Planet Loud – So guys, how’s it going
Anterior – Absolutely blood warmingly smashing!
Malefice – Very good thanks!
The Rotted – Not bad, pretty busy just rehearsing and waiting for the tour to start. Got some new ideas on the go for a second album, so that’s pretty exciting.
Planet Loud – Tell us about the tour you’ve got coming up..
Anterior – We are going out in April as part of the Metal Blade Assault tour with our fellow UK labelmates The Rotted and Malefice. It’s a 12 date tour and rages through the UK & Ireland starting April 1st.
Malefice – Well, it’s Us, Anterior and The Rotted roaming around the UK scaring children by playing very loud scary metal in people’s faces.
The Rotted – It’s going to be wicked hooking up with two other Metal Blade bands from the UK, each one different but all representing heavy fucking metal! It’s going to be our first shows as The Rotted out in Ireland to and we were always treated really well by fans and promoters when we played out there with Gorerotted so we’re looking forward to those.
Planet Loud – What can metal kids expect from the shows?
Anterior – An immense smell of stale man and blow being emitted from the bus! Some straight up savage, balls to the ceiling METAL! With the hint of fist pumping, rim blowing aplomb! We’re all stoked to be doing this tour with 2 of Britains finest Metal acts so an energetic, loud as fuck and slightly effeminate set from Anterior should bring some smiles to the faces in the crowd.
Malefice – 16 drunk, hairy, tattooed unclean guys who go on stage every night and give it their all then come off stage and want to hang out and party with as many people as possible every night! The Rotted – Like I said, three bands representing three different types of metal, all extreme, all brutal and in your face all of the time!
Planet Loud – Are there any places on this tour you haven’t played?
Anterior – We havn’t played Kettering, Liverpool or Belfast before so that is something new to us. It’s always great to play new places and get to see new crowds so we are all looking forward to it.
Malefice – We’ve never been to Ireland before so that’s going to be an awesome experience for us, it’s always exciting to go somewhere where no one will have seen us live before, mainly so we get see the look on their faces when they see the kind of shit we get up too! Plus we get to go on a ferry which is always cool.
The Rotted – As the Rotted we’ve not hit a lot of these towns before. Between us with Gorerotted, Screamin’ Daemon and Cradle of Filth we played almost everywhere in the world! But saying that Gorerotted never played York or Cardiff so we will be throwing in a few old tunes for the fans in those cities, in fact we will probably throw a few in every night.
Planet Loud – Any message for the other bands on the bill?
Anterior – Dale, your mum phoned. She wants you home for dinner at 4 sharp!
Malefice – It’s going to be jokes getting to hang out with some quality British metal bands and it makes it even better that they are label buddies too!
The Rotted – Boys get ready to get fucked up. We are all sharing a bus together for two weeks, it’s gonna get messy!
Planet Loud – Describe your live show..
Anterior – In a nutshell, Windmilling, beer bongs, and some very healthy paced metal!
Malefice – We’re very energetic on stage. We like to be in people’s faces. We play hard and loud. We’ve spent along time in practice rooms getting tight together musically, so we’re confident in what we do and playing live is where this genre comes to life.
The Rotted – Fast and intense shows from us every night, we play everything with maximum energy live. Plenty of partying for us and the fans too, so come down and hang out with us for a beer or two after the shows.
Planet Loud – It’s three British bands on the bill, what do you think of the UK scene at the moment?
Anterior – It seems to be growing to a larger scale now as virtually everyone and their dog is in a band which can only be a good sign of the longevity in heavy music. Although, not quite enough of the talented bands are getting the kind of recognition that they deserve. The majority of the attention goes to image driven, watered down, pop-rock bands who have a fan base full of 16 year old girls. A lot of the rock media shoot a lot of limelight their way too.
Malefice – I think the UK scene is thriving. There are loads of quality bands coming out of the wood work and I think that because of these bands, labels from the US are starting looking over to the UK for new talent. So I think, as a country, we’re in a very good position!
The Rotted – It’s cool but very different from the rest of the world. You can have an entire career just in the UK and be a nothing band in the rest of the world. We have some great bands here and a growing scene. There are so many places to play these days compared to ten years ago. So many more festivals, cool people doing labels and magazines. We just got to educate the I-Pod generation to appreciate the value of music and to support artists by buying their CD’s. You will get a better music at the end of the day and you will give musicians the funding to keep making albums. Keep stealing stuff via illegal downloads and the scene we’ve worked on for so long will die on it’s arse! If people really care about music then stop destroying it via file sharing. There is nothing else in the world that people put so much time and effort into for it to be stolen, it wouldn’t happen with any other industry.
Planet Loud – Nice to see three British bands on the same label as well..
