Matt Pinfield of Fanpass conducted an interview with KORN guitarist Brian "Head" Welch at this year's Welcome To Rockville festival, which was held April 26-27 at Metro Park in Jacksonville, Florida. You can now watch the chat below.
Welch, a former drug addict and reformed Christian, spoke about what it's like touring with KORN since rejoining the band in early 2013, eight years after first leaving the band. "I like to get high on something, and when I asked the Lord to come and make his home inside of me, the spiritual high, it's so real," Welch said. "And I hate religion — I don't talk about religion at all — but the relationship through Christ is what I found. And I'm totally satisfied. Now I can enjoy raising my kid, I can enjoy jamming with music in KORN, I can enjoy anything I do. It's the best high ever."
Welch also discussed how his attitude has changed since first he fell victim to the pitfalls and excesses of rock stardom, saying: "When you get that big, everyone's, like, crawling after you and everything, and you start to believe, even if you don't say it, you start to believe that it's about you. And what I've come to realize is it's all about them, it's all about the fans, it's all about them and the music. You're here to give to them, not to be some king rock star. It's all about them."
As previously reported, Welch is getting ready to write his fourth book. Welch, who has three previous tomes to his credit, told The Pulse Of Radio that his new one will focus on the time he spent away from KORN between 2005 and 2013. "I call 'em like 'the wilderness years,' when I was gone in a way, raising my daughter and doing all that stuff for all those years," he said. "And then, you know, getting together with the KORN guys again and — you know like my first book, like I told about my whole childhood and all the details and everything? I'm gonna do the same with this during like the mysterious 'wilderness years,' I like to call 'em."
Welch's previous books include 2008's "Save Me From Myself: How I Found God, Quit Korn, Kicked Drugs, And Lived To Tell My Story", a young adult variation on that called "Washed By Blood: Lessons From My Time With Korn And My Journey To Christ" and 2010's "Stronger: Forty Days Of Metal And Spirituality".
Welch left KORN in 2005, got sober and embraced Christianity, saying that as a single father he did not want his daughter around the rock and roll lifestyle. "The last two years I was in KORN, I partied non-stop and started doing speed every day," he said. "I got so addicted that I got scared. I tried to go to rehab, but that didn't work. No one could help me. Then I ended up seeing if Jesus was real, and He instantly took the drugs away. He revealed Himself to me and gave me the strength. Once I figured that out, I knew I was accountable to God."
Welch pursued a solo career for several years before rejoining KORN onstage in 2012 at a festival. He reunited with the group permanently last year and recorded his first album with them in 10 years, "The Paradigm Shift".
New Orleans' disciples of hardcore, blues-based, post-amplified audio wreckage, EYEHATEGOD will unleash their long-anticipated new studio recording later this spring. Set for North American release via Housecore Records, the domestic version of the self-titled offering will come in a CD digipack while the LP will be a single slab of vinyl in a gatefold jacket. The first pressing will be limited to 1600 copies and made available in the following colors:
* Black (600 copies)
* Purple (300 copies)
* Clear (400 copies)
* Purple and Grey (300 copies)
"Eyehategod" track listing:
01. Agitation! Propaganda!
02. Trying To Crack The Hard Dollar
03. Parish Motel Sickness
04. Quitter's Offensive
05. Nobody Told Me
06. Worthless Rescue
07. Framed To The Wall
08. Robitussin And Rejection
09. Flags And Cities Bound
10. Medicine Noose
11. The Age Of Bootcamp
Preorder packages including various CD, LP and T-shirt bundles are currently available via Housecore Records at this location.
"Eyehategod" will be released on May 27 by their partners at Housecore Records in North America, May 26 by Century Media in Europe, Australia and New Zealand and May 21 by Daymare in Japan.
Comments EYEHATEGOD vocalist Mike IX Williams: "I have to say I don't believe we've lost nary a step in the creation of this album and we think these newer songs are a killer combination of classic EYEHATEGOD mixed along with our best production, mixing, engineering and songwriting in thirteen years. The main and total tragic break in the chain, was obviously last year's death of our great friend and drummer, Joey LaCaze. However, his original drum tracks made it onto the final master recordings and we're fucking psyched about that... As for working with Housecore, it was a no-brainer. We've always been a family, and will always remain a family."
