With new single and video, Soldiers, attracting a lot of attention, Perth metal outfit Chaos Divine are set to wrap up the year on a high note. We caught up with lead singer David Anderton to look back on the year that was.
As the end of the year approaches, what has 2014 been like for Chaos Divine?
Very busy! This year we recorded the follow up to our album, The Human Connection, which has been about four years in the making. We also made our first produced music video, have played a bunch of shows and are about to start touring to showcase some of our new tunes.
You got to play the last ever Perth Soundwave – that must have been fun.
It was an amazing experience! We only found out we were going to play two days before and unfortunately, because one of our guitarists was overseas, we got Troy, our guitar tech extraordinaire, to fill in and booked a studio for two days of intensive practice. He played really well and we got a good response. I also got to hang out with some of my long time idols (multiple members of Testament and Phil Anselmo of Pantera among others). One of them was a crazy but very nice dude backstage who turned out to be Dave Brockie, the singer from GWAR. I spent over an hour drinking and making jokes with this guy and then found out a couple of weeks later that he had died from an overdose. That kinda thing brings you back down to earth pretty quickly.
Tell us about Soldiers – what made it single-worthy?
It was probably the lyrics that lent the song more to being a music video than any of the others. It’s also pretty damn catchy and a good representation musically of the album overall.
What was the writing process for that one like?
From memory it was one of the first songs written for the album some time ago and was initially based around the rocky intro and verse riff. Lyrically I was inspired by the documentary If A Tree Falls, which is the story of a group of environmentalists in the US that started the group Earth Liberation Front (ELF). ELF sabotaged and protested the logging of old growth forest in the states. Members of the group ended up being tried as terrorists with prosecutors trying to lock up the group’s leader for life in maximum security.
Where did you record and who with?
The music was recorded by our guitarist Simon Mitchell at the awesome Underground Studios, with in-house engineer Brody Simpson handling the drum tracking. All of the vocals and additional bits and pieces were put down at our home studio setup at our bassist Mike’s house.
What’s on for the rest of the year?
First we will be playing a few shows to support the release of Soldiers and the new video. Then we will be finishing up the album and getting ready to tour the crap out of it! Catch us on Friday, November 21 ,at Amplifier Bar for our Soldiers single launch. We will be joined by Victorian prog metallers Alithia, and locals Tempest Rising and Bury The Heard.
