Emerging from Athens/Atlanta, Lazer/Wulf was put together by a group of college friends just for the fun of playing some local live shows, but eventually things have evolved into a more serious proposition. Now eight years in and following two Eps and a full-length album recently released by Kylesa’s record label Retro Futurist, the instrumental and experimental metal trio are no longer confined to their local music scene and are getting a lot of praise from press and fans across the world. We approached guitarist and founding member Bryan Aiken by email to know more about this project and their exciting new record “The Beast of Left And Right”.

Can you start by discussing the background of this project, when did you started, how your sound developed early on?

“Lazer/Wulf technically started when Sean and I met in college, something like 8 years ago. Honestly, we were a pretty embarrassing five-piece metalcore band of teenagers back then, and never really toured, we just played enough locally to fall in love with doing it. But eventually members fell away or grew apart, and we had to change our sound accordingly; specifically, when we lost our singer. We never replaced him, we just made it work, as an experiment. That was a huge turning point for us. But it turned south when we lost our drummer in 2008, and Sean and I took it as a sign to shelf that lifestyle for a while. We seeded our careers outside of music, I went back to school, we… just kinda lost our way, I guess.
But in late 2010, we saw some local bands play that shook us awake pretty violently, and Sean and I found Brad to play drums for… whatever the hell kind of band we were about to be in. I’m still not sure what kind of band that is.”

Lazer/Wulf are described as experimental metal on the band’s official Facebook page, do you think it aptly sums up your style?

“I’m not sure; it’s our best guess. We’re definitely metal – sometimes – but we’re not allegiant to any one sub-genre, and none are ever ruled out. I do know we’re at our happiest when we don’t know what we’re doing or where a song is going. That rush we get, pushing ourselves into uncomfortable territory… that’s the best part of playing music. When we try something weird and end up loving it. Nothing is more fun than that. So yeah, if there’s any best way to describe our approach to music, if not our genre, it’s “experimental.” But that doesn’t mean we’re intentionally alienating, or complex for complexity’s sake. We just like to explore, and see what’s out there.”

So, what kind of artists inspired you to explore this sound?

“I’m not sure. I just know I love Björk as much as Converge as much as Radiohead as much as Gorguts as much as… I can’t even narrow it down. But I love so much music that they’re all going to be inspirations. They’re all rattling around in there somewhere. Same with Sean, his inspirations are all over the place: Trans Am, Goblin, Aphex Twin, Mercyful Fate, Dying Fetus… there’s no formula for what you love, you just do. So knowing that, we let ourselves be honest and write honest songs. Lazer/Wulf are the only ones required to care about Lazer/Wulf, because we have to revisit our music every night on stage. If anyone else likes it, that’s amazing, but we can only be held accountable for pleasing ourselves. So that’s our ultimate goal: know ourselves and be honest with our audience.”

Let's get into the new album, ‘The Beast of Left And Right’, it seems a bit more progressive and complex when compared to your previous two releases. What inspired that change?

“When we re-formed, the mission statement was to not hold back in any way. To pour our newfound hunger into our output. That included more reflective, determined songwriting, and giving the music the time and effort it needed to be done right, rather than simply done at all. Nothing could be allowed to slip past us “good enough” any more like when we were kids; every moment should be earned, and we should learn to take responsibility if something wasn’t right. Because Lazer/Wulf wasn’t just going to be a hobby anymore; if we wanted it to be our lives’ work, it would have to be our lives. That’s what this album is about, making your damn mind up.”

In your opinion, how does the new album carry on, or differ, from the last one?

“The first thing we wrote, when we started up again, is now our 2012 EP, “There Was A Hole Here. It’s Gone Now.” I thought we were going to pick up where we’d left off in 2008, stylistically, but too much had changed. I ended up pouring a lot of sadness into that piece, not the least of which being our time away from music. So we got it all out and burned it in a pyre. None of that music was allowed to go on our full-length, because it was too much of a cleanse. It was a bottle of demons we needed to send out to sea, before we could really start again.
So, without the burden of all that negativity, we could write something way more hopeful. One was confession, and one was catharsis. If “There Was A Hole” was having made bad choices, “The Beast” is deciding to grow up and do something about it.”

Why did you decide two rerecord two songs from your first release, ‘The Void that Isn’t’, namely “Lagarto” and “Who Were the Mound Builders”?

“They never got a fair shake, really. We wrote those songs right before we went in the studio for that album, and barely got the chance to play them live before we split up. We ended up revisited those songs for our return shows in 2011, and the response was unforgettable. Still, it was pretty clear with the new line-up that we had left those previously recorded versions behind; they had changed, and we had changed. With Brad, with our experiences, those songs had a new life. We wanted to re-record them for a better snapshot of who we are now. “The Void” was probably going to die, but those songs were worth bringing into the new era.”

Can you discuss the inspiration behind the album title, ‘The Beast of Left And Right’? Is it about the choices you need to make in life every day?

