By fusing old school punk with classic thrash, Richmond
(Virginia) based act Municipal Waste have brought the speed, aggression
and fun back into the thrash/hardcore scene. In doing so, they have
managed to bring back the energy and authenticity of true crossover
acts such as Nuclear Assault, early Corrosion Of Conformity, D.R.I.,
Excel, Gang Green Hirax and Cryptic Slaughter did back in the mid '80s.
With little more than three EP's (2001's self titled effort,
2002's split with Crucial Unit and 2002's 'Tango And Thrash' split with
Bad Acid Trip) and one full-length (2003's 'Waste 'Em All' on Six Weeks
Records) to their name, Municipal Waste (who are vocalist Tony Foresta,
guitarist Ryan Waste, bassist Land Phil and ex-Human Remains/Discordance
Axis/Melt-Banana and Burnt By The Sun drummer Dave Witte) soon found
themselves leaders of the growing underground crossover movement, with
the legendary Earache Records quickly signing the band up in 2004.
It took a further twelve months for Municipal Waste to
release their sophomore effort, but with the release of 'Hazardous Mutation',
the young group quickly garnished some overwhelming praise for their
effort, leading many to include the album in their top-ten end of the
year polls.
With close to a year on the road in support of the album,
Municipal Waste are bringing their thrash attack to Australia for the
first time this month, with some six shows covering both east and west
coasts.
While out on tour in the US (alongside acts such as Murphy's
Law, Deadfall, Caustic Christ and Annihilation Time), I caught up with
vocalist Tony Foresta in Portland (Oregon) to find out what the shortcomings
associated with their horror performance clip were, what the Municipal
Waste live experience is like and their surprised reactions to 'Hazardous
Mutation' on what is a predominately metal based label.
"We really worked our asses off on this album, but
it has paid off. Considering that the album was released on a metal
label, I think it's done really well. I didn't know how the metal crowd
would react to it, especially when you consider that I don't put on
the cookie monster, death metal or tough guy sounding vocals. But most
people seem to really like it so I'm pretty happy with the album. I
guess the album took off so well because it doesn't sound like a lot
of the metal stuff that's out there at the moment. So I was very interested
to see how people would receive it. But they liked it, so it's good.
Earache Records seem like they promote their bands really well. Their
albums are out there and widely available so a lot of people are able
to get them. We weren't really concerned about that. We simply wanted
a really solid label and Earache Records is just that for us. So we're
really pleased to work with them and so far things are going great."
Although it sounds a little strange to those unfamiliar
with Municipal Waste's earlier works, there was certainly a genuine
concern as to whether the metal crowd would embrace the band's music,
but the harder edged 'Hazardous Mutation' managed to do just that.
"'Hazardous Mutation' is a little more metal sounding
than our older stuff, especially compared to our first album 'Waste
'Em All'. There was definitely a greater punk-like edge to that album.
Most of that came down to the way it was recorded and the fact that
it was a little faster sounding. Most of our old stuff is a little faster
than the stuff we play today. But having said that, we have much stronger
song structures now! (Laughs)"
As Foresta said, Municipal Waste don't sound like a lot
of other metal acts out there at the moment as their crossover sound
seems firmly rooted more within the old school punk sound of old, rather
than metalcore's Swedish metal basis.
"I don't think we have anything to do with metalcore,
besides the fact that we kind of play metal. I guess metalcore is defined
in a lot of different ways in different places, but metalcore around
here is like…not very good! (Laughs) It's usually associated with
bands with the word valentine in their name and stuff like that. That's
not what we're going for. We're punk kids playing fast metal. That's
what we like to go for! (Laughs) Our sound just kind of happened. We
knew what we wanted to do with it. Waste and I were the only two kids
that lived around Richmond that were into S.O.D., D.R.I., Gang Green
and shit like that. Everybody else wanted to play in a different kind
of band to what we wanted to do. We wanted to do something that was
fast and fun. It simply came out this way. That's the stuff that we
listen to and what to this day still influences us. That's how I hope
we come across on the album."
And speaking of influences, Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian
recently threw his support behind Municipal Waste with his praise of
the band's ability to keep crossover alive.
"Yeah, I heard about that. That was awesome. That's
a huge thrill because Anthrax is one of those bands that influenced
us a lot. We thought that was very cool. When I heard that, I was actually
pretty surprised. I had spoken to him briefly, but I had never actually
met him before, so I'm really looking forward to meeting him one day."
While a lot of tags have been placed on the band, one
that seems to have stuck is the term 'Party Thrash', which is a term
that Foresta agrees with but dislikes in equal measure.
"We never ever called ourselves party thrash but
some people have. It's really weird though because we party and we thrash,
so I guess it works out in a sense. But there's something about the
term 'Party Thrash' that doesn't take itself seriously. We take this
band very seriously. I don't know where it comes across that we're joking
around. We're not f**king around at all. We do have a sense of humour.
Believe me, we're pretty funny guys. We're a bunch of short little smart
asses! But at the same time, we also just want to kill people! (Laughs)"
That sense of humour combined with a serious thrash delivery
is perhaps best seen in the band's zombiefied promotional video clip
for 'Unleash The Bastards'.
