It was Sunday, December 8th.  I was standing outside The Masquerade in Atlanta and the weather was cold, wet, and progressively miserable.  I felt like I was in Hell.  No, not the biblical version with scorching invisible flames (which probably would've been a nice chance to warm up for a moment), but the much cooler version depicted in the 9th circle of Dante Alighieri's allegory, The Divine Comedy.  I had arrived an hour before the doors were scheduled to open and the bouncer manning the entrance, who was obviously as uncomfotable with the weather as I was, asked me as I leaned against one of the ticket booths if I was going to stand there until then.  I said yes, with a smile, and added that I didn't care about the weather.  In complete honesty, I couldn't have cared less because I knew that the moment I stepped through those doors I would, (literally), be in Hell witnessing one of the most brutal bands to ever come out of Australia, Thy Art Is Murder, absolutely destroying the stage and everything else in their path.  A treat that few Americans can claim privy to, since this was only the second time the band had toured the States.  And, to add icing to my cake, I had the priviledge of interviewing the band before the show.  

A little while after the doors had opened, I was greeted by lead guitarist Andy "Marshy" Marsh and was lead backstage.  As we entered the dressing room, I became a bit awestruck after realizing that I was standing amidst an all-star cast of contemporary death metal icons.  I was able to maintain my composure but it took every bit of energy and coordination I had not to drop my camera while I walked around the room, meeting all the band members.  In spite of my mild nervousness, the band quickly put me at ease by cracking jokes at one another and offering me a beer and something to eat; to which I politely declined.  Shortly after the introductions, vocalist CJ McMahon, bassist Sean Delander, Marshy, and myself ventured into a quite hallway where we discussed the recent succes of the band along with the rest of the Australian invasion force, how much the world sucks, and Katy Perry. It all ties in, I promise...

 

GNM: First off, I want to say thank you guys for giving me the opportunity to come and talk to you.  You are, by far, one of the best metal bands out right now.  Certainly one of my favorites.  I've been listening to your album, Hate, non-stop since it came out.  I know that this isn't your first time touring in the States; you have actually been touring the country since the middle of July 2013.  So, if you could, tell us what the experience has been like?

Sean Delander: So far, it's still a new expierence for us because last time we toured it was under different circumstances, with the Summer Slaughter Tour.  We were opening the festival and played really short sets.  It was kind of hard to tell whether the crowd was there to see us or the thousands of other great bands.  So, this time around, it's a good opportunity to gauge how well the band has been recieved by the American audience... because, it's our show.  It's been really exciting because the tour has been going well.  It feels good!

 

GNM: Aside from guaging how well the band is doing in the States, have you noticed any major difference between Summer Slaughter and this, your first American headliner?

Andy Marsh: It's way different, I think.  First off, the ticket prices are $10-15, which is less than half the price of tickets for Summer Slaughter.  It's kind of ironic because I think we have had better numbers by ourselves than the whole Summer Slaughter package, on some shows.  We've sold out about half the shows on this tour so far.  Which feels amazing for us, especially on our first headlining tour, to come over here and have such a good crowd response.  There are more kids, I mean a lot more under-age kids because they can afford the shows.  It's a less mature (as in younger) crowd.  Summer Slaughter is more of an ecclectic group of older people that can afford the ticket prices.  So, that has definitely changed the crowd response at shows.  It's just been a lot more fun.

SD: And also the venues are a lot smaller.  We're playing at bars and small clubs which make the shows a lot more intimate, I feel.

 

GNM: You guys played here (The Masquerade) for Summer Slaughter, right?

TAIM: Yeah!

 

GNM: As I stated earlier, you guys have been touring in the States since July.  But before then, you already toured in Europe.  And, even after this tour, you guys have a packed schedule going into next year. You've got Germany coming up next, then France, the United Kingdom, and then back to Australia. After that, do you have any plans to take a break?

TIAM: No...

CJ McMahon: No, we're not going to have a break for another two years, probably.

 

GNM: Really!? Any time in between to maybe start writing new material?

CM: Yeah, that's is already worked into our schedule, I guess.  We plan on recording and hopefully have a release sometime at the end of next year.  We're not sure when.

 

GNM: Awesome.  Well lets talk a little bit about Hate while we're on the subject of new albums.  It's definitely one of the most appropriately titled albums that I have ever heard.  Your previously ablum, Advesary, seems to have been just a build up to this point where, in Hate, you go on an angry tirade, describing everything that is wrong with this world.  You call attention to religion, politics, and general flaws in society, but you don't really mention anything specifcally.  So, what exactly are those things?  What are the things that you hate about this world (wow, that sounded a lot more negative then I intended it to be)?  What is serving as inspiration for you, now?

AM: You...

 

GNM: Me!? I'm sorry!

