Our new interview with PSYCROPTIC drummer and co-founder Dave Haley is live, covering the making of "The Pulse Of Annihilation" — the Tasmanian band's ninth album and their first for Metal Blade Records.
The through line is a band that refuses to arrive prepared. Where most groups rehearse a record to death and then track it, PSYCROPTIC deliberately walk in with a skeleton. "When I track my drums, the song is still just a skeleton," Haley says. "That lets everything evolve as we go, and it's worked especially well on this record — the songs almost write themselves, and you only really hear what everything sounds like in hindsight, rather than rehearsing something to death and then refusing to change it in the studio."
That approach has a cost. He pushed lead single "Gathering A Venomous Herd" to the very end of the schedule, then scrapped every drum part he had prepared for it. "I didn't like what I'd prepared, so it ended up being the last song we tracked, and it wasn't a fun session… it sounds like a pretty easy song, but there are a lot of syncopated parts in it, and because it's mid-paced, anything off is going to stand out."
He is also relaxed about shedding the label the band helped define. "It's just a tag — we're not ashamed of it or offended by it, but I don't think it suits us these days… we're not trying to be technical for technicality's sake, we just do whatever the song needs." His own listening habits make the point: "I'd rather put on BOLT THROWER than the latest crazy tech death release."
Elsewhere in the conversation: the near-Eastern acoustic intros on "A Sword Of Me" and "Our Pillars Fall", handing Portuguese artist Belial Necroarts a one-line brief and getting the finished cover back inside a week with no revisions, how an offhand remark from Ryan Williams turned into the Metal Blade deal, the North American run with INFERI, COGNITIVE and SUMMONING THE LICH, and why the island the band still calls home — Tasmanian devils included — remains part of its identity.
"The Pulse Of Annihilation" is out now on Metal Blade Records.