon the end of its path.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
Yeah, definitely upgrade.
They recorded the five songsthey originated with the old
vocalist on an earlier EP,recorded them, remixed them and
they dropped them into thisalbum.
Those are great tunes but theproductions way better and they
did some structure changes on acouple of those songs this time
around and added five more songsto it this album.

Speaker 2 (08:19):
The new songs are phenomenal Chugging death metal
with beautiful guitar playingvia power Power, progressive
guitarist current and theyreally stand out on the tune
deceiving the DE.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yeah, that's a really good song where you can hear
how good of a guitarist is andhow talented current is.
The fourth song on the albumalso stands out in my opinion
the downfall of man.
It has wicked time changes andhas an anthem like sound
bringing me back to the earlyNile material, and also has that
big black metal feel to it.

(08:52):
And actually that sound appearsa couple times in the album but
it really stands out indownfall for a man.
It's downfall of a man.
The more listen to the song, tothe album, there's just a lot
of musical layers that are superdeep and the production is
definitely top-notch of thisalbum.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, currently we know that 72legions is on their Europe tour
, but we're looking 100% forwardto them coming back to the
States and seeing them again.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
Yeah, I definitely am hoping they pick up you know
good tour and come back here toTampa so we can see them again.
New music from Russian bandsslaughtered prevail.
I know this band has a prettybig following.
They just released a new singlecalled conflict.
Here are some of that.
You своих.

Speaker 4 (10:38):
I'm a fighter, I'm a shield, I'm a soldier, I'm a
fighter, I'm a shield, I'mfighting MOOOOOOON.
You don't Definitely be myfriend.

(11:00):
You don't, definitely don't bemy friend.
You don't Definitely be myfriend.
You don't you die.
I'm fucking full of games rightnow.
And you shut the fuck up and go, fuck boy.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
That's pretty wicked sounding Eli.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
Yeah, this song just crazy like follows all of their
previous songs and how theircrazy deathcore band.
There are few English, likemost of this song.
All the lyrics are in Russian,but there are few English lines
in the song and some of them are.
I'm effing full of hatred rightnow and you shut the eff up and

(11:49):
go walk boy.
That's some of the lyrics fromthat song.
And now the band has announcedthat they're going on three tour
dates in the US.
And, as the band stated, thetime has come, dear friends.
The band is set to go on theirbiggest and most violent
headline shows in the US.
And also, as the band stated,we're cranking it up to 11 and

(12:12):
delivering the longest, mostface-smelting set you ever
experienced.
Lights will flash, fx willexplode and you'll be engulfed
in unforgettable whirlwind ofchaos and mayhem.
Get ready to headbang untilyour neck begs for mercy.
But that's not all, friends.
We're summoning a strongsupport lineup that will be

(12:33):
unveiled soon, pramarsing to addeven more fire to this inferno.
Oh, and do we mention there'san unrelenting and brutal chunk
of new music lurking in theshadows, ready to pound before
these epic shows.
So mark your calendars, setyour alarms and summon your
metal brethren, because theseshows are going to be legendary
and there are a few dates, as Imentioned three, and the first

(12:57):
one is 4-26 Los Angeles,california, at the Palladium,
and then the second show they'llbe playing is 4-30 Denver,
colorado, at the MissionBallroom, and then the last show
that they'll be playing on thislist will be 5-15 Brooklyn, new
York, at Brooklyn Paramount.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
Yeah, that kind of sucks if there's only three
dates.

Speaker 2 (13:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
That really bums me out.
I was looking online at ticketson those three dates and who
they were playing with and theyhaven't even announced who
they're playing with and ticketsare almost all the way sold out
already in those venues.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
Big band.

Speaker 1 (13:39):
Big crazy band too, with the masks and the fireworks
going off and the screaming,and that dude was like.
You shared that video with me.
With that dude, the lead singerwas screaming without a mic.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
You could hear him.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
Yeah, you could hear him with the music crazy band,
crazy Russians.
Are you like crazy Russians?

Speaker 2 (13:57):
They're Russians.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
Next up we have a new release from a band called Job
for a Cowboy, and the album isMoon Healer.
Here's some music off that.

Speaker 4 (15:05):
The band is calling date with the new powers.
Iron man is exudes the law ofthe Tuesday, the month of the
following.
Now it's a loss.
I listen, I date.
You'll be the king, now thatyou've done nothing more.

Speaker 3 (15:37):
And I'm afraid, biting the hour, I'm going to be
a thorn in the core.

Speaker 4 (15:55):
The band is calling out of nowhere, as in out right
alone.

Speaker 1 (16:03):
It's been a hot minute, since we've heard from
these technical crazy guys.
Well, 10 years to be exact.
Another band that took a longhiatus we talked about those
last podcast few, there was afew that took a 10 year stint
off.
Music Job for Cowboy startedoff, if you don't know about it,
and they started about 20 yearsago as a deathcore band.
At that time, the band memberswere 15 and 16 years old, so

(16:24):
they've held the core, and thosedudes have been together in
this band for a long time.
They quickly mastered theirinstruments, though, and took us
down a path of three fulltechnical albums, and now we
find ourselves in the fourthalbum.

Speaker 2 (16:37):
Yeah, these guys are really good musicians who have
to play aggressive, complicatedlike progressive, technical,
like death thrash, deathcore,stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
Yeah, yeah, every musician on this album stands
out, especially the bass player,nick.
I'm going to kill his last name, shend Zylos.
He's everywhere in these songs.
You can hear him popping andthe bass really goes off.
He's got a lot of bass runs.
It's never hidden in the mix,which I really like where the

(17:09):
bass stands out.
Tony Choi would be very proudof this guy and what he's doing.
The drumming is also reallytechnical and good on this.
There's a lot of double bassand tricky rhythms and the
drummer does really good tomwork on this.
And then the guitars, of course.
If you've heard anything fromthis band, they're A plus of
deep grooves, whimsical,classical sounding music as

(17:30):
toppings.
One of the standout songs, theSun Gave Me Ashes, so I Saw Out
the Moon.
It's a sheer, breathtaking,brilliant song.
There's so many breaks andgrooves and that bass sound that
just keeps walking up and downthe frets at the scales
throughout the song is crazysounding.
If you're a fan of technicalmusic, you know the type of
music that two musicians geekout about, or if you love some

(17:51):
grooving progressive tunes, thenthis is the album that you
probably have been waiting awhile to hear.
Ten out of ten for me.
This album, I think, is goingto be one of those that we're
talking about 10 years from now,being one of the legendary
progressive heavy albums.

Speaker 2 (18:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
Next, we stumbled across a band called Worst Doubt
and they just released an EPcalled Immortal Pain.
Here's a little bit of that.
They're from the streets in NewYork City and the year is 1990.

