Corazine - Powered by FishComCollective

I was blasted away when I first heard this new Amerian death metal bands second album 'God Was Created'. A concept album which really has it all, you have to hear it... So I did set up an interview with guitar player John Chavez, which I caught a day, where he really wanted to tell everything, so please go ahead and read this killer interview with john, he will tell you all there is to know about Vehemence, a band you will hear a lot more about in the future!!!

Will you please start off by telling us what there is worth to know about yourself and why you play metal and how your metal adventure started?
My name is John Chavez, I was born in El Paso Texas U.S.A. July 27, 1982. I started playing guitar when I was 12 and explored the realms of metal at age 15. I started going to shows and learning about more metal bands off thank lists of albums of the bands I was first excited about. My metal collection and knowledge grew vast and I began thinking to learn how to play extreme music on my guitar. I am self-taught and I learned form many bootlegs of bands that I came across such as 'Cannibal Corpse Eatís Moscow Alive.' I learned how you needed good equipment and a good metal soul to perform this type of music live in a group. My first band that I joined was when I was 16 and the band was a Cynic-Meshuggah based band called Brides Of Christ. Guitarist Bjorn Dannov got me into the band by word of mouth and little did I know that I would be working with him in the future. After a guitar member from Vehemence left the band, I immediately joined in January of 2000 and left Brides because I saw the potential the band had to go farther with their style of music. I added my influence into Vehemence that consisted of underground black and death bands such as Embraced, Resurrection, A Canorous Quintet, Ill Disposed, Mutant, Theory In Practice, Decapitated, Symbyosis, Without Grief, and Deprecated. Deprecated was a project I wanted to join because of a style that I had in me in the summer of 2000, and since they didnít have a guitar player at the time. Working with the band from San Diego helped boost up my skills of technicality and brutality. Many songs were created but never recorded for Deprecated and we hope to release that at a later time under a different name because the line up wont be the same. I sometimes use my influences from the bands I have been in, in the Vehemence compositions. I play metal overall because it calms my frustrations that I have with certain things and helps me have something to hope for in the future of my guitar playing in extreme music.


Will you introduce the rest of the band?
The line up for Vehemence is: Nathan Gearhart-Vocalist and lyrics, Bjorn Dannov-Acoustic, Guitars & Leads, John Chavez-Samples, Guitars & Leads, Andy Schroeder-Drums, Mark Kozuback-Bassist & Screamis and Jason Keesecker-Keyboards and Piano

A history of the band will be cool too!
The Vehemence name was created by Nathan in 1995. Nathan and old guitarist Scott Wiegand wanted to form an atmospheric melodic death metal band in the vein of old Pyogenesis and Cathedral. Bjorn later joined and brought his influences of Gorefest and Carcass. Vehemence created several demos with a drum machine and shortly after found Andy and Mark from a punk band called Mistaken Identity. The music sounded like it was punk/death so they decided to recruit them into bringing their style in to Vehemence for metal purposes. The basic line up was complete and a demo in 1998 of 100 copies was created. The Thoughts From Which I Hide was Vehemenceís first self-released album which was paid for by Andyís father and limited to 1000 copies. I helped with worldwide promotion and graphic design shortly after the recording was completed in November 1999. Scott Wiegand quit the band and left the position open right after the recording. With me in the line up, Bjorn and I started writing songs together for a new album. It took about 2 years of composing to create the new album which is now called God Was Created. Anyways, Vehemence was in the self-promotion process until we decided to jump on a tour which ended up with us headlining by ourselves. Mark Kozuabckís father had the record label connection because he works with C.E.O. Brian Slagel of Metal Blade Records in the minor leagues of hockey. Metal Blade kept and ear out for good word of mouth and media for our band through out our first 15 date tour in the west coast of the U.S.A. We were offered a contract in the summer of 2001 and held on to it for 6 month layer negotiations. We finally had a real budget to make a professional studio album with in January of 2002. Before the real recording of GWC, we recorded a pre production demo in October 2001 for Metal Blade to see how it would turn out and in hopes to learn something about being in a studio. After our album was recorded within 4 months we asked an artist to work with us called Evil Dave to make a killer artwork package for the album. We have been on a full U.S.A. tour with Incantation, Impaled, Decapitated and Dead To Fall, after our release of God Was Created in July worldwide.

