Paths of Possession pour l'album "Promises in Blood"

First, could you please introduce Path of Possessions to our readers, your main influences and the style which could best define your music ?

Paths of Possesion has been around since 1999. Formed by Randy Butman (Vocals and Bass), Jay Fossen (Guitar), Richard Brunelle (Guitar) and Erin Fuller (drums) they started playing around in Tampa and Orlando and then recorded the album "Legacy in Ashes". Erin left the band and Brian Ridley came in to fill the drum spot. Then in 2002 they recorded a split with Florida's Dark Faith entitled "Crypts of Madness" featuring George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher. Brian and Richard then left and that's when Nick and I joined the band rounding out the current line-up.
Our influences can be traced thoughout the history of metal as we all listen to a variety of bands. As far as common favorites that we have Iron Maiden, Slayer and old Metallica come to mind but we are not limited to these.
As for style we really dont like to label ourselves, but I've had others call us Swedish death with a mix of traditional heavy metal and thrash.

Corpsegrinder is the vocalist for your band. How have you been introduced to him, and how did this end up him being the singer for this first album?

Randy and George have been friends for a long time. Randy moved to Tampa in 98' and became friends with George about three months after that. In 2002, Randy was playing bass for Withered Earth while Paths was in hiatus and was jamming with Jay and Brian Ridley (former drummer) on the side. They wanted to record the songs they were writing so Randy asked George to handle vocals then Richard Brunelle came back for the recording. That session birthed the songs for the split "Crypts of Madness".

Richard Brunelle (ex- Morbid Angel) was previously playing in Paths of Possession. Do you have any recent news about him? He seems to be retired from music...

We don't know where Richard is at this point. He left on good terms with the band and we haven't seen him since. We wish the best for him and hope to hear from him soon.

Don’t you fear people may pay attention to Paths.. only because your singer is from CC?

Nah, we don't care how people get introduced to us. We feel that once people check us out because of George or whatever that they will realize that there are four other contributing members as well. If somebody grabs our album because they are a Cannibal fan that's cool. It's unavoildable anyhow, most will check us out because of
george anyway.



Is Paths of Possesson a full time band? Will there be a tour, others albums... ?

Yes, we are a full time band. There is a US tour in the works in Febuary with Cephalic Carnage as well as a European tour sometime next year. As for albums we are currently writing new material for the next album so I guess you could say we are as full time as you can get.

Paths of Possession is definitly completly different from Cannibal Corpse, but doesn’t this bass break at the beginning of “The Butchers Bargain”’s an hommage to “Hammer Smashed Face”?

Although we are all huge Cannibal fans that bassline was not intended as an homage. I told Randy about this question and he said, " How can my little bass line even begin to compare with Alex's bassplaying...Alex is a bass god."

How does the writing process goes?

The writing process varies from song to song. Maybe Jay or I will come up with a riff and then we'll add a harmony. Or maybe Randy might write some guitar parts based on a bass line he was working on. Then Nick will come in and do his thing and George will come up with a theme or something. But sometimes it just starts with a part that one of us come up with, then we'll jam it together with someone else's part and see if it works. Like I said, it differs from song to song.

Will we have the chance to see you playing live?

Yes, sometime next year we will be doing a European tour. We hopefully will be there in the summer but definitly sometime next year.



What do you do for a living apart from the band?

We all have day jobs right now, except for George. Randy,Jay and I all do some form of construction and Nick has some kind of delivery service.

What is the best (and the worst) memory you have from your musician’s life?

The best memory is probably when I was in a band that used to play with Dark Faith from Florida. After every show we did together we would throw these crazy parties where at least one person would be seriously injured or the cops would come.
The worst is seeing a talented young musician's life cut short.

Do you know the French metal scene? What do you think of it?

I'm sorry, I'm not really familiar with the French scene.

What are you listening to these days? Any good metal / non metal albums to recommand?

Crimson Massacre- "The Luster of Pandemonium", Hypnosia-"Extreme Hatred", Merciful Fate- "Melissa"
as for non-metal I've been listening to the Cult's "Electric", Cancerslug "Battle Hymns I&II" and Rollins Band "End of Silence"

If you could change something in this fucked up world, really anything you want, what would you choose?

I would change the fact that people of certain religous factions target innocent people. It's a extreme lack of respect to fellow human beings. We got enough bullshit to deal with as it is.

Last words are yours!

. Thanks for having us in your zine, I hope all who hear the album will get as much enjoyment out of it as we did making it...we'll see you in 2006. m/.