One of the heaviest tours to come to Australia is coming this May with Decapitated and Suffocation, 2 great bands from different parts of the world bring a death metal storm down under. We spoke to Decapitated not long ago and the band were pretty excited about the tour, this time we spoke to Guy Marchais from Suffocation and the feeling was mutual as we found out in our interview ahead of the tour.
Andrew: Hey how’s it going?
Guy: I’m alright!
Andrew: So how’s the year for the band been so far?
Guy: This year has been pretty slow, we haven’t done much this year yet. The first stuff we’re doing this year is Asia and Australia and New Zealand.
Andrew: Yeah obviously the big tour with Decapitated coming in May. I spoke to Vogg (Decapitated) a couple of weeks ago and he seemed pretty excited. Are you guys looking forward to it as well?
Guy: Yeah definitely! I told someone the other day that I can’t wait to get out there. It’s going to be pretty cool, we haven’t been out there in a while. It would be good to see some familiar faces and check out your country. It’s gonna be awesome out there, I love Australia.
Andrew: It’s a great metal package between 2 great bands in death metal. Whose idea was it to bring the 2 bands down here?
Guy: You know, I’m not even sure. That would probably be something through our management or something. Maybe a promoter down there was bringing Decapitated and offered for us to go or offered us to bring Decapitated. I don’t even know how it worked but it’s cool. We know those guys and they are really cool cats so we’ll have a good time.
Andrew: Yeah you guys have toured together before right?
Guy: Yeah we did the U.S. tour with Fear Factory and Hypocrisy and that was right before they got into that bad accident out in Russia so yeah we toured with them there and we’ve played festivals and stuff with them, seen them around. Everytime we’re in the same neightbourhood we check them out or they check us out so we’re pretty good friends with them.
Andrew: Now there’s a lot of fans that have been speculating on who is doing the vocals for you guys so is Frank Mullen touring with you guys or is it someone else?
Guy: Has it been announced?
Andrew: I don’t think it has.
Guy: Haha then I can’t say anything yet.
Andrew: Haha OK. A lot of fans have been speculating and wondering what’s going on whether Frank is coming or if it’s someone else.
Guy: I should have found out from my management what I can say and what I can’t say çause I’m not sure actually if he’s coming or he’s not coming to tell you the truth. I know he’s busy and he only gets a certain amount of time off now to do the band stuff. But if he’s not coming, the person that is coming is great, fucking sounds great and he’s a great guy.
Andrew: Awesome! Now one of the things that I did ask Vogg was some of the differences between American death metal and European death metal. From your perspective on the U.S. side, what do you think are the main differences and do you have a preference for one or the other?
Guy: I don’t really have a preference, I like good bands and in saying that, it doesn’t matter where they are from. Bands to me that I think are good, that’s what I’m into. And I’m a lot more old school, I still listen to the old albums from the death metal bands I grew up on and they were from both sides. I grew up listening to Carcass, Bolt Thrower, Napalm Death and also Morbid Angel, Deicide, Death, Obituary, stuff like that. But I have to say the differences between the two, differences are everywhere. Napalm Death have their own thing going and so does Carcass and they don’t sound the same whatsoever and they are from Europe and those are 2 bands that I like.
Andrew: So who you do you consider to be your biggest influence? Who made you pick up the guitar and start playing?
Guy: I think back then I was listening to Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, Pink Floyd. That’s what I was listening to that influenced me enough to pick up the guitar, all the early heavy metal. Not the hair metal stuff but the heavy metal stuff. I would say death metal-wise I was always a fan of the first few Morbid Angel albums a lot. And besides Death which is just classic but Trey (Azagthoth) from Morbid Angel was always doing some wierd shit which I kinda like, I like his style.
Andrew: It’s interesting how the genre has expanded and moved around over the years. I mean how much more extreme can it possibly get now?
Guy: I don’t know to tell you the truth. Like I said I like the older stuff but there’s bands out there that are just going a billion miles an hour and then there’s some bands out there that are also going fast but they are doing something that’s technically really frickin’ hard! Some of them I like and I can listen to and some of them I just can’t listen to. I’m into technical stuff but I’m not into the stuff that’s kinda over technical, there’s no groove. It’s just constant changes and the solos nowadays sound like a fucking guitar prodigy, they are so freakin’ good! I miss the groove and the feeling in the music and stuff.