"That was a blast to make. We just got a bunch of
free beer and put on a free show. Usually when we play Richmond, it
gets pretty crazy. We just wanted to show people what our shows are
like with people going crazy. There were a lot of friends in that video
too. It's a bummer because things didn't work out how we planned though.
There was supposed to be a lot more gore involved and more shit getting
f**ked up. When we were cutting it, the guys just didn't have enough
time to do everything that they wanted to do. In the end, we just had
to put out what we ended up with. We were touring a lot when we shot
that video, so the timeframe was kind of narrow. But while it didn't
come out exactly how we wanted it, it was a lot of fun to make. There's
a funny story associated with that video too. Chris, who is the owner/bartender
of the joint Alley Cats is a really cool guy. While we were playing,
I guess we had a heap of fake limbs - like legs and arms being thrown
around the place. He said he had to duck and dodge. A bloody shoe flew
past his head and hit the glass behind him - which smashed the whole
back of the bar up. That shoe was not one of our props. He's claimed
that shoe and has been waiting for its owner to come claim it ever since!
(Laughs)"
Although having zombies in their video clip and having
a sample lifted from cult horror film 'Phantasm' may give you the impression
that the members of Municipal Waste are all horror film fanatics, Foresta
is quick to point out that its only an interest, rather than an obsession.
"We're not like obsessed. We're more record collectors
than movie fanatics. But we do watch a lot of movies. We're not like
super know-it-all's or anything, but we can talk about Italian horror
for a while! (Laughs)"
Something that the group wholly endorse however is the
cover artwork to 'Hazardous Mutation' which was created by the noted
artist Ed Repka. His previous paintings have adorned albums from Three
Inches Of Blood, Nuclear Assault and Megadeth.
"Actually it was Waste that came up with that idea.
And what a good idea it was! (Laughs) We're really picky about artists.
We always try and get someone different to do our album covers and when
we heard that he was still doing art, we just jumped at the chance to
work with him. We sent him a CD of our latest music and he really liked
it. He said that our music would mesh well together with his art. I
definitely agree with him. It's a perfect match. We just came up with
the idea and presented that to Repka. He threw in his ideas and in the
end it all worked out great. I loved working with him. I'm very happy
with the way that all came out."
With 'Hazardous Mutation' nearly a year old, Municipal
Waste have already set their sights on recording some new material.
But aside from a new album, there are also some plans to re-release
some of their hard to find older material too.
"We're going to re-record the split we did with Crucial
Unit and put that out as an EP because we think the original recording
sounds like shit! (Laughs) I think that's something that will come out
through Robotic Empire Records (a label that handles some of the band's
merchandise and vinyl pressings). As for some of the other stuff, we
were thinking of putting out an album with all of our old songs like
the seven inches and the splits that we did, but we still haven't officially
decided to go ahead with that yet. If this compilation does come out,
it won't be through Earache Records. We like to share something like
this around and work with our friends. We'll also be taking to people
down in Australia about licensing these out too, so we'll see. The only
thing that won't change is 'Waste 'Em All'. That's going to stay with
Six Weeks Records. As for the new album, we have about six new songs
ready. I would imagine that the album would be released around the beginning
of next year. The plan is that after we've done this tour, we're then
going to go on tour with Gwar. Once that tour is finished, we'll take
a couple of months off and finish writing the new album. We're not going
to rush anything. We're just going to take our time and make sure that
we do things right. All of our earlier works were pretty rushed, and
we're not happy with them. But this stuff is stuff that we definitely
want to take our time with. After we put out the new album, we'll then
go out and tour for another year!"
Prior to heading into the studio however, Municipal Waste
still has some touring left to complete, which includes a visit to Australia.
"We've been on tour for about a year now and all
we do is just take a week off here and there. We're about two days into
this new tour right now and so far things have been great! We've had
some really good turnouts and there's been a hell of a lot of moshing
going on! We're working our way down to Australia right now actually.
We're playing some shows out here on the west coast and then we're flying
out of LA in a week. We love travelling so Australia is something really
exciting for us. We can't wait! It's great to make it down there and
play. We hope that people will come out and see us and enjoy it."
But as for what fans can expect from the show, Foresta
insists it's what they bring that matters the most.
"It's really what they bring. We just play and we
just try and get the crowd riled up. So it's the crowd that generally
surprises us with what they do. They usually bring shit to throw around
at us and then we usually throw it back. We get a lot of shit thrown
at us. Sometimes we throw shit at them! (Laughs) It just depends. We
usually bring a bunch of beer bongs and food and shit. Chicks! We've
thrown a few of them out into the crowd! It's crazy. Sometimes people
will throw up lizards and shit. You just never know. Somebody actually
dressed up as a shark last week. They had a full on shark costume going
apeshit in the pit. That suit got ripped apart real quickly. It was
pretty funny. I had never seen that kid before in my life. I'm very
interested to see what Australia has in store for us. Hopefully some
good beer and some fun times! (Laughs) That's what we're hoping for
at least. We're not too picky."
I would personally like to thank Tony Foresta for his
generous time and Chris Maric at Riot! Distributors for making the interview
possible.
For more information on Municipal Waste, check out - http://www.facethewaste.com
© Justin Donnelly - justindonnelly@ozemail.com.au