(19:51):
No wait, that's not correct.
Worst doubt is actually a superaggressive hardcore band with a
lot of raw metal riffing.
If that wasn't enough, worstdoubt hail from Paris, france.
The band sings in English.
They're angry as hell and havecreated a masterful EP full of
chunks, grooves and gutturalscreams.
This is the band's third releaseA couple full lengths and now

(20:14):
this EP.
It caught me totally off guardwhen I stumbled upon it and
started listening to it.
It gave me the feel of thosebands that were in the 90s in
the New York City Boston area,but has that modern, more
aggressive, fuller feel thanthose hardcore bands had.
Hopefully this band will makeit to the state someday.

(20:34):
If not, enjoy this Again.
I've only given it a couplelistens, but this is a very good
EP from a band that I'm veryhappy I stumbled across.
Okay, let's talk about somemusic news, shall we?

Speaker 2 (20:46):
We shall.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
Do you remember talking about the cover of the
last Pestilence album?

Speaker 2 (20:52):
I do.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
Yeah, that album was called Levels of Perception and
I am happy to announce from astatement from Pestilence
regarding the AI cover.
If you don't know, pestilencereleased this album and the
cover was made completely by AI,he said first off, let me be
absolutely clear about the factthat both band and record

(21:15):
companies still love this cover.
Also, the artist that createdthis art did not let the
computer generate this picture,which I don't know if that's
totally true.
He used multiple methods tocome to the result.
I think last time we talkedabout him just feeding words and
explanations or image into asystem and into an AI program

(21:39):
and that pushed out the cover.
But the point, going back towhat Patrick was saying, but the
point I'm getting at is this Iwill not risk all the work we
have put into this release justto push the cover.
We care a lot about our fansand we do not want this product
not to succeed just because wewant to push our ideas.

(22:01):
Regarding AI, we have alwaysstood at the forefront of game
changing events within the DMscene death, middle scene,
whether it's music or, in thiscase, a cover.
Maybe the timing is just notright, so we chose the middle
way.
This should make people moreopen to the monster of a release
that we have planning for yearall.
So, yeah, I think that was theright thing to do.

(22:23):
I think you got massive amountof pushback from musicians and
artists and fans, right.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
Yeah, I'm hoping that any other band that's feeling
that they can go this way.
Especially in heavy musicthat's so tightly knit to
artists and musicians, they gohand in hand.
I hope, moving forward, thatall these bands remember this
and are using real people tocreate their albums, their album
covers.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:53):
So, eli, do you remember 40 years ago?

Speaker 2 (22:55):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (22:56):
You don't.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
I don't remember 40 years ago now.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
I was really young 40 years ago, but I was alive and
I was just starting to get intoheavy music maybe not these 40
years ago, but I was starting toreally start to listen to it.
It was more Kiss and ACDC, Iguess, at that time for me.
So Decibel Magazine puttogether a party celebrating 40
year birthdays of some veryclassic albums.

(23:23):
You want to talk about thoselittle videos that you want to
hear about them.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yeah, one of the albums was released by Merciful
Fate and it was Melissa.
This classic was recorded on ashoestring budget in two weeks
in Copenhagen.
Hank Sherman and Michael Dennerreally showcased what a metal
guitarist can create with thisoffering.

Speaker 1 (23:44):
Yeah, that was a beautiful album.
It sounded like that album.
If you go back and listen to itnow and, eli, I'm going to make
you listen to it in a littlebit it sounds like very ahead of
its time and it sounds like theproduction was.
Millions of dollars was spenton the production.
It was done so well, but theywent in, they recorded and mixed
and everything down and pushedit out in two weeks and of
course, the lead singer ofMerciful Fate is King Diamond.

(24:06):
So, yeah, he had it.
This was before he went out onhis own Merciful Fate, one of
those classic bands.
Another album that came out wasBlack Sabbath Born Again.
Again, this is not a classicSabbath album, right?
Nobody would say this is theclassic Sabbath album you should
listen to.
It's not even Deo Sabbath.
This album had the vocals ofthe great Ian Gillen from Deep

(24:28):
Purple on it Great album.
But again, it's one of thosealbums that were kind of not
Aussie and not Deo Deo just left.
So they were trying to piecesome stuff together and I read
that rumors had it that IanGillen agreed to sing on the
Black Sabbath album while he wasdrunk and didn't remember it in
the morning and it went againstall of his management contracts

(24:48):
and there was some hoopla aboutthat.
But he went ahead and kept hiscommitment and did the album
with them.

Speaker 2 (24:53):
Yeah, and Motorhead released Another Perfect Day.
This was, of course, not aquintessential Motorhead album,
but it was their most prominentattempt at getting into
mainstream.
This was their first albumwithout Fast Eddie Clark on
guitar.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
Yeah, fast, eddie Clark left and they brought in
the guitarist from I think itwas Thin Lizzie came on and it
was a more tamed down Motorheadalbum.
But again, it was one of thoseMotorhead albums that stick out,
and maybe not for a reason thatit was a great Motorhead album.
It was definitely not an Ace ofSpade type Motorhead albums,
but it sticks out because it waskind of a departure from

(25:30):
Motorhead's albums were up tothat point.
Another album that came outthat nobody can ignore, and I
think everybody's heard, isMetallica's Kill'em All.
This album has sold over 99million copies.
But that wasn't always the case.
The original classic waspressed in batches of 500.
They didn't know how Metallicawould do so.
They just pressed 500 at a timeuntil they got to I believe it

(25:53):
was like 17,000.
And then they started doingmass production on that album.

Speaker 2 (25:59):
And there's also Dio's Holy Diver album.
This album was an album Dio didright after we left Black
Sabbath.
Actually, this was one of themost lyrically inspirational
metal albums featuring Dio'sgreat vocals.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yeah, never match.
This is I remember I rememberwhen this came out.
I was listening to this when itcame out and I remember just
hearing it over and over andover again and cassette tape and
being wowed by Dio's vocalrange on it.
Great album, classic album.
You've heard a lot of the songsin the album too, right I have.
Yeah, we've played it herepretty frequently Also, 40 years

(26:35):
ago, slayer released a show nomercy.
This was pre-Rain and BloodSlayer.
This is right before thebreakout of Slayer and it still
commands some of the greatestsong Slayer wrote, like Black
Magic, the Antichrist and Evil'sEvil has no Boundaries.
So it's really pushed, startedpushing up against how fast a
band can play and how aggressiveand mean they can sound.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
Yeah, there's also Venom's Welcome to Hell.
This album was an album thatscared parents of suburban kids
to death.
Yeah, Satanic Panic.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
Yeah, this might have been that album that spurred on
the Satanic Panic of the 80s,right?
So this is a crazy album.
We saw Venom Inc a while ago.

Speaker 2 (27:19):
Yeah, we did.