(Time out - Ok, I have to admit something.  It took me second to realize he was only joking, but when Andy said "you" after I asked those questions, there was a brief moment when my nuts shriveled up into my stomach.  These guys are each two or three inches taller than me and out weight me by a few pounds.  So, I really didn't want to do anything that merited getting my ass kicked)

AM: ...This cold weather.  No... Hate was a hateful record and it was definitely an external record where it was looking at things that you hate around the world that aren't yourself, obviously.  Things like politics, religion, education systems, economic systems...

CM: Global warming...

AM: ...the denial of global warming, the denial and repression of science, the repression of progress. All of these things are generally tied to religion or people who are stupid.  And, there are a lot of those people in America and Australia...

SD: And, everywhere else.

AM: All across the world. Generally, I like to skip the third world because it's usually not choice to be stupid.  It's more that they are just ignorant.  They don't have a lot of the...

SD: Resources...

AM: ... Yeah, resources.  They don't have a good education, or even a half decent education...

SD: ... Or any...

AM: ... Or any education, really.  So, it's more targeted at the people who have a chance to make the world a better place and choose not to because they are fucking stupid.  In terms of their possibly being a Hate II, or Hate 2.0, I think lyrically it would be looking more at internal hatered.  So, things that you hate about yourself and how you could become a better person.  To make the changes in yourself that you would like to see in the world.

 

GNM:  With everything you just said, I think it is rather apparent that a lot of your fans agree with you. Because, when Hate was released, it debuted at #35 on the AIRA (Australian Recording Industry Association) charts which made you the first extreme metal band to ever break into the Top 40.  The album also reached #1 on the AIR charts (Australian Independent Record Labels Association) and respectively reached #2 and #4 on the USA and Canadian iTunes metal charts for the week of its release. Obviously, it had to feel good to recieve such a warm response for your sophomore album. Was that the kind of reception your were expecting or hoping for?

CM: No!  We knew we had something good when were recording it.  And, then when we heard back in the following weeks after it was done with the production phase, we knew it was going to do well but not this well.  Personally, I feel that it has exceeded our expectations, ten-fold.  And, we knew that things were going to look up for us, but in the last eight months, we didn't think it would go this well.

 

GNM: Being from Australia, you would expect to have a strong following there, but did you think it was going to blow up in America as much as it did?

CM: Well, we knew we had a following here, just through social networks like Facebook and Instagram. But, this tour is the one that supposed to show us really what our fanbase is like, here. Like Sean said, at Summer Slaughter, it was hard to tell because there were so many bands.  And yeah, we had a good crowd and so did the other bands.  But, this tour has shown us that we have a massive fanbase here. And, like Marshy said as well, we've sold out half the shows on this tour and it's only our second time in the country and first time headlining.  I think that is proof, enough.  I know that there are a lot bands on tour at the moment or have been for the last few years that are bigger than us and they can't pull 50 kids to a show.

SD: It's also a hard time.  It's a hard time in Australia, as well, for a lot of bands to get people to come and pay money to see live music.  It doesn't seem to be a priority for most people, for whatever reason. But I think that this being the first chance for a lot of people to see us, they are jumping at the opportunity and that's the reason why the turnout has been so good.  I think that people have been curious for years as to what we are like as a live band and now the finally get to see us.

 

GNM: I've seen videos of you guys performing live.  So, I'm fully aware of what you're like and I'm expecting something equally amazing, tonight.  You guys do an awesome job.

TAIM: Thank you, appreciate it.

 

GNM: I'm sure you guys are already aware of it, but do you feel it's a little odd that some of your success in the States can be attributed to Katy Perry's twitter?  You guys have to know what I'm talking about.

(Collective laughter)

CM: Yeah, yeah, yeah...

AM: We love Katy Perry.  

SD: She's a good friend of ours!

CM: I don't think Katy meant anything bad by it. I actually think it was kind of humorus and the video got a lot views for us and especially for the kid who put it up.  But we also caught a lot of shit for it, as well. People saying that we're cruel to animals. We didn't even make the fucking video. It was a fan video. We had nothing to do with it.  It was just our song in the background and some people were, like...

 

GNM: Kind of shows the ignorance of some people.

CM: ...Yeah!  People saying things like 'This band is fucking shit!  They are cruel to animals.' And I'm like, 'What the fuck, man!?'

SD: That's the internet...

CM: It has nothing to do with us.

AM: If you don't know what we're talking about, there is a video on the internet of a cat air-drumming "Whore to a Chainsaw."  It's quite a thing. 

SD: Deathmetal Fat Cat.

AM: Yeah. He's a cool cat.

 

GNM: I thought it was hilarious.

SD: Yeah, it's pretty funny.

AM: And the cat seems to like it

SD: And Katy Perry...

