metalscionav.com zine Vol. 1 Integrity Trap Them Magrudergrind Profound Lore Ceremony Black Breath SCION A/V SCHEDULE J a n u a r y JAn. 8th MetAL MAtinee, CHiCAgo trap them, Black Breath and Mammoth grinder JAn. 9th MetAL MAtinee, Los AngeLes trap them, Black Breath and Mammoth grinder FEB r u a r y sCion A/V Primate, Draw Back a stump eP M a r CH MAR. 5th sCion RoCk Fest 2011 Pomona, California C U r r EN t L y A VAILA b LE rsvp sCionAV.CoM scion A/V: Magrudergrind, Crusher eP MusiC ViDeos to wAtCH inCLuDfreee download kyLesA MuniCiPAL wAste MeLVins “tired Climb” “wolves of Chernobyl” “electric Flower” check it out SCION PROJECT MANAGER: Jeri Yoshizu, Sciontist For additional information on Scion, email, write or call. EDITOR: Eric Ducker SCION CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE CREATIVE DIRECTION: Scion 19001 S. Western Avenue Mail Stop WC12 Question: How do you choose the artists at scion Rock Fest? ART DIRECTOR: Ryan Di Donato Torrance, CA 90501 PRODUCTIONStaff DIRECTOR: Anton Schlesinger Phone:Contact 866.70.SCION AnsweR: each year at scion Rock Fest, the goal has been to feature the greatest bands in the key areas CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: J. Bennett Fax: 310.381.5932 of underground metal: death metal, black metal,Ask thrash, Scion grindcore and doom. the intention is to present an exciting combination of absolute legends alongside younger bands who breathe new power into this music and ASSISTANT EDITOR: Maud Deitch Email: Email us through the contact page carry it into new directions. we also put a special spotlight on artists who have been doing incredible work for GRAPHIC DESIGNERS: Cameron Charles, Kate Merritt located on scion.com many years, who are possibly unknown to some and who we feel do not receive the recognition they deserve. Hours: M-F 6am-5pm PST this year in particular we are placing a greater focus on hardcore-leaning metal bands, as a counterpart to the Online Chat: M-F, 6am-6pm PST PHOTOGRAPHER: Greg Bojorquez scion Metal Matinees we’ve been doing every month in Los Angeles. All in all, through scion’s many metal initiatives, we are proud to work with about 150 bands a year, and we always have slots available for bands we Scion Metal Zine is published by malbon Brothers Farms. For more information about mBF, contact [email protected] do multiple projects with—great artists and great people we love to work with. —Adam shore, booker for scion Rock Fest ContributorsCompany references, advertisements and/or websites listed in this publication are not affiliated with Scion, unless otherwise noted through disclosure. Scion does not warrant these companies and is not liable for their preformances or the content on their advertisements and/or websites. If you have a question, email us through the Contact page on scionav.com © 2010 Scion, a marque of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., Inc. All rights reserved. Scion and the Scion logo are trademarks of Toyota Motor Corporation. 00430-ZIN01-MT Photography by greg Bojorquez trap them is a band whose sound seesaws from grind to crust-punk to black-eyed hardcore. But perhaps what really sets trap them apart is vocalist Ryan Mckenney’s epic lyrical concept, a multi-faceted story about a small town that began on the band’s 2007 full-length debut, sleepwell Deconstructor, and has continued through every song on their five subsequent releases, including their as-yet-unnamed album due out in March. Mckenney recently took a break from cleaning out trap them’s tour van in Lubbock, texas, to explain. Before we did the first record,i had an idea that was kind of similar to what i ended up doing on all our releases. i thought about making every song an extension of one person who grew up and left a small-town and basically turned into a complete abomination of every human spirit, who did everything he could do to ruin any faith in humanity. But that seemed too small and condensed for what i felt i could work with over the time of the band’s career. so i spread it out and theorized an entire town of desolate, depressed people, and what would happen if something snapped in every person all in one day—who would stay there, who would leave and what would happen to them. i decided to tell those stories secondhand, firsthand, from every aspect of small town life. i grew up in Dover, new Hampshire, so i have a pretty firm grasp on the two sides of the story, of feeling trapped in a small town