Onioner's Interviews Thread

[Onioner]

Hey all, as some of you know I've been writing for Metal Assault for ten months or so now, and I've just started doing some interviews. Ever since Andrew Metalhead left for India, I've been doing the majority of concert reviews for Metal Assault, but now I'm finally giving interviews a shot. I'm starting out small with this first one, a local thrash band from Santa Rosa called Hatchet, but I'll be doing some bigger bands in the coming months. Check it out! If you like it, cool, if not, I'd love to know how I'd be able to improve the interview. That also goes for when and if I put up audio and video interviews in this thread.

This interview was tough because Hatchet have released only one album so far, and they've mainly been performing as an opening act for local concerts, so coming up with questions about the band and their material was a bit tricky. All four members also wanted to be a part of the interview, so that also made it tough to keep everyone involved. They're all really smart and pragmatic guys, and it doesn't really come out in the transcribed interview, but they're also a ton of fun to hang out with. Enjoy, and I look forward to your feedback guys!

http://metalassault.com/Interviews/2...-with-hatchet/

P.S., if this should go in another section of the site, the mods are free to move the thread.

[MPF]

Will be checking this out soon! Glad to finally see a thread from you on this!

[Onioner]

Here's an interview I did with a death/thrash band from San Jose, Speed. Now you can all hear my awkward fucking voice haha.

http://metalassault.com/Interviews/2...e-plans-audio/

I know I said this is in the other post, but I should be doing some pretty cool interviews in the fall, so hopefully those end up happening! I should also be interviewing Vektor when they drop by SF in a couple weeks.

[Spiner202]

Great interview with Hatchet. I've only had the chance to do one interview, so I know how hard coming up with questions is, but you did an awesome job. It's interesting to hear about the thrash resurgence because it seems like it was relatively short lived. I remember back in 2009 and 2010, thrash albums were coming out left and right, but now that seems to have slowed a little bit.

Hatchet are a great band, but much like Invection, they're another California thrash band that seems to have lost a bit of momentum in the last couple of years. I'm still interested in hearing something new from them though.

[Onioner]

Originally Posted by Spiner202

Great interview with Hatchet. I've only had the chance to do one interview, so I know how hard coming up with questions is, but you did an awesome job. It's interesting to hear about the thrash resurgence because it seems like it was relatively short lived. I remember back in 2009 and 2010, thrash albums were coming out left and right, but now that seems to have slowed a little bit.

Hatchet are a great band, but much like Invection, they're another California thrash band that seems to have lost a bit of momentum in the last couple of years. I'm still interested in hearing something new from them though.

Thank you for the compliment! You're right, the thrash resurgence really was a pretty short thing. I remember in high school, shows with really killer bills used to happen every weekend and now the shows that do happen are all over the place in terms of the music represented and have crappy turnouts.

Hatchet really are a damn good band, and they're always a treat to see live. It really is sad though that the peak of success that a thrash band can reach these days is the level of Warbringer or Municipal Waste, and from what I know those guys barely pay their bills. Hopefully now that Orchid signed with Nuclear Blast more labels will be looking for Bay Area bands to sign. There are some amazingly talented acts here, but I feel like no label wants to even check them out.

Speaking of local shows with weird bills and bad turnouts, here's my review of the show that Speed played on.
http://metalassault.com/gig_reviews/...rred-for-life/

[Spiner202]

Originally Posted by Onioner

Thank you for the compliment! You're right, the thrash resurgence really was a pretty short thing. I remember in high school, shows with really killer bills used to happen every weekend and now the shows that do happen are all over the place in terms of the music represented and have crappy turnouts.

I'm pretty jealous that you were right in the heart of it. In Toronto we pretty much only have Fatality (who are awesome, but not enough for tons of thrash shows).

Hatchet really are a damn good band, and they're always a treat to see live. It really is sad though that the peak of success that a thrash band can reach these days is the level of Warbringer or Municipal Waste, and from what I know those guys barely pay their bills. Hopefully now that Orchid signed with Nuclear Blast more labels will be looking for Bay Area bands to sign. There are some amazingly talented acts here, but I feel like no label wants to even check them out.

I think the problem is that thrash just can't be as big as it used to be with death metal around. The people that love thrash really love it, but it seems like most metal fans only like some of the old stuff, and even then, most of them don't dig too deep in thrash. I guess it makes sense; there's more extreme stuff in death and black metal, and more melodic stuff in power metal. Personally though, I don't see any genre being more intense or better than thrash. It's just unfortunate that none of those bands can make any money at this point.

[Onioner]

Here's my interview with Fog of War. These guys are probably one of the most badass live thrash bands around, I was really happy to interview them after pretty much worshipping them in high school.

http://metalassault.com/Interviews/2...th-fog-of-war/

In the next few days I should have my interview with Impaled uploaded. I had to do a lot of editing for clarity and all, so I'm just waiting on the okay from Ross Sewage before it goes up.

[brutal_descent]

Originally Posted by Onioner

In the next few days I should have my interview with Impaled uploaded. I had to do a lot of editing for clarity and all, so I'm just waiting on the okay from Ross Sewage before it goes up.

Looking forward to it!

[Onioner]

Alright, I know I said these were going to be up a while ago, but they're here now so deal with it!

Hopefully you guys will like this one- the Cormorant guys were a real joy to talk to. They're all very intelligent and nice guys who are really united in their vision and their goals for the band. There isn't a single member of the band who puts in a lesser amount of love and effort into the whole thing, and I think this interview really shows that.

http://metalassault.com/Interviews/2...-future-plans/

This interview with Impaled was easily one of the funniest conversations I've ever had with anyone- Ross Sewage had a silly response prepared for literally any statement or question I could ask. Hopefully some lingering questions that a few of you guys have about the band have been answered by this interview, but more than that I hope that you all laugh a little when reading it- I was seriously fighting the urge to crack up so many times throughout the talk itself.

http://metalassault.com/Interviews/2...-with-impaled/

This band, Hemotoxin, are a really small death/thrash band out of the East Bay. Two days before Slaughter By The Water I got a call at like 11 PM from this band's guitarist asking for an interview. Instead of looking these guys up and making a decision like I should have, I impulsively said sure. That was honestly a mistake in retrospect- the band is way too young, and the kid I interviewed hasn't really expanded his thinking and planning to that larger scale yet. He's practical though, and I think he'll really learn a lot about being in a legit band and dealing with all the aspects of social media, recording and live performance very soon if he keeps up his go-getter attitude.

http://metalassault.com/Interviews/2...-future-goals/

Last up is one that I think you all will like at least a little bit, VEKTOR! This is an audio interview, so once again you all get to hear my glorious (by which I mean extremely awkward) voice. Some details about the next album are unveiled, and David talks a lot about where he gets inspiration for the sci-fi themes on the albums.

http://metalassault.com/Interviews/2...t-album-audio/

I hope you all enjoy these, and feedback is more than welcome. I'm still super new to this, so any criticism you all have for me will help.

[treghet]

I loved the Impaled interview! Very funny and you also asked every question I was wondering about.