Intervista Liquid Graveyard (John Walker)

Hi, first of all thank you for being here, on True Metal webzine. Five years have passed since the release of “The Fifth Time I Died”, two of the four members of the line-up have changed and your third album comes out on a third different record label. How would you tell these recent years to our readers?

Hi, thanks for these question which we will try to answer the best way we can. Lots of things have happened since “The Fifth Time I Died”. Liquid Graveyard played in Stonehenge Metalfest in Holland in 2013, along with Lock Up who are longtime friends of ours. We talked a lot about many things, good old times… also Cancer… and we also talked about doing an album together for Liquid Graveyard. I’m talking about Shane Embury and Nick Barker. 

Adding  Embury and Barker to the team has changed the approach to your songwriting? Possibly how? In my opinion there is an overall hardening of the songwriting, while – on the other hand – the more experimental and melancholic inputs of your sound suffered a little bit. What you think about that? 

Well we’ve always done what we wanted in Liquid Graveyard, in terms of style. This time wasn’t really gonna be different. Raquel loves Death Metal and she wanted to experiment with a harsher sound in the new album. Having Nick and Shane wasn’t the reason why we decided to go more extreme, as they’re actually very open minded musicians who listen to many different styles. Nevertheless, the result was more extreme of course. I believe we have kept our sound but we just didn’t wanna do a “Fith Time I Died part II”. We’re always up for new possibilities, new sounds. It’s probably true that, in these terms, we’re pretty unconventional.

On what do the lyrics concern this time?

As always, it’s a harsh social and political criticism written with a lot of metaphors. That hasn’t changed.

Your albums have never enjoyed a generous and widespread distribution, at least not in Italy, nor I remember many dates in our country. Do you think that this situation is going to change with “So Perverse By Nature”?

Well these questions aren’t basically something we can answer. They should be asked to the record labels. By Nature So Perverse has been released by Sleaszy Rider Records. They do a worldwide distribution. As for the distribution in Italy, it’s funny you mention that, because we were signed to My Kingdom Music, which is an Italian label. I think you should ask the label this questio, not us.

The Embury and Barker intake is intended as lasting and permanent or it is an experiment that could last for the space of a single recording chapter? Will they have enough time for Liquid Graveyard and all the other bands they use to play with (Napalm Death, Brujera, Ancient, Lock Up)?

Nick is very busy of course, but he has become a permanent member since we recorded the album. He’s a close friend, an incredible drummer, and we have a lot of fun playing together. Shane is a lot more busy I’m afraid!! I’m also getting more and more busy with Cancer, but nevertheless we always find time for Liquid Graveyard which is a band we love and enjoy big time.

How do you imagine Liquid Graveyard sound could evolve further? I always thought you own a very original and peculiar sound, made of a mixture of various ingredients (heavy metal, death metal, progressive metal, avantgarde flavor). How could them be shuffled in the future?

I don’t know, that will depend on our mood and on what we want to experiment in the future. We’ve always written our music according to what we wanted to do there and then, what we felt like doing. So we’ve never had any boundaries. What’s quite evident is that we’ve enjoyed doing a harsh sounding album and we might go on that path, but experimenting, always experimenting.

Are there concrete plans about the return of Cancer?

Oh yes, there’s a new album ready, we just need to get together to finish the bass lines, drums etc, and then record it. We have lots of festivals booked for 2017.

In summary, in your opinion what are the main differences between the death metal scene at the turn of the 80s and 90s and the current one?

The same difference you’ll find in film making, education, society… the world is simple different. 
The music industry in general went from being analog to totally digital in a short period of time, then internet has changed the world of music marketing and promotion completely. The days of a few super stars in the metal scene are over. There are lots of incredible bands with a chance of being listened to thanks to the social network, and incredibly fast exchange of tons of music per second all over the world… The negative aspect is, many new bands aren’t given, and won’t be given the chance to make a big name in the scene, because the scene is overwhelmed by millions of bands out there, all of them just as good. And this makes it virtually impossible. 

One last important revelation Italian readers should not miss before this interview ends?

Buy our new album By Nature So Perverse! You’ll find a huge revelation there…

Thank you for your precious time. Good luck!

Same to you. Thanks for these questions.

Marco Tripodi