Slaves Beyond Metal – Jamie Byrum and Neil McAdams of Black Breath


Black Breath, photo credit- Invisible Hour

Black Breath, photo credit- Invisible Hour

We did pass up a truck in Utah carrying a load of uranium hexafluoride, which is physical radioactive material. Pretty sure when we passed him he was playing on his phone while driving. So that was inspiring. Other than that, everything else has been normal,” said vocalist Neil McAdams, sharing an interesting story about his band Black Breath’s recent tour supporting Goatwhore this past summer.

Since this tour, the band has dropped their latest album Slaves Beyond Death and have been touring in support of this. While the band is no stranger to touring, they have found themselves sharing stages with a wide variety of bands and ready to take on any challenge. Their next venture will take them on a support slot with Decapitated across the US.

decapitated black breath theories us tour 2016

Drummer Jamie Byrum shared his thoughts on their touring history:

[We are] all over the map. In Europe we feel we’ve played with more metal bands. Over here we’ve played with more bands that come from a DIY background. We’ll play with anybody,” he said.

We like to keep things within a community of people that we know,” said McAdams.

We’re not exclusive to playing with metal or hardcore bands. We’d prefer to play with bands with diverse lineups, especially on tour when you have to listen to it every day,” concluded Byrum.

He shared some of their early shows where they were paired up with some unlikely bands.

I think early on shit was weirder. We’d play at hardcore festivals and we’d play with straight up hardcore bills with youth crew bands or positive clean-cut hardcore bands, and we’re trouble dirtbags getting drunk in the parking lot. We definitely weirded out people at those kinds of shows, but we don’t really do those kinds of shows any more. All of those kids who were creeped out by it are alcoholics now.

black breath neil mcadams

Coming out of the Seattle area, the members cut their teeth musically surrounding themselves around a wide array of bands of all genres. They described their upbringing and how an open minded scene helped bring together their peers to create a unique group of people.

We grew up in communities where there’s a real diverse music scene. When the whole huge grunge movement died in the mid 90s, we were in high school and there were all of these bands. There were all of these metal bands playing. We grew up with all of these old school thrash metal dudes and they would be playing. We would be hanging out with them. We would go to these hippie jam concerts. Indie got huge so you would see a lot of that shit,” explained McAdams.

Everyone garage and punk and indie band was playing in basements. Everyone was getting drunk. It’s very DIY,” said Byrum.

It’s a whole shit mix of stuff. To me it’s never been a huge division between hardcore and punk and metal and all of that shit. You’re all pissed off about god and fuck the police and the state and shit…I don’t know why you can’t all get on the same team,” added McAdams.

The band is signed to Southern Lord, a label better known for its eclectic roster but more for its extensive doom and stoner rock acts. While they are one of the few death metal oriented acts on their roster, Byrum found that it worked to their advantage to push their name out even more and did not feel like an oddity within a roster like theirs.

There are a lot of bands on there that doesn’t sound like anything [like what’s usually on Southern Lord]. I don’t think it’s that weird. I just like the idea of being on a label run by somebody with a similar background as a friend. We are friends with bands he chooses to sign so that helps,” Byrum said.

Photo Credit: Eric Wallace

Photo Credit: Eric Wallace

In recent times, the Northwest area has become a hotbed for musical acts once again and a string of new bands have been making noise throughout the scene. While many of those bands fall upon the rock side of the heavy music genre, bands like Black Breath have helped to revitalize a scene that has quietly produced some good bands over the years.

Seattle is an area better known for the grunge scene in the late 80s into the early 90s, producing iconic names such as Nirvana, Soundgarden and Alice In Chains, along with heavier names such as Queensryche and Sanctuary. So how much has changed since that era?

It’s not very big. There’s a lot of people that are into metal but there aren’t that many good bands. I don’t know if there’s ever been that many good metal bands from Seattle, compared to Los Angeles or San Francisco. There’s Metal Church and The Accused and the classic bands. I guess there are a lot of metal bands,” said drummer Jamie Byrum, about their current Seattle metal scene.

There’s a good core community of people there who are dedicated to doing it but it’s still a small thing,” said vocalist Neil McAdams.

There are good metal bands but there’s not a shitload of them. There’s never been a shitload of them,” added Byrum.

 

Being a band that incorporated healthy parts of metal, hardcore and punk, Black Breath came up playing a wide variety of shows locally, including the Rain Fest, and eventually expanded into touring across the country. Their time spent on the road helped them spread their name and their music to newer fans along the way.

Since their start in 2005, Black Breath have crafted their sound around a variety of extreme sounds such as thrash, black and death metal with punk and hardcore influences rubbing off on them as well.

