Greg Chastain

Keep up with Greg here:

www.myspace.com/malevolentmetal

The names Greg Chastain and I’ve been playing drums for close to 10 years. Malevolent has been my main focus since 2003, but I have also played drums for Mucus Membrane and various other bands. I’ve also played bass and sang lead vocals in a band called Ultra Corpse, which was a symphonic black metal band. I’ve lived in california my whole life and grew up on horrible crappy radio nu-metal bullshit haha.

After about 4 years of playing I started digging deep into the underground of music and started listening to Emperor and Mayhem almost religiously. Then I started listening to Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir, not because of the music but because of the production value in each newer recording. After that I started listening to a lot of death metal, anything fast with hyphy feet and blast beats. Eventually I started analyzing the music and realized the beauty in the complexity of technical death metal, so Meshuggah, Origin and Hate Eternal were natural gods in my eyes haha.

Lastly, I broke away from the purely brutal side of things and started listening to a variety of things like: Dream Theater, Gordian Knot and the all mighty Pink Floyd. My biggest goal in life right now is to tour out of the Country, so lets make it happen!

Greg Chastain Interview:

SDM: How old were you when you started playing?
 
Greg: I started playing at age nine

 

SDM: Did you play in a school band or any drum corps?
 
Greg: I had lessons for a year before I went to a school that had a band program. However, I was in concert band from 6th-8th grade and I don’t think it did anything to help hahaha

 

SDM: Who are your top 5 metal influences?
 
Greg: Origin, Hate Eternal (derrek roddy era), Meshuggah, Animosity, Beneath the Massacre

 

SDM: Who are some other of your favorites?
 
Greg: I’ve been heavily listening to Gordian Knot recently, a sick ass instrumental group. Also Cynic, Pink Floyd and Animals as Leaders.

 

 

SDM: Let us know 5 CD’s that are in your current rotation
 
Greg:

Catch 33 – Meshuggah
Clients – the Red Chord
The Great Misdirect – Between the Buried and Me
Prehistoricisms – Intronaunt
Traced in Air – Cynic

 

SDM: What do you do to warm up before a show?
 
Greg: If I get the chance I just go over some rolls and footwork.

 

SDM: Do you read music? Regardless of answering yes or no, please tell us how it might have effected your playing?
 
Greg: yes I can read music. I think it helps one to comprehend what they are doing behind your instrument and I believe the method in which we compose our music is influenced by our ability to read and write music. It’s great to just be able to jam in 9/4 with ease and I think I owe that to reading and writing.

 

SDM: Can you tell us about the gear you use?
 
Greg: I have a Sonor delite kit, a porkpie snare, a pair of axis long boards, and I use mainly zildjian cymbals. I also have a roland spd-20 that I use for a trigger brain.

 

 

SDM: If you could give one piece of advice to young drummers, it would be…
 
Greg: Don’t ever stop and don’t forget about cymbal work!

 

SDM: Who gave the best live performance you’ve ever seen?
 
Greg: It’s a tie between Derrek Roddy with Hate Eternal and George Kollias with Nile.

 

SDM: Aside from drumming, what else do you like to do?
 
Greg: Well I write music and lyrics and do all the "behind the scenes" work for the band. Other than that, I try to enjoy life… haha