“Exactly. We’re beasts of choice, we have free will, but sometimes we opt out. We don’t realize that every choice isn’t made only once; we re-make those choices every day – to stay who we are, to eat the way we do, to continue with our jobs or in our relationships. So in our case, we realized that we hadn’t decided only once to pursue our careers and put music aside. We were still choosing, again and again, every day, not to play music. We chose and chose, for years, until one day we stopped. We chose this. And that idea became the theme of all our output moving forward: to take responsibility for our actions, and know that no choice is final until you choose it forever.”

So, signing to Retro Futurist was an easy choice? How did you get linked up with the label owned by members of Kylesa?

“Haha! That choice was a snap, yeah! They’d been so supportive of us as friends, since they caught us live right after our reforming. And when they decided to start a label, it was obvious they had our best interests at heart. They’ve been musicians for so long, and they’re so passionate and honest, that we trust them completely. We’d follow those guys to hell. But if this past year is any indication, they’re leading us somewhere way fucking better.”

What are you currently listening to and enjoying?

“Oh, gosh. We’re usually all three in very different places, so finding music to play in the van is pretty interesting. My most recent loves are Grizzly Bear’s last album, “Shields,” and Kendrick Lamar’s “good kid, M.A.D.D. city.” The new Tera Melos, “X’ed Out,” is in my car right now. Cinemechanica also has a new record coming out that’s one of the best rock records I’ve ever heard. I don’t even think they’ve named it yet, but it’s turbo rad. Same with Wizard Rifle; they’ve got a new album in the chamber that’ll fuck the moon. Oh, and Vektor’s “Outer Isolation.” Hot damn.
I know Sean is all about Morbus Chron right now; that “Sweven” album is absolutely amazing. Yautja, too. He’s been ripping them hard after that awesome Cult Leader tour came through Atlanta. Man, we guzzle so much music, this question would yield vastly different answers every week!”

Could be wrong here, but I got the impression that you created your own artwork. If so, can you tell us more about your background in art? Is this very much a part time thing with music being the main focus of your creativity?

“Yeah, so far we’ve had to do everything ourselves. That’s me and Brad’s hands on the cover, haha! We don’t have much background in visual art, but being in an independent band requires so much more than being a musician. Since everything is mostly instrumental, I tend to think of every song visually. They’re all about something specific, or have a specific narrative. Nothing’s arbitrary. So I always have an idea of how the album looks overall, as we’re writing it. I work on the visuals as we’re making the songs, because they’re connected. Each song ends up having a painting associated with it, and those become the tarot cards we put in our albums.

Musically, The Beast is about opposites and symmetry and sacrifice, so I knew exactly what the cover looked like. And Sean’s a great photographer so he helped me set up this crazy optical illusion. Those black lines are like two feet wide at the top, and four inches wide at the bottom. Getting the math right was infuriating and rewarding. But like I said, we wanted to pour the maximum amount of ourselves into this album, and we weren’t about to ask someone else to toil over something so obsessive and weird, so we just did everything ourselves. Our love, and appreciation for how lucky we are, is threaded everywhere into this album.”

Photos by: Benny Wonka
 
Find more about Lazer/Wulf here: https://www.facebook.com/lazerwulves
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If you've been paying attention to modern metal of late, you will have noticed that most bands not besotted with retro, are pushing their music forwards with varied attempts at blurring the lines between genres. Some, of course, are taking the concept to the extreme by fusing those lines into a vast wall of sound. South Carolina's Darkentries, contentedly sat on Kylesa's record label, are one of the latter and have drawn influence from such quarters as sludge, hardcore, doom and post-metal to create a blackened, nihilistic cacophony.

What stands out the most here is the production. Recorded with Kris Hilbert at the curiously-titled Legitimate Business Studio, with the mastering taking place over at Audiosiege, the overall impression is of a vital, raw mix loaded with enough echo to bring it back from the brink. Carefully layered within, the powerful, mud-flinging guitars take pride of place at the forefront, the drums sit in the middle distance, and the vocal is left to rant and rave from somewhere out back. It's an odd experience to discover that the gapping between the levels mean you can actually pick out the points where Hampton Dodd's vocals start phasing. Of course, it is exactly because the band don't utilise every inch of space that, inside the sections where instrument drop-outs occur, it all begins to feel slightly removed from the present. Whilst a shame that slight fault does leave them much room for experimentation - hopefully more so when they finally get round to issuing that full-length.

Digging down into the tracks, 'TV Fuzz' shifts from a gentile guitar introduction into pounding black doom. With the vocal lurching between one that pitches mournful shoegaze and another that seems ensconced in inflicting post-hardcore chaos, the effect is intense and shattering. Though 'Honey Eater' and the stunning 'Feedback Funeral' stay on the same path, they muscle up every element. The vocal sinks deeper to create a more resonant, more forbidding atmosphere and finds a red-raw animosity when it gets its 'core on. Even the sludge-packing guitars wind it all down until the buzzing begins to vibrate at the back of your brain. What stands out, is that somewhere amongst all the to-ing and fro-ing, you'll hear strong hints at the kind of ambient, miserabilist post-hardcore peddled by bands like The Elijah or Devil Sold His Soul.

