{"id":4905,"date":"2012-04-13T00:00:27","date_gmt":"2012-04-13T00:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=4905"},"modified":"2012-06-10T00:49:13","modified_gmt":"2012-06-10T00:49:13","slug":"feature-municipal-waste-04-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-municipal-waste-04-12\/","title":{"rendered":"MUNICIPAL WASTE – Monster With Four Faces (April 2012) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

MUNICIPAL WASTE – Monster With Four Faces<\/strong><\/span>
\nAnthony Morgan<\/span>
\nApril 2012<\/span><\/p>\n

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Municipal Waste (l-r): Tony Foresta, Philip Hall, Dave Witte and Ryan Waste<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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It was publicly announced on June 16th, 2011 that Richmond, Virginia-based thrashers Municipal Waste had inked an album contract with Nuclear Blast Records. Inaugural outing proper Waste \u2019Em All<\/em> arrived in January 2003 through Six Weeks Records, and was preceded by a self-titled EP in 2001. Full-lengths two through to four had been issued via Earache Records, namely August 2005\u2019s Hazardous Mutation<\/em>, June 2007\u2019s The Art Of Partying<\/em>, and August 2009\u2019s Massive Aggressive<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had finished our contract with Earache, which was for three records,\u201d explains Ryan Waste, guitarist and co-founder of Municipal Waste. \u201cWe decided to move on, and Nuclear Blast had been actually talking to us for a long time. We had developed friendships with people at the label, and it was just pretty much a no-brainer for us. They wanted to let the band be more creative and give us control over what we\u2019re doing, and give us better distribution. It just seemed like a win-win situation for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such comments suggest that Municipal Waste were given less creative control in the past, but the axeman replies that this isn\u2019t the case. \u201cNo,\u201d he insists. \u201cI felt like we were limited though. We always had creative control, but we always wanted to do more vinyl releases and stuff like that and work with smaller labels. Nuclear Blast is letting us do things like that; we\u2019re doing records on other labels and split records. They\u2019re into letting us have more output as a band, whereas we were limited before.\u201d<\/p>\n

April 2012 record The Fatal Feast<\/em><\/a> is the first Municipal Waste affair to be issued through this fresh agreement. \u201cWe actually took a year off to write this record, which we\u2019d never done before,\u201d Ryan discloses. \u201cWe had always been on tour, and we were just rushing through the studio. We never really had time to sit down, and focus on writing and recording. We made a point of \u2018Hey, you know what? This is a transition for the band, and we\u2019re switching labels. We have time. Let\u2019s just take our time for once.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThe year 2011 we dedicated to writing, so we went into the studio really refreshed and actually dedicated the time we wanted towards the record. It made us have our own sanity. It\u2019s like a mental thing \u2013 it\u2019s less stress. When there\u2019s a time limit on things you start to stress out, and you end up losing years off of your life thinking about whether you could have done better if you had had the time. I think it\u2019s just more of a mental thing, just to have more time. I think it really shows with this record.\u201d<\/p>\n

In rushing to compose and record an album, musical parts sometimes surface which might not have otherwise. \u201cThere\u2019s always something you want to change,\u201d the musician agrees. \u201cYou always go \u2018Oh, I wish I did this differently,\u2019 but with this record I don\u2019t have that. That doesn\u2019t even exist on this record, and that\u2019s a first for me personally. I\u2019m very proud of everything we\u2019ve done, and we\u2019re such a fast-paced band that there\u2019s really no room for looking back anyway. Some parts are over before you know it. It\u2019s hard to pick out certain things, but I\u2019m the only one that does anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Fatal Feast<\/em> was self-produced. \u201cWe\u2019ve never worked with a producer, and we probably never will,\u201d Ryan proclaims. \u201cWe knew what we wanted it to sound like. Municipal Waste is the producer of course. Our bass player Land Phil (Philip Hall) is currently working on becoming an engineer, and he\u2019s actually recorded demos of us this entire time. He\u2019s just learning as he goes. He\u2019s actually probably becoming someone that could be an engineer, and that definitely helps the band because it\u2019s all practice for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Municipal