Garza Podcast - 79 - FROZEN SOUL: Death Metal Revival, Craft Beer & Snow Machines

Episode Date: May 22, 2023

Garza sits down with Dallas, Texas death metal band Frozen Soul. https://www.frozensoultx.com SPONSORS: distrokid.com/vip/garza 30% OFF! emgpickups.com Promo Code: Heavy 15% OFF! TIME CODES: 00:00 - Chad Screams at People 04:51 - Touring with The Black Dahlia Murder 06:38 - Warming Up Before Playing, Having a Drink 09:37 - Death Metal Revival, Coming From Texas, Chaos in Tejas Fest 15:50 - Death Metal Revival continued, Swords 19:40 - Blood Incantation Goes Synth 21:35 - Working with Matt Heafy (Trivium) 26:55 - “Crypt of Ice” Writing Process 29:22 - Peavey 5150 vs 6505, Tone Is In the Hands, Sam’s Basses 36:52 - Magic The Gathering 41:34 - James Bousema, Artist 44:10 - Meeting at a Comic Book Shop, Starting Frozen Soul 46:13 - Sam Learned How to Play Bass in 3 Months 49:00 - Circuit City to Touring, Record Release Show 53:00 - Wrecking Ball, Metal Madness Fest, DIY Artwork 01:03:27 - Frost Hammer & Cold Moon Craft Beer (Division Brewing) 01:06:27 - Coming Up With Ideas on the Fly, Happy Accidents 01:09:24 - The Snow Machine 01:12:01 - Blink 182 Inspired Michael to Play Guitar, Gateway Bands

But Ray was just like, why don't we get it? What about a snow machine? And I was like, oh my God, Amazon right away. We had it delivered to us. For our hometown show back. And this was like before the Frozen Hole tour with Sing the Sugabog. Use EMG pickups because they help you get the heaviest tone possible. Head over to emgpickups.com and use my promo code heavy at checkout and get 15% off.

And then once you write the heaviest song of all time, head over to DistroKid. dot com slash VIP slash Garza and save 30% off your membership to get all your songs on all streaming platforms and now to the heaviest podcast of all time but once again you the people outspoken we have frozen soul here thank you for being here thank you for having us thanks uh i appreciate you being here even though you all are very hungover yeah you had too many monikas what are those uh it's a canned cocktail so it's got real liquor it instead of like a malt beverage, like a Trudeley or Whiteclaw. It's actual liquor.

So all of them have like rum, tequila, vodka. They kind of loosely sponsor us and send us tons of it when we're on tour. There they are right there. Yeah, that's it. They are. I never see. The watermelon's my favorite. There's the nectar of the gods.

They're starting to expand into all the U.S. Right now they just got the official UFC endorsement. Dan, that's huge. Yeah. They're an official sponsor of the UFC now. And kind of Frozen Soul. Yeah, those motherfuckers are. are delicious. Yeah, they'll get you fucked up.

Like, real quick. They look like celtors. They're not. They're not, but they drink like a seltzer, but it's hard liquor. Yeah, if you have like two of them on an empty stomach, you'll be like hung over the next. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Hey, Matt and Sammy, I'm sorry, you got, you need to share that mic. Can we do a quick intro?

Yep. Hi. I'm Michael. Hi, I'm Michael. I play guitar for Frozen Soul. I'm Chris. I play the other guitar for Frozen Soul. So, Chad, I just fucking yell at people.

That's awesome. I'm Sam. I play bass and Frozen Soul. I'm Matt. I play drums in Frozen Soul. Sick. Chad, it is kind of true. You do scream at people.

Oh, yeah. I never really thought of a singer in that way. Yeah, that's literally what I do. And also, I just, like, feel, like, you know, awkward sometimes. So I have to keep yelling at them over and over again. and just keep telling them to like circle bit. All sorts of stuff and I just can't stop.

I'm literally the yell guy. That's my position in the band, the yell guy. That is kind of your job to like, it's funny because seniors have a very important job that I don't think us guitar players or drummers, whenever I understand. Is your job to really focus, like the energy of like literally a room?

Yeah. And that's tough. Yeah, it's like weird because I like started as a drummer. So, like, changing and warping my perspective to, like, be like a singer was weird. And getting up on the stage, normally I'm, like, so focused on rhythm, you know. But, like, being the singer, all of a sudden I'm seeing all these people's, like, faces. And I'm gauging the energy of the room like I never could before. So it's like, I don't know, if I see them looking at me too long and they're not banging their head, I'm like, do your fucking push up, bang your head.

like something you know because uh i just like have to you know it's it's just crazy it's it's it's uh it's not seeing that you know from a different perspective now as a singer this is the first band i've ever done it for so you know what i i never even asked a singer before like i mean what do you where does singers even learn like to like gauge that that kind of pain pain just just just just i don't know like you know like uh just like you know you used to like you know you see like if you see him having fun, you know, you it's the same thing. It's really the same

thing for the whole band, I think. You see him having fun you, you know, you amp up even more, you know, and you vibe off the energy, you know, keep it going and like, yeah. I mean, Chad is a mosher like at heart, so I mean, he knows like what he wants people to do and how to get him to do it. Yeah, it's his first

man ever doing vocals in too, but you know, it comes from the hardcore scene, so he knows how energy's supposed to be. And we all, I don't know, someone our favorite bands are all like big entertainer bands so we all kind of have that energy about us we want to fucking put on a show not just rock out you know

what I mean but like get up there and get people really worth the crowd yeah we were just talking about Romstein yeah exactly yeah yeah Romstein kiss we fucking love kiss you know that's not you know just a lot of bands like that yeah you know hardcore bands like terror very

inspirational see every night too you know yeah I mean you guys are on tour right now with terror and the black dollar murder yeah yeah sick Two, man, fucking Ryan Knight and Brandon Ellis on guitar together. Oh my God. It's crazy. Unmatched fucking combo.

Literally, God. Yeah, I just want to, like, throw my guitar on the trash. Like, everybody's watching them. They're so badass. Yeah, they're like rippers. Dude, totally. And they're doing all the twin leads and solos and shit together. It's so sick.

Smooth as butter, too. Dude, nobody hit it all so easily. Yeah, nobody's on their level right now, for sure. It's like, should I go on practice right now? Yeah. Yes, you should. Just watching them practice backstage will make you on a practice. It's more like, can I take a time machine back to when I was like a teenager and start practicing it?

So now I could maybe be as good as them? It ain't happening now. Can we get their secrets? How long are they practicing pre-show? They usually do, when they can, they do like a few songs or maybe there's a whole set like backstage. I think they don't like, I don't think they run it like the whole Metallica. They're playing the set like multiple times before they go on. But they're all back there together, generally.

and like yeah they have these like little mini like black star pocket amps and uh in uh alan the drummer he just sets his like kick pedals up against the wall and just like air drums he also has a v kit too he has a wall in vk he has a majority on time stage and fucking plays on that too which is like i would fucking love to do that for us yeah that that was that's awesome i mean you know like uh you know becoming friends with like uh matt hefe from trivium like they do they do something similar where they like practice religiously before before the set is it was cool to meet up with dolly and see that they do that you know that they jam like that beforehand it's like man we got we got to step the shit up so i guess next question is are you going to start to warm up

pre some bads don't need it some some some some some don't i mean me personally sometimes i don't sometimes I don't really warm up too much on guitar before we play. But I would if we had the chance to actually get a full fucking jam in together, I would do that every night. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. If we had like an e-kit and stuff like that like and like room to set everything up. It'd be fun

and just like be able to like work the kinks out and then like you know you hit the fucking stage boom, ready to go. Having a headliner spot would probably afford us the time to be able to really like do all that well. So probably on the headliner will probably experiment with stuff like that. Yeah.

Got to get an E kit. Yeah. Absolutely. I've been thinking about it. That's probably going to be one of the first things I get when I go back home, actually. I started warming up like an hour before. Even like, you know, we're not known as like it be like rippers, but like we're, I mean, we are still. We're like we're a rhythm-based dominant band.

And like, you know, it helps. Yeah, it helps. Oh, shit. I feel like I'm a black dollar murder right now. I feel like I'm ripping, dude. Usually my warm up consists of drinking. having a few Monaco's or having something

just to loosen up and be ready to go You know what drinking and smoking We really does Especially if you're like any kind of player Artist It kind of puts you right where you are Yeah

Does that make any sense? Yeah, yeah, it does It's okay like all your time at home Or home being alone Jamming or practicing or doing whatever It comes out at that moment This is where we're at So if you had you know a couple beers

Like you go to where that's kind of my theory about dying back where it's like I think he practiced so much even when he drank it was just like

he just responded naturally to that's your fucking yeah maybe yeah maybe this is the alcoholic to me talking but like uh oh

alcohol is a blood flow inhibitor so it allows your muscles to loosen up and stuff like that that's why some people when they have a few drinks it's easier for them to riff not everybody

some people are they have a few drinks they're like whoa Oh, oh. Sure. But like someone like dime bag, man. I think it, you know, just loosening them up just enough to fucking shred it, you know. That's crazy.

