EVERY TIME I DIE

What do you want to achieve as a guitarist, and how do you go about getting your sound?

ANDY WILLIAMS My goal is to bring a more legit approach to guitar playing. Nowadays people cite bands like Green Day and shit like that as influences, and that just isn’t legit to me. To me, AC/DC and Led Zeppelin are legit. If I get stuck when I’m writing a riff, I think, What would Jimmy Page do? not, What would Billie Joe Armstrong do? When it comes to my sound, I like to use a classic guitar into a classic amp. Go Marshall and you’ll never use any other amp again.

What recorded performance represents your personal best?

WILLIAMS I don’t think I’ve done it yet. I like Hot Damn! But I know I’ve got a better one in me.

What song best represents your band?

WILLIAMS I would say “Off Broadway” [from Hot Damn!] It’s really raging and has some southern swagger to it, so it’s the perfect representation of Every Time I Die.

Which guitarists on the tour or among your peers do you most admire, and why?

WILLIAMS Lamb of God’s Mark Morton and Willie Adler. They’re really smart when it comes to influences, and you can hear it in their sound and mechanics. They also know how to write songs and keep it fresh. They’ve been in a band for more than 10 years and ideas are still coming to them. They are a huge influence on me.

What is the future of metal?

WILLIAMS I couldn’t tell you, because I seriously couldn’t tell you a recent metal band other than Lamb of God that I like. There’s a lot of stuff nowadays and it all just sounds the same. A little insight for newer metal bands: try something other than minor scales!

 

GWAR

What do you want to achieve as a guitarist, and how do you go about getting your sound?

FLATTUS MAXIMUS My goal is musical slaughter and impalement by way of guitar. I create the musical term “amplified” by farting into the hole of an acoustic guitar, thus creating distortion.

What recorded performance represents your personal best?

MAXIMUS “Grandma, Quit Touching Me There” in Z minor, “War Party” and the soon to be released Live from Mt. Fuji.

What song best represents your band?

MAXIMUS Throughout the years and continual archive of Gwar’s musical mastery, that’s a tough question.

Which guitarists on the tour or among your peers do you most admire, and why?

MAXIMUS I admire all my warcraved brethren.

What is the future of metal?

MAXIMUS The future, past and present of metal will unfortunately be determined by you humans. We found metal to be the easiest form of music with which to lure people (for a fee) and slaughter them till no one is left. Pay for your death like Kevorkian, but in mass quantities.

 

POISON THE WELL

What do you want to achieve as a guitarist, and how do you go about getting your sound?

RYAN PRIMACK I want to write good songs. It really doesn’t matter how good you are or how eloquent you might be at expressing yourself with a guitar; if the song sucks, it doesn’t matter how good the guitar playing is. As far as getting a sound, I take a loud tube amp and a basic guitar, and I turn up as loud as possible.

What recorded performance represents your personal best?

PRIMACK It hasn’t been recorded yet. If I had already reached my personal best, I might as well quit. Being dissatisfied is what has me constantly rethinking the way I play.

What song best represents your band?

PRIMACK “Chan Chan” by the Buena Vista Social Club.

Which guitarists on the tour or among your peers do you most admire, and why?

PRIMACK Andy Williams from Every Time I Die, because he’s the Malcolm Young of the tour and of heavy music right now. It’s just solid, no-frills playing.

What is the future of metal?

PRIMACK Hopefully the future of metal is to get back to a point where bands really push the envelope of what is heavy, not just sonically but lyrically and emotionally.

 

PELICAN

What do you want to achieve as a guitarist, and how do you go about getting your sound?

REVOR DE BRAUW I’m always striving for originality and emotional sincerity. I want to create something on the level of the bands that changed my life and made me want to play in the first place.
LAURENT LEBEC I was never able to wrap my head around music theory. So I gave up trying to be a technical player and focused on conveying what I was hearing in my head. It’s been liberating to push myself on my own terms and not compare myself to anyone else. As for my sound, I like very large, ample, tight tones that fill a room and resonate for days. I find that combining a Sunn Model T with a Rat pedal for distortion and a Boss EQ is bringing me where I want to be. For a cab, I love playing through Mesa 4x12s.

What recorded performance represents your personal best?

LEBEC “Autumn into Summer” from our new record, The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw. It has what I love to combine: strong melodies with a rapid galloping kind of pacing.

What song best represents your band?

DE BRAUW “Red Ran Amber” from the new record. It’s got great energy and a lot of musical intercommunication between everyone in the band.

Which guitarists on the tour or among your peers do you most admire, and why?

DE BRAUW Justin Broadrick of Jesu and Godflesh. The man’s playing is immaculate, and the songs he writes are filled with the most brutal yet delicately beautiful riffs. He approaches songs as an arranger, knowing how other sounds and instruments can complement the feel of the music.

What is the future of metal?

LEBEC The future of metal is about playing with an open mind and playing the music that comes pouring out of you. In that sense, the best metal band of the past few years is without a doubt Mastodon, because they demonstrate this.

 

NORMA JEAN

What do you want to achieve as a guitarist, and how do you go about getting your sound?

SCOTTIE HENRY I just want to play the music that I love for as long as I can. For my sound, I don’t use many effects, mainly just a guitar, an amp and a few pedals.
CHRIS DAY I’m just looking to be a real dude onstage: having fun and writing riffs that people can enjoy. As for my sound, I like to keep it simple. I’m still trying out different guitar pickups and different EQ settings on my amp and switching up the speakers in my cabs. Still, I haven’t found what I really want to be “my sound.”

What recorded performance represents your personal best?

HENRY Our new record, O God, the Aftermath, is definitely my best performance. Our producer, Matt Bayles, pushed me harder, and I think Chris and I matured a lot as guitarists since our first record.

What song best represents your band?

DAY “Bayonetwork,” because it contains a lot of the elements that are found throughout the new record. Also, each of us contributed to that song.

Which guitarists on the tour or among your peers do you most admire, and why?

DAY I really admire Andy [Williams] and Jordan [Buckley] from Every Time I Die, because they are always looking for something different to do or other ways to play things. I just expect to be totally surprised when I see or hear them.

What is the future of metal?

HENRY I don’t think it matters. Scientists are about to clone the T. rex, and that’s the only thing that matters. That and Meshuggah.

 

THROWDOWN

What do you want to achieve as a guitarist, and how do you go about getting your sound?

MATT MENTLEY Throwdown’s lyrics deal a lot with selfrespect and self-improvement. Musically, I’m always trying to get better at what I do on guitar and to get the heaviest sound I possibly can. I play a Washburn guitar into a Randall RM-100 head and Randall XL cabinet.

What recorded performance represents your personal best?

MENTLEY The writing, rehearsing and recording of our latest record, Vendetta, pushed me to become a better guitar player. The material is a step up from anything I’ve played on before.

What song best represents your band?

MENTLEY “Speak the Truth,” from the new album. It’s punishing and uncompromising, both musically and lyrically, but it’s also catchy. It’s my favorite song on the album.

Which guitarists on the tour or among your peers do you most admire, and why?

MENTLEY I have to say Willie and Mark from Lamb of God, who we’ve spent a lot of time with touring together. I really admire their playing and just how good and technical they are.

What is the future of metal?

MENTLEY Metal is one of the truest music forms out there and it’s only going to keep growing. Whether it stays as prominent in the mainstream or not doesn’t matter, because it’s built from the underground and will always have its roots there.

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