American deathcore band All Shall Perish have returned to our shores, kicking off a tour yesterday with Sydney locals Resist The Thought. It is All Shall Perish’s first trip to Australian since their 2007 Oz tour was tragically marred by a fatal motoring accident. The wreck, involving All Shall Perish’s support act, The Red Shore, a metal band from Geelong, claimed the lives of The Red Shore vocalist Damien Morris and the band’s driver and merch man, Andy Milner.
As Tone Deaf found a few weeks ago when speaking with All Shall Perish rhythm guitarist Ben Orum the tragedy seems to have strengthened the Oakland, California, band’s relationship with Australia.
Are you excited to be coming back to Australia?
I cannot fucking wait to come back to Australia. I love it over there; I love everything about that whole place. It’s a great place. The people, there is very awesome scene. It’s just a pleasure to be there. Every time we’re there we are always greeted with open arms. It’s an amazing experience.
Last time you were over here did you get to see many of the sights?
The only time we were over there we got to go see some sights. But as you know The Red Shore got into that horrible accident on our tour. That kind of took over. It was awful.
Overall what is the worst part about touring?
That’s a weird question. The worst part is thinking you will come home with a little bit of money and not coming home with any money. Slaving away to pay your bills for the next two months, that’s probably the worst part.
I do have a funny one, though. Before I was in All Shall Perish I played in a band called Antagony. We were a grindcore band from the bay area. We wear touring in a little truck, we didn’t even have drum set. We just feel asleep, we just pulled over, we went camping on the side of the road and we woke up to, “Police! Come out of your tents!”
The police were there, we slept in the cemetery unknowingly, and we were surrounded by grave stones and had no clue. Luckily we got out of it, we told them we were from California and that we are stupid, so they let us go.
What has been your favourite gig to play?
Probably the recent Mayhem fest in the US that was probably the best thing we have ever done. We got to play with Megadeth every night and a lot of other cool bands, Unearth, Red Fang, Suicide Silence. It was a really awesome experience.
If you could create your own festival line-up, who would you pick?
Can it be an old band that’s not around anymore?
You can pick anyone past or present?
If it can be anyone I would have it be the version of Metallica back when they put out ride the lighting era, would be headlining. Everything after that would be forgotten, pretty much. After that I would get various trash bands, Testament, Exodus, Anthrax. I would get all those awesome bands together; throw Pantera on there, why not.
What is your favourite song of the new album This Is Where It Ends?
My favourite song on the cd is probably “In This Life of Pain”. When it comes to my favourite song to play live it’s probably “Royalty Into Exile”. Which we just did a new video for online, you can see it on our Facebook.
Do you prefer to be on the road or in the studio?
I love being on the road, but now I have children it’s a lot more difficult. I have two kids. I cherish my time at home and I cherish my life on the road because it’s my chance to live the life that everyone dreams of living, just playing shows and having a good time.
When did you first pick up a guitar?
I was 16. My mum’s boyfriend at the time was a bass player. He saw an interest so he brought me my first guitar. I started playing like Green Day songs. Nirvana, I was big on Nirvana when I was in high school, back in the 90s. I started with that then I moved on to Cannibal Corpse style guitar and just went from there.
When you were growing up where did you get your inspiration?
Pretty much any 90s death metal band, back when I was growing up. I pretty much brought every death metal CD that was possibly ever made. I had, I still have it, the biggest CD collection. So yeah that was a huge influence on me growing up.
What was the first album that you ever purchased?
The first CD I ever purchased was Gwar, Slumdog Of The Universe. That was the first metal CD. The first CD I ever brought was MC Hammer.
If you weren’t a touring musician what would you be doing?
When I’m home I screen print, so I make t-shirts for bands. The name of the website is weneedmerch.com so that’s kind of what I would be doing more if I wasn’t in the band full time.
Do you have any advice for people out there wanting to start a band?
Now days it’s a lot different to how it was when All Shall Perish started. I would recommend immediately getting your music online, possibly not even considering getting a record label just putting the music up yourself. Work hard if you really want it; it will happen. If you don’t really want it, it won’t happen. That’s my advice.
What is your favourite band at the moment and why?
Favourite band, I have been listening to a lot of Ghosts because they are sweet.
For those out there who haven’t got the new album This Is Where It Ends yet, what can they expect?
The new CD has killer production. It has some really tasty solos and melodies that I think the last CD lacked. Not that the last CD had anything wrong with it but we kind of went in a heavier direction with this CD. There is a lot of melody; a lot of crushing riffs, the lyrics are very easy to follow for people who might not be into this style of music. We went out of our way to make sure it was very easy to understand.
Why do you think people should go check out your shows?
Because we’re a band that’s real, we don’t have a fake attitude; we don’t bring any fakeness to our show. We are real dudes playing real music, so if you are into real music then you will be into our show.
Have an awesome time in Australia and have a great tour. Hopefully this time nothing bad happens.
Oh yeah it will go smooth, we are a lot older and wiser. Whoever is on tour with us we will give them the same speech that we gave The Red Shore the day before it happened. “If you are tired, do not drive please pull over, don’t be idiots pull over if you are asleep because that will happen.” They just need to follow that rule.
A lot of people need to realise that they aren’t invincible especially with the bands in Australia. I have a lot of friends that tour in bands and instead of stopping or anything they still keep going and going. Even after this accident they still haven’t learnt.
It’s because the fans treat you like you are on a pedestal and you feel kind of god like because people are into you. You think you are immortal, you know. A lot of the kids that I run into that open for us they have that attitude. They need to understand that life is very, very delicate and they should be careful out there.
– Marissa Hanson
This Is Where It Ends is out now on Nuclear Blast/Riot Act.
Sun 27 Nov – The Globe, Brisbane AA
Sun 27 Nov – “Pigapolooza: Hard & Heavy Festival” @ The Tempo Hotel, Bris 18+
Mon 28 Nov – YMCA HQ, Perth AA
Tues 29 Nov – The Civic Hotel, Perth 18+
Wed 30 Nov – National Hotel, Geelong AA
Thurs 1 Dec – Corner Hotel, Melb 18+
Fri, 2 Dec – Blackbox Theatre, Newc AA
Sat 3 Dec – Masonic Hall, Blacktown AA
Sat 3 Dec – Bald Faced Stag, Syd 18+
Sun 4 Dec – Uni Bar, Adelaide Lic/AA