I mean, but as far as drummer is kind of, is that. He don't drink. I don't drink much, yeah, before a show. Like, if anything, I might have, like, a beer early in the day or something, if anything. But, like, before a show, yeah, I don't drink or anything like that. Because it makes, I don't know. It makes it feel like the drumsticks are just, like, huge weights on me. And I don't know, it adds a whole lot more pressure to playing.

So, yeah, I don't. You know, it's good to have all my mechanics intact before I play. But after the show, I like to have, you know, a drink or so. Yeah, for sure. You are responsible and you should be proud of yourself. Thank you. That's great, man. You guys are, your band, Frozen Soul,

you are a part of this revival wave of death metal. And it seems to be coming out of, of like, I mean, credit me if I'm wrong, but kind of coming out of like, Ohio, Texas, really. Like, what, like, what's been going on in Texas to make this, make this sound? Man. See, I always tell people, I'm like, it's crazy because Texas is like this gigantic place where people, like, most of the time don't get out of. Yeah, you're born there and you die there.

So we really like, we have a ton of, like, friends that we've grown up going to shows with. And it's all just like everybody's trying to, like, do cool stuff and have fun but not rip each other off and just like you know and I think it all just pushes us to just like do stuff and it turned out cool I guess I don't really know Texas has always had a great scene for punk metal hardcore like everything there's a lot of rich history yeah it's been very consistent for like throughout all the decades and stuff and all the band showed genuine appreciation for each other and everyone's still there you know like I've been the scene like 20 years and a lot of the same people are still there and still

other bands and still helping shit. You know, we've had DIY spaces of last of like 14, 15 years, you know, which is uncommon outside of the area and stuff. So, yeah, it's a really strong scene just in general for music. Yeah. So you guys see like the barman and just kind of just keep,

keep going. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah. So a ton of amazing bands, like, and like, plus, like, we had, like, a really cool festival called Chaos and Tejas. Well, we used to. Well, that's just saying we had one. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And that was, like, a spawning ground for, like, kids and just everyone to be like, this is what I want to do, you know, because you had all sorts of bands that played it. I mean, you'd have, you know, punk bands, and then you'd have bands like tragedy and bolt thrower, and then just straight up death metal bands. Like, it was, it was like a melting pot. And so, like, a lot of people just, you know, a lot of people follow. of that. I mean, that's one of the things that made me want to, you know, experiment with, like, other

styles of music and stuff like that. So I think that melting pot really helps a lot of people in Texas grow and get going. Yeah, the voter for that did a really great job. He ran it for almost 10 years, but he would fly in, like, legendary bands from, like, you know, Finland and Sweden, Japan, all over the world.

He put on rappers, too. Right. Currency was all at one time. It was a sick fucking fest, dude. And, like, that's where we grew up going to that fest. That's what maybe love hardcore metal. It's like I met a bunch of people from Japan. It came tight with them, toured over there a bunch with my other business. It's all just because of like that shit. What was the festival called again? Chaos in Tejas. Chaos and Tejas. Yeah. The last year, both are our headlined and that was 2013. Yeah. And I think after that,

Timmy was probably just like, yeah. We can't look at those lineups, dude. They're funny. Oh, these are massive lineups. Oh, yeah. And it was like spread apart like all of Austin too. So like all the coolest venues that like, you know, some of them like, for instance, the Mohawk we played the other day. It's like nuts. And you had like a little bit of everything. Yeah. You know, you had a little bit of everything.

And it was, it was awesome. And I just really haven't ever seen it. Yeah, Mibix. That was the first time of Meebix had played in, I don't know how many years. That was so nine, I think. It'll be a row of night. I think Gorilla Biscuits did their first reunion at Chaos and Teos. Like there's, like a lot of these bands never fucking played, but Timmy was a dude that could

get them to fly over and play. Yeah, it's like a lot of times, like, this is like, when I was like getting further into like hardcore and metal and everything, I'd say, like, I straight up didn't even, I didn't even need to leave Texas. This is, this is what you look forward to. Yeah. You didn't have to leave Texas. You didn't have to go anywhere. And that's, I mean, I think that's partially why there's so many sick bands because like, Texas is just fucking got it all. Yeah. And we had it all. We had it all at our disposal to learn from. And in Dallas is like, Dallas is like, Dallas is. the stopping ground to go to Austin or to go anywhere else in Texas. So we get all the fucking shows. Like everybody coming from everywhere always played Dallas. Yeah. So this festival was in Austin. Yes.

And then so how far is Austin from where you're all from? Like three hours. Three hours? Yeah. So you make the drive. Oh, yeah. I mean, to get anywhere in Texas, you know, it's like crazy. You know, like if you want to drive all the way across Texas, I think it's like 19 hours

or something crazy. If you go from the top to the. bottom. So it's like three hours to us is like nothing. We go down there and play a show and drive back that night. Or just go see a show. Yeah, go see it and just drive back. Yeah, yeah. So basically

you have to find one a friend that has as driving that's young that got their license. And also who, you know, they better be the DD. I mean, that alone is a fucking task. There's some there's stuff that helps with that too. Dude, that's a crazy, how many

bands is that? Yeah, it's crazy. All the clubs are just like booked out. Oh, yeah. All the streets just go out. I mean, it's insane. And Austin's got like a legendary like, uh, Oh, that's my friend's dog.

His name's Curry. That's a, uh, uh, uh, Suichi from Ford's dog. Yeah, he plays, yeah, plays it forward. No dogs, no hamsters. Curry was mean as fuck. Like, that dog would attack your ass if you came in his house and stuff. He was really fucking possessing.

Yeah, so the, uh, so it sounds like the, uh, Dallas and Fort Worth scene we're really popping. Yeah, always. Also, I mean, as far as like heavy shit, you know. And what other bands would you, I mean, you're actually inside. So I know it's kind of hard to see, but like you're actually in that wave. So, I mean, what other bands or what, I guess the better question is, what band really kicked it off?

Like I keep hearing about Frozen Soul, a bloody and. incantation and then you go into like the like the bog and tuna stab wounds like what like what was a band that really kicked off this like I mean honestly I think I think it I think it was too I think it was blood incantation and neck rot for me those two bands were the bands that like made I thought everybody from my perspective they put this new wave on the map yeah like they were in skeletal remains that's another one yeah skeletal remains is another one those three bands as far as the new wave goes, I think those are the bands that really, like, helped kick it off. Yeah, Gay Creeper 2, too, though. Yeah, Gay Creeper as well, yeah.

But they're all, like, kind of, like, precursors to what you're talking about right now. You know what I mean? Yeah, all these... And they're a little adjacent to what we do with, like, 200 Sabloons and everybody else. Yeah, all these bands were... All these bands were talking about. They started, like, the kind of, like, early to mid-2010s, and then they started, like, really gaining steam in, like, the, like, 2016-ish. And they were really about the, like, old school.

That's the thing. They looked to the part. They had the pointy guitars. They had like the production, you know. And it really made you feel like you were listening to something from like the late 80s, like to the men. French. Yeah. Sweden and England and stuff like that.

They had a lot of those. Gate Creeper definitely had the Swedish influence. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I'd say those, honestly, yeah, you have Gate Creeper in there. You have those four bands. I think those bands kind of spawned it. Okay.

But if you want to go way back, fucking Black Breath. Yeah. Black Breath. Yeah. Also Hooded Menace. Yeah. Mammoth Grindr. Mammoth Grindr was a big one from Texas.

They're from Texas. That's Chris Olds from. Yeah. And Mammoth Grindr, if you have not listened to Mammoth Grinder, they're one of the greatest bands from Texas. That band is fucking hard. And really, like, before there was a new wave, they were, like, they were one of the first bands to, like, cross over punk and hardcore into death metal for Texas in the newer scene.

Was it? Mammoth Grim. Yeah. It's got crew. Chris Olsh from Power Trip and Impaliers and whatnot. Yeah, that's his, he was in that band, and they're awesome. Super sick band. Man, we just threw so many great bands to people and myself.

Oh, yeah, we could go all day about it. Yeah, we could keep going. Yeah, there's tons, there's a ton, man. Listen to Iron Age. One of the greatest Texas hardcore bands. One of the best crossover bands ever exist, man. Sleeping Eye, like. Top 10 album for me.

Yeah. Really? Yeah. Yeah. And if you like Power Trip, you're gonna fucking love Iron Age. Yeah. There wouldn't be a Power Trip without Iron Age. Yeah.

Like they're just, they're, you know, all great, all great bands from Texas, you know. You ever heard Eternal Champion? No. Oh, man.

That's, that's Jason from Iron Age. That's his, like, a traditional, heavy metal style band. And they're one of the best to do it. And he's a fucking blacksmith. Oh, yeah.

He makes fucking swords and shit. and shit. I got a sword. And he writes like fantasy novels for a fucking living. It's fucking amazing. He's a good friend. That's him with one of his fucking swords, dude.

Yeah. That is a sword. Yes. You want to talk about Texas hardcore legacy? Like that man right there, that band Iron Age. Look at that cover.

