|
BIO | INTERVIEW
2007 - Randy Butman about 'The End Of The Hour'
Hey! Your new album ‘The End Of The Hour’ is soon to be released. What can the fans expect?
Fans of POP can expect a nice progression from the ‘Promises In Blood’ album. Some of my favourite songs off that disc were the ones that were written after we got Nick and Jack in the band. I was really excited to see what a whole album with that lineup would sound like. And this is it. We worked really hard on the material. I can honestly say that this some of my best work yet lyrically. We really are excited to hear what the fans have to say about it. We are all proud of this release. We were striving to make this disc better than the last one and I think we did.
Where are the differences to its predecessor ‘Promises In Blood’?
The big difference is that on the last album we had re-recorded three songs off our first release ‘Legacy In Ashes’ and three songs off our second release ‘The Crypts Of Madness’ there were both relased ourselves and in such small numbers that no one would have heard songs like ‘Darklands’, ‘The Icy Flow of Death’ and ‘The Second Coming’. We wrote others like: ‘Bleed The Meek’ and ‘Where The Empty Gods Lie’ when we got Jack in the band. He is very important to our writing style now.
Your new album is a concept album. What is is about?
It was inspired by a friend of mine who is a vietnam vet and he tells me these stories of shit he went through over there. He tells them more graphically and with more enthusiasm than you might expect. A couple of lines from ‘Memory Burn’ and ‘Pushing Through The Pass’ are actually things he has said. I took his stories and wrapped them into a story that I had been thinking about for a while. There are a lot of different ways that I think people might relate to this album and I am definitely interested in hearing what other people think this album is actually about.
The most famous member of your band is without a dooubt vocalst George ‘Corpsegrinder’ Fisher. How does he manage to include PATHS OF POSSESSION in his tight CANNIBAL CORPSE schedule?
Unfortunately George was on tour with CANNIBAL CORPSE through the writing of this disc. We would send him recordings we make of the new songs. But he really didn’t have time to do much with us. We actually did a summer US tour with me doing all the vocals. I think they have a nice break coming up, so we are going to try to get some hard touring in with George.
You again worked together with producer Erik Rutan and cover designer Kris Verwimp. Never change a winning team?
We were really happy with the recording session and outcome of ‘Promises In Blood’ and we knew we wanted to record at Mana studios again. I have to say that this album sounds bigger and better than the last. Erik once again did an amazing job, Brian Elliot who works at Mana as well actually did the vocals, tracking and the final mix. I think Mana will play a nice role in the future of metal recordings and we are proud to work with these guys. About Kris Verwimp: What can I say? He is a fucking amazing artist. We don’t give him ideas at all. I send him lyrics and he comes up with something that just personifies our whole project. I can’t say how proud I am to work with this kind of talent and have it represent our band.
Is it true that you are totally into Football? What is so fascinating about it? What is your favourite team and why?
Its true, its true! I love watching American football. Not to say that I don’t enjoy European Football. SPARTA!!! PRAHA!!! It is a great sport. I really can’t watch baseball or basketball. But football is pretty fucking brutal. These guys can pull off some really amazing feats. I know that this has not caught on in Europe really, but it will in a hundred years or so. My favourite team? Tampa Bay Buccaneers of course, they are the home team. They really were bad for a while. A true fan will stick with his team no matter what. Things are looking up now, although we have a lot of injuries this year. And we are only four weeks in.
Please name your favourite bands and albums and explain your picks…?
I’ll start with the obvious, IRON MAIDEN. They are pioneers of metal. I always wanted to play drums as a kid until I heard Steve Harris thundering out his bass licks. I am really into AMON AMARTH, not only are they a brutal fucking band, but they are great guys as well. One of my all time favourite bands is CANCERSLUG. We actually did a cover of one of their songs for a bonus track for the Japanese release of ‘The End Of The Hour’. It’s called ‘Soulless’ and I do all the vocals on it. As for my favourite album ever, I have to easily give it to DARK TRANQUILLITY’s ‘The Gallery’. When I first heard this masterpiece that was all I listened to for five or six months. No shit!
How would your describe PATHS OF POSSESSION to a person, who has never heard about you before?
I always have a hard time describing what we sound like. So, I always end up with a generic answer like this one: We sound like a death/thrash/melodic type band. But really we are a lot deeper than that. We put a lot of thought and a lot of heart into what we write and we hope that the fans can feel it.
|
|
