Old school or B’URST! After a few months of delay their second EP was finally pressed into vinyl. Together as a band since 2013 with members hailing from São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Here is a brief interview I did w/ Menezes about GRIM MACHINE and The Iron Squad’s background:
1. LIVING FAR FROM EACH OTHER, HOW THE BAND GOT TOGETHER? WHAT OTHER PROJECTS ARE YOU GUYS AFFILIATED WITH (PAST AND PRESENT)?
M- Actually, the band got together because of Rafael Madeira (Pointing Finger / Pressure / Disxease), believe it or not, hehehe! The first place he lived upon arriving in Brazil was my place in Rio, where we start talking about doing a quick project in the vein of Victim in Pain, early Youth of Today and WarZone. The idea was just jam a couple times, record a DT and maybe play one or two shows. That project ended up evolving into a full-blown band with the add of JayPee and Junorz. The line up today consists of me, Menezes, on vocals, JayPee on Bass, Pedro and Junorz on the guitars and Punkids on drums.
Bands we´re affiliated to are just so much to pinpoint, but I would say Reajuste, Newspeak, I Shot Cyrus, Futuro, Direct Shot, Static Control, Black Coffins, Infamous Glory, Power Abuse and WereWolf.
2. EVEN THOUGH THE NEW EP TOOK A WHILE TO COME OUT YOU GUYS ARE KEEPING A GOOD PACE OF NEW MATERIAL OUTPUT, WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE WRITING/RECORDING PROCESS IN GRIM MACHINE AND THE DEAL WITH ASSURD RECORDS?
Well, on the DT as well as in the first EP I was responsible for all the material, riffs, lyrics and all. I would think of something, play it on my bass, recorded, send it to the guys via facebook for them to learn, and then we jam just a couple times before recording it. A pretty fast and straight to the point deal, actually.
With Grim Machine the process was kinda the same, but Junorz and JayPee had a lot more input in the songs, coming up with ideas for riffs, changing structures and things like that. But so, once again, we rehearsed just three or four times together before entering the studio, hehe! We were kinda on a hurry because the band was on hold for almost a year, since Rafa’s departure and JayPee living in Spain for good part of 2015, and also because Paulo (former Institution and Still Strong, who was the drummer for this session) had a tight schedule before moving to Philly.
The deal with Assurd was pretty much the same with Criminal Rights. They wrote me asking if we would be interested in having our next material released by them… We said yes and then start moving our asses in order to have something to be released, hehe!
3. LAST TIME YOU COVERED SFA AND GOT A POSITIVE FEEDBACK FROM THE BAND THEMSELVES, ANY REASON FOR PICKING PUBLIC OPINION FROM URBAN WASTE THIS TIME?
I’ve always loved Urban Waste since the first time I listened to them on that old Sunday Matinee compilation. And I thought the lyrics for Public Opinion just matched the overall feeling of the other lyrics on the EP.
4. THE NEW ARTWORK LOOKS DOPE, IT MATCHES THE BAND’S SOUND IN THE HIGHEST DEGREE AS IF IT WAS ALL CONCEIVED IN THE 80’S, NOT DIRECTLY RELATED BUT IT REMINDS ME OF B.SABBATH’S MOB RULES LP. WHO DREW IT?
Thanks, dude! Yeah, Mob Rules, I’ve never thought about it, but now that you pointed out, it really carries a strong resemblance, haha. The artists were two very talented Italian lads, Paolo and Alberto, and actually it was Alessio’s (Assurd Records owner) idea to work with them. We had the same references and it just clicked from the get go. I’m very proud of the work they did.
5. WHICH BANDS FROM RECENT YEARS ARE CACTHING YOUR ATTENTION THESE DAYS, EITHER FROM BRAZIL AND ABROAD?
Oh dude, A WHOLE FUCKIN LOT! Here, the first ones that came to mind are Dedication, Violent Stomp, Dash (a new project from the guys in Guast!), Static Control as well as Velho, Whipstriker and Tyranno from Rio. Also the new Futuro LP is a killer and everything Veneno Lento put out is great, although I wouldn’t consider them new. From abroad, I was just stoked with Firewalker, Anarquia Vertical and Line of Sight last year. Malcontent and Warfare is pretty damn great as well, but what I’m listening the most these days is Eternal Champion, the new Magic Circle album and that promo from Rival Mob.
6. IN AN INTROSPECTIVE VIEW, “OUR SCENE” SEEMS MORE FRAGMENTED NOW THEN NEVER, HATE IS WIDESPREAD. TRUE DIY HARDCORE SHOWS ARE NARROWING TO A FEW ATTENDEES, THE MAJORITY ONLY CARES ABOUT BIG TOURING BANDS AND NARROW-MINDED BEATDOWN ACTS.