When we started out, we were playing hardcore so that’s where I came from. As we got better on our instruments, we started playing more metal,” explained Byrum.

One of the aspects of their sound that often comes up is the comparisons to the early 1990s Swedish death thrash sounds that Black Breath employed into their music through their first couple of albums (2010’s Heavy Breathing and 2012’s Sentenced to Life). While he admits to liking some of those bands over the years, he also says there was more to that than just modeling themselves around that specific sound.

We’d think anybody who’d like those bands – I mean we like those bands so I don’t think it’s so weird for someone to compare it to it, or it’s not a bad thing. I don’t necessarily think we sound like those bands particularly, but there are some similarities and we’re definitely influenced by them by those bands.

Another obvious element in Black Breath’s sound is the downtuned guitars that play a big role in shaping the way they create their music. They said that their interests in punk/metal crossover sound played a key role in bringing that into their music, and they continue to build upon that onto their newer songs.

At first it was more hardcore hard rock. We were heavily influenced by Poison Idea and bands like that. But then, I guess from the get go we were always like how can we be more intense for every writing session, so naturally it rose to that. That’s when we became a crossover band,” said Byrum.

Just keep pushing the envelope and trying new things. I don’t think it’s that interesting to keep putting out the same record over and over again,” added McAdams.

Black Breath Slaves Beyond death abum cover

Leading into the writing and recording of Slaves Beyond Death, they talked about their sound has grown since the first two albums and bringing in new ideas has helped mold their sound.

The vocals are different. They’re not hardcore vocals. That’s a big one,” said Byrum.

It’s just a different kind of record so we needed a different kind of approach,” said McAdams.

There’s way more guitar. The guitar playing is way more rooted in old school heavy metal and hard rock than in death metal, whereas early on it was just fast power chords [versus] now it’s most just riffs all the time. That’s a noticeable difference,” added McAdams.

Lastly while the band name was taken from a Repulsion song and also a reference from JRR Tolkien’s works, they shared a story from their earlier years where they attempted to work in satire into their music. While this was a one time show in the beginning of the band’s history, McAdams clarified that Tolkien’s stories has no influence within Black Breath’s music or lyrics.

This was a long time ago when we were still doing our hardcore demo stuff that we had put out. We did a show at the bar where I worked at. It’s a real tiny place and I retooled the titles for the songs. I didn’t change the lyrics but when I was introducing the songs I changed them as much as I possibly could to be some sort of Lords of the Rings reference. But that was one time eight years ago. So I would say no. As much as I appreciate Tolkien that’s not a direction I’d want to go.

By Rei Nishimoto

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Audio: All Out War – Nothing Left To Bleed, Upcoming Live Dates


all out war 2

All Out War is streaming “Nothing Left To Bleed,” off of their Dying Gods EP, out June 23, 2015 via Organzied Crime Records here. The band has a number of upcoming live dates confirmed.

May 22-24: Neumo’s (Rain Fest) – Seattle, WA
Jun 20: the Loft – Poughkeepsie, NY (release show w/ Black Anvil, Sub Zero, Living Laser, Jagged Visions, Absolute Suffering, Dark Past, Internal Warfare)
Jul 26: Electric Factory (This Is Hardcore) – Philadelphia, PA
Aug 07: JZ St. Peter – Duisburg (DE)
Aug 08: Still Cold Fest – Hannover (DE)
Aug 09: Cassiopeia – Berlin (DE)
Aug 10: Underworld – London (UK)
Aug 11: Werk 21 – Zurich (CH)
Aug 12: Molotov – Marseille (FR)
Aug 13: La Mechanique Ondulatoire – Paris (FR)
Aug 14-16: Motocultor Fest – Bretagne (FR)
Aug 14-16: Ieperfest – Ieper (BE)
Sep 04-09: Hearfest – Gatineau (QC)

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Trailer: All Out War – Dying Gods EP


all out war

All Out War is streaming a trailer for their forthcoming Dying Gods EP, out June 23, 2015 via Organized Crime Records. Stream it below.

Dying Gods Track Listing:
01: Dying Gods
02: Vengeance Reigns Eternal
03: Nothing Left To Bleed
04: Servants To The Obsolete
05: Choking On Indifference
06: Arise
07: God Is Dead

The band has confirmed upcoming shows.