Adds Housecore founder Philip H. Anselmo (PANTERA, DOWN): "Being a part of the new EYEHATEGOD record is a dream come true. I've known, supported and loved the guys for almost as long as I've been playing music myself, and it is our pleasure here at the Housecore Records compound to have 'em aboard. And I gotta mention, having heard the new record, this is the EYEHATEGOD record every true fan has been waiting for.... Hail!"
In related news, EYEHATEGOD will take to the streets again next month for a short string of live takeovers including a return trip to Japan with VENOM and MORBID ANGEL, a stint on Three Floyds Beer's annual Dark Lord Day Festival as well as various onstage abrasions through the West Coast and the previously announced Baltimore, Maryland gala with HIGH ON FIRE and CORROSION OF CONFORMITY, with additional dates to be announced in the coming weeks.
As a band that helped create a genre as well as equate a city with a sound, EYEHATEGOD has always remained humble anytime words like "legend" were thrown around to describe them. The thing with legends is that they grow stronger in time and over the years, word of mouth has been kind to the band. EYEHATEGOD is bigger now than they ever have been in their twenty-five plus years as a band. Pretty impressive seeing as they haven't released a full-length album in almost fifteen years. Most people who know the band have a story to tell or they heard a story about the guys. Whether it was them playing nothing but feedback to a bewildered WHITE ZOMBIE crowd during their opening stint for the arena metal band in the mid-Nineties, being banned from a certain venue for attacking a promoter with a barstool or cleaning out entire small towns of their drug supply, these stories spread throughout the metal community over the years, usually through a game of one-up-manship, establishing them as one of the most notorious bands around.
Certainly not the first band to be surrounded by myth and lore, EYEHATEGOD's staying and growing power ultimately comes from the music. No one riffs like Jimmy Bower and Brian Patton. Drummer Joey LaCaze grooved and held it together with numerous bass players throughout the years, doing so impeccably with Gary Mader over the past decade. Singer Mike IX Williams has always been able to encapsulate the ruins of life through his lyrics and vocal delivery. All combined, the music is the most genuine, distressing cacophony of sound around.
"BLACK SABBATH mixed with BLACK FLAG with a little bit of SKYNYRD and the element of blues thrown in there," Bower once said of the band's sound. In 2014 that style might sound somewhat commonplace. In 1988 it most definitely was not. The band's second album, 1993's "Take As Needed For Pain", is the pinnacle album that other bands of this genre to this day try to reach. Today, EYEHATEGOD sounds as fresh and innovative as ever. When the band released its first new track in over a decade, "New Orleans Is The New Vietnam", it was clear that nothing about the band had changed. They were touring more than ever and used that time and energy to work on an album's worth of songs. At the end of 2012 they were ready.
The recording process for "Eyehategod" started with producer Billy Anderson back in the fold (he recorded 1996's "Dopesick"). The session saw both producer and band not quite on the same page and at the end, the album was unfinished. A few months later, the band reconvened at longtime friend Phil Anselmo's home studio with producer Stephen Berrigan (DOWN). Both Anselmo and Berrigan helped draw out the missing pieces to one of underground metal's most anticipated albums in years.
An unexpected tragedy occurred shortly upon returning home from a recent five-week European tour in the fall of 2013: Joey LaCaze passed away due to respiratory failure. An outpouring of condolences and tributes spread online. Enough can't be said of the loss felt by the band, family and friends. Fortunately, LaCaze's drum tracks were captured by Anderson and appear on the album, creating the definitive tribute for the member of the band who encapsulated best just what EYEHATEGOD was all about; seriously not taking yourself too seriously. New Orleans native, Aaron Hill (MOUNTAIN OF WIZARD, MISSING MONUMENTS), took over for LaCaze without missing a beat, both figuratively and literally. The band hit the road after wrapping up the record and plan to embark upon their most exhaustive touring schedule to date.
EYEHATEGOD is:
Mike IX Williams - Vocals
Jimmy Bower - Guitar
Brian Patton - Guitar
Gary Mader - Bass
Aaron Hill - Drums
Following countless years of personal hardships, studio disasters and times of music industry indecision, New Orleans' own EYEHATEGOD, with much relief and excitement, has announced the release of its brand new full-length. Entirely assembled and financed by the band, the self-titled, eleven-track longplayer will be released on May 27 by their partners at Housecore Records in North America, May 26 by Century Media in Europe, Australia and New Zealand and May 21 by Daymare in Japan.
