Anterior

author PP date 01/08/07

Welsh Anterior are walking closely in the footsteps of Bullet For My Valentine, at least if you consider their comet-like burst onto the scene to support bands as big as As I Lay Dying, The Black Dahlia Murder, Dragonforce and more critically acclaimed names. These guys must be doing something right, I thought, and therefore when the opportunity arose for an email interview with the band, there was no hesitation on my part to write a couple of questions about the band and their awesome debut "This Age Of Silence". Drummer Ross Andrews took some time off his busy schedule and shed some light onto the band's influences, history and of course the future.

RF.net: Hi and thanks for taking the time to answer our questions! First off, how are things in Anterior?
No problem man! At the moment I would say camp Anterior is hectic! We have a tour coming up in 3 weeks time and we were struggling to find a bass player for the tour. Pulling out just wasn't an option! We have found a great bass player at the moment but he is only filling in for the tour. So we have been practicing flat out every day now to get our live show better and tighter, especially with the new bass player. But other than that its great man.

RF.net: According to the words of your own label exec's, "you kind of just popped up from nowhere to the music scene". So I'm interested in some background - both musical and personal!
Well we came together in 2003 as a five piece after getting to know each other in school and sharing similar interests in music. We unfortunately parted ways with our singer and after an endless search for a replacement we all thought, lets all have a crack. Well it turned out that Luke was the man for the job all along! We started working on material and eventually recorded a three track EP locally which got us some great high profile gigs supporting Dragonforce, Himsa, 3 Inches of Blood, Black Dahlia Murder and Mendeed. After this we realized that this is as far as the current EP could take us so we really knuckled down and wrote four new songs which we recorded in August 2006 with Tim Hamill at Sonic One Studio's in Llangennech, South Wales. After completion, we uploaded two of the tracks onto our Myspace page and within 3 weeks we were stumbled upon by a management company called Desert Rock USA. They shipped us to record labels and we had responses from Magic Circle Music and Metal Blade Records. In November of 2006 we signed with Metal Blade. All of us quit our full time jobs and university courses to concentrate on the band. Leon wrote the entire album on a pro tools rig he has at his house and we entered Tim Hamill's studio again in February 2007 to record "This Age of Silence".

RF.net: Did you guys always know this kind of music is what you wanted to do, or did you explore some other styles and sounds as well?
No we always knew what style of music we wanted to play from the start! Metal!

RF.net: Lostprophets and especially Bullet For My Valentine are both reigning from the same territory as you, namely Wales. Were these two bands an inspiration for you since they fought a long way before achieving mainstream recognition? Who are your other inspirations/influences?
Neither of them have influenced our music but they did open our eyes for us to think, hey man, these guys can do it why can't we? But our main influences on our sound and music have been: Children of Bodom, Arch Enemy, In Flames, Racer X, Yngwie Malmsteen, Metallica and Maiden.

RF.net: You've just released your debut album "This Age Of Silence", and it's one hell of a debut album I must say. How do you personally feel about it? Could you please describe the album in your own words?
Thanks man, much appreciated. Well I personally am really happy with the album. I know that it is a reflection of all the hard work that was put into it. The sound is excellent too, guitar and drum wise. In my own words I would describe the album as Melodic Metal. A good mix of all of our influences. Metal as Fuck!

RF.net: The album has drawn comparisons to All That Remains among other massive names in metalcore. Before I go any further - how do you actually feel about the metalcore tag you've been labeled with? There are some bands that dread being categorized into that genre.
Its great to have comparisons with such a great band as All that Remains. But we really don't see our selves as Metalcore. None of us in this band are big fans of hardcore and really don't see it in our music or intended to have it there. But people have their own opinions of that.

RF.net: I think with a lot of metalcore bands the problem is that they are just re-hashing the same riffs that everyone else is using. However, I think that you guys are really onto something here. I know it's a bit early to speak of your next album, but do you feel any pressure to live up to your debut?
Yeah man. We really believe that we can offer something different here. We haven't really thought about the next album yet and we realize that the pressure will be on to exceed our debut album. But at the moment, I am pretty confident that we will be able to pull it off. I have heard some of the new riffs/ideas that Leon has been showing me and to be honest, upon hearing them, they show a lot of promise.

RF.net: I think producer Tim Hammill has really done a great job in putting the spotlight on the technically superior guitars. Could you tell me a little bit about how it was working with him, and what kind of influence he had on the overall sound of the album?
Well after we recorded our four track EP with Tim, there was absolutely no question of who we would want to produce our album. He is really talented, every day we were there he would simply astound us with his knowledge and skills. He has a great way of putting everyone at ease and helps bring out the best in you. He also had a fantastic ear when it came to the guitars. It would be like 'No, again you were slightly out' And by slightly, it would be really slightly! This helped push Leon to get the best and most cleanest guitar tracks he could. I think he has done an excellent job on our album.

RF.net: I saw you guys open for As I Lay Dying in London during their June European tour. Killer show by the way. But you were only able to pull it together by asking your old bass-player to help out since he isn't a member of the band anymore. Now, in August you are opening for The Black Dahlia Murder - and you still have no bassist. Is there one in sight yet?
Thanks man! Didn't realize you were there! Glad you liked the show. Sanctity and As I Lay Dying were awesome that night. Yeah man, you're right. We were really relieved that he could help us out there but he indicated there and then that would be his last show. Since then we have tried out a number of bass players, but unfortunately we haven't found a permanent player yet. We have a good friend and player helping us out for this upcoming tour though. But ultimately we are still in need of a permanent bass player. They are like gold dust around here!

RF.net: Here's a question I don't think it's too early to ask: what are your aspirations with Anterior? How far do you think you can go?
Well noone really knows what the future holds for us but if we carry on going the way we are going, practicing everyday to a metronome and as a live band, I can see improvement everyday, there is no question that we can go far. But before that we have a lot to learn. We have our fingers crossed!

RF.net: Directly related to that, how is Anterior's future shaping up?
Well we can't complain so far! We have had some great responses to our album in reviews and some very promising feedback from fans. We are all really looking forward to our upcoming tour and hopefully the future will bring even more!!

RF.net: Thanks for the interview. We hope to see you in Denmark sometime very soon! Any last words?
Thanks to you man! Hopefully we will be in Denmark soon!! Rock on Dudes!

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