Like, like the Iron Age Eternal Champion. Great stuff, man. Oh yeah. Great stuff. Bands fucking legendary. Kind of forefather.

to all of us in a way yeah literally wow well to be honest the first time I ever heard of like blood in incantation was actually today oh yeah I kept hearing like the band name but I mean dude I mean listening to newer bands literally is a full-time job oh yeah so much shit coming out all the time dude it's it's not so like when I hear a band okay I'll check them out but then you hear it under 10 yeah so I literally checked out that band and then they have like okay this is fucking sick and then I always what was so but their

their latest record? Oh, the synth, the synth yeah, so. I think they just were paying them as to like. Yeah, so they're all about like, uh, it's like what, what's going on? It's sick.

Tangerine dream. Yeah, they're all about like that lofi, like, scent stuff and, you know, in like interviews and stuff, they were like, oh yeah, like ever, when they, they knew when the band started like, yeah, we want to do like just a straight like synth record.

Whoa. And they were like, uh, they wanted to be like a pallet cleanser between their like latest album and then their next, like metal album, you know? Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Did that get any backlash at all? Oh, we got a ton of backlash. People are like,

this isn't fucking metal and it's like, well, a band can do whatever the fuck they want. So like, who gives a shit? Yeah. I mean, for me, I just thought it was a little boring. I mean, I do like Tangerine Dream and some stuff like that. Sure. But props to them just for fucking do whatever they want to do, you know, I mean, that's what's about anyways.

It's a ballsy move. Yeah, you fuck it. Because they're talking straight death metal. I mean, you know, it's weird. Like, I feel like in the, in this age, you know, with the internet and like so much availability for like so many different styles of music like there's totally room to explore that kind of stuff so like you know i you know i'm like and actually like we're all in this band huge fans of synth like we love synth wave we love like you know um you know all the all the synthy style bands yeah we just love like tepeche mode and electronic music like you know drab majesty and stuff

we love we love all that stuff and so like to see a band explore that stuff is like it's cool. They exported more on the like the fucking home interplanetory alignment of chakras kind of shit, whereas we're more just like into the dancey fun stuff. Yeah, we like, I mean I wouldn't have- We don't nerd out on the pyramids. I would have

I wouldn't have mind it if they would have dropped a beat in there. But hey, you know it's cool. They're expressing themselves and that's sick. We have a lot of stuff like that. On our record. We have a straight up synth wave. song on our record like straight up simply it's it's it's called annihilation and it's literally a minute or so long song if you if you heard the song glacial domination the first like minute or

so of that is part of that yeah it's it's its own track on the record i was gonna ask you about that song too because um you guys got uh your band got matt heepy on there i was i was like ask you about that song like you get a backlash from that because you really stepped up on like the like the like production sound and i know people get kind of weird like you know oh they they went I mean, the nerds on Reddit got super fucking mad, but that's because, like, you know, it's fucking Reddit. Yeah, I mean, we have like, overall, it's been like a really great response. Like our fans love it. Dude, he's a fucking awesome guy and super smart and loves music. He gets it, you know.

Yeah, he's like a, he's like really down to earth and like he's a hard worker, but he's not like, you know, like, so he doesn't like push you over the edge. Yeah. Yeah, like we, he's fun. You know, it's surprising. It was, like, I was, I was. nervous, you know, with that song. You know, we co-wrote that song with him. That, there's two songs on the record. That and then, you know, abominable on the record. We both of those songs were co-written with us and him. And at first, you know, when you're taking risks and stuff, like, and you're changing things up, it's like an unknown territory. So, like, I was nervous about it.

It turned out, I think it turned out sick. We're all happy with it. And, you know, I was kind of expecting a little bit more backlash, actually. Yeah. But it really, like, the support was like, fucking overwhelming. Like, it was, it was an over, there was an overwhelming amount of support. Everybody is really feeling it. Even the, even the, even the, even the friends and fans that are honest with me and us. And like, and are always shooting straight.

Even they were like, I was expecting it to be, this isn't fucking goregrine. This isn't mortician worship. You know, but they weren't. They were like, wow, this is catchy, but sick. kid's still heavy, you know. And I don't know, it actually caught me off guard. I was expecting to get more. So it's been fucking awesome. One of the only people that really said anything to us was Philip, the owner of Century Media. He was just like, man, I'm really excited for you guys. I'm glad you're working with Matt, but please make a death metal. Yeah. And you're like, dude. I mean, you've,

you've met Philip, brother. You know, you've talked to Philip probably like, you know, Philip, he's a fucking death metal. Yeah, he's a cool dude. Like all the way through. And so like, you know, he's like he he he is like you know a huge supporter of us he's been a good friend and like you know he's taken care of us and he like he you know he was being nice but he was just like please make a death metal core record guys we can't we can't do that I mean that's just not what we do I don't know I don't know I mean technically I mean technically it kind of is because you're never taking the core out of me like ever like you cannot like that's it's ingrained in me like So, but like, but yeah, it's, you know.

What if Sam was like, we should have, I have like this medical intro. Well, we would, you know? No, we didn't. You know, like, there's definitely a lot of riffs he threw at us that we were like, no, yes, but we always got to like make it our own. Yeah, we put the frozen soul spin on it. Like this, like the original riff he gave us sounds almost nothing like what it does like now. Yeah.

When we say we wrote it, man, we really wrote it. like he he we sent ideas back we crafted it to make it a frozen soul song but still have like he fees like influence and input and stuff yeah we're very uh very picky about our sound and stuff we'll rewrite a song 20 times you know before we're happy with it and we have like hours worth of fucking ribs yeah he's also really encouraging of that and like wants to hear that too like he supports us like as as a fan of the band also and then at no point even we were like now we've kind to like that he didn't he was just like okay yeah no problem he wasn't like one of those people was like well i think and sure no he's yeah he's like he'll give us an idea and we'll try and we'll be like

we just don't like he's like all right cool let's try this yeah that's it was real positive like going out there to the trivium compound they own like an airport hanger out in florida where they do all our shit we spent a week out there with them and that was like intimidating at first like i was kind of nervous i mean because i was like oh man this dudes you know all this stuff but as soon as you meet him you're like oh this is like an old buddy. It's so cool, man. It was a cool experience.

Really cool, dude. So you all drove there and it's hung out and we just, we flew up. Yeah. Wow. Oh, yeah, there it is. Yep, that's this part of it. But on the inside, dude, it's huge. Yeah, like down below, there's like, that's like, you could fit a whole airplane in

there. And also below that is like some living areas and showers. It's where they have all their guitars and gear too. It's crazy. Yeah. Wow. Got like a. That was early on.

Full garage with, like, all their props and, like, a basketball court and everything, too. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. That was, and next time he's like, yeah, we got to, they're building the studio there right now. He's like, next time we're going to record here. All that trip. We did all pre-production out there, though. Nice.

So it's a nice, a nice full collab, you know, just having a good time. What's that song, Crypt-Evice? And what was, I mean, obviously, that has, like, a lot of streams. What was the writing process like for that song? I'm like the primary writer of that song. I mean, you know, I was just trying to like, I was listening obituary one day. And I was like, I kind of want to do that, but do my own spin on it. I think it was the song like Dead Silence or something like that.

And, you know, and then I came up with this like criss-cross riff pattern where it's like doing it, and I just spread it out a little bit and just made it kind of groovy. And then me and him just got in a room and like banged it out together. he's like the structure guy I'm like the riff guy of the band he'll come up with a riff and then I'll like take the riff and then I'm like figure out a way to like switch it up

and added that movement to it to where it's like it catches you by surprise and makes you like you know I don't know invoke some kind of like you know feeling you know where you want to move we have a lot of parts like that throughout the records in the songs where it's like it'll build and build and build

and then it'll hit and the timing will change and it'll be real groovy or something, you know, classic hardcore style stuff, you know, but like in like a death metal way. So that's really how that song came out. And like at the end, there's like a big timing switch. Yeah. That, yeah.

It goes from like, we usually end the set with that song because it's fucking just, yeah, heavy fucking, and the ending is so sick on it. You said Chris Cross-Roo. What is it? So it's like, if I could play a guitar now, show you but it's like my fingers on from like like one four like three two two three four one it's really weird because we're playing drop a so it's like my favorite tuning if yeah if you're

playing standard it'd be way hard to play yeah yeah I call the crisscross for just because my fingers like criss cross each other whenever I wrote it yeah drop A is the best tuning oh I love it yeah and then drop a through like a p.b says he just can't beat it so that's what we do That's literally. Yeah. So he backs on overdrows. What? Is there a difference between the, I remember back, uh, back in a day,

we would talk like, okay, like the 51, the 5150 sounds a CMS of 5152. And anyone that owned a two knows like you're fucking dumb. Yeah. It's completely different sound. Yeah. It's different for sure. Yeah. Yeah.

