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Interviews

 

AOTW - Burton C. Bell

03.02.2008

 

February 2008 witnesses the official release of "Numinosum" via Al Jourgensen's 13th Planet Records. The word goes about the full-length debut album by Ascension of the Watchers - a dark trio consisting of Ministry touring keyboard player John Bechdel (also in False Icons, ex-Prong), Brazilian guitarist Edu Mussi, and Fear Factory vocalist Burton C. Bell, whom we talked to...

 

Vassil Varbanov: Burton, the idea to have you with us this time is this forthcoming debut album by Ascension of the Watchers. If you compare it to your very first EP that surfaced some two years and a half ago, where do you see the differences?

 

Burton C. Bell: I think it's mostly technical. The EP was originally meant to be a demo, se we recorded it as well as we could with the equipment that we had - just me and John recording all the parts. The initial concept and ideas of the songs were there, but technically it wasn't exactly the way I wanted it to be - I mean the actual sound and production quality. To me the idea is mostly the same, but now we have a better production quality, because we had more opportunities available to us.

 

V. V.: Many people link Ascension of the Watchers to Fear Factory immediately after hearing your name, but they get very, very surprised when listening to your new stuff. If your new album was for a movie, what would it be - a horror film? It’s definitely not a comedy!

 

B. C. B.: Definitely not. I think it would be more of a psychological thriller. It's like a journey in the spirituality, very deep and dramatic.

 

V. V.: Like "Into the Wild", right?

 

B. C. B.: I haven't seen that yet, but I want to.

 

V. V.: If we check the Internet, we can read that the idea to form Ascension of the Watchers came to you as a decision to come out of this vibrant concrete jungle out in the nature. Why? People normally do the opposite - they rush from the suburbs to the center of town. You're not that old to try to find some... what should I say...

 

B. C. B.: Serenity?

 

V. V.: Yeah.

 

B. C. B.: I've been through a lot in my life, you know - I'm gonna be 39 this year. If I stayed in LA, the Watchers record would have never happened. I had to leave and find myself in introspection - through journeys, travels and tribulations. This brought me all the way here with John. In the serenity, the solitude and the beauty of this place I'm really able to think, explore my feelings and emotions and relate them to music. And this is the type of music that's been in me for a long time. I've never written music for Fear Factory - I've only done vocals and lyrics. Nobody was interested in the music I wrote, so I decided to save it for myself.

 

V. V.: You spent quite a while there in Pennsylvania...

 

B. C. B.: Yeah, this time I ended up moving here. In the beginning I came here and I pretty much lived in the studio, which is in the middle of the woods - it's actually surrounded by 15 acres of woods and a beautiful landscape. I landed there and basically didn't leave. My heart king of never left as well.

 

V. V.: That's not the Brokeback Mountain, right? Ha-ha-ha...

 

B. C. B.: No, it would be more like the Blairwitch Project, he-he!

 

V. V.: I'm sure lots of people are curious what’s happening with Fear Factory.

 

B. C. B.: I'll say never say never, but at the moment Fear Factory does not have a record contract with a label, so there's no contractual obligation. I'm not worried about it and I'm focusing all my attention on Ascension of the Watchers.

 

V. V.: Do you plan touring with the Watchers?

 

B. C. B.: Yes. Right after the release of our record in February, we have 4 shows on the East Coast. Afterwards I'm going on tour with Ministry as a special guest artist. A Watchers tour is planned later on in the year through the USA, Europe and hopefully Australia.

 

V. V.: Why won't you come with Ministry in Europe?

 

B. C. B.: I haven't been invited. They just don't know whether they can afford to bring me in.

 

V. V.: However, you've gotten closer to that society than ever before - you sang on 3 songs on Ministry's last album, you'll play live with them in the States, the Watchers album is being released through Al Jourgensen's label...

 

B. C. B.: Yeah, I know it's fantastic! Believe me, I've talked to them about coming with them to Europe, but that's something they haven't thought yet. Right now this is not happening, but we'll see...

 

V. V.: Contrary to Ministry, Ascension of the Watchers is definitely not a political band, but a more universal one...

 

B. C. B.: Exactly, and that's one of the reasons why they really liked it - it adds a diversity and something different to their label. 13th Planet Records is a new label that wants to get bands they like. They just don't want to be strictly metal or industrial - they want to have the whole spectrum.

 

V. V.: Did you take drugs while recording "Numinosum"?

 

B. C. B.: Ha-ha-ha... I drank some beers and wines. Recording I was straight. Writing is another story... I drank a bit while I was recording so I could stay focused, but while writing most of the songs John and I would take a certain green substance. It just helps the process sometimes.

 

V. V.: Is there gonna be a video for any of the songs?

 

B. C. B.: I'm glad you asked. We're finishing up a video right now - it's for the song "Residual Presence". My friend Edu Mussi, who's the newest guitar player of the Watchers, is Brazilian. He has a friend called Victor Hugo who is an animator. He had just finished an animated movie called "Icarus", and he loved "Residual Presence", but it would have been too expensive to animate a brand-new full-length video, so he took parts from "Icarus" that actually fit very well with the song and its lyrics.

