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Interviews : “The EP is a raw, in-your-face slab of riffs.” – An Interview With Ryan (Black Rheno)

By on August 14, 2016

From the gruesome depths of Sydney, Australia and spitting out hot, catchy chunks of stoner, sludge, grind, punk and doom that are downright in-your-face heavy is Black Rheno. Formed in August 2015, these relentless lads have wasted no time in wreaking havoc and mayhem with their insaly addictive sound. They’ve toured up and down the east coast, recieving airplay on Triple J and featuring on Australia’s Heavy Mag compilation, all within a few short months. Metal Obsession caught up with the vocalist Ryan for a quick Q&A session on what the band’s been up to, their upcoming EP, current tour and more.

 

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                                 Ryan – Black Rheno

An intriguing name to say the least, Ryan gave us a little more insight in to how the band’s name was coined. “The name Black Rheno hey, well i think best described as a state of mind, when you reach Black Rheno, its as though you have jt been taken on an outa space journey into the nether regions of the cosmos and Henry Rollins has just slapped you one upside the head screaming “begone you mongrel hippy, begone !” Enough said, I believe.

Reading their Facebook Bio which undoubtedly packs a solid punch (of words), the idea of bringing Black Rheno to life was born from a much simpler idea. “I run a small recording/ rehearsal studio called Housefox Studios, Dougy our drummer rocked up one day having just moved to Sydney from the Centy coast and was looking for a place to store his drums and have a bash…. Not long after that another fella rocked up, this time some spanish c@#t called Nano who was also looking for a place to jam out some riffs having just moved to Oz. We all got to hanging out and jamming, and strait off the bat it was on, it clicked straight away from the first jam and we new we had something special. The tunes just flowed and the vibe was awesome!” Doesn’t that bring a tear to your eye?

Musically, the guys have stated that they draw inspiration from bands like Kyuss, Fu Manchu, King Parrot, Cancer Bats, Clutch, etc. Spontaneity and a genuine love for heavy music seems to have guided this new act’s sound dynamic. “I think thats just what happens when we jam, we basically get together and start belting out riffs and jams and thats what comes out. We all have some different influences from stoner to punk to grind, rock n roll and good ole heavy metal. We’re just playing what feels good at the time and having fun mixing up everything we love.

Heavy, crusty and sludgy grooves all the way through would be an understatement when it comes to their new single. A little more brain-picking led to some info about Black Rheno’s upcoming EP ‘Let’s Start a Cult’. “Cheers, she’s a club banger for sure- yew! We have the EP recorded and ready to go, the single “No Time For Numb Nuts” is the first release off it so be sure to check that one out now, you can pick it up from our bandcamp page Im sure. As for the rest of the EP its a pretty raw in your face slab of riffs, stoner, sludge, grind & groove…. a very tasty mix if I do say so myself!”

 

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Ryan also threw light on how the band goes about piecing together and recording their music. “Our songs spawn from the jam room, we’re not a band that has one member come in with fully fleshed out songs directing everyone else when and where to play, fuk that. We get together and just free flow jam, sometimes tunes will go for 20 minutes or more and we’ll have no real direction from the start and we end up pulling a bunch of riffs outa the jam and start shaping it into something, other times there may have been a particular riff floating around which has a certain feel and we direct it into where we wanna go with it, all throwing ideas into the pot.

For recording we are lucky enough to be able to take care of that ourselves so its just a matter of getting the songs to where we want them, set up and I track it all at my studio. We also work with some great engineers getting Shane Edwards on the mixing and Alan Douches on the mastering.”

Any guest features? “As for guest features we are working on negotiations with Britney and Madonna at the moment….. its looking good.“As the kids say these days, L.O.L.

All the band members have been in heaps of bands prior to the creation of Black Rheno, playing show after show. But what do they aim to bring to their live performances with this new project? “Well, batshit crazy is a pretty good start I think.”

 In addition to the good fortune of Black Rheno,Youngy from local favourites King Parrot has taken these guys under his wing, an honour and more when working with someone you look up to.
 “Yeh Youngy has been a champ, we’ve been working with him for a while now and the kids got moxy thats for sure! He really has a great point of view and work ethic when it comes to rock n roll and has really helped point us in the right direction in taking our band where we wanna go with it. And yeh its pretty sick having someone you look up to digging your tunes and wanting to lend a hand, pretty humbling.“

Currently on their East Coast Tour promoting their new single, Ryan talked about their live perfromances and if they’ve been selling out merch.“The shows have been great, we have been kicking out the jams and making a mess everywhere we go, climbing over tables, screaming in peoples faces and generally just pushing people around and demanding the purchase our merchandise. I find that sometimes if you follow people back to their cars and force a few T’s up their exhaust pipe they really do respond well.

We accept all major credit cards too!”

One last message to Australian fans about Black Rheno and you’re upcoming EP. “Shout outs to everyone that been getting along to the shows and causing a bloody good time to be had with us, its a damn fine feeling to share the music you love and work so hard on with a room full of people that get infused with it and everything thats going down, its just one big crew grooving and having a heck of a time, so cheers up for joining us!

An official release date is yet to be confirmed but we will have one monster of an EP for you all later in the year called “Lets Start A Cult” so keep you eyes pealed for that, some much groove, some much sludge, so much insanity, we’re so keen to share it with you all! 
 
Also Cheers up to Metal Obsession for the support!”

Catch Black Rheno live on the remaining dates of their National tour.

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About

Prarthana is a vegan, Indo-Aussie, heavy music addict, fluent in sarcasm and metal. Traveling is an obsession as she enjoys taking in the history of various countries and following her favorite bands. She's either eating, teaching grammar or learning an instrument, when not occupied with windmilling in the faces of other humans.