WITCHAVEN is a great black/thrash band from Southern California. Henry is a cool motherfucker and quite a metal maniac so I had to track him down and have a talk about what they will be up to in 2010 and other things. Support these guys! They are the real deal!
Interview by Mike Abominator
1. Hails Henry! How are things going for you these days? I do remember the first time I saw you guys and our talks of Immortal, Autopsy and Iron Maiden! haha. It has been very good for you guys coming out of the Los Angeles Thrash Scene!
Henry:Hows it going Mike? things on our end is most excellent we are just getting ready to release our album and hit the road
2. Although it has been good for Witchaven, it has been frustrating, for me, to see that you guys haven't had the attention and major label interest like some of the other bands that exploded out of this thrash resurgence the last few years. How do you feel overall about this?
Henry:personally i don't care... it was never my intentions to get signed and do it simply for the fame. The band was started on the basis that all we would do is play venom covers for the fun of it and i try to keep the same mentality. We just do it mostly for the love of the music. If we get signed or not, it doesn't matter we will continue to do what we love and that is to play some ripping music. I have always been a fan of DIY music and that's basically all of black metal and punk. So we are none different than them. If labels cant understand our views,music and intentions then fuck em... we are not going to dumb ourselves down and make cheesy brainless pizza thrash.
3. So there is a tour coming this spring with Hatchet. How did this come about?
well basically we have an album coming out.. and the best way to spread the word is to hit the road.
Henry:We talked to Hatchet about doing a spring tour when we meet up with them and Havok from Colorado for a few shows in the bay area. They seemed up for the trip so we are now locked and loaded for another trek around the states.
4. The new sample tracks on myspace sound fucking awesome. What will the album be called and when is it coming out? What label is putting it out?
Henry:Thanks a lot! I'm glad you like the tunes.As for the name we have yet to decide, it has some what been a challenge for us.We originally wanted to call the album Terrostorm, but we feel that a more appropriate name should come at hand.Something more along the lines of a D-Beat album.
The album will be coming out this winter. We are thinking of a February release, but surely before the tour in march. we will also be self releasing the album on a 1000 hand numbered copies. we figure if we can sell about a thousand copies then we have succeeded. If we need more we will do a second press or maybe release it on a label if we get picked up. Either way expect a very vulgar and very graphic cover with the sickest black thrash we can dish out.
5. Obviously, like in question 1, you do have a wide spectrum of taste within metal. You do love thrash/death/black/traditional metal and even crust punk. Have all of these style influenced Witchaven?
Henry:Of course! we take many influences from many forms of music. We take influence from punk to gangster rap to classic jazz and blues. Basically anything raw and true to the heart. I like to think that I can decipher real music and when its good to my ears. We take everything we hear and funnel it in to our music. You may not be able to hear all the influences but they are all there. It can be anything from the lyrics to simple drum patterns.But indeed the strongest influences are crust punk,D-beat,Thrash,Black Metal, and Death metal of course. Individually we have our own preferences, some may be more into punk others are into death metal and i am mostly into d-beat and black metal, but we all come together on thrash.
6. Witchaven seems to be building quite a big following the old fashioned way, by hard work and hitting the road and doing it yourself. Tell me about the tour with Exmortus and Bonded By Blood last year. There were tons of killer fucking stories you had eh?
Henry:Fuckin aye that's how we like to do it! putting in work! The tour was amazing, it was our first experience traveling all of the U.S. We grew a lot stronger as a band because of it. For damn sure we had plenty of good times. we met a lot of other bands too out on the road that we made friends with. Plenty of good times, too many to even try to reminisce about.But there is one event that i must tell ya about though, when we played out in Alabama our friends that we brought to help us out with merch and gear went out to get liquor while we played our set. None of us had no idea that they did not sell booze on Sunday out in Alabama. Anyways,while the guys where on the hunt for drink they ran into some police and they pulled em over. Sure enough they searched our van and found about an ounce of weed and other marijuana paraphernalia and took the guys in. As i finish playing our set i go outside for some air and there i see a police officer asking for a Henry Montoya. I say I'm Henry and he tells me basically that our guys are in jail,that they impounded our van and that we can call bail bonds for a quote on the bail for our friends. I call the bail bonds and they just start laughing saying " its gonna cost y'all alotta money to git them boys out". So we called the police station and they told us we could either pay and bail em out or we can wait 2 days till they are released.
sure enough we had to stay the night in Alabama at some shitty motel, got a cab ride down to street the next morning to the impound lot that cost us 20 dollars,got back our van, drove out to Nashville Tennessee, drove back to Alabama to pick up our comrades and smashed all the way out to North Carolina to play a show that same day. That was just a typical day for us out on the road...
7. At one point there was a whole line up change within the band and problems later on with finding a bass player. Is the lineup now all set and situated? The warriors seem to be in place now!
Henry:Everything is in place we are all set and determined. Now that we have Jorge in the band it feels a lot more uniform. We are all on top of things and we are set and ready to do some serious damage.
