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<< Interviews this month
file under death metal / grindcore
Last summer, Abysmal Dawn released their not too bleak debut record ‘From Ashes’ on the Crash Music label. After several shows with big names like Cryptopsy, Decapitated and Suffocation they’re right in the middle of their first ‘real’ tour through America, their home country. Time to give frontman Charles Elliot a chance to introduce his Abysmal Dawn to the Dutch audience.
Text: Menno
Hello, if everything goes as planned, you’re right in the middle of Abysmal Dawns first US tour (with Six Feet Under, Krisiun and Decapitated). Has touring met your expectations so far?
The tour has been going great. The crowd reactions have been phenomenal and all the other bands on the package were telling us how surprised they were that this was our first tour. A lot of people have told us that they weren’t expecting much at first having not heard of us but then were blown away when they saw us. Overall they tour has been going great and our drummers Ford Explorer is holding up fine (laughs). If you think you’re more brutal than us then try and tour for a month and a half in a SUV.
What’s Abysmal Dawn’s place in the touring line-up? Are you opening for almost empty venues and if so, how does the band respond to this? Is it possible to give all your energy for 50 people?
We’re the first band every night but since Cattle Decapitation dropped off the tour there have been a few local bands before us. Most of the time we play to a packed house with maybe a few exceptions. Really it doesn’t matter how many kids there because we’ll always put on the same energetic show no matter what. If people paid some hard earned money to see some entertainment then we’re going to give it our all no matter how many people are there.
When I’m listening to your first record, ‘From Ashes’, I clearly hear influences from bands like Nile and Fleshcrawl. Can we count bands like these to your direct influences or would you suggest that Abysmal Dawn is a fresh and original band?
Honestly, I love Nile but I would cite them as a direct influence to our sound. I don’t really listen to Fleshcrawl so I can’t say if we sound like them. Everyone has a different opinion of who we sound like so I’d like to think that means we really just sound like Abysmal Dawn. We’re a death metal band so I can’t say we’re the most original thing in the world. But really how many bands can say they are completely original in this genre? What really matters is that you enjoy the music and we enjoy playing and writing this style. I think we have our own spin on the genre and whether critics want to admit it or not we don’t sound like any one band.
When I’m reading the liner notes of your cd, I can conclude you guys all are very excited about the release of your first album. Here in Holland we have bands that had to release numerous demos before getting a record deal (if they get one at all). How difficult was it for Abysmal Dawn to get a full release on Crash Music? You’ve only released one demo after all.
Well my goal after the demo was to record a full-length album within a year. Our demo wasn’t the best sounding and we had a lot of improvements to make playing wise at that time. We sent the demo out to a few record companies and never heard back from them at that time. We set out to record the album with the hopes of shopping it around to a label. As soon as the record was done we posted some songs online and Crash was knocking at our door. We lucked out really but we had everything ready to go down to the artwork before we even had a record deal. In the end I think that made things a lot easier for someone at a label to think, “maybe we have something here.”
Also in the liner notes, major metal labels as Nuclear Blast and Century Media are being thanked. Does this mean you can give us some delicate information on a future signing or album release? Personally I would say Abysmal Dawn would be ready for it, are major labels agreeing?
I don’t know about that. Both those labels have headquarters in the Los Angeles area and we are friends with a lot of the people that work there. Crash is doing a fine job for us at the moment and we are proud to call them our record label. I really can’t speculate as to what the future holds.
How is the underground scene in America nowadays? In Europe we mostly hear bad things about it, big touring festivals, a giant metalcore/nu-metal scene and high ticket/beverage prices. Can this be said for the death metal scene?
Well it’s way better than it was say five or six years ago. In Los Angeles people actually go and support local bands without a national touring act which used to be unheard of. You may not like metalcore but at least it has some roots in real metal like thrash. I think the overall presence in metalcore has really helped the scene in America and increased metal’s popularity. We have shows like Headbangers Ball again that play the more commercial stuff and truer stuff like Behemoth and Krisiun. This would never be possible if metal wasn’t so popular in the US right now. Ticket prices have always been pretty high in my opinion when it comes to metal, same goes to merchandise. Beverages are always expensive especially at the larger venues and festivals.
Any chance Abysmal Dawn will be touring Europe any time soon?
It’s hard to say. On this record I don’t think so but on our second album we’d like to go for sure. It costs a lot to get over there and we’re just trying to build the name a little before we risks thousands of dollars on a tour.
How is Abysmal Dawn being covered in the media after the release of ‘From Ashes’? Are you getting much coverage in magazines or websites?
We’ve had tons of coverage in printed media and webzine’s but maybe a bit more here in the US. All the reviews have been positive. I don’t think I’ve seen single bad review really. Some reviewers have said we aren’t exactly ground breaking but like I said before who cares? We set out to make a death metal record that was catchy and had touches of all the extreme genres i.e. black metal, thrash, doom, grind. The reinvention of the wheel might not have happened yet but that takes time I think. It’s our first album and I think we delivered a really strong record. The media is always a little overly critical when a new band comes along. I remember the press saying that Nile sounds like Morbid Angel when they first came out and they sounded nothing like them. It will be interesting to see how we evolve and what people say with the next record.
I noticed you have a MySpace site. What’s your opinion about this website and the Internet in general? Did MySpace give any advantages to Abysmal Dawn?
I think it definitely helps get the name out there and lets you communicate directly with fans. Myspace is actually where Crash first heard about us so I can’t really knock it. Some people want to use it as a scale to judge a bands popularity but it’s a scam. You could sit there and add people all day to get “plays” and they’ll listen to your band once whether they like it or not. I have to say it’s one of the few places on the Internet where there isn’t an excessive amount of shit talking about everything. The Internet seems to be a forum for so many negative jaded little fucks out there. I’d rather pull each of my testicle hairs out one by one while watching daytime American television, than read posts by users on Lambgoat and Blabbermouth.
Thanks for the answers and good luck with the rest of the tour and the career of Abysmal Dawn of course. If you have anything to say to the Dutch/European metal lovers, this is the time!
Thanks a lot for taking the time to interview us. Keep supporting the underground and we hope to see you guys on tour sometime soon.
http://www.abysmaldawn.com
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