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Taking Metal To The Mountains With SHAUN FARRUGIA From IN MALICE'S WAKE · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: My name is Sean. Sean Frugia.
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  Speaker 2: I do guitars and vocals for Thrash. I guess, of course,
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: a thrash death metal band in Malus's wake these days.
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  Speaker 2: While back we started, i'd say a bit more of
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: a old school thrash band, but over the course of
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  Speaker 2: recording maybe last five albums, we've definitely gone into a
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  Speaker 2: much heavier death infused So yeah, we've been kicking it
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  Speaker 2: for about twenty years now and we're soon Metal for
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  Speaker 2: the Mountains. It's our last gig for the year, and
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  Speaker 2: everything I've heard seems to indicate that it's super well attended.
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  Speaker 2: It's a bit of a hub for all the regional
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  Speaker 2: towns and it's supposed to absolutely go off. I had
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  Speaker 2: a few friends played it last year and said it's yeah,
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  Speaker 2: it's the regional one to go to, so really really excited,
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  Speaker 2: and it'll be my first time there.
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  Speaker 3: Hey fantastic Sean, thanks for joining us.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a pleasure man, it's great to chat.
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  Speaker 4: Likewise, bro, So, as you say in Mause's we are
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  Speaker 4: appearing at Metal in the Mountains in Beach on May
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  Speaker 4: the twenty ninth, So you just gave the festor little
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  Speaker 4: bit of a rap mate, but I've heard it exactly
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  Speaker 4: in a beautiful part of the world.
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  Speaker 3: I've never been to Beachmond, but.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Beachworth.
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  Speaker 2: It's been years since I've been there, but from memory
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  Speaker 2: it's just a very sort of idyllic, you.
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  Speaker 1: Know, regional Victorian town.
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  Speaker 2: I can't remember what it looks like because the last
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  Speaker 2: time I was there I was a kid man. I'm
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  Speaker 2: actually just really looking forward to the arm back for
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  Speaker 2: a visit. Yeah, living regionally myself at the moment, just
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  Speaker 2: moved to a place called Teuton, which is near Castle
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  Speaker 2: Man of Victoria, so yeah, just very much in the
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  Speaker 2: zone of enjoying you know, quieter towns but you know
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  Speaker 2: with a lot of underground music and metal and things
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  Speaker 2: like that happening.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, it's gonna be a great trip.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: And it also features franken Bok Coach Charman, Wishbed and
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  Speaker 4: more mates.
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  Speaker 3: So have you played with all of the bands before?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was just having to looked through. It's a
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  Speaker 1: lot of bands that are new. Obviously.
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  Speaker 2: Franken Bach you know, been around for ages as have
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  Speaker 2: we and we've definitely played a few bills together. So
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  Speaker 2: it's been probably for maybe two to three years since
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  Speaker 2: I've seen Frankenbach live, so I'm definitely keen to catch them.
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  Speaker 2: Seen goat Shaman's name pop up everywhere, and I know
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  Speaker 2: those dudes are killing it. I believe this band called
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  Speaker 2: I think it's Oblivion, who do pretty old school have
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  Speaker 2: death metal, and so do Sufferings, and so both those
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  Speaker 2: bands are right up my alley. Sort of like to
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  Speaker 2: do a bit of a bit of research before, you know,
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  Speaker 2: going to a show like this, because it's sort of
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  Speaker 2: nice to know what to expect and you reach out
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  Speaker 2: and just say good eighty the other bands in advance.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah, even Whisper had a.
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  Speaker 2: Sort of I think they call themselves like almost heavy,
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  Speaker 2: sort of like a new metal kind of quite groove
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  Speaker 2: based thing. So I'm pretty open minded when it comes
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  Speaker 2: to styles, and yeah, I just love seeing a lineup
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  Speaker 2: that features bands from, you know, a big range of genre,
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  Speaker 2: so I doesn't feel like the same thing all night.