What is a difference between the, the. the plus and the non plus. What's the difference between the 5.50 and the 605s? 65. Yeah. Do I have a amazing difference? Over my head. 6505s and like the

I guess a 5152 probably a little bit closer to to each other than a regular 50150. 655's got their one trick pony. The Lee channel sounds fucking amazing. Super saturated, great gain, super heavy. The rhythm channel

fucking sucks. It's just pretty much unusable. So you just on the one channel and go for it. We use 6505.5. I use a 65.5 plus. He uses a regular 650.5. I'm getting a plus when we get back home. On this tour, he's using a plus. Yeah, actually, the last story we did before this one, dying fetus in Europe. I was using a plus for that one. I was like, damn, my tone sounds a little bit more like chunky

and like heavy. Yeah, they got a little more base to him than a regular 65. Yeah, they're also 120 watts, right? So they got a little bit more headroom than the regular 6505. Nice. With 51-53's, the newest ones. I really don't like it. I don't like that. I don't like either. Now the 5150 iconic, those sound fucking sick. Dali is using those

on this tour and they sound fucking so good. Yeah, they're like a hybrid amp for like half solid state, half two. And they're 80 watts. And they're fucking cheap. Like you can get one for less than $1,000 brand new. But James Brown, the original engineer who made the original 5150s, he made these for

Fender, but they're EVH now. They sound fucking great. I bought one just because they're so cheap. I got it for like $600 bucks for the house. Nice. And great amp for the money, man. They're not bad. Oh, wow, that's not bad at all. No, dude.

And the rhythm channel sounds good on it, the clean sound decent. They put reverb in it for some reason, and it's fucking, it sounds like garbage, but everything else is good. It's like a shitty spring reverb, but everything else sounds good. What do you use on the album? A couple different amps. So for my rhythm tracks, we use my normal 6505, and then the studio had a Marshall, James. Asium 900 SLX. So me personally, I wanted to kind of get like the, like a death metal version of like

the ride the lightning guitar tone. Of course. Because that's like my favorite guitar tone of all time. And we used just a standard mesa with V-30s. And the guy that owned the studio, his dad used to work for like Jackson and acoustic back in the day. He was like a speaker designer. And he had this cab up there that his dad designed from the 80s.

It's a Jackson cab. And it has these like eminent speakers. in it or some shit like that. They're red cones. They're the one speaker he designed for Jackson. And do they have like the just fattest low end? It was the most insane sound. Yeah.

I remember when they found it, they like brought me into the room. They're like, you gotta hear this shit now. It's weird because like on its own, it kind of sounds shitty. But blended. But blended with the V-30s. Oh my God. It sounds fucking awesome. It was fucking insane.

Yeah. When we were first recording guitar tracks, we lost like two days worth of work. Because like the mic was falling and then the D.I. I was like clipping and we were all pissed off. We're like, fuck, that sucks. But then we got this robot the studio had that moves the mic around. You can control it from the computer. And like, yeah, and that's when we discovered some other stuff and we like got it dialed in even better.

We're like, oh, I'm glad we lost. Yeah. Yeah. It just like happened to work out to where it sounded fucking even better. But yeah, that, uh, that Jackson cab was so sick. I actually found one on Facebook marketplace for like 200 bucks and bought it. I was like, I have to. We got to quit telling people about this cab because we need a, we need a, that, uh, that Jackson Cab was.

stock up there before everybody finds out. Silver weapon. It's like a crazy. Gatekeeping tones. Well, even, it's funny how someone could play like your exact rig or a sax drum set or bass rig, but I mean, it will sound different.

Hand tone. Not only hand tone, but like the guitar itself too. Like every guitar is different. Even if you have like the same pickups and everything. It's still different. Every guitar is different. Especially when you'll have someone build it. Okay, like same wood, same pickup.

Same or whatever. And then like, oh, wait, this is, this sounds completely different. Different tree. It's just, you know, different tree. People argue all the time, like, does tone woods matter? I think it's all the pickups that matter, blah, blah. I'm over the, I think tone woods do matter. Oh, yeah, they absolutely do.

You know, when you strum a guitar, before you even plug in, you can hear its resonance. You can see what it sounds like a little bit, you know. And if it's just dead wood, it's never going to sound good, no matter what pickups you put in it, you know. Yeah, I always hear people say, oh, we, all they do is put in MGs and sounds like the same. I'm like, what are you talking? No, absolutely not. Sorry, Chad, I know we're talking about all. I'm just like, hey, man,

I just like fucking chugs, dude. That's what I like. If it chugs, brother, I like it. She's got a million sick fucking bases. Yeah. She's in this dark glass head now that just fucking crush. It's like crunchy. It's thick?

Oh, dude, it's massive. I love it. It's badass. It's really light. I can just fit it in my backpack. It's the alpha maker, right? Yeah. Yeah, it's fucking super sick.

She just got this brand new, custom shop Ironbird. It's like an 86. 86? Yeah. It's 87. It's actually on our Instagram. I did a video of my,

uh, bases, all my pointy bases and stuff. But yeah, it's like this blue burst. It's so fucking bad. It sounds, there's a picture right there.

It sounds fucking crazy. Oh, yeah. It's a custom shop. Yeah. It's a custom shop. It's super heavy. Yeah,

BC Rich. Uh, you need to be sending Sam some bases, quit fucking off. Yeah, for real. Yeah. You'll repost her all the time and use her for Instagram

likes, give her a fucking bass. And follow me. And don't give me shit. That base is like you're gonna kill somebody. Yeah, you could. Yeah, it's fucking gigantic too. Yeah, me and Sam have to sink our movement on stage because I almost smash my face and end my life on her headstock.

Wow. Yeah. The bass is so sick. That's so cool. That's sick. Well, well, speaking of gear, Michael Michael

Oh my Oh wow Oh this fucking Oh yeah This is how we warm up before a show Yeah This is warming up Yeah

Sergeant ice cream Six feet under Yeah Sergeant ice cream Good old six feet under Yeah That's the fucking Dude

Yeah Yeah The meme of that song is just fucking hilarious too. They're all like vibing in the studio because the riffs so tight. And then the vocals came in. They're like, what the fuck. If someone puts on 6 feet under, I don't know why I just get fucking pumped. Yeah.

I love the first couple albums. Yeah, they've got some fucking riffs. The song Torture Killer, oh my God. The song Torture Killer has like some of the hardest riffs, man. For real. If you're going to do a pituitary, you can't help the, like, the first couple of records. Yeah, it's, uh, who, who, Alan, what's his name? Oh, um.

Fuck. I know he are talking about. Alan West? One of the dudes from Obituary was playing guitar. James Murphy. Wait, was it James Murphy? I don't know. There's the king himself right there. Shout out Chris. Oh, Terry Butler played.

Yeah, Terry Butler played in that too. That's on 420 though, man. Right when he fucking kicks in. It sounds like someone stepped on a cat's tail. He's like, what? It cracks me up every fucking time right here. Oh, gee, man. Yeah.

Seriously. Okay. Michael and Chad. Please. Okay, so I'm out of the loop. Please explain Magic the gathering to me. Right here, baby.

Right here. Got the hat on, ready to go. You ever play the Pokemon card game? No. Okay. What the fuck? No. Well, good, because it's actually

way more complicated than Pokemon. It's not as complicated as Pokemon. Because that's how you met, correct? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we met at a comic shop in the DFW area called Generation X. Okay. And I remember walking into like play at like a F&M tournament one night.

And I just saw this dude with like a solely we wrought backprint on his shirt. I was like, oh shit. Rest and paste that shirt. It's now it's now disintegrated. I wore it so much. Oh my goodness. Yeah, like we just met over some magic and played games eventually started the band. But yeah, Magic Man, it's, it's really fun.

It's very complicated. Basically like use lands to play your spell. You play one land a turn. And the cost of the spells or whatever is like in the top right corner is how much man it or lands you need to cast it. And then there's so many, so many different like play styles and stuff you can do. You can be like super aggressive with like small creatures. You can make a bunch of like an army of like small tokens and stuff like that. Or you do like big fat creatures that just like run over everything or it can be like a control.

So you like just stop your opponent from doing shit too. It's crazy. Yeah. like the jest of the game is, is like, you have 20 life. And the whole point is your opponent has 20 life and you need to kill them. Okay. Yeah. But there's more ways to win than just getting their life points down.

Yeah. You need to like use, you need to like use the resources of this deck of cards that you have to kill your opponent. And like, it's a super, it's a super sick game because like it, like, there's a lot of critical thinking to it. Oh, yeah. So like having to like construct your deck and like, it's, like, it's a super sick game. like put things in it that you like to do the specific things you like to do in your life. Like if you're like the type of person that's more meticulous, you could build that kind of deck. If you, if you're a hasty person that likes to get shit done, you could build that kind of deck where it's like you just want to smash your opponent right now.

Like really it's like it's just it's a game to think. And I usually like use like Dungeons and Dragons mixed with chess to describe it. Yeah. Yeah. So the art is super sick. super super sick like just looking up like like those are all paintings like those are real paintings like that people are doing that those cards can be worth a shitload of money chad makes money flipping these yeah i i my one of my main source of like these these these these are paintings those are paintings

oh yeah and our artist uh james basema who did uh our artwork for this new record he's doing a bunch of uh special magic cards for wizards that aren't out yet um You're all stoked. Yeah, Mark Riddick. Mark Riddick did some stuff for them two not, too long ago, like a couple sets ago or something like that. But like collecting this stuff is like sick. The art is amazing. Like you can get play mats made that have artwork on them.

