Interview with Max Hufnagel - Lead guitar

UN: Things have come together quite quickly for Feast for the Crows. Are you surprised at all by how quickly the band fell into place? It is not every day that a band forms and releases an album this good this quickly.

Max: We were very surprised. None of us thought that the album would get that good of a reaction. We signed the contract in June 2006 but we worked on the songs for almost 3 years. So it's not like we created the album that fast.

UN: I know asking where the band name comes from is a bit of a clichd interview question, but Im actually interested to know where the name came from. Feast for the Crows is an interesting and unique name.

Max: I came up with that. It's the name of one book of my favorite fantasy circle "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George R.R. Martin. I just love this series because it's epic, dark and has an extremely intelligent plot. The reason why we chose FFTC as our band name is just because it sounds very dark and threatening. There is no complex idea behind it, we just wanted to have an evil name for our band.

UN: How did the deal with Bastardized come about? I read that it was because of the band a few of you were in that broke up but had caught the interest of the label.

Max: Exactly. Sebastian and I (the guitarists and songwriters) played in a band called "Tear of Phoenix". Almost all of the music you can hear on "When all seems to be burned" was written for ToP and it was the ToP demo which caught the interest. Unfortunately we had some problems with our singer's health during the recording session and that caused really difficult personal differences between the members which could not be solved and so we split up. Sebastian and me wanted to keep the wheel turning so we took our songs, recruited new members and here we are. We only had to write some new lyrics.

UN: I was very surprised to read that the album was recorded in something like 9 days. Were you guys rushed at all? To be honest it doesnt sound like it at all and I never would have guessed that the album was recorded that quickly. You guys must have been very prepared before going into the studio.

Max: Yes we were prepared very well. We practiced a lot before we went there. But it was also the work of the guys from the Rape of Harmonies studio. They were so devoted and concentrated and made us give 100% . We did one song a day in average. If you think about it that's no problem when everybody is concentrated and knows what to do.

UN: Could you possibly give us some insight into the meaning of the album name? I didnt receive lyrics with the album so Im not sure if it ties in with the lyrics of the album or not.

Max: It's a line from our song "Skycleaver". The song is a "stand up and fight" hymn. It's about courage and rising up again when you're down.

When all seems to be burned
taste the tear of phoenix
and your wounds will be healed

We wanted to create a sort of fiery atmosphere when we designed the cover and this line fit perfectly.

UN: How has the reaction so far been to the album? Does it bother you guys at all that a lot of people are calling the band a metalcore band? Would you prefer to be just called a metal band? Honestly I would call the band melodic death metal with some modern elements.

Max: I agree with you. If I had to describe our music I'd call it melodic death metal too. The bands who inspired and influenced our guitar style are good old Swedish death metal bands like Gates of Ishtar, In Flames, At the Gates, In Thy Dreams, Edge of Sanity or The Crown. So we always wanted to make something like this. The "problem" is that our singer looks a lot like hardcore and acts like this on stage. So maybe we are a little more hardcore when we play live but on the record it's 100% metal. In the end we don't really care. We just try to make good music and not to push our creativity in a certain form.

UN: I was curious to ask how the songwriting works in the band. The reason I ask is because the songs seem to have a lot of riffs and dont seem to follow the usual conventional verse/chorus/verse approach.

Max: Sebastian and I (the guitarists) are the songwriters. Usually we create some riffs at home and put them together when we meet. Some songs, like Take it back or Tears follow the conventional structure you pointed out. A song like "Feast for the crows, for example, is composed at one go - no riff repeats . We write the songs intuitionally and it's important for us that they do not sound all the same or have the same structure.

UN: Would you say it was a conscious decision on the bands part to stay way from using any clean vocals on the album? The album is melodic enough that they may have fit but it is nice to hear an album that doesnt use them as they have become quite clich.

Max: They are not only clich , they sound completely gay. I can't stand those emo - passages. That's not metal - it's pop. Replace the hard guitars with some pop synthies or orchestra sounds and nobody would recognize that the vocals are taken from a metal or rock band. I'd never rape one of my songs just to catch a few more emo girlies and be a cute depressive wimp .The only way I accept clean vocals in metal music are power metal vocals. That's true!

UN: Do you guys plan on doing a lot of touring to promote the album? From the pictures of the band it seems like you guys are still quite young. Do you guys have anything stopping you from touring full time, schooling perhaps?

Max: There's a UK tour planned in July and we play a lot of single shows in Germany, Belgium or Sweden in the coming six months. We all work or study at a university so we can't spend all the time touring but we'll try to play as many gigs as possible.