Rick Scythe interview on Usurper cassette re-releases and more!

                                            

 Rick Scythe interview on Usurper cassette re-releases and more!

Here's a interview I got with Rick "Rigor" Scythe and he answers my questions on the re-release of the first three Usurper records! I always enjoy reading Rick's answers their always intelligent and interesting. Also other times freaking hilarious. hope you guys enjoy this interview!

 

1. Hey Rick Thank you for doing this interview! Why have you decided to re-release these three records on cassette?

 RS: The offer was actually presented to me last year from Night Bird/Todestrieb Records. I figured that it would be cool to release these albums on cassette after all these years, so I worked out a deal with them. It is not some big label. This is just a short run of 300 copies of each version. It is really just something for the die-hards only, kind of a way to acknowledge the 20th anniversary of Usurper.

 2. What is something you like most about each release?

 

 

      

Diabolosis:  RS: "Diabolosis" I like the rawness of that album. The guitar tone is massive and everything was so fresh back in 1995 when we recorded the album. When I listen to it I remember those days and remember being in the cramped quarters of Eaton Records recording it. I remember the photo shoot and all the good times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Threshold of the Usurper: RS:  "Threshold..."  I felt like that is when that classic early line-up of Usurper really perfected our sound. It was like Diabolosis, style but better musicianship and even better tones. To me it is the best representation of early Usurper/classic line-up era.

 

 

 

Skeletal Season    RS: "Skeletal Season" was when we really were exploring some new ideas. The first 2 releases were inspired by 80's era black/thrash/death metal. The lyrics were in that vein. By the time I began writing material for Skeletal Season, it was the first time I really came up with lyrical ideas. I was basing lyrics on topics I read about from a perspective no metal bands have before. Odes to Mothman in 1996... no metal band has written a song about Mothman in1996 or earlier... the werewolf tales, the paranormal stuff; all that was pretty original. In 2013 these types of topics are much more common, but in the mid/late 90's this wasn't a popular topic. It was also the first album we actually commissioned original artwork for one of our releases.  We had Juha Vuorma come up with an original oil painting that fit the mood of the album. That was a big deal for us.

3. What is something you wish you could change about each release?

 Diabolosis: RS: Not much I would change,  I suppose if anything just more time and money to record. We had a very tight budget, that's why we had to include 2 songs from the demo on there. Also there are a few minor flubs because we didn't have a lot of times to perfect everything, but that's part of the magic of the sound of that album.

 

Threshold of the Usurper: RS: For this one, if we could go back in time I would have made it a full length album. I would have made "Anno Satanas" an actual track and not a hidden track, which would have brought the song total up to 6 songs. Then I would have just written 2 more songs and made it a full length album. I know later for the re-issue (including the cassette) we did this, but we used 2 songs recorded years later. But other than that, I feel "Threshold.." is a great release.

 

Skeletal Season:  RS: Just some production stuff. Dave Hellstorm insisted on recording his drums a certain way, and we wanted him to record the same way we did Diabolosis and Threshold. But since Dave was older and more experienced we let him record his drums his way... big mistake! That would never happen again! The drums had a weird tone. It worked with the dark mood of that album, but the overall result was kind of muddy sounding. I know we were a little disappointed with certain aspects of the mix, but we made up for it with good songs, good artwork and good presentation.

 

 

 

 

4. On Diabolosis why wasn’t Soulstalker or Visions from the gods included?

 RS: We didn't want to have the entire demo on the first album. Actually like I said earlier, if we had more time and money, we most likely wouldn't of put any of the demo songs on the album. We just didn't have the money to properly record 8 or 9 new songs, so we recorded a few new, and remixed 2 demo songs. Dusk and Deep in the Forest fit better with the other new songs at the time, so we chose those 2 for Diabolosis.

 

5. Could you share any stories about recording these albums?

 

RS: Yes, I could make a book about those sessions. I wish we would have taken pictures or video back then, because those were some magical moments. This guy Brian Eaton had his own record label called Eatin' Records, he put out actual albums and had his own band that he played drums for called North. This was the early mid 90's. This was a time when "metal was dead" in the mainstream. His label was not really metal. Mainly old hard rock bands that shifted their style to more grunge. he also had some guitar wizard artist at the time, some real progressive rock and then his own band  North which was sort of industrial/dream theater style. It was a true independent label.

 He was an excellent producer and excellent musician. He was a fellow "long hair", but not some idiot metal head. Super intelligent guy. He had this small house and he converted one of the bedrooms into a recording studio. This wasn't some Pro Tools/digital computer home studio, it was an actual home studio! Full on reel to reel tapes, giant mixing board... all the stuff you would see in a regular big recording studio, only crammed into this guys bedroom.

 He used a closet as an isolation booth to record vocals and to record the amps. He had this electronic drum kit, all these expensive mics. So we would pile in someone's car, drive out to the west suburbs of Chicago and record bits and pieces at time. Usually only 5 hour sessions 2 or 3 times a week. Then we would eat at Portillos and drive home listening to rough mixes of whatever we recorded.

