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Welcome To Unbound Zine |
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| Album Review |
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By Any Means Necessary-Self-Titled
(Self-Released, 2008)
It only takes 9 minutes for this young Texas band to kick your ass. The band plays
something of a cross between say the metalcore style of Chimaira and newer Exodus
creating a sound that doesn't quite fit snugly into the thrash metal genre having
a very modern feel at the same time.
The songwriting on display for these three songs is just ridiculous. The riffs are
put together incredibly well and the band is ridiculously tight while never sounding
mechanical. Guitar leads are also quite common and are handled quite well having a classic
thrash meets sweep picking type style. Vocally I'd say the band is a bit one dimensional
but the style certainly fits. It isn't quite a growl and not quite a scream. It's a very
clear style that is easy to understand. A bit more variety would have been nice but it is
far from mandatory. For an unknown band this is an incredibly solid sounding album that
is as polished as any album being released by the biggest names in this style. The fact
that what is essentially a three song demo sounds this fantastic is astounding and will
definitely make people take notice of the band a lot quicker.
Honestly I've listened to this about 10 tens in a row writing this review and each time
it ends I want to keep pressing play. There have been very few demos that have impressed
me as much as this Texan band has. I would be very surprised if the response doesn't
land the band a record deal. This is much more interesting than a great deal of the
albums being released by similar bands and despite the fact that the band isn't icredibly
original, it is still very early into the bands career and that originality may come
with time. If you are a fan of Chimaira, Exodus, or Unearth this is a band that you need
to check out.
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UN: Can you go through a history of how the band came together? Have any of you been in bands
prior to playing in By Any Means Necessary? Do you think that things have come together fairly
quickly for the band or has it been a lot of work to get the band to this stage?
Adam/vocals: We started the band in 2003, myself and our drummer Jake were still in high school and I met our bassist Stephen at work, Stephen had been writing songs with our former guitarist Bobby and that's how we all met, we have been active the entire time but we had never taken the band on full time until about a year ago when Kevy joined the band and since then we have finally started to generate some interest, It's been a lot of work but we do it because we love music.
UN: How has the response to the self-titled EP been so far? Are you guys happy with what
people have been saying in the reviews? Has it been selling well when the band plays
shows?
Adam: The response has been good. The reviews have been pretty positive for the most part and the EP has been selling pretty well at shows as well as online.
UN: Kind of going hand in hand with the review question, do you find yourselves being
compared to any bands that you just really don't agree with? I mentioned a Chimaira
influence. Are you guys Chimaira fans?
Adam: We are Chimaira fans, and they have had a slight influence on us, but we try to do something new with that influence so we don't sound like them.
UN: The EP sounds phenomenal. Did it cost an arm and a leg to record with Scott Sargeant?
Was this the bands first time recording? Are you guys pleased with the end result of the
recording sessions?
Adam: I wouldn't say that it was cheap but recording never is, I'm usually my own worst critic but I am pretty happy with the entire recording. Scott really pushed us to do well.
UN: The packaging of the EP is also top notch. Was it important for you guys to make
the released professional so people would take it seriously? A photocopied cover and a
blank cd-r just don't seem to cut it these days.
Adam: I don't know how often someone will give me a copy of their bands demo with no art on a cd-r, when that happens I don't really feel inclined to listen to it, because of that it was very important that the art on our EP stood out.
UN: The lyrics seem to be rather dark in nature but seem to have something of
a positive underlining. What would you say motivates the lyrics?
Adam: A good portion of my lyrics are about how careless humanity can be about the affects their actions have on the rest of the world and the environment. It makes me sick.
UN: While I'm very familiar with the death metal scene in Texas I know very little
about the thrash and other metal sub genre scenes from the state. Do you guys
play a lot of shows with death metal bands or is there a scene for this style of
music in Texas?
Adam: We play a lot of shows with death metal bands, and usually go over pretty well with their fans, right now in Texas there aren't many bands playing thrash so I think that kind of helps us stand out.
UN: You guys have also played with some very well known metal bands. Any
shows really stand out in your minds? Any bands you were really looking
forward to playing with that ended up being total dicks?
Adam: Fortunately we really don't have any horror stories about the bands we've opened for, but I've never seen more people taken out of a show injured then when we opened for Deicide. That show was wild.
UN: Being a young band hungry for exposure I was curious to ask what
your thoughts on file sharing were? Has the EP made its way onto any
of the torrent sites yet?
Adam: I feel guilty about file sharing so I just quit doing it. I wish more people would quit.
UN: What would you say are the long term plans for the band? Obviously a record
deal would be something the band would ultimately shoot for. Have any labels
shown an interest in the band so far? Have you guys been sending the EP out
to a lot of labels?
Adam: We have been shopping out the demo and there is some label interest, at the moment we are writing songs for a full length to hopefully turn that interest into something more. Right now our long term goal is to release a full length and tour nonstop.
UN: Do you guys kind of look at the band name like a motto for the band at all?
It's definitely a good mission statement. You guys like make a name for yourselves
by any means necessary.
Adam: The band name originated from one of our early song titles but I think over time it really has become a sort of mission statement.
http://www.myspace.com/byanymeansnecessary
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