METAL PULP AND PAPER: Hello Matías. So glad to be catching up with you. Thank you for taking the time to speak with us here at Metal Pulp And Paper. We appreciate it. How are you doing?
MATIAS QUIROZ: Hi, doing great. Big thanks for having me.
MPAP: Now give us a little run down about your band and what we need to know, and especially tell us if you have any new music coming out or any tour announcements you can share here?
MATIAS: I’m the guitar player in the Chilean Technical Death Metal band Bleak Flesh. On August 6th we released a new album called … And Save Us From Silence with Marco Pitruzzella on drums. Nine track Technical Death Metal Journey with Symphonic, Neoclassical and Progressive influences, a tribute to a primitive and maybe divine creature with forgotten name that encourage our minds to have the unstoppable desire to create music. A force of nature that has been silenced throughout history. The album and oficial merchandise are available on our bandcamp site bleakflesh.bandcamp.com and on most digital platforms like Spotify, Applemusic, YouTube Music, Google Play, Deezer, Tidal and more.
MPAP: So, for anyone new to this, we changed things up and are doing something different. We've pulled some recent headlines from the Metal Injection website and get reactions and comments on them from bands all over the world. We did this last month, with different headlines, of course, and it was fun to read each group's different answers. So, please place your seat backs and tray tables in the upright position, and hang on, here we go again.
1. Granny Caught Rocking Out To Slipknot
MPAP: At a recent Knotfest show an elderly woman, even with her cane in hand, is caught on video rocking out to Slipknot. The story doesn’t mention her age, but I would say she’s in the prime of at least her 70s. What do you think of granny rocking out to Slipknot? Have you ever seen any older folks rocking out at any of your shows before? And bonus points, if we were keeping score, have you had any of your grandparents at any of your shows before?
MATIAS: I think it is really cool that elder people still have fun doing things they love. Yes I’ve seen a lot of older folks, specially at classic heavy metal shows like Iron Maiden, Halford and related. On Maiden shows, too many to keep count, it was a lot of people, older folks with their grandsons, parents, the entire family at a metal show.
2. Metal Guitarist Too Young To Play Bar Plays Outside With Wireless System Instead
MPAP: The band Ancient Burials had a bit of a dilemma when they played a show at the Hawthorne Theatre in Portland, Oregon. Their guitarist was underage and not allowed into the bar to play. Some places will mark your hand with an 'X' identifying you’re a minor and let you play. Not the Hawthorne Theatre with Oregon’s liquor laws. So, instead of them canceling the show, fellow bandmates Paradigm Shift hooked him up with a wireless pack, and he went outside and played. The bar had an open window so you could see the band playing inside and he was outside shredding it out on the street. It’s a great video to watch.
MATIAS: Watched that video, dude was rocking hard outside the venue, love that. You make the show happen no matter what. Dude was underage but he still rocked hard. Hails to you and your band for making history.
3. Comedian Gilbert Gottfried Reveals Himself As Slipknot’s Tortilla Man
MPAP: Obviously, someone brilliant out there got him to announce that, probably on one of those Celebrity Cameos or something. In all seriousness, does it even matter who Tortilla Man is? And why do you think Slipknot is so strict on revealing who new band members are? They had this previous issue when Paul Gray passed away and was replaced by Alessandro Venturella, and also when Jay Weinberg replaced Joey Jordison.
MATIAS: Think this is a part of their mystique. I remember when the first album came out, was really amazed by the fact that nobody knew their faces, loved that concept. We are gonna rock hard wearing these masks and go crazy on stage, every guy was special. Slipknot had that back in the day, and I respect it a lot. Nowadays is part of a tradition and that’s still cool.
