Toxic Holocaust Frontman Joel Grind Discusses New Album, Modern-Day Punk + More

By Andrew Bansal

Portland, Oregon’s crossover thrash masters Toxic Holocaust have been around since 1999 and through their insane live performances and solid studio material they’ve garnered quite a loyal fan base for themselves. Following the musically adventurous 2011 release ‘Conjure And Command’, the Joel Grind-led trio put out their relatively edgier fifth full-length album ‘Chemistry Of Consciousness’ via Relapse Records on October 29th, and are now gearing up to hit the road proper. On the day of the album’s release, I spoke to Joel Grind about the making of this new album, the musical direction on it, his lyric writing process, his thoughts on modern punk, touring and more. Enjoy the conversation below, along with the title track off of the new album.

Joel, it’s good to talk to you again. The new Toxic Holocaust album released today. There are a lot of reviews on the internet and people draw their own comparisons between this and the old albums, but in your own opinion, how do you compare it to your past work? 

I would say it’s kind of a natural progression of the things we’ve done in the past. There’s definitely a combination of everything we’ve done without sounding like those records, if that makes any sense, taking nods from those but also continuing to move forward. There’s definitely a lot of punk going on in this one, a lot of classic metal stuff that I’ve always listened to, things like that. So it’s a big melting pot of all my influences (laughs) and I’m really happy with how it turned out. I think it’s the record I’ve been trying to make for a long time.

For you, striking the balance between expanding your music and still keeping the fans happy is the biggest thing, isn’t it? Do you think you’ve been able to achieve that to a large extent on this album?

You know, I try to stay away from looking at too many reviews and things like that, but for the most part, at least my close friends have been really blown away by it. That’s a pretty good indicator considering that they’ll call me on my shit if they don’t like it (laughs). So yeah, I try not to put too much thought into that aspect and I try to do it as my own personal creative outlet, but it is nice when what I’m doing also lines up with how other people are feeling about it. So far it seems like the reaction has been really good.

Toxic Holocaust has been your personal musical expression over the years. Have you been happy with how much you’ve expressed yourself with the music, and have you kept people’s opinions and fans’ considerations in mind while doing so? 

That’s a tough question to answer, because when I’m sitting down with a guitar and writing songs, to be honest with you I’m not really thinking about much other than, ‘Does this sound good to me?’ And that’s kind of how I gauge what I’m writing. I try not to over-think things too much and go, ‘What if I do this, will people like it?’ I don’t do that. I kind of just record stuff and hope for the best, I guess. But also, I’ve been disappointed with bands in the past that kind of turned their style so much that it doesn’t really reflect the band anymore, so I definitely keep that in mind as well. But am I consciously doing that while writing in terms of how the fans are going to think? No, I don’t (laughs). But it’s definitely in my goal and in my motto. I like to keep it very simple and straightforward with this kind of band.

You mentioned that there’s more of a punk edge to this album, and I agree. But in terms of the production or the mixing of the album was there any effort to make it more raw and punk-ish or is it just the music itself?

It sort of just started happening when I was writing stuff. I was really excited about just doing something very to-the-point. I was like, I could make this a three-and-a-half-minute long song but let’s keep it at a minute-and-a-half and basically have a sledgehammer hitting you in the head (laughs). So that’s the way I was looking at it. I wanted it to be very punky with respect to the arrangement, and catchy in a way too but still raw and aggressive. I kind of hate to use the word catchy (laughs) because people think of catchy as ‘poppy’ but it’s not like that. I guess there’s some catchy elements to this music that still don’t take away from the rawness.

Right, even in metal there has to be a sense of catchiness, as you said. That’s what makes the majority of people gravitate towards it. 

Exactly. It’s got to have the power!

I believe the previous album ‘Conjure And Command’ was the first one that you did with all three members recording in the studio. This was the second one done in that setup. So, this time was it an easier process because you were more used to it?