You have just released your second album 'God Was Created', how do you feel about it, are you satisfied with it, what makes it great?
We stand confident knowing the accomplishments we have made. We think it is a very innovative release and so do the reputable media all across the world. What makes the album great is all the people that were involved that made it sound possible. All of Vehemence produced the album which means each member was in the studio making sure every part was tight and account for. We recorded this album at The Saltmine Studios in Mesa, Arizona where Soulfly and Megadeth have recorded. Basic analog tracking occurred there with the help of Will Solaris and Mike Schomig. Then, we decided to mix the album at Trident Studios near San Francisco, California with Juan Urteaga and his assistant Mike Blanchard. Having a Death Metal vocalist from Vile helped in the studio as well, by adding some ideas. Mix down was a stressful process because all of the unique effects and notes can be brightened to perfection. The experience in both studios gave us ideas for upcoming albums we may have. The artwork for the entire album speaks for itself and we are proud to support such explicit lyrics and content. Being on one of the largest recording companies in the world

How has the reactions toward the album so far been?
There has been amazing responses towards God Was Created and has been making top 10 & 5 lists everywhere. It was good for us to tour shortly after the album because the album was still being promoted heavily at stores. The hype was defiantly up in certain large cities we played at because there were mobs after us for autographs. So we know some metal kids worship the music we play and we thank those that give interest in us. We have been getting responses like this 'Vehemence have recreated the same kind of sensation when I listened to Entombedís Left Hand Path 11 years ago... by Digital Metal. Another comment was 'The fact that these lyrics are well-written and exhibit both intelligence and a cohesive theme only to serve to make them more frightening to the mainstream America' by Metal Judgment. Look forward to a lot of press and media from Vehemence worldwide, just give the world media time to catch up!

How is 'God Is Created' compared to your self released album 'The Thoughts From Which I Hide'?
God Was Created cannot be compared to the recording of The Thoughts From Which I Hide because the overall budget difference we had. It takes a lot of time and money to create a layered masterpiece. Our first album sounds more studio basic and almost compared to a demo quality recording. To us, we consider The Thoughts album a demo and GWC our first professionally released label album. We still push The Thoughts album because we still play the songs live at times and some of the songs on the disc are fairly popular like ëWhore Cunt Die and I Take Your Life.' We have advanced in musicianship and the ways we present our CD packaging. You can expect more innovative releases as we push further through Metal Blade Records. Aside from how The Thoughts album sounds like, the lyrics of the album are more in the gore exploration lyrical style. Also, GWC is a concept album and has no connections with the first album.

Why did you choose to call the band Vehemence, and what is the Vehemence directed towards?
Nathan titled it because it is a word to describe the fury and aggression presented by our music. It also means to commit an act of forceful and violent hatred. We have been getting a lot of responses saying that Vehemence is an all time catchy name to have, and we respect that.

I can see in the booklet that the music is mainly written by you and Bjorn Dannov, where do you guys find the inspiration for Vehemenceís music. What influenceís you and what factors in the everyday life makes you write angry as hell music?
Bjorn has various influences from his past such as Gorefest, Testament, and Carcass. Now and days he is influenced by different styles of music, mostly in emo-mainstream. Bjorn still writes just as heavy as the era when death metal was becoming standardized with a little mix of his new influence. He is not an angry person and his writing mostly comes form the skills he has acquired over the years. The way I compose my music is when I am very bored and tired. I sometimes get fed up with the day and create some riffs that I hum to myself. I always try to add new guitar skills in my compositions that require great practice and study. I have a habit of promoting our band more than practicing my guitar and I must change this habit sooner or later. It is all for the better cause anyways. I have influences from a lot of Swedish black and death metal bands such as the bands I listed in the first question.

The lyrical side of the album is made by Nathan Gearhart, where did the inspiration come from to create such colorful and intelligent lyrics?
Nathan is inspired by horror books and movies. The music he listens to is stuff like Hypocrisy, King Diamond, Mercyful Fate, Twisted Sister, Jethro Tull. He really concentrated on making the lyrics as meaningful and depictive. Nathan reads a lot of books from Alastair Crawley to Steven King that involve twisted horror stories. In my book, intellectual is his middle name and you can see it within the lyrical structures he composes.

As I read the lyrics it starts off with a girl that fantasizes about Jesus, Jesus is obsessed with fucking her, so he does in a dream later on in a different song. Will you tell where you got the exact idea to make this great story?
All these lyrics in the 10 songs presented are influenced by Nathanís sick and twisted mind. Made For Her Jesus is the song you describe which starts off the album. The song was created in Nov 1999 (1st song created for GWC) and contained a lot of characters that Nathan can spawn off a whole story with.

Why are you blaming god for all the bad things in the story, what is your problem against christianity?
We blame God through out this whole album because God Was Created by human minds and is only a ghost to scare you. You do not have to believe in the Sunday fucking fairy tail to build your own kingdom of happiness. The rule and regulations of Christ have made humans kill for their Gods through times of war. We are not only against Christianity we dislike all religions that use their religion as a crutch to fall on when they do something that is morally wrong. You are your own savior and it takes a lot of understanding from a atheist point of view to understand this concept album. This album is our bible and we stand by its lyrical contents.

Does god create serial killers, have you studied the phenomenon a lot or how did you get inspired to make the connection?
God does create human monsters, religion is too confusing to understand and those with enough problems in their life tend to be misguided by what the lords book intends to say. The bible constructs evil, for example, even if unconsciously, within familiar religious coordinates such as the expression of 'you must do the lords work, in order to live in a paradise in the afterlife.' This conception has been often practiced over the century, where murder turns to a justifiable cleansing. All members in Vehemence feel the same way about these methods of explanation. We do not believe in heaven or hell, we are to be considered Atheist metal heads!

