Unveiling The Burning: From chance encounters to zombie
metal, delve into their macabre world fueled by horror films, intense rhythms,
haunting vocals, and a fiery stage presence. Evolve with them.
1. Can you tell us how The Burning
came together as a band and what inspired the choice of zombie metal as your
genre?
Funny story actually. It was back in the day when you still
had to queue up for tickets when bands came to town. Pantera was coming to
Perth and we were still like 15 year old kids at the time. I’d gone to ticketek
the night before tickets went on sale to queue up over night and that’s where I
met Richard who said he was a singer. We worked out we had a mutual friend that
night so a few days later I got the mutual friend to get me his number and we tee’d
up a jam. Rich knew a bass player and I knew a drummer and that was the line-up
of the burning for the first year or so until we lost the drummer to religion
(long story) That’s when Shaun came in and the rest is history.
2. Your music is heavily influenced
by cult classic horror films. How do these films impact your songwriting
process and overall artistic direction?
We all used to go out and get wasted watching
other local metal bands. Typically, I’d end up back at Rich’s house after a
night out watching B-grade horror movies at 3 in the morning - like Army of
Darkness or Night of the Living Dead. - We’d usually pass out half way through
the movie then wake up in the morning going “I’ve got an idea for a song” and
that formed the basis of many songs on the album to be honest. Then we’d jam
with the band, refine it, and go from there. Now it’s just the done thing.
Watch horror movies, write riffs / lyrics jam repeat.
3. Richard Clements, your vocals
are often described as a "haunting and guttural narrative." Could you
elaborate on the emotions and themes you aim to convey through your unique
vocal style?
At the forefront of their spine-tingling sound is Richard
Clements' vocals that are a haunting and guttural narrative, channeling the
very essence of the undead.
4. Nat Miller, your guitar solos
are known for summoning the spirits of ancient darkness. How do you approach
creating solos that complement the band's eerie and intense atmosphere?
The virtuoso guitar work of Nat Miller, whose skin shredding
solos summon the spirits of ancient darkness.
5. Shaun Hack, your drumming is
often likened to a heartbeat from beyond the grave. How do you achieve such a
powerful and haunting rhythmic presence in your music?
Anchoring the rhythm is the thunderous drumming of Shaun
Hack, pulsating like a heart from beyond the grave.
6. Damon Zomer, your basslines are
said to resonate like an ominous incantation. Can you shed light on the role of
the bass in creating The Burning's overall sound and atmosphere?
Damon Zomer's basslines resonate like an ominous
incantation, grounding the band's unearthly melodies.
7. The Burning's music seamlessly
merges thrash and death metal. How do you balance these elements to craft your
distinctive sound, and are there any challenges in combining these genres?
So these questions have been derived from a
Biography that was written for us. We told the biographer to write whatever he
wanted but to talk in the same way our B-grade horror movies talked when they
described killers, zombies, monsters etc. When we got the first draft we loved
it. It was b-grade as hell but it also summed us up as a band. Richards' vocal
range for a death / trash metal singer is insane, man. He is a master at what
he does and as much as we all have a shit load of fun with the band, he always
brings a level of professionalism that keeps the rest of the band in check.
Shaun’s drumming speaks for itself and you can really here that on the album
with his constant tempo changes that keep an audience entertained. Zomer is
brilliant to play with too. The most down to earth mutherfucker you’ll ever
meet and he plays this amp that’s an absolute weapon. We call it the
cube-of-death. When we plays live he could set the volume of that thing to 4
and drown out the drums if he wanted to. As for me on guitar I just love to
play man.
8. Your band's name, "The
Burning," suggests intense and fiery imagery. How does this name
encapsulate the essence of your music and the themes you explore?
Thanks man, love the question but there’s a way
simpler reason behind the name. Back in the early days when we were writing our
first songs, we tried different names. We were actually called Cadaver
Incavation for a few months but we didn’t like it. It didn’t suit us. One night
we were drinking at a house a few mates shared, and we were talking about band
names and one of our mates picked up a horror movie that was on the table and
he said. “Fuck, it could be something as simple as The Burning” and picked up
the DVD. Me and Rich looked at each other, laughed and said that’s it!
Ironic we ended up so influenced by horror movies in
songwriting and the band had been named after one of our favourites.
9. Horror and metal seem to
converge in your music. Could you delve into the thematic connections between
these two seemingly disparate yet complementary artistic realms?
We always felt these two just went so hand in
hand. So many metal bands spend time writing about blood guts, gore, battles,
and we loved that shit. Old school horror movies, to us, were just the visual
to the audio. It seems very natural to watch Army of Darkness and think there’s
a fucking song in that. Bringing back demons from the dead! Hell Yes!! And from
there Demon Resurrection was born which is about Cthulhu and the
Necronomicon (the book of the dead).
10. Australia's musical underground is known for its
diverse scene. How has the local music scene influenced The Burning's journey
and the development of your signature sound?
Perth Australia has always had a brilliant
metal scene. We’ve been very lucky here. Since the likes of Allegiance, we’ve
had Enforce, Pyschonaught, Pathogen and now newer bands like Rich’s other band
Ashen that are really taking the scene by the balls and bands are keeping each
other to a really high standard. It’s fucking great. I think bands here have to
perform at an extremely high level if they want to be noticed because Perth is
literally the most isolated city in the world. We’re closer to Singapore than
our next nearest city, so if you want to make it out of Western Australia you
better produce a fucking good product.
It’s getting easier now with social media, Spotify, Itunes
etc. But the culture of producing good metal has been here for a long time.
We’re very lucky.
11. As a band with a strong visual and auditory
identity, how do you envision your live performances? How do you aim to immerse
your audience in your macabre world on stage?
Live is where a band gets a chance to give an audience a
show and not just songs to listen to.
We’ve done shows with girls dressed in nothing,
dancing in cages then being brought out by a demon that sacrifices her on
stage. That’s the shit! That’s our own personal b-grade horror movie we get to
perform in front of people. For anyone who listens to the newly released album
“The Living Dead” you’ll get a gist of that with Act 1, and Act 2 (tracks 1 and
8) where we brought actors in to the studio and recorded our own short horror
movie introductions to The Living Dead Pt. 1 and The Living Dead Pt.2. It gives
the album another dimension to it, again trying to create the visual in the
audio.
12. Looking ahead, what can fans anticipate from The
Burning in terms of upcoming projects, releases, and your evolution as a band?
The next step is about intensifying the live performances even further. Put on a visual show that really incorporates the horror scene into the set. Zombie dancing girls and zombie metal heads, chainsaws, explosions, fire, etc. we have some ideas that are works in progress but It’s all about the execution of those ideas now.
I’ve been in contact with some prosthetics companies so
there’s some stuff in the works but all I can say, if this seems like your
readers kind of thing, is to keep watching this space for what we do next. Cos
we want to take the visual aspect to the next level and its going to be fucking
insane. It will of course be recorded and posted everywhere as it will be a
spectacle that needs to be seen.
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