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VITAL
REMAINS - Unholy, Apocalyptic Blasphemers
By Paul Schwarz
The American death metal underground has received
flak in the past for being characterless and unconvincing. The flow
of endless Scott Burns productions and gore lyrics wore so thin
that a genre of music (black metal) shaped itself partially in death
metal's anti-image. However, convincing, satanically expressed anti-Christian
sentiment is not reserved for corpsepainted Europeans peddling true
Norwegian black metal. It is often forgotten that American death
metal has its own Satanic/anti-Christian cartel whose proclamations
can be just as poignant even though their clothing is more man-on-the-street.
Immolation, Incantation, Deicide: all are names worthy of such mention,
as are Vital Remains. Vital Remains' latest lash-out against the
strictures of Christian belief, appropriately titled Dawn of the
Apocalypse, is possibly their most focused attack, musically and
lyrically yet. But did Joe Lewis (bassist and former singer for
the band) really think there was going to be an apocalypse when
1/1/2000 hit us?
"I don't see anything significant happening at the change of the
millennium," he states flatly. "After all, it's just a date marked
on a man-made calendar system. All I see is the chaos breeding out
of all the hype and tension of the new century. The world is far
from over yet. Man has yet to destroy himself." This does not mean,
however, that the subject of apocalypse in general is far from the
band's collective mind.
"Lyrically, Vital Remains' focus has become more apocalyptic," Joe
assures. "Dawn of the Apocalypse is all about giving our views and
opinions about the coming of a satanic millennium." And Dawn...
does this musically as well as lyrically, embodying the unholy spirit
Vital Remains have always embraced. "The new album is the best work
Tony has written," begins Joe as we tackle Dawn's... musical merits
and career significance. "It is a very big step in the right direction
for us. It displays the true, undeniable, talent deep within the
realm of our existence. We've come a very long way, and we've travelled
a very hard road getting to where we are now. It's not all fun and
games being part of a great band: there is a lot of stress and lots
of work involved. It is not easy. Vital Remains have been around
for ten years now. We plan on being around for ten more."
For these last ten years, guitarist Tony Lazaro has been the band's
creative focus, but does the new millennium also herald the 'dawn'
of changes in this department?
"Well, Tony writes all the guitar riffs in our songs. He is the
creative genius when it comes to creating guitar riffs. He has been
writing almost all of Vital Remains' guitar riffs since the beginning.
He's always ripping out new riffs at practice. But Dave wrote (nearly)
all the lyrics on the album. He had very little help from [vocalist]
Thorns. Tony and Dave wrote all of the new album, but I will have
more involvement writing the next album." In fact, drummer David
Suzuki also helped create a musical addition to Vital Remains' sound
which began on 1997's Forever Underground, and which is continued
and expanded on Dawn... -- the use of classical Spanish guitar.
"It's very new and exciting for us," Joe enthuses. "We wanted to
keep the brutality and aggressiveness while adding a new dimension
to the music. Dave is a musical genius. He wrote all the acoustic
guitar passages on the album as well as the solos. In the past we
tried experimenting with the keyboard and synthesizer, but we weren't
satisfied with the end result so we found sanctity in the use of
acoustic guitars. It adds so much emotion and feeling as well as
atmosphere to the music. We really like the way it blends into the
songs. We're very happy with the acoustic guitars."
However, other changes occurred for the making of Dawn... which,
ultimately, have not been as successful. Joe tells the story. "After
we completed our 1997 tour, we made a decision to make Vital Remains
a five-piece band again, which meant hiring a vocalist and bassist.
I did not want to give up playing the bass, so we found Thorns and
I remained the bassist. He did a great job on the recording and
the final mix was very good, but we fired him soon after the recording.
It's unfortunate for Thorns because he could've had a promising
future ahead of him, but instead he chooses to be abusive with his
cocaine and LSD habits. We won't tolerate that kind of immaturity.
We have recently re-hired our original vocalist Jeff Gruslin. He
is now back. So things are looking very good for us."
Thorns' legacy to the band is not only his vocal performance on
Dawn..., but also the album's eighth track. Utilising a differently
atmospheric, semi-industrial approach, 'The Night Has a Thousand
Eyes' differs considerably from the rest of the band's material.
"That was created by one keyboard riff that Thorns wrote. We gave
him the opportunity to have a short track on our album. He presented
the riff to Dave and Dave just twisted and conformed it into what
you hear on the album. I honestly don't think we will explore the
style of 'The Night Has a Thousand Eyes'; we will concentrate on
furthering our creativity with brutal death metal."
Dawn... is a piece of Vital Remains' future, but a piece of their
past was also recently made widely available. "We recently had the
very first Vital Remains demo, Reduced to Ashes (1989), re-released
on CD by Cryonics Records of Holland. Cryonics were putting together
a collection of old demos onto CD. We wanted to be part of that
project. We thought it was a great opportunity for us to let our
die-hard fans hear what Vital Remains sounded like 10 years ago.
Most of our newer fans never heard the early demos. It definitely
does not stand up to the new album; we've progressed so much throughout
the '90s. I'm sure we'll keep on progressing."
In the late '80s death metal bands were not a dime a dozen as they
are now, but Vital Remains have survived through death metal's oversaturation,
purge and resurgence. The reasons are difficult to pin down when
you remember how many good bands never made it and how many awful
ones still plague our ears, but Joe is steadfast in his belief about
why Vital Remains have (if you'll excuse the pun) remained vital.
"I feel that we are among the best bands in the death metal scene
of today. The thing that separates us from the overpopulated scene
is our being true to the roots of our creativity. We still write
aggressive, brutal death metal the way it was meant to be, as it
was at the beginning of the band. The goal of Vital Remains is to
keep releasing fast, brutal death metal." Joe also explains why
the band have never given up on this mission. "It's the pure desire
to play our instruments. We love metal! We all grew up dreaming
of being in a metal band. So I guess you can say we are living out
our dreams. This makes us very happy. We feed off the energy. We
keep striving to create the best possible death metal. There is
no better feeling than performing brutal music to an accepting audience.
It's very intense and overwhelming. This energy feeds us also. We
need energy, so we must create the music to feed ourselves."
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