AM: ... Has really good boobs!

CM: Good everything!

 

GNM: I concur.  The Katy Perry tweet is not stand alone.  That video, along with the success of Hate is essentially what got you guys on Summer Slaughter and also what got you nominated for an ARIA award for best metal album.  It had to feel good when you found out that you were nominated, but what were your initial thoughts and feelings?

CM: Psyched as fuck!  It's not the only nomination that we've recieved this year either.

 

GNM: What else have you recieved?

CM: For Liquid Metal on Sirius radio, we're supposed to be nominated for 'Best New Talent of the Year,' Metal Hammer's 'Golden Gods Award' for Europe and the U.S., as well, which is probably bigger than the ARIA's. But, the ARIA's in Australia...

SD: It's like the Grammy's in Australia.

CM: Yeah, it's a big deal but we knew we weren't going to win.  Didn't really give a fuck about winning, to be honest.

 

GNM: Like I said, I think it would be rather prestigious just to be nominated.

CM: Well, it is! It's was cool to be nominated.

AM: The greatest thing was to be nominated amongst our peers.  The other nominees were bands that we've toured with and are very good friends with.  Despite the fact that we didn't win and they didn't win either, if any of us had won it would have been a victory for all of us because we are a circle of friends. A win for one is a win for all!

SD: Like Marshy said, as far as heavy rock or metal in Australia goes, to have our circle of friends be most of the bands nominated for the same award is pretty cool.  It shows that we are at the fore-front of Australia heavy music.

AM: Or, at least, somewhere on the radar.  We were, by far, the heaviest band that was nominated, which was a cool thing.  Not only for us, but for all of heavy metal in general... to gain that kind of attention.  We were the only band nominated in the entire ARIA's to not have an ounce of clean vocals; it's all death metal vocals.  And to have that idea get pushed up that high means that it is maybe becoming more acceptible in the industry and in the media.

 

GNM: You talked about having a small circle friends and Aussie bands and the shared success that each one has had.  But the reality is that Australia has been known to produce some great heavy metal in the past from bands like I Killed the Prom Queen, Parkway Drive, and The Red Shore. Now it seems like, every week, a new band is coming out Australia.  Within the past few months we've seen the growing success of bands like Northlane, Aversion's Crown, Stories, Make Them Suffer, Iconoclast... and I could keep going.  I've said in the past that I think Australia is taking over the world in the metal/hardcore genre.  So, what is about your country the makes for such great metal music?

CM: It's probably because their are not a lot of us there.  So, we're really competitive.  We're kind of stuck in the middle, still trying to find ourselves as a nation.  We're not American and we're not European so we don't just to listen to those types of bands, but we still take in a bit of both and try to blend those influences into something that is uniquely our own.

 

GNM: I read a comment from a representative of Earhache Records which said that he believes that Aussie bands always put 100% into everything they produce.  Would you agree with that?

AM: Yeah, I guess so.  We're limited in the amount that we can tour and I think that frustrating aspect drives us to try harder.  We've already done more shows in two weeks here in America than we could do on an entire national tour of Australia; just because of the size, the number of cities, and the population of the country.  Only doing two national tours a year in Australia wil make you want to try harder so that you can eventually go overseas and play more shows... that's what we like doing!  We are, I guess, artists, I know that sounds wanky, and performers and performing is half of what we do. That means playing infront of people and if we were only doing that in Australia, we couldn't do it as often.

 

GNM: CJ, I noticed at the beginning of this tour, you started posting online that you would be offereing vocal listens to people who wanted to learn how to do death metal vocals properly.  Is this another means for Australian global domination, making more bands sound like you, or is this just a way for you to better influence the genre, more so than you already have?

CM: Not at all.  It's just me wanting to give back.  I remember, when I was younger, I didn't have much help when I was struggling as a singer and I have been singing for nearly 18 years.  I only had a few poeple help me, here and there.  And, there was no such thing as Youtube when I was learning; no screaming, nothing else like that... I developed from my own experiences and from a few people that I met along the way and did vocal listens with.  Now, I have a routine of warm-ups and breathing exercercises that I do for power, control, and consistency; all sorts of different stuff.  I've done over 300 hundred lessons, all of the world, with people ranging from some of the bigges bands in the world all the way to down to kids wanting to learn how to do it right from the first go. It's helps me out with a little bit of money while on tour and helps people learn how to do it right so they don't hurt themselves. You know, anybody can get nodes, nodules, and polyps on throat and then have to get them cut out... then you're fucked!  You can't scream again.  It happened with Corey Taylor and M. Shadows.  I reckon I was on that threshold of getting them when I was younger.  I had chronic headaches and was constantly blowing my voice out.  So, if it works for me I thought I would share and I haven't had any complaints, so far.