The Red Death

Hi there, what’s up over in The Red Death camp?
A: just taking a short break in between tours, hanging out with our girlfriends, practicing, and hanging out. I’m going to go see the new Star Wars tonight.

Right, first things first… could you tell our readers a little bit about The Red Death?
A: Umm… Well, the Red Death is a metal band. Most of us like cats, one is allergic. Paul does vocals and the rest of us do stuff that matters. Dom has plugs.

Judging by your biography, The Red Death have had quite a few line-up changes. With a Metal Blade contract in the pocket, you guys must have a steady line-up. How do you guys search for members and, ofcourse, are you happy with the current band line-up?
A: Well, as far as searching for members, we just ask around about people in the local metal/hardcore scene. Hopefully, we can keep this line-up for as long as possible.

“External Frames Of Reference” is out now and marks your Metal Blade debut. How do you feel about putting out something personal for all the world to hear? It must be a scary thing, right?
A: It can be a little intimidating because you always expect the worst and that people will say “what the hell is this shit?” Luckily, we’ve gotten pretty positive reviews thus far, so we’re pretty satisfied.



After the whole nu-metal scene, this type of music is now very popular, so you could say that The Red Death signed at the perfect time but with so many bands out there now, won’t it be hard to stick out from the crowd?
A: Yes, which is why we’re doing our best to remain creative and thusly relevant.

The Red Death is still quite young but with many twists in its history… How would you describe your career up to now?
A: Short and exciting. Nowhere to go but up, baby!

I don’t see any info on a possible video yet, so if you could put together a video for one of your tracks, which track would it be and how would you put together that video…? What would be the story line…how would you do the shots?
A: Umm, the easiest one to do as far as a concept would be “Aftertaste of the Emaciated”. That song is about how social standards of beauty are nearly impossible to attain, and that’s the kind of thing that leads to bulimia and anorexia, but we really haven’t talked about it too much yet.

There’s a big Amon Amarth influence on “From The Height Of A Thousand Years”… am I correct? I’m asking this because to me, that song stands out from the rest of the material. Where did that opening riff pop up?
A: Actually, I hadn’t heard Amon Amarth until long after this CD was finished, believe it or not. Our old guitar player Nate Golia just brought that riff to practice, and thought we would hate it, but to his surprise we thought it was sweet and we went from there.

Also, you see that the same artist who did covers for Heaven Shall Burn, Caliban and such did the artwork for “External Frames…”. I’ve asked this same question with a couple of other bands before, but what do you think the pins in the head of the figure represent?
A: Paul, our vocalist did the artwork, so you’d have to ask him to be sure, but I think he just made it to look cool.

How would you define The Red Death in five words?
A: Five members who are awesome.



Alright…on to some standard stuff… what are the touring plans regarding Europe? Any chance we’ll get to see you guys in the flesh this year?
A: We’re hoping we can make it over the pond sometime next year, so sorry, you guys will have to wait!

What would your ultimate tour look like? Which bands would you choose if you could hand pick them yourself?
A: I would love to go with Every Time I Die, Unearth, and Darkest Hour. I think that would be really fucking fun.

Apparently you like to engage in tom-foolery, according to your bio… what kinds of tom-foolery have you engaged in?
A: Pretty childish tom-foolery, haha. We make funny faces and throw shit at each other, make up dumb handshakes and introduce them to new regions of the country. We also made up a game called “Grab the Football”. (American football mind you). The object is simple; grab the football from your opponent. The only rules are respect, virtue, and of course no hitting.

Alright man. Thanks for your time and good luck with the album and the upcoming tours. Anything else you want to get off your chest?
A: sometimes I think that I would like to get some of this hair off my chest, but my girlfriend seems to like it. - Roarezine.com

The wave of new American metal bands seems inexhaustible. Even though the average quality of the releases declines, there are still a few records each month that are quite appealing to the hearing system. As is the case with The Red Death, they're not particularly original, but their melodic metalcore debut on Metal Blade Records ('External Frames Of Refence'), is certain to appeal to a reasonable amount of people. Guitar player Josh Williammee does not beg to differ and tells you more about his band.



Well, to start off, I don't think a lot of our readers will have heard of The Red Death before, so could you begin with a short introduction of the band and the kind of music that you play?
Well, the Red Death is based in Upstate New York and we play Swedish thrash-tinged metal core.

How did The Red Death end up playing this kind of music? Were there certain bands that have influenced you?
Paul, Graham and myself were previously in a more melodic metal/hardcore hybrid band. Being fans of bands like Unearth, At the Gates, and In Flames we decided the next route we travelled would be a heavier and faster one, such as these bands.

Are there any other things, besides music, that inspire your music?
Not wanting to work at terrible jobs, I would say, hahaha. Certainly, the world around us in many shapes and forms. We aren't a terribly political band, but some social and political evils do work their way into our song writing.

