Das Interview mit der Thrash Metal Band Warsenal aus Kanada über ihr aktuelles Album Feast Your Eyes

(English Version)

Artist: Warsenal

Orgin: Montreal, Kanada

Genre: Thrash Metal, Speed Metal

Label: Svart Records

Link: https://www.facebook.com/pg/WarsenalOfficial/about/?ref=page_internal

Bandmember:

Vocals, Guitare – Mathieu Rondeau
Bass – Jeffrey Millaire
Drums – Vincent Caron

Time For Metal / Rene W.:

Hi guys,

Seven years ago, your first demo was released. Meanwhile much has happened, nevertheless I would like to take a step back. When did you get acquainted as musicians and decided to celebrate Thrash Metal/Speed Metal together?

Warsenal:

We formed Warsenal in 2011 and released our Demo in 2012. Before that we were, for a few years, doing covers from bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, my high school friend Francis Labine (our former bassist) and I.

Time For Metal / Rene W.:

Warsenal is a trio. From which bands did you draw your inspiration? And how do Canadians deal with Jeff Waters and his band Annihilator?

Warsenal:

We are influenced by a lot of musical style from Jazz to Blues, to Classical Music, to Hard Rock, etc. We don’t like to confine ourselves to a single genre of music, a single way of thinking, of composing. That being said, we, of course, are greatly influenced by Heavy Metal as well, mostly by crazy riffing bands like Megadeth, Destruction, Annihilator, Iron Maiden, Voivod, Coroner, to name a few.

As for Annihilator, it is a true Canadian pride. It’s probably the biggest Canadian metal band there is. I just feel they don’t get the recognition they deserve in their own country and the same thing goes with other bigger Thrash bands like Exciter, Razor, Voivod or Anvil.

Time For Metal / Rene W.:

In Europe, and especially in Germany, it is common that somewhere a concert is held every day of the year. I think the situation in North America is different. Montreal might also be quite busy with Rock and Metal shows, but what is the solidarity with the more sparsely populated regions?

Warsenal:

There are lot of gigs in Montreal, pretty much one everyday. On weekend days it’s pretty common to have at least 3 shows happening at the same time a few blocks away. So, it gets complicated to get everybody at the same place, at the same time.

When it gets to less populated regions, it’s usually a hit or miss. Whether the metal scene is pretty much dead there, or every metalheads get out and go to the show, since there are so few bands passing through and playing there every year.

Time For Metal / Rene W.:

Let’s not beat about the bush, main point is your new album Feast Your Eyes, which was released some days ago. How can we imagine a session in your rehearsal room? How precisely do you work on new material, and how important is the personal relation between you three?

Warsenal:

Francis (before he quit) and I we compose riffs on our own and then we share them with each other to figure out what is good enough to keep. Once I have all those riffs, I start to juggle with them, put them together, to build the songs. We then show it to Vincent who put drums on the composition. Sometimes we have to rearrange it a bit, because the drums give us a new perspective on the composition. As for the lyrics, most of the time, I have previously written some lyrics and once I feel like a certain song sounds like a certain feeling expressed in the music I arrange them to fit together, sometimes cutting some lines, adding some, rephrasing, etc. That’s pretty much how any Warsenal song is born.

I think it’s really important to have a good relationship. The chemistry of a band really matters on the quality of music, especially live, and most importantly, it’s really important if we don’t want to end up killing each other on the road haha.

Time For Metal / Rene W.:

Your style is Old School with distinctive attributes, wandering on the paths of the first Thrash Metal generation. How did you come up with the idea to dive deep into the early eighties and to put this authentic sound on your album?

Warsenal:

I don’t know, it just all came naturally. That’s what we were listening to 24/7 as kids, so I guess it just grew to be a part of us and we have a certain nostalgia for that type of authentic sound. As for the Warsenal sound, you know when you listen to a band and there are one or two crazy riffing songs and you go like : „Why aren’t all their songs like that?!“ Songs like: Megadeth – Poison Was The Cure or Rattlehead, Overkill – Wrecking Crew, Slayer – Final Command, Exdous – Strike of the Beast, Destruction – Bestial Invasion, for example. Well, I said to myself, what if we would take that formula of crazy-riffing-madness, but apply it to the scale of a band where all the songs would be crazier than the previous one? That’s how the Warsenal sound was born. It then went to : What if we were to take so many riffs where other bands would have made 3 or 4 songs with, but instead we just put them all into one song? And that’s what we did and still do. We weren’t trying to reinvent the wheel, but push it in a direction where very few have dared to go all the way before.

Time For Metal / Rene W.:

Much has happened since your first demo. As an artist you might perceive changes in a different way than the listener in front of the loud speaker. How did you change? Which experiences of the past few months left a footprint in your mindset?

Warsenal:

Listening back to our previous album, I wasn’t satisfied with how my voice sounded. I felt like it was too „weak“, so I worked on that and I’m happy with how it turned out on the new album.