4. These Post Malone Fans Are Just Hearing About Ozzy For The First Time Thanks To New Collaboration
MPAP: Recently Post Malone recorded a song called "Take What You Want," and it featured Ozzy Osbourne. Honestly, it’s not a lousy collaboration between the two. Wasn’t expecting it to be a good song. Anyways, what gets me is some people, mainly his fans were saying thanks to Post Malone he just gave this Ozzy guy a career. They obviously have no idea! Even back in 2015, it was almost the same thing, Kayne West did a song with Paul McCartney, and Kayne’s fans were saying Kayne just gave Paul a career in the music business. Really c’mon? So, my question is, should the history of music be taught in school or something? Shouldn’t the younger generation know who Ozzy Osbourne and Paul McCartney are?
MATIAS: Music is part of history and everybody has their own heroes. If the newer generations love Kayne or another person like that… Good. Sometimes we focus a bit too much on the things we like and try to force them into the newer generations, dunno about that really. There’s a lot of new music we can explore, but the most important thing is to have fun. Life is too short to be grumpy about kids not knowing who Ozzy is.
5. Sabaton Involved In 'Serious Traffic Accident' In Tunisia, Cancel Tonight’s Show
MPAP: Luckily everyone is ok now, but do you have any scary tour bus accident stories that you can share with us? Or, if no accidents, any close calls where you thought you might die?
MATIAS: No accidents so far and I’m totally fine with that, fingers crossed.
6. Slipknot’s Jay Weinberg: The Effects of Climate Change Are Undeniable
MPAP: Some say there is no such thing as climate change, or some say it is getting better. Both sides of the party point fingers at each other. Even back in February of this year, Ocasio-Cortez, the 29-year-old democratic socialist, wanted us to get to the point of where air travel would stop becoming necessary, and believes farting cows are responsible for the climate change and we need to get rid of them. What are your thoughts on climate change?
MATIAS: The earth is getting warm since the last ice age in the mid age. Human’s predation of natural resources ain’t helping. We are accelerating a thousand years plus process into a hundred plus. Not cool.
7. Nicole Kidman Attended An Iron Maiden Show with Her Husband, Keith Urban
MPAP: Never would have expected that couple to be into Iron Maiden, but still cool either way. It’s good to know that music can reach anyone. So, have you ever had anyone famous that you know of attend one of your shows? If not, who would you like to leave a ticket for at will call to come to your next show?
MATIAS: No famous people attended our shows so far. I’ll leave tickets for Hans Zimmer, Christopher Young, Basil Poledouris (RIP) next reincarnation, Danny Elfman… Think they’ll dig our symphonic madness on stage.
8. Yellowstone Police Are Using AC/DC To Clear Bison Off The Road
MPAP: In our previous headlines feature Metallica was blasted to scare away a cougar, and now bison are being blasted by AC/DC. It makes you think, what animal is next, and then how long until the animal kingdom doesn’t put up with this anymore and revolts against humans?
MATIAS: Humans are the most dangerous animal on earth, cougars and bison are fine. The fun thing about evolution is that every species must reach extinction someday. We’ll meet our day when a newer hope more intelligent being will rise.
9. Vinyl On Pace To Outsell CDs in 2019
MPAP: Buying albums seems to be the trendy hip thing it looks like again. Since streaming services are the popular norm, it’s good that records are making a comeback, but sad in a way, because CDs will become extinct.
MATIAS: We still sell cds. Hope vinyl become cheaper to make in the future because we want to produce LPs too. We are an indie act, we need to sell merch, that’s the only way to make money these days.
10. Dude Who Tried To Swim Back Into Slayer Show After Being Ejected Immortalized on Beer Can
MPAP: The guy that tried to swim back into a Slayer show is from 2018, but him being immortalized on a beer can is new. This is a two-part question. Which beer can would you like your face on, and while out on tour, what is the craziest thing a fan has done that you have seen?
MATIAS: I don’t drink alcohol so probably I want my face on a cereal box, 'THE SHREDINATORS' natural flavored, make you play like young Yngwie. Ramesh from India got our entire catalogue, plus t-shirts, bought a signed cd from our drummer in the USA. He sent it to us in Chile, we signed and sent the giant package to him. Love him, not that crazy but… huge respect.
