{"id":927,"date":"2011-03-08T00:00:23","date_gmt":"2011-03-08T00:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=927"},"modified":"2012-02-18T02:36:23","modified_gmt":"2012-02-18T02:36:23","slug":"feature-condemned-03-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-condemned-03-11\/","title":{"rendered":"CONDEMNED? &#8211; Big Time Game Hunting (March 2011) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"title\"><strong>CONDEMNED? &#8211; Big Time Game Hunting<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"smalltitle\">Anthony Morgan<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: arial; font-size: 8pt\">March 2011<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"image floatedright\">\n<table width=\"100%\" align=\"center\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-content\/themes\/metalforces\/images\/spacer.gif\" width=\"10\" border=\"0\"><\/td>\n<td>\n<div align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/condemned2011bandpromoa.jpg\" border=\"0\"><\/p>\n<table width=\"100%\" align=\"center\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td>\n<div align=\"left\"><span class=\"smalltext\"><strong><em>Condemned? (l-r): Scott Clayton, Slade Anderson, Scotty Gardner, Rick <br \/>Strahl and Keith Chatham<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<div align=\"right\"><span class=\"smalltext\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p> Travelling through the United States in 1987 for a four-week period, Markus Staiger witnessed a concert by Santa Cruz, California band BL\u2019AST! The name would form the basis of Staiger\u2019s Donzdorf, Germany-based record label, the name being extended from Blast to Nuclear Blast. The vinyl compilation <em>Senseless Death<\/em> (NB 001) became their inaugural release, featuring American hardcore outfits like Attitude and Dehumanizers. Using the catalogue number NB 002 would be San Francisco punk metal outfit Condemned?, the album in question being <em>Humanoid Or Biomechanoid?<\/em> Winding the clock forward roughly 23 years later to 6th December, 2010, it was reported Condemned? had re-signed with Nuclear Blast Records. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn general, we signed with Nuclear Blast because they did our earlier record when he first started his label,\u201d confirms bassist \/ mainman Keith Chatham. \u201cThe first Condemned? album was released as his first album ever, so to say \u2018Let\u2019s re-release this\u2019 was more of a nostalgic thing for him. He wasn\u2019t really aware that we were playing together and had a bunch of songs that we were working on, so it was just good timing. I think to be honest, we just reconnected over the internet (laughs). As far as me and Markus from Nuclear Blast, we\u2019re glad we reconnected after all these years. It was just more about our friendship in the beginning, and then he realised that we\u2019re playing music, to which he said \u2018Why don\u2019t we put out the new album as well?\u2019 That\u2019s how it all came together. It was all just good timing, and we\u2019re all playing actively now. We\u2019re really excited to start touring as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Condemned? can trace its origins back to Condemned To Death, which formed in the spring of 1983. \u201cYeah, 1983,\u201d Keith confirms. \u201cI remember it being during the spring time. Basically, I was in San Francisco growing up there, and the band was looking for a bass player at the time when they were in what\u2019s called \u2018The Vats\u2019. \u2018The Vats\u2019 were an old Hamms Brewery that was no longer running, and the bands were practicing inside the beer vats &#8211; that\u2019s why they called it \u2018The Vats\u2019. A lot of bands were playing there &#8211; D. R. I. and MDC, and a whole bunch of other bands. A friend of mine called me, and said he needed a bass player. I came down. I was I think 16 to 17 years old, and I was so excited that I just joined the band right away. We started playing, went on tour, and put out a couple of little records. Yeah, it was a great beginning. That\u2019s where we started, in San Francisco among all the other bands that were going on at the same time that I can mention. It was a good scene then.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Back then Keith, what musically influenced you? \u201cBack then, I was more of a metalhead actually (laughs)&#8230; Of course that was when Metallica and Exodus and all the other bands were just getting started, and we were all local people hanging out. I\u2019d actually go back and forth between what they called The Stone, which was the metal club &#8211; it was across the street from the punk club. To be honest, back then I was wearing Angel Witch shirts while I was playing punk shows, so there was a lot of New Wave of British Heavy Metal on my part. It didn\u2019t really show up \u2019til a little bit more into my next record though, but there was definitely that influence. Punk rock was always making fun of things too, so we\u2019d have a few songs that were meant as spoof songs &#8211; like we had a song called \u2018Hair Spray Randy\u2019 that was about the hair bands that were coming out at the time like Poison (laughs). Those kinds of metal bands we used to think were funny.