Waste (l-r): Tony Foresta, Dave Witte, Ryan Waste and Philip Hall<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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By its given title 2009\u2019s Massive Aggressive<\/em> featured aggression, though its successor possibly has a greater claim to the moniker. \u201cWe try to raise the bar for each album, so we tried to basically outdo the record that was before it,\u201d the composer surmises. \u201cWe did Massive Aggressive<\/em> in 2009, and I actually feel this record is more aggressive than Massive Aggressive<\/em>. We\u2019re always trying to outdo ourselves with the intensity in the songwriting. We try to step it up; I guess we try to make an angry sounding record every time. I\u2019m definitely happier with this album.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Fatal Feast<\/em>\u2019s artwork was designed by Justin Osbourne. \u201cIf you look at the album cover, it\u2019s based on the title track which is actually a concept we\u2019ve had for about ten years \u2013 \u2018The Fatal Feast\u2019,\u201d Ryan divulges. \u201cIt\u2019s about a space voyage gone wrong where the crew become cannibals and eat the captain for lack of food, and they begin to disembowel and eat his intestines out. They actually live as cannibals in space after that. We thought it was a cool concept, and we always wanted to see the artwork come to life. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had never worked with Justin before though. He was suggested by someone at the label who had seen his artwork, and sent us a link. We checked it out; I looked at it, and the rest of the band did. We were really just impressed, because it turned out to be one of the coolest covers we\u2019ve had. I thought it looked like old horror movie advertising; some of the artwork looked like old horror posters, and we\u2019re very obsessed with horror movies and stuff. I got to work back and forth with Justin, and gave him the basics of the concept. I showed him the artwork for the Waste \u2019Em All<\/em> record. I told him to recreate the character on that cover, but put it in a more futuristic setting in space, make it more intense and step it up for where the band is now. I think he totally captured that in the art. He was actually really great to work with, and I would definitely work with him again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Old school artwork\u2019s presence on Municipal Waste artwork is very much a conscious decision. \u201cIt\u2019s a very extremely conscious thing,\u201d the guitarist concurs. \u201cAll I listen to is old school metal, and I feel like the artwork is just as important as the music. It\u2019s a visual thing. I love LP records because the art is big; you just pick it up, look at it, and you know that this is gonna be cool. Every kid in the record store sees it, and it\u2019s visually stimulating. I think it\u2019s very important, but a lot of bands don\u2019t seem to care about that as much. We have always been real big on having the old school album art though. I prefer real paintings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Fatal Feast<\/em>\u2019s artwork is actually done by hand, though I think Justin did use some digital colouring in there. It\u2019s hard to move away from that now with production, but I think it\u2019s a mixture of both in this case. That\u2019s futuristic, so it fits in with the album.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan is thoroughly pleased with the guitar tone he achieved in recording The Fatal Feast<\/em>. \u201cI was going for more of an organic, natural tone,\u201d he informs. \u201cNot super over-distorted. I wanted it to have clarity on this record, so in terms of the tone I\u2019m really happy that I achieved it. I then did some more lead guitar work which I haven\u2019t done very much in the past, so I\u2019m pretty proud that there\u2019s some solos on the record. I just try to step it up a little bit more with each album, and add some more lead guitar. We ran it through a few different amps. I can\u2019t give away all of my secrets (laughs), but we had a few tricks up our sleeve. Yeah, I\u2019m totally happy with how it\u2019s turned out. It\u2019s classic wave stuff with a little bit more of a flow.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Municipal Waste (l-r): Philip Hall, Ryan Waste, Dave Witte and Tony Foresta
