Interview: SEAX

Right now, my favourite genre is Speed Metal. Don’t know why, but most of the new output just takes me right back to my teenage years in the 80s, and I love it. And as Seax are having 2 albums re-issued, it was a good chance to have a talk with the band….

Here’s my chat with Seax founder Hel.

If it’s ok with you, we’ll begin with your song titles. They really are as Metal as it gets: Speed Metal Mania, Nuclear Overdose, and of course, Drink Fuck Die… What’s the formula, think of the most Metal song title and build a song around it? Or vice versa?

– Hel: It’s been part of the band since day one. We always come up with Metal titles while sitting at the band room, drinking and brainstorming song titles. We usually title the songs after they are done, but sometimes we will write a song based on a title, like we did with “Speed Forever”.

And who is the most “Metal” band member?

-Hel: That would be Carmine. That guy was teleported to our band straight from the front row of a Judas Priest gig in 1981 haha.

When you began, you were more of a Traditional Metal band, why the move into Speed Metal? (I have to confess, Speed Metal is probably my favourite genre of the moment)

-Hel: We always had “Speed Metal” in our heads. I was playing in Black Metal bands for 10 years before I started Seax, so it was a big change for me when writing riffs.

Our first solid lineup was a good mix of “styles”, if you wanna put it that way. Carmine brought in that classic metal vibe, while Matt and I brought all that Thrash / Punk influence into the mix. “High on Metal” was born.

Seax was created to play traditional fast Heavy Metal and with “Speed Metal Mania”, I think that we  finally found our sound.

You played your first ever gig at what the venue calls itself, a Dive Bar. Hotel Vernon, a DIY venue in Worcester, MA. So when you walk out on the stage for the Headbangers Open Air next July, how will you feel knowing you’ve gone from playing a Dive Bar, to a muddy field in Germany?

-Hel: We can’t wait! I’m sure its going to feel great. The Vernon is a cool spot, a really dirty underground DIY spot haha. We always had a good time playing there.
But the place that helped us solidify our name in the scene was a different venue in the same town, called Ralphs Rock Diner.

We will give our best, regardless if we are playing a big stage or a basement show.

Playing a Heavy Metal fest in Europe is a dream we all have, so we are very excited about it and are looking forward to meet our European fans, drink as many beers as possible with you and thrash your heads in with Speed!

What are your plans for next summer, are you going to tour as much as you can in Europe, or is it just a brief visit for the festival?

-Hel: We want to tour there, thinking about a 3 weeks run, maybe 4. We are still trying to find a promoter to help us with booking (Promoters, hit us up!).

I always think of a band having to travel from the US to Europe quite a big step, but I guess it’s no different than going from the East to the West Coast. How difficult is it to tour in the US?

-Hel: We’ve always took the DIY route when booking our tours here. We did a long run last year with our brothers from Hessian and Vanlade. We went to the West Coast and back, 3 weeks long, and it was great. It was our first time on that side of the country and we had a blast. Thanks To Jarvis from NightDemon for booking us at Frost and Fire. The fest ignited that tour. We are planning on doing it again next year after Europe.

Your second and third albums, To The Grave and Speed Metal Mania are getting re-issued as a double cd via Iron Shield Recs. How did you end up signing to a German label, maybe as it’s the most Metal place on the planet? (Cue lots of arguments how who’s more Metal)

-Hel: Our first contact with Germany happened when Jochen from Diabolic Might Records reached out to us and wanted to reissue “Speed Metal Mania” on Vinyl, which will be released on November 20^th.
Then Carmine went to HOA and met Thomas and they talked about reissuing both albums on CD. And here we are.

Would you consider re-recording To The Grave, with Carmine Blades doing the vocals this time, or are you happy with To The Grave as it is?

-Hel: I’m happy with it. I think that album sounds the way it was supposed to sound, so I never thought about re-recording it.

And how is the band line-up right now? It seems to have stabilized after a few changes, including the return of Carmine. And does having a more stable line-up allow you plan tours, new albums etc..

-Hel: Eli left the band earlier this year, so Razzle moved from bass to guitar duties and we brought our original bass player (Matt C Axe) back. So not a lot has changed. Playing with people you already know is definitely better in general. It does make writing and planning tours easier.

And finally, will you have any new material out before you grace our European shores?

-Hel: Yes. We are in the process of writing the new album and the plan is to hit the studio around march and have it ready to go for our European shows.

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