On Friday, October 19th, 1999, eight death metal bands from London, Toronto and Montreal areas descended on the Kathedral for a benefit concert for Lethal Mayhem, the death metal show on the ailing CIUT. I had a chance to sit down with Derek and Will of Solus to discuss life, the universe, and of course extreme metal.
We conducted the interview in the staging area for the Reverb, where the organisers for Hallowmas had just laid out a remarkable spread of food, causing Will to recall this little road story...
Will We knew this band once, they had been on the road for a long time and they were fucking, they were so hungry, so they got to the hotel, and they were double-booked. So the lady goes "Oh, I'm sorry, there's no rooms" and they say "What? It can't be!" So, she goes "But you can have this room, it's the board room and stuff, but it's, there's something going on tomorrow, you know, don't touch anything." So, she puts some cots in the room. They come out in the morning and the lady was just freaking out because the whole wedding cake, like a 3 tier wedding cake, was gone, and that night, they were walking out, like icing on their faces, fucking ate the whole wedding cake for the next day. You don't put a group of musicians in a room with a wedding cake when they haven't eaten in like 3 days...
And now, the interview began...
Chris: You've been around for 4 years?
Will: Four years? Let's see, we released Slave Of Mind in '96, and we were around for a couple of years before that, so yeah, around there I guess.
Chris: And this year has been especially busy for you, what with Rotting Christ and Sinister, March metal Meltdown, Incantation, Milwaukee Metal Fest, etc.
Will: Yeah, the goal is to get it buisier and buisier so you're doing it all the time, and you just get firedup and thigns start to roll after a while, hopefully
Chris: So, how has the response been to your latest album, Universal Bloodshed?
Derek: It's been amazing. I mean, Slave of Mind did really well and Universal hasjust been getting great reviews, a great response
Will: It makes me happy that people like it, it's a bit of a surprise, because you know it's your own work
Derek: And you see that there's so much process that goes into it, so much behind the scenes, so that finally, when you have it, it becomes almost secondary to your actual goal, but then you realise it's ripping.
Will: Yeah, it's been fun, and we're just gonna keep it going as long as we can... Until a couple of tires blow or something
Derek: The tours did really well for us, cause since our first album, we hadn't had any time to go out and support it. We tried to get the hook in with a lot of distro, in the reviews and adds and that, but we just weren't able to get out there. So we were finally able to do that, and that was the best part, especially with all the awsome metal bands on tours across Canada.
Will: Oh yeah, and all the kids that have been listening to you since your first album, and they come to the othr shows from city to city, it's reall cool man.
Derek: Yeah, so we had a good time, we went into the midwest of the US as well, played from like Portland all the way as far as Wichita. We played there with this band called Loudmouth. Ridiculous, ridiculous, I don't know what the hell; these guys were going "Metal!" you know, and it's like "Fuck you... Fuck you, rock and roll you mean."
But yeah, it was awesome, and the metalfests, those were interesting to say the least. A three ring circus is what it was. You got all 3 rings going, it just needs a ringleader cracking the whip...
Chris: What kind of response did you get at Metalfest?
Will: From the kids that were there and witnessed the onslaught, yeah, they just love it, they just come up, and they stand up at the stage and stuff. The trick is to get everybody out, because no everybody knows that you're playing, and a lot of people do, but they're not there, because there's so many other bands to compete with. Usually the kids that see the show really like it.
Derek: Going through, doing that tour, there were a lot of people who came out from the shows, almost because the Milwaukee Metal Fest, well, it is the mid-west, so it was good, because we'd just been through there in April or May, so that helped too.
Chris: Do you think you'll be doing more metalfest shows?
Derek: Well, right now, it doesn't seem like it's to our best advantage really. To be totally honest with you, I think the metalfest just got so big, and there's so many bands that, it's not that every band doesn't get its time to do its thing, it's just that you're fighting an uphill battle in a way, from the gear that's rented, to everything.
Will: I'd love to be able to go out there, and play to all the fans out there and shit, but it's just such a fucking hassle, just the lines ya gotta walk across so you can get there and actually swim, you know?
Derek: It's good if you're on the road and you can work it so you hit them on your tour, then it's a really good thing to do. But for us, from here... That's why you don't see a lot of Canadian bands there I think, is because you've got to haul all halfway across the country, just to play one show, and then you're just on your way back.
Chris: But you've gotten a lot of exposure across North America...
Will: Yeah, since Slave Of Mind, for sure. Like Derek says, everywhere. We get letters from Cuba...
When it was first distributed it was going everywhere - Europe, Bangladesh, South Korea, Singapore, it was going everywhere. And every once in a while, you get letters, so were getting letters from bands from all over, they want like Skinmask to sign tham and stuff. Really good bands, like Displace Person from Japan...
Chris: The show tonight is to raise support for Lethal Mayhem and CIUT as well...
Will: Exactly, it's about not fucking standing around, it's about doing something. Like, the fucking thing is going down, the boat is going down, grab a fucking mattress and swim or save somebody, don't fucking scream and go down with it. That's what it's all about I think. So Lori fucking took it into her fucking hands and said Lethal Mayhem night, we're floating. Whether that whole station goes down, the metal of that station is floating.
Derek: But you know, when it comes time to lay claim to it, everybody'll be there...
It's what the whole metal scene is about right now, it's underground, and this is what it's about.
Will: And on the Halloween weekend, you just wanna do something, might as well catch 8 fucking crazy fucking bands.
Chris: Lately though, the metal scene has be rising a lot, even the extreme metal has started coming to the front, with great tours coming through, and the more commercial heavy bands...
