HI ADAM. HOW’S SHIT WITH YOU?
“I’m hungover as shit but it’s gonna be OK, man!”
OH DEAR. HEAVY ONE?
“I know, I know. I do this every fucking night, who am I kidding?”
YOUR MUSIC HELPED DIRECT THE NU METAL GENERATION TOWARDS MORE TRADITIONAL METAL. THAT’S PRETTY COOL
“I grew up – I’m old as crap – on the more classic metal styles, and punk and hardcore, so when nu metal dropped, it baffled me. Like, you have seven strings and you only use one of them?! But hey, a lot of people seem to like it, so no harm, no fuss. I always gravitated more to the sleazy underground. I’m a metal dude, you know? I live the metal lifestyle. Instead of getting on the bandwagon with bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit, I was listening to Carcass, NapalmDeath and stuff like that. The nu metal scene was never something that I really understood.”
SO FOR YOU IT WAS ALWAYS A CASE OF WANTING TO GO AGAINST THE TREND?
“Exactly. We’ve never been good on trends, obviously – you can tell by the way we look! We do what we want and don’t give a shit. I think that’s important for a band. It gives a band personality, you know?”
A LOT OF THE BANDS THAT HAVE INFLUENCED YOU – AT THE GATES, IN FLAMES ETC – SEEM TO RESPECT WHAT YOU DID FOR THE SCENE, TOO.
“Yeah, all the bands that were influential to us, we’ve been able to meet a lot of them and they’ve all been really nice. It’s funny to grow up listening to these bands, and now there’s a mutual respect. It’s the coolest feeling in the world.”
YOU’RE HITTING THE UK WITH BULLET NEXT MONTH. WHAT WERE YOUR INITIAL IMPRESSIONS OF THE GUYS?
“That they were cool because they were actually playing guitar, with real parts. They were a metal band, it was awesome. We had a blast on that Mayhem tour we all did together. It was 2009, I think.”
WHAT WAS THAT TOUR LIKE?
“That was like the magic Mayhem year. It was just so much fun – everybody was having a blast.”
WAS THERE EVER ANY RIVALRY IN THAT 00s SCENE?
“I guess I’m weird; I never really get intimidated by other bands or other people. It’s more that I have a rivalry with myself. Whenever I’m making a record, I want it to be just as good as the last one; I want the fans to hear the new record and like it. And as far as all the other bands out there, I wish everybody the best of luck because it is not easy to be a touring band and to be successful and to be able to do it for a living. So I wish no harm or foul towards anyone that’s trying to do it. It’s all the love of music and that’s a beautiful thing.”
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE METAL ELITISTS WHO DIDN’T DIG YOU ADDING HOOKS AND CLEAN VOCALS TO DEATH METAL RIFFS?
“I can understand why traditional metalheads don’t like clean things. When you wanna grind, you wanna grind. But I also like melody; if you can write a song with a good melody, that’s also cool. Different strokes for different folks.”
YOU’VE NEVER PAID TOO MUCH ATTENTION TO THE NEW WAVE OF AMERICAN HEAVY METAL TAG, THOUGH…
“You can’t pay too much attention to the press, because people can say one thing and inflate your ego and then they say another thing and destroy you. Take everything with a grain of salt.”
INCARNATE IS OUT NOW VIA ROADRUNNER. KSE AND BFMV TOUR THE UK NEXT MONTH. ADAM’S SIDE PROJECT SERPENTINE DOMINION’S EPONYMOUS DEBUT ALBUM IS OUT NOW VIA METAL BLADE