 

V. V.: Having in mind your career with Fear Factory and your various guest appearances with Ministry, G//Z/R, etc., do you expect lots of people to start cueing asking you to sing on their records now?

 

B. C. B.: Time will tell. I usually don't think about things like that. If they come and I like the band, I'd definitely take up some extra-curricular options.

 

V. V.: By the way, is it true what they write in the Wikipedia - that you shop up in Nirvana's video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit"?

 

B. C. B.: Is that on Wikipedia now, ha-ha!

 

V. V.: Yes.

 

B. C. B.: Yes, I did participate in this Nirvana video - the first one for "Nevermind". This was some 16 years ago... Back then I was listening to SubPop bands and industrial music and I was a huge fan of Nirvana back in the "Bleach" days - I saw them so many times... and the last time I saw them was this particular show they played before "Nevermind" came out, when they were handing out flyers saying, "Come down tomorrow to hang out and shoot a video with us!" So me and a couple of friends of mine went over and took part in the video. I can point myself four or five times in it.

 

V. V.: Are there any of the other guys in the crowd who became famous rock singers like you?

 

B. C. B.: I don't know... There was nobody else from Fear Factory, although we already were around at that time - we had just started... but there might have been some other LA band members there.

 

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NIje dobar je...veoma dobar...meni je zao sto su iskoriscene sve pesme sa prvog ep-ja ali dobro dobile su novu produkciju i duze se...nove nove pesme nisu loshe uopshte ali loshije od ovih stvari...the main point is da nije bash najbolji trenutak sada za ovaj album i posle novog meshuggah albuma malo je teshko prilagoditi se takvom zvuku...ali ima cool trenutke...

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  • 1 month later...

A dangerous new machine has come to life. Combine one of metal's hungriest young singers, Jon Howard from Threat Signal, with gold-selling Fear Factory architects, guitarist/bassist Christian Olde Wolbers and drummer Raymond Herrera, and you get ARKAEA, a new band that’s volatile, violent and vicious. On cuts like the bludgeoning “My Redemption” and “Awakening,” mechanized thrash riffs and pummeling percussion forge a musical foundation for all-out metallic brutality. Wolbers’ guitars snake through a haze of feedback, while Herrera engages in drum warfare. The grooves hit hard with a piercing precision, and the vocals remain infectious, as each song proves a battle-cry for these musicians. “Gone Too Far” builds with a polyrhythmic, math metal strike, while “Blackened Sky” is a thrashy icepick of a track. Ultimately, this is more than a new machine; it’s a metal revolution.

 

Howard describes ARKAEA’s familiar, yet innovative sound: “Chris and Ray have been writing together for many years, so the music does have a lot of Fear Factory elements. However, we’ve been open to trying different things. It basically fuses what I have been doing vocally in Threat Signal with driving Fear Factory rhythms, along with some of our own experimentation. The idea behind the project is to be heavy, but maintain melody at the same time. We have crazy riffs, but some grooving choruses as well. It’s a great mix.” Tracks like “Break the Silence” will no doubt captivate metal fans everywhere, with hard-hitting guitars and huge arena-ready choruses.

 

The band’s experimentation also proves extremely refreshing. “Gone Tomorrow” is a slow, brooding song that shows ARKAEA’s range and diversity by combining ethereal melodies and hypnotic vocals. Wolbers continues, “These songs were designed like the Fear Factory songs that Raymond and I always wrote. However, we’ve been able to push the boundaries and go out of that context, while remaining heavy.”

 

Howard has been a part of the Fear Factory family ever since Wolbers served as producer for Threat Signal’s debut, Under Reprisal. Given that connection, the chemistry was there the instant the band started jamming. Howard has managed to push himself as a singer with the help of the veteran musicians. “I always try to do new things and experiment with my voice, and this project has been challenging,” says Howard. “It always takes a little time to get comfortable working with new people and a new style of music, but I got over that really fast with Christian and Raymond, and I feel very comfortable where we’re going right now.” That chemistry is instantly undeniable upon first listen, and it is only going to evolve and improve.

 

In the end, what matters for these musicians is creating metal that will last. Wolbers concludes, “You have to write a lot of songs in life to stumble on those couple that are like ‘Walk.’ Every day, music pours out of us, and we aim to capture it.” Howard concurs, “My goal is to create an album I’m completely proud of, that will last for years and years without getting old: something like a Pantera record, or an early Metallica record.” Let ARKAEA’s new machine roll toward the top.

 

 

http://www.myspace.com/arkaeamusic

 

http://www.arkaea.com/main.html

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  • 3 weeks later...

Помислио сам да је то тај вачпе. Имају две групе и разлика је само у певачима. Кладим се да музички неће бити велике разлике. Шта им би да помахнитају и праве нове групе? Шњ... Хоћу, бре, нову Фабрику, а не неке пројекте, форе-муње! Спалићу ја њих ако се распадну пре неголи одрже концерт код нас! :violent:

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