|
THE ARCHIVES
|
Morrigan's Pit has closed down as of November 2006. The site and its articles will stay online as an archive until September at least, but probably longer.
The Archives
2002-2006
» CD REVIEWS
» INTERVIEWS
» LIVE REVIEWS
» SPECIALS
|
|
|
|
|
PATHS OF POSSESSION
|
Randy Butman
November 2005
http://www.pathsofpossession.com
Paths Of Possession was formed in 1999 by Randy Butman, Jay Fossen and Richard Brunelle (ex-Morbid Angel guitarist). "Promises In Blood" is their first full length album and when I heard that George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher (Cannibal Corpse) was the vocalist for this band, I was pretty curious as to how this band was going to sound. Let me tell you, I got a nice surprise. I would describe them as melodic death metal combined with traditional heavy metal. Even the vocals are totally different, George is an amazing vocalist and he proves that he can dominate various vocal styles. I wanted to know more about this band and bassist Randy Butman answered my questions!
Hey Brian, this is Randy.. thanks for the interview, glad you like the disc.
What have you guys been up to lately?
We have been writing some new material and gearing up for a one time show on December 9th with Obituary, Contorted and Undividual. I'm pretty exited about it because Obituary is the first death metal band I listened to ever. It has always been a dream of mine to tour with them.. but I'll settle for a show.
This sounds like a killer show, but why just one show?
Obituary got in touch with the booking guy and said they wanted to do a show, and then he asked us if we wanted on it. I'm not really sure why they just wanted to do one show. Contorted is on that bill too and we have played a lot of shows with them... they are a killer group. I havent heard Undividual yet, but I am definitely looking forward to this show.
How have the reactions to "Promises In Blood" been so far? Was it well received by the fans?
We have had a lot of great reactions, there are a lot of people that seem to really like what we are doing, there are also a few bad ones. Most of those are people that are expecting something more brutal because of George, but we have been trying to tell people all along not to expect anything like Cannibal. I am happy with how the album is going over so far.
Could you tell us how and when the band was formed?
Paths was formed in '99, I had moved to Florida with a death/thrash band from Alabama called Silhaven, we were practicing next to Jay and Richard and Silhaven eventually broke up and everyone moved off shortly after. Rich and Jay needed a bassist and I started jamming with them. I eventually started doing vocals as well and that's when Paths was born
Paths of Possession recently got singed to metal Blade, how did that happen?
The second disc we recorded was a split CD with Dark Faith from Florida, I asked George if he wanted to do the vocals for the tracks we were going to do and he said yes, so after the disc was finished he gave a copy to Brian at Metal Blade and told him that we wanted to record a full length and asked him if Metal Blade wanted to do it. Brian said yes and that was it.
Are there any other Paths Of Possession members that are in another band?
About a month ago our drummer Nick joined up with Dark Faith, their drummer joined the army. But thats about it. Paths keeps me pretty busy and the other guys as well.
George has a pretty busy schedule with Cannibal Corpse, how does that affect Paths Of Possession?
It hasn't really been an issue so far, we knew starting out that we would have to bounce around the Cannibal schedule. We just try to schedule everything around their schedule. We will try to tour when they aren't touring. When they are gone then we are writing, so it doesn't slow us down at all.
Having a very well known vocalist such as George fronting Paths Of Possession certainly boosts your popularity. Has the addition of George made Paths Of Possession more popular?
Definitely, a lot of people are interested in hearing something different from George, but that wasn't why we got him, we were all friends and we just thought it would be cool for him to lay tracks on the disc, but even the split didn't really get out to a lot of people.
Are you guys planning on touring internationally to promote "Promises In Blood"?
Sure, our plans so far are to do a full US tour in Febuary and we are trying to do some summer fests in Europe and then we want to do a full European tour later in '06. We want to tour as much as possible for this disc but it will be tough because Cannibal is coming out with an album in early '06.
Is there any chance of you guys doing a tour with Cannibal Corpse?
As much as I would love to, I don't think that it is going to happen. What we are hoping to do is to jump on some of the festivals that Cannibal will be doing. We are really looking into this option and hope that we can make it work. We are friends with the Cannibal guys and would love to do some shit with them.
What are your influences musically?
Iron Maiden would be the biggest, they are the reason i started playing bass in the first place. I am also really inspired by Dark Tranquility and Amon Amarth, John Tardy has always been a big vocal influence on me, I still think he is the sickest vocallist in metal today.
Do they affect Paths Of Possession in any way?
They are all more inspirations really, not so much influences.... well... I don't know. Maybe there is a little bit of a lot of things in there. I know that the other guys are into completely different bands and have different influences. We all have different writing styles. So everything comes together in one way or another.
Any final words?
Thanks for the space and we invite everyone to write on our forum and let us know what you think about the album at www.pathsofpossession.com also there is a free download for "Bleed The Meek" at metalblade.com, which we are shooting a video for in mid december. Hope to see you guys on the road.
Thnx a lot for your time and I wish you and the band a lot of success!
submitted by Brian 20.11.2005
|
|
|
|
|