ON THE OTHER HAND I NEVER SAW SO MANY BRAZILIAN HARDCORE PUNK BANDS TOURING AND RELEASING MATERIAL IN UNITED STATES AND EUROPE LIKE LATELY. IS THAT ONE WAY TO FASTEN THE CYCLE BACK TO NORMAL OR ARE WE JUST POSTPONING THE INEVITABLE? (DOOMED TO JUST EXPORT MUSIC NOW AND THEN).
I think hardcore is for few people, and it’s just the way it has to be, period. Also, I rather be in a room with 50 strong reliable people than with 200 bandwagoners who just gonna listen those bands for one or two years and then split for whatever will be trending and hip. Man, I came from Rio and here the hardcore scene is pretty much dead and buried since 2006, hehehe! It’s just that washed out third generation of christian beatdown metalcore or some cringeworthy anemic melodic/emo hardcore, so I couldn’t care less for the state of the current “scene”.
I just try to focus on my peers and which bands I think are putting out good music, and these bands happens to be my friend’s bands and the same ones who are being released overseas, hahahaha! I can’t lie, I’m really proud of all of them. DisXease, Dedication, Futuro, Violent Stomp, they’re all great and deserve the recognition. And if you take a closer look, you will see that the people in these bands are the same ones keeping the things going, be it organizing shows, putting up tours for international acts, releasing another bands material, doing zines or just creating a bunch of other side projects. So I think things gonna keep this pace for a while around here, with hardcore returning to be kind of our secret little club.
7. FINALLY, WHERE AND WHEN SOUTH AMERICANS CAN GRAB THE NEW 7”? AND WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS FOR B’URST, AN EUROTOUR OR A FULL-LENGTH PERHAPS? ANY LAST WORDS?
September, if you just don’t want to buy straight from Assurd, haha! Our good friends in Violent Stomp will bring us the goods after their tour, long sleeves included for you fuckers who just want to appease your merch fix.
Well, we’re now in process to write new material for a full length and we have this project of recording a bunch of covers from bands we like, hardcore or not (mostly not). And since now for the first time in three years we have a stable line up, yes, we do think about touring. Nick Tape talked to us about playing Damaged City, and also Athos (Broke & Infamous) said he can arrange something in UK for us, but nothing serious so far, we’ll see, there’s a lot of places here in Brazil that we want to go, like BH, POA and CWB, before thinking about touring overseas.
My last words, citing the mighty OVERDOSE, are “enquanto aquela estrela brilhar no azul do céu, o heavy nunca vai parar de rolar!”. Send your hate mail and anonymous threats to xmenezesx@hotmail.com and drop by our bandcamp page, even though the music sucks, it’s for free.
PURCHASE 7"/MERCH
1. LIVING FAR FROM EACH OTHER, HOW THE BAND GOT TOGETHER? WHAT OTHER PROJECTS ARE YOU GUYS AFFILIATED WITH (PAST AND PRESENT)?
M- Actually, the band got together because of Rafael Madeira (Pointing Finger / Pressure / Disxease), believe it or not, hehehe! The first place he lived upon arriving in Brazil was my place in Rio, where we start talking about doing a quick project in the vein of Victim in Pain, early Youth of Today and WarZone. The idea was just jam a couple times, record a DT and maybe play one or two shows. That project ended up evolving into a full-blown band with the add of JayPee and Junorz. The line up today consists of me, Menezes, on vocals, JayPee on Bass, Pedro and Junorz on the guitars and Punkids on drums.
Bands we´re affiliated to are just so much to pinpoint, but I would say Reajuste, Newspeak, I Shot Cyrus, Futuro, Direct Shot, Static Control, Black Coffins, Infamous Glory, Power Abuse and WereWolf.
2. EVEN THOUGH THE NEW EP TOOK A WHILE TO COME OUT YOU GUYS ARE KEEPING A GOOD PACE OF NEW MATERIAL OUTPUT, WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE WRITING/RECORDING PROCESS IN GRIM MACHINE AND THE DEAL WITH ASSURD RECORDS?
Well, on the DT as well as in the first EP I was responsible for all the material, riffs, lyrics and all. I would think of something, play it on my bass, recorded, send it to the guys via facebook for them to learn, and then we jam just a couple times before recording it. A pretty fast and straight to the point deal, actually.
With Grim Machine the process was kinda the same, but Junorz and JayPee had a lot more input in the songs, coming up with ideas for riffs, changing structures and things like that. But so, once again, we rehearsed just three or four times together before entering the studio, hehe! We were kinda on a hurry because the band was on hold for almost a year, since Rafa’s departure and JayPee living in Spain for good part of 2015, and also because Paulo (former Institution and Still Strong, who was the drummer for this session) had a tight schedule before moving to Philly.