And, you know, it's like. You just get like immersed. Yeah. It's more than a game. It's just like it's really fun and cool. And it's everything to do with it. It's a lifestyle. It really is.

This is my main hobby outside of music. I can tell. Matt are the only ones that really don't play Sam play. too. Hey Matt bought a magic. Yeah, I'm taking notes on all this. Yeah, I got a deck and a play mat. I just haven't played yet. When we played Montreal on this tour, like everybody's hanging out on backstage

and people partying and Chad and them got their match out. They're playing magic. Martin from Terra's like, what are you all doing? Like play magic? He's like, I got some for you. He like puts on some dungeon sense on his phone. Which is straight up like D&D music. Like, you know, to get us a dude. Like, he had the whole fucking the mood set back

there for him. He's like, here you go to do. He's like, I got some music. Yeah, me and my girl are literally sitting there like intensely in this game, you know, because there's a bunch of cool stuff you can do. Everybody else is just fucking partying all. Yeah. One of the coolest things is, is like every like three months a new set comes out. And so like what they do is, is they have these like pre-release events. So you get this little kit and it comes with six booster packs of 15 cards each. And what you do is as if you're a new player, there's this, there's a guide that you could follow and you could put together a 40 card deck

out of just those packs. And then you play in a small tournament and you win prizes. and stuff. So what me and Mike do is, is like when a new set comes out, we'll go we'll find a comic store in the area while we're on tour and we'll like we'll essentially build that deck and then we'll play, play each other with it. And it's cool, it's cool, man. Look into it.

You'll probably really like it, man. Is it the artist here James? Yes. Yeah, James Massima. Oh, he did. He has Spirit World cover. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And also the latest Minimable Waste album too. Yeah. Oh, wow. He's just now really getting into doing album covers. He's, he's an insanely talented artist and not only that but like and look.

Dark Souls and Bloodborn. Those are some games. Yeah. Dude, this is what I love about James. If you look at every piece of art that he has, there is something unique and different. And that right there, that's the reason why I was like, this is the guy we got to use. Hey, Jay, uh, click on the Sub-Zero guy. Boom. This one right here, this is the one that I was like, that's Frozen Soul. He is like, he can do.

Yeah. He can do anything. He can like, he can do anything. thing. He's super talented, super nice guy. Whoa. And it's actually, they're in the van right now, but he actually, he drove three, he lives in Vegas, he drove three hours to the show last night,

and he gave us magic cards, one for each of us. And on the back, he custom painted a weapon on each one of them, an ice weapon for our song, Arsenal of War, so that we each have a weapon in our Arsenal of War. And like, just the best dude, solid, most awesome. That's super thoughtful.

Yeah, super great guy. And look at the bat. Look at the bow. Oh, look at. Yeah. It's so sick. Yeah. See, he's just great. He's, he's...

Fucker's badass, ain't it. Yeah. Super, super versatile artist, like, can kind of just go and do whatever. Like, that, that little dwarf right there, the bow-rog. Those are the, those are some of the paintings I saw that I was like, holy shit, this guy is insane. Like, he's, he's just, and also, he's a digital artist. Yeah. Okay.

So like this stuff does not even like look digital. Like it and I mean he he's he's a he's a painter period. So he can paint all this stuff. But he's he's he just evil. It's insane. Like it's so good. Look at that. Wow.

The detail. Like he's just he's a he's a master. He's awesome. Wow. And it's cool because like, you know, I, we found him, you know, thanks to him, you know, thanks to municipal waste, honestly. We noticed it because of municipal waste. And Velio, who did our art before,

we were actually going to go with him, but he wasn't available. He said that he was too booked up and he wouldn't be able to get to it when we needed it, so we went with this guy and do crushes. That's great. Well, so you meet at a comic book store, correct?

Yeah, yeah. And then, okay, is it like, okay, hey, let's go to Amazon, look for, A snow machine? Like what's like that? I mean, honestly kind of. Actually, so yeah, I mean, well, like, he was playing in a hardcore band called Vorgasplay that just like recently broken up. I was playing in a like black and crust band called Wild Speaker.

But it wasn't really my thing. I wanted to play like, I was playing bass. I wanted to like play guitar and do like just straight death metal. And, uh, yeah, we just kind of like got to it. We had another band called End Times that we were working on for a minute. And then Frozen Soul kind of popped off and we just took that and ran with it. Yeah, yeah. We were actually like, when Frozen Soul, like, we met at the shop, started talking death metal, started talking bolt thrower. And then we actually met up with our friend Kyle who was in judiciary, which is like a hardcore band from Texas on closed casket.

And we started trying to, we didn't have a name or anything. And we tried to get that going. And when that didn't, that, I mean, never worked out. It didn't work out. They were kind of far from us, and it was hard to do that. We ended up getting my old band In Times back together. And then we wrote a whole record, did all this stuff. And then...

We were still, like, fired up from, like, we recorded that album. We were still, like, fired up. I saw it a bunch of riffs left over that... We just got to town. We just went to town on it. Yeah. In Times is, like, a way more, like, epic and melodic type of band. And, like, the leftover riffs I had were, like, a lot more, like, heavier, kind of, like, meathead shit.

And so we just, like I said, we were still fired up and wrote the In Case an Ice demo. Oh, yeah. It came together really fast. We wrote, we wrote Hand of Vengeance on that record, like super quick. Like, I think we were, like right after we recorded that in Time's album. We were in, we were, we went into your room and just like, we just went to town and wrote that whole song like in one night. Yeah. And it was like, and we were like, let's do this shit. Yeah. Let's go. And, uh, how did, how did Sam come in a picture? I mean, she was already like a friend of ours and she was playing bass in a band called Vermiculated that ended up just kind of like fizzling out. And, you know, she still wanted to play and we needed a bass player.

So like, hey, you want to play bass for us? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like, it's like, Sam is like super passionate about everything she does. And so like she's always told me about how much like she wants to play bass and wants to be in a band and how she just loves. dying fetus and stuff.

And I was like, Sam needs to be the bass player. Sam needs to play bass. And she literally, three months before this band, picked up the bass and, like, learn that shit. Yeah.

Whoa. Like, this is like, and then her first show ever was literally opening for blood incantation and necron with us. The first time playing live. The first time playing live

was a sold-out show. And, yeah, that was her first fucking show. Oh, it was. And she just fucking. crushed it. Like, yeah, like, you know, that, that was, yeah, she stepped up to the plate, fucking learned her instrument, just went to town buying gear, you know, like, exactly.

How many bases do you have now, Sam? I have seven now. Seven? Yeah, fucking sick at, most of them were, like, vintage, badass fucking big. Yeah, like, we, like, we gave her a, it's like, she, she took a masterclass on shit right away and just, like, was in it. And then, I mean, right after we played our first show, a couple months later, we were on tour. Like, we were on tour of media.

Like a few months later We were on tour And then we did another one Came out like March of 2019 And then we did our first tour Like June 2019 Yeah So it's like

And we did double duty too It was like in times And Frozen Soul And then we just like Went out went out Went out you know And everything So yeah it's been awesome

Sam Ultimate bass player Yeah I try And sick tattoo artist And sick tattoo artist Yeah Yeah she was her own tattoo studio

Back in back at Fort Worth too. Rangling being in a full-time band and having her own tattoo shop. I was actually learning how to play bass and being an apprentice for tattooing at the same time. It was crazy. It was a very wild time for me. And now everything is like kind of coming around full circle and it's pretty sick. You just made time.

This is my life. I don't do anything else other than, you know. Those two things? two things. So those are my... And play Overwatch. I play Overwatch. But, I mean, that's literally...

It consumes me, so... It kind of consumes all of us. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What all of us do. It's just this shit. Yeah, man.

Hey, Chad, imagine, like, you know, how far, like, this... This band has come, you know, you just working at... You going from Circuit City and now, and now where... And then that word... Oh, dude. Yeah, man. ...and the band have gone. It's crazy, huh?

Yeah, I never... I never imagined, man. It's actually funny, like... Like when I worked at Circuit City way back in the day, I didn't know anybody. And one of the first people I met in the scene was Riley Gale from Power Trip. Really? It was actually at Red Blood Club in Dallas, which was like one of the most. For us, it's a legendary spot for venue in downtown in Deep Ellum in Dallas.

It's where all the punk and hardcore shows. And I'll never forget, like, I worked at Circuit City and how we connected was, it's like I met him. He introduced himself to me because I was by my. myself and and then he told me that he worked at best buy and he fucking hated it and so i like was like dude i work at circuit city and i fucking hate it and it's like uh you know and it literally from there on it just like fucking snowballed no pun intended i guess there's some pun there but it literally just like snowballed and it's like i i gave my life to it you know and it's crazy that we're even like sitting at this table in mind every day man it's

Every day something crazy happens, and I'm just like, what the fuck? Yeah. You know, it just like blows up because I'm like, I never thought. What did you? What happened to circuit city? Dude, I think it just went under because it sucked ass. Like, it was terrible. Weren't you security?