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A long-standing assortment from the industrial fringes of Birmingham happens to be the axeman\u2019s favourite. \u201cMy favourite band to date \u2013 and ever since I was a kid \u2013 is Judas Priest,\u201d he acknowledges. \u201cWithout knowing it, Glenn Tipton has always been an influence in the back of my head. Whether or not it shows through in the later stuff I don\u2019t know, but it\u2019s definitely there. I grew up on Slayer<\/a> of course, so Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman are the foundation for me playing fast, kind of aggressive speed metal I think. It definitely goes back to Slayer for me, their early albums mainly. Show No Mercy<\/em><\/a> (December 1983), Hell Awaits<\/em> (September 1985) and stuff. That\u2019s how I got started off, and I think it still holds up. I love Reign In Blood<\/em> (October 1986), but I\u2019ve heard that album way too much. Show No Mercy<\/em> is the one that stands the test of time for me. That\u2019s the one I can go back and listen to all the time. After Seasons In The Abyss<\/em> (October 1990), I stopped really being into them. It kinda went downhill for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing up, Ryan was actually a bassist. \u201cI played bass for far longer than I have played guitar, so on guitar I still feel like I\u2019m learning a lot of stuff,\u201d he admits. \u201cI think every guitar player is forever learning; anyone who says they\u2019ve got it mastered is full of shit. I think playing bass helps as a rhythm player though, and keeping time. It laid the foundation for me I guess which helps me just to stay steady, but when I play bass people tell me I play bass like a guitar player. Maybe I knew it was my calling to play guitar as well, but I still enjoy playing bass. I play bass in another band called Volture, so I\u2019m getting to do both. It\u2019s pretty cool.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re more a band that\u2019s based on riffs mind, so I think that as long as we can generate these riffs that make a better song then that\u2019s what counts. I\u2019ve always been lucky enough to be able to generate that, though it\u2019s hard to talk about yourself and how you\u2019ve done. I still feel like I\u2019m improving; if I learn a new trick I\u2019m gonna put it on the new record, and you can hear that on some of the solos that I\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steve Moore of space rock duo Zombi penned the intro to the title cut. \u201cWe had wanted a more horror movie soundtrack-type intro for the record, and luckily Dave Witte our drummer was friends with Steve,\u201d the musician notes. \u201cHe was like \u2018Hey, I\u2019ll just call the guy from Zombi,\u2019 and everyone was like \u2018Perfect.\u2019 If anyone could nail that type of sound it would be him, and luckily through Dave we knew him. We just contacted him, told him the key that the song was in, and what we wanted. I just told him \u2018I want it to sound like a John Carpenter score, like from a John Carpenter movie.\u2019 Obviously being a sci-fi \/ horror fan himself he knew exactly what to do, and he just created an awesome intro I think for the title track and for the album. It truly sets the tone of the record. All we had to actually do to pay the guy was buy him a bunch of fancy beer, and that was his payment for the song. It was very cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Connelly of New York City-based thrashers Nuclear Assault lent vocals to the tune. \u201cWe\u2019ve been huge Nuclear Assault fans ever since we were young and started the band,\u201d Ryan beams. \u201cWe played with them years ago and became friends, so we just reached out to them and called them. We felt like the riff on the song that I wrote kinda sounded like Nuclear Assault, and you could just hear his voice over it. All we did was reach out, and he was more than happy to record the vocals for it. It sounds cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Directed by Jeff Speed, a music video for the title track was filmed in Los Angeles. \u201cWe did a gory version, which is probably the most gory thing we\u2019ve done,\u201d the songwriter reckons. \u201cWe did a lot of sci-fi \/ horror effects. It basically looks like the album cover. We went into a spaceship setting, and we\u2019re basically the crew acting out the lyrics of the song.<\/p>\n

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Municipal Waste (l-r): Philip Hall, Dave Witte, Tony Foresta and Ryan Waste<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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\u201cWe also filmed a video for the song \u2018Repossession\u2019, where we\u2019re repo men. Municipal Waste is confiscating cars, and everything. It was done with David Brodsky who did the \u2018Wrong Answer\u2019 video, and the \u2018Wolves Of Chernobyl\u2019 video. We like to stick with the same people that know how we work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horror is a colossal influence on Municipal Waste. \u201cA huge, humongous influence,\u201d Ryan stresses. \u201cI feel like in the lyric writing we basically created our own horror stories, and our own Municipal Waste mythology with these songs. I think a lot of the songs that we wrote could be horror movie scripts or short stories. We all grew up on these horror movies, so I think it\u2019s always stuck with us and is always a part of us with the artwork and the lyrical content.