Page 120 - Sick Drummer Magazine Issue 27 - March 2014
P. 120
A LOOK BACK AT During this stage we tweaked tempos and arrange- SDM: Did you use any triggering on your bass
KINGDOM OF CONSPIRACY ments until we were all happy. Bob had some great, drums if so what kind?
albeit unconventional, drum grooves picked out for
AND THEN SOME some of the material and I had a good time adding I ran my Roland TD6-V module with Roland RT10-Ks
my ideas and fleshing out the rest.
on the kicks for monitoring and Paul also recorded
the kicks acoustically.
SDM: When you were on tour, how was the crowd
reaction to the new material? SDM: Does having your cymbals at different angles
determine what sort of combination patterns you
I really have to give it up to the fans. They were can develop for the Immolation drum style?
totally nuts on this tour! We were playing four new
songs every night in a thirty-five minute set, so Absolutely. My set-up has changed quite a bit since
everyone got a good taste of the new stuff. It was joining Immolation. By shingling my cymbals in
very encouraging for us. After the show everyone layers I can create clusters where I don t have to
had very kind words for us regarding the new tunes. move much to access 3 or 4 various sounds. That
Again, thanks to everyone that came out or hit us way I m not windmilling all over the kit to accen-
up on Facebook to let us know what they thought. tuate all the little patterns and rhythms that flow
Much respect and appreciation. over the main beats.
SDM: As far as merchandise is concerned, did you SDM: How would you describe Immolation s drum
sell out during the run? style from your playing to the past drummers?
No. We did run pretty low at the end, though. I think we are all three very different drummers.
Smilowski s style is pretty much the backbone.
Bob was really orchestrating the parts so it was his
SDM: Will you ever incorporate the Gravity blast style as well and Alex and I both had to replicate
into the immolation material? and emulate that style. Craig was doing the fast
ride beats predominantly and long descending fills,
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW Maybe. But, probably not in a conventional lots of groove oriented stuff with grace notes on
the snare and a fair share of the herky-jerky stuff
manner. I had a rather obvious opening for it at the
STEVESHALATY BY: NOEL SMART beginning of Kingdom of Conspiracy , but I liked with strange downbeats and accents. Craig was
BY: IAN MACDONALD
PHOTO: ALEX MCKNIGHT
the pulsing rhythm that I was getting from the
not a big fan of double bass so the kick patterns
are sporadic and clustered and mix with the toms
hi-hats as I moved on and off of them to the snare
to maintain a very smooth and liquid feel overall.
and the toms. I can envision maybe using the one
handed roll in a creepy lurching riff or something
very trademark Immolation. Maybe a start-stop- When Alex joined, he added some serious aggres-
sion and athletic double-bass runs to the formula.
immolation start again thing. We ll see. Generally speaking, the fast stuff was a bit faster.
SDM: Did you write the drums around the riffs Alex also threw down the first Immolation blast
or were the drums already worked out by Bob? beats. I believe he used the Suffo blast a few times
Tell us about the writing aspect of Kingdom of SDM: What kind of snare head did you use on the and the Sandoval blast once on Furthest from the
Conspiracy. recording? How was your snare recorded? Truth . When I took over, I was way more familiar
with Craig s playing and had practiced the old
SDM: Who wrote the majority of riffs on Kingdom Bob was sending me tracks one at a time as he That was a Remo Weatherking Cybermax. It s a albums quite a bit. I had to study Alex and practice
like crazy to appreciate and be able to reproduce
heavy duty kevlar based head that is a perfect
of Conspiracy? wrote them. What I would get was a guitar track
with a basic drum machine drum track under it match for the steel Black Panther. Two separate the extra heavy sticking and the personal subtle
Bob wrote 100% of the riffs on Kingdom . to give me an idea of the groove and feel that tracks were used for top and bottom mics. Not sure timing tendencies that made Alex sound the way he
he was looking for. Next I would get a guitar of the models. For specs you can visit the Millbrook did. So, I try to take the best stuff stylistically from
track with a click under it. I would pull that track Sound Studios website, where I believe Paul has both those guys and add my own expression.
into Garage Band and record drum ideas over it. that information available.
