Call Guy Kozowyk confrontational, he'll just smile. Call his band deathcore and he'll likely laugh and spit. The Red Chord frontman may have been one of the people to pioneer deathcore and his label Black Market Activities has signed deathcore acts like Animosity, but that doesn't mean the irascible singer is down with the cause. "I just want to publicly apologize to the world for having any part in influencing any [deathcore] garbage," he recently told Revolver magazine. Click "more" to hear what else he's got to say in this week's podcast.
The Red Chord's combination of death metal rhythms and hardcore screaming are clearly the kind of stuff deathcore bands have embraced, but Kozowyk's main gripe is that the new breed are inexperienced, unskilled and unfamiliar with the history of extreme metal. Put an album by Death, Corrosion of Conformity, Morbid Angel or Napalm death in front of your average deathcore MySpace band and they'll probably be unfamiliar with the trenchant, heartfelt torrents of sound within. More disheartening, a lot of the new acts seem completely uninterested in exploring anything that surfaced before the dawn of metalcore.
Actually, Kozowyk's got good reason to be bitter. While other more popular acts are motivated by the very desire to be successful, The Red Chord exists to subvert and invent. The band's three albums, 2002's groundbreaking Fused Together in Revolving Doors, 2005's more intricate, agitated Clients and 2007's Prey For Eyes have all been extreme, experimental and forward-thinking -- discs that expressed promise for the band's longevity and hope for future of heavy music.
About a week ago, The Red Chord finished up touring on the Rockstar Energy Mayhem festival with Slipknot, Disturbed, Dragonforce, Mastodon, Machine Head, Suicide Silence, Walls of Jericho and others, and while he went into the event not knowing what to expect, Kozowyk emerged with optimism and excitement about today's metal scene and its fans. In our podcast interview with Kozowyk, we discussed highlights of the tour, why he mocks Suicide Silence (he calls them Spermicide Silence) and their ilk, the next album by The Red Chord and how falling asleep behind the wheel of a touring van has become practically a way of life. Click "more" to stream or download the podcast.
Click here for a direct MP3 download of the podcast.
Click here to subscribe to the HeadbangersBlog.com Podcast Series (iTunes).
Click here to subscribe to the HeadbangersBlog.com Podcast Series (RSS)
Comments