Will: Yeah, Overkill *laughs*
And where's it gonna go? Let's see, there was Alice Cooper, and then there was fucking freak boy, what's his name? Marilyn Manson, now what?
Derek: I guess it's just gonna be regurgitated in some other fashion.
Chris: And then you've got groups like Slipknot, raising more flak than Manson was in his day, with Christianstearing down the posters, because of their image..
(At this point, Stained Productions co-operator, CIUT DJ and Chart writer Greg Clow joins the conversation)
Greg: I saw someone today, spray painting over a promo poster for the new Rob Zombie album
Will: No Way!
Greg: There's a church in my neighborhood that burned down a couple of years ago, there was just like a fire, they were doing some work on the roof when the fire started...
Will: You know what we gotta do, we gotta put up some Solus posters and stand there with a camera and wait with a zoom lense.
Greg: Yeah, they just tore down the remains of it a couple weeks ago, and they just have the construction site boarding up around it, and I walked by, and there was a big poster for the Rob Zombie album, like all Hellbilly Deluxe remixes, and there was a priest, with the spray paint, spraying over the word "Hellbilly"
Will: That's wild, That's what it's about!
Derek: It's unreal, I mean, I can't believe that an image can offend somebody that much.
Will: Let the wounded lambs lie...
Chris: So, I take it you guys aren't exactly pro-Christian?
Will: No, no, I'm just not into this organised religious-political world, of denominations and shit. We're all more like just fucking children of the earth.
Derek: The situation is the way it is, it's not like you have to read into it or anything, you know, people make up their own minds, right? And I don't think everybody has to be told what to do.
Those who need guidance, because they have no other option, will latch onto it.
Will: But I'm blind, I got cataracts in both eyes, so my guidance is shot right off the start.
Then you see the other side, you know, gone waste fucking the other way.
It's really what you live and believe, not what you do for an hour a day. Everybody's got their own little world going on, hopefully they won't all clash at once.
Chris: What do you think is going to happen, with the millenium?
Derek: I think that everybody's going to be waiting for the moment, and there's going to be thousands of deaths worldwide because people are so certain they're going to die after that clock hits. So many people are gonna be freaking out, and nothing's gonna change.
Will: Can you imagine, just going on air then, and just egging them on?
Derek: You could probably kill people, just imagine; get in a rom with everyone, and like "10, 9... it's 1" and then, all of a sudden, BOOM, you shut the lights off. Pandemonium's gonna break out.
Will: I'd like to stand in a field, away from everything, stand in the snow up to my knees. Just watch it all, smoke a big doob under the marshmallow stars, watch all the planes go down... Despite all the change that's supposed to happen, birds won't stop fuckign chirping, unless you shoot them.
Chris: So, who have been the best guys you've played with?
Will: I don't know, they're all cool in their own ways.
Derek: Totally, we got along awesome with Incantation, the guys were very cool, we learned a lot from them, playing with them on the road, and then, I enjoyed the Sinister show we did and even all the Metalfest bands were good too.
It's just good to be playing.
Will: I thought Overkill was kind of shitty though...
Derek: They're all sour
Will: When you play with someone like Testament, they fucking come in, and they fucking assess the room, and they just fucking put on a show.
And then you got Overkill, who comes into the fucking El Mo and just disrupts everything, fucks everything right up, takes all the fucking night to set up, it fucks every other band over, and then is totally unhappy with what they've done.
That one sucked, the whole gig sucked because of the place and whatever and all the other bands have to suffer behind them, just because their egos are saying "You're not fucking stadium anymore" but they're fighting it, "But we have to be, everywhere we play, we have to have this, and this, and this." Wereas Testament, it;s not about that at all, it's that you're fucking playing. So you could see that whole difference, and they're a little more comercial too, so there's that kind of need to be like that in the first place.
Will: I don't knwo, just making metal man, make as much as you can, as well as you can, for as long as you can, and play it to whoever you can.
Derek: We were talking about the metal scene resurging, and the reason I would explain for that is just that there's quality shit out there. Some people go out "Oh, black metal", you know, and oyu've got Emperor and Dimmu coming to town, and just kick ass, right? And if you've got that kind of talent out there, and you've goth that kind of talent building in the scene, then it's just gonna be amazing. And the rule is just kind of law of the jungle, they will devour the weaker bands, and take over, and start a fucking riot.
Will: It's like riding through villages, slaughtering. And, until they come to slaughter your village, you're on a rampage man *laughs* Who can slaughter the village the best!
Chris: Where do you guys gope to be going with Solus in the future?
Derek: Forward, not backwards, and always swirling, swirling *laugh*
Will: No, we always like to be leaning in some kind of direction, so right now, fucking, we just hooked up some distribution in the UK, and stuff like that, so we're expanding. Ever since we started, we've expanded very quickly, because we didn't think locally, we always thought globally. You know, people in Germany wanna hear it, probably as much as people in Saskatoon, so, it takes a lot more money and a lot more time and stuff, but, maybe at home it doesn't look like you're growing, but then you look worldwide at all the magazines and shit, and it's fuckign everywhere, radio stations from all over the fucking place, and then all those people kind of wake up, and you start the net from the outside in, instead of from the inside out, you know, it's easier to weave that way. So now, we're on our third release, and you go through the States and people will be like "Yeah man, we've been listening for a while!" or, you know, from all over the fuckign place. It's really cool.
We'd like to go to Europe sometime, you know, go through there.
That ended the interview with Solus for that eve. They put on a great set, and the next time I saw them, they were opening up for Moonspell and In Flames. The future indeed looks bright for them. Make sure to check them out next time they're in your town, check out their website for some soundclips from their albums... BTW, their cover of Defensive Personalities on the Death Tribute album is really cool.
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