British Extreme metal band Anaal Nathrakh released their tenth studio album titled ‘A new kind of horror’ on September 28, 2018 via Metal Blade Records. The band comprising of founding members and duo Mick Kenney and Dave Hunt released two singles previously title ‘Forward’ and ‘Obscene as Cancer’. I caught up with Dave to talk about the new album and lot of other things.
Hi Dave greetings from India. How have you been ?
Hi mate thank you for having me. Been busy of late.
The new album ‘A new kind of Horror’ is out. How would you best describe the album and also does the album draw a lot from historical eents like World War One and stuff ?
The new album is a bit sharper and colder album than our previous one. It feels more direct and more raw to me and that’s subjective and someone might disagree (laughs) but that’s how it sounds to me and yeah there’s a lot of stuff going on in there, a lot of themes and yes you are right World War One is one such theme. And obviously its been hundred years since the end of World War One and that brought it to mind definitely. Mick and I have talked a lot in the past about what it must have been like to be involved cause it seemed like hell basically and to go through it.and not be terribly scarred and also when we were at school both of us studied the poetry of that time and it always stuck with me specially the ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ poem forms the inspiration for our song ‘Obscene as Cancer’ and also the poem ‘Aftermath’ which is an inspiration for the song ‘Are we fit for Glory yet’. Thinking about the stuff that happened back then might give a perspective of the things that are happening today and i think that’s something always worth bearing in mind.
The ‘Forward’ sounded very experimental and different.Was it planned for the album that way or it just popped up?
Yeah we tend not to plan experimenting in great detail because we want to be guided by what feels right rather than trying to be clever and decide what must be done. But yeah we do like to do things that are a bit different sometimes and the song ‘Forward’ originally came from a suggestion. We started with the Staccato riff at the start of it and it snowballed from there. If you only do what everyone expects you to do it becomes boring sometimes and sometimes its good to do different things and have some people going like ‘What the fuck is this?’ (laughs). The part of the experimentation probably is that it is most probably a more straightforward song than we normally do and it is much more sane than a lot of stuff we do (laughs). But it felt right and we had a small album preview at a club in London and that song really worked and we are really proud.
Going by the band’s name, lyrical themes and the depiction of many stories and events in your music, are you guys even remotely influenced by Pop Culture?
We most probably are but not in the obvious way. We will not do a Justin Bieber cover or something like that (laughs) but yeah to an extent we are maybe. We both have listened to a very wide variety of music for example, one of the things we share is that we are big fans of Michael Jackson around the ‘Bad’ kind of time and not many metal band will say that (laughs). Most metal bands will be like yes well you have Wasp, you have Iron Maiden and Judas priest and i have never listened to anything else ever. No we are not like that. I certainly remember a few albums ago around the time of ‘Vanitas’ actually i became quite interested in what Lady Gaga was doing an almost casting herself as this high priest figure kind of like it was intentionally meaningless and in that kind of way pop culture can be an influence on us but in a more general sense its not a conscious influence on us because e are not all that exposed to it. I think Mick has ended up in places because of what the society in California is like and when you go to a bar you will not get Cannibal Corpse playing there but pop music. He has been more exposed to it than me.
It’s been some time from your first album to now and having played so many shows, done this many albums and having seen things and experienced places, what has changed for you personally and professionally?
Umm…Kind of a lot and nothing at the same time. Obviously the kind of boring behind the scene stuff has changed an awful lot, the kind of technology has changed to music available in general and available to us.When we started out the eight track thing with the cassettes sounded fucking awful (laughs) whereas now you got softwares and computers and you can do all manners of things and if i try to stand back from the band and look at it objectively music is much broader now and i think we still have the savage kind of stuff we had in the first album and we haven’t lost it at all and be can be as savage we were but there are more things alongside that now and a broader palette of colors going on in what we do and i think its good personally and it makes it more interesting. I mean when we listen back to the first album we respect and enjoy it but it seems quite simple to us now but its not a bad thing,its just a difference as it was hat it was then and we are what we are now. But one of the things that hasn’t changed is us paradoxically. I mean we’ve gotten older and a little bit fatter though we try not to be (laughs) but we find it to be the same and we are as excited and fascinated to do what we do and wwe still have the hunger. So yeah some things are lot different but in a way the same too.
As a songwriter and a musician do you get into a mould sometimes while doing music or writing songs keeping in mind every aspect of life that is happening around you and also taking into account personal and professional life?
I think it’s more a case of trying not to be in that mould, trying not to have that mindset in normal life What you said there would be like putting on a hat and becoming the Anaal Nathrakh monster (laughs) and that’s not how it feels and all the stuff related to the music is at the back of the mind but you can’t live there hundred percent of the time. Sometimes you have to your girlfriend (laughs) or sometimes i have to speak to my mother. You don’t talk to your girlfriend or mother as you would talk to your boss but both of those things is still you doing it. That’s the way it is , the power of our personalities that comes out in our songs and its not always on the surface and when its time to make a records we release it.