and being this close to being like, F*** it. i’m gonna be a townie. i’m gonna work at the gas station and listen to whatever comes on the radio and just be happy with day to day life. or being like, i wanna get outta here. And i chose to get outta there. so what clicked in my head about doing something like this storyline is that i definitely know what it’s like to question yourself, to decide whether you’re going to do something you don’t wanna do for the rest of your life or if you’re gonna do something about it. the songs about the people who left the town are about whether they left for negative or positive reasons, and what they ended up doing. the stories about the people who stayed in the town end up being about whether they appreciate what they do there or whether they’re so miserable about being trapped that it boils up and over and they want to basically destroy the place that destroyed them. i really do feel like it’s a novelistic approach. i take references and phrases from every song and incorporate them into new songs, and i graduate the story into each new release by making sure i’m referencing a lot of things from the previous one. i never really write a whole chunk of the story at once, though. Like with many people who write, a certain idea or phrase will pop into my head and i’ll have to run to get a piece of paper and get it down as quick as i can. it might just be a line or two, but i’ll build on it afterwards. i realized on the first two records whati could do with this. i wrote those over maybe two months. nowadays, i usually have the lyrics to a record done about a year before any music is written. i give them to [guitarist] Brian [izzi] so he can get a feel for how he can work with that musically. once the music is done, i might have to rework them a little bit to fit the music, but at this point,i ’ve probably written enough for the next two full-lengths. when i started writing this stuff, i really didn’t think much of it. Coming from a punk and hardcore background, you notice that a lot of kids sing along at shows, but i don’t think the words necessarily sink in with them. But then kids started coming up to the merch table to ask me questions about the lyrics and where the story was going. i really didn’t think that was something that would get any attention. the major thing for me was that i was so impressed with Brian’s songwriting ability that i felt it would be an insult to him if i were to go through the motions and write words that weren’t given the time and respect that he gives to the music. As told to J. Bennett wecraftindarkness.com to get information about trap them’s January shows in Los Angeles and Chicago as part of the scion A/V Metal Matinee series, visit scionav.com/metal trap them in Columbus, ohio I n T r OD u CI n G CE r EMON y STORY : J. BENNETT PHOTOGRAPHY: GREG BOJORquEz SCION Listening to Ceremony’s third and latest album, Rohnert Park, is like taking a slingshot ride back to the early ’80s, the era when hardcore was first being forged ROCK FEST by Black Flag, Minor Threat and the Circle Jerks. Taking its name from the Northern California town where the band is from, the album is a white hot blast of attitude that follows hardcore’s long suburban tradition. It’s also arguably Ceremony’s mellowest album to date. “On the first couple of records that we did, the music and lyrics were a little bit more abrasive than they are now,” vocalist Ross Farrar explains. “When we SATURDAY, MARCH 5, 2011 first started playing shows, we got a rep as a fast, aggressive band, and more people started coming to the shows. It’s gotten a little less abrasive, maybe, but people still POMONA, CA go crazy—stage-diving, jumping off bars, throwing chairs.” “It’s like recess for people in their early twenties,” adds bassist and sometimes- guitarist Ryan Mattos. Rohnert Park is clearly the sound of a band in transition. While 2006’s Violence Violence and 2008’s Still Nothing Moves You bristle with youthful anger, Rohnert Park reveals an subtler, more nuanced hardcore outfit. “Our goals for this band are completely different than when we started,” explains guitarist Anthony Anzaldo. “I’m FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT more concerned with what I think is great music rather than just writing the fastest 20-second song I can come up with and losing my mind onstage as hard as I can.” WWW.SCION.COM/ROCK As Farrar points out, it’s just a matter of expanding one’s horizons.