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  Speaker 2: So yeah, the lineups of the lineup looks sick. I
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  Speaker 2: know the so release on there as well. I'm a
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  Speaker 2: little less familiar with them. I believe they're from Queensland
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  Speaker 2: and esp Mayhem, and they're a little bit unfamiliar to
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  Speaker 2: me too, So there's gonna be a lot of new
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  Speaker 2: ship to check out, and so it's gonna be a
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  Speaker 2: real good excuse for a road trip. And yeah, the
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  Speaker 2: lineup looks looks stunning, and I heard the atmosphere and
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  Speaker 2: the buzz at this festival in particulars Yeah, pretty pretty special.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah he actually raised a good point there, mate, Like
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  Speaker 4: festivals these days are starting to have a bit more
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  Speaker 4: of a diverse line. I mean, back in nowadays was
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  Speaker 4: either all thrash or or death or they're all the same.
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  Speaker 4: But I think the fact that they're going to diversity
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  Speaker 4: these days, it's sort of helped open up things a
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  Speaker 4: lot better.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, and just keeps the keeps a day
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  Speaker 2: a bit fresh. I really miss Metal for the Brain
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  Speaker 2: back in the early two thousands because you'd go to
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  Speaker 2: a show like that and they would be just so
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  Speaker 2: many different bands you'd see, i know, Lord play next
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  Speaker 2: to Hobbs, Angel of Death, next to Fuck on Dead
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  Speaker 2: doing their grindcore. You know, it was just a full
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  Speaker 2: day where you'd see all these, you know, world class bands,
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  Speaker 2: but the vibe and the range of things to see
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  Speaker 2: that always be something interesting happening so I quite like
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  Speaker 2: a diverse festival lineup and this is like a mini festival,
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  Speaker 2: but even within what is there eight bands, there's quite
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  Speaker 2: a lot of different ground covered.
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  Speaker 1: And so yeah, I'm the same.
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  Speaker 2: It keeps you day fresh, you don't feel like you're
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  Speaker 2: watching you know, the same the same blast beat.
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  Speaker 1: If you know, for eight hours straight. And yeah, I
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  Speaker 1: think it's a really a really good thing.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah. And another major thing too is that it's an
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  Speaker 4: all Australian lineup. How important is it for the Australian
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  Speaker 4: heavy music scene to have things like this and don't
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  Speaker 4: rely on just the international bands.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think it's I think in the underground metal
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  Speaker 2: scene here in Australia there's quite a strong understanding of
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  Speaker 2: just the quality that we have locally, especially when you
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  Speaker 2: start to include interstate bands. We really have enough great
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  Speaker 2: talent where I think you can pull off a full
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  Speaker 2: festival lineup of only Australian bands. It's when you have
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  Speaker 2: a couple of international bands in the mix, like the
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  Speaker 2: New Dead and Adelaide always had a couple of you know,
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  Speaker 2: we're lucky enough to play with the Napalm Death one
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  Speaker 2: year and you know, goat hooor or whatever, So like
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  Speaker 2: throwing international bands into the mix with Aussie bands a
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  Speaker 2: really high caliber.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know, it just it feels great as well.
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  Speaker 2: But for me, there's something about knowing that a festival
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  Speaker 2: can be successful, well supported and just an awesome thing
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  Speaker 2: to check out.
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  Speaker 1: A groan here too.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: And the other thing about it too, bro is it's
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  Speaker 4: family friendly, saying take the kiddies along and introduced them
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  Speaker 4: to medal as well.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent, And I think that's really good.
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  Speaker 2: There's there's definitely less opportunities for all ages experiences and
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  Speaker 2: things like that.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, I love a wild metal show as well.
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  Speaker 2: But there's something about the the feel of a metal
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  Speaker 2: show that, even though it's it's it's wild, it's something
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  Speaker 2: about it. It's a bit of like an animal spirit
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  Speaker 2: that sort of gets unleashed at a show like this,
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  Speaker 2: And I think that's a bit universal. You'll see kids
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  Speaker 2: and they'll hear a riff here, you know, hear something heavy,
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  Speaker 2: especially a CDC or whatever, and kids just know just
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  Speaker 2: know to go like bananas to it. It's a it's
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  Speaker 2: a universal thing and I don't think you ever really
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  Speaker 2: grow out of it, so to have, you know, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: some some young kids along for this will be a
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  Speaker 2: privilege too. I've been lucky to be doing a little
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: bit of guitar teaching this year and one of the
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  Speaker 2: students I've got up up here Newcastle man, he's in
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  Speaker 2: Guildford actually, he's coming along with his dad to this
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  Speaker 2: show and this will be his first.
