Skull Fist

Canadian metal act Skull Fist are one of the leading proponents of the recent Heavy Metal revival. Their latest album “Way of the Road” is a fine slab of 80’s Heavy Metal. The band opted for a organic sound on the album and it complements the songs well.

I spoke to vocalist/guitarist Zach Slaughter about the album, the revival of vinyl, cassettes, and their upcoming European tour with Striker.

Read the interview on The Metal Wanderlust 

Skull Fist Interview

Skull Fist is a heavy metal band from Toronto. Along with Cauldron they have been leading the revival of heavy metal in Canada. Last week Skull Fist released a killer new album ‘Chasing the Dream‘. I spoke to their guitarist Jonny Nesta about the new album and their upcoming tour of Europe.

Jonny Nesta, Jackie Slaughter and Casey Slade (Left to Right)

You’ve just released your second album ‘Chasing the dream’. Tell us a bit about the album.

Jonny: Well, it’s got songs on it, the main instruments are drums, guitars, basses and singing.There are various keys used, the songs also have different tempos, so that’s cool. I like it, if it wasn’t a bonerish thing to do I would listen to it a bunch.”

Its been 3 years since the release of your debut album “Head of the Pack”. How long did it take to write ‘Chasing the Dream’?

Jonny: I don’t know, we kind of worked on the songs on and off while touring Head of the Pack, they came together pretty quick when we actually started demoing them, we had a bunch of months to get them together though.

What was the recording process for the album? How long did it take?

Jonny: The process was: first thing you do is get ice, because if you run out of ice the day is pretty much done, it’s not fun recording without ice. Then you mix yourself a drink and you try to keep the ice from clinking when someone is recording, but it’s okay because technology is so amazing, they can go in and remove all the clinking anyways. 21st century rules. We did the instruments in a week the singing took a bit longer, about another week, the dude’s we worked with were fuckin awesome.

‘Chasing the Dream’ has being released by Noise Art records. How did the deal with them come about?

Jonny: They released our last record too, They’re good, they’ve given us a ton of support to tour around the world.

You have had quite a few lineup changes. How did the current line up come together?

Jonny: I actually don’t think we have had a ton of lineup changes, nobody counts the lineups getting a band together, it’s just the age of the internet you know, now everyone can see, “oh they played a few shows with this guy, or that guy 5 years ago” who gives a fuck, we’ve done our first two records with the same lineup. We all just get along awesome and have fun playing together, I don’t know we all just were friends who hung out all played music,it just came together.

You toured Mexico and Brazil last year. What has been your best experience so far?

Jonny: Man I can’t pick a best, everywhere is different and amazing, Brazil was one of the best times of my life, it was really special, were were there a lot longer than Mexico so we got to actually spend time with some really fuckin cool people, we stayed with the dudes from Breakout and Fire Strike for a while, and it felt like we had been friends for our whole lives you know, just the most fun time. But in Mexico we got to spend a bunch of days with some of my favorite guys, Voltax, just the coolest band, so fuckin great to watch and also just the same type of thing, we get along so great it’s like we’ve been friends forever. The fans in both places are really amazing I can’t wait to go back. But like everything we’ve done has been fun, Europe is sick also, doing clubs or festivals both are wicked, and we always have an awesome time going across Canada in our amazing shit van.

Later this month you will be touring Europe with Enforcer. What are your other plans for 2014?

Jonny: That’s the first step there, I don’t know yet, we definitely want to get a U.S. tour going, we haven’t been able to do that yet and it would be sick, also going back around to Brazil and hopefully more of South America, but fuck I don’t know, we’ll see what happens!

Any final words?

Jonny: Miss you Peter! come hang out in Toronto again for a while. Also, Be Excellent to Each Other!

Check out the video for ‘You’re Gonna Pay’below