The Famine
Imagine, if you will, the cast of CSI showing up in the early morning hours at an empty concert venue. Amidst all the post-event sundry of trash, cups, spit, hair and occasional glass eyeball rolling about on the floor, there are several human jawbones laying intact and partially cracked and, in other instances, completely shattered on the damp, dark floor. Warrick Brown and Nick Stokes will arrive first, milling around outside, getting the skinny from the local cops and Captain Jim Brass. Everyone will complain about how early it is, how tired they feel, and then look at the mess on the floor and comment how “wild” it must’ve been at last night’s show. It’ll cut to milli-seconds of brutal riffage and guttural but unintelligible screaming. Catherine Willows will use rubber gloves to hoist a human jaw up in the air as her boss, Gil Grissom will calmly pronounce something coyly, like, “The audience had their jaws rocked off.” It won’t be until 44 minutes later, as the show winds to a conclusion, that the true culprits will be identified. In the meantime, disgruntled singers with their arms crossed are less than hospitable when examined by Capt. Jim Brass. When asked point blank why they’re not filled with joyful gratitude to participate in the finest justice system in the world, Ryan Clark and Bruce Fitzhugh cross their arms and shake their heads. “Why are you talking to us? We didn’t even get to play last night! Once the jaws dropped to the floor, all the screaming began, the lights came on, the sound was pulled and you guys started showing up.”
It was the Stronger Than Hell Tour and, more specifically, the desperate and passionate tunes of The Famine that loosened the hinges and muscle tissue surrounding the jaws of everyone in the audience who was paying attention. With one deafening thud they all hit the floor … and stayed there. People freaked.
If the writer’s strike hadn’t caused some ridiculous plots to show up on the tube this year, this fictitious scenario could’ve almost played out this summer. When asked which band would dominate on this tour, drummer Mark Garza showed absolutely no hesitation to declare that it would without a doubt be The Famine. “Oh, it’s The Famine all the way. I’m not even gonna pretend. I get in trouble for running my mouth about it, but we are 100% honored to play with all those guys up there – from Demon Hunter … good friends of ours, to even Living Sacrifice, for guys that we’ve looked up to for 100 years and who really helped lay a foundation for a lot of our typical style of music. But I think that the wonderful thing about what’s going on with The Famine right now is nobody really knows. We put some demo stuff online, but until you’ve had a chance to hear what we did with Andreas in the studio – no holds barred, something to prove type of metal – that we do, and believe me, we do have something to prove, and that’s just going to come across very well in the live show. I just feel like we’re going to come out with just the most vague expectations of all and I really feel like we’re going to take over as much as possible – as much as we can. And again, that’s nothing to the other bands, because I’ll tell you right now, from the openers on, everybody up there can bring their A game. I’ve seen all these bands play, with the exception of Advent, and every one of those bands is a headliner – from one end to the other. In that aspect, I think it’s gonna be a phenomenal tour. I think that everybody is just going to be on top of their game. Especially when I start thinking about the individual musicians in the band – from Lance (Garvin) of Living Sacrifice and guys that are just incredibly accomplished at what they do. I think it’s just going to be absolutely amazing. It’s going to be fun for us, too, just to play with all these guys. We absolutely can’t wait.
[Note: Be looking for an online-exclusive interview with The Famine here at hmmag.com coming soon... (like mid-July)
© 2008 HM Magazine, LLC. All rights reserved.
The Famine - Finish this feature by Doug Van Pelt in the new HM Magazine. Available now, Issue 132 can be found at select stores or for a reduced subscription rate.
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