Speaker 1 (27:20):
Yeah, they played some songs off this, but then
they couldn't play some of theother songs for some reason.

Speaker 2 (27:25):
Yeah, I'm sure it was down to copyright.
Yeah, d&d was all banned.
Like parents were scared ofthat.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
Yeah, maybe in that future part we'll talk about
that whole Satanic Panic.
What a time to be alive.
Yeah you weren't alive, though.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
I wasn't alive.

Speaker 1 (27:39):
No, no, Nope.
So 40 years ago in metal waspretty good, huh Eli?

Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yeah.
I don't remember any of it, itwas good for you.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
It was pretty good.

Speaker 2 (27:54):
All of Slayer.

Speaker 1 (27:56):
You did miss, but they're back so maybe you won't
miss all of Slayer.
Maybe we'll be able to catchSlayer they played like they
played like what?
Like one show two shows, threeshows.
Yeah, three shows.
None of them are here.
Not yet.
They'll end up here.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
And the next year probably.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
Well, you'll be alive still.

Speaker 2 (28:14):
I would yeah.
I think I'm hearing it out Nextup.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
We're gonna dig into it.
I think this is gonna be aregular on the pod here.
We're gonna try to get toreally underground releases,
maybe bands that haven't brokenout of their region yet, right.
So a lot of the bands we'regonna be talking about are
regional type bands that stillare in the demo phase and
they're gonna start shaping, butwe see them as possible
breakout bands.

(28:39):
This might be the next bandthat gets signed by a
centromedia or a MassacreRecords or something like that.
And first band we're gonna talkabout under this new, truly
underground releases is a bandcalled Hate the Adversary and
this is a song called Keep theDistance.
This is a new song by them.
Give it a listen here.

(30:53):
So this band has been making alot of noise up in the Northeast
area.
They're from the Albany WesternMass area of the country.
Right now they're playing a lotof shows.
I've just seen that that itseems like it's a few shows a
month and they're starting topush out from that some New York
shows and some Connecticutshows and and still like have
their Albany core that they'rebuilding and they're getting a

(31:15):
nice following.
This music, this song, maybemissed the Northeast pits.
Honestly, there's a death metalbackbone to the music, which
doesn't surprise me.
The bassist and one of theguitarists were in a band close
to my heart, yeah yeah.
So Steve Feith and littlebastard Mowinni played in a band

(31:37):
called Klot many years ago andthey bring that death metal
backbone with big grooves.
Steve has always been great atwriting big grooves on his bass.
You throw that in a mix withsome New York hardcore sounding
I know that a lot of the bandmembers are hardcore fans up
there you spin it in a blender,you make it sound modern and

(31:57):
here you go.
Here's Hate the Adversary.
There's a lot of breakdowns inthis song either.
Right, but not in that chumpway.
It's not like we're going tostop everything and bring it up
and bring it down.
You know paint by numbers typetype stuff.
There's a lot of sizzle to eachsong out to this song anyways.
Vocalist Nick Lanin has one ofthose powerful behind the music

(32:18):
type voices and it's hard for meto describe that, but he feels
a lot of the void not even void,but a lot of the power behind
the music, kind of like a buttermelting onto toast.
So he just kind of uses hisvoice to fit into that.
Music Sounds great.
Everything on the song is topnotch.

(32:38):
They just put the song up onall digital platforms we just
found out tonight, so that'sgreat that you can listen to it.
I know they have an albumcoming out.
We're definitely lookingforward to that.
So keep in mind Hate theAdversary from the Albany
Upstate, new York area.
Great band, great sound, and Ithink we're getting close to

(33:00):
this next party right.
So before we get to theinterview with a great Brian
Zimmerman from Leedsinger ofAtrophy.
Yeah, that was a great interviewwe did a couple of days ago and
we're popping here at the end,like we normally do, on Riffs
Cross Generations.
But before that, thanks forlistening.

(33:21):
Please give us a like onwhatever pod catcher you're
listening to us on.
Give us a follow, subscribe toit.
All that costs $0.
And then, if you're on Facebookor Instagram, get out and get
after us on those Facebook.
We post a lot of interestingstuff.
Like again, march is women inmetal and we're going to try to

(33:41):
post every day a new.
Not a new, I guess, but a womanwho has really pushed the
boundaries.
Anyways, thanks for listening.
The interview's up next.
Anything you want to say aboutthis interview before we get
into it Eli.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
I don't have anything to say.

Speaker 1 (33:58):
You don't have anything to say.

Speaker 2 (33:59):
I do not.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
What do you think of Brian?

Speaker 2 (34:02):
Great.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
Yeah, it was great.
Yeah, the new Atrophy songs aregreat.
Yeah, there's nothing bad I cansay about those new Atrophy
songs.
If you haven't heard them yet,go after them.
That new Atrophy album isdropping in a couple of weeks.
Before we get to the interview,we're going to pop off a few
Atrophy songs here the new songs.
You can listen to them.
Maybe I'll throw in an olderone, piece of an older one here.

(34:24):
What's your favorite Atrophysong?

Speaker 2 (34:27):
Eli, the new ones are great, the old ones are great.
Don't really have a favorite.

Speaker 1 (34:32):
No, not beer bong.

Speaker 2 (34:33):
No, I was about to say beer bong.
That's the first thing thatcame to mind Beer bong.
Okay, everyone Go pit down.

Speaker 1 (34:43):
Thanks a lot for listening and we're out of here
now, but listen to ourdiscussion with Brian coming up
in a second right after theseAtrophy songs.
Say bye, Eli.

Speaker 4 (34:54):
Bye-bye ["Evil Will Flow"].

(36:40):
Sighting waves have beenanother killing.

(37:08):
Desensitize to the blood that'sspilling.
I can hear the voices call mefrom the grave.
I can see the sadness reachingon the pace.
I can see the news to me.

(37:29):
It's happening again.
The weapon used for war istrying to march on against the
kids.
That's a monster, loose.
He's a white man.

(37:49):
Army what you want, I said.
And they're still counting as apain of descent.
They wait for answers.
Who shall survive?
No, such a gamble too long.

(38:35):
No too long.
Lost your time?
No too much and no.
If you can't make it, thenshoot your man.
Final burn, just freeze.
Black label no, such a gambletoo long.

(39:05):
No too much, and no, if youcan't make it, then shoot your
man.
No, such a gamble too much, andno, if you can't make it, then
shoot your man.
No, such a gamble too much, andno, if you can't make it, then

(39:27):
shoot your man.

Speaker 1 (39:28):
No, such a gamble too much.
And no, if you can't make it,then shoot your man.
Hey, everyone, welcome back tothe pod.
I'm here with Atrofree frontmanBrian Zimmerman, I'm your host,
andrew, and this is my sidekick, eli Hi.