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  Speaker 1: Live metal show.
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  Speaker 2: So I'm looking forward to seeing him up there and yeah,
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  Speaker 2: and you know, sort of help giving his first like
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  Speaker 2: a live metal experience. So it's the sort of thing
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  Speaker 2: where I feel like it's this thing that will always
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  Speaker 2: be around. But I remember my first shows when I
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  Speaker 2: was you know, I was a teenager, not a not
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  Speaker 2: super underage or so. I think maybe fifteen sixteen on
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  Speaker 2: my first metal show. But you do remember that stuff
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  Speaker 2: and it has an impression on you, and you know,
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  Speaker 2: here I am Jesus, I don't know. It's got to
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  Speaker 2: be close to twenty five thirty years later and I'm
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  Speaker 2: still you know, wasting my life recording death metal and
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  Speaker 2: go to show. So it really leaves an impression. And
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  Speaker 2: I think it's important to have young people there too.
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  Speaker 4: It's definitely so what can fans expect from in Mallas's
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  Speaker 4: weight set?
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  Speaker 3: At Metal in the Mountains.
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  Speaker 2: We have our fifth album coming out early next year
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  Speaker 2: called The Profound Darkness, and we are doing two new
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  Speaker 2: songs off that, So we just started.
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  Speaker 1: Playing them live.
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  Speaker 2: I reckon they're among our strongest and heaviest material yet.
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  Speaker 2: If that's not an incredibly cliche thing to say, but
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  Speaker 2: this case.
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  Speaker 1: Is very true.
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  Speaker 2: Women whipping them out last few shows and gone down
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  Speaker 2: extremely well. But for anyone it's not familiar with any
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  Speaker 2: of our catalog. We've been doing this so long where
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  Speaker 2: we can really just let go and enjoy ourselves in
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  Speaker 2: the process of playing live. We always put on a
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  Speaker 2: hell of a show. The music's made for a live arena.
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  Speaker 2: It's you know, it's hyper aggressive, but it's sharp, it's punchy,
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  Speaker 2: it's memorable. Yeah, we have had some of the most
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  Speaker 2: violent mosh pits you know that I can remember, And
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  Speaker 2: you know what, it's been the last couple of shows
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  Speaker 2: that the people have been a little bit quieter. So
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  Speaker 2: I hope in a regional town, you know, people are
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  Speaker 2: really ready to cut loose. And if I know anything
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  Speaker 2: of my mates that a regional bass, that's it's going
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  Speaker 2: to be a pretty wild time.
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  Speaker 1: Our guitarist and.
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  Speaker 2: Bass player Curlent Lee grew up in Aubrey Wodonga, so
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  Speaker 2: I'm hoping that some of their friends are making the
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  Speaker 2: road trip over and yeah, it'll be like a bit
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  Speaker 2: of a pilgrimage and sharing this sort of you know,
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  Speaker 2: music with our friends on a trip.
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  Speaker 1: I think, Yeah, I think our music's perfect for.
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  Speaker 2: This type of arena and just really great, really looking
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  Speaker 2: forward to getting out and having a great show with
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  Speaker 2: some great people.
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  Speaker 4: One of the benefits of festivals is you get to
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  Speaker 4: see bands that you might not have heard or seen otherwise.
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  Speaker 4: So say someone's come along the Metal on the Mountains
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  Speaker 4: and they haven't heard in Malus's Wait before, Like, what
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  Speaker 4: three songs of you?
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  Speaker 3: Or should they listen to? You get an idea what
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  Speaker 3: do you expect?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you get a bit of a cross section. I'd
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  Speaker 2: say listen to The Blindness of Faith, which is our
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  Speaker 2: most recent album. I say most recent it was about
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  Speaker 2: five years ago, so we're well over for.
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  Speaker 1: A new one.