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Was Condemned To Death more influenced by American or British punk? \u201cWhen I was in Condemned To Death, I was much younger than everyone else in the band so I was just starting to write songs. In the beginning it was a collective influence, but not as much as when I moved to Australia. I moved over there when I was about 19 and put out this first Condemned? record, and that was much more metal influenced, much more mathcore almost. It was very complex but yet with short songs, and that was a whole different era for my songwriting. I\u2019d say in terms of my influences, there were a lot of metal and punk but a lot of European punk because when I was over there, I was listening to a lot of English punk. It was much more of a different influence, and that changed the sound for me a lot. When I then came back to America, I was playing with Attitude when our guitar player was from Germany, so we actually had a European influence too at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dwelling with Condemned To Death in the stomping grounds of San Francisco during that period would inevitably bring Keith face-to-face with future metal behemoths Metallica. \u201cBack then, we had a friend named Ron Quintana who used to have a radio show, and that\u2019s basically what supported all the local bands back then. I distinctly remember James and Cliff coming over to the house that I had when I was in Condemned To Death and just rocking out to Sweet one night and drinking beers &#8211; that\u2019s how local it was back then. We\u2019d go over to Ruthie\u2019s Inn, and they\u2019d be hanging out there too. Exodus and all those guys were all in the same scene, and that\u2019s also how I met Andy Anderson who was eventually a part of our other line-up when we were in Attitude. Basically, I was a part of that whole metal \/ punk crossover era, so that was a huge influence. Of course another influence was growing up in the Bay Area with all the San Francisco music though. There were so many influences, and the early punk stuff was much less fast and there were a lot more artistic stretches there (laughs)&#8230; in the early punk scene in San Francisco which I first grew up around. At the same time though, Santana and all those bands and all this Latin music was being played too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sadly, bassist Cliff Burton would meet his demise on September 27th, 1986 at the age of 24 in Ljungby Municipality, Sweden as the result of a bus accident. For those who never had a chance to know Cliff, what was he like? \u201cIn a certain way, Cliff was&#8230; especially with me being a bass player. I wouldn\u2019t say he was the heart and soul, but we really miss him a lot. On that level, he had a strong influence. He really liked bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd, bands you would never think of really, and that would influence the band I remember. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve heard a bass player that stood out on vinyl as much as he did. The new bass player is great, but you don\u2019t hear him on the vinyl so much. We miss him because he was an authentic musician, and the rest are too. It\u2019s just he was somebody that we all got along with.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"image floatedleft\">\n<table width=\"100%\" align=\"center\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td>\n<div align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/condemned2011rickstrahlpromo.jpg\" border=\"0\"><\/p>\n<table width=\"100%\" align=\"center\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td>\n<div align=\"left\"><span class=\"smalltext\"><strong><em>Rick Strahl<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<div align=\"right\"><span class=\"smalltext\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-content\/themes\/metalforces\/images\/spacer.gif\" width=\"10\" border=\"0\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>The advent of the internet means that nowadays, access to a musician\u2019s history is usually at one\u2019s fingertips. Strangely though, this doesn\u2019t seem to be the case with Keith Chatham &#8211; therefore, it\u2019s up to the man himself to fill in the blanks. \u201cThe reason I put together the compilation for this was because there wasn\u2019t just one band which carried the name. What happened was I ended up in all these different bands over the years, so there was a little bit more obscure history here and there. When I moved to Australia I played with Death Sentence for the first part of the time I was there, so I put a