At All Cost pour l'album "Circle of Demons"

Certains d'entre vous l'auront remarqué: le fan club français officieux de At All Cost a infiltré Thrashocore à l'insu de son plein gré. C'est donc à la demande générale du seul membre officiellement déclaré (mais pas à jour dans ses cotisations) de ce fan club - qui est aussi accessoirement le chroniqueur le plus âgée de cet auguste webzine - que nous avons fini par demander une interview à ce groupe atypique qui mériterait vraiment qu'on (ou plutôt que vous) lui laisse vraiment sa chance.

First, thank you very much for having accepted this interview as I know you're no more in promotional times … I'll try too make the questions worth the time you'll spend on it !

Thank you for giving me the chance to express the things we try to do, and thanks for giving us a chance. My name is Andrew, I sing and play keyboards for At All Cost.


Here on Thrashocore webzine, we mostly know Texas for its Brutal Death Metal scene … is there other big scenes there? Wasn't it too hard to get the right musicians in order to set up At All Cost line-up? By the way how did you meet, and what is your musical background?

Well for one, Austin has been dubbed the live music capital of the world, now although that's a gross overstatement, its true in the sense that there's more than death metal coming out of here, and certainly more popular. The lineup is the best its ever been, but hasn't always been this way, ill save the story of the band for vh1's behind the music, but we all kinda just came together, our individual paths were written in the stars that one day we would unite and change the cosmos for music's sake.


We can hear some Bee Gees like choirs, as well as blues, harmonica, Voivod / Pink Floyd sounding parts, black metal, Daft Punk like vocals, epic parts: is there any limit to what an At All Cost song is supposed to sound ? What would make you think: “This is definitely not going to make it to the next album!”?

Limitation is the most counterproductive idea you could possibly think of, limitation leads to imitation, which leads to saturation, which leads to stagnation, which is exactly where heavy music is right now. To us, this isn't just chords and words, its art, and part of creating art is pushing your personal limitations and going beyond what you thought you could do, consequently the other side of that art is pushing the listeners/genres limitations. Without progress or new ideas, we would forever be stuck in a rut. So for the sake of art, I can't say I would blindly rule out any idea, but it would have to be assessed and agreed to pursue within the band.


If it is not redundant with former question, what are your musical influences, personal tastes, and is there any mandatory purchase you might want to tell us about ?

For me personally, influence goes beyond music, I pull from writers/poets/canvas art/structural art/nature/and emotions when I write. But all the while I do have a few gems musically that I hold true to me: Refused, Telefon Tel Aviv, Pink Floyd, Muse, Queen, Rage Against the Machine, Ottis Redding, Traffic, Mylo, Herb Albert, Gotan Project, Curtis Mayfield, Bruno Coulais, Yann Tiersen, Botch, Ramsey Lewis, Battles, Darkest Hour are just a few off the top.


Don't you think having so many different things in your music might make it hard to have all the members agree on evolution, future albums contents and so on ? How do you handle this aspect of being a band (dictatorship, free drugs, street fighting …)?

When we write a song, or brew up an idea, the easiest way to do so is letting each individual member put in his two cents, its toleration in the sense that the guitars can/will do what they want and at the same time the vocals have equal freedom, same goes for bass and drums. We do fight from time to time, little things mostly, but we've always been very open about the music it rarely treads on that aspect, its mostly day to day living with each other in a van that will spark an argument, and even then its usually reconciled before getting dangerous.


Being affiliated with the metalcore genre (come on: melodeath sounding twin guitars, harsh + clean vocals, great chorus … !), which is a very popular – some would say “fashion” – music today, and furthermore including some Bee Gees & Daft Punk parts in your music, I think you're the perfect target for all “Defenders of the Only True Metal” dickheads around. In my review of “Circle of Demons”, I present you as “the next band that you [afore mentioned dickheads] will love to hate, after Cradle of Filth, Slipknot and Trivium”. Have you already experienced rough feedback from so-called “true metal” fans? You might want to deliver them a message of love, peace and fuck you hereafter?

We have taken on many blows from every angle in he metal community, many clumping the sound in metalcore, and thus discrediting it, and it think that's sad. Sad that they lack an open mind enough to give something new a shot, sad that they will remain in their undisturbed box of elitist bullshit. But at the same time, I welcome the criticism. There's no doubt what were doing within the genre is a hard pill to swallow, but someone has to pave the way, someone has to take the preliminary shit before the rest "catch up", and who better than us to do it. We don't want to refine metal, we want to redefine it. And fuck whoever doesn't get it, I could give a shit less, pop in your Lamb of God CD and everything will be okay.