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  Speaker 2: But yeah, I'd pick out the Blindness of Faith amongst
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  Speaker 2: our more heavy songs, something like Here the Hows or
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: Light upon the Wicked, the title track from the album before,
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  Speaker 2: and we do a bit of a bit more sort
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  Speaker 2: of old school traditional thrash as well, So something like
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  Speaker 2: Endless Possession will probably give you a pretty good cross
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  Speaker 2: section of what we do.
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  Speaker 1: But we've got everything up online.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: We've got a live DVD that we've published online as well,
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  Speaker 2: so they give people a pretty good impression of, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: what the live show looks and feels like too.
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  Speaker 4: No, Now, you mentioned a new album, The Profound Darkness,
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  Speaker 4: which comes out early next year, So what can you
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  Speaker 4: tell us about that?
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that one, it's we sort of went into it.
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  Speaker 2: You always try to top your recent, most recent release,
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  Speaker 2: and we've sort of been going in a direction where
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  Speaker 2: there is a much more death metal influence, a bit
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: of a black metal atmosphere and darkness that's mixed into thrash,
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  Speaker 2: and over the years it's just become our sound. So
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  Speaker 2: for this album we've pushed pretty hard into that too,
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  Speaker 2: but there's been a few sort of new influences and
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: things that we've tried. I've been primarily the main sort
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: of I guess the song writer for over the years generally,
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  Speaker 2: but on this album, our drummer Mark sort of wrote
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: I think three of the songs songs drums first, which
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: for us, he's a bit of a departure because we've always,
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: you know, gone guitars first, and he's gone pretty wild
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  Speaker 2: with it. It's for a lot of a lot of
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  Speaker 2: it really reminds me of the first two Day side albums,
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  Speaker 2: which are pretty wild and the drums pretty off the wall,
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  Speaker 2: and then we've sort of written guitars around that and
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: the vocals have come after it, so there's Yeah, there's
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: definitely a lot more of the things that we love
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  Speaker 2: in this, and it's just it's a nasty album. There's
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: a few surprises for anyone that's heard us over the years.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: It leans a bit more into the old school black
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  Speaker 2: and death metal, whilst it still sounds like a modern
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  Speaker 2: thrash band, but it's probably at the heaviest edge of
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: what you could imagine that sounding like. Yeah, so it's
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  Speaker 2: a progression. It's definitely anyone that's like the harder edge
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  Speaker 2: of what we've done in the past will definitely love this.
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  Speaker 1: It's nine songs. We had eleven recorded and trying.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: To work out the order running order of them ma
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: and it just fell A few things were dragging, so
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: I said to the guys, I think we need to
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: cut a couple of these, so they all would have
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: been something I'd be happy to have the album, but
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: we chop two of them and left the best nine
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: and it's really, i believe, start to finish, the strongest
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: thing that we've ever done. So I'm pretty excited to
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: have it out. It's been a long time just being
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: worked on and recorded, et cetera. We've been trying to
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: get the video sorted this year and the process is
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: just elongated. So at this point now we're just dying
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: to get it out. So yeah, first first bunch of
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: months and next year that'll be landing, just organizing sort
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: of label things at this last point, so it's going
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: to be a ripper. We've got two videos already done
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: for it. Masters have been here for a couple of
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: months and it sounds phenomenal. It's the best we've ever sounded.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: So yeah, just really excited to have it out. So
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: many people have been asking, you know, where it's at,
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: so it's yeah, it's exciting to be at the tail
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: end of that.
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: He jasin.
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: Where can people keep up to date on when it
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: is coming out and stuff?
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: We're probably most active on our Facebook page, Facebook and Instagram.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: We're pretty yeah, regular with that YouTube channel probably needs
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: a little bit of a kick in the ass, but yeah,
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: we're probably most active via those two channels, and yeah,
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: definitely out for a chat about music and it's great
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: getting to know people through there as well.
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: Fantastic Sean wel Thanks very much for your time, Bro.
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: The album The Profound Darkness is out next year and
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  Speaker 4: Malice's Wake at Metal in the Mountains November of twenty nine,
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  Speaker 4: so have yourself for good rest of the year.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Bro and Upert, thank you very much. Man, great to
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: speak to you. Thanks for the help.