song that was just a practice song to just document that on the compilation. Then I was in Vicious Circle, and this was all right after Condemned To Death broke up. Condemned To Death was together for about a year and a half and then I moved to Australia and as I said, I played in Death Sentence and then in Vicious Circle. I then came back to America and we released the Attitude record, but before that we did a couple of demo tapes as Condemned Attitude. We were playing around with this Condemned name, re-introducing it with a different band, but of course it just confuses people I\u2019m sure. That\u2019s why we\u2019ve gone back to just trying to explain the foundation name was Condemned To Death, because that\u2019s where it all started for me. Basically, my whole solo project was Condemned with a question mark, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing again &#8211; Condemned? all over again, taking everything we ever did from every Condemned project we had (laughs). I\u2019m playing with a lot of the old members from Attitude, so that brings it together as well. We\u2019re very much old friends, and I\u2019m very excited to play with them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rounding out Condemned? are erstwhile Condemned Attitude members Rick Strahl (guitars) and Slade Anderson (drums), not to mention Black Mackerel\u2019s B. Scott Clayton (guitars) and \u2018Rotten\u2019 Scotty Gardner (lead vocals). \u201cWe\u2019ve all been playing all these years, but under different projects,\u201d Keith reveals. \u201cThat\u2019s why I put this compilation together, to show that after we did this one band we did this next project, and now we\u2019re all coming back together with the focus of doing basically a little bit of everything, and the new music too. It\u2019s a best of everything we\u2019ve done in our history. We\u2019ve all been continuously playing, but just under different names. It gets a little confusing, so that\u2019s why we decided to go back to just Condemned? &#8211; the the root foundation &#8211; and just stick with that, and stick with what we really got excited about in the beginning of our careers, which was basically progressive punk type music where anything goes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The culmination of Condemned?\u2019s relationship with Nuclear Blast is <em>Condemned2Death<\/em>, a two-disc affair issued in late January 2011 in Europe. The initial disc is a fresh, brand-new studio effort, so ultimately, what spawned this new collection of tracks? \u201cTo be honest, a lot of the songs were songs that we were all working on individually or that we restructured from the past. With some songs that we had never recorded, we thought \u2018Wow, we\u2019d really like to reuse some of those riffs\u2019, so we\u2019d take some of the best riffs from the older songs or basically redo some of the older songs that we liked. The new stuff we\u2019d already written individually, and then we just showed each other some of them. There was basically already a record made in our heads, so once we got together we were just so excited to play these songs again. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo be honest though, we have so much new material already. We\u2019re already excited to do a new record because now we\u2019ve really been playing together, we have all this new music falling out of us as well. These are things that we are so familiar with though that we also said \u2018Hey, let\u2019s start with these particular songs.\u2019 Three of the songs are actually from the first Condemned To Death seven-inch. We really wanted to go back to the roots, the hardcore stuff, just to say hello to our roots and introduce that. I don\u2019t know if we\u2019re always gonna keep writing every song that way &#8211; we\u2019ll see how that goes. What\u2019s really nice is that I like every song on the record and I realised how short it was, but it didn\u2019t really feel that way when we were writing it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So <em>Condemned2Death<\/em> is short and sweet in terms of impact then? \u201cYeah, it\u2019s got a lot of power in it. To be honest, this was the first time that we introduced another lead singer. I used to do a lot of the singing but we\u2019re both singing on this one, so it\u2019s exciting to see what we can come up with with this line-up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At Prairie Sun Recording Studios in Sonoma County, California, the album was cut with producer Billy Anderson, whose curriculum vitae credits include the likes of Neurosis, Mr. Bungle, Cattle Decapitation, Cathedral, Eyehategod. \u201cIt was great,\u201d Keith exclaims in response to being asked what it was like to work with the producer. \u201cI had worked with Billy in my band Something Scaley back in 1992; right before we went and did an Australian tour, we worked with him and did a demo tape so we could go over there. That