Interview + MP3- Early Graves

Posted June 24 by sarah.kitteringham

Decibel has long been anticipating Early Graves’ second full-length, Goner, as we awarded a glowing review of their 2008 debut, We: The Guillotine. Since its release last week, the album has been forcing yours truly to contort appendages in a rather hideous fashion, so as to grind alongside the convergence of ragged growls, shrill feedback that warps into malicious guitar and explosive snare/tom assaults. To hear more about the album, Decibel got on the phone with guitarist Chris Brock and decided to ask no questions about Steve Austin’s gun-toting habits. Verbal diarrhea from both parties ensued, from which these responses were culled. After our exchange, we were gifted an exclusive MP3 of album closer “Harm.” Be prepared for hair to sprout from your chest insidiously.

Your profile on Metal Blade refers to several personal issues band members were having before the recording of Goner, and the track listing points to personal trauma. How do you think that translated in the songs?

A lot of the problems that that was relating to was Makh (Daniels), our singer, who was going through a lot of stuff and drinking a lot. The way that all of us put our “problems” is by channeling it into heavy music; everybody’s got problems, you know?

That’s fair, but the album itself is considerably more pissed-off than your previous disc.

I definitely think that both lyrically and musically, this album is a lot more pissed-off. Instead of it just being senseless anger, I think that musically and lyrically it’s a lot more focused on, lyrically, the self; and musically it is super focused and sharp.

The recording properly captured your vitriolic sound.  

We recorded analog and kind of messy-sounding, and it was muddy because that is the way our amps sound, and the drums, too. It’s not like we could go back and fix a bunch of stuff. We recorded the 10 songs we had and they sound the way they sound, you know? We didn’t spend a whole lot of time worrying about what it was going to sound like.

Why did you decide to record with Tim Green of the Fucking Champs?

We recorded our last record with Steve [Austin, Today Is the Day] and it was fun, it was great, but it was in Nashville and this time we wanted to stay close to home. That was definitely the shitty part about going away—you don’t have the comfort of being at home when you’re recording. It is nice to go home and sleep in your own bed and do all that shit. That was my reason for staying local, but we chose Tim out of everybody around here because he was great with recording to tape and we all love the Fucking Champs, and he has recorded a ton of legendary bands. It was a fairly risky choice to go to somebody that hasn’t necessarily done a ton of metal, but he knows heavy music and he is a good dude. He has Slayer stickers everywhere, so it kind of made sense when we toured the studio. [Laughs]

Do you think he captured you any differently than Steve Austin did?

I think the recording for this album suits the songs better than the last album did. I think the production matches the raw, aggressive sound that the songs have, and it captures the filthiness of the vocals and the lyrical content. I wouldn’t say one is better than the other, but I personally prefer now the way that Goner sounds to We: The Guillotine—but that is because the songs are much better on this record, too, you know?

Indeed.
 

"Harm" by Early Graves

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