What sets, according to you, The Red Death apart from other bands? Why should a modern day customer buy especially your album?
While we might not be the most technically proficient band, nor the most original, we do believe we bring something fresh to the table in a genre that's starting to get its fair share of copy-cats of successful bands. It's fast, its heavy, it's melodic, it's dark; we believe it's got a few flavours for everybody.





How did you end up with Metal Blade Records?
We got a contact there from a friend, sent in a CD and a press kit, and got a call back a few weeks later. It was a very exciting time.

Aren't you afraid of drowning as a smaller, just beginning band, between all the bigger bands that they have in their roster?
Yes and no. Yes, because that's what will happen if we don't work our asses off. No because we are well prepared to tour and make our name known as much as possible.

How does The Red Death write their music? Is it a group effort?
Ordinarily, myself or whoever our current other guitar player happens to be (haha) will bring a few riffs to practice. Then we'll toss them behind a drum beat, and make a few new parts. Then we'll hone it down, and make it more interesting from the original. When we finally get an instrumental song the way we like, Paul will write some lyrics in keeping with the feeling of the song. Throughout the whole process everybody critiques, critiques, and critiques again. We don't call it a finished tune until everybody is 100% satisfied. Sometimes, we can cruise through a new song in a few practices. Sometimes it'll take a month and a half of tweaking before we call a song "done".

Now for a question that should have come up with most of our readers by now, what about your band name? Your bio tells us that it's taken from an Edgar Ellen Poe story, what is your connection with that story?
Well, the long and short of is basically, we like Edgar Allen Poe's stories, and thought something named after him would be appropriate for a metal band. The Masque of the Red Death was a bit on the lengthy side, so we knocked it down to just The Red Death. Plus, it just sounds bad ass (to us at least).

And what about the Jesus figure on the jacket of your album, what is he doing there?
Actually, I believe the figure on the cover of our CD is a woman. Paul does nearly all of our artwork and you'd have to ask him. I think it's just supposed to look good.

The song titles on your debut album 'External Frames Of Reference', are not your ordinary everyday metal song titles. What are the songs about?
The lyrical content of our songs range from several different subjects ranging from science fiction to philosophy and many things in between. On our old demos we had songs about Frank Herbert's Dune saga, and "Aftertaste of the Emaciated" on External Frames of Reference is about the impossible standards of beauty imposed by today's society. One thing you won't find are songs about heartache at the loss of our girlfriends'. Sure, we'd all be pretty sad if we lost our significant others in one way or another, but that is a tired subject of writing.





Would you characterise The Red Death more as a live band or more as a recording band?
I say a live band. I have a lot more fun playing live than I do in the studio (keeping in mind I still have a blast in the studio). You really can't beat the energy of a room full of sweaty fans banging their head in unison with something you created. I've alw - Lordsofmetal.nl

The Red Death is one of the latest additions to the Metal Blade catalogue and the band plays thrash metal with a heavy American hardcore vibe. Personally I would like to add a pinch of melodic death metal to that description.
External Frames Of Reference is the band’s full length debut on Metal Blade Records and it could be worse; this is one hell of a debut. Combining thrash and melodic death metal with hardcore parts gives the music somewhat of an original approach.
The production of this album is pretty decent too; the instruments and the vocals are all in a good balance. The song writing is, in my humble opinion, good and diverse. The diversity of the songs probably has something to do with the mixture of the different styles of metal. I think Metal Blade did a good job contracting The Red Death!

Rating: 8.5/10
- Rockezine.net

Joining the growing popularity of metalcore and hardcore music in America comes the New York based band The Red Death. Opting to write music that has thrash metal influence backed by American hardcore vibe, the band has been able to endure numerous line-up changes to gain local support and the attention of Metal Blade Records. The turning point for the band seemed to come after the release of their EP entitled Aftertaste of the Emancipated which showcased the growing maturity of The Red Death and their songwriting. It was this album that led to their signing with Metal Blade and their current line-up.

With the current line-up intact, The Red Death entered the studio with Jason “Jocko” Randall to record their Metal Blade debut entitled External Frames of Reference. The new album shows the bands growth in thrash metal/hardcore songwriting. External Frames of Reference is straightforward musically and doesn’t try to hide behind anything fancy. “Frames of Reference” sets the tone for the rest of the record with its relentless hardcore attack. “Silent Machines” shows the bands ability to incorporate death, thrash and hardcore into one song and make it sound good.

External Frames of Reference is a promising start for The Red Death. I like the fact that the album is straightforward and in your face. The album is solid, but seems to lack the uniqueness to help The Red Death stand out in the crowd of hardcore metal bands. External Frames of Reference will fulfill your appetite for thrash/hardcore metal. - TheGreatNothing.com