Life Sentence

If you can find an interview with Black Breath that doesn't mention Swedish death metal legends Entombed then you're better at this whole internet thing than Drum. And to be fair, the comparison is apt. Throw on any of Black Breath's superlative releases and you'd swear that the Seattle natives had built a time machine, travelled back to 1990 and then stolen Entombed's fabled Boss distortion pedals and Peavey amps. Thankfully, the band themselves don't mind the constant comparison.

“Considering we borrowed more than a couple ideas from 'em I can't be too mad,” laughs Wallace. “They're a great band, and Sweden has put out a ton of excellent heavy music over the years so it's flattering if anyone wants to think we're on some sort of similar level. While we're not trying to clone anyone, and even if we tried it would come out sounding different just because of who we are and where we come from, they have been an influence for sure. That being said, a lot of other bands have been big influences on us that we never see written into reviews.”

Wallace isn't joking when he emphasises that Black Breath are nobody's clones. This is a band that knows how to write tunes that are not only crushingly brutal but also infectiously catchy. In particular their latest record Sentenced To Life has won huge plaudits across the globe for its razor sharp riffs and all round general awesomeness. Not surprisingly, Wallace believes that this time around the stars aligned for the band.

“I love the way Sentenced To Life came out,” he offers. “It's definitely a time and place record as the process behind it was completely different than the process by which Heavy Breathing came together. For Heavy Breathing we had the whole record written and were even playing half the songs live by the time we got around to recording them, so it was fairly painless to make. I think we changed the lyrical arrangement on a couple [of] choruses in the studio and wrote in a couple of lead parts that weren't there before, but there wasn't much that wasn't already mapped out ahead of time.

“With Sentenced to Life, our only real ideas for it were to make it a more aggressive record than Heavy Breathing. Speed up the fast stuff, get rid of the unnecessary shit, try to make it meaner and more raging. We had never been close to playing the songs live before we recorded them so we were feeling some pressure to get it all done on time, and a lot of tense energy went into the songs as a result.”

As for the band's songwriting process – that's best described as 'organic'.

“Usually one guy will come up with a riff or idea for a song and then we'll all play it together and move things around until it becomes more or less a workable tune,” explains Wallace. “Lyrics and vocal ideas usually come after that, but we like to write spaces and room into the music to allow for vocals to be laid on top in a more natural way. Some songs have taken ten minutes, some have taken months: it just depends on the song. Creating songs is always interesting because most of the time what we start with and what we end with are two very different things, and we are sitting there scratching our heads saying 'how the hell did we end up here?' Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't, but we try not to force things too much. It's pretty obvious when a song is clicking because we're all playing and banging our heads, even if it's the first time we've ever played it.”

Although Black Breath are most often labelled as a metal band, even a cursory listen to their material reveals a deep seated love of punk rock and hardcore. So were Black Breath spawned by the hardcore scene or are they just metalheads with a healthy respect for Minor Threat?

“Each of us comes from different musical perspectives but have somehow all ended up in a somewhat similar place musically,” says Wallace. “Anything under the guitar-based rock'n'roll umbrella is pretty much fair game as far as what has influenced us as individuals over the years, but you're just as likely to find us listening to death metal in the bus as you are to find us jamming some sugary power pop shit. For me, when I was really young and discovering music for the first time, I loved '60s British stuff and songs with killer hooks, then got into punk because it had more energy, then got into metal because it was even faster and meaner, then US hardcore and Minor Threat and stuff, which at that point in my life connected on a level that was easier to grasp than the stadium vibes of huge metal bands and made me think, 'Shit, I can play in a band, I can put out a record'. In the end though, it's all coming from the same place. It's all rock'n'roll somehow.”

Black Breath's live shows mirror this diversity and the band attracts all types.

“Our shows seem to be a mix of people, maybe just depending on the venue or the other bands on the bill or the promoter,” Wallace explains. “Long hair, short, wide, Kinks shirt, dreadlocks, it doesn't matter to us who is there as long as they're kicking arse and having a good time with us. Playing different types of shows, whether it's a huge open-air fest or a basement or a dark club or a parking lot, it all keeps things interesting.”

'Interesting' is an understatement when it comes to Black Breath's live adventures. Wallace lets Drum in on some of the more colourful episodes.

“In Cincinnati, Ohio we played in a wrestling ring, like you see on TV with the WWF and dudes jumping off the ropes and smashing through tables. It was pretty surreal to say the least. We played in it like it was the stage, with the crowd below, and they didn't even take the ropes down! There was a smoke machine in the hallway from 'backstage' which was just a weight room, so we blasted our deltoids and fired up the smoke before walking out and making our entrance to the ring. Fucking hilarious place.

“Another weird show was in Monterrey, Mexico last year, which was actually in a pretty killer venue,” continues Wallace. “It had a warehouse vibe to it, and a couple hundred ragers getting drunk, but as we were sound-checking on the tiny solid state combos we were given to use, a bunch of dudes in paramilitary gear showed up with assault rifles and shut all the exits so they could search around. After a half hour of standing there with our gear in hand ready to go, I was thinking to myself, 'This is about as close as I've been to a machine gun', while hoping they didn't start shooting anyone, and then they left the building sans killing and the show was great!”

Black Breath will be playing the following dates:

Friday 5 April - Crowbar, Brisbane QLD
Saturday 6 April - Hermanns Bar, Sydney NSW
Sunday 7 April - The Basement, Canberra ACT
Thursday 11 April - Reverence Hotel, Footscray VIC