Upping their game, 'I'm Tired Of Being Awake' finds joy in warping the attack; picking up the desert and blowing it back in our faces. In these mere three minutes they find room to echo the emotional, death-addled contortions of Ihsahn and even time to tap out some Mastodon-esque string progressions. '1200-S' is their chthonic monster, emerging from its abyss to rip out some suitably alien roars and illicit agonising screams form its prey. There are also vast open power chords, gutsy basslines and heart-pumping chugs to get on board with. Lyrically, you'll not find much to sink your teeth into with this EP, save perhaps for 'Feedback Funeral' and that repeating disembodied scream of "just bloody kill me" or in the wild-eyed chant of "paradise, paradise" awaiting in '1200-S'.

Understandably short, impossibly indulgent, strangely exhilarating. In a sense, this kind of carefully-constructed lunacy is exactly what we, as disciples of extreme metal, crave. It's music that breaks barriers, retaining an essence of ancient majesty but remaining unafraid to let things get a little ugly and a little twisted. Easy listening this is not, but then this is, in effect, Darkentries' crack at sonic catharsis. Their ball, their rules. The Make Believe represents their own honest attempt to define what modern heavy metal means to them. It will be very interesting to see what kind of unholy noises they can conjure up in the future.

John Skibeat

Band Info: www.facebook.com/DRKNTRS
Label Info: www.facebook.com/retrofuturistrecords

 

John Skibeat is a self-described word monkey hampered by cravings for strong ale and stinky cheese. He continues to practice surgical dissection on most genres of music with the leftovers currently reaching publication at 'zines like Heavy Blog Is Heavy, The Line Of Best Fit or Ave Noctum. When not smacking seven bells out of various sizes of orb, he tumbles at johnskibeat, tweets @johnskibeat and blogs at, yes, you guessed it, johnskibeat.

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Kitchener, Ontario's Sierra have landed the coveted spot as the first release on the new label founded by members of Kylesa, Retro Futurist with their debut titled Pslip. Sierra has toured with Kylesa and Pslip was produced Philip Cope but the trio are far from a Kylesa clone. They do however have some attributes that will endear them to fans of the Georgia group.

Bookended by the instrumental intro and outro (“Pslip In” and “Pslip Out”) are seven tracks of grooved-out hard rock bowing down to the power of the riff. Each proper track has at least one killer riff that can reaffirm your faith in guitar based music.

Guitarist/vocalist Jason Taylor never has to worry about the one that got away. With so many hooks both guitar and vocal, hauling in the listener is a guarantee. And he does so with the hazy trip of “Little Smoke”. It's a groovy toe-tapper drifting between warm riffs and cool instrumental sojourns. It's here too we first hear bassist Robbie Carvalho cutting through the mix with his bluesy sound. Later, he sounds a lot like Geezer Butler (“Smoke Filled Room”) and that's nothing to complain about. Drummer Ky Anto is in fine form on “Control Folly”. It's a punchy tune with edge but it works in a southern groove.

At its core Pslip is all about the riffs. And there's perhaps none better than the main riff on “100”. When they drop into it from the easy breezy parts of the song, it's a “wow” moment. When the bass picks it up during the extended and soulful solo, it makes the whole album. But the sweet licks continue throughout the album as Pslip gains intensity. “Psquigalogz” bears some definite Sabbathisms. “Into Nothing” reminds one of Helmet at times, maybe a bit of Clutch, and some other '90s influences I can't quite pin down. Also, if I'm not mistaken, and I'm not, Cope makes a guest appearance here. I'm sure part of the reason Pslip sounds as great as it does is due to Cope's production. He's always been exemplary. Cope's, or other Kylesa influences can be felt on the final track as well. “Pseptember” is harder, heavier, slower and sludgier.

As Retro Futurist's first release, Pslip shows promise for the label. Sierra are a band that makes sense being on a roster run by Kylesa members without being a clone. Pslip isn't as psychedelic as its (excellent) cover would suggest but it is soulful, shifting, slightly southern, sexy, smoky and seriously catchy. Psweet.

Matt Hinch

Band info: www.facebook.com/sierrariff
Label info: www.retrofuturistrecords.com

Matt Hinch lives an unassuming life on the backroads outside Forest Mills, Ontario, Canada. He packs in as much metal as he possible can amid factory work, raising three daughters with his wife and working the land. In addition to Scratch the Surface Matt also writes for Hellbound, Ghost Cult Magazine, About Heavy Metal and his own blog, Kingdom of Noise. Keep up with him on Twitter @KingdomofNoise.

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