Meshuggah Yob from Ashes Rise Terror Wold Witch
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Metal Zine Vol. 8 MESHUGGAH YOB FROM ASHES RISE TERROR WOLD WITCH MOUNTAIN STAFF Scion Project Manager: Jeri Yoshizu, Sciontist Editor: Eric Ducker Creative Direction: Scion Art Direction: BON Contributing Editor: J. Bennett Graphic Designer: Jamie Story CONTRIBUTORS Writer: Fred Pessaro Photographers: Bliss, Gregory Bojorquez, Katie Egger, Nolan Wiley CONTACT For additional information on Scion, email, write or call. Scion Customer Experience 19001 S. Western Avenue Mail Stop WC12 Torrance, CA 90501 Phone: 866.70.SCION Fax: 310.381.5932 Email: Email us through the Contact page located on scion.com Hours: M-F, 6am-5pm PST Online Chat: M-F, 6am-6pm PST Scion Metal Zine is published by BON. For more information about BON, contact: [email protected] Company 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 performances or the content on their advertisements and/or websites. © 2012 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-ZIN08-MT Cover: From Ashes Rise photographed by Gregory Bojorquez Background: Psychic TV at Scion Rock Fest photographed by Bliss SCION A/V SCHEDULE AUGUST August 18 Scion Label Showcase: Bridge 9, featuring H2O, Verse, Soul Control, and Expire at the Glasshouse, Pomona, California August 28 Scion A/V Presents: Pallbearer (10-inch and digital release) SEPTEMBER September 11 Scion A/V Presents: Saint Vitus — Live from Scion Rock Fest (vinyl and digital release) September 13 Scion A/V Presents: Moshpit Tragedy Label Showcase (live recording) September 15 Scion Label Showcase: Metal Blade Records, featuring 6 Feet Under, Cattle Decapitation, Pilgrim, Gypsy Hawk, and Battlecross at the Glasshouse, Pomona, California September 25 Scion A/V Presents: Revocation EP (digital release) OCTOBER October 9 Scion A/V Presents: Bridge 9 Label Showcase (live recording) October 13 Scion Label Showcase: Season of Mist, featuring the Casualties, Saint Vitus, Cynic, and A Life Once Lost at the Glasshouse, Pomona, California NOVEMBER November 10 Scion Label Showcase, featured label and acts TBA, at the Glasshouse, Pomona, California November 13 Scion A/V Presents: Metal Blade Records Label Showcase (live recording) Story: Fred Pessaro Photography: Katie Egger If it weren’t for some well-placed vulgarities, you might mistake Terror vocalist Scott Vogel for a preacher, leading the masses on a crusade towards positivity through a succession of vicious mosh-beatdowns, violent crowd surfers, and group sing- alongs. But Vogel is also a ringmaster, shepherding these “wild animals” through hardcore music and peppering his onstage banter with notes about unity, staying true to yourself, and, perhaps most shockingly, delivering it with a dose of humor. To say that Scott Vogel is charismatic is an understatement. Vogel has had some time to develop that stage presence. His roots lie in the fertile Buffalo, New York scene of the early 1990s that also birthed hardcore heavyweights Snapcase. Vogel’s rise with Slugfest led to stints fronting Despair and Buried Alive, and eventually matched him with drummer Nick Jett, his longtime Terror bandmate and the only other constant in their Los Angeles hardcore crew. A string of 7-inches with respected hardcore labels lead to the their breakthrough full length, One With the Underdogs. It was all uphill from there: cycles of relentless touring eventually resulted in another two full lengths before a move to the mostly metal-leaning label Century Media. The madness never stopped, though; more touring and recording persisted, giving way to 2008’s The Damned, The Shamed and 2010’s Keepers of the Faith. The band is planning its next release, Live By The Code, for Reaper Records later this year. You’d think that being as entrenched in the hardcore scene for as long as Terror has been might make bandmembers jaded. Not so for these lifers, according to drummer Nick Jett, who readily admits that the state of the music today is as crucial to their sound as the bands of yesteryear. “I definitely think that young hardcore bands influence us,” he says. “That’s what gives us motivation to play our style of hardcore music today—seeing young, fresh kids’ take on it.” It’s these constant changes and “knowing their roots” (as Scott Vogel’s tattoo says) that helps keep Terror relevant in a largely fast-paced and oversaturated genre like hardcore. Yet the most central component to the Terror sound is the message. The band’s unrelenting work ethic is strictly old school, and their songs teach a no-nonsense