Comments EYEHATEGOD vocalist Mike IX Williams: "I have to say I don't believe we've lost nary a step in the creation of this album and we think these newer songs are a killer combination of classic EYEHATEGOD mixed along with our best production, mixing, engineering and songwriting in thirteen years. The main and total tragic break in the chain, was obviously last year's death of our great friend and drummer, Joey LaCaze. However, his original drum tracks made it onto the final master recordings and we're fucking psyched about that... As for working with Housecore, it was a no-brainer. We've always been a family, and will always remain a family."
Adds Housecore founder Philip H. Anselmo (PANTERA, DOWN): "Being a part of the new EYEHATEGOD record is a dream come true. I've known, supported and loved the guys for almost as long as I've been playing music myself, and it is our pleasure here at the Housecore Records compound to have 'em aboard. And I gotta mention, having heard the new record, this is the EYEHATEGOD record every true fan has been waiting for.... Hail!"
As a precursor to the release, EYEHATEGOD will play a special one-off show with HIGH ON FIRE, CORROSION OF CONFORMITY, MAGRUDERGRIND, STRONG INTENTION and ILSA at the Ottobar in Baltimore, Maryland on April 27.
As a band that helped create a genre as well as equate a city with a sound, EYEHATEGOD has always remained humble anytime words like "legend" were thrown around to describe them. The thing with legends is that they grow stronger in time and over the years, word of mouth has been kind to the band. EYEHATEGOD is bigger now than they ever have been in their twenty-five plus years as a band. Pretty impressive seeing as they haven't released a full-length album in almost fifteen years. Most people who know the band have a story to tell or they heard a story about the guys. Whether it was them playing nothing but feedback to a bewildered WHITE ZOMBIE crowd during their opening stint for the arena metal band in the mid-Nineties, being banned from a certain venue for attacking a promoter with a barstool or cleaning out entire small towns of their drug supply, these stories spread throughout the metal community over the years, usually through a game of one-up-manship, establishing them as one of the most notorious bands around.
Certainly not the first band to be surrounded by myth and lore, EYEHATEGOD's staying and growing power ultimately comes from the music. No one riffs like Jimmy Bower and Brian Patton. Drummer Joey LaCaze grooved and held it together with numerous bass players throughout the years, doing so impeccably with Gary Mader over the past decade. Singer Mike IX Williams has always been able to encapsulate the ruins of life through his lyrics and vocal delivery. All combined, the music is the most genuine, distressing cacophony of sound around.
"BLACK SABBATH mixed with BLACK FLAG with a little bit of SKYNYRD and the element of blues thrown in there," Bower once said of the band's sound. In 2014 that style might sound somewhat commonplace. In 1988 it most definitely was not. The band's second album, 1993's "Take As Needed For Pain", is the pinnacle album that other bands of this genre to this day try to reach. Today, EYEHATEGOD sounds as fresh and innovative as ever. When the band released its first new track in over a decade, "New Orleans Is The New Vietnam", it was clear that nothing about the band had changed. They were touring more than ever and used that time and energy to work on an album's worth of songs. At the end of 2012 they were ready.
The recording process for "Eyehategod" started with producer Billy Anderson back in the fold (he recorded 1996's "Dopesick"). The session saw both producer and band not quite on the same page and at the end, the album was unfinished. A few months later, the band reconvened at longtime friend Phil Anselmo's home studio with producer Stephen Berrigan (DOWN). Both Anselmo and Berrigan helped draw out the missing pieces to one of underground metal's most anticipated albums in years.
An unexpected tragedy occurred shortly upon returning home from a recent five-week European tour in the fall of 2013: Joey LaCaze passed away due to respiratory failure. An outpouring of condolences and tributes spread online. Enough can't be said of the loss felt by the band, family and friends. Fortunately, LaCaze's drum tracks were captured by Anderson and appear on the album, creating the definitive tribute for the member of the band who encapsulated best just what EYEHATEGOD was all about; seriously not taking yourself too seriously. New Orleans native, Aaron Hill (MOUNTAIN OF WIZARD, MISSING MONUMENTS), took over for LaCaze without missing a beat, both figuratively and literally. The band hit the road after wrapping up the record and plan to embark upon their most exhaustive touring schedule to date.