Yeah it was! It was nice doing the last record like that. It was such a different experience for me as I’ve been doing it solo for so long. I’ve always liked playing with these guys and we’ve done so many shows right after ‘Overdose Of Death’ and leading up to ‘Conjure And Command’ and after that album came out. So we’ve had this kind of live, no pun intended, chemistry together. So it was just one of those things where it made sense to do it in the studio as well.

Talking of touring, you do have some shows coming up, right? I think you announced at least one part of your US tour which is starting pretty soon.

We do! We’re going to do it in a few different legs. Right now we’re doing just the East Coast in November. That one starts November 16th in New Jersey, and I think we’re just going to do two weeks on the East Coast and then take December off. I’ve got some stuff to do and I have work in the studio that I have booked, then in January we’re doing the West Coast and some other parts of the US. We’ll just do it like that, kind of break it up. A lot of cool things are definitely coming up in 2014. We’re doing a lot of worldwide-type things. It’s going to be good!

That’s interesting because doing smaller groups of shows probably makes you more motivated to do them. You don’t get burned out from a two-month tour.

That’s exactly it, man. That was a big reason. In the past we’ve toured so much, and I love touring, but it comes to a point where you’ve toured for so long that it all starts running together. This time around we actually have a chance to get excited about going out and doing these shows. Everything will feel more like an event as opposed to one long endless tour, you know (laughs). So that’s going to make it really cool.

Right, and you have Ramming Speed with you on this leg of the tour. That’s a fucking amazing lineup right there.

Fuck yeah, they rule and I’m looking forward to it! We’re actually going to take them on the West Coast as well, I think. So yeah, it’s going to be a great lineup.

Awesome to hear, man. For your songs, not only on this album but also on the previous ones, the lyrics have been based on a variety of topics. I guess there’s enough happening in this world for you to focus on, right? So, is it easy at this point for you to write lyrics?

You know, sometimes yes and sometimes no, because there’s times when I really struggle with lyrics. And unfortunately, the ones that you struggle with usually end up being the worst ones, because it’s just kind of forced. May be you shouldn’t try to force it and wait till the inspiration comes. But at other times things just pop in your head. I think most people that create stuff have the same kind of thing. You don’t know where it comes from but it comes all of a sudden. It pops in your head and almost seems like it was already written or something. But yeah, basically for me a lot of it is a challenge but it’s a good challenge. It’s fun. I like to write about a variety of things that most thrash bands don’t write about.

For this new album, how long did you take to write lyrics? Was it any easier than past albums?

Well, it was a little bit easier for probably 90 per cent of the record. The way I did this record was kind of cool, I did it differently than the past. I was progressively writing songs over the course of a year instead of just sitting down and writing them altogether. In the past I would have ideas but I wouldn’t flesh them out until I got closer to the time to record, but this time around I had a lot of things already written leading up to the recording. So it all just kind of flowed easier. On this one, the songs that I sort of struggled with came closer to the deadline when we were going to the studio. But it all worked out. I’m really happy with the lyrics and the record in general.

I have just one more question for you. Because of the fact that you’ve always blended the punk and metal elements into your band and you’ve toured with punk bands and metal bands, I wanted to ask you this: What’s your take on modern day punk? Do you think there are still good punk bands out there?

There is lots of good punk out there, still! I live in Portland which is a pretty punk city anyway. There’s always cool shows going on here and lots of good bands. Bands like Tragedy, Hellshock and From Ashes Rise are from here, and those are the ones that are still keeping punk awesome. It’s not that over-polished shit that passes as punk, like the mainstream punk stuff. It’s still underground and raw. So that’s the kind of punk stuff that I like, bands that cite Discharge as an influence as opposed to Rancid and stuff (laughs).

Visit Toxic Holocaust on the web at:
facebook.com/ToxicHolocaust
twitter.com/ToxicHolocaust
instagram.com/JoelGrind 

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