Interview date: 01.07.2008
Almost Rage is a hard-hitting Thrash metal trio from the coast. After a few years of playing as The Fifth Season they decided to change their name and add some freshness and speed to their music. Despite the new name, they remain true to Thrash metal and a no-compromise stage show that has already pleasantly surprised plenty of people. Worth noting: they’re one of the few Thrash metal bands that don’t lean 100% toward Bay Area Thrash metal, which is hotter here at home than ever before. And that’s one of the things that makes Almost Rage special and unique in the mosaic of the Slovenian metal scene.
Rockline: ”How come you renamed yourselves from The Fifth Season to Almost Rage?”
Almost Rage: ” We renamed ourselves because an Italian band with that name already exists. Before a joint gig in Gorizia we got a written request to change our name. We ignored it for quite a while, but now that we’re planning to record an album, we went ahead and changed it.”
Rockline: ”What do you think the name change has brought you, good and bad?”
Almost Rage: ”The bad thing is that we have to play first on the bill at gigs again…we have to make a name for ourselves all over again, in a way. We’re not saying we were crazy famous until now, but under the new name we have to start from zero when it comes to recognition from the crowd. The good thing is that we’ve redone the arrangements for our old material, and we now play it way better than we did at the start.”
Rockline: ”How would you yourselves most easily define your kind of music?”
Almost Rage: ”We play metal, or rather Thrash metal. But we’ve never worried too much about what genre we’re playing. The material comes spontaneously and what matters is that we like it. We do have role models who influence our music in a way, but of course not in the sense that we’d openly copy them or just play their stuff.
Rockline: ”Where do you draw your ideas for making music from?”
Almost Rage: ”If you’re asking where we get our inspiration, that’s really hard to describe. Usually a moment comes along that’s totally spontaneous, and that’s how a new song is born. It all depends on the moment and the place.”
Rockline: And what’s your biggest strength?”
Almost Rage: ”Probably our laid-back attitude.”
Rockline: ”You mentioned earlier that you made new arrangements for your somewhat older songs. What exactly did you change?”
Almost Rage: ”Yeah, around the same time as the new name we also changed our approach to the music a bit. We made the arrangements a little simpler and tailored them more to a single guitar. We know there were moments before when a second guitar was missing, but it’s hard to find new members on the coast. On top of all that, we have a very specific way of working…since we’re also really good friends, there’s a lot of ”messing around” between us. We also shortened the songs a bit and made them hit a little harder.”
Rockline: ”You’re announcing your first album for the future. Which studio are you planning to record in, and who will produce it?”
Almost Rage: We’ll be recording in the home studio of our producer and friend Alex Delfin, and the studio engineer will be Tadej Tadič (Sunshine). We decided to record the album with the help of friends and borrow the gear we need instead. The money we’d originally planned to spend on recording will go toward buying new equipment. Of course, the main goal is to take enough time to record a solid album that all of us are happy with.”
Rockline: ”And when can we expect the album to come out?”
Almost Rage: ” We’re hoping the album will be out sometime in early fall.”
Rockline: ”Which label would you most like to see put out your album?”
Almost Rage: ”For now it’s still hard to think about any label in particular. As far as foreign labels go, it seems to us that Metalcore bands are at the front of the line right now, the ones getting the media spotlight. We’d be happy to release an album under a big-name label, but that’s very hard to pull off. Even with a domestic label it’s almost impossible to get an album out. Still, we’d definitely never turn down an offer from, say, Roadrunner records.”
Rockline: ”What’s your take on the local metal scene, and how visible do you think it is in the media?”
Almost Rage: ”Media visibility is really poor. There’s very little of the local metal scene on TV and radio, even though there are more and more Slovenian bands and they keep getting better.”
Rockline: ”Are you thinking of organizing a little tour around Slovenia with another band when the album comes out?”
Almost Rage: ”A collaboration with Hiram would be nice, given that we’re both from the coast and a bit cut off from the central metal scene, which mostly happens in Ljubljana. A joint mini tour would be very welcome, since it would let us introduce ourselves to a somewhat wider audience.”
Rockline: ”How do you promote your band yourselves?”
Almost Rage: ”The easiest way to promote a band is through all kinds of internet media and sites. A good example is our Myspace page, where we collect friends who can listen to our music right there. That way we can introduce ourselves to a whole lot of people. For the strictly metal crowd, though, we think the best thing is still a post about the band on the Paranoid-zina website.
In the future we also plan to record a song for a compilation from the coast, and besides the audio CD there will also be a live DVD of the bands featured on the compilation.”
Rockline: ”What about printing T-shirts? You don’t have any yet?”
Almost Rage: ”First we’ll focus on recording a good album, because good music is what matters most. Everything else can come after that.”
Rockline: ”And what about gigs? Do you have to fight for every gig yourselves, or do local promoters invite you?”
Almost Rage: ”We even got an offer from abroad, for the Iced Tears festival in Gorizia. In Slovenia, though, we mostly ”sort out” gigs ourselves. There are a few offers too, of course. Lack of free time is another problem, since two of the members have regular jobs, so we can’t play whenever we’d like to, only when time allows. That’s just how it is here: no metal musician can live from music alone, it can only be a hobby.”
Rockline: ”I heard you’ve already had to cut a gig short twice. Is that true?”
Almost Rage: ”It is. The first time was in Koper, when the Tramontana almost literally blew us off the stage. The second time we had to stop halfway through because the police shut the gig down. Looks like we’re a very dangerous band for the state”
Rockline: ”Thanks, and lots of luck in the future.”
Almost Rage: ”Thank you”
interview by: Matevž Ftičar
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