The deal with Assurd was pretty much the same with Criminal Rights. They wrote me asking if we would be interested in having our next material released by them… We said yes and then start moving our asses in order to have something to be released, hehe!
3. LAST TIME YOU COVERED SFA AND GOT A POSITIVE FEEDBACK FROM THE BAND THEMSELVES, ANY REASON FOR PICKING PUBLIC OPINION FROM URBAN WASTE THIS TIME?
I’ve always loved Urban Waste since the first time I listened to them on that old Sunday Matinee compilation. And I thought the lyrics for Public Opinion just matched the overall feeling of the other lyrics on the EP.
4. THE NEW ARTWORK LOOKS DOPE, IT MATCHES THE BAND’S SOUND IN THE HIGHEST DEGREE AS IF IT WAS ALL CONCEIVED IN THE 80’S, NOT DIRECTLY RELATED BUT IT REMINDS ME OF B.SABBATH’S MOB RULES LP. WHO DREW IT?
Thanks, dude! Yeah, Mob Rules, I’ve never thought about it, but now that you pointed out, it really carries a strong resemblance, haha. The artists were two very talented Italian lads, Paolo and Alberto, and actually it was Alessio’s (Assurd Records owner) idea to work with them. We had the same references and it just clicked from the get go. I’m very proud of the work they did.
5. WHICH BANDS FROM RECENT YEARS ARE CACTHING YOUR ATTENTION THESE DAYS, EITHER FROM BRAZIL AND ABROAD?
Oh dude, A WHOLE FUCKIN LOT! Here, the first ones that came to mind are Dedication, Violent Stomp, Dash (a new project from the guys in Guast!), Static Control as well as Velho, Whipstriker and Tyranno from Rio. Also the new Futuro LP is a killer and everything Veneno Lento put out is great, although I wouldn’t consider them new. From abroad, I was just stoked with Firewalker, Anarquia Vertical and Line of Sight last year. Malcontent and Warfare is pretty damn great as well, but what I’m listening the most these days is Eternal Champion, the new Magic Circle album and that promo from Rival Mob.
6. IN AN INTROSPECTIVE VIEW, “OUR SCENE” SEEMS MORE FRAGMENTED NOW THEN NEVER, HATE IS WIDESPREAD. TRUE DIY HARDCORE SHOWS ARE NARROWING TO A FEW ATTENDEES, THE MAJORITY ONLY CARES ABOUT BIG TOURING BANDS AND NARROW-MINDED BEATDOWN ACTS.
ON THE OTHER HAND I NEVER SAW SO MANY BRAZILIAN HARDCORE PUNK BANDS TOURING AND RELEASING MATERIAL IN UNITED STATES AND EUROPE LIKE LATELY. IS THAT ONE WAY TO FASTEN THE CYCLE BACK TO NORMAL OR ARE WE JUST POSTPONING THE INEVITABLE? (DOOMED TO JUST EXPORT MUSIC NOW AND THEN).
I think hardcore is for few people, and it’s just the way it has to be, period. Also, I rather be in a room with 50 strong reliable people than with 200 bandwagoners who just gonna listen those bands for one or two years and then split for whatever will be trending and hip. Man, I came from Rio and here the hardcore scene is pretty much dead and buried since 2006, hehehe! It’s just that washed out third generation of christian beatdown metalcore or some cringeworthy anemic melodic/emo hardcore, so I couldn’t care less for the state of the current “scene”.
7. FINALLY, WHERE AND WHEN SOUTH AMERICANS CAN GRAB THE NEW 7”? AND WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS FOR B’URST, AN EUROTOUR OR A FULL-LENGTH PERHAPS? ANY LAST WORDS?
September, if you just don’t want to buy straight from Assurd, haha! Our good friends in Violent Stomp will bring us the goods after their tour, long sleeves included for you fuckers who just want to appease your merch fix.
Well, we’re now in process to write new material for a full length and we have this project of recording a bunch of covers from bands we like, hardcore or not (mostly not). And since now for the first time in three years we have a stable line up, yes, we do think about touring. Nick Tape talked to us about playing Damaged City, and also Athos (Broke & Infamous) said he can arrange something in UK for us, but nothing serious so far, we’ll see, there’s a lot of places here in Brazil that we want to go, like BH, POA and CWB, before thinking about touring overseas.
My last words, citing the mighty OVERDOSE, are “enquanto aquela estrela brilhar no azul do céu, o heavy nunca vai parar de rolar!”. Send your hate mail and anonymous threats to xmenezesx@hotmail.com and drop by our bandcamp page, even though the music sucks, it’s for free.
PURCHASE 7"/MERCH
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