code of tolerance, freedom, and positivity while channeling those ideas through an outwardly negativity-fueled genre. It’s working, but more importantly, it gets the kids stage diving. terrorlahc.com Watch performances from Terror at Scion Rock Fest at scionav.com/rock Story: J. Bennett Photography: Gregory Bojorquez ROYAL THUNDERStory: J. Bennett Photography: Gregory Bojorquez The name was a mistake. When guitarist Josh Weaver started a band with his brother Ryan and his best friend Jason Kelly, Kelly already had a moniker in mind. “Jason suggested that we call the band Royal Thunder, after a tour that Bob Dylan had done,” Weaver explains. “We found out not long afterwards that Dylan’s tour was actually called Rolling Thunder. But we were happy with the name, so we stuck with it.” The newly minted trio played a handful of shows as an instrumental outfit around their hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. Between gigs, they’d practice at Weaver’s house, where he lives with his wife, Mlny Parsonz. “When they’d practice, I’d hang out in the other room and wait ’til it was over,” she explains. “The whole time, I’d sing melodies out loud, and they thought it sounded pretty good.” Parsonz turned out to be Royal Thunder’s missing ingredient. She joined the band on bass and vocals in 2007 and they released a self-titled EP in 2009. A satisfying collusion of dark Sabbathian blues and distinct Southern overtones, Royal Thunder set the stage for the band’s 2012 masterpiece, CVI. By then, Kelly and Ryan Weaver had left the band and were replaced by drummer Lee Smith and guitarist Josh Coleman. “It’s the Roman numerals for 106,” Weaver says of the album’s title. “It’s a number we’ve seen so much in our lives. Like today, we took a shuttle from the airport, and it cost $106. Our original drummer was born on January 6, which is 1/06. The number has been following me since I was a teenager, when I found $106 on the ground at a stoplight. It isn’t good or bad, it’s just always there. So it felt right to call the album that.” As for having a husband and wife in the same band, Parsonz says she and Weaver always check their domestic life at the door. “What we have outside the band is sacred to us, but we don’t intertwine the two—ever,” she explains. “A lot of people actually think we’re brother and sister.” facebook.com/royalthundermusic Download live tracks from Royal Thunder’s performance at the Scion Label Showcase: Relapse Records at scionav.com/relapserecords As told to Eric Ducker With six years in the game and a new self-titled album on Metal Blade Records, Whitechapel is an established live draw in the metal community. In fact, when this deathcore crew first set foot in Southern California they were able to pull 300 people to their show just because of strong word of mouth and what people were writing about them on the internet. And though the band now regularly tours the entire country, we spoke with guitarist Alexander Wade about playing in the band’s hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee. Knoxville, Tennessee is where we started out. It’s always cool to play hometown shows and have your friends come out and your family come out. They can see how we’ve progressed. They were the ones who were there when we were playing rec centers and gyms and benefit shows. Now we’ve grown into a career-level band. We’ve gone from using my Jeep Cherokee to pull the trailer to touring in tour buses. The venue in Knoxville we play is called the Valarium and it’s really awesome It’s one of my favorite places to play. The PA is killer and everything about it is really nice. Usually when we play there we plan for it to be on a headlining tour, so we’ll either start or end it there. There used to be more DIY things going on in Knoxville. There was a coffee shop, Old City Java, where some of my early bands played. They weren’t even supposed to have shows, it was like a 60-person capacity space, but they would pack 200 people in there and the cops would always show up. A lot of that kind of stuff doesn’t go on any more [in Knoxville]. When we were up-and-coming, there were a lot more people doing DIY shows, renting out VFW halls, but as we grew older, the younger generation didn’t really catch on to that. Nobody in Knoxville does anything else like that any more. Watch a video for “I, Dementia” by Whitechapel, part of the Scion A/V Video Series, at scionav.com/media Story: Eric Ducker Photography: Nolan Wiley Witch Mountain has been together since 1997, back when Portland’s metal scene was basically nonexistent.