(39:50):
So this podcast is so you know,we try to bring old school
thrash death and mix it up withsome new, new kind of thrash and
death metal bands that are outthere.
Everything's pretty heavy butwe kind of try to, as in the
name, riffs across generations.
We try to take my generationand my son's generation, eli,
here and kind of mash themtogether.
And Atrofree is a perfect fixfor that, coming from, you know,

(40:11):
when I was young, to him nowlistening to your new stuff.
So that's where we're comingfrom and that's.
That's a base of the pod, cool.
So I guess with us we'll start,you know, we'll do a little bit
of older history and then we'llcome up to the great new album.
We'll talk about that prettymuch in depth.
So let's start and go all theway back to 1987.
You guys put a couple demostogether and then it seemed like

(40:34):
things accelerated pretty quickfor you guys, especially the
interviews I've heard you doover the years.
Does that seem accurate that itjust came from like a couple
demos, put them out there andthen then it kind of exploded
from there?

Speaker 5 (40:45):
Yeah, so we only did one demo we did.
So we got Chris I'm sorry wasChris me and James?
And then we wanted to get adouble bass drummer and we found
Tim and he had a friend, Rick,that he was playing with and I
started playing guitar in thisband and I moved to vocals

(41:08):
because we wanted another sologuitar player and I didn't do
that.
So I started singing and afterwe found Tim and Rick, we had a
talk and said, you know, wewanted to really try to give it
a go and try to make you knowsomething professional about it.

(41:29):
Anyways, we got together and Ithink we had, you know, I think
we had four or five songswritten, and so we went to the
studio and we recorded ChemicalDeventazey and we sent that off
to.
We couldn't solicit the recordlabels at the time, that was a

(41:49):
big no, no.

Speaker 1 (41:50):
Oh, wow.

Speaker 5 (41:51):
And so we talked about it and we decided well, we
just send all our demos to allthe great magazines that were
out back then.
And we did that and the buzzwas instantaneous.
The next month saw themagazines came out and I think
we were in every damn one wesent it to, which was amazing,

(42:14):
and that got some huge buzz.
And we went up to Phoenix tomeet Gloria Bujanowski, who's
now Gloria Cavalera, and askedif she wanted to manage us.
And we gave her the demo tapeand she said she didn't think
anything of it, she just put itup on the mantle or whatever.

(42:37):
And her son, dana, who was 12 atthe time, took it in his room
and listened to it.
He's like, holy shit, mom, yougot to listen to this.
And anyways, we got hermanaging us and she was also
managing Sacred Rock at the timeand our first show after that

(42:58):
demo was released that we everplayed outside of Tucson.
We'd only done one show.
We did a showcase for threerecord labels and we obviously
chose to go with Road Racer andabout six months after that give
or take, we were off to LA torecord a full length album, nice

(43:19):
.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
So it did seem like it went pretty quick and crazy
and that's a testament to yourmusic, right?
Your music and your lyrics andyour vocals, I think.
So that first album hadPreacher, preacher, killing
Machine, product of the Past.
Those are all my favorite songsoff that album Back then.
Was there such thing as asingle off the album?
Did you pre-release any musicbefore the album actually came
out?
Or, in my memory, I went to therecord store and I bought the

(43:47):
cassette tape and it was just anexperience listening to the
whole cassette.

Speaker 5 (43:50):
Oh cool.
No, we didn't get anopportunity to do that back then
, but on the second album wereleased a song.
Well, we released a bunch ofsongs, but the one the label.
I take that back.
I think the record label did a.
I remember them doing a littlecassette tape and it had a

(44:11):
little boy with a gun and Ithink it had Killing Machine on
it and maybe Chemical andanother song and I think they
just sent it around, but it wasjust some cheap paper insert.
I have no idea who did theartwork for it and there might
be a couple floating around.
Actually, on the second albumgo ahead, oh, go ahead.

Speaker 1 (44:34):
I was just going to say I did a start of the Fanzi
in a couple of years after I sawyou guys and we would get
typically those from a recordlabel.
They're singles, but they callthem KSingles.

Speaker 4 (44:44):
And yeah, what we got promoting.

Speaker 1 (44:45):
I didn't know if it was back.
You know, predating when I wasdoing the Fanzi and that labels
would do that kind of stuff.

Speaker 5 (44:50):
So, and when we did a Violin by Nature, the label
actually released vinyl.
I have one downstairs and it'sa.
I think it's just a white albumcover and it has a purple logo
on it.
I think they did it only hadtwo or three songs on it, like
Puppies and Friends and Violinby Nature, and they sent all

(45:14):
that and that was a promotionalthing, and there are a few of
them in existence.
I've seen a few Nice.

Speaker 1 (45:22):
Nice.
So that year after you releasedthe album you went on tour with
Sacred Riker US tour, and as Iwas reading back on it I was
looking at some of the oldflyers and bands you played with
.
It was the heyday of ThrashMetal.
I mean, you guys seem to playwith a bunch of my favorite
bands from that era, likeEviction, not a Pittsburgh Dead
Horse out of Houston, deadOrchestra out of Wichita, kansas

(45:43):
.
When you see the scene now andyou look at the partnerships
that bands have and theirplaying because back then I
assumed a lot of bands hadrespect for each other and
they're kind of growing up andbuilding the scene together Does
it feel like that now to you?
Or does social media and allthe digital stuff do you see the
scene breaking apart still?

Speaker 5 (46:03):
I think everybody's kind of out for themselves
because it's so hard to exist inthis day and age, because
everything's gotten so expensiveFor us.
For example, our record labeldoesn't really give you a lot of
money for recording and as I'mgoing to ask them, but I don't

(46:25):
know this for sure but labelsupport isn't there like it used
to be, so you really have to goout and just stay focused on
what you're doing and look afteryour band.
Back then, Gloria put us andSacred Right together because
she was managing both of us andI believe they were on Metal

(46:48):
Blade at the time.
So we each got some money fortour support and we chipped in
on a tour bus and we went.

Speaker 1 (46:56):
Nice, yeah, that was the first metal band I saw in a
club.
Was actually you?
No, king.
Wow yeah, so great memories ofthat era.
I was like 16 at the time.
Nice yeah, so great show.
I remember it Anyways.
So after that first album, youreleased your second album.
I remember that's when Atrophygot put on a pedestal.

