SFM: Moving onto touring, I know you guys have a US tour coming up, and Malevolent Creation recently said they’re not going to be doing tours in the US anymore because they find the conditions aren’t as good as in Europe or South America. Are you guys finding the US to be a little bit more difficult than other countries?
Paul: I don’t believe so. I think we’ve always had great
shows in the States. I can understand, to some extent, what they’re talking
about. It’s just a different culture, different places you’re playing,
different countries; they do things differently in certain countries. In the
States, a lot of venues don’t have great backstages or showers in the venues,
or things like that. It seems like almost any club in Europe are equipped for
that kind of thing. As far as shows go for us, I think they’re great. We do
great in the States. We sell a lot of records, we have some great shows, the
fans are coming out, and we’ve always done well in the States and we do great
in Europe too. For us, we love playing both places and we will continue to play
the States.
SFM: Torture being your twelfth album, how are you guys
planning on putting new songs into the setlist? Are you going to change things
up each night or each tour?
Paul: We’ll definitely play a bunch of new stuff. We might
change it more tour-wise. We like to get into the groove of a set and play the
same songs, especially if they’re the new ones. I can see on this upcoming tour
us doing between four and six new songs possibly, and depending on how many we
decide to do, we might say “we’ll do four on this tour, and then on the next
tour lets drop two and do a different two or add another two”, but we will of
course be doing a bunch of new stuff, and hopefully like you said, in the
beginning keep it consistent per tour of doing the same new songs, just to get
the groove that way. It’s always a little different playing these new songs
live for the first time and we just did it with “Demented Aggression” and
“Scourge of Iron”, in Europe on this last tour, and they went over great, but
what a weird feeling – it’s a great feeling – but we’ve played a song how many
thousands of times on stage and you have every confidence in the world, and
then all of a sudden you’re playing a song brand new, first-time ever live, and
everything’s a little different. It’s not like you’re playing it in the studio
or your practice facility; now you’re hearing it in a live setting and things
are always a little different, so it’s always very exciting, but at the same
time it’s a little nerve-wracking to finally get those songs out of the way and
worked into the live set, and to have that comfort that you would with older
songs like “I Cum Blood”, “Stripped, Raped, and Strangled”, and “Hammer”
[Smashed Face], songs that you can play in your sleep. We’ll be doing a bunch
of new ones, that’s for sure.
SFM: Speaking of the older songs, are you guys planning on
bringing back any rare tracks like you did with “Scattered Remains, Splattered
Brains”?
Paul: Not at this point right now. Not for this upcoming
tour; we’re going to have a bunch of tours coming up for the cycle, so we’ll
see what we end up bringing back or doing something we haven’t done in a while.
As of right now, we don’t have anything that we’re feeling that we’re going to
pull out of a hat like we did with “Scattered Remains, Splattered Brains”, so
we’ve got plenty of tours to go, we’d really like to concentrate on the new
album, and maybe we’ll get one or two more obscure ones in there somewhere down
the line.
SFM: Speaking of those tours, you have the US tours, some
European festivals, then Summer Slaughter, Heavy TO, and Heavy MTL, are there
any plans to make another live CD at one of those shows?
Paul: Not right now. Things end up getting recorded here and
there and maybe things can be used for other uses. We just released “Global
Evisceration” DVD, which has the two live shows on there, and Centuries of
Torment isn’t that old right now, so I think we might hold off for a little bit
on any live recordings at this point, but like I said, things end up getting
done here and there. We’re going have things at our disposal for possible bonus
tracks and things like that, but as of right now there [are] no plans for any
live releases.
SFM: I was just going to ask, between Centuries of Torment
and Global Evisceration, doesn’t it seem like you always have a camera on you
now?
Paul: A lot of times; obviously we bring our own here and
there to try and film as much as we can and you can get a lot of footage
documented. Of course, those two [dvd’s] specifically were done for those
reasons, and of course [there was] the studio footage. It’s just the way it is
nowadays, to have that kind of stuff out there; the fans enjoy it and it’s been
to document the happenings of the band. With today’s technology and the way
things are going, it’s not hard to do that.
SFM: Given the recent attention in the US about piracy, how
do you respond to people who say that buying CDs just goes to the label and as
long as you see the band on tour it’s ok?
Paul: Everyone’s going to do what they’re going to do; I’ve
never been a fan of it. I grew up in the era of [when] you went and bought your
albums; you tape-traded with some people. You can maybe compare it to that as
well, but I still think, for the most part, metal fans are going to buy the
record. I think it affects all kinds of genres and all music. I think when it
comes down to it, for metal anyways, it does seem like still want to buy the
product. There’s always going to be a couple sour apples; people are going to
do what they’re going to do, but for the most part, a band like us, or other
heavy metal bands, wouldn’t be selling as good as they would be if no one was
buying the records. Look at what Lamb of God just did, that’s crazy to me. What
did they sell, 53,000? Number 2? In this day and age, that’s not supposed to
happen. In metal, it defies that. That’s the good thing with us; there’s always
going to be some detractors, but for the most part, those people are few and
far between. The true metal fans, which there are a lot of them out there, and
a lot of Cannibal Corpse fans are going to go buy the product; they’re going to
want to hold something in their hands, see the artwork, read the lyrics, and
all that kind of stuff.
SFM: Going back to Torture, this is definitely the most
violent album cover you guys have had in a while. Were you using the slip case
to get around any censorship problems you might have?
Paul: Yeah, of course, Metal Blade, they want to get the
album in the stores, and if we’re going to be able to be in Best Buy, and if
they’re not going to accept it with the cover it is, you got to get around it.
You want the album to get out at the major outlets, and to be available to the
masses. That’s the most important thing. If we can get away with that, as
opposed to just having a censored cover where you get no other artwork, you got
to do that if you have to. If we can do what we just did, and put a slip cover
on it like that, and if [people] don’t know what it looks like already, you get
a nice shocking surprise, I would think. Of course, it’s going to be done for
those reasons: to be able to into the outlets and chains that will accept it,
and I think it’s a good way to get around it. I think it’s ok, better than like
you said, just having a censored version, where nowhere in that packaging are
you going to find anything of graphic nature. The fact that we can still have
it in there, and getting it into these changes, it’s ok I think.
SFM: We’re running out of time here, any last words for the
fans?
Paul: We appreciate the support for Cannibal Corpse and
death metal, if it wasn’t for the fans we wouldn’t be here and we’ll see
everybody on tour this summer.