All Shall Perish interview

That tour was the shit; seriously it was one of the best times I have ever had on tour. The reactions have been unreal this past year! We wanted to bring bands on that tour that we really liked and the response to the whole package was nuts. As far as the reaction for us over the last year across the world...well, we didn't really know what to expect when we put out "Awaken the Dreamers." With a bit of a diverse record on our hands, in a scene that is constantly changing direction, I am still surprised how fucking awesome the response has been.

Never being a 'hype' band here in the states has made us tour all over the world a lot more than the average band and gave us a really objective view of the states. The American scene is just a lot more trendy and fast-paced than the rest of the world; waves of bands become popular overnight and then in a few years they are gone. Caliban is a great example of the European metal scene and the paradox of the States. I've been listening to that band since 2001, they have been around for 10-plus years, they are a major headlining act in Europe, they have been coming to the states since '02 and when they played that year's Hellfest, kids were stoked as fuck. Fast forward to '09 and four US tours later and they are playing second on our tour...why? Well I'm sure haters have their opinion and fans have theirs as well but anyway you look at it the States are cutthroat and a bit fickle. I say in the States, you're always one record away from blowing up or falling off. Hell, look at Underoath! They were kinda small for three records or so and then all of the sudden: new singer, new songs: GOLD record! It's the only American dream left these days. Pantera even put out a few records before they switched up their sound, dropped "Cowboys From Hell" and just exploded.

I couldn't imagine being a Euro band and coming over to the States. The States are much harder to tour for mostly all reasons, other than 24 hour Walmarts. One of the biggest differences is that most European fans stick with you whether you are foreign or not. Touring over there, you really see the steps you take as a band pay off, whereas in the States you can be on top of the world one moment and yesterday's news the next. Also the conditions of touring are completely different. The US is typically vans, tight budgets, no catering, no showers at venues, and promoters who, a lot of the time, care more about how many paid than how shitty their sound system is or if their bands are being loaded out into the rain. Europe is the total opposite, especially for metal, which is just taken a lot more seriously out there. You have cheap double-decker buses that can house three bands, showers at 90% of all venues, and holy shit – the catering, even at the smallest shows, will be exactly what you request. Sound systems, sound guys, promoter treatment, and venues are just typically better over there. The US is far more convenient, though, in terms of commerce, and it's home, so I love it. And even though it's better to tour out there, I would never live in Europe.

A band from Germany called Shake The Pagoda Tree really blew us away when they opened for us. Kids are super talented these days and we may not end up liking a ton of bands, but we consistently see skills that impress the shit out of us from opening acts all over the world; the bar would appear to be ever-rising.

A culmination of the last seven years for sure. We have been around for a little bit now and we have a fan base that has stuck with us through the rollercoaster trends of the US market. Nuclear Blast is also one of the best labels around; they really believe in their bands and that reflects in their marketing.

We were very stoked, even though we found out almost 1,000 digital sales didn't get counted in the first week's finals, but either way it was a solid release and to be in a metal band and chart on Billboard simply rules! Yeah, it may be due to the decline in major record sales over the last 10 years but it is also a testament to the underground's commitment to supporting their scene even in an age of easy downloading. Our record leaked three full weeks beforehand!

No care ever. We always write whatever we want, and each record has reflected that their respective diversity. One thing I am very grateful for is the ever-broadening minds of today's metal fans, especially the youngins. I always enjoy when bands branch out – for better or worse – and only a few bands can get away with writing the same record for 20 years. Let's face it, singing IS metal: Priest, Maiden, Slayer, Pantera, Metallica – the greats have all sang to varying degrees and I think only tech-metal diehards or grindcore purists think it should never be done in metal. From Opeth to Lamb of God, melodic vocals, to some degree, gives the music a little more depth. Don't get me wrong, there are a myriad of bands that only scream that I love, we just didn't want to limit ourselves on our third record in any way. In fact, we wanted to take our music to the extremes of our influences and melodic vocals were part of that. The shred was...well, a bit over done on the last record for sure; we had a very shredtastic voice in the band at the time, but now we have Jrich aka Jason Richardson who is an unbelievable shredmaster but a little bit more choosey in his load-blowing moments. The funny thing is, I don't even know how much singing will really be on the next record since everything we have been writing thus far has been a lot heavier than the last one, but again, we aren't going to let whatever the 'safe' thing to do would be dictate the sound of our record.

Kill the aunt, burn the tree, smoke some trees, drink a Pepsi while rocking the hat suicidal style flipped up with some upside-down crosses drawn underneath.

The new Mario, Modern Warfare 2, Ducati 1098s, two chicks at the same time, a case of Blue Moon and a bag of Blue Dream.

Animals as Leaders, Project Pat, Despised Icon, Steel Panther, Opeth.

We always wore our guilty pleasures on our sleeves in any interview we have ever done. From hip hop to indie and pop, to death metal, we listen to a lot of different shit on the regular. But for some fodder for the "faggot" comments, let's see.... Panic, Paramore, The Smiths, AFI, Taking Back Sunday and Deathcab [For Cutie] have all been enjoyed in the van. As far as the Deftones phenomenon, I can't explain it. That band crosses so many musical boundaries it's unreal...just a unique band that transcended the trends of their time and became an accepted band in so many scenes that it can be weird to most people if you don't like them.

Do you, in fact, not care ever that Emmure is not on this faggoty flip-needing interview?

What are your top five favorite Lambgoat comments? Or: How does it feel to own the site where news of a person's death spawns the comment "Awesome news, shitty band"? As a side note, our personal favorite ASP comment on Lambgoat was "put yourselves through your 'shit filter' and BREAK UP!" [Laughs] Still gets me every time.

We are balls deep in the writing for our new record, which is scheduled for a summer 2010 release. We are also fresh off a sick ass Ibanez endorsement and will be switching to eight-fucking-string guitars on the new one, so be prepared for some low-ass fucking mad heavy groove; this is gonna be the fun one!