The way it all came to be was when Jorge contacted us about trying out for bass. Jorge had played with Jerry our guitarist in a band called Infantry so we all knew it would be good chemistry all around. We took him out for a Texas road trip and he seemed cool. We just finished recording the album and i must say that Jorge is working out in the band perfectly.
8. When the fuck is the Witchaven/Gravehill split 7 inch coming out godamit?
Henry:lets make it happen this summer!
9. What are a few of your favorite places to play so far and why?
Henry:There are many places that we enjoy playing. For sure nothing beats the Black Castle on a raging night full of freaks. Tis a shame that they are shutting down the place. Besides playing out in LA we love the Bay Area, its basically our second home. We have an excellent fallowing out there and so many friends that every time we come out we feel respected and at home. Other places include Portland Oregon and all of the Lone Star State, every time we play these spots its always a guaranteed insane show.
10. Are there any plans to get over to Europe, Japan or Australia?
Henry:We hope to go out there maybe next year.. but none of those doors have been opened up for us yet, It is still only a dream for us. But with hard work i'm sure we will get out there. I'm hoping that we can build enough momentum out in the states that it can launch us out over seas.
11. Tell me your first memories of when you got into heavy metal and why do you think you ended up loving it so much?
Henry:When i was younger my parents would show me a lot of classic rock and heavy metal. they would put on music from bands like creedence, scorpions,foreigner,guns n roses,pink floyd,dokken and rush. It was that music that opened my mind to more hard rock stuff that was coming out at the time that eventually led me to Metallica. From metallica i learned about slayer and pantera and all the essential heavy stuff. At the same time i had my cousins showing me punk rock in high school. All of that just meshed together and i found bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Mercyful Fate,Accept and all the real die hard type stuff. As i went deeper into metal i found Thrash. That was a turning point for me. thrash metal later lead me to bands like Venom, Celtic Frost and Bathory. It was those bands that finally opened my eyes to more intense black metal. But the main reason i always loved metal was the aggression it expresses. It really spoke to me, punk was the same for me but metal would just take it to a whole new level. When i was getting into the whole metal thing it was my own, everyone was barely getting into that emo screamo hardcore fag shit and all i can remember thinking was how much i hated that garbage for music. I would always laugh and gawk at the kids at my school for dressing the way they did. So i grew out my hair and wore the most offensive metal shirts possible. It sucked for me because at the time thrash had not seen its revival and so i was always alone with my metal, no friends to share the music with. At the time i had a lot of trouble in my life with school,drugs,gangs,girls and at home. It was a real hard time for me and i remember the only time i would be able to escape all the shitty times was when i would blast metal and forget my problems as the hairs on my arms and neck would stand up to the euphoric sounds of true aggression and violence. it was my only escape, eventually i found like minded folk and started my first bands and ever since i have seen a full resurgence of metal everywhere.
12. There are some political videos that are on your myspace page. Where do you think the state of our country is at right now?
Henry:Yeah we like to express our opinion, we don't try to impose it on anyone. As far as the state of this country... It is a complete failure! I wont get into it too much for if i get started i wont be able to stop and im sure you dont want to read 3 pages worth of my thoughts on how shitty this country is... the worst part is that in effect our shitty country is so shitty that it takes fat shits over other countries and makes them even shittier. basically i will sum up the united states in one word...SHIT!
13. What bands have you been listening to recently that you would recomend to the readers?
Henry:Bestial Mockery is one band that i cannot stop listening to, i highly recommend them to anyone who is into a more barbaric style of black metal. (Mike: FUCK YEAH! "Slaying The Life" is on constant play at all times for me!)
14. OK your on a deserted island with your beers, whiskey, kush, coke and a hot chick. But you only have room for 10 albums, what 10 would you bring?
Henry:holy hell thats hard! but a good situation to be in...
since you put it that way im gonna have to go with bare essentials
1 Iron Maiden-powerslave
2 Judas Priest-Defenders of the Faith
3 Destroyer666- Unchain the Wolves
4 Possessed-Seven Churches
5 Satanic Warmaster-Carelian Satanist Madness
6 Kreator-Terrible Certainty
7 The Varukers-One Fight,One Struggle
8 Anti-Cimex-Scandinavian Jawbreaker
9 Bathory-Under the Sign of the Black Mark
10 Snoop Dogg- Doggystyle
15. What song is THE WITCHAVEN SONG! The classic that you will always play live and that still give you goosebumps.
Henry:Well I'm not sure if any of them are classics.. but i do know i always get a kick out of playing the song Terrostorm. No matter how many times we play that song i always get the feel for it. its one of those songs that really pumps me up when i play it live.
16. OK my brother. It is always awesome talking with you. Witchaven will always fucking rule. And 2010 shall be your year! Any last words to the masses?
Henry:THANKS A LOT FOR THE INTERVIEW
all i got to say is
do onto others as others do onto you... LIE,CHEAT,STEAL,RAPE AND KILL!
feels damn good to be 'Merican! GOD BLESS!
Well, there you have it. Witchaven rules live so make sure you go see them on tour when they hit your town. Much respect to Henry and the boys. And get in touch with them about merchandise and what not at:
www.myspace.com/witchaven
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