The Gauntlet: Tell me about "Centuries of Torment," how was the project originally conceived?

Alex Webster: Denise Korycki, who worked for Fuse at one time, came down to Florida to do an interview with us while we were doing press for "Kill." We met up with her again during Sounds of the Underground 2006 - she was doing some behind-the-scenes footage for As I Lay Dying. We grew to like her and her style, and thought about working with her on a "Kill" tour DVD. So we filmed a bunch of stuff during the "Kill" tour, and wanted to throw some bonus, behind-the-scenes footage into the DVD. She thought that we could go a lot deeper than most other bands because we've been around for so long, so she drew up the plan for the chronological DVD. We supplied the archives and stories, but all the organization and creativity goes to her.

The Gauntlet: Do you keep a diary of your experiences? How did you remember everything from so long ago?

Alex: Actually, it really wasn't easy to remember all that stuff. The guys would tell me an old story and I wouldn’t even remember (laughs). It’s been 20 years, a lot of the little details are very hard to remember at this point. Everyone remembered different things, and Denise worked very hard to get everything correct, and to tell story the way it really happened. So much stuff happens over 20 years. One thing that was really neat was seeing the old footage that Jack Owen [former Cannibal Corpse guitarist] has. Back in the day he was the guy with the video camera in the, so he's the one with all the footage. It's great because you can see Scott Burns talking about something now, and we have relevant footage to show along with it.

The Gauntlet: Was any of that stuff new to you?

Alex: Some of it, yea. There were quite a few pictures I’d never seen. I've watched the history section through three times now, but I've only gone through all the bonus stuff once, just to make sure it was all cool. The weirdest thing I saw in there was some footage of me sleeping (laughs). I mean, I guess I would obviously not remember that but it was funny. But yea, we generally don't focus on the past that much, so some of it I didn't remember. We generally concentrate on moving forward to our next record and next tour.

The Gauntlet: Were you flattered at all by how many people were willing to give their two cents?

Alex: In the beginning, Denise told us she’d get this person and that person. I was just thinking, "Well, will they all want to do this?" She ended up getting almost everyone from the list because of her metalhead connections. She knows a lot of people. Like, we knew Charlie Benante [Anthrax drummer] is a big fan of Cannibal, but not a lot of people knew that. It was really cool to get him to talk about us on there. We really look up to him and alot of the other guys on there. We’re so grateful for everyone’s participation, and we’d be more than happy to return the favor someday.

The Gauntlet: Were you surprised that Chris Barnes [former Cannibal Corpse vocalist] was willing to contribute?

Alex: I think that he was a little surprised that we asked him. Had he turned us down we would have understood. Denise suggested it, as we were first getting into the project. We thought about it, and decided, "Yea, why not?" He was obviously a very important part of the band’s early history. We're very happy that he participated, and from what I've heard (I haven't spoken to him) he's happy we asked him. Being able to look at all of the positive things from the past has made all of us feel better I think. In as long of a music career as we've had there are going to be highlights and lowlights. You can either choose to look at the positives, which constitute about 90%, or the negative 10% where we argued or whatever. We chose to focus on the good stuff. We tried not to gloss over the bad stuff, but at the same time not to dwell on it.

The Gauntlet: As a fan, who would you most like to see get the chronological DVD treatment next?

Alex: Slayer of course! I would be off the phone running to the store right now if that was coming out. There's a lot from their early days that I have no idea about. That would be a great set.

The Gauntlet: How is work going on the next album?

Alex: It's been really good. We have 10 songs written already, and we'll be sitting down to write one more. We're gonna start recording September 1 at Mana, which is Erik Rutan [of Hate Eternal]'s studio of course. We've blocked off two months for that. The material will definitely be complete before we get in there.

The Gauntlet: Generally on every album you have one song that stands out from the others in terms of being a different style (i.e. slower or more instrumental). Is that what you're going to go for with the song you haven't written yet?