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horror\u2019s influence on Municipal Waste extends to the quartet\u2019s introductory tracks. \u201cWhen John Carpenter would do the score for his movies, that stuff influences the intro and bands like Goblin and stuff like that with the keyboard intros that they have,\u201d the guitarist recognises. \u201cWith Dario Argento, the movie Opera<\/em> has a speed metal soundtrack. Phenomena<\/em> (1985) and Demons<\/em> (1985), with all those movies that Dario Argento did you could tell he was a heavy metal fan. He would have Accept on the soundtrack, Mot\u00f6rhead, and Iron Maiden, and then Steel Grave was a fictional band in Opera. They had a speed metal band play every time the killer would come out and kill someone. This speed metal song would kick in by a band called Steel Grave, which was an Italian band that was made up just for the movie. I think that was the coolest thing ever; if the music starts, you know someone is about to die. That stuff is an influence I think. I just think it goes hand in hand; people that love old school horror movies tend to like heavy metal too, which is kind of a cultural thing I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

A wide spectrum of horror movies figure among Ryan\u2019s favourites. \u201cI like a lot of the old Dario Argento movies \u2013 Profondo Rosso<\/em> (1975), Opera<\/em> (1987), and The Church<\/em> (1989),\u201d he enthuses. \u201cI also like some more campy stuff like Blood Sucking Freaks<\/em> (1976). Of course I like John Carpenter\u2019s They Live<\/em> (1988) and The Thing<\/em> (1982), and sci-fi based stuff like Galaxy Of Terror<\/em> (1981), more obscure space horror. I like the old stuff, man. I don\u2019t like the current state of horror. I think with new movies there\u2019s too many pop culture references in them and too much dialogue, where they don\u2019t leave some suspense. As far as horror movies, older movies had silence where you could use your imagination to think about what\u2019s happening. That\u2019s instead of someone talking to you the whole time, listening to their fucking iPod on the screen, and plugging all these companies and stuff. It just seems like so many references to pop cultures have come into play in movies now, whereas in the old days the mood was totally different and you could use your imagination more.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like music; I don\u2019t like much new music either. A lot of it is the production. It seems overproduced, and a lot of the sounds like the triggers on drums just sound so fake. I feel like everything is too clean. There\u2019s no rawness to it, and I like analogue recordings. I listen to vinyl mainly. New music just doesn\u2019t do it for me the way the old stuff does. I like a little bit of a raw quality to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horror might be a substantial influence on Municipal Waste, but that isn\u2019t to say the genre wholly permeates The Fatal Feast<\/em>\u2019s compositions. \u201cThere\u2019s one track called \u2018Jesus Freaks\u2019, which is actually based on a story that Tony (Foresta, vocals) created,\u201d the axeman mentions. \u201cReligious people will come and try to put their religious propaganda on you, and it\u2019s about a guy who pretended to be into the religion. He wanted to play a joke on them basically, and be like \u2018Oh yeah, this is great. I wanna be a follower of your religion.\u2019 He gets in too deep, and finds that it\u2019s a religious cult more than he thought. They find out that he\u2019s being false and trying to play a joke on them, and they close in on him and try to murder him and sacrifice him. It\u2019s a joke gone wrong. Then there\u2019s a song called \u2018The Monster With 21 Faces\u2019, which is based on a true story about a Japanese serial killer who was never caught. He would actually write letters to the police giving clues away, and he called himself The Monster With 21 Faces. The police got so stressed out and freaked out by it that some of them started to commit suicide over it from not being able to solve the case. It just got to them so much. We have some songs like that. Some are based on reality, some are made up.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Municipal Waste (l-r): Tony Foresta, Dave Witte, Ryan Waste and Philip Hall