Andrew: Yeah totally and I think somewhere along the way it became almost like a competition thing where they tried to outdo each other or something.
Guy: Yeah Decapitated is one that is technical and I appreciate their music a lot. I like their stuff, they have a lot of groove going on. Decrepit Birth, Matt (Sotelo) is an amazing guitar player, he’s sick. But the newer stuff that he’s been doing has a little more groove to it and I like the newer stuff even more than the first stuff.
Andrew: Now you’re last album “Pinnacle Of Bedlam” came out a couple of years ago so looking back on it now, how do you still feel about that album?
Guy: I feel extremely proud of that album! I think it brought things different for Suffocation. It’s almost like I feel “Pinnacle Of Bedlam” I wish was in the place of “Souls To Deny”, when the band came back that should of been the album. But it took a while because different members, different things, different feelings and “Souls To Deny” was rushed and the next album wasn’t rushed as much so it sounded a little bit better and “Blood Oath” was even less rushed. And “Pinnacle Of Bedlam” we just said if we’re gonna do this, let’s do this right. We just took our time and try to polish it up best we could in the writing and everything.
Andrew: And the fans are reacting to it pretty good?
Guy: Yeah it’s been a pretty good reaction. I mean we haven’t even played all those songs live yet, there’s a few of them where we gotta go back to the drawing board and sit in a circle and really go over it because there’s some technical shit on the first couple of songs on that album. Definitely gotta sit in a cirlce with Terrance (Hobbs, lead guitar) and Derek (Boyer, bass) and all 3 of us just hash out all the parts and stuff. Terrance I’m sure can get through all of it, he did most of the writing on that album and his memory bank is insane. He’ll pull out stuff that he wrote in the beginning of Suffocation and hasn’t played in 20 years and he just plays it.
Andrew: So when you come to Australia in a few months, what are the setlists gonna be like? Obviously since being a few years since you had been here last.
Guy: I’m sure we’ll have the classics all in there and we’re gonna try and put some stuff in there that we maybe haven’t played down there. It’s hard to remember what we played where. And also “Pinnacle Of Bedlam” I’m sure we’ll be playing the ones we have been playing from “Pinnacle Of Bedlam” which you might have seen on youtube and stuff. But I know we were rehearsing the title track of “Pinnacle Of Bedlam” but we havent’played it live yet and we were rehearsing “Sullen Days” but we haven’t played that live yet. So those are 2 that might be in the mix but I’m not 100% sure on that yet. But I’m actually up in New York right now, I moved out of New York but I’m up here now just for 4 or 5 days and then I’m going back down south but before we head out to Australia, I’m gonna come up and we’re gonna be practicing for a couple of weeks before we go out to Australia. But we haven’t actually practiced as a full band since the end of last year. We usually get together a couple of weeks before we go out and rehearse every day.
Andrew: Well we’re looking forward to seeing you guys with Decapitated, it’s gonna be an amazing tour. Thanks for speaking to us today, it’s been an absolute pleasure!
Guy: Yeah thanks man!
TOUR DATES
Thursday April 30 – DuxLive, Christchurch, NZ
Tickets available from http://metropolistouring.nztix.co.nz
Friday May 01 – Bodega, Wellington, NZ
Tickets available from http://metropolistouring.nztix.co.nz
Saturday May 02 – Kings Arms, Auckland, NZ
Tickets available from http://metropolistouring.nztix.co.nz
Wednesday May 06 – The Gov, Adelaide
Tickets available from http://metropolistouring.nztix.co.nz
Thursday May 07 – The HiFi, Brisbane
Tickets available from http://metropolistouring.nztix.co.nz
Friday May 08 – Manning Bar, Sydney
Tickets available from http://metropolistouring.nztix.co.nz
Saturday May 09 – Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Tickets available from http://metropolistouring.nztix.co.nz
Sunday May 10 – Rosemount Hotel, Perth
Tickets available from http://metropolistouring.nztix.co.nz