The album is a concept album, which is a hard thing to make, but you have done it astonishingly and the music follows the moods in the lyrical concept as well, how did you manage to make it work?
Nathan has a lot of experience with writing short stories and lyrics. It is something that comes easily once you have done it for a while. Practice makes perfect and there has been many changes with the titles and even the lyrics. Sometimes you have to back up and re-write a part because it doesnít make sense. We try to make our albums make sense for everyone to understand them, but it takes an intellectual mind to deal with another intellectual mind. The music speaks for itself and I suggest listeners to really take the time to read the lyrics, let your whispering turn to a loud angered voice when flowing with the lyrics.

Will you continuing writing concept albums or is it a onetime happening?
This is a onetime happening because we would like to make each and every album different. We do not want to go off on a 10-album spree of concepts like King Diamond does. Just wait and see what we come up with, it just might have a similarity to what was done in God Was Created.

The sounds on the album are very dark and sinister and I really like it, why did you choose that sound and donít you think it will scare a lot of potential fans away?
Usually the vocals are complained about, but we see these kind of discriminations in every genre of music. The guitars were designed to be heavy, dark, emotional and melodic. Saddened riffs I suppose, most bands that accomplish such riffs have the most emotional backing and heart in their music. We choose to write in whatever speed we choose to and if it is mid paced, that is fine with us. You just have to open your mind and understand what we are trying to do.

Your artwork is made by Evil Dave and is very gory, why did you choose the gory side?
We choose Evil Daveís gory talent because he is a friend of the band and we respect his efforts in creating such masterpieces of gory artwork. He drew these paintings within 4 days each and thought of them only by reading all the lyrics to the album. We didnít tell him what to draw because every artist does not work by command only by inspiration.

What do you like about Evil Daveís work, can you recommend other of his creations?
Evil Dave has worked with a band called Mortem before, but other than that his artwork on our album is a worldwide debut release. ìIf you can only see the original canvasís he drew them on.î He has worked with Jon Zig when he was younger and lived in Austin, TX. 'I suggest any band interested in getting some art, just email him!'

Your front cover is ruined by the hated PAEC warning, why is it back to haunt us and destroy great artwork and what is your attitude towards PMRC?
Our album is banned by SPV Germany because of it, and we hope our German fans can respect the type of artwork and purchase the album elsewhere or demand the disc. We have an parental advisory explicit content label on our front cover and we donít mind, it gives our album a sense of 'what horrid contents could be inside to the general media.' Please visit his website at http://evildave.brutaldeath.net we are trying to get him famous here!

How is it to witness a Vehemence live show?
To witness a Vehemence show, you will see that we include all the creative parts preformed from the albums. You will see that Nathanís voice is more coherent simply because of the gestures he makes. You will probably see my hair in a windmill state through out our fast double bass drum parts. You will probably see us drinking on stage, and not water. You will see that Mark is going bald and Bjorn doesnít look like he is into metal at all. You will probably see some new equipment because we are always buying new necessities. In the future you will probably see some God Was Created banners in front of our guitar cabinets. You will see that Nathan is a funny man on stage and knows how to work a crowd. You will see that Nathan explains what the song means before we perform it in a brief summary.

When will you come to Europe and destroy all the live venues and do you know if Denmark is a part of the tour?
I will make sure we play in the home of Illdisposed and Gorefest (as most of you know, Gorefest is from the Netherlands and not Denmark!!!, ed). Denmark looks like a pretty cool place to devastate some farm animals and to wear some wooden shoes. Just joking, but I am sure playing there would be an ode for us to perform our Gorefest cover of ìReality Is When You Dieî (go kill yourself... or learn some fucking geography!!!, ed).

When will we see new material from you? Some of us canít hardly wait?
We already have seven new songs and they sound explosive. They are unlike anything we have created before. We are anxious to release them so we play some of the songs live. Some song titles are ìKill For God, Darkness is Comfort, You Donít Have To Be Afraid Anymore, and We Are All Dying.

Will you tell the Danish metal hordes your 3 all time fave albums?

• Resurrection-Embalmed Existence on Nuclear Blast Red 1993
• Mutant -The Aeonic Majesty on Listenable Records 1999
• Illdisposed-Kokainnium on Diehard Records 2001

Thanks a ton for doing this interview, I hope it has been great to answer my questions! If we have forgot anything or if you just have anything to add, please feel free to do it now!
If anyone is interested in our godforsaken band, please feel free to email the band at vehemence@brutaldeath.net for a free 3 song pre production demo of God Was Created that comes along with a personalized newsletter. Please visit our band website at http://vehemence.brutaldeath.net and our label website at http://metalblade.com or http://metalblade.de . Our new album is sold directly through Metal Blade Germany. I would like to thank Nocturnal Horde for this pleasant interview.

Comments

There are no comments yet

Add a comment (click to open)

AUTHOR: Nocturnal DK