{"id":1401,"date":"2012-10-16T01:40:13","date_gmt":"2012-10-15T20:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/Interviews\/?p=1401"},"modified":"2012-10-16T01:42:09","modified_gmt":"2012-10-15T20:12:09","slug":"in-depth-interview-with-witchaven-frontman-henry-montoya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/Interviews\/2012\/10\/16\/in-depth-interview-with-witchaven-frontman-henry-montoya\/","title":{"rendered":"In-depth Interview With Witchaven Frontman Henry Montoya"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Avinash Mittur<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>For six years, Witchaven have been playing shows all across America and giving audiences a dose of their blackened thrash. The band has done tours with Nocturnal and Speedwolf and has played national festivals like SXSW and Maryland Deathfest. I saw the band play at the Key Club with Dr. Know and Ghoul last Friday and was treated to a killer set as always. I caught up with guitarist\/vocalist Henry Montoya at the show and we got to talk about their soon to be released second album, their upcoming shows and the differences between the Bay Area and Los Angeles among a myriad of other topics. Read our chat below, check out Witchaven\u2019s facebook page<\/a><\/strong> for updates on the new album, and make sure to head out to the band\u2019s show on Halloween night at the Key Club.<\/p>\n

So from what I hear, a new Witchaven album is in the works. What stage are you guys at in the process?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019re recording and songwriting right now, we\u2019re doing it all at the same time. We\u2019ve been going to our friend Aaron \u201cHippie\u201d Cronon\u2019s Cronon Studios to work out the songs and we record like five hours of us just trying to tweak the material until we have it done. Putting our full effort and all of our emotion into writing music is the priority right now. We have influences from d-beat, to black metal to thrash but this time around I must say that there is a bigger influence from punk and extreme black metal. Not so much thrash this time, but the cool thing about it is that we never lose what makes us Witchaven. When you listen to the music, you\u2019ll know that it\u2019s us.<\/p>\n

Witchaven have built a loyal following in LA, probably a solid chunk of Metal Assault\u2019s readers are Witchaven fans. Are there any special LA gigs coming up that you want to tell everyone about?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well we\u2019ve got a couple shows coming up, but the one we really want everyone to come out for is on Halloween night, Wednesday October 31st<\/sup>. We\u2019re going to play here at the Key Club on Sunset, but tickets are going to cost only five dollars. It\u2019s going to be Witchaven, Iron Fist, Internal Corrosion, Marauding Ghouls and maybe even Battalion of Saints. It\u2019s going to be a total punk\/metal show. It\u2019s going to be cool- facepaint, naked chicks, Halloween, and pumpkins at the Key Club for five dollars!<\/p>\n

\"\"Witchaven just played at the Key Club, literally only two hours ago. How the set from your perspective?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, I must say that it was my favorite set of all time.<\/p>\n

Damn.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was different for sure. Maybe the crowd wasn\u2019t as wild they could have been, but we were the first band up. I\u2019d like to think we set the standard for the night because we had our delightful, marvelous friend Malice666 come out and do some burlesque dancing for us. It was wonderful and amazing! She gave a great performance. I felt the energy of the crowd was wavering at first, and I can understand why- we were the first band after all. When Malice came out though, she totally rejuvenated our energy onstage. We felt the feedback coming from the crowd and it just felt great. It was a perfect set, I couldn\u2019t ask for more.<\/p>\n

Witchaven are unique in that you guys initially released the full length Terrorstorm<\/em> independently two years ago, but then you re-released it with major distribution. What kind of model do you want to follow for the second album?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019re recording it and getting stuff done with the second album, and we\u2019re going to try to get a label to put it out. I\u2019m crossing my fingers for Hell\u2019s Headbangers because they\u2019re great people and they\u2019ve worked with Speedwolf, who are some of our best friends. Maybe they might help us out, if not then we\u2019ll open ourselves up to whoever is interested in putting the album out. For anyone who is interested, I can send out a demo and I can guarantee you that the music will speak for itself.<\/p>\n

Speaking of Speedwolf, I know Witchaven just recently went on a headlining tour with those guys and you stopped by Eli\u2019s Mile High Club in the Bay. The show was 21+, so I\u2019m hoping your next headlining date is all ages?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, maybe. A lot of the time, the whole all-ages thing is rough because it depends on the availability of the venues. All-ages venues are very scarce these days, and the type of art that we create is just as rare.<\/p>\n

Well, I know Witchaven have been welcomed at venues up there like 924 Gilman, Sub-Mission-<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some of those venues that are all ages though have kind of a bad reputation. Kids just don\u2019t seem to like them! I don\u2019t know what it is. I have no idea- we\u2019re a band from out of town, but it seems that more people came out to a show at Eli\u2019s Mile High Club in Oakland, a 21+ bar, than an all-ages Gilman show. It\u2019s kind of strange, but you know, who knows how it will turn out? It\u2019s just the logistics of how people feel and what the mood of the moment is, so who knows! I can\u2019t guarantee every show is going to be all ages, but we\u2019ll be in town.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>One thing that really differentiates the two ends of California are the concert bills. I see a lot more punk and crossover down in LA whereas the Bay seems have seasoned thrash acts to offer.<\/strong> In your opinion, how do those bills color the kind of experience a Witchaven fan has at your shows?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well you know, the Bay Area is such a cultural place. People will come out if you entice them enough. Sometimes I feel that a full-on thrash show might not be appropriate for the people in the bay. Let\u2019s just say they\u2019re on a \u201chigher\u201d level of thinking, you know? People like to smoke a whole lot of weed out there, have a lot of good times, and express themselves much more. People on the West Coast in general express themselves a lot<\/em>, which is really unique. People are very unique and they all have something to say. There\u2019s something about the bay though- it\u2019s its own animal, its own country, it\u2019s its own place. You go there and you can\u2019t expect the kind of crowd that you see in LA or anywhere else. The bay is a place of such mixed culture that you really don\u2019t know what to expect. Sometimes, maybe the lineup you think is going to do great out there does terrible, and sometimes the lineup you think is only okay does amazing. I really don\u2019t know, the bay is always a mystery. That\u2019s why I love the bay so much though, I call it our second home. The Bay Area is truly the place that embraced us first and foremost. We call the Bay Area our true home- we come from Los Angeles, but the Bay Area was the first place that took us in and accepted us for who we are. We\u2019re a little different than everyone else, and I think that\u2019s why the bay still likes us regardless of what is happening in the scene.<\/p>\n

