Interviews : In Malice's Wake (Shaun Farrugia) – 2/02/2009

In Malice’s Wake are one of Australia’s most talented thrash acts and finally, after 7 years of destroying audiences on the live scene, the band have completed and released their debut album ‘Eternal Nightfall’. With a live show coming up to launch the album alongside both Eyefear and Black Orchid, there isn’t a better time to familiarize yourself with this powerhouse of a band. You can read our review of the new album here.

Metal Obsession: For those people who aren’t familiar with the band, can you introduce yourself and give us a brief description of the band’s music.

Shaun: I’m Shaun and I’m the vocalist/guitarist and co-founder of In Malice’s Wake (along with Mark – drums).  Our sound is heavily influenced by the thrash genre and as a main songwriter in the band I believe being a fan of bands such as Testament, Sodom and Sepultura (earlier era) has influenced our sound somewhat.  Our tracks tend to be fairly diverse and fuse both clean, moodier sections with intense heavier parts.  Dave and myself are guitar playing disciples and we put a lot of time and effort into our riffs and leads, and I’d say we are a very guitar driven band.  Our tracks tend to translate extremely well live and we have a blast delivering ours songs to live audiences.

MO: You’ve recently released your debut full-length, ‘Eternal Nightfall’, after an incredible amount of delays and problems. Can you give us a rundown of the recording process and why it took so long to come together?

S: I’d put it down to a mixture of inexperience and shit luck.  Our biggest mistake was (after completing the drums at Sing Sing South – a great studio) taking the remainder of the album to a dodgy project studio.  We put in 12 hour days for 5 days straight in a stinking hot room and on the fifth day, the mic-preamps crapped out (according to our engineers) and the guitar sounds began constantly changing.  We basically decided that it would be easier to start the guitars again – this was a horrible decision to make after all the work we had put in.  A big problem with this is that time had been set aside to complete the recording and with this set-back we now had to complete the album in a series of small sessions around many people’s day jobs, commitments etc.  It was eventually completed and we discovered that while Direct Input recording the guitars (with the intention of re-amping) the gear we used caused the guitar tone to suffer.  This lead to some issues during the mixing phase causing the whole mixing process to take longer than it may have otherwise.

These two issues were the main factors in the album taking so long to complete (almost 2 years!) but there were a huge list of other more minor issues we faced during the recording process also.  In the end it was a massive relief to get the bloody thing done!

MO:I personally think it’s one of the best sounding Australian metal albums around, are you happy with how it’s turned out?

S: Yes we’re very happy.  There were a few points during the recording process where doubts crept in and I was wondering just how well it would turn out, but in the end it all came together extremely well and it was great to hear the final result.  More than anything the album owes its sound quality to our recording/mixing engineer Ermin Hamidovic, but also to Plec at Panic Room Mastering in Sweden, who did a great job mastering the album and was fantastic to work with.

MO: How has the general response to the new album been so far?

S: Overwhelmingly positive so far.  It seems to be very well received by all that have heard.  We have sent quite a few copies out worldwide whilst seeking label support for the album.  We are still waiting to hear from various organisations and we are extremely eager to get the album out to the masses and have it heard.  We have moved a few copies from the online store on our website, both locally and internationally and are eagerly awaiting our album launch which is coming up on the 7th of Feb.

MO: You re-recorded three of the four tracks off the ‘Blackened Skies EP’ for this new album, except for the title track, was there any particular reason you decided to leave that song out?

S: Personally I would have loved to have included it.  There were only a certain number of tracks that we could record on this album, due to both finances and the fact that we didn’t want to make the album overly long.  We spent a while deciding on what the tenth track to include should have been.  I wanted to include ‘Blackened Skies’ but our now ex-bassist Ben wanted to re-record ‘The Path Less Travelled’.  We ended up going with that, which I also feel is a great track – but I still miss having Blackened Skies on the album as it is a favourite live.