Also on the first album, most of the songs were written when I was 16-17 years old, so we’ve grown more mature since then. The lyrics are better, more meaningful, also the songs themselves, on the first album it was all about playing fast and being aggressive, so all the songs pretty much started the same way, sounded kinda the same, so we did some nice intros on the new album, tried to make the songs as different as possible, while keeping the Warsenal way of doing things. It was pretty much a process of listening to the people constructive comments and being our own critics and see where things could be improved.

Time For Metal / Rene W.:

Would you please be so kind to explain a little bit more the songs of your new album Feast Your Eyes, to bring your point of view a little bit closer to potential new listeners?

Warsenal:

Sure. It’s important to know beforehand, that most of the songs are metaphorical and have more than one meaning, so I’m gonna give you the big picture and it will be up to you and the listeners to dig out your own meaning.

Forever Lost:
The song is a about a shadow who’s tired of following its owner and decides to kill him to break free, dooming itself in the process.

I Am The Blade:
It’s about the fact that humans are like blades, they can do the greatest good or they can do the worst evil, it just depends into whose hands they are.

Lords of Rifftown:
This one is about encouraging people to stop praising the older bands that haven’t put out anything meaningful in years and to start encouraging the younger bands who are doing an amazing job at keeping Metal alive.

Insatiable Hunger:
It pretty much describes how I’m never satisfied with anything. No matter how good things are, I’m never able to take the time to appreciate it. I’m always looking for the next big thing.

Doomed From Birth:
This song is about genetical diseases and how you can’t escape from your parents conditions and ultimately you pass it along to your children.

You Better Run:
That one is more like an horror movie scenario. It’s about someone who kidnaps people to put them on a hook on his wall, puncturing through their spine, so they become paralyzed and they can only keep moving their head and talk/scream/cry. The kidnapper keeps them alive and pretty much collects living head on rotting bodies. If you read the lyrics it’s pretty straightforward.

Burning Ships:
It’s about the military strategy, when invading a land and you’re outnumbered and almost sure to lose, to burn your ships. This way you fight harder because you can’t retreat, you have only one option left: win.
The whole thing applies to following your dreams and not having a plan B. If you have no plan B, you’ll do everything in your power to succeed with your plan A, thus having more chances to achieve your ultimate goal.

Feast Your Eyes:
It’s about entertaining people and how they perceive it. As stated in the lyrics of the song, people tend to complain about all the negative stuff they see in the medias, but at the same time, they can’t turn away, happiness gets boring quickly. Seeing that someone suffers more than you in the world, makes you feel better about your miserable life. So you see, there’s this atrocity, but you can’t look away, it’s human nature.

Crystal Whip:
This last song is about long term repercussions. How the crystal whip, when it strikes you, breaks and barely hurt, but the sharpened pieces that will soon be raining on you and shred your skin will be even more painful, especially when you’re not expecting it anymore.

Time For Metal / Rene W.:

I hope you don’t mind me describing the artwork as blunt. Quite simple with a distinctive feature and the typical 80 years‘ band logo it doesn’t attract on first sight. Different than other bands you don’t bet on a piercing design but use a heavy subject.

Warsenal:

Well, I would say it’s subjective, because we had many people coming to us and saying that they dig the artwork and that it’s actually how they discovered us. They gave us a listen because they loved it. That being said, it’s not just free violence done on a woman. We’ve actually been called misogynistic by some critics, because of it. That’s absolutely absurd. You gotta be careful before judging a piece of art, without knowing it’s meaning. Indeed, there’s more than meets the eye here. First, being a movie buff, the artwork is a nod to the surrealist short film „Un Chien Andalou“, by Bruñuel and Dalí. And in the movie it’s a WOMAN who gets her eyes cut out by a man. So, to those who complain about the fact that it’s a woman who’s the victim, please give me a break.

The artwork has multiple meanings. The aggressor is cutting out the girl’s eyes with a splinter of glass and there’s the title Feast Your Eyes, which is intended as a pun. Also, as you already know, Feast Your Eyes is the title of the 8th song on the album and I’ve explained the meaning earlier. It works hand in hand with our artwork. That’s why it is very violent, you shiver, but you can’t turn away. And there’s the aggressor. He represents us, the artists. As you can see there is blood coming out of his hand, he’s cutting himself with the glass splinter while performing his deed. In order to entertain people, one must hurt/sacrifice himself or parts of himself.

Time For Metal / Rene W.:

How did you spend the release day of Feast Your Eyes? Some bands lock themselves in the rehearsal room, studying the charts of the online dealers. Others are having a release party. What did you do?

Warsenal:

We organized a party with a couple of close friends to celebrate the release. Let’s just say that some alcoholic beverages were included and things went pretty wild as I don’t remember some parts of the night and I woke up the next morning with a monstrous headache and some bruises on my face haha.

Time For Metal / Rene W.:

One question our readers are always interested in: Will you play some shows in Germany? Do you plan a small tour or some festival shows?

Warsenal:

We definitely want to come play in 2020. It has always been a dream of mine since I was a kid. We have nothing set in stone yet, but we’re working very hard on that.

Time For Metal / Rene W.:

Last word traditionally belongs to you. I wish you all the best for the future, whilst having lots of fun with your new album Feast Your Eyes.

Warsenal:

Thank you very much and let’s hope everyone have as much fun listening to the album as we had writing, recording and playing it!