I was surprised to see some of your promo pictures that show you splattered with blood … It's quite far from what you do, both musically and lyrically (At least, for the later, it's what I guess from the song titles). Is it only a proof of your tongue-in-cheek sense of humour?

I always felt the blood was truthful satire, if there can be such a thing. True in a martyrdom way, we bleed for the ignorance of others, we are the band you love to hate...etc. But also satirical mockery, cause it's all just a package, "here comes brutality! At All Cost and the circle of demons! Blood! Screams! Brutality!" it's comical, but unfortunately people buy into that.


Having not been sent the lyrics with the promo CD, and my poor French ears being quite deaf to English shouted lyrics, can you tell me what are At All Cost lyrics like ? Funny things? Socially aware texts? “Blood'n'Satan all over the place” lyrics? “I'm sad and I will commit suicide” laments?

Wow, you really do need the lyrics. They're the most important thing to be, you cant have a platform like a band and use it for trivial bullshit like relationships and the scene. It goes beyond that, its political, philosophical, inspirational, and most importantly genuine.


Like many others, I've recently (Ndlr: this interview has been sent to the band at the end of summer 2007)discovered the clip for “Circle of Demons” on the Web: it's really nice, fun and “professional” (I guess it must help to be on Century Media roster …). I've just been surprised when I learned this was THIS actual song – which is maybe a little bit hard to swallow for the vanilla Muse fan, especially the beginning of the song - rather than a more “easy” and ear-catching one, like “The Message” for instance. It's a personal point of view, but I think this later song might have been played more easily on radios or event TV, and could have attracted more non metal fans (Fuck, am I not talking like a label Manager here ??) … What do you think (besides “Fuck you with your shitty tastes!”) ?

Dude, you and I think alike, I had huge issues with COD being the first song, as well as the single, its bullshit. Not the song, but the idea that it's used to appease some sort of "metal" standard. But the truth is, AAC isn't just a "metal" band, so that song is misleading for one, and it also sells the band short of what were capable of. The people in charge seem to want "cred" more than an expanding fan base, and it's very frustrating.


In France, you're quite a new name: “It' time to decide”, your former album didn't get really exposed here, in the metal medias. Being a big fan of your last record, I'm considering purchase the former one: can you tell me what musical experience am I going to get through? Something similar to “Circle of Demons” or not?

ITTD has many familiarities to COD, but differentiates with member changes, and an overall attitude. I'm proud of everything I've done musically, but ITTD lacks balls when put next to COD. Then again, there are things on that record that I feel exceed elements of COD. It's definitely a stepping stone in our ever evolving sound, so pick it up if ya can.


With an album that has the potential to make you the Next Big Thing (and I mean it), I'm surprised that Century Media didn't try to have you choose a better looking cover (shit Cyril, will you stop with your Label manager remarks?) … I don't have anything against “Circle of Demons” cover art, still it's quite – let's say – strange, and not that “metal” (hey, I'm turning dickhead or what? ) nor very eye-catching. A comment on that statement? (Please no head-butt!)

Ha ha, honesty is richer than all the "yes sir" comments in the world, it also proves that you are actually analyzing the things we do, which means you're giving it a shot, so thank you. As for the cover, you didn't get the real album, so are missing some of the pieces. The album cover you see is a shitty cleaned up picture with the band name slapped across it...boring. What we wanted was iconic, what we had is that same picture, only I'm covered in blood, and all you see is a parental advisory. That image, and the warning just jumped out to us...imagine walking through a store and seeing just a CD cover with a dude covered in blood and a parental advisory...you walk over turn it around and see song titles like "eating lightning pt 3, Ride through the storm, and Drugs», I think that was all the selling points we needed. Turns out you can't have blood on you cover anymore (bullshit) so we did the safe version as a front slip cover so stores would carry it.


It's quite obvious your music is made for being played on stages. Will you ever tour in France? Do you usually play with other “metalcore” bands, or can we expect to see you together with some death/black bands, or even, at the opposite, with pop/rock bands?

We usually play with your carbon copy inseparable and unidentifiable slew of metalcore bands, but in a dream world we would present the show as an event, with one heavy band, one hip hop act, a spoken word poet, and a drum circle with belly dancers.


Is there already some material composed for the third album? Can we have a hint at what musical direction you're going to head for? Maybe some funk metal? Baroque Death Metal? Country Thrash? R'n'B Hardcore? More mainstream metal (please no!)?

We've started toying with riffs here and there, I've jotted a we things down lyrically, hopefully in the fall when were not touring as much we can crack at it more. All I can say, and confidently saying so, is what you have heard is only the beginning, now that's not saying the pursuit of the next crazy concoction is the focus. Were trying to refine our skills, and elevate our technique, but a lot of the barriers we once had have crumbled in the wake of our growing discontent for "the game" and those who play it.