Today's guests are
about to release their stunning debut album – Suzerain. It's a
complex, bleak and very progressive style of Doom/Sludge Metal.
Taking influence from bands such as YOB, Neurosis, Cough and THOU,
these guys still have their own sound.
I became aware of them
back in 2015 when they released a single called Seismic. A song that
showed a brief glimpse of their true potential. Now with Suzerain
about to be released on April 18th 2016, I have a feeling
we will be hearing a lot more from MERCHANT. Another great band from
the superb Australian Sludge/Doom Metal scene that has provided so
many other great bands over the years recently.
MERCHANT have kindly
agreed to doing this interview with me where we discuss the usual
Outlaws Of The Sun topics. I wanted to know what influenced to record
an album this bleak and what they think of the rising Australian
Doom/Sludge/Stoner Metal scene.
So read on if you want
to find out more...
Hi
guys. Thanks for doing this interview. How are things with you today.
Thanks
for having us. Things are good. We're all pretty busy getting ready
to release our album and doing all the behind the scenes stuff that
comes with it.
Can
you give a brief history of the band. How the band came together. And
did you know each other before you formed the band or played in
previous bands with each other.
Ben
(guitar), Nick (drums) and I (Wilson, bass) got together in late 2014
with the intention of making a heavy stoner/doom band. We've all
known each other for 10+ years and have played in bands together
before, so the fit was right straight away.
Mirgy
(vocals) came along about 4-5 months later when we got to a point
where we needed a vocalist to make the songs progress. Mirgy has
never done brutal vocals in a band before and Ben, usually a bassist
until now, hadn't played guitar in a band before either so it was a
bit of a new experience all round.
How
would you describe your own sound.
In
a few words - thick, psych drenched sludge.
You’re
about to release your new album – Suzerain. It’s an excellent
record. What can people expect from your record?
Thanks
man, good to hear it struck a chord with you. In my eyes it's an
album full of grating guitars and odd timed riffing, psychedelic
guitar leads, layered brutal vocals, churning bass, elements of
tribal drumming and worship of the slow and heavy.
Why
did you choose the name Suzerain for the album. Any specific meaning.
The
title track Suzerain came about after a couple of us read Cormac
McCarthy's 'Blood Meridian'. The book is a pretty intense tale of a
bloodthirsty gang in Texas around the mid ~1800's who collect scalps
in exchange for currency. One of the characters is a seemingly
immortal, omniscient man who is almost mythological in the area where
they roam. He refers to himself at one point as a Suzerain, which is
a feudal lord who has power of more minor lords in the area. A king
of kings, really.
The
song covers the quest for blood and the descent into madness that
surely comes with a stressful job like that.
The
album is a very bleak and complex album. Did you expect the album to
be this bleak when you were writing and recording it?
Honestly,
when we were writing it, we just thought it was groove driven and
epic. Once we got into the studio and started listening back, that's
when it kind of dawned on us that it was pretty bleak. The vocal
layers really help to add to the menacing and claustrophobic sound in
our opinion.
What
inspired you when you were writing and recording the album and what
was the overall recording experience like for the album?
Our
main sources of collective inspiration are bands like YOB, Thou,
Eyehategod, Conan, and Bongzilla. All those bands make either genre
defining or genre defying music, which is incredibly inspiring. We
had a pretty good time at Goatsound with Fuller (Blood Duster, The
Ruiner), he's a knowledgeable dude who doesn't sweat the little
things which can bog you down sometimes. He's also got some pretty
funny stories from 25 years of being the underground metal world. The
recording experience itself was unreal. We tracked all the rhythm
parts and drums together, which really helps with the overall vibe I
think. It definitely creates a bit more of a raw experience where the
songs push and pull with what's occurring in the room.
What
does the album represent to yourselves personally?
For
the band as a collective, the album represents the first chapter and
having gotten this far. Personally, and aside from the scalp hunting,
the album's concepts touch on the world turning to dystopia, death of
those near as well as insanity waiting in the shadows.
What
is the song writing dynamic in the band. Is it down to an individual
or a group collective.
Writing
is definitely group driven usually with an individual as the
catalyst. Usually someone will bring a riff or two that go together
and then we'll see what everyone else has up their sleeve and try and
put it all together.
We
spend a lot of time trying things with different feels, drum rhythms,
vocal patterns so we can get the best out of a riff. We end up
exhausting a lot of possibilities this way - which is helpful for
filtering out what works and what doesn't.
Will
you be touring this record heavily at home? Can you give any details?
Australia
is a pretty huge country and touring can become difficult because of
that. We've got trips planned all around the country for the latter
part of the year but not in any continuous stretch. Currently, we've
got a trip to Brisbane in July and are looking at Adelaide in August.
What
is the scene like currently in Australia. It appears to thriving with
a ton of great bands starting to make a name for themselves. Do you
perform a lot of gigs in your hometown of Melbourne or surrounding
areas.
There's
some killer bands in Australia now, and especially Melbourne. There's
now a few generations of heavy bands in Melbourne, which allows newer
bands to come up too. Bands like Watchtower, Space Bong, DEAD, BOG,
Roundtable and Field are all doing really interesting, genre pushing
stuff. We try and play once or twice a month in Melbourne if we can.
We pretty much take any show that is thrown our way!
What
is your equipment set-up when playing live or recording in the
studio. Do you have an advanced set-up or a basic set-up.
We
tend towards the more basic set-up in Merchant. A few fuzzes on both
mine and Ben's pedal boards plus some more psychedelic pedals and
some big cymbals for Nick to try and drown us out with. Mirgy is
pretty straight up with the vocals too, no tricks there - just grim
screams.
Thanks
for doing this interview guys. All the best with the new album.
Thanks
mate and thanks to Outlaws Of The Sun for doing what you do. Much
appreciated
Words
by Steve Howe and MERCHANT.
Thanks
to Merchant for taking the time out to talking to me. Suzerain will
be available to buy from April 18th 2016. You can read my
review here.
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