Going back to your live sets- you\u2019ve been playing a reworked version of \u201cBlasphemous Cunt\u201d recently.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes! We\u2019ve been playing around and we want to pull out the new songs but the thing is that we\u2019re very hesitant because we want to give everyone 110% from song to song. Not a \u201cwe\u2019re working on this, check it out\u201d kind of deal. I don\u2019t want to pull out the new songs until we are completely comfortable and we will perform them to our fullest capability. If we show them off while they\u2019re still being written, it\u2019s just not the same feeling as opposed to \u201chey we\u2019ve got this, check this<\/em> out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Actually I was going to ask if you were planning on recording this new version of \u201cBlasphemous Cunt\u201d but what you said is great to know too.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh! Well, I don\u2019t know! That\u2019s the thing, we\u2019re going to record every song we\u2019ve got, including \u201cBlasphemous Cunt.\u201d From there, we\u2019re going to try and sculpt an album. We\u2019re going to sculpt it as if there is a side A and side B. It\u2019s going to feel like a book, it\u2019s going to feel real. It\u2019s going to feel like the way albums used to feel. It\u2019s going to have a tinge of Pink Floyd in terms of ideology and what\u2019s going to happen to the music. We don\u2019t want to write an album where you have to dissect every song. No, we want to create an album where you hear one song and it continues on to the next track and you say \u201coh shit, now I have to hear the whole album to understand what\u2019s going on\u201d and that\u2019s why we\u2019re going to write a lot of songs and really try to experiment with how they go in order. Maybe \u201cBlasphemous Cunt\u201d will make it on the album, maybe it won\u2019t. It all depends on how it fits within what we\u2019re trying to express with the record.<\/p>\n

So does that also go for the songs on the \u201cSacrificial Burnt Offering\u201d EP?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The songs on the EP were just us experimenting with our new ideas. See, \u201cSupermax\u201d has a lot of d-beat and black metal influence and that\u2019s not necessarily how the next album is going to sound, but it does have a tinge of what\u2019s coming. I look at the seven-inch as kind of what \u201cHaunting the Chapel\u201d was to Slayer. It wasn\u2019t necessarily a whole new evolution, but you could see where we\u2019re going.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s kind of like a snapshot of Witchaven circa 2011.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yup! But Witchaven 2013 is going to be so superior to anything we\u2019ve done before.<\/p>\n

You mentioned there were more punk and black metal influences. Has that affected your vocals in any way?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not whatsoever! King Diamond is the man I truly take influence from, I even have him tattooed on my arm. He was one of the few vocalists that was able to express himself in different forms and different fashions. So when you hear the new album, you\u2019re not only going to hear punk vocals from me, you\u2019re going to hear black metal vocals- vocals that sound like Satanic Warmaster, or the Varukers all the way to something like Nuclear Assault or Kreator. I\u2019m going to try and do everything I can with my vocals because I feel that it adds to the atmosphere that we try to create with our riffs and music and the mood that we try to express. With my vocal performance, I\u2019m going to all out with this new album. I kind of had the Schmier snarl before, but at the same time I\u2019m going to bring back the black metal growl and the punk bombast. It\u2019ll be much more intricate, I feel like the music now is much more layered. There\u2019s a lot of weaving of influences. It\u2019s something no one has ever heard in their life before, I promise you that.<\/p>\n

I also wanted to talk about your guitar playing a bit, and how it\u2019s evolved with Erik added in the band. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, my guitar playing isn\u2019t so extravagant. My playing is alright, I do okay. But really who shines and has helped us expand and seriously go up to the next level is Erik. I can\u2019t express how much of an upgrade he has been for us. Since he\u2019s joined the band, we\u2019ve been capable of going so much farther than we ever have before. The next album is going to feature a lot more lead guitar. More leads, more melody. It\u2019s like Iron Maiden meets Steve Vai and you throw all of that into the pit with Bestial Mockery and Disfear. You\u2019re going to hear a lot of solos, a lot of punk and a lot of black metal.<\/p>\n

Well I\u2019m psyched. Thank you Henry, and best of luck at the upcoming shows!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Related: Key Club October 12th gig review<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Avinash Mittur For six years, Witchaven have been playing shows all across America and giving audiences a dose of their blackened thrash. The band has done tours with Nocturnal and Speedwolf and has played national festivals like SXSW and Maryland Deathfest. I saw the band play at the Key Club with Dr. Know and … <\/p>\n

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