No, I wasn't security. I sold fucking CDs. And like, I was the lowest on the fucking totem pole there. You know, like, I was the guy that stocked the DVDs and the CDs. And my manager would be like, oh, you didn't do this. And I'd be like, brother, like, just because you didn't see me do it, didn't mean I did, man, fuck this. And this was like, I got a fucking tour. I've got to like get the fuck out of here because I can't do this shit.

Like, I can't do this normally ass shit. I forgot that circuit cities sold CDs. Yeah, CD video section. I remember CD stores? Where are you going and you could like put it on and listen to it to see if you like that? Sam Goody. Sam Goody. Sam Goody.

Yeah. You know who's still going? Strong Strong is Barnes and Noble. They have CDs still. Oh yeah, they do have a whole section of it. Yeah. And like other stuff too. Yeah.

C.D. Warehouse. Yeah. Oh, dude. Well, there's only one. CD Warehouse in Arlington is like, he just bought, so our friend owns a record store in Arlington. It's called CD Warehouse, but only because he bought into the franchise like 20 years ago. And he's independent now.

Yeah. And they provided him with like the POS system, you know, to sell this shit and everything. But it's a straight record store. It's like, it's a badass. Yeah. that oh dude there used to be so many shows that happened there too that's where like i played one of my first shows was in that record story whoa holy moly we had our record release at that well we had a record signing and all that stuff that's a big deal yeah and actually that's the

flyer for that was the first show that's the fire that was the first show we played which we had a beer come out for it we did a record signing and played a show this first show we played since pandemic outside a year and a half with no shows it was crazy and uh and the record had come out during the pandemic and we thought you know we never tore it in. Yeah. We're just going to do live streams for the rest of our life or something. And then we did, we put together that like, uh, yeah, this was in

what was that made? And those are all with our friends too. Like we just put it together with our friends. It's not like some big thing. We just, we know the guys who run the city warehouse and we're friends with the guy who runs the brewery. So originally we weren't going to play that day. Um, but they had just

lifted the mass mandates in Texas. You know, in Texas like shit came back a lot fast. or the other places. And we're still kind of feeling weird about it, but it was an outdoor show. So we're like, you know, I think it would make people more comfortable. Well, 800 fucking people showed up to the show. Yeah, it was like fucking nuts. There was 400 people just at a record signing, you know.

Yeah, it was crazy. People flew in from, dude, from Mexico. Somebody flew in from Alaska. People flew from all over the country for this shit. Yeah, it was like crazy. And then we threw a festival, which is our wrecking ball, metal madness festival. I don't know if you're familiar with the live stream we did. So that is an actual real fest we do every.

year now. We're about to announce this year's it's two days crazy fucking lineups. Wow. Yeah. And that festival sold out too which was in June of 2021 July July in 2021 during the pandemic for most people where they're still locked down in Texas. People came from all over the country for it. Yeah, it was like crazy man. It was sick. And and that lineup was sick too. Oh yeah. My goodness. All the fucking friends like it's just like the giant homie fest like all the new wave of death metal bands. Everybody's talking about. out, you know, they're all friends and we're like, let's all do this shit together. Let's keep it fucking going, you know. Yeah. And we, we're actually going to be, we're going to be dropping

a live stream based off of last year's event. It's, um, yeah, that live picture right up there. Yeah, click that, uh, live at wrecking ball. And we're going to be doing a, uh, we're going to be doing a, um, like a, a live stream where we filmed a bunch of the sets and like, we filmed some in-betweens and, you know, for anybody that actually watched like the live show. stream, there are some really funny stuff that that was in between the sets. Yeah, really funny skits. So, yeah, so like the host, the dude who did the, Mr. Raith of Death, who did the one we live stream, he was actually at the show like doing stuff, interviewing people and like fucking

with them. That was fugitive's first set too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We wanted to, you know, be like a tells from the crypt kind of like humor mixed with everything. Mixed with like, it's like tales from the crypt, the funny puns from tales of the crypt mixed

with like the host aspect of like headbanger's ball. Yeah, yeah. You know, so that it's like, it's like he's a host and that the character comes from like our music videos and stuff. The race of this. So, yeah, and we have him like on all of the flyers. And this is, the flyers are all like me and a buddy do the flyers. But the painting is actually, his name's Jerry. He goes under the name Wormwalk.

He paints all of those on wood for us. And then we like, yeah. So like we get all that, we get everything done old school. Like, you know, so like it's a real painting and it's similar to like 80 style like horror covers and stuff like that. Like it's a very like and he did like I did the arrangement of the flyer and stuff.

But he did the painting. Yeah, I did the flyer and all that. I do most of like our art stuff like when it putting together art files. Yeah. He's the Photoshop. Yeah. Here's a little plug for Chad.

He's really sick at making logos. Like our logo, he drew. He's drawn a lot of logos for other bands and stuff too. Like I, uh, like, you know, I mean, you're in a band. You know how it is. Like early, early on, like, you can like pay people to do stuff that you just, like, don't really know how to explain to them to do. Or you could just fucking learn how to do it yourself.

That's true. And that's literally what I did. Like, we're just like, let's do this shit. If we're going to make an old school death metal band, let's do this shit old school. And I just like learned how to do it. to do some stuff to try to do it because I could never explain it. And even getting our first logo done, you know, the guy, Jason Barnett, super fucking cool dude. I love him.

But like, I just could not get any, I couldn't get the image out of my head on paper or in writing to help him see how I wanted it. And I didn't want to waste his time anymore. So I was like, you know, I paid him for a logo he did for us. And then I was like, fuck it. I'm just going to, I'm going to learn how to do this shit. myself. Did you know how to draw at this point or no? You like dabbled a little bit in the past. Yeah, I've always

drawn in my life. Like doodles and stuff. I used to draw anime characters when I was a little kid and stuff like that. And whatnot, but like I kind of like I gave up on all that stuff. Yeah, the original live stream, we actually made a bunch of VHS tape. Oh, that's sick.

No, they're sick because it's all reclaim VHS. Oh, yeah. So everyone is different. So as soon as the it ends, it's either like, safari videos or ice skating and it just worked it out that way that's the funny thing about this band dude half this shit with ice it just works out that way it's fucking hilarious because like we didn't even

try to do it like our buddy will yeah shout out to will yeah our buddy will insects in every hole right on Instagram so he's a he's an OG from Dallas man he's really good at making old school looking shit he dubbed the tapes he printed the um he printed the

labels for the tapes. Like, he dubbed them. He found a collection from this old dude who had, like, been taping stuff his whole life, right? And he, like, basically got an inherited, like, you know, VHS collection. And so he just went to town, dubbed us, like, 300 of them. They sold out, like, instantly. Yeah. And, like, instantly online when we did the live stream.

He sold out. Yeah. And we had, like, some leftover. We had them remake, like, a hundred more or something like that. And, like, we just all only had. have our personal copies left. And I kept, you know, the tape that has Ernest Scared Stupid and the Big Green. Like seriously, this guy had, like, taped, like, all sorts of stuff from TV. And so, like, Will went and, like, dubbed over, like, a lot of love was put into it.

Like, a lot of love was put into Recking Ball. Like, we, like, really did it out of pure fun, you know, and stuff. Recing Ball is a very big focus for the band, too, not just, like, I mean, Frozen Soul, obviously. But Recking Ball is something. we're wanting to expand into something really big and fun for the death metal and hardcore community. Ever since Chaos and Tejas went away, you know, there's been like kind of that void a little bit of that style of fest in Texas. I mean, there's like this other one called Oblivion Access that happens, which is cool every year. But I mean, that's always in Austin. We want to have like a fest in Dallas, you know.

Yeah. Because there hasn't been a fest in Dallas like that and fucking, I don't even know if there ever has been. Not curated like... Not like how we do it. Yeah. I mean, Power Trips was pretty sick. Oh, yeah, that's true. Power Trips was amazing.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Reckin Ball was actually the second time I heard of your band because I had a random conversation with Trey, drummer of Diompedus. Oh, yeah. We love Trey. It's like, man, what they're doing in Texas is like, you should start paying attention. Man.

And it's pretty, it's pretty, and then I see the line of all. They're very serious. first time I met Trey was in Vegas in 20, 21 in Psycho, Las Vegas. And we were just, like, partying. Chris Andrews was there from devourment. And they're like, blah, blah, blah, frozen soul. And I heard somebody say Frozen Soul and turned around. And he's like, oh, what's up?

It's Chris from Frozen Soul. And Tray instantly was like, yeah, man, I got a fucking tarp. You want to go fucking murder somebody? And that was my first interaction. I was like, all right, blah, ball. Next night, I'm like tripping on mushrooms. He's my girlfriend are. And then we fucking come across Trey.

He's got glasses on with one fucking lens missing. He's just like, sees my girlfriend. And she does like crazy makeup. She's, uh, Hispanic. And he's like, oh my God, you're a Mayan princess. How much blood do you need? He's like, he's like, we can go murder, blah, bovine. I was just like, what do you talk about is fucking murdering, dude?