How important is touring for you guys ?
With some bands it seems like making records for them is annoying and they look mostly to getting out there and play but we are not like that. We get a lot out of the studio experience and everything but yeah some of the possibilities that touring opens up to go and connect with people at places where you would never otherwise get to is a really humbling experience and it has been profoundly important for us and we have to Japan and Australia and people like us from the working class background can’t just decide and go there and more so the fact that people are happy and waiting for you to be there is a great experience and it has changed a lot of things for us.
Well being a two piece metal band/duo how hard or easy it is to assemble a band for a live show?
The short answer is we manage it with great difficulty (laughs) but that kind of thing comes down to the people that you work with and we are lucky enough to work with people who are able to get this stuff together in theirr heads quite well and some of them are fans of the band and even when they are not playing they do listen to the songs which helps a lot because if you understand music like this from inside you can play it more easily and freely. We pick out the songs we want to play and send them to people ho will play and they do it and as a build up to the show we jam though Micky is far away and we get it good enough to be played in the shos and we are lucky and blessed to play in that way.
Creative differences anytime, you guys being fifty percent of the vote yourself for any decision?
I don’t know really because it doesn’t really happen. I think right from the start we both shared the idea of what this was all about. For example if you go with us into the studios you probably wouldn’t understand what we say because we talk in littles noises and ideas that only makes sense to the two off us. We are so much on the same page to begin with we have a very strong feeling of what we are doing. I mean every now and then we will come up with a bad idea but it is easier for us to explain why its is. I don’t think there has ever been a time we were stuck between a rock and a hard place and each of us had different opinions.
There will always be different listeners to the band’s music and also old and new fans and some newer fans might not like the old Anaal Nathrakh sound as they have been maybe introduced to the band with the newer albums. How do you look into it and does that play on your mind when doing new music ?
Yeah that kind of thing does happen and its not uncommon for any band who is out there for sometime and it does happen to us but one thing we have definitely seen where people came up to us and say that either they got into us from the last couple of albums and they will buy the old stuff and some come and say they started with the old stuff and they will try the new stuff and there are people say ho say our music is shit. I think you have to do what you think is right and the moment you make music with the intention to please people only you lose that spark and integrity and we are who we are and we will do what we are going to do no matter what.
One album that is a guilty pleasure for you?
I don’t think i have any guilty pleasure. I am quite open to listening to music that other people think is shit (laughs). I suppose you might say John Grant who is a solo artist who is an American living in Iceland and plays pop laden music and talks a hell lot about himself (laughs)
A movie that you would want your music to be a part of ?
In the film Fight Club there is this really weird sex scene where there is blood and trails going on and the visuals are so chaotic and our music will be great to cover up the sex scene (laughs).
When not doing music, what are the things that you do?
Well the thing that i do most of the time when i am not doing music is my Phd. Its pat time as music takes up a lot of time. For the past five years i have been working on a Phd in a subject called Meta Ethics which is quite heavu sort of stuff but essentially what if there is no moral truth, what if nothing is wrong or nothing is right . I don’t know if people will be fascinated by it but they might be vaguely interested in it (laughs).
You said before the interview that you met Demonic Resurrection in a festival. have you met more bands or come across other Indian bands too ?
I haven’t heard any other Indian band which is a shame and if there is a lively scene there it should be brought over here but there are two things that get in the way. One is i don’t read much magazines now as i used to which is my own fault. Secondly, not many of the bands get coverage here and it would be better if the music press would show interest in them and yes i met DR and they sounded great and enjoyed meeting them but we get to know about them because they came here and i like your bands to come here more often and us going to India and with Internet it should be more so.
Shine some light on V.I.T.R.I.O.L ?
To an extent it is a bit of silliness (laughs) and i didn’t just want to use Dave (laughs).
There are two reason for Vitriol. One is the Latin phrase you’re talking about and the hidden stone it talks about at the end is the philosopher’s stone and i like the idea of that as for a long time i have studied philosophy and i still study it and i have been working on big philosophy project for several years and i liked it but also if you read it as a word i.e Vitriol, its a very old word for Sulphuric acid and it seemed like a very corrosive acid was kind of the way to describe the way i was thinking and thats where the name came from.
How would you describe your new album to your fans ?
To a new fan i would say its very abrasive, its very violent and it doesn’t stop there and there’s a lot of things and a lot of quite emotional sounding sounds and lot of different parts to those sounds which won’t find in bands vaguely similar. Its got some heart to it and it has something quite human to it although in the surface it might sound like mechanical slaughter(laughs) and you’re the journalist and you’ll best describe it (laughs)
Leave a message for you Indian fans and also when can we see you in India?
I am so pleased to hear there are so many Indian fans and i would love to thank you all and i don’t know when we can make it there but we would love to. Fingers crossed. Thank you !!!
Interviewed by : Ashiqur Rohman