(47:19):
That's when she got real realfor Atrophy, from my point of
view.
I remember all the hype and Iremember seeing like every
magazine had ads for you guysand we're doing interviews and I
just seem like you guys wereeverywhere and I think that's
one of the best metal albumsever written.
Wow yeah, that was a great andit's not only written musically,

(47:41):
but I think the lyrics reallyshine through and it wasn't what
a lot of the thrash metal bandsback there, and there was no
Satan, there was no that kind ofstuff thrown in.
It was really well thought outlyrics.
So you know, at that time Iappreciated that.
You know bands were sticking toor coming up with actual social
issues that they were talkingabout.
Sure, and then you guys, afterthat you did I think you did a

(48:03):
US tour with again a couple ofmy other favorite bands that I
think are super underrated, withforced entry and corner yeah,
yeah, so that I didn't get tosee that.
So I'm bummed about that, but Ilearned about that.
And then you guys headed off toEurope Correct?
Yeah, yeah, any good storiesfrom from that tour or going
over to Europe, or what was thatlike?

Speaker 5 (48:22):
So, yeah, I mean hanging out with corner and
getting to play with those guys.
They're, you know, they're athree piece band and I just I'm
like how are they going to pullthis off?
You know, because I've heard,heard the album and I'm like how
are they going to do this?
And they did it.
They were really tight, verytechnical.

(48:43):
Their guitar player, Tommy, atthe time he was just phenomenal.
I mean wow.
So I tell this story probablytoo much, but so we went over to
Europe and we started touringand we had a day off and Gloria
suggested we all go to a cluband we went to Bradford, England

(49:07):
, and we had a day off.
So we went to this place calledthe Wheaton and and we walked
in there and I immediately wentto the urinal and this guy was
standing at the middle urinaland he, he was like six, six and
I'm six, two and I'm like andhe says, hey, what brings you

(49:29):
broke?
And I used to have this reallycrazy metal jacket with the
dragon on it.
It had spikes all over it andbut anyways, a sacred went in
with us and I remember Philbrought in this plastic because
our saxophone and he was justbeing silly and playing his

(49:54):
saxophone and I, on the way out,I talked to our drummer and I
said dude, I don't like thisplace, I'm going back to the bus
.
So I walked back to the tourbus and within 10 minutes our
roadie, scott Goody, camerunning in and he had blood all
over his face and Gloria was ina panic and they had taken Phil

(50:21):
Ryan and pulled his leatherjacket over his head and threw
him through a plate glass window.
Wow.
So my understanding was that wewere in England's version of the
Hell's Angels bar Great andthey did not welcome us being on
their turf.
So, yeah, that got a littleblurb on MTV, I believe.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
Crazy and Phil.
From what I know of him, Iinterviewed him back during my
fan scene days but he's a prettylaid back guy.
Right Is a pretty chill guy.

Speaker 5 (50:56):
Yeah, he's not after trouble with anybody.
He's just very chill and theyjust didn't like that we were.
You know, I've heard that.
You know, I think he had a backpatch of sacred rite on there
and wearing colors in anotherbar where bikers are is a no-no.

(51:18):
Yeah, and I think that may havespurred it on.
Or the plastic saxophone, I'mnot sure.

Speaker 1 (51:26):
Yeah, maybe combo of both.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:29):
What was it like being signed back then?
Did bands actually make moneyfrom their music or by touring?

Speaker 5 (51:35):
So we didn't get a lot of money from record labels.
So if we got I'm just going tothrow a number out $25,000 for
the first record, we'd go out toCalifornia and record and if
you came in under budget, well,where'd that money go?
We didn't see it.

(51:55):
And then we'd go out and thenwe would get, like I said, we'd
get tour support to go to herand we get a tour bus and back
then we were getting $10 a daythat's called per day liams.
But as far as support like realsupport from any label, it was

(52:19):
just non-existent unless you gotto the upper echelon of rock or
something.
So it was very, very difficultto pay your bills and be a rock
star.
So yeah, it was very tough.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
Yeah, so I guess that's a lesson to anybody's
going to show is why buyingmerch from bands is so important
, right?
So that means you guys eat ordon't eat sometimes.

Speaker 5 (52:45):
So back then we signed a merch deal and Sacred
Reich had a merch deal and Ibelieve everyone had a merch
deal with this outfit GreatSouthern, oh, great Southern,
okay.
And so they would follow uswith every show and they would
sell our merch.
And if they gave us $10,000tourist support, guess what?

(53:09):
You'd never see anymore money.
You know they would paythemselves back or whatever.
And so as far as money goes,that's, the only money we ever
saw was just the initial GoalRecord and album and that's it.

Speaker 1 (53:27):
Crazy.
So then after that it was likepoof, you guys vanished and
there were a lot of Thrash Metalfans, all sad, I know, and I
saw a couple interviews with youand you basically had one word
for it and it was grunge.
So how did that come into thescene and how did that dissolve
the scene away?
Especially Thrash Bands,because I think some Death Metal
bands were kind of bubbling upunder the surface and that's

(53:48):
where some of the Thrash Kitswent, but I think a lot of them
went over to Grunge Metal.

Speaker 5 (53:53):
They did.
So, you know, especially whenit comes to the labels, they,
you know, they want to investtheir money to make money, and
that being the new sound.
So a lot of the labels weredropping Bands, just boom, boom,
boom.
And we, unfortunately, we wereone of them and I was kind of

(54:14):
shocked that we didn't get amore of a chance with our label,
because you said, you know,violent by nature, did really
well, like you said, I rememberwe used to go into the store
called Bookmans or 7-Eleven andwe were in every magazine, every

(54:35):
single one, and it, you know,and now we're being dropped like
I don't know.
It just kind of was a swiftkick in the gut, you know.
So after that, you know aboutthat time, chris Likens headed
off to a medical school, or yeah, he was going to medical school

(54:56):
and we picked up another guitarplayer, but it just didn't have
that edge that we always had.

Speaker 1 (55:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (55:05):
And I had a two-year-old daughter and I had
to make sure she was okay, youknow.

Speaker 1 (55:10):
Yeah, yeah, kids, man , they take away all the fun of
adults.
Sometimes, right, they can Hint, hint.
So then there was this long gapand it looks like 2015.
You guys tried making acomeback with like three out of
the five original members,correct?

Speaker 5 (55:29):
Correct.
Yeah, we did a Maryland DeathFest and then we did a short
Canadian tour, we played someshows and then we went over to
China and in 2021 we put aEuropean thing together and boy,

(55:49):
it was a wrong time to tourbecause of COVID-19.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
Yeah, yeah, and erect everything right.
It did, yeah, Okay.
So let's flip this on its edgeand push to the good stuff now.
Did you do a demo for Asylum?
Did you shop it around or didMassacre?
Just come to you and go?
Let's get this going again.
Let's get the band back on theroad.

Speaker 5 (56:13):
No.
So Craig and Lum is a goodfriend of mine and he was
helping Toxic get another labelSome of the really high quality
thrash bands.
He was trying to help becausehe knows a lot of people and you
know he was an exodus for alittle while and he said he then

(56:36):
.
So he knows quite a few peopleand he was asking me for
material for a demo tape since2018-19 and so I did send him a
couple things and I sent him aone song, in particular when I
was working with my new guitarplayer and he's like, dude,

(56:57):
finish that song and I can shopit and I'll get you guys a
record deal.
And I'm like, okay, okay, yeah,yeah.
So we finished the song and hedid a lead on it for us and we
had Juan or Tega do the mix onit from he did the Testament
record and we got a record deal.