was at the beginning of his career apparently and then obviously over the years, he\u2019d worked with all these other bands like Sleep and Melvins. The reason also I picked him to be honest is because I\u2019m a bass player, and I write a lot of the music and I always worry about getting lost in the mix. He\u2019s a bass player, and I really knew that he was a musician and an engineer &#8211; he goes on tour, and he is also in the studio. He inspired more of a family feeling, very comfortable for everyone in the studio together, and he basically dealt with all of our personalities pretty good (laughs). He really made it a great album; he helped the low end, and then we had it mastered with somebody he recommended to help the low end really well too. We were very pleased with it all round, so we\u2019re definitely gonna work with him again. He would love to go out on tour with us as well he said, so we\u2019ll see how that goes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Having worked with Billy Anderson in 1992 as a part of Something Scaley, how would you compare that experience to recording <em>Condemned2Death<\/em>? \u201cWe\u2019ve definitely all grown over the years, and have been through certain experiences. He had a whole lot more tools in his toolbox in the studio, and we were in a much better studio than the first time around which had a very nice, live sound. It was great because he really knows how to speak about what\u2019s necessary and field everything, and hang out with everyone at the same time. It was much better all round. We were just much more experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"image floatedright\">\n<table width=\"100%\" align=\"center\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-content\/themes\/metalforces\/images\/spacer.gif\" width=\"10\" border=\"0\"><\/td>\n<td>\n<div align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/condemned2011bandpromob.jpg\" border=\"0\"><\/p>\n<table width=\"100%\" align=\"center\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td>\n<div align=\"left\"><span class=\"smalltext\"><strong><em>Prairie Sun Studios (l-r): Billy Anderson, Scotty Gardner and Keith <br \/>Chatham<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<div align=\"right\"><span class=\"smalltext\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>Condemned2Death<\/em> pays tribute to the members\u2019 roots, glancing a keen eye on the hardcore genre. \u201cWe like so many different styles of music,\u201d the bassist stresses. \u201cObviously, we\u2019re using a certain formula right now that was our roots. Actually, a couple of us really love UK Subs but it doesn\u2019t really necessarily always show up because of our faster music. What I listen to and what I play style-wise is sometimes much different. I\u2019m listening to a lot of the records that Nuclear Blast are sending me; I like Meshuggah a lot right now, but I think we have a little bit more melody. Honestly, I just watched a Rush documentary and it really excited me (laughs). On a songwriting level, I really liked Rush when I was younger. I know it\u2019s not heavy music, but the songwriting was really an influence for me and the drummer I think a lot of. At the same time though, I loved the new Mot\u00f6rhead album as well and I also listen to quite a bit of reggae once in awhile to offset the heaviness. Basically, everything influences us; there isn\u2019t really a certain genre of music that we particularly listen to. Soulfly is a good example, something we love and a lot of us listen to. The new Death Angel album is pretty good. I wouldn\u2019t say we sound like those guys, but the guitar tones are great and I think with maybe a lot of the stuff we listen to, certain things influence us and we put them all together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The full-length\u2019s second disc contains a host of rarities as has been alluded to throughout this interview, notably including Condemned?\u2019s long out of print Nuclear Blast outing <em>Humanoid Or Biomechanoid?<\/em> The San Franciscan talks us through the material which appears on this very disc. \u201cAs I was saying, people obviously don\u2019t know all of the bands. I did a timeline there just to show where it started and where it ended at the last juncture. It starts with Condemned To Death songs from the first seven-inch and twelve-inch which were released around 1984, so I just chose songs that I thought were really representative of the time. They were from a previous CD that was released a couple of years back on Grand Theft Audio of all the Condemned To Death material we ever put out. I then put on <em>Humanoid Or Biomechanoid?<\/em> which was the first full-length Nuclear Blast record ever released, so it\u2019s in its entirety there. It\u2019s the second album Markus ever released, but it\u2019s the first full-length band album &#8211; the first one was a compilation called <em>Senseless Death<\/em> that we also appeared on, and Attitude has two live songs on there too. