aaamusic | On 27, Mar 2012

Dan meets up with Terrance Hobbs Guitarist of Suffocation and chats about the history of Metal 

AAAmusic: Your last album was ‘Blood Oath’ in 2009 can you tell me when we can expect a new album?   

Terrance: Right now, we have most of the new record really ready to be recorded. We should be going in sometime next month, To start fully recording it. We are looking about fall 2012 for releasing it.  It will be called ‘Pinochle of Bedlam’ and some pretty new crazy shit. We have to really put them down  it’s been pretty sporadic for us You know we have been playing shows and then rehearsing then playing  shows and so on. It’s like we are constantly in a battle of playing old songs and actually working on  the new ones. So it takes a little bit more time. When you are trying to stay busy inbetween. We write pieces of things on the road and inbetween when we are at home, more of it seems to happen at home cause we get together and we piece together our songs and make it fit in for each of us.

AAAmusic: Can you tell me about what the song ‘Cataclysmic Purification’ is about? 

Terrance: It’s kind about the end of everything, you got to figure in 2012 and everything will all end. The upcoming quote on quote drama, people are trying to say the world is going to end. It’s just kinda like a vision of something of that sort doesn’t necessary mean it’s going to happen but it’s always fun to talk about it. Especially when you are in a death metal band. It’s exactly about the apocalypse and my take on life is that we are energy and we just transform and that is that, as far as crazy people that have buttons to push and stuff like that it’s a possibility. I cannot necessary rule out anything and Murphy’s law whatever can go wrong will go wrong pretty much apply’s so I really guess it’s up to people whether or not If we are going to survive or we are going to die cause you never know what is going to happen tomorrow.  I live day by day. Day you die is the end of the world.

AAAmusic: I have interviewed loads of death metal bands and a lot of them said that you influenced them, but  what bands influence you? 

Terrance: There are so many, when I was younger I listened to ‘Pink Floyd’ and ‘Jimi Hendrix’ ‘Black Sabbath to Iron maiden to Ozzy Osbourne to Deep Purple’ to early ‘Metallica’ to early ‘Dio, all that stuff. I did not get into the glam metal thing that obviously is not my gig, I am not that pretty!, Early classic rock up into metal into kinda progressed in that manner.I’ve listened to a lot of early guitar players and metal bands and you know even gone into the industrial aspect, into the techno aspect all sorts of different music really music is what I am all about. I like progressive death metal the most. Because I think it takes a little more out of the person than it is to just necessary be musically critical. Ok we are not ‘Beethoven’ and ‘Mozart’ we are more into the progressive factor of things so you know for listen to thou’s earlier forms in a progressive to more aggressive stuff that kind of how I try to betray myself writing music. Not as supposed to just the band. When it comes to new music I listen to  ‘Beneath the Massacre’ ‘Decreatia Strain’ ‘Decrepit Birth ‘Necrophasic” you name it, there are tones of bands out there ‘Cerenral Bore’ the list really goes on and on and on. I mean there is so many bands. It’s out of control. I constantly find myself going back to the older school, death metal bands but there is other bands I like as well. I also like some black metal bands like ‘Immortal, Emperor, Marduk’ things of that sort of nature.  Anything that.

AAAmusic: Suffocation is described as technical death metal that is influenced as grindcore. What would you personally describe your music as and why? 

Terrance: I suppose for the average person we are death Metal, people consider us as technical death metal. I think that there is more technical death metal bands out there that is for sure. I do not know if they are trying to be musically correct in what their playing as suppose to just making technical noise and people thinking it’s really technical death metal were trying to being more musicianship     in the technical department so guess it sounds a little more difficult. In the later years we have been trying to make it a little more     apprehensible so we don’t want to go over everybody’s head and we still want to keep the raw brutality of things. So I think anyone to     consider us metal I think we will just be strait death metal.

AAAmusic: I hear your usual singer is not here tonight?   

Terrance: Yeah we are older and ‘Frank’ has been working at a job at home for quite a while, he is got kids and things like that. He is really working to get his pension for his retirement and we have been touring a lot so we have been playing a lot of shows and things and we exhumed up pretty much most of his time, and really he just has to buckle down and do what he has to do at home. So we said hey you got to do what you gotta do. And he said guys get a fill in, and that is pretty much what we did. He wants to be with the guys and out here playing for you all, but sometimes     duty calls, so he is at home doing his thing. He understood about the band having to move forward to we had shows and stuff booked and albums that we are making and he is still involved with some of it. ‘Bill’ from ‘Decrepit birth’ is filling in, we found him through ‘Derek’ who had     played on the first album for ‘Decrepit Birth; so we knew him through then and it is working really well, He is different to ‘Frank’ do not get me wrong but it’s working really well. ‘Bills’ stage presence mannerisms compliments a lot andwe are happy to have him aboard for the meantime and I cannot say nothingbut good things about him.

 AAAmusic: You disbanded for a few years, why was this and what made you decide it was time to get the band back together? 

Terrance: We have had a lot of different members thought out the years but at the time the scene was not really doing well for us and everyone was going     in different directions and it kinda just fizzled it out it was not like we disbanded we just kinda fizzled. And it just kinda like happened and     ‘Frank’ was coming back into town cause he moved away for a while, and ‘Frank’ kinda like kept calling us up seeing if we could get back together, and     I said sure and it’s been like that ever since and now I am hear playing and the guy is at home and he should be here.     I think all the time apart happened for the better.

AAAmusic: What are the next steps for Suffocation, Are you touring? 

Terrance: We have Indonesia coming up, then ‘New Jersey’ then ‘Chile’ and we also have festivals in mainland Europe in the middle year also have the album coming up in may and a whole lot more to come, we are always having things thrown at us, We are playing some cool festivals like Hellfest.

AAAmusic: You have a song called ‘Surgery of Impalement’ what do you think would be the most brutal form of impalement that someone could have happen to them? 

Terrance: I think of the Omen when the lighting  bolt hits the top of the church and the spear goes through the man, I just think of that, that shit is brutal, it’s F**king brutal.  I can see being ripped to pieces and shit but that shit was instantaneous it just went strait through and it’s done.

AAAmusic: What was it like playing to 33,000 fans at the ‘Wacken Festival’ in Germany? 

Terrance: That  shit was unbelievable, to be honest with you the festival has got it’s own name so it probably wouldn’t even matter what bands played there unbelievable to see that many people. I do not even know if half of them got it. cause literally there was so much shit going on in that place.     It was really an honor actually. Immortal played after us which was cool but the whole thing was a blur I couldn’t really see the mass crowd cause     I wear glasses every things a blur cause I cannot wear contacts so I get on and play by feel. I can see in front of me but where the crowd is I cannot     see shit. Practice is the key.

AAAmusic: You toured with ‘Napalm Death’ any plans to work with any of them on a record? 

Terrance: If I had the opportunity I would work with them every day, there like so much fun I cannot even begin to tell you, guys I had a blast with them. There so cool knowledgeable, they have been around the block  and they are still fucking ripping shit hands down my favourite band ever.

AAAmusic: Do you think your breakdowns in your songs invented the genre deathcore? 

Terrance: Well that is really funny deathcore, do not really know what that fits into but the list of bands you showed me that’s cool. I think the idea of what the breakdown is really caught people and they used it not necessary how we were uterlising them.     So I think they kinda changed the style were the kids are doing the beatdown and we were doing ours. And the difference is something we would not normally do. So we were more like hanging with muted chords and they picked up and changed the style and then someone else changed their styles so it was like a mountain of styles.

 

Daniel Cairns

Photo Luca Viola