Speaker 1 (57:23):
Nice and their mask is a German label.
Correct, they are, yeah, and sois there going to be a separate
I don't know how it works adistribution company in the
United States that handles it?
Or does Massacre handle bothdomestic and foreign type bands?

Speaker 5 (57:34):
So they're under an umbrella company.
One is called Soul Foods andthere's another, I believe
Sylvania, does the distributionfor them.
But if you pull up, if you hitpre-order, you'll have
everything from Amazon to TowerRecords to Target.

Speaker 1 (57:53):
Yeah, we saw Target on there.
Yeah, wow, there you go.
Yeah, we were looking at thattoday, hoping we could hear like
the rest of the album, becausewe've only heard two songs so
far off the album.
We haven't heard the rest of it.
So we're trying to find out isthere any hiding on the internet
somewhere where we could hearit?
But yeah, we saw that list oflike everywhere where it's going
to be distributed and come out.

Speaker 5 (58:12):
And inside of them comes up, I'll go ahead.
Oh, they're very adamant aboutand they're very closed about
releasing anything until theofficial record date.
I wish there was, but I yeah,no, that's fine.

Speaker 1 (58:25):
The official date it drops March 15th, right, so not
too far from now yeah, very cool.

Speaker 2 (58:32):
We've heard two songs so far.
Seeds of Siren Punish Room areall.
Are those songs discussingsocial and political topics,
like your previous songs?

Speaker 5 (58:41):
Every song in the album except for one is
discussing social issues andduring, you know, during
COVID-19, there was such a Imean you pick it.
There was so much to writeabout because I don't think in

(59:02):
my lifetime I've never seenanything like COVID-19 shutting
down the entire world.
It was just a very crazy timeand there was a lot of stuff
politically that was going on.
So there was a lot of stuff towrite about.

Speaker 1 (59:21):
Yeah, too much right, too many topics to write about.
Yeah, crazy time.
So we talked about those twosongs on our last episode and in
my opinion they pick up where,if Atrofine never got a break,
this would be the third album.
So it sounds like that maybenot in the mix so much, but
lyrically and musically itsounds like it's just the next

(59:43):
album.
How did you get that sound withhaving all new members and
everything?
Did you write most of the musicand I'm assuming the lyrics
still?
And I think a lot of it wasattached to your vocal, your
vocal sound, so I could talk alittle bit about you.
Know how you got that remain,that atrophy sound?
And also, how do you keep yourvocals going for all these years

(01:00:04):
?

Speaker 5 (01:00:05):
So I learned how to sing when I was off, you know, I
did a men's chorus and then Idid acapella singing where it's
just four people, and I was veryfortunate to work with a
director who was a vocal coachand teaching me how to breathe,
you know, get a good breath inyour diaphragm and then sing,

(01:00:28):
not trying to.
And I think before it went onthe first two albums I held back
a little bit and you'll hear iton this album for sure.
And as far as getting the sound, so I was working with, I am
working with this new guitarplayer, mark Hoglund, and he was
in a thrash band like 16 yearsago and since then he's written

(01:00:54):
some Gothenburg and some deathmetal stuff.
But when I heard him play his,his, that right hand, it very
much like Chris the drillpicking, the syncopated picking,
and that's that's a lot ofwhere our sound came from.
Now in this album, you know,since he's playing he's he did

(01:01:18):
all the rhythm tracks on this.
You know he's adding a littlebit of the Gothenburg stuff
which is basically fancy guitarplaying.
Yeah, and so that was the firstpart of it.
The vocals are the second partand the mix was a third part.
We wanted to have kind of theold school sound and not use all

(01:01:43):
the computer generated soundswith the drums and like all the
effects on the vocals.
So it sounds more 90 ish, 80ish, if you will, and drums are
a huge part of that.
I really like natural drumsounds, being able to hear all
the symbols and the hi hat andall that.

Speaker 1 (01:02:05):
Sure, sure.
You just answered one of mynext questions about the
production of the new album.
It seemed like it was, you know, very old school sounding still
, or it was raw, but it wasmodernized without that
compression feel.
Yes, and I think that's why itsounded like the next Atrophy
album.
You guys didn't go in adirection that wasn't Atrophy.

Speaker 5 (01:02:23):
Right, I didn't want to go in any other direction.
Except which was that naturalnext step we would have gotten?
In my opinion, we, you know,the guitar players would have
gotten better.
You know the drumming wouldhave gotten better, the singing
would have gotten better.
It's just that natural nextstep, for me at least.

Speaker 1 (01:02:46):
Yeah, let's go back a little bit to the lyrics, the
two songs we heard.
Seeds of Sorrow sounds likeit's just the next.
You know it's what happenedfrom Violent by Nature.
It seems like it's theprogression from one song to the
next.
This is what was created like along time ago and this is the
result we're seeing today.

Speaker 5 (01:03:04):
Man, you hit it perfect on the head.
Nice.
So you know, a night back whenwe wrote the song Chris wrote
the lyrics for that and you knowthe album cover displays what
happens when and the song goeswhen children play with weapons.
And now, and after the Bradybill expired, all these

(01:03:30):
companies, even Walmart, startedselling AR-15s.
You know they were veryinexpensive.
With laser sights, they'redeadly accurate and you know
those were introduced into thepublic's hands and there's no
blame in this.
This is our country, this is,but this is what happens.

(01:03:54):
And you know one of the lines,that's killing Spree has just
begun.
As I was writing the lyrics,I'm literally looking at the TV.
Oh, there's another massshooting and there's a line in
there.
21 are dead and they're stillcounting.
And that's when those policerefuse to go into the school and

(01:04:19):
do anything about it, like thisguy's in there.
He's a present threat and youguys aren't going in there to do
something.

Speaker 1 (01:04:26):
Yeah, and that's in Texas.
Right, that was the yes sir.
Yeah, yeah, I remember that.

Speaker 5 (01:04:30):
Absolutely cowardly.
You know when you're this isone man.
You go in there with a team.
You'll take them down.
You're going to take them down.
So I was kind of disgusted withthe whole where we are and how

(01:04:52):
violent we seem to be.
Society is so much better thanit was in the 40s and the 50s.
It's pretty chill.
You don't have to go out andkill for your food.
It seems like we have all thesegreat things, but people are
more mentally unstable than everbefore and we're seeing the

(01:05:13):
result of that now,unfortunately.