120 121
KINGDOM OF CONSPIRACY ments until we were all happy. Bob had some great, drums if so what kind?
albeit unconventional, drum grooves picked out for
AND THEN SOME some of the material and I had a good time adding I ran my Roland TD6-V module with Roland RT10-Ks
my ideas and fleshing out the rest.
on the kicks for monitoring and Paul also recorded
the kicks acoustically.
SDM: When you were on tour, how was the crowd
reaction to the new material? SDM: Does having your cymbals at different angles
determine what sort of combination patterns you
I really have to give it up to the fans. They were can develop for the Immolation drum style?
totally nuts on this tour! We were playing four new
songs every night in a thirty-five minute set, so Absolutely. My set-up has changed quite a bit since
everyone got a good taste of the new stuff. It was joining Immolation. By shingling my cymbals in
very encouraging for us. After the show everyone layers I can create clusters where I don t have to
had very kind words for us regarding the new tunes. move much to access 3 or 4 various sounds. That
Again, thanks to everyone that came out or hit us way I m not windmilling all over the kit to accen-
up on Facebook to let us know what they thought. tuate all the little patterns and rhythms that flow
Much respect and appreciation. over the main beats.
SDM: As far as merchandise is concerned, did you SDM: How would you describe Immolation s drum
sell out during the run? style from your playing to the past drummers?
No. We did run pretty low at the end, though. I think we are all three very different drummers.
Smilowski s style is pretty much the backbone.
Bob was really orchestrating the parts so it was his
SDM: Will you ever incorporate the Gravity blast style as well and Alex and I both had to replicate
into the immolation material? and emulate that style. Craig was doing the fast
ride beats predominantly and long descending fills,
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW Maybe. But, probably not in a conventional lots of groove oriented stuff with grace notes on
the snare and a fair share of the herky-jerky stuff
manner. I had a rather obvious opening for it at the
STEVESHALATY BY: NOEL SMART beginning of Kingdom of Conspiracy , but I liked with strange downbeats and accents. Craig was
BY: IAN MACDONALD
PHOTO: ALEX MCKNIGHT
the pulsing rhythm that I was getting from the
not a big fan of double bass so the kick patterns
are sporadic and clustered and mix with the toms
hi-hats as I moved on and off of them to the snare
to maintain a very smooth and liquid feel overall.
and the toms. I can envision maybe using the one
handed roll in a creepy lurching riff or something
very trademark Immolation. Maybe a start-stop- When Alex joined, he added some serious aggres-
sion and athletic double-bass runs to the formula.
immolation start again thing. We ll see. Generally speaking, the fast stuff was a bit faster.
SDM: Did you write the drums around the riffs Alex also threw down the first Immolation blast
or were the drums already worked out by Bob? beats. I believe he used the Suffo blast a few times
Tell us about the writing aspect of Kingdom of SDM: What kind of snare head did you use on the and the Sandoval blast once on Furthest from the
Conspiracy. recording? How was your snare recorded? Truth . When I took over, I was way more familiar
with Craig s playing and had practiced the old
SDM: Who wrote the majority of riffs on Kingdom Bob was sending me tracks one at a time as he That was a Remo Weatherking Cybermax. It s a albums quite a bit. I had to study Alex and practice
like crazy to appreciate and be able to reproduce
heavy duty kevlar based head that is a perfect
of Conspiracy? wrote them. What I would get was a guitar track
with a basic drum machine drum track under it match for the steel Black Panther. Two separate the extra heavy sticking and the personal subtle
Bob wrote 100% of the riffs on Kingdom . to give me an idea of the groove and feel that tracks were used for top and bottom mics. Not sure timing tendencies that made Alex sound the way he
he was looking for. Next I would get a guitar of the models. For specs you can visit the Millbrook did. So, I try to take the best stuff stylistically from
track with a click under it. I would pull that track Sound Studios website, where I believe Paul has both those guys and add my own expression.
into Garage Band and record drum ideas over it. that information available.
120 121