Alex: Well, actually song 10 that we already wrote is the slow song on the album. The one we haven't written yet is probably going to be the first song on the album... really fast, really brutal. It's going to be a collaboration between all of us as well, as opposed to us all writing songs on our own like the rest. It's funny, in the old days we hardly ever collaborated. We'd just all write a billion riffs and pile them on top of one another. We'd come out with these 4 minute songs that would have like 20 riffs thrown in there (laughs). Now it's a little more collaborative.

The Gauntlet: How involved is Corpsegrinder [Cannibal Corpse vocalist] in the writing process at this point?

Alex: Not at all (laughs). He doesn’t go to practice, but hopefully we'll get him to come in and practice with us in August. I've sent him lyrics for five of the songs on the new album already, so now it will be worth it to practice. He lives about 50 minutes from our practice space, so he doesn't get in there a whole lot.

The Gauntlet: What can we expect from the new stuff?

Alex: It's very fast... we tried to tighten things up a bit. We've been practicing a lot, there are a lot of minor differences. In general I just try to make everything have a different character or a different emotion. All bad emotions of course (laughs). The thing about death metal is that you can express different emotions, but they all have to be bad. Like, one song will be depressing, and the next might be aggravated violence. Lots of emotions, all bad (laughs).

The Gauntlet: Are there any touring plans being worked on for once the album is done?

Alex: The album will be finished recording by November, but the label needs time to get everything ready... the artwork, packaging, promotion, all that logistical stuff. So it should be out in February 2009. That's the current plan anyway. We're not sure where well go first. We might go to Europe for the first leg.

The Gauntlet: You were the studio bassist for the last Hate Eternal album, "Fury and Flames." Why aren't you touring with them, too busy?

Alex: Exactly. I'm just too busy with Cannibal, it's always been my first priority. The thing is, if I'm going to be in a band I like to write for that band. If I was only the bass player for Cannibal, and just had some bass parts thrown at me to learn, I could have toured with Hate Eternal, but that's just not the case.

The Gauntlet: Erik Rutan is a former roommate of yours? Any embarrassing or funny stories about your time living together?

Alex: Nothing in particular. We were the worst night owls, though. He'd be in his room working on music literally all night long, as would our other roommate and I. Then suddenly we'd all go in the living room and "Hey lets watch a 'Star Trek' movie!" or whatever at like 6 or 7 in the morning (laughs). We never went grocery shopping before midnight. We'd go at like 3 a.m. which was alright because there were no lines, but it was just kinda funny. I don't know what it is about metal people, but a lot of us seem to be major night owls.

The Gauntlet: Rumor has it that you were caught in line waiting for an autograph from Don Dokken... is that true?

Alex: That was BS (laughs). A friend of mine named Stephanie ran into me while I was standing in line with MY WIFE at NAMM one year. My wife grew up a huge Dokken fan, so she was getting an autograph from whoever it was. I was never a glam fan, I was just there with her. Although I guess I do like some of that stuff a little bit. I have the first Ratt album and some of the early Motley Crue stuff. I was always more into the European scene back then, like Maiden and Accept and all that. So anyways, Stephanie paparazzis me, and I told her not to do anything with that picture, I didn't want to see it shooting up all over the Internet (laughs). Before you know it, I go online and there's me waiting in line for an "autograph" from someone in Dokken. I was in line, but for my wife! The last autograph I got was from Billy Sheehan, an amazing bass player from Buffalo who played with David Lee Roth and Steve Vai and a few other acts back in the day. I got his autograph at NAMM 2007. He's a true hero of mine.

The Gauntlet: What newer bands are you liking these days?

Alex: I really like Aeon. Brain Drill as well, I hope they're doing alright, there were some rumors of them breaking up a little while back. Who else... Psycroptic... Visceral Bleeding - they have sort of a Spawn of Possession vibe going on, so anyone who likes that should check them out. Trauma is good too. There is a lot of great new death metal out there right now.

The Gauntlet: Thanks a lot Alex, looking forward to the new album.

Alex: No problem, thanks for the support.



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Tags:    , Alex Webster, interviews

Quentin Haigh    July 28, 2008