EYEHATEGOD is:
Mike IX Williams - Vocals
Jimmy Bower - Guitar
Brian Patton - Guitar
Gary Mader - Bass
Aaron Hill - Drums
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Jay Nanda of San Antonio Metal Music Examiner recently conducted an interview with EXODUS and GENERATION KILL singer Rob Dukes. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
San Antonio Metal Music Examiner: Fans who know you strictly from EXODUS will get to hear [GENERATION KILL] songs that still keep your vocal style at times while often including a melodic side, without compromising the band's heaviness, such as in "Prophets of War", "Death Comes Calling" and "There Is No Hope". Is mixing it up a nice change of pace for you?
Dukes: Absolutely. Not to take anything from EXODUS. I love doing it. I mean, it's fucking killer. But EXODUS is a thrash band, pure and simple, and very aggressive, and that's what I do there. I listen to more diverse music, so to be able to bring that into the fold is the object of the whole thing. I didn't want to start another thrash band, you know? Me and Rob Moschetti both grew up on [IRON] MAIDEN, BLACK SABBATH, early [JUDAS] PRIEST. We surrounded ourselves with guys who like the same stuff, and we just fucking went out and wrote songs that — you know, we're not reinventing the wheel here. So we just basically wrote songs that we like, that we wanted to hear. Not only play but songs we wanted to hear. So we stole a little bit from here, we stole a little bit from there. It wasn't like we sat down and said, "Let's steal from these albums." But those are the albums that shaped me as a person. Like when I was a kid, those first two IRON MAIDEN albums, SABBATH albums and early PRIEST were the stuff that I grew up on. And RUSH, PINK FLOYD — bands of that era. I appreciate you saying that it doesn't lose anything. Even though it's got some mellow stuff, it's actually dark and cool and seemed to fit. If it didn't fit, we wouldn't have done it, you know what I mean?
San Antonio Metal Music Examiner: What's the latest with EXODUS? I'm sure with Gary [Holt, EXODUS guitarist] filling in for SLAYER for obvious circumstances, his participation has taken place a lot longer than you guys probably anticipated. How has that affected EXODUS going forward?
Dukes: Well, we haven't toured as much. That's apparent. We've got way more down time than we're used to and had in the last 10 years, so that's one aspect I'm not really a big fan of. But that's how we all make our living, so we had to go out without him. It was what it was. Wish he was there, but listen, the guy's in SLAYER. I'm not going to begrudge him for that. That's awesome for him, and I know he's having fun doing it. I think eventually, when we do this new album which we're doing in February, he'll find a way to do both. There's a lot of people who do multiple things in life. Financially, it'll be good for him to have two incomes. I think we're going to find a way in 2014 to make it all happen.
San Antonio Metal Music Examiner: I remember interviewing him a couple years ago by phone, and Gary was telling me how much heavier he thinks [EXODUS] has become since you took over on vocals compared to the previous singers. I've gotta agree. I don't know how you feel about that, but a lot of bands these days that have been around a long time kind of level off or don't get as heavier, and obviously you can't say that about EXODUS. You guys just seem to be heavier and crunchier with every record.
Dukes: Yeah, I think so, man. I hope I'm carrying the torch well. I try not to read into the comments on fucking Blabbermouth and all the fucking haters. There's certain people that won't let go of the past. I realize, for the past, that's what it is for them. They love the time in the past, and I get it. Not everything is better than the original, and I never claimed to be. I claim to be doing this. Paul [Baloff, original EXODUS singer] died, unfortunately, so he's not here. So I'm carrying the torch. Zetro [Souza, former EXODUS singer] fucking quit. He fucking walked in one day — he didn't even walk in. He just didn't answer his phone and said, "I'm not doing this anymore." And he quit. And now he wants back. You know what? I think we're heavier. The first album, "Bonded By Blood", was so fucking dark, dude. Lyrically and just darkness. And then I think they went in a direction that kind of took away the darkness of it. By the time I joined, they were back into the dark. They were moving back in that direction. I stepped in and I said, "I'll carry the torch. I'll fucking do it." For the people that don't fucking like it, go fuck yourself. That's all I got for you. Fuck you, you know what I mean?