11. Former Five Finger Death Punch Drummer’s New Gig: A Horror Porn Anthology Series
MPAP: Yep, you read it right, former Five Finger Death Punch drummer’s new gig is in the porn business. Not only is Jeremy Spencer a part-time cop in Indiana now, but now he writes, directs, and even stars in his pornos. Crazy. So, my question is, what is your dream job if you weren’t performing in a band? If you had to hang things up in the music business, what would you rather be doing?
MATIAS: Doing martial arts movies like Bruce Lee or extreme sports. Making music for videogames or movies… Yeah, that’s the life.
12. Flaw Accused of Plagiarizing You Tuber’s Song, Vocalist Said He Had No Idea
MPAP: This isn’t really a question about that headline, but it made me think and want to ask, is there one song out there that some band has recorded, and it’s so good that you wish you could claim it as your own song?
MATIAS: I love too many pieces, but think I’ll claim Bach Harpsichord Concerto No.1 in D Minor BWV 1052. Genius work, wish I could write something that advanced.
13. Metallica Named 'World’s Biggest Touring Act' According to New Study
MPAP: Even though they’ve released a few records that some fans can’t stand, that still hasn’t stopped them by selling over 22 million tickets and grossed $1.4 billion in touring since 1982. That’s very impressive. So, I guess the question would be, lets rain on their parade for a moment, what’s your least favorite Metallica song that you must turn off or turn down when it’s on the radio? And by no means, this is no disrespect to Metallica at all. I think they are man enough to handle hearing which songs or albums are not fan favorites. It's just for fun and games, until we shot our eye out.
MATIAS: Whoa, don’t know really… Even when Metallica goes 'bad,' it’s good. There’s something really special about their songwriting, that’s why they are one of the greatest heavy metal bands of our time.
MPAP: On behalf of Metal Pulp And Paper, I’d like to thank you, Matías, for taking the time to answer these questions. We look forward to what Bleak Flesh does to finish out 2019 and beyond. Any last words for all your fans out there?
MATIAS: Keep supporting underground metal, buy merch, buy cds, go to shows. Have fun, life is too short.
Bleak Flesh/ October 1st, 2019/ Headlines #23
MATIAS QUIROZ: Hi, doing great. Big thanks for having me.
MPAP: Now give us a little run down about your band and what we need to know, and especially tell us if you have any new music coming out or any tour announcements you can share here?
MATIAS: I’m the guitar player in the Chilean Technical Death Metal band Bleak Flesh. On August 6th we released a new album called … And Save Us From Silence with Marco Pitruzzella on drums. Nine track Technical Death Metal Journey with Symphonic, Neoclassical and Progressive influences, a tribute to a primitive and maybe divine creature with forgotten name that encourage our minds to have the unstoppable desire to create music. A force of nature that has been silenced throughout history. The album and oficial merchandise are available on our bandcamp site bleakflesh.bandcamp.com and on most digital platforms like Spotify, Applemusic, YouTube Music, Google Play, Deezer, Tidal and more.
MPAP: So, for anyone new to this, we changed things up and are doing something different. We've pulled some recent headlines from the Metal Injection website and get reactions and comments on them from bands all over the world. We did this last month, with different headlines, of course, and it was fun to read each group's different answers. So, please place your seat backs and tray tables in the upright position, and hang on, here we go again.
1. Granny Caught Rocking Out To Slipknot
MPAP: At a recent Knotfest show an elderly woman, even with her cane in hand, is caught on video rocking out to Slipknot. The story doesn’t mention her age, but I would say she’s in the prime of at least her 70s. What do you think of granny rocking out to Slipknot? Have you ever seen any older folks rocking out at any of your shows before? And bonus points, if we were keeping score, have you had any of your grandparents at any of your shows before?
MATIAS: I think it is really cool that elder people still have fun doing things they love. Yes I’ve seen a lot of older folks, specially at classic heavy metal shows like Iron Maiden, Halford and related. On Maiden shows, too many to keep count, it was a lot of people, older folks with their grandsons, parents, the entire family at a metal show.