MO: In Malice’s Wake formed way back in 2001 so it’s taken a fair while for a full length to finally be released. Do you think it’s more important to gain a reputation on the live scene before releasing a professional recording, or was there another reason why the band left it so long?

S: As a band we have always written material excruciatingly slowly and that more than anything is the main factor in our first full length taking so long to arrive.  We play with many ideas and variations before our songs are complete, but in the end I feel that we are left with very strong tracks that stand the test of time – in that we don’t hear them a year later and think “man, we won’t be playing that live anymore”.

That said, it was been great having a fan-base eagerly await the album and I am extremely excited by the fact that we can play an album launch to an audience that have followed and supported the band over many years.

MO: Do you have a favourite track off the album?

S: My favourite is Eternal Nightfall.  I was very happy with how that track recorded and came together, and I feel like it represents what In Malice’s Wake sounds like these days very well in a single track.

MO: Coming up is your album launch show, also featuring Eyefear and Black Orchid who are also launching new albums at the show. What can fans expect from your performance at the gig? Will you be playing an especially long set to celebrate the occasion?

S: The set won’t be especially long due to the fact that 3 bands are launching their albums on the night.  However, we have gotten a dedicated lighting engineer on board, hired a great sound engineer, prepared a great set of old and new tracks (including our first ever cover song – which we’ll keep to ourselves for now J) and rehearsed like mad.  Add to that that it is at the Espy with a great line up and it should be a massive night to remember.  I think most of all it will feel like a huge celebration of the work that has gone into the album over the last few years – I’ve been waiting to launch this bloody debut for so long now!

MO: Will you be hitting the live scene a lot more, and perhaps touring interstate, in support of ‘Eternal Nightfall’?

S: Absolutely, 2009 should be a huge year for us now that we have the album completed.  We will be looking to promote it as much as possible and will definitely be planning to head interstate, as well as play some long overdue all ages shows.

MO: There was recently a change in band members with bassist Ben Withers leaving the band, now replaced by Jamie Walker-Preece, what was the reason behind this?

S: The main reason for Ben’s departure was that we felt he was struggling to play the newer material at the level that we wanted.  It was incredibly tough, especially after the huge amount of time he has been a member of the band.  Thankfully the split was very professional and we have remained very good mates with Ben.  He has also supported us heaps, coming along to shows and getting into the spirit.

MO: Now onto a few general questions, seeing as it’s a new year, are there any albums you’re really looking forward to in 2009?

S: I’m yet to hear the new Destruction album (2009?) but I’m not hanging to hear too many new albums off the top of my head at this stage.  That said, I’m sure there’s a mountain of releases well worth checking out before the year is out!

MO: Did you have any real favourites of 2008?

S: I played both Testament’s “The Formation of Damnation” and Opeth’s “Watershed” to death.  Both took me a few spins to appreciate properly, but once they dug their hooks in they didn’t leave the car stereo for quite some time.  I was also surprised to find myself enjoying Death Magnetic.  It was nowhere near the brilliance of their early work, but it was great to hear some new Metallica that was quite listenable in my opinion.

MO: What other Australian metal bands would you suggest people check out?

I reckon the obvious one would be Psycroptic, they are doing extremely well and I’m sure they don’t need me to suggest that people check them out.  I have always enjoyed Alarum and Mortal Sin also.   I have been really impressed with a newer local band Septerrus every time I have seen them live, well worth a look.  Eye of the Enemy have also recently completed a recording and are very tight live.  We have played with Envenomed and Demonhead on many occasions and they have always been great.  Regarding newer bands Demolition will be fantastic at their first live show and Orpheous are a younger band that is doing very well also.  There will definitely be many shows worth checking out Australia wide this year – so get out and have a look!

MO: Cheers for taking the time to do this interview for MetalObsession.net and best of luck for the bands future!

Band: In Malice’s Wake
Date: 2/02/2009
Origin: Melbourne, Australia
http://www.myspace.com/inmaliceswake

Questions: Mitch Booth (Metal Obsession)
Answers: Shaun Farrugia (Guitars/Vocals – In Malice’s Wake)