I was like, what the fuck? Now I'm like, this guy's fucking crazy. But Trey is fucking awesome. Yeah, all those dudes. Everyone in dying feet is nothing but love for those guys. Yeah. Yeah. They are special band.

They're great. We're about to go to our third fucking tour. Our third run with them. They're the one. that like took us out first, like took us under their wing and, you know, we're like, a band we like looked up to and like gave us the chance to like, um, tour with them, us and undef. Yeah.

They take really good care of like the bands they tour with too. It's awesome. Yeah. And brought us to Canada for the first time in Europe for the first time. Great. And now we get to go to Europe for a second time with them. And do, when we do all the festivals this summer, we're doing like five or six shows with them.

Yeah, some club dates. Best dudes. John is the funniest guy ever. Closet, funny, dude. Yeah, closet. He's so quiet. Sean's fucking hilarious. Yeah, Sean's hilarious, dude.

Sean, my gaming brother, you know. Sean will fucking, he'll crack his own self up. Like, he'll say something stupid and laugh and then start laughing more. And his laugh is like contagious.

It's like, he'll just be like dying in the fucking bus. Just fucking cracking up. Like her face hurts because he's been smiling and laughing for That was the time of our life, man. That tour we did in Europe with them was so much fun. It was like so cool being on a bus with them.

We had never been on a bus. So for us, like, yeah, it was crazy. Yeah. Also crazy when my bunk fell down. Isn't it crazy? I almost killed the dude. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he had a top bunk.

I just remember fucking hearing. I was like, somebody just felt was screaming. I was like, what the fuck was that? Yeah, I was like smashing his head. Because those bunks, man, they're like not attached to the rails. Like I thought they were. They just had these little pieces of wood in between the spaceers. Like spacers to keep the fucking shitty plywood in place.

So in the middle of the night, the bus was just shaking this night like crazy. And my bunk just shook loose and I fell down and ended Dennis's life. Yeah, almost killed Dennis. And I'm like, Dennis, not my best friend. He literally screaming bloody murder. Like he was like literally like fucking like I thought I killed him. I was like 400 pound man just ended your life. Yeah, Max, our tour driver is like, you should be sleeping on the bottom bottom. It's like, you're too big.

Yeah. And it's like, I didn't even think about it. After that, I'm like, God, that was such a bad idea for me to go up there. When it's sick. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, yeah, it was so awesome though. And I, you know, shout out, Cabal.

Those dudes are super sick. I don't know if you have you listened to Kabbal? Super, super great guys. Really cool. We bond him with those guys pretty hard, especially after I shared that traumatic experience with Dennis. Rest and peace. Whose idea was it to do the Frosthammer beer?

That's sick. A little bit in mind just because, not the name or whatever, but that brewery is real close to my house, and I'm good friends with the owner. Division? Yeah, Division. Yeah, Division. It's a sick brewery.

They have amazing beers, They also own a record store in the front, and they have tons, and they have, like, a little venue in there. And they've been putting on punk and metal shows and supporting the DIY community for a long time. So we were talking about it. I was like, why don't we just get Wade to fucking do a beer and we'll make a big event out of it and do an outside show and like all this stuff. And, yeah, since then, I mean, it's really, things have just picked up majorly for him there. He's got all kinds of bad. Sam came up with the name and drew it.

Yeah, she drew it. I drew the art for that. It kind of came out weird on the label, but. I did the art for that and then it ended up being a, uh, the banner. Yeah, we did a big stage banner. And we have, we have another beer with them too called Cold Moon that we actually released on, I think it's a winter solace and that moon is a full moon. And the moon's called the Cold Moon. And that was a night that we released the beer.

Yeah, we did it. It was cold as fuck. It was like 20 degrees outside. It was outdoors. Everybody got sick because it was just so fucking cold. It was like 30 degrees outside. But nobody cared because they were so fucking wasted. Yeah.

Because the beer is like 12% alcohol. It's like too. Okay. Who's that you were to make it 10 to 12%? That was my idea. That was definitely the person. I'm the fucking drinker in the bands. I'm like, let's get everybody fucked up.

Well, also like. And our friend Eric did that flyer of EPA's. Chad doesn't really drink very much. And like most beers, he's like, man, it's kind of like whatever. But at division, they had like this really fruity beer there. I love the food. That was really good. Yeah.

So we were like, let's do something like that. So the original one, I think it was blueberry, raspberry, pie crust filling. It tasted like blueberry pie, but it was like 12% alcohol or whatever. And they made a frosty of it that day too. Oh, yeah, yeah. We had a slushy too. I forgot about that. It is delicious, though.

I did the cold moon logo and the art for that, and we had to do that in a green room because we were on tour and getting ready to come back home. What a vibe. Yeah. It's kind of black metaly, too, right? The shirt is sick. Dang. Yeah, I love that shit. Yeah.

That's kind of like our throwback to the immortal and dark throne of the, black mill shit we like. Yeah, we used like, I have a, I have like, we have a buddy. His name's Eric. He runs a distro called Murato Distro. And he does like a lot of really cool like boots and stuff like that. And he helps me a lot with like our art. So I'll set up stuff and I'll get art from people and we'll, you know, in this case it was like some of Sam's art, some of Vellio who did our couple shirt designs outside of the cryptovice art. Yeah, shout to Eric. It was like the skeleton right there. And then, yeah, we always try to make it like look super old school and stuff like that. Yeah, shout to Eric.

He's got a sick band from here called a Crematory Stench. Oh, yeah. Fucking insane. They're one of the bands that's on that old school wave. Yeah. And they are like super sick, morbid angel-y, like really cool. I mean, you all mentioned, like, you know, the icing happens on accident. It just kind of like just happens.

But I mean, but your ideas are very well. got out and also executed inside you know what's funny about that is uh like most of our ideas is like sometimes i just like get high and just come up like the stupidest fucking idea and then we're just like wait what's wrong with it yeah we sit around the jam room just talk about shit we're like like like wrecking ball stuff we're like well what if we have like a host and what if it was like yeah we'll laugh about it and then we're like wait a second yeah i mean it all it kind of boils down to like us just like our relationships and the band yeah like we like we like to have fun yeah and we always try to like remind ourselves like even when shit's getting like ridiculously serious and you have to

have that moment like we always try to like remind ourselves like that you have to have fun and everything that's good and worth having like spawns from a place of like love and fun yeah and if you if it if it's not coming from there then it's going to fail yeah if we're talking about someone and we're not laughing about it it's going to suck like if we're laughing and we're all excited even if someone else doesn't think it sucks we'll end up thinking it sucks yeah and then we're not going to have a good time. You know, so, I mean, really, it's just like, like, we like to, and plus we've all, like, been playing, you know, for the most part in the band, been playing music for a long time.

I mean, I've been playing and doing stuff since I was like 15. Yeah. I don't know. About 20 years for me, you know, so. I mean, like, it's like, you know, like, it's been a lot of, like, failure, you know, and learning experiences. And the failure is not necessarily a bad thing. It's a good thing.

But it's like, it's been a long road. So, like, here when we do something, we're like, how do we make it as, fun as possible for us. How do we like how how do we just have a good time doing this? If we're honestly having the best time we can possibly have, then you're going to have a great time. You're going to have a great time. Everybody's going to have a great time if we're all,

you know, happy, you know. So that's really how it comes. We just. But the ice shit sometimes just happens literally. Like, yeah, right before we went to Europe on this last tour, a fucking major ice storm hit Texas and like shut it down.

And like we missed the first flight because the airport was shut down. Yeah. All kinds of shit. It's like, well, it's just a sign, I guess. Yeah, like a week after our album, Cryptovice came out, there was a huge ice storm in Texas that lasted like a week. Everybody was posting. Yep. Yeah, everybody was posting being like, God damn it, Frozen Soul left the snow machine on.

Yeah. Like, it just happens. And, like, I can't remember, like, we were on what tour we were doing, but, like, we passed through Philly. Was it the Frozen Steel tour? Yeah, it was. And, like, we passed, like, we left Philly early to get to New York, and then right afterwards. there was this crazy ice storm that had a huge car pile up and all these people were posting on the internet just frozen soul just came through town like it's like it's it's just really funny yeah then it started snowing

immediately after that set of vitus oh yeah i remember that yeah it's crazy how it works out all the all the ice stuff is just like it's just funny you know and i can't i think it was actually our old guitar player ray's idea to get a snow machine yeah it was we played in new york and we were at the hotel And we were just like, I was like, hey, like, we were all talking. And I was just like, what should we do to like pick up this stage show? See, that's the baby snow machine. We have a bigger one that's just broken around that goes, it's fucking like, honestly, this one just, I kind of like this.

