It’s an absolute pleasure to finish off my weekend at Amplified with what I’d consider to be one of the best thrash bands of this decade, Divine Chaos. With Jack Daniels being passed around and an unmatched energy in their blood, nothing can possibly go wrong…
What time did you guys arrive here?
I’m not sure, both this morning and this afternoon, we came separately because we hate each other. We’re all pricks, I wouldn’t travel with any of them, they’ve got no fucking facial hair, it looks like a cat licked it off. I look like a real man, back when men hadn’t evolved to grow beards. Shaving is a thing.
What are you thinking of Amplified so far?
The first year always has first year hiccups. It’s teething problems you know? It is such bad luck with the weather though, if it wasn’t like this it would be really good. I remember one year when we were at Reading and it rained so hard that it was spilling over the tops of our wellies. They had a massive infrastructure and even they struggled with it. Despite that the atmosphere is really good, everyone’s having a really great time and being really friendly.
It’s important this stuff happens you know? Everyone’s just getting through it and having an amazing time. We have massive respect for the organizers of events like this as well because at the end of the day it’s a risk and it’s a risk they took and they gave us an opportunity. We’re eternally grateful for that, we’ll always turn up to this. There are some bands who haven’t turned up and fair enough to them if they have their reasons but we weren’t gonna do that. We had to come here. Book them and they will come! They booked us and here we are haha! Sorry we’ve been drinking…
So you all came up by yourselves, what were you listening to?
Ooh, Ah. Well there was The Best Of Pantera but my copy is really scratched. “Cemetery Gates” was unintelligible! I had the new Symphony X album and Green Day’s Dookie too because I like to listen to a load of music that’ll piss Ben off like jazz fusion! It’s fucking awful. Ben’s the punk in the band but also a complete bender, Dave’s the rock’n’roll guy, the trad metal guy and James is a death metal-head. Gilmour and Chris on the other hand are really into prog. Everyone’s into their own stuff but at the end of the day we’re a metal band. While we don’t wanna pigeonhole ourselves, all of us are heavily into thrash like Exodus, Testament, The Haunted, Pantera, more Exodus and more Testament. Ah, I’m repeating myself!
What has the band got in the works for the rest of the year?
We’re taking a bit of time off gigs for now to work on some new songs. We’ve got three and a half new tracks at the moment and we’re working on others. We don’t wanna promise anything but maybe no album this year but definitely by next year. It is art and we do wanna take our time with it but there’s two singles coming though. We’re not just gonna throw it out though. If you come home with one riff that’s cool but you’ll go home the next day with another riff that’s better.
We’ve got a lot of overflow from the last album but it’s impossible to write when you’re touring and doing live shows. We don’t write like that anyway because we want to take our time with it. Being at home in a comfortable environment and writing the songs you want to write and feel, that’s where it happens. On tour you can write a few riffs but they seem a bit pushed and sort of… regulated. So that might be six months we’ll take off to write. Obviously we’ll play the odd show but there is some stuff happening. There is stuff going on but we are old so give us time! We’re old and we’ve got jobs and shit.
So more broadly, where would you like to see Divine Chaos go in the next few years?
We wanna be on the festival scene round Europe. Whether it’s the main stage or the second stage or whatever we really wanna push it out there because the festival scene in Europe is the place to get seen and really push your music. The thing is, festivals are easier to get discovered at because gigs are more expensive while festivals are a whole package under one price. The amount of good bands at somewhere like Bloodstock is fucking amazing. We wanna be playing those festivals and releasing stuff on a cycle where we can enjoy ourselves and make sure other people enjoy it as well.
And from your own discography, where would you point new listeners to best understand Divine Chaos?
Well we’re really happy with the last album but the next one is gonna be the one I think. “Fields Of The Fallen” is the place to start I reckon, “Death Toll Rising” too, available on all your social media accounts haha! We’re gonna have a new track out real soon though so don’t just judge us on that, there’s more coming.
In your live shows and recorded music, what’s the key message you want to get across?
We’re heavy man! There is no real message though, just enjoy yourselves and be safe. Have a good time all the time haha! Be excellent to each other. Take what you want from the show and enjoy it. We’re always around at our shows so come chill with us, come have a beer with us, do whatever. Music’s gotta be fun. Everyone works and does all that other shit so it’s important to come to the shows, whatever band, whatever show to have a good time.
And lastly, with Rolling Stone‘s “Top Metal Albums” list going around at the moment, what albums would you put together as the bands “Top Metal Albums” list?
Woooaah! Well number one for me would be Vulgar Display Of Power. No, …And Justice For All would be number one actually. Powerslave would be in the top 5 maybe, we’re always arguing over this. Arise by Sepultura, are we talking best albums of all time? In that case The Haunted’s Made Me Do It, Tempo Of The Damned by Exodus, no scratch that, every Exodus album! Number Of The Beast, Piece Of Mind, Stranger in a Strange Land…! Anything that’s decent really, Oh, Decapitated’s Organic Hallucinosis. There are too many killer albums man! Master Of Reality, all of the Bay Area stuff, Testament’s The New Order especially because our whole first album was based off of that one! Still Life by fucking Opeth, Ghost Reveries, Black Waterpark how much time have you got! Do you want us to write this down mate haha!
Some good shouts there for sure!
Yeah! And we didn’t even talk about the first three The Haunted and Arch Enemy albums! The whole Gothenburg sound as well is just killer. FUCKING RUST IN PEACE! We forgot Megadeth! Youthanasia, Peace Sells, Jesus Christ! Countdown To Extinction man! There are so many of them dude but Reign Of Fury are about to go on!
