The Toxic Avenger

This interview with Toxic Holocaust‘s Joel Grind took place September 3rd, the day after his newest full-length, An Overdose Of Death . . . was released. I say “his” instead of “the band’s” because Grind is the band – a one-man thrash act who, since 1999, has written, played, and recorded all Toxic material in his spare bedroom.

Even though Overdose was his first album done in a real studio (Soundhouse in Seattle) with a real producer (Jack Endino), a real drummer (ex-Zeke skinpounder Donny Paycheck), and real label support (Relapse), the low-key Grind didn’t go overboard celebrating the official release. “Just had a couple beers at home,” he says, “nothin’ real exciting.”

M: Sum up your first time working in a real studio.
JG: I tell you what, man, it was pretty interesting. I actually knew how a lot of that stuff worked, just because I had been reading about recording for a lot of years, kinda like a hobby. Going in there it was not nearly as intimidating as I thought it would be. My guitar playing isn’t that great, I’m just . . . I’m more of a songwriter than a musician, I would say. So going in there I was really intimidated by the fact that, I’m not going to play this right and Jack’s going to get pissed, but it was really cool and he was really laid back. I mean, there’s some raw parts on there, but that’s the way we sound. There were some parts where I thought they were O.K., but he was like “I think you could do that better,” and he was right. Stuff like that just made it a lot easier to work, and made me focus on the songs more.

M: At one time, Toxic Holocaust was a band in the sense it had numerous members, correct?
JG: Yeah, for a brief time. It was for a period of a month, or two.

M: That was when you first started?
JG: Yeah, in 1999. The first demo was released in December of ’99, and up until that it was a real band. But those guys were just, they were, I don’t know. They weren’t on the same wavelength, they weren’t dedicated, and they would rather say they were in a band than actually be in one, if that makes sense. I tried for awhile. [Toxic Holocaust] went on hiatus because I was looking for a band, but then I thought, “Well, since I can’t find one, I might as well figure out how to do this by myself.”

M: So it wasn’t a conscious decision to go at it alone?
JG: No, it totally wasn’t. I was looking for a band for awhile, and just couldn’t find the right people, especially when I was living in Maryland. If I lived in Baltimore or something, that would have been one thing, but I was living in northern Maryland, which is basically the country. So it was slim pickings for metal musicians.

M: You’ll be touring with former members of Rammer; could they eventually make Toxic a “traditional” band?
JG: I think so; it looks like it’s going that way, actually. It’s really jelling really well. We’re all into the same stuff, all have the same goal, and all have the same kind of dedication. It was rare for a long time for me to find anybody like that. So this is pretty much what I’ve been looking for, so it’s been awesome.

M: Toxic is obviously lumped in with the thrash revival scene. What are your thoughts?
JG: I think it’s awesome. I’ve been doing this since ’99, and I’ve never changed it for anything. It’s kind of cool because it all came to me, sort of. Being ahead of the curve can be bad, too, because you kind of get lost in the shuffle. If you look at it, Toxic was one of the last thrash bands to get signed, but the reason why is because I wasn’t willing to just take anything. I got offered shit, and I wasn’t into it. I was waiting for when the time was right and the deal was right. I would have been content not having a record deal and continuing to do shit in my basement. And if when all this thrash shit goes away, and maybe there’s no more fans, or just a handful, I’m going to go back in the basement and fucking record again, so it doesn’t matter. But I think it’s cool because I love seeing the kind of music I like actually getting some sort of recognition instead of all this shit I don’t like, like metalcore.

M: Why do you think there’s been a backlash toward “new thrash”?
JG: I think a lot of it has to do with, at least from my perspective, there’s a serious lack of originality going on. I would never say Toxic is completely original, but we don’t really sound like anybody else nowadays. I’m not ripping off a certain band and being like, Sodom Jr. I’m not ripping off riffs or anything like that. I think there’s a lot of bands that are really just trying to sound like one band. I just think the lack of originality is going got kill it, and that might be the gripe some of the older metalheads have with it. But at the same time, I don’t know, I’d much rather hear someone rewrite a Kreator song than a Dragonforce song or something.

Toxic Holocaust opens for Gwar, October 30th at House Of Blues.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN: Heavy metal and horror films have a longstanding relationship, and because this is October I asked Tom Knizner, horror-film connoisseur and guitarist/vocalist for Cardiac Arrest, Chicago’s bloodiest death metal band, to name – and defend – his favorite horror movie.

“The Texas Chain Saw Massacre – my absolute favorite horror film of all time,” Knizner says. “Five friends are picked off by a cannibalistic family in rural Texas. Great moments of uneasiness, claustrophobia, and insanity with embedded black humor. Not as bloody as one would think, however, it is quite horrific. Avoid the 2003 Hollywood remake at all costs . . . stick with the original!”

See Cardiac Arrest fucking slay October 21st at Elbo Room and November 2nd at Ye Olde Town Inn in Mt. Prospect.

OUT NOW: Nuclear Blast Records introduced its Reloaded series last month with Meshuggah (Destroy Erase Improve, Contradictions Collapse, and Chaosphere) and Dimmu Borgir (Enthrone Darkness Triumphant) reissues. Housed in “super jewel cases,” each album is expanded with bonus material ranging from live tracks to EP cuts to remixes to, er, Winamp skins. I tried to prod the fine NB publicity staff into telling me how the label will deem albums Reload-able and was told, “Classic albums. That’s The only qualification.” Mystery solved!

OUT SOON: Book Of Black Earth‘s Horoskopus (October 14th, Prosthetic) has something to do with hidden astrological elements of Christianity and the mythology of Jesus Christ as “Sun” of God. I don’t quite get it either, but songs like “Cult Of Dagon,” where vocalist T.J. Cowgill grunts “Murder your brother/destroy yourselves/hang your families/all for the love of the Sun” is a prime example of how nasty – and heavy – Book is. The group is also as sonically mean and bleak as labelmate Withered, but with more riffs. Maybe Lair Of The Minotaur with telescopes instead of battleaxes? BOBE (and Withered!) opens for Watain, October 11th at Reggie’s.

Lots of killer shows (besides the ones already mentioned) this month: Three at Reggie’s on the 1st, Sweet Cobra at Subterranean on the 6th and at Empty Bottle on the 29th, Trials at Ye Olde Town Inn on the 10th, The Bronx at Reggie’s on the 12th, Skeletonwitch at Congress and Nachtmystium at Reggie’s on the 25th, and Cealed Kasket at Martyrs’ on Halloween night.

mosh@illinoisentertainer.com

– Trevor Fisher

Category: Caught In A Mosh, Columns, Monthly