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, it\u2019s a re-release of <em>Humanoid Or Biomechanoid?<\/em> That\u2019s a really low-budget recording, so it\u2019s timeless (laughs). Some of it was very experimental. It\u2019s on there in its full length, so that\u2019s the feature from the Nuclear Blast past. Then it moves onto Condemned Attitude, which was the formation of Condemned when I moved back from Australia; that was drummer Slade Anderson who\u2019s now in the band, and the guy from Attitude Adjustment (Rick Strahl) when they split up following the first album that they put out. Basically, three of those guys came and played with me and the drummer, and we became a five-piece as Condemned Attitude. We recorded a demo, and some of those songs are on the disc as well, and all the live songs from the <em>Senseless Death<\/em> compilation. The weird thing about that is that I played guitar in that band and Rick Strahl played bass, and then we switched over and recorded an album for We Bite Records that was called No Sleep For Germany. That\u2019s a little bit famous in Europe, and that\u2019s when I switched back to bass (laughs). A couple of the songs that we did for <em>Condemned2Death<\/em> were re-recorded from that era. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe second disc then moves into this other band that I had called Something Scaley, which was more like Condemned? but without a fast drummer. We were using a little more tribal drums. I don\u2019t know exactly what it sounds like to other people, but obviously it\u2019s not quite as hardcore as some of the earlier stuff. It had much better production though, and some of the songs we recorded when we were on tour in Australia. We recorded a whole album over there which we never released, so we decided to put some of the Something Scaley songs on this disc. That\u2019s where it ends, with Something Scaley. There was Condemned To Death, Condemned?, Condemned Attitude, Something Scaley, and then we\u2019ve all got back together as just Condemned? which is where it all started. We\u2019re really, really happy to just simplify it that way. The original Condemned? was just about asking questions, and that\u2019s pretty much all we\u2019ve been doing all our lives &#8211; that\u2019s why we use that question mark at the end of our name. We still have burning questions, let me tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Does <em>Condemned2Death<\/em>\u2019s rarities disc show how the quintet has musically progressed over the years? \u201cTo some extent, it shows the different influences. This new album is definitely more representative of how we all play together as a whole, and the new drummer actually has quite a lot of diversity &#8211; this album I feel really represents us more. He was in the first line-up of Condemned Attitude but then he quickly left so we don\u2019t really have one song on the compilation with him on drums, so we\u2019re really excited that he really stood out on these new songs.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"image floatedleft\">\n<table width=\"100%\" align=\"center\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td>\n<div align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/condemned2011keithchathampromo.jpg\" border=\"0\"><\/p>\n<table width=\"100%\" align=\"center\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td>\n<div align=\"left\"><span class=\"smalltext\"><strong><em>Keith Chatham<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<div align=\"right\"><span class=\"smalltext\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-content\/themes\/metalforces\/images\/spacer.gif\" width=\"10\" border=\"0\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>With the near demise of vinyl and even the compact disc to a certain extent, as well as the rise of the internet, the music industry is quite different in 2011 to its early 80s state, isn\u2019t it? \u201cThat\u2019s the one thing that\u2019s overwhelming. I believe someone told me the other day that every town has at least 1,000 bands now, and I guess it wasn\u2019t quite that way when we first started out. The difference back then was the budget was so low that we were lucky if we got a good recording, and nowadays you can get a lot of good recordings with lower budgets because of some of the technology that\u2019s available. What I\u2019m finding is it seems like now with the good part of the technology you can spread your works more. Whether or not a band can survive financially though? I think you have to really do a lot of merchandising and things like that to really survive. I think it\u2019s changed because there\u2019s more competition, but yet there\u2019s also more ways to spread yourself out internationally. I don\u2019t know &#8211; it\u2019s just more complicated (laughs). Also, the old bands have been coming back a lot I\u2019ve noticed, so you\u2019ve got the old bands and the new bands and a lot more genres out there, all these subcategories that are hard to keep up with. If you\u2019ve seen <em>Metal: A Headbanger\u2019s Journey<\/em> which documents all these subcategories, you\u2019ll know what I\u2019m talking about. That\u2019s very interesting &#8211; someone needs to do a punk metal one that documents the history so people understand when it started merging together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A record contract has been penned with Nuclear Blast Records, though inevitably, how long Condemned?