Skeletonwitch
From:
Cleveland ,
OH,
United States
Last Known Status: Active
Skeletonwitch Interviews and Features
Below are our features and interviews with Skeletonwitch.
Interview
Skeletonwitch Guitarist Connecting Jazz And Metal
Fifteen years after forming, Athens, Ohio's own Skeletonwitch has become one of the most beloved bands in the metal underground. After making the difficult decision to replace their vocalist, they released their first full length album with new singer Adam Clemans, "Devouring Radiant Light" in July of this year. While there will always be fans who are put off by changing the frontman, the heart and soul of Skeletonwitch is still very much there. The band is still a force to be reckoned with both live and when it comes to new material and will keep on thrilling fans who come out to see them.
At their recent show in London, I had the pleasure of sitting down with guitarist Scott Hedrick to discuss the changes in the band, the "Devouring Radiant Light" album, the influence of jazz on their music and how their appearance in the Get Thrashed documentary affected their career. You can listen to it in full below.
Diamond Oz: Straight into it, the new album, "Devouring Radiant Light" is out now. It's been quite a gap between this and "Serpents Unleashed." Obviously you've had the new vocalist come in but aside from that, why has it taken so long for a new album?
Scott Hedrick: Well, we've also done an EP, "The Apothic Gloom." That would be the biggest thing, changing singers, in between that we wrote and released an EP, then we wrote and released a record so it just took time to regroup, to figure out what we wanted to do and there's been an overhaul in the sound of the band too. You can hear it progress from "Serpents Unleashed" to the "Apothic Gloom" EP to "Devouring Radiant Light," I think if you listen to those three in a row, even with the vocalist change, you can hear the music going in the direction that it's currently in. But yeah these things take time, we just don't want to rush anything, we wanna make sure that we're happy first and foremost because we're doing it for ourselves, so if other people think that it took a long time then we don't really care!
Oz: Well, you can't rush quality! Like you said, this is your first full length with Adam, how was recording a full length album different from recording an EP?
Scott: It was great. There wasn't much of a huge difference between those two, more of a difference between him and the former vocalist. Adam listens to so much more music and has better taste and a wider variety of music that he listens to. Within metal and outside. So he's got more of a palette to work with and he knows more references, so I can reference non metal bands and if I'm talking about a certain part that we're working on. In addition to that, it's much easier to collaborate with him.More...There was a time in the past where I was told, "I'm the singer, don't tell me what to do," when we were just trying to work together, which was something I feel we wouldn't do. It was kind of like: Write music, give it to the singer, he'll do what he does and there's not very much back and forth. With Adam it was completely different, he's open to working back and forth with ideas and he can handle constructive criticism and I think ultimately that's one of many factors which led to "Devouring Radiant Light" being, I think our most developed and mature album yet.
Interview
Skeletonwitch Discusses New Album At SXSW
Skeletonwitch has now achieved a decade of music. The first ten years were nothing short of astonishing. Instead of hitting a sophomore slump, which many bands experience after concocting a must-listen formula, the group improved and found a much larger audience with Prosthetic Records when they released “Beyond the Permafrost” in 2007. Something about the Ohio-based group’s sound, a boney blend of thrash, black and melodic death with conspicuous European influences, commanded listeners’ attention. Over the years, their following has grown to the point where one can’t talk about the modern metal scene without mentioning the name Skeletonwitch.
Since their latest jaunt was a U.S. headlining tour with Havok, Early Graves and Mutilation Rites, Skeletonwitch has been home working on their fifth full-length recording. Heading into the group’s second decade of music, it seemed fitting that Metal Underground spoke to vocalist Chance Garnette at SXSW. As he states in the following conversation, Skeletonwitch last played SXSW around ’04 or ’05—an early point in the band’s career. As SXSW helped jump start the first ten years of their career, it has provided a platform to launch its second decade of music. Before hearing the band play a new track at the Van’s/Pitchfork’s SXSW day showcase at the Mohawk, Garnette aptly described what we would hear. Read on further for that description. More...
Interview
Interview with Skeletonwitch
Skeletonwitch has been touring relentlessly this year. Only the best of badasses can top them when Skeletonwitch comes to town. Before touring Europe with Goatwhore in December and to promote their new album “Breathing the Fire,” the band is tearing up the States, making sure there are no survivors before they leave. I caught up with guitarist Scott Kendrick and vocalist Chance Garnette when they played in Metairie, Louisiana, to talk about “Breathing the Fire” and just how fun it is to tour with Children of Bodom. A transcribed version follows. More...
Interview
Skeletonwitch Vocalist Chance Garnette Interviewed
Skeletonwitch has been assaulting their hybrid of thrash, death and black metal to unsuspecting crowds since 2003. The Ohio natives are one of the hardest working bands in the underground and have won the respect of fans and critics alike. Now signed to Prosthetic Records, they recently released "Beyond the Permafrost" and will head out on tour with Hate Eternal in April. I recently spoke with Skeletonwitch vocalist Chance Garnette exclusively for Metal Underground.com anout about the band's history, his love for Howard Stern and his thoughts on the thrash metal resurgence. More...