Anterior – Metal Blade have been quiet on the signing front of UK bands. Although they do have a good nose for sniffing out talent. You can expect a hell of a lot more from Metal Blade in the coming years…
Malefice – It’s awesome to see, it just further shows how well the metal scene in the UK is doing at the moment and now we get to go round the UK and show the British public that you don’t need to look over the pond to find good music, there’s plenty of talent on your doorstep!
The Rotted – Yeah it’s cool. It’s nice to be part of something with other bands, hopefully more UK acts will start getting worldwide exposure like us and the other guys.
Planet Loud – Tell us about life on the road with your band..
Anterior – There’s always something that will get on your nerves when you spend a period of time together with anyone but none of the boys do anything that really winds me up. Most of the things you get up to are outrageous and funny as hell. Watching a man shit into a Strongbow box 3 times a day usually makes me laugh.
Malefice – It’s not really a habit but it’s definitely something we always get in trouble for from our tour manager. Whenever we’re at a hotel, we’re always really loud and being told to be quiet just spurs us on to be louder! We’re never being purposefully loud, but generally we’re drunk and just being annoying.
The Rotted – Too much drinking, too much smoking, the usual shit. Things are cool right now, some problem people have be removed from the line-up so things run more smoothly on tour, less arguments, egos and bullshit. Will have a gang/family culture, people take care of each other and our friends in this band.
Planet Loud – Any good tour stories you can tell us?
Anterior – Driving a cherry picker, drunk through Oslo at 5 a.m. is just breathtaking.
Malefice – On the Sikth tour in Glasgow it was Justin’s birthday and after the show we all went out into town for drink. Bearing in mind that on that tour there was us, Ted Maul, Cry For Silence and the Architects, it got pretty messy. When we woke the next morning in the hostel we were staying in, looked around the room a bit.. our drummer Craig, he wasn’t there. We called him up a bit concerned for our missing drummer asked him where he was for him to say “I don’t know, I’ll find a taxi”… Ended alright though… he just appeared.
The Rotted – Too fucking many, we’ve all been on the road for years with various bands. There’s been arrests in Hungry, detained at borders in Czech and Austria, bus roof surfing, trips to hospitals, fights, sex, drugs, all rock and roll shit. Buy the album, read the lyrics, a lot of it’s made its way onto there.
Planet Loud – What are your best and worst tour stories?
Anterior – Worst experience for me was definatley being stuck in the back of the van when it caught fire. Best experience for me was overtaking Himsa’s broken down, big shiny new tourbus on the Swiss Alps in our shitty little rat bus whilst screaming at them out of the window.
Malefice – Best experience was just being on tour with God Forbid and Devil Driver. That was our first real taste of touring proper and all those guys were awesome, really showed us the ropes and taught us how to drink on tour! A tradition we’ve definitely stuck too. Worst experience…. Crashing our van in Nottingham and then having to cancel 2 or 3 shows really sucked… our van was screwed and we hate having to cancel shows!
The Rotted – Worst has got to be being detained at the Austrian/Czech border for 4 or 5 hours, stripped searched, fined and accused of drug/CD smuggling by some fucking Nazi security police wankers, their racism towards British people was utter bullshit. The best has got to be any and all shows since that day, I fucking love them! Probably arriving in Vienna after the border shit and still managing to play the show was a release and I had my sense of freedom back. Maybe the first time I played at an open air festival back in 2001 or something at Fuck The Commerce in Germany. It was a new experience back in those days and I couldn’t believe I was playing metal with the summer sun shining down on me. Happened many, many times since but you remember your first outdoor festival like your first fuck.
Planet Loud – Tour bus etiquette…any rules?
Anterior – Only rule I can think of is that bunks are off limits. Once a guy is in his bunk you just can’t pour piss in his ear or set his feet on fire. It’s disappointing I know, but you need some sort of privacy when there’s 16 of you rammed into a 40ft bus.
Malefice – The only rules I’m aware of are no shitting in the bus(in the facilities)… and no smoking in the bus… but other than that! There are no rules.. other than maybe don’t mess with a guy who’s asleep!
The Rotted – Stay out of our stuff, don’t smoke next to my bed, don’t drink our booze and in return we won’t kick the fuck out of you and leave you at a service station in the middle of nowhere. It’s all about respect. If 17 people on a bus all look out for each other, help each other, share booze and drugs and respect each other’s space then it’s a wicked tour!
Planet Loud – Any message for punters coming to the shows?
Anterior – Lets rage, take your shirts off and kiss!
Malefice – We’ll see you soon! Bring beer and a gum shield.
The Rotted – It’s going to be a blast. Come and say hi to us. Bring booze, bring weed and have a good time.
Interview by Graham Finney
