Who are you, what do you do, what is your band, what do you do in your band?
My name is Adam D and I am a full-time misanthropist and part-time cynic. I play in the group Withdrawal, and I sing, write lyrics and generally guide the band artistically and visually. Recently I have started adding electronic and ambient flourishes / samples to our songs. Also, I'm straight edge so I suppose I defacto driver for the band after shows.
How did Withdrawal become affiliated with Holy Terror?
We never set out to be holy terror. We are selfish musicians and we only write for ourselves. That in itself is the essence of holy terror. I can't go into the specifics on how we were contacted, or how we joined but I will say that we're on the outskirts of the Holy Terror process church family and that's a position I'm extremely comfortable with. To be associated with forward thinking musicians and artists of their calibre is an honor.
To those who are unaware of The Process, could you give a bit of insight as to what HT is all about?
On the surface the Holy Terror Process Church in it's artistic form is a loose collective of musicians and artists dedicated to the
preservation of artistic integrity and the progression of such. It itself is an offshoot of a 60's religious cult called the Process Church of Final Judgement. Primarilly, they believed in 4 gods. Hence the 4 P logo seen here we and many other HT bands adopted as a coat of arms and to provide a unifying image. They believed that in the end of times the 4 gods God, Christ, Satan, Lucifer would reconcile. God and Christ to deterimine the wicked and the good, and Satan and Lucifer to carry out the judgement of each. They faded into obscurity and fell apart during the 70's mostly. They were essentially railroaded and chased underground thanks to the Manson set up. In the 90's a man named Jack Abernathy in Europe restarted the church as an amalgamation of ideals between the Process Church and the Abraxas foundation (a now defunct social darwinist offshoot itself of the Church of Satan) whose membership ranks included a man named Boyd Rice (himself a high priest in anton lavey's church of satan, as well as profound artist, musician, actor and tiki bar enthusiest).
The Abraxas Foundation's philosophy was that "the strong rule the weak, and the clever rule the strong". This is combined with the modern Church of Satan's philosophy that Satan is not a "boogie man" to be feared but rather man's urge to enjoy life. This could be as simple as recognizing "do I want a slice of cake? If so then I will eat it" as Satanism. Basically that ends up meaning that the Abraxas foundation would enjoy life regardless of the consequences, and that they didn't care for intellectually weak minded or weak willed people. Jack Abernathy combined all of these into the Holy Terror Process Church. "The strong control the weak, the clever control the strong, there is evil in good, there is good in evil." The lamb and goat fused as one, again used in our symbology. In the 1990's Brian Dingledine, frontman of Crimethinc gypsy hardcore group Catharsis used the term Holy Terror to describe the apocalyptic output of bands like Gehenna, Integrity, Day of Mourning and others. That's really all I can explain, there's more but I'm not at privaledge to divulge and I don't want to keep the readers of your blog up all night.
Hopefully i haven't lost you with all that...
Our church role as a musician is essentially to create challenging, progressive music free of trends or boundary. Because of this, we are met with disdain and fear from the part-time merch mosh internet hardcore kid. These people are close minded and sheltered and are the one's slowly killing hardcore. We're the ones killing them.
What is new with Withdrawal? Any word on your upcoming releases?
I'll spill some details on the new recording: it's a split being relased on Escapist records from Cleveland with fellow commonwealth UK Holy Terrorists Rot in Hell. It's a split 10", and we're using all 10 available minutes on our side of the vinyl. It's 5 pieces split into 3 songs. So that's 3 "standard" songs and 2 abstract segues sewing the songs together. The first 4 songs on our side are thematically based on searching for something seemingly unobtainable and the inability to enjoy it when you possess that fleeting feeling. This could be love, drugs, money, religion. It applies to the very basically feeling of needing something. The split also conceptually bound between both sides by the theme of murderers. As such, Rot in Hell are contributing a track referencing the rumoured Processian Church influence on the Son of Sam, while the final track on our side is based on underappreciated satanic Charles Mansion devotee Jason Eric Massey. Musically it is a sizeable departure from where "Unknown Misery" left off. We've cast off any sort of genre expectations of a typical hardcore band and allowed ourselves to take inspriation from our more esthetoric influeneces. Tt would be easy to take old Ringworm riffs and add Buried Alive breakdowns, but that wouldn't advance us musically and I feel it would be a disservice to hardcore as a whole to regurgitate the past over and over. We want to create a mood and feel for each song, and do so that the record flows cohesively. We're crafting soundtracks to nightmares. Amongst others we've drawn from diverse influences, referencing Bauhaus' gothic postpunk leads, Vangelis' atmospheric synthsizer landscapes and Slowdive's shimmering showgaze guitar drone. All of this is done, however, without sacrificing speed or aggression so don't worry about us turning into post-hardcore dipshittery. I can honestly say that there is no other hardcore band out there today that is doing what we are doing right now.
I realize this sounds like a tough pill to swallow, and i realize i'm rambling, but i've never been more excited about our new music.
Favorite record of 2010 thus far? What records are you looking forward to?
Thus far? When was Tegan And Sara - Sainthood released? 2009 I think. Honestly, nothing yet. I've spent most of my year just delving further into the back catalogue of Killing Joke, etc, etc... Actually, the new Fear Factory record was unexpectedly amazing. Considering that band has been awful for about 14 years I didn't expect them to put out anything listenable but here I am. I am looking forward to the new Crucified LP above all other records. That will be my favorite record of the year. The new Integrity record will be good as well.
What are the most crucial fillings for the best burrito?
Honestly I'm fairly pedestrian when it comes to burrittos. I am more of a chimichanga man myself. But blackbeans, rice, guac, sour cream and pulled pork with the spiciest sauce I can get will serve me well.
Which Buried Alive LP is better- Last Rites or The Death Of Your Perfect World?
Well Last Rites can hardly be called an LP but more of a collection of demos, though I do like Last Rites alot if it were recorded properly it would be alot better. And how can you top Six Month Face and Kill Their Past?? Plus Kiss of Death is about AIDS, which is a pretty hard topic to tackle.
Any last words?
Expect no less than 3 records from Withdrawal in 2010. Lots of touring too. Listen to Crucified.
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