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Formerly of rock outfit Avail, vocalist Tim Barry guests on the track \u2018Standards And Practices\u2019. \u201cHe\u2019s actually an old friend of the band\u2019s, an old Richmond punk rocker,\u201d Ryan reflects. \u201cIn Avail he was a metalhead back in the day, so he can definitely relate to the punk rock and the metal output that we make. Actually, our singer Tony surprised us by having him do guest vocals \u2013 we didn\u2019t know he was gonna do that. He went into the studio, laid it down, and then we came to hear it. It seemed like it fitted really well, so we were happy with that. It\u2019s more of a political song, a little more of a serious song. It\u2019s about the government oppressing people, and more calling bullshit on the government. Standing up for your rights, don\u2019t follow the mould that they\u2019ve created for you, and do your own thing. The Occupy Wallstreet situation, it\u2019s kind of referring to that. It\u2019s funny though because we wrote the song before any of that was happening. It\u2019s a basic punk rock lifestyle attitude. Tim is more of an activist type person, and into bringing issues to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

More political fare will likely not become a facet of future Municipal Waste albums, though. \u201cWe try to stay away from it, to tell you the truth,\u201d the musician confesses. \u201cThere are enough bands preaching to people, and we\u2019ve never been a band that\u2019s like that. We touch on this stuff on maybe one song on a record. It\u2019s never gonna be a big mission. This band is more about having fun, and more fantasy oriented stuff. I don\u2019t think we\u2019re ever gonna turn into a huge political band. I definitely don\u2019t care to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Municipal Waste are due to release a split vinyl with Portland, Oregon-based thrashers Toxic Holocaust dubbed the Toxic Waste<\/em> split. \u201cThat\u2019s actually gonna be out on Tankcrimes Records, which is a label of a friend of ours out in California,\u201d Ryan tells. \u201cI think we\u2019re actually gonna do special vinyl releases of The Fatal Feast<\/em>. We\u2019re working on a pop-up book gatefold record where the record opens and the artwork pops up, and we\u2019re gonna have a big packaging thing with that too with some bonus T-shirts, posters and stuff like that. That\u2019s being worked out right now. We\u2019re doing a seven-inch with Scion A\/V as well, so we\u2019re doing all these cool little vinyl releases which is what we wanna do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to buy vinyl,\u201d he continues. \u201cI usually buy used records, but I\u2019m not against downloading music. Some stuff you can never find on LP, or it\u2019s too expensive. It\u2019s old, rare stuff. I\u2019ll download old music, but I definitely don\u2019t buy music from iTunes and stuff like that. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s necessary, and I don\u2019t actually have a problem with people downloading free music. It\u2019s never bothered me. I mean, I do it. I don\u2019t care if people download my music for free. It\u2019s fine with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The composer dislikes the compact disc format. \u201cI don\u2019t like the packaging,\u201d he complains. \u201cIt\u2019s just kind of crappy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The long play (LP) record is Ryan\u2019s format of choice, as can be ascertained from his comments throughout this feature. \u201cI have two Technix turntables actually. I DJ vinyl records in my spare time; I do a heavy metal DJ night and I bring my record players to the bar, so I have a whole set-up with a mixer and two turntables. I do the same thing in my house \u2013 I have it set up. It\u2019s old school, 1980s. I have one of those big Ikea shelves to stock my LP collection; it takes up half of the room, and has 2,000 records. It\u2019s a lot, and it\u2019s ever growing (laughs). It\u2019s never gonna stop growing, so it might take up the whole room eventually.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Fatal Feast<\/em> was released in North America on April 10th, 2012 and subsequently on the 13th
\nin Europe, all through Nuclear Blast Records.<\/p>\n

Interview published in April 2012. All photographs by Luz de Luna Duran.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MUNICIPAL WASTE – Monster With Four Faces Anthony Morgan April 2012 Municipal Waste (l-r): Tony Foresta, Philip Hall, Dave Witte and Ryan Waste It was publicly announced on June 16th, 2011 that Richmond, Virginia-based thrashers Municipal Waste had inked an album contract with Nuclear Blast Records. Inaugural outing proper Waste \u2019Em All arrived in January […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,262],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-municipal-waste"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4905"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5834,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4905\/revisions\/5834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}