It's pretty good. But Ray was just like, why don't we get it? What about a snow machine? And I was like, oh my God, Amazon right away. Had it, like, we had it like, yeah, we had it delivered to us. Like, for our hometown show back. and this was like before the frozen whole tour was sang with Sugabog. This was like when before Chris was in the band, when he was in steel bearing hand,

like we were on tour together and we had it. And then that things just like, we're like, all right, we got to go like, we got to go full speed ahead on the ice shit because it's hilarious. And, yeah, I mean, it's, it's crazy. It's crazy how it worked out, man. But it's all just fun, you know. It's all like, it's all just goofy. And, uh, the snow machine was right before we.

got signed to that we got that and it was kind of fully part of our act by the time yeah it's part of our stick i was like did they get signed the uh budget on a fucking snow machine we actually spent money we didn't have while we were on the road before we got signed it was like we got to get a fucking snow machine those exist and then i yeah they sure did so we just like but it's obviously not snow it's like uh it's like uh it's like a dry bubble kind of thing so i don't know it's It's annoying sometimes. Enough. Next time we're going to get it real.

That's the next. Buy a grand. Come on. Yeah. All right. Century Media. Come on. Set aside five to six K from the studio budget and put it into that.

Snow Cannon. Yeah. Snow Cannon. Like imagine if you were in a fucking arena and then you brought these things out. Yeah. It's funny. It would be super sick. You know what?

You know what's really funny, though, about the snow machine? It's like, I cannot tell you how many times we've played a show and I've used that shit. And then people come out after our set and go, man, did you all turn the AC down? I swear it got colder in here. And I'm like, bro, like, do I look like we turn the AC down? I have 7,000 pounds of sweat out of my body on my shirt right now. Like, we did not turn the AC. I wish we would have turned AC.

But generally, yeah, please turn the AC down. We're always fucking sweaty. Yeah. Yeah, Michael, you mentioned that when you heard Blink 182, that's what made you like go like, oh, whoa, I want to pick up the guitar. Yes, hell yeah. So isn't that kind of wild that you heard blink? They rule. Damn it.

First of all, that riff is sick. Oh, it's so sick. The whole record is insanely sick. It's an insane record. Yeah, one of the catchiest records, catchiest songs. Their structures are kind of metal, but it's just that the key they write in is in G. so it just sounds like They write an A minor

The punk The punk and Chris is like I don't like 1-82 But they're really one of sick as bands When I was in high school Like I think Chesar Cat And like all that shit It just came out

And dude ranch And like that shit was It was cool It was all right You know Chris was already But that was that pop punk It's like what's every emo band's

Favorite key to write in A minor Because they all get busted For fucking underage girls Oh man Got it Okay God The only

Man and Chris is coming out now. Yeah, yeah. But, uh, but, but no, yeah, Blinkoey 2 is fucking awesome. No, yeah, they're good. Yeah. It's so, it's so bizarre that, like, hearing that band and now where, like, where, like, where you guys have taken it. Yeah.

To, like, to now, like, if people are thinking about the whole scheme of it, how everything's so, like, connected. Yeah. And now, and now, and now we're talking about, like, a wave of, like, death metal. Dude, it goes deeper. It goes deeper than that, too, man. Oh, yeah. You know, like, I grew up similar to.

how Mike did. Like, seriously, like, and we've talked a lot about this. Like, when I first got into music, the CDs my mom was getting me were like, you know, I didn't come from like a background of like punk and stuff like that. I didn't have those. I came from a background of Slipknot and, you know, corn and Rob Zombie and stuff like that and Metallica and like Pantera, you know, like those are the bands I was exposed to as a young kid.

And so like a lot of those bands like corn and stuff like that. like, dude, their songwriting is insane. And it's like Blink 182. There's this thing that they have where their songs are so catchy. All those bands have that same thing. So once that stuff gets ingrained into you, you're going to take that with you wherever. And Chris has it too with like older metal bands and stuff. Like there's songwriting.

My parents are metalheads. So like my dad's band. He used to play Pantera and shit, Back in the Aik. Nice. So I grew up on Pantera, Slayer, Metallica. A lot of hair metal and shit. But then I had to piss my dad off and get in. to like, you know, punk, punk and d-beat and cross.

He's like, dude, let me show you how to play this solo. I'm like, man, solo's fucking suck. I just want to, like, I had him show me how to play a power chord. And I was like, that's all I want to learn dad. And I never, I learned guitar the wrong way. I didn't learn covers. Like, I never learned other people's songs. I literally got showed out of play power cord and just started writing my own show.

Yeah, that's how it was for drums for me. And I never learned covers. Yeah. I never learned covers. That's the way you do it. Yeah, I just like, I was like, I want a fucking double bass. But, yeah. But, yeah, no, Chad's right, though.

On some texture, we think about that a lot. Like, even, like, hair metal bands, like, rat and stuff. Oh, yeah. Chorus verse. You know, like, how to set stuff up, so it's not just, like, a riff salad. Like, there's a lot of death metal bands. It's just, like, riff, riff, riff, riff, riff, riff. And a lot of the riffs are super sick, but they don't kind of pay off in the way that they should as well as those riffs are.

Yeah, like, if it'll be, like, this super heavy riff, and then it'll go into, like, a bunch of blasts, and then a heavy riff, and then blasts, and then a slower part, and then a heavy part. But, like, there's no, like, ultimate payoff. And, see, bands like Blink 182, bands like corn and stuff, there's always this payoff in the song. Either it's in, like, the chorus or it's in this specific part. And it builds that emotion until it just hits. And we try and do that in, like, every single one of our songs. Where it builds and builds and builds until, like, it's so heavy or so, like, to, it's, it's a part that just, like, evokes emotion, you know, that, like, you just, you can't help but get.

down to it, you know, and that comes from, that literally comes from all those, like, super catchy bands. Yeah, paying attention to transitions and stuff. They're a lot more easily identifiable in pop music and, you know, popular rock music and stuff like that. Crazy. I can go from, like, man, you, like, grew up on Blink 182 to just, like, talking about corn and, like, all these, like, legendary bands, but they're, they're the greatest.

Like, they're the greatest. I mean, that's all what happened for me, too, you know, like, I got, like, ruling to blink, and then my neighbor bought me, like, Green Days American Idiot for my 10th birthday. the CD. And I was like, oh, this is fucking sick. And then when I got in like middle school, one of my buddies from church from when I used to go to church, he showed me like Trivium and Lamb of God. I was like, what the fuck is this? Yeah. That was the evolutionary step for me too. Yeah. And then it was just down the fucking rabbit hole from there. Full circle moment for Matt is like he learned how to play guitar to like trip. Matt. I'm sorry. I was like a man. I was like a damn. You sure that's a Chelsea is name? I was like Michael beating Matt Heathie because he learned how to play guitar. Yeah.

the trivia yeah yeah it's crazy how far it's all just whole circle it's just connected it also explains why your band is very obviously it's heavy but also has that like unexplainable catchy factor you know it explains a lot you know you're you're you're you're very smart band you know very open open minded and uh you know um i was honored to to have uh to have your your band here and to finally meet you after hearing like the banding for the past six months pretty pretty constantly dude so I didn't I don't really have a choice no but but but that means you are doing something something right when I someone is just like you just keep either it keeps in the logo or it keeps seeing

pictures online is this I mean you're doing something right you know yeah it's badass trying to have fun up or shit man it's awesome to be here yeah yeah it's awesome fucking you have quite the legacy man and it's really cool coming in. This is the, this is only the second time we've ever done a podcast where we've actually gone somewhere to do a podcast. Oh, great. Yeah, Brian from Zabalba. I don't even know if they still have a podcast, but we went, when we, one of our first tour. One of our first tours, we went and did one with them. And we got super fucking hammered at like 12 in the afternoon. Yeah. Nice. And then we had to go play today if we weren't already hammered from yesterday. I need

to repeat. But yeah, it's just fucking awesome, dude. Thank you. Love the Christmas tree too, man. It's very cool. It reminds me of a morbid effigy. The music video. That was a gift from Corpsegrinder thing. Thank you. Shout out Corpsegrinder.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Real OG. Where, uh, respect the neck? Dude, OG. Where can, where can people find you? Uh, everywhere. We're on YouTube, Spotify.

Uh, yeah, we're on the internet, basically, everywhere. Yeah, Frozen Soul TX on just about everything. Yeah. Yeah. Frozen Soul TX.com. Awesome. Well, Frozen Soul, you are sick. Again, thank you for being here.

Can't wait for the showy night and see. Are we seeing the snow machine? Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. It'll be there. If House of Blues allows it, yes. Does the venue have to allow that? Yeah, we have to talk to the LDE every day.

Really? Yeah. It's kind of 50-50. Yeah, some places get freaked out and they're like, oh, no. And then we're like, trust us, it's dry. Because they think it's going to get the floor all wet and slippery and shit. Sometimes we've got to bust it out and test it out. Because, like, it's a little, like,

it's a little overwhelming when you first see it because you're like, holy fuck, this just got all over the monitors and shit. But like it dissipates super fast and like it doesn't leave a residue. It's the craziest thing. It doesn't get anything sticky. It's not even like a snow machine fluid or

fog machine fluid. You know how it can like leave residues on your hands and stuff? It's not even like that. It's like dry. It does on symbols though and on on drums it definitely does. Of course. Who cares about that? You don't clean them anyway, Max. It doesn't come off.

Fucking got them. Oh, my goodness. All right. All right. Everyone, that's it. Neda.