2. Metal Guitarist Too Young To Play Bar Plays Outside With Wireless System Instead
MPAP: The band Ancient Burials had a bit of a dilemma when they played a show at the Hawthorne Theatre in Portland, Oregon. Their guitarist was underage and not allowed into the bar to play. Some places will mark your hand with an 'X' identifying you’re a minor and let you play. Not the Hawthorne Theatre with Oregon’s liquor laws. So, instead of them canceling the show, fellow bandmates Paradigm Shift hooked him up with a wireless pack, and he went outside and played. The bar had an open window so you could see the band playing inside and he was outside shredding it out on the street. It’s a great video to watch.
MATIAS: Watched that video, dude was rocking hard outside the venue, love that. You make the show happen no matter what. Dude was underage but he still rocked hard. Hails to you and your band for making history.
3. Comedian Gilbert Gottfried Reveals Himself As Slipknot’s Tortilla Man
MPAP: Obviously, someone brilliant out there got him to announce that, probably on one of those Celebrity Cameos or something. In all seriousness, does it even matter who Tortilla Man is? And why do you think Slipknot is so strict on revealing who new band members are? They had this previous issue when Paul Gray passed away and was replaced by Alessandro Venturella, and also when Jay Weinberg replaced Joey Jordison.
MATIAS: Think this is a part of their mystique. I remember when the first album came out, was really amazed by the fact that nobody knew their faces, loved that concept. We are gonna rock hard wearing these masks and go crazy on stage, every guy was special. Slipknot had that back in the day, and I respect it a lot. Nowadays is part of a tradition and that’s still cool.
4. These Post Malone Fans Are Just Hearing About Ozzy For The First Time Thanks To New Collaboration
MPAP: Recently Post Malone recorded a song called "Take What You Want," and it featured Ozzy Osbourne. Honestly, it’s not a lousy collaboration between the two. Wasn’t expecting it to be a good song. Anyways, what gets me is some people, mainly his fans were saying thanks to Post Malone he just gave this Ozzy guy a career. They obviously have no idea! Even back in 2015, it was almost the same thing, Kayne West did a song with Paul McCartney, and Kayne’s fans were saying Kayne just gave Paul a career in the music business. Really c’mon? So, my question is, should the history of music be taught in school or something? Shouldn’t the younger generation know who Ozzy Osbourne and Paul McCartney are?
MATIAS: Music is part of history and everybody has their own heroes. If the newer generations love Kayne or another person like that… Good. Sometimes we focus a bit too much on the things we like and try to force them into the newer generations, dunno about that really. There’s a lot of new music we can explore, but the most important thing is to have fun. Life is too short to be grumpy about kids not knowing who Ozzy is.
5. Sabaton Involved In 'Serious Traffic Accident' In Tunisia, Cancel Tonight’s Show
MPAP: Luckily everyone is ok now, but do you have any scary tour bus accident stories that you can share with us? Or, if no accidents, any close calls where you thought you might die?
MATIAS: No accidents so far and I’m totally fine with that, fingers crossed.
6. Slipknot’s Jay Weinberg: The Effects of Climate Change Are Undeniable
MPAP: Some say there is no such thing as climate change, or some say it is getting better. Both sides of the party point fingers at each other. Even back in February of this year, Ocasio-Cortez, the 29-year-old democratic socialist, wanted us to get to the point of where air travel would stop becoming necessary, and believes farting cows are responsible for the climate change and we need to get rid of them. What are your thoughts on climate change?
MATIAS: The earth is getting warm since the last ice age in the mid age. Human’s predation of natural resources ain’t helping. We are accelerating a thousand years plus process into a hundred plus. Not cool.
7. Nicole Kidman Attended An Iron Maiden Show with Her Husband, Keith Urban
MPAP: Never would have expected that couple to be into Iron Maiden, but still cool either way. It’s good to know that music can reach anyone. So, have you ever had anyone famous that you know of attend one of your shows? If not, who would you like to leave a ticket for at will call to come to your next show?