 I remember Brian never heard stuff like ours. The heaviest shit he heard back then was Metallica. He was blown away with some of the stuff we were doing. He loved the double bass drumming and the meaty guitar tone. But he also had a bit of a chip on his shoulders at times. It was a really interesting relationship with him. He was about 6 or 7 years older than us and was making a living with his studio and label. We would have a lot of laughs, but also a lot of lectures keeping us in line. So when times were going good with him, he would give us free set up time and do a lot of shit off the clock; when times were tight for him, he would charge us for set up time and round things up on the clock.

 He liked us a lot and we loved this guy!  We really looked up to him as like the wise elder, but he also got really annoyed with us from time to time, which made things even funnier. He was a world class ball buster! For example, if we started goofing on Jon, he would jump right in and do an entire routine just busting Jon's balls getting me and General laughing hysterically.

 He used to also get real mad at General and Jon for farting up his studio. He would be like, "hey motherfuckers, I have to live here, knock that shit off". But General and Jon were both non-stop farting machines, they can't stop! Telling those 2 idiots to stop farting just made them go out of their way to fart even more. The toilet at Eaton Records also had this big shit stain in it and he refused to clean it. When we would go in to take a piss, he would always tell us, "Aim for the stain!" So you can see, there was a lot of crass, low-brow humor during those sessions, which balanced out the very heavy moods of the songs.

 One time we were in a serious mix session for Threshold of the Usurper. That album had a lot of complex arrangements and layers, like the title track and "The Dead of Winter" ; it took a lot of concentration to get things right... Well one night we were burning the midnight oil working hard on the mix and General was in the corner farting. Then the General took this recording industry magazine and began wafting his own farts into his own face; smelling it with delight - like how people in coffee commercials look when opening a can of coffee. We've seen him do this a million times, so it was nothing new to us, but Brian was appalled! I remember Brian turned around and had the most disgusted/perplexed look on his face, he said something like, "What the fuck is this slob doing? This guy really enjoys the smell of his own farts". Then general gave him his magazine back and said, "i tried to read this thing, but it stinks".  At that point Brian was finally like, "forget it, I'm done for the night". That's just the way it was recording those albums. A lot of long hours, then we would have to stop. Not like typically how you record an album.

I remember during the Skeletal Season sessions, because Dave Hellstorm wanted to record his drums a certain way. We needed to record the drums and basic tracks at this different studio that Brian Eaton suggested.  It was one of Brian's friends who was a doctor or something. He had a big house on a lot of land and his studio was in a barn. We recorded it there and then we brought it to Brian to mix. Brian was going through some issues in those days. I know he had this girlfriend living there at the time, and for whatever reason his heart wasn't really into recording us anymore. We brought the tracks to him and he was like, "the drums sound like shit. your guitar tone sounds like shit. this recording sounds terrible". We said, "it was your friend who recorded us, what the fuck?" He said, "I told you what drums to use and how to record them and Dave fucked this up! Rick, you should have used this amp and this guitar" blah, blah, blah...

So we mixed at Brian's house and he was not really into it. It was not a fun session like we had in the past. It felt like he was going through the motions a bit. I remember leaving his house, we were downstairs and his girlfriend had obviously moved some of her stuff in his house since the last time we were there. She had this big glass cabinet with all these little figurines on it right by his front door. As we were leaving one night, I lost my balance a little and started tripping backwards. All I could think was I was falling right into this figurine cabinet. I panicked and did like a twist to avoid it and flopped on the ground right next to this cabinet. I missed it, but did this big, elaborate prat fall just to avoid it. At this point Brian looked at us like, "my god what a bunch of idiots".

 But even with all that jack-assery, we really learned a lot from Brian Eaton. The guy was really ahead of his time with his recording techniques and really taught us how to get the tones we were looking for. He taught me about guitar EQ and different ways to get different tones. he really shaped those early Usurper releases.

 

6. Is there any future plants to re-release Skeletal Seasons on CD. Also in the future will there be a re-release cassette wise of Necronemesis, Twilight Dominion, and Cryptobeast.

 

RS: I doubt we will re-issue the CD for Skeletal Season, but you never know. I know Necropolis re-issued it with Threshold of the Usurper. The cover art is terrible and the packaging is lame. As for Necronemesis, Twilight Dominion and Cryptobeast... there would be too much red tape with Earache Records at the moment. (Damn you Earache! --- Metal warfare)

 

Ok thank you for your time and instead of asking for last words I’m going to ask a stupid question. What pastry is better Pie or Cake? (PIE FTW!!)

RS: Definitely pie! Pie kicks cake's ass. I never liked cake that much. It was one of those things you were supposed to like as a kid, but I didn't really care for it. I like Blueberry Pie, Cherry Pie, Pecan Pie, Coconut Cream Pie... all of those kick cake's ass! I don't really like chocolate too much in general, so I would choose pie over cake any day of the week.

 
Rick Scythe

www.scythe.us
www.facebook.com/scythe.chicago
www.restinpeacerecords.us