May 22-24: Neumo’s – Seattle, WA (Rain Fest)
Jun 20: The Loft – Poughkeepsie, NY (release show w/ Black Anvil, Sub Zero, Living Laser, Jagged Visions, Absolute Suffering, Dark Past, Internal Warfare)
Jul 26: Electric Factory – Philadelphia, PA (This Is Hardcore)
Aug 07: JZ St. Peter – Duisburg (DE)
Aug 08: Still Cold Fest – Hannover (DE)
Aug 09: Cassiopeia – Berlin (DE)
Aug 10: Underworld – London (UK)
Aug 11: Werk 21 – Zurich (CH)
Aug 12: Molotov – Marseille (FR)
Aug 13: La Mechanique Ondulatoire – Paris (FR)
Aug 14-16: Motocultor Fest – Bretagne (FR)
Aug 14-16: Ieperfest – Ieper (BE)
Sep 04-09: Hearfest – Gatineau, QC

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All Out War Return With Dying Gods


all out war dying gods

Veteran New York hardcore/metallers All Out War will be releasing a new EP titled Dying Gods, due out this summer. The EP was engineered and produced by Steve Evetts (Hatebreed, Turmoil, Buried Alive, Suicide Silence) at West West Side in New Windsor, NY. The record sees the band bringing five decimating new original tracks and covers of two iconic underground anthems.

The band has booked a number of live appearances coming up.

May 22-24: Neumo’s – Seattle, WA (Rain Fest)
Aug 07: JZ St. Peter – Duisburg (DE)
Aug 08: Still Cold Fest Hannover (DE)
Aug 09: Cassiopeia – Berlin (DE)
Aug 10: Underworld – London (UK)
Aug 11: Werk 21 – Zurich (CH)
Aug 12: Molotov – Marseille (FR)
Aug 13: La Mechanique Ondulatoire – Paris (FR)
Aug 14-16: Motocultor Fest – Bretagne (FR)
Aug 14-16: Ieperfest – Ieper (BE)

ALL OUT WAR:
Mike Score – vocals
Erik Carrillo – bass
Taras Apuzzo – guitar
Andy Pietroloungo – guitar
Jesse Sutherland – drums


Suburban Scum Releasing New Album This Summer


Suburban Scum with Will Putney - Photo Credit: Sean Sullivan

Suburban Scum with Will Putney – Photo Credit: Sean Sullivan

New Jersey hardcore outfit Suburban Scum will be releasing their upcoming release this summer via Closed Casket Activities. The album was recently tracked by Will Putney at The Machine Shop (Body Count, Vision Of Disorder, The Acacia Strain) and takes the straightforward, hungry hardcore energy of their previous recordings to a dynamic new level of ferociousness.

Since 2010 Suburban Scum has released a solid pile of recordings, including their debut Infernal War EP with Ride The Fury Records, the 2012-released Hanging By A Thread EP on 6131 Records, a split with Incendiary via Closed Casket Activities and most recently a split 12″ with Xibalba also on Closed Casket released last year. Their clear-cut delivery is elementally hardcore to the bone; completely enraged and outspoken, with enough metal to make its presence known and not overthrow the core of the songs, their lyrics streetwise but realistic, not overly dramatic. Having made their presence known on tour with the likes of Expire, Rotting Out, Backtrack, Harm’s Way, Bitter End, Downpresser and many others, and their energetic performances at major festivals including This Is Hardcore, Sound & Fury, United Blood, Rain Fest and more have been well-documented with Youtube visual evidence and mass reports of bodily harm during performances.

The band has announced their upcoming tour and dates are posted below.

Suburban Scum Tour Dates:
Mar 03: Korova – San Antonio, TX
Mar 04: Electric Banana – El Paso, TX
Mar 05: Launchpad – Albuquerque, NM
Mar 06: Nile Underground – Mesa, AZ
Mar 07: The Echo – Los Angeles, CA
Mar 08: Metro Sideroom – Oakland, CA
Mar 09: RBU Davis University – Sacramento, CA
Mar 10: Holland Project – Reno, NV
Mar 11: Kilby Court – Salt Lake City, UT
Mar 12: Marquis Theater – Denver, CO
Mar 13: Vaudeville Mews – Des Moines, IA
Mar 14: Minehaha Freespace – Minneapolis, MN
Mar 15: The Borg Ward – Milwaukee, WI
Mar 16: The Beat Kitchen – Chicago, IL
Mar 17: The Foundry – Cleveland, OH
Mar 18: Legends – Covington, KY
Mar 19: The Demo – St Louis, MO
Mar 20: The Conservatory – Oklahoma City, OK
Mar 21: Walters – Houston, TX
Mar 22: QuikTrip Park – Grand Prairie, TX (South By So What?!)
Apr 10: Game Changer World – Howell, NJ (w/ No Warning, Breakdown, Foundation, Think I Care, King Nine)
Apr 18: The Palladium – Worcester, MA (New England Metal & Hardcore Fest)
May 16: Webster Hall – New York, NY (Black N’ Blue Bowl)

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