Interview: Divine Heresy: Don´t talk too much! - STALKER MAGAZINE inside out of rock´n´roll

Divine Heresy: Don´t talk too much!

Legendary ex-Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares seems to be back on track again with his new ear-shattering band unit Divine Heresy, consisting of Dino himself, of course, highly praised drummer Tim Yeung (of Vital Remains and Hate Eternal fame) and new vocal powerhouse Tommy Vext. In a very relaxed atmosphere at the Roadrunner office Tommy gave some insight on what the Divine Heretics are all about, and comment on their debut album “Bleed The Fifth” that will be out by end of this month!

Tommy, where do you see the differences and similarities between Divine Heresy and Fear Factory, also concerning the vocals?
First of all let me say that Divine Heresy IS a Metal band, but there are elements of all different kinds of Metal, since we as musicians come from different backgrounds as well,
Dino with his tone and sound reminiscent of what Fear Factory was all about, obviously,
Tim being a well-known Death Metal drummer and me being influenced by the New York Hardcore Metal scene. Vocally I wanted to do my own thing, and Dino was also experimenting with different styles and riffs.

It may be hard to predict expectation-wise, but what do you think what kind of audience you are gonna attract with the Divine Heresy debut album “Bleed The Fifth”?
Basically the way I see it right now is: No expectations, no disappointments. Whatever happens, happens, so to speak. But one thing you can be sure of, we put our heart and soul into this, we gave a 110 %. We had to, since Dino`s work with Fear Factory raised the bar for us and we wanted to surpass that.

Right now your band consists of three official members. What can you tell us about the bass player situation or will you just hire someone for touring purposes?
We have someone, but it`s not official yet. The announcement will be made soon. And it will not just be a session player, but our fourth member, the missing link.
(In the meantime it is official: Bass player Joe Payne (ex-Nile) is the new Divine Heresy band member! The ed.)

So what are you guys trying to express with Divine Heresy, what is the concept behind all this ?
The name came up when we were already a band and the record had been written. Divine Heresy is a paradox and it explains what our music is, it`s brutal and it`s beautiful, just like something which can be angelic and satanic at the same time, it`s boundless. I think we express the true human duality just like good and evil, the balance. The tendencies that we have to express ourselves make me realize what we have created and that it`s really something cool.

To ask you straight-forward, now who is the “cream of the crop”, you guys or Fear Factory?
(Laughs) Obviously I was influenced by Fear Factory and I loved the “Demanufacture” and “Obsolete” albums. I grew up on Fear Factory, old Metallica, Slayer, Pantera and Machine Head. Those were the big bands I was into at the time. And there is no rivalry with Fear Factory. But as Divine Heresy we are just trying to establish our own vibe, of course.

Your vocals on “Bleed The Fifth” are very dynamic, there is a mixture of shouts, growls and lots of clean singing. How do you take care of your voice, any advice for aspiring Metal singers?
I do a warm-up regimen in the morning and I have been working with vocal coach Melissa
Cross (also voice teacher for Arch Enemy, Lamb Of God, Shadows Fall etc., the ed.) on a regular basis. That has helped me a lot. The actual danger of losing my voice is only there when I am out in bars socializing with people, talking too loud or too much, screaming and yelling over the noise in a bar or giving interviews (laughs).

And a good vocal shape will be required when you guys are going out on the road soon.
Any plans?
Right now we have nothing set yet, but we are looking at August tours for the States.
There are a couple of cool things coming up. We are really looking forward to go out on the road.

There are a lot of German fans who are eager to see Dino`s new band live. So when can we expect Divine Heresy playing here?
We wanna try to get to Europe before the end of the year, approximately around November/December.

The internet has given a lot of bands a great platform to present and promote themselves, MySpace for example. What`s your take on that?
Oh, I absolutely agree. We, Divine Heresy, communicate with a lot of people over the net. It`s great to be associated with other bands, musicians and friends.

Thank you Tommy and see you on tour in Germany.

Author: Marc Hoek & Dirk Seegers, photos: Marc Hoek
Date: 2007-08-03

Read comments: Warning: count(): Parameter must be an array or an object that implements Countable in /var/customers/webs/stalker/www.stalker.cd/inc/kommentar.inc.php on line 8 0 Write comments