By Andrew Bansal
New York black metal group Black Anvil released their third full-length album ‘Hail Death’ via Relapse Records earlier this year, one of the finest slabs of extreme savagery to have come out in 2014 so far. But there’s more to this Black Anvil album than in the past, with extended jams displaying an added touch of diversity and progressiveness. In support of this relentless 66-minute effort, Black Anvil will set out on a North American tour opening for Skeletonwitch and Ghoul. Last month, I spoke to bassist/vocalist Paul Delaney to discuss the making of the album and lots more. Enjoy the conversation below, pick up ‘Hail Death’ and check out Black Anvil on tour.
Paul, it’s great to have you on Metal Assault. I’m really enjoying your new album ‘Hail Death’, and I think musically it really captures a lot more than you’ve done with the previous two albums. How much thought did you give to what you were going to do on this one?
It was very natural. I mean, of course it was thought out as well. So it’s a bit of both, and even though it has been a natural progression for us, we definitely wanted to step our shit up and think outside the box. So, the combination of just having that at the back of our heads and also doing things in the moment in certain aspects of the songwriting, it really did come together very naturally. Luckily, the three of us have a long history, playing music together for 20 years. So when we get together to write, we always get close and focus on ourselves.
There are some lengthy songs on the album, which is great because it adds more of a dynamic edge to things. Was that also a conscious thing at all?
The songs sort of worked out that way on their own. Some of the songs are a bit longer than older works, and that’s been a whole issue that I’ve noticed in some of the reviews which say that the songs are too long. I think it’s fucking lame to blame the length of the song. I don’t know, stop playing with your fucking phone for five minutes and try to enjoy something. If you think my voice sucks, cool. We’re good (laughs). It’s your taste, great. But if you’re just going to knock a song because of its length? I mean, I try to remove myself from that aspect of it and focus on whether the music flows, and I think it does. But yeah, when the song comes together, it’s your basic verse-chorus-verse sort of thing and it’s about where you go from there. We just felt like some of those basic structures were so big-sounding that they needed to go places and come back. These songs for us are more like journeys. As long as they flow and tell a good story, I’m OK with them being long. There’s a lot of parts, a lot of changes, but I personally think it works together and it’s not incoherent. I think it’s very cohesive.
Right, even the opening track on the album is over 9 minutes. I think that in itself captures the Black Anvil sound, which is great because if somebody were to hear a long song like that, they would get the complete idea of what you sound like.
Yeah, and for us, when we finished putting that song together, we were like, “Wow, that was 9 minutes?” It really didn’t feel like that, at least to me. I’m going to be the most critical person about this shit, so when I feel good about it that means we’re doing something right. We can’t please everyone, of course. Everyone’s not going to be a fan, but I’m happy with it. And with a song like that for example, it was one of the songs we streamed as a single even though the label was reluctant to do it for such a long song.
You also mentioned briefly about your voice. You started doing vocals in Black Anvil largely out of necessity, but now how do you feel about it and personally do you think you’ve improved?
I’ve definitely improved. But literally yeah, when the three of us started this band, I just did it. Someone had to, and I was like, ‘Fuck it! I’ll do it.’ We didn’t want an outsider. We just really wanted it to be the three of us. So I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned how to … not necessarily control it, but not to burn it out in 35 minutes. My stamina is up there, and there is more range to my screaming. I’m learning how to make it a little diverse so it’s not just this monotonic annoying fucking screechy shit, even though some of it still may be. But that’s also one of the reasons why we incorporated some cleaner vocals in the mix too.
I read that through the creative process of this album, you yourself were going through a period of solitude and personal turmoil. So, would you say that this album means a lot more to you, and it’s a lot more than a mere set of music to you because you’ve expressed everything through it?
Oh yeah, this is the most important thing I’ve ever done in my life, hands down. If I put a bullet in my head tonight, I’d go out on a high. I’m very happy with the result of this album. I don’t even want to think about how I’m going to top this. May be we’ll step to the side and move in a different direction. But I mean, I wasn’t hidden in fucking exile or anything. I just laid low and really focused on the music a lot, and on myself. So it wasn’t like I was in hibernation, secluded in the woods and I came back with this fucking written record. It was all of us, we all sort of buckled down and concentrated. It took a while. All of us had some shit going on. I had some pretty heavy shit myself, but it was nothing that would crush or kill any of us in the grand scheme. But the most important part for me is the end result, the fact that we were able to just shove the everyday bullshit lives aside. The focus was on the light at the end of the tunnel, and nothing made me look away from that. I may have thrown an elbow into a couple of things and put them to the side, but overall, there was a hunger and desire to forge forward, and we did.
I also read that when you were starting out you were not really planning on being a full-fledged touring band or anything, but then it spiraled into becoming that. So, at first how did you handle it? Did you enjoy it? And how is it now?
Well, we didn’t initially think about it. It was just one of those things that the three of us wanted to do together. The three of us spent a lot of time together but there were some breaks in that. People left and came back to Kill Your Idols, our old band. Our friendship never really disappeared. The three of us may not have been in the same room for extended periods of time, but when we started Black Anvil there was really no agenda. It wasn’t like we didn’t want to tour or didn’t want to anything, but we just didn’t know what it was going to turn into. I don’t want to use the word ‘fun’, but I’m gonna, because it was fun to do it initially, to be with two other guys that I give a shit about, the two people closest to me in my life, basically. And it was good to have that again, but at the same time there was this unspoken business. We knew we had to get down to it. The second I got everyone in the same room to do this shit, we knew that it was going to be a little more than we intended. And you know, the reaction from all the people and the fact that a couple of labels were interested, it just snowballed. If nobody gave a shit, we’d just be a demo band that would have music on the internet. But there was enough demand in the outside world, I guess, for us to step it up.
Talking of that, you do have a tour coming up soon with Skeletonwitch and Ghoul. It’s a killer lineup and promises to be the tour of the year! You must be stoked.
Yeah, we’re looking forward to it. We’re the … I don’t want to say ‘outcast’ totally and separate ourselves, but we’re definitely the oddball band on that bill for sure. All three bands are different though, and that makes it interesting. So, we’ll basically do what we have to do in front of people. I try to not think too much about comparisons, but I’m sure it’ll be a good run for us. It’s not like a completely different thing and we’re not going out with a pop group or something. I’m assuming this crowd will be a younger, hungrier crowd that’s may be a little more open-minded than the typical crowds we play in front of.
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Skeletonwitch/Ghoul/Black Anvil tour dates:
9/05/2014 Double Door – Chicago, IL
9/06/2014 Agora Ballroom – Cleveland, OH
9/07/2014 The Waiting Room – Buffalo, NY
9/08/2014 The Sinclair – Boston, MA
9/10/2014 Underground Arts: Black Box – Philadelphia, PA
9/11/2014 Mr. Smalls – Pittsburgh, PA
9/12/2014 The Empire – Springfield, VA
9/13/2014 The Broadberry – Richmond, VA
9/15/2014 The Orpheum – Tampa, FL
9/16/2014 Masquerade – Atlanta, GA
9/17/2014 One-Eyed Jacks – New Orleans, LA
9/18/2014 Fitzgerald’s – Houston, TX
9/19/2014 Trees – Dallas, TX
9/20/2014 Red 7 – Austin, TX
9/22/2014 Club Red – Phoenix, AZ
9/23/2014 Roxy Theatre – Los Angeles, CA
9/24/2014 DNA Lounge – San Francisco, CA