MATIAS: No famous people attended our shows so far. I’ll leave tickets for Hans Zimmer, Christopher Young, Basil Poledouris (RIP) next reincarnation, Danny Elfman… Think they’ll dig our symphonic madness on stage.
8. Yellowstone Police Are Using AC/DC To Clear Bison Off The Road
MPAP: In our previous headlines feature Metallica was blasted to scare away a cougar, and now bison are being blasted by AC/DC. It makes you think, what animal is next, and then how long until the animal kingdom doesn’t put up with this anymore and revolts against humans?
MATIAS: Humans are the most dangerous animal on earth, cougars and bison are fine. The fun thing about evolution is that every species must reach extinction someday. We’ll meet our day when a newer hope more intelligent being will rise.
9. Vinyl On Pace To Outsell CDs in 2019
MPAP: Buying albums seems to be the trendy hip thing it looks like again. Since streaming services are the popular norm, it’s good that records are making a comeback, but sad in a way, because CDs will become extinct.
MATIAS: We still sell cds. Hope vinyl become cheaper to make in the future because we want to produce LPs too. We are an indie act, we need to sell merch, that’s the only way to make money these days.
10. Dude Who Tried To Swim Back Into Slayer Show After Being Ejected Immortalized on Beer Can
MPAP: The guy that tried to swim back into a Slayer show is from 2018, but him being immortalized on a beer can is new. This is a two-part question. Which beer can would you like your face on, and while out on tour, what is the craziest thing a fan has done that you have seen?
MATIAS: I don’t drink alcohol so probably I want my face on a cereal box, 'THE SHREDINATORS' natural flavored, make you play like young Yngwie. Ramesh from India got our entire catalogue, plus t-shirts, bought a signed cd from our drummer in the USA. He sent it to us in Chile, we signed and sent the giant package to him. Love him, not that crazy but… huge respect.
11. Former Five Finger Death Punch Drummer’s New Gig: A Horror Porn Anthology Series
MPAP: Yep, you read it right, former Five Finger Death Punch drummer’s new gig is in the porn business. Not only is Jeremy Spencer a part-time cop in Indiana now, but now he writes, directs, and even stars in his pornos. Crazy. So, my question is, what is your dream job if you weren’t performing in a band? If you had to hang things up in the music business, what would you rather be doing?
MATIAS: Doing martial arts movies like Bruce Lee or extreme sports. Making music for videogames or movies… Yeah, that’s the life.
12. Flaw Accused of Plagiarizing You Tuber’s Song, Vocalist Said He Had No Idea
MPAP: This isn’t really a question about that headline, but it made me think and want to ask, is there one song out there that some band has recorded, and it’s so good that you wish you could claim it as your own song?
MATIAS: I love too many pieces, but think I’ll claim Bach Harpsichord Concerto No.1 in D Minor BWV 1052. Genius work, wish I could write something that advanced.
13. Metallica Named 'World’s Biggest Touring Act' According to New Study
MPAP: Even though they’ve released a few records that some fans can’t stand, that still hasn’t stopped them by selling over 22 million tickets and grossed $1.4 billion in touring since 1982. That’s very impressive. So, I guess the question would be, lets rain on their parade for a moment, what’s your least favorite Metallica song that you must turn off or turn down when it’s on the radio? And by no means, this is no disrespect to Metallica at all. I think they are man enough to handle hearing which songs or albums are not fan favorites. It's just for fun and games, until we shot our eye out.
MATIAS: Whoa, don’t know really… Even when Metallica goes 'bad,' it’s good. There’s something really special about their songwriting, that’s why they are one of the greatest heavy metal bands of our time.
MPAP: On behalf of Metal Pulp And Paper, I’d like to thank you, Matías, for taking the time to answer these questions. We look forward to what Bleak Flesh does to finish out 2019 and beyond. Any last words for all your fans out there?
MATIAS: Keep supporting underground metal, buy merch, buy cds, go to shows. Have fun, life is too short.
Bleak Flesh/ October 1st, 2019/ Headlines #23