WARBRINGER Interview with John Kevill

XM: How’s the tour going so far?
John: It’s been going alright. Some of the shows have been pretty good, some of them...not so much. But we’ve seen strong support from our fans and the other bands have been great to tour with.

XM: How many more to go?
John: Fifteen, sixteen [shows].

XM: Who’s after Toronto?
John: Cleveland
XM: Now, does Cleveland bring it?
John: No...not in my experience. Toronto always does though.

XM: You just released a new album at the beginning of October and that’s the one you’re promoting with this tour. For your fans who haven’t listened to it yet, what can they expect to hear?
John: I’d have to say fast, aggressive thrash metal, with an emphasis on catchy song writing as well as some Progressive influences.

XM: I don’t know about that! There’s about one keyboard progression in the album.
John: Well the songs “Future Age is Gone, “Echoes From the Void” and “Demonic Ecstasy” aren’t really put together as a thrash song, so I say they count as Progressive.

XM: Which song are you most proud of from the new album?
John: I like them all, actually. My favourite is probably “Living Weapon”.

XM: That is a pretty sick song. What challenges did you have writing this album?
John: This one was easier.
XM: How come?
John: Well, because we had more time to write it and a less stressful atmosphere to do it in. Compared to the last record, which we wrote in a little under two months, this one we had six months to write and a month and a half to record, to get everything to our liking. Once we started it, the album really started to take form and I was really happy with it. I liked the entire process. Can’t complain, really.
XM: Maybe you can give your thoughts on what it’s like to write an album in two months? Which, might I add, is rather impressive.
John: It was hectic, writing and recording an album in a little over two months for “Waking into Nightmares.” It was really hectic and stressful, and as a result I didn’t really like the album much until it was done.

XM: What has it been like since Nic Ritter (the drummer) left the band?
John: Well, it’s been less stressful, to be honest. He’s a high tension person to be around sometimes, but he did a great job on drums. Although Carlos is filling his shows admirably. Carlos is a really talented guy and easy to get along with. For me, that’s the biggest change. Touring is much more relaxed in general now, just because there’s less ‘fire’ between people, I guess.

XM: Warbringer began by playing a show and a Century Media agent picked you guys up. What was it like to get signed after a show when you didn’t even know a label representative was there?
John: Well it wasn’t like we got a deal at the show. What happened was a couple of guys from the label were there and they were like, “Oh this band has potential. Here’s our contact info. If you do anything else contact us.” About a year later we made our second demo, the “One by One We Fall” E.P That’s the thing that got us label interest. We actually got interest from Metal Blade first, so we kind of had a choice between that label and Century Media and we ended up choosing Century Media.

XM: In my opinion Thrash Metal was the ‘thing’ in the eighties. Metallica, Slayer, the Big Four and now you see less and less pure thrash metal bands like yourself. There is a lot of thrash influence in a lot of bands, but to hear band play pure Thrash Metal and have the same quality as the bands in the eighties is rather rare. Why do you think there is less Thrash Metal bands in comparison to the other genres?
John: Ah...just because the genre evolved into a couple of different things and just went its way. I think Thrash Metal in general was really under represented in Metal for awhile. There was Thrash influence in everything but you really just didn’t get much of the pure essence of it. It has a lot of that fun factor too. A lot of the modern thrash influence metal is Thrash without the fun. You’ll have Thrash beats and Thrash riffs, but not have that energy. So I think in the last four years bands such as ourselves came up going like, “Well nobody we know are playing this style and this is awesome”. That’s what we thought, and therefore, decided to do it.

XM: What were some of your influences starting the band? And what are some now?
John: It always changes around. The core influences for this band were Kreator, Exodus, Slayer, Demolition Hammer and Sacrifice. Just aggressive fast Thrash. For me starting the band it was more basic: Priest, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, then bands like Helloween.

XM: Any particular band you’re always listening to on your mp3 player?
John: It always changes up. Just badass heavy metal in general.

XM: If you could pick one band to be on tour with?
John: Slayer, Thin Lizzy, Dio.

XM: Favorite city to play in Canada?
John: Ah it’s always a toss up. Montreal probably has the biggest metal scene. Toronto is a lot of fun, we usually play the Opera House. Vancouver is just kind of a wacky place in general.

XM: Best show you’ve ever had?
John: Wacken and Graspop. New York city a couple of times, Montreal a couple of times too. As long as the crowd is really into it it’s always a great time no matter where.

XM: What’s it like touring with Lazarus A.D?
John: They’re cool guys. They like to party.

XM: Who parties harder: Warbringer or Lazarus?
John: Lazarus for sure.

XM: Thanks for the interview! Have a wicked show!

LINKS: