- Aug 18, 2002
- 9,421
- 16
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from blabbermouth
~gR~
what does everyone think of this. im interested but a little scared of the punk influence. ive never been a punk fan. so i hope its not as simple as punk.
SCUM, an all-new project featuring Samoth (ZYKLON, ex-EMPEROR), Faust (ex-EMPEROR), Happy Tom (TURBONEGRO), Casey Chaos (AMEN) and Cosmocrator (MINDGRINDER), have begun recording an album at Crystal Canyon Studio (TURBONEGRO, WE, EUROBOY) in Norway. Although no label or album title has been finalized, provisional songtitles include "Gospels for the Sick", "The Truth Will Be Sold" and "Hate the Sane". Chaos spoke to the U.K.'s Terrorizer magazine from the studio about the genesis of the project and the unfolding nature of the music.
"Over the past two years I've had a project here," he begins, "I'm trying to make an album that's never been made before. It incorporates black metal with real punk rock. They say it was my brainchild to a degree, but I don't look at it that way, it's been like a war (laughs)! They're the best people I've ever played with. I've never, ever seen people so dedicated.
"The real crime," he continues, "is that these guys haven't been playing together all this time. They're so gifted, there's so much natural chemistry. I never understood why I never really got into American metal but Norwegian black metal always had a place I can tell now. They're so dedicated and so pure. It's a real purity thing. EMPEROR turned me on to black metal, pretty much, it changed my life in the way that punk did and I wanted to do something that would be an important record and reach out to other people. The intent of punk rock and black metal are basically the same. You're outcasts of society."
On the style of the still-emerging songs he adds, "It doesn't sound like anything, that's the best thing. It doesn't even sound like what I thought it was gonna sound like. The original blueprint was Norwegian black metal with hooky, punk rock choruses, something along those vibes. But it's turned into a total inspiration for everybody. I've never experienced anything like it in my life and I've gone through a lot of shit (laughs)! It just goes from one song sounding like SWANS meets SABBATH to songs that have an old DARKTHRONE vibe, to DISSECTION, to NEUROSIS, to CELTIC FROST it's those vibes but it's not blatantly stealing. And me singing on it makes it a lot different. It's a total freedom album and the band's bigger than all of us."
On his role as frontman he commented, "Vocally it's the most challenging thing I've done. At times I'm pushing myself to do the black metal thing, but it's way more. There's something weird happening."
He concluded, "I think everyone who hears it will just be blown away. It's gonna shake some shit up."
~gR~