\u2019s renewed relationship with the label lasts depends on record sales. \u201cTo be honest, we haven\u2019t really even talked about exactly how far we\u2019re gonna go with Nuclear Blast,\u201d reveals Keith. \u201cI would love to do another record with them. As I said, we have another one in our heads, but it\u2019s a new beginning and I don\u2019t think anyone really knows where we fit in (laughs). I know that we started from the hardcore crowd. I\u2019m not really sure if people will listen to the record and say they think it\u2019s hardcore since it\u2019s been so long &#8211; that\u2019s really up to you folks who listen to it. When I listen to it, it almost sounds like a Mot\u00f6rhead album or something, so I don\u2019t know what people will think as far as what category it fits into. Sometimes it\u2019s real hard to book us, but we\u2019re really working on that.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Perhaps Condemned? fit into the punk metal category? \u201cWe consider this progressive punk metal or metalcore, but I don\u2019t really know if that description fits. I think it would be more fun to play with certain metal bands we grew up with. We opened up for Death Angel when we were younger, and we just so happen to be on the label with them again. Then there\u2019s Exodus or any of those guys that are our friends, or D.R.I.. I start thinking about more established bands that do know who we are, but know that we\u2019re a little different than anyone else. It\u2019s better to play with bands that don\u2019t play and sound just like you; that way, everyone doesn\u2019t get bored.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Could we possibly see more progressive material coming from the band? \u201cOh yeah. Right now, our drummer\u2019s about to go to the NAMM show. Him and his father are both drummers, and he does a lot of Latin percussion and things like that. He\u2019s actually been playing in various bands over the years because he\u2019s a session drummer, so we could do just about anything if we wanted to. Every once in awhile, it sounds like the Red Hot Chili Peppers even (laughs), but nothing like that is on record as of yet. Who knows? To answer your question though, I sure hope so.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Since the dawn of the millennium, many 80s groups have reformed in one shape or another, but an alarming number seem to be merely enjoying a nostalgia trip. \u201cYeah, I\u2019ve noticed that,\u201d Keith remarks. \u201cI haven\u2019t seen them all and I\u2019m sure some of them sound great, but I\u2019ve heard rumours that some of them sound just like they did back in the day. The one thing that I\u2019m excited about with Condemned? is we actually never really got an opportunity to peak out. That\u2019s why people really didn\u2019t hear us, and in a sense I feel like we\u2019re a new band now because we\u2019re not really going back to anything. The only reason we play the old stuff is to show where we started, but to be honest, our new music is just so powerful and so much more influenced by things that as we go, I think we\u2019re gonna excel where maybe other people have already exhausted their resources (laughs). We\u2019ll see. I\u2019m just so excited to record new music and get on the road &#8211; it\u2019s hard to sit here and wait (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Condemned2Death<\/em> was released in Europe on February 11th, 2011 and subsequently on March 8th in North America, all through Nuclear Blast Records.<\/p>\n<p><em>Interview published in March 2011<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CONDEMNED? &#8211; Big Time Game Hunting Anthony Morgan March 2011 Condemned? (l-r): Scott Clayton, Slade Anderson, Scotty Gardner, Rick Strahl and Keith Chatham Travelling through the United States in 1987 for a four-week period, Markus Staiger witnessed a concert by Santa Cruz, California band BL\u2019AST! The name would form the basis of Staiger\u2019s Donzdorf, Germany-based [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-condemned","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927","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=927"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4297,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927\/revisions\/4297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}