Speaker 1 (01:05:17):
Yeah, that's why I'm a firm believer in music.
It saved my life.
So I want to make sure I shareit with Eli here that it was
something I put my focus intowhen I was young, that interest
that wasn't being malicious, youknow, running the roads and
drinking and stuff like that.

Speaker 5 (01:05:35):
I was actually just thinking about what you just
said today, how I was.
You know, I had all this energyand I had all this pent up,
probably anger, and then when Igot into music it was such a
beautiful release, you know andI've been an artist when I was

(01:05:55):
younger just art in general, tobe able to release some of that
and show people that.
You know, life isn't just aboutworking, you know, 18 hour days
and coming home and spending afew hours with your kids if
you're lucky there's.
You know, art just makeseverything kind of beautiful, to
me at least.

Speaker 1 (01:06:17):
Yeah, and I grew up a really poor kid, so you know
I'd latched onto the anger andthe aggression of the music and
it just like what I felt everyday was being shared with other
people like yourself.
Who's coming out and like we'refrustrated too, we're angry too
, and here's what we're going todo about it.

Speaker 5 (01:06:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:06:36):
So Punishment for All is the other song we heard, and
right off the bat, both Eli andI, when we heard it, were
chanting.
The chorus just connected to usand I could just picture that.
You know, punishment,punishment for All was just, it
was just created for a liveaudience.

Speaker 5 (01:06:53):
Oh, my God, that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:06:55):
You said that, go ahead.
I don't know if those kind ofthings are built into your
writing.
If you think about, you knowwhat this is going to sound live
, or if it's just you know.
It just comes out as a productof the music.

Speaker 5 (01:07:06):
So I have a very different pattern of writing
than most thrash musicians.
What I hear is they'll justsing, and there's no melody to
the vocals, and they just try tosing wait wait, I'm not, I'm
not.
You know, it's just kind ofmonotone.
So I tried to sing in key withwhat the guitar players are

(01:07:29):
doing, naturally.
And then the other thing is,when I heard the song, I said,
oh my God, mark, I don't know ifyou know this, but you just
wrote an anthem.

Speaker 1 (01:07:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:07:41):
I said I can hear the whole entire crowd going
Punishment.

Speaker 5 (01:07:45):
And when the second chorus came around, we just
played a show with violence, ora little mini tour down in
Central America with violence,high racks and it's harder.
By the second chorus they weresinging it and the song hadn't
even come out yet.
I'm just like wow, that's crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:08:04):
Yeah, that is crazy.
That's, you know, definitely.
I think you know people aregoing to and there's a you know
throughout thrash, I mean offyour second album.
There was violent by nature,was the same type of thing.
I think um Sepultura was prettygood about doing that.
You know, I could picture acouple of their songs that came
out and I was like, oh, thewhole crowd is going to be
jumping during this part.
And so, yeah, definitely, whenI heard that song Punishment for

(01:08:25):
All from you Guys, I was like,oh, this is the, this is a
sing-along part, cool.
So who are the guys in the bandnow?
And I know you didn't have apermanent drummer before have
you found a permanent drummer?
Is he a permanent drummer and atouring drummer, or is he just
going to be like a studio guy?

Speaker 5 (01:08:41):
So the drummer that played on the album is Jonas
Schutts and he's from Germanyand I had written a song outside
of Atrophy and I had him playon it.
And Mark had an album calledCondemn the Dream and he had
Jonas play on that.
And when I heard his drummingand the drum tones that were

(01:09:03):
coming off, he was.
You know.
I originally was thinking tohim, I play on this.
But when I heard Jonas playhe's so technical, he's a drum
teacher and he has a drum studioin his basement I knew he was
the guy to do this.
So let me see Nathan.

(01:09:24):
We were in the middle ofwriting the album and he saw a
picture of me and Mark standingthere and he said, well geez, if
there's nobody else in the band.
He messaged me on Facebook andI kind of laughed at him.
I was 34 years old and he is athrash fanatic.

(01:09:45):
He went to a music instituteand they used to look up old
bands from the 80s and 90s andhe said, man, if you want a
guitar player, I'd love to playwith you guys.
And I heard some of his stuffand I'm like, wow, he's a
virtuoso, I would love to havethat on the album.

(01:10:08):
And so Josh was actually alatecomer because we were in the
studio with Bill Matoya, whodid not produce the album, but
we were doing some trial mixeswith him and he came in and when
I heard him play I'm like, ohcrap, we got to get at least

(01:10:31):
five songs to him.
So that's Jonas.
I'm sorry Josh Gibbs, and healso plays in malevolent
creation.
He's a phenomenal bass playerand let me see that that only
leaves the other guy and that'sMark.
And the way I found him wasthrough a mutual friend and we

(01:10:55):
never really wrote togetherexcept for one song and I heard
something up that one song andI'm like he's the guy for
helping write this next album.
So he wrote.
By the way, he asked me earlier.
I did not write all the musicor anything he did.
I did submit riffs to him, butwhen I hear his riffs they're so

(01:11:22):
much better and so much moretechnical.
He just has a natural knack forthis.

Speaker 1 (01:11:29):
Nice, nice.
And he does write in the atrophysound right so those were
atrophy riffs through andthrough from the first two songs
we heard, which was absolutelynice to hear.
So not to get off track of whatyou're doing now, but some of
the other band members are in aband called Scars of Atrophy.
Is there bad blood between youguys and we don't have to go
down this road if you don't wantto?

(01:11:50):
Or are they just like callingit Scars of Atrophy because they
want to play somethingdifferent but still have a fan
base that know atrophy?

Speaker 5 (01:11:58):
Second part.
Ok, second part, you just saidso yeah, we.

Speaker 1 (01:12:05):
It doesn't sound like atrophy, especially the vocals.
Obviously they're new stuffthat I heard, but they have on
their album or demo coverwhatever.
I could see the hat of thejester coming through the door
and stuff, I guess.
So there's definitely leaninginto the atrophy name on it.

Speaker 5 (01:12:22):
I think they did that all for the second part of what
you said.
I was writing with them afterwhen COVID hit and when I got
the demo back from them I justsaid my God, this doesn't sound
like atrophy.
I put vocals on it and, nomatter how I approached it, I

(01:12:47):
just couldn't get the hooks.
You hear now the other parts.
Nothing's changed in me, but wehad a change in the lineup and
it made it very difficult, andso I think they hold some
resentment that I didn'tfinalize everything with them,

(01:13:10):
because I just couldn't.
It had to be what you hear now,and when you hear the album
you'll understand it sounds justlike atrophy, dude, yeah, and
that's how it's supposed tosound.

Speaker 1 (01:13:26):
It usually doesn't work that way.
In my head, if a lot of membersgo and they do something, it's
going to sound like the old bandand then if one member goes and
does something else, it's goingto sound a little bit different
.
But it was reversed with youguys.
What you did and what you puttogether was atrophy, and I
think what they're doing nottalking shit about it or
anything but you're right, it'snot atrophy, it has no atrophy
sound to it.

