Official bio: Since 2007, Sydney’s Resist The Thought have been carefully engraving their name into the Australian metal scene.
Thanks to a relentless touring ethos which found them forever on the road and sharing stages with the likes of Suicide Silence, The Acacia Strain and All Shall Perish, Resist The Thought garnered enough momentum to propel themselves overseas to Lambesis Studios in Escondido, CA to work with reputed producer Dan Castleman (As I Lay Dying, Impending Doom) on their debut album, Sovereignty.
The album boasts a collection of nine driving metal anthems; a cacophony of extreme riffing, rapid fire drumming and a relentless vocal attack. The full album and exclusive bonus DVD hit stores on May 18th 2012 through Skull and Bones Records/Shock Entertainment.
As this will be the first time a lot of our readers may have been introduced to Resist The Thought, let’s start with the basics first, when did the first band get together and what was the inspiration behind the band name Resist The Thought?
RTT has been around since 2007, we met at high school. We all had an interest in music and started playing together, after a few lineup changes we are here now.
The origins of the band name are long forgotten, haha so we have no idea.
Can you introduce each member of the band and give us a rock ‘n’ roll fact or myth about each?
Rhys Giles, Vocals- Has no soul.
Conor Ward, Drums- is secretly an 80 year old man.
Mitch Fairall, Bass- known for his ferret like features.
Tim Aaron, guitar- a direct descendant of Hercules.
You have twenty seconds in an elevator to try and convince someone to listen to your new album ‘Sovereignty’, without resorting to threats or violence, what do you tell them?
Hey, our filmclip has scenes of girls getting naked. Check it out
This is your debut album – looking back on the whole writing and recording process, how did this compare to your expectations heading into the whole process?
We worked very hard whilst writing the CD and for the first time actually demoed all of the songs and altered each song at least 4-5 times each.
Recording with Dan Castleman (Lambesis Studios, CA) was an incredible experience. He knows exactly how to get the best takes out of each of us and really took the record personally- he wanted it to sound huge. We are stoked with the final product.
In terms of song writing, what do you consider to be the most important elements that feature in a Resist The Thought song?
Has to be angry. All good music should provoke an emotion, and we express a lot of anger in our songs. Not only lyrically but the feel of the music, just has to be hateful.
Over the course of the bands evolution, what and/or who have you found inspires and influences your music the most, in both a lyrical and musical sense?
Musically we are massive fans of bands like All Shall Perish, Whitechapel, The Black Dahlia Murder and bands that really take the genre to a new extreme. Lyrically we are inspired by society. As a human race we have a lot of issues that are ignored, so we tend to push the idea of free thinking and shedding some light on the injustices in the world.
What were some of the key influences that you feel contributed to what we specifically hear on the new album ‘Sovereignty’?
When I am in writing mode, I don’t listen to any metal at all. It makes it much easier to write fresh riffs. We wrote this album with the idea of making it heavy, angry, fast but maintain a melodic edge.
We’ve picked out 3 songs from the new album – can you give us a bit of background to each song and any important facts you think we should know:
Pledge Of Aversion is the track which features guest vocals from Eddie of All Shall Perish. That band is a huge influence for us and to have him on the cd is huge.
Resurrect The Reaper was the first song we wrote for the record. It was the song that kicked off our current writing process and heaviness of the CD
Warbound is my favorite song. Being a guitarist I find it cool to play and I like the feel and flow of that song.
You hail from the Sydney, Australia. For the benefit of those in galaxies far, far, away…what do you have to say about the metal scene in Sydney & Australia at the moment and Resist The Thought ‘s place within it?
The Sydney metal scene is very hit and miss. It’s such a spoilt scene with heaps of good bands that can cause a lot of inconstant shows.
If you were a person in the crowd at one of your gigs, what five words would you walk away using to describe the performance you just witnessed?
Angry, heavy, relentless, really horny
Gigs, gigs, gigs… you have just been out on a National and largely regional tour which looks like it involved lots of road travel! So what could we expect to hear playing on the iPod/CD playlist on the Resist The Thought tour van/bus?
Haha anything that’s not metal, but most of the time we are just hanging out as mates.
With 2012 already four months down, here’s a chance to gaze into your crystal ball. By the end of 2012, Resist The Thought will have:
1. Toured Australia
2. Toured internationally
3. Started the next record
Essential Information
From: Sydney, Australia
Sounds like: Brutal angry metal
Band members: Rhys Giles – Vocals, Conor Ward- Drums, Tim Aaron- Guitar, Mitchell Fairall- Bass
Website: www.resistthethought.com
Latest release: Sovereignty (18 May 2012, Skull and Bones Records)