Speaker 5 (01:13:44):
No, and I think, having no guitar player in the
band and no vocalist, you justhave drums.
I don't know, but what you saidthe second time, yeah, okay,
yeah, that makes sense, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:14:08):
Anyways, let's get back to the new Asylum album.
I noticed on the album coverit's the same jester from the
first album.
Is it the same artist andwhat's the story behind the
jester?

Speaker 5 (01:14:20):
So the jester is our mascot, his name is Jinx and I'm
going to be releasing someartwork after the album's
released in what 13 days?
And it'll tie all three albumstogether.
So there's an Easter egg in thealbum and it's for the fans to
figure out, and so the wholeconcept of that was to bring him

(01:14:46):
back because he's very he'spart of our band.
You know sets of beginning andon the inner sleeve he pulls his
face off and you see the skull.
And we had that our firstt-shirt, actually our tour
t-shirt, and I just love thecharacter and I love the theory

(01:15:08):
behind it, because in one of thevideos you'll see the
theatrical mask I don't know ifyou caught that, you'll see, so
that there's a good theatricalmask and so, anyways, when you
look at the album cover and whenI release the artwork, you'll

(01:15:31):
kind of see it all ties togetherin the asylum, so Nice.

Speaker 1 (01:15:37):
And did you do the art for it?
Is that your creation?

Speaker 5 (01:15:39):
I created the artwork for it and I had a mansion that
I drew when I was I don't know,maybe 18 or something, and you
know it's that old, scarymansion looking thing.
And so when we were writing thelast song in the album, five
minutes to suicide, one of thelines in it is the open air

(01:16:04):
asylum, which is LA, new York,where you see all these homeless
encampments.
We got a lot of mental healthproblems here.
That's when I really came upwith the idea to and the
gestures supposed to be call youinto the asylum.

(01:16:25):
And one of the characters isgoing to come back from Violet
by Nature and you'll see that.

Speaker 1 (01:16:32):
And come together?
Yeah, very cool.
So what's up next for Atrophy?
When are you touring, if histour plans, and, most
importantly, when are you comingto Tampa, because that's where
we are.

Speaker 5 (01:16:44):
Oh wow, Josh lives down there as well.

Speaker 1 (01:16:47):
Oh nice.

Speaker 5 (01:16:48):
So, yeah, we had talked about doing something
down in Tampa.
So we kind of find ourselves ina weird situation here because
we got back from Central Americaand the guys were talking about
replacing our drummer andthat's very difficult for me to
do.
But anyways, yeah, we had aWest Coast book in July, august

(01:17:16):
and then September the EastCoast.
I don't know if those dates arestill going to happen, but we
want to get out and definitelytour this album.
We want to get over to Europeagain and try to do all three
this year, you know, tour thealbum.
And we have seven songs, Ibelieve, written for the new

(01:17:37):
album, not fully, but working onseven songs, nice.
So we're going to pump outanother one here.

Speaker 1 (01:17:46):
Very cool.

Speaker 2 (01:17:47):
Yeah, so the beginning of the tour.
How are you going to balanceplaying all the old school
actuaries songs with the newsongs from the Asylum album?

Speaker 5 (01:17:56):
So when we played down in Central America we
played two new songs and weplayed the two that got released
and we want to introduce athird song and probably going to
be High Anxiety and with anyband, once you go out people are
going to tell you what theywant to hear and so that's so.

(01:18:17):
We played both albums we play.
Our set list is actuallyheavily off the first album
Killing Machine, chemicalDependency, urban Decay, killing
Machine and Beerbong.

Speaker 1 (01:18:31):
Nice Beerbong.

Speaker 5 (01:18:33):
And then the rest is off.
Violence and Beerbong is alwaysthe last song because it's so
fun to play.
Yeah, it's a fun song and thecryo gig is crazy for it.

Speaker 1 (01:18:40):
So yeah, the beers are Some left to be desired,
right.
Yeah, and those brands aren'taround anymore too.

Speaker 5 (01:18:49):
So those were intended to be all the cheapest
beer you could possibly buy whenyou're in college, and they're
so bad you have to drink them ina beerbong because you didn't
want to taste them.

Speaker 3 (01:18:59):
You don't want to taste them.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
And no, they're not.

Speaker 5 (01:19:05):
There are very few of those brands around.

Speaker 1 (01:19:06):
Yeah, funny.
So last question we have foryou and this is kind of putting
you on the spot which is Women'sHistory Month and we, the
Potter, trying to promote womenled or women in hard music and
metal and stuff.
So we're trying to do a post, aday of bands that reflect women
are doing thrash, they're doingdeath.
Did you have any bands that youknow women are in that you

(01:19:30):
wanted us to promote or you wantto talk about here, or Look up,
condemn the Dream.
Condemn the Dream.

Speaker 5 (01:19:37):
That's Mark's other band that he had and he has a
female singer on that.
Just listen to the first trackand check it out.
It's really good stuff man.

Speaker 1 (01:19:50):
Awesome, we will do that.
Then what's the best way peoplecan support Atrophy?
What can they do?

Speaker 5 (01:19:57):
So go to Facebook and Instagram and just give us a
like.
That would be huge, and ifyou're out, please buy
Merchandise.

Speaker 1 (01:20:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:20:05):
You know, because that's the only way we see
revenue anymore, and hopefullywe'll have some new merch out in
the month and we'll put that upon Facebook too.

Speaker 1 (01:20:18):
Yeah, whenever we go to shows, we make it a point
definitely to support the bandand buy the records.

Speaker 5 (01:20:22):
Yeah, and buy the records, buy the CD, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:20:25):
Yeah, absolutely Well .
Thanks so much, brian.
It's been great Again.
I'm a little, like I said, alittle giggly talking to you.
You've been one of thefavorites for a very long time.

Speaker 5 (01:20:35):
Oh, thank you so much .

Speaker 1 (01:20:36):
We are definitely pumping those new songs out
every car ride and in the housewhen we can, so I appreciate
your time.
This will probably drop Mondayand I'll be sharing it on
Facebook and I'll let you knowwhen it comes out.

Speaker 5 (01:20:46):
Cool, I'm trying to.
I'll drop an interview everycouple of days till the album's
released, so I'll put it up onour Facebook page.
Appreciate it, and I wish youguys the best.
Good job, eli.
Thanks, take care.

Speaker 1 (01:20:57):
Brian Hope to see you soon.

Speaker 5 (01:21:00):
Nice shirt, I like that you bet.

Speaker 1 (01:21:03):
Talk to you later Bye .

Speaker 2 (01:21:05):
Bye.