Delivering the Goods
Chicago’s Bible of the Devil are a study in heavy metal/rock ‘n’ roll precision and dedicationYoungstown Pulse Magazine
CHIGAGO — Chicago metal kings Bible of the Devil have been casually rocking the United States and Europe since 1999. The band has criminally flown under the radar for most of it’s duration to the point of out-rocking their influences in practically every fashion while getting very little credit for it.
While Metallica slagged off on efforts like “Re-Load” and “St. Anger,” and heavy metal legends like Slayer started ditching their guitar solos in favor of the flavor of the month drop-D chug, it was bands like Bible of the Devil flying the true flag of metal —with mixed results commercially as well as on the road.
So after enduring the full wrath of touring as a starving metal band with penchant for twin guitars ala Maiden, Rainbow, UFO, and harmonies and song structure in step with Thin Lizzy and Trouble, what would possess a band like Bible of the Devil to keep touring in America given the current state of the rock and metal industry?
“Someone has to do it,” drummer Greg Spaulding said. “You can’t just have all these bands clogging everything up with shit.”
And that’s that.
Bible of the Devil (the name comes from the Strom Thurmond quote when he called Elvis and rock ‘n’ roll music the “bible of the devil”) aren’t new to Youngstown. They have played here on a few occasions in year’s past at the now defunct Nyabinghi most notably headlining the first night of Emissions from the Monolith in 2005.
The band has also graced the stage with metal luminaries such as Trouble, Paul Di’Anno, Raven, Manilla Road, Dead Moon, High on Fire, Mudhoney and Helmet, upstaging the headliners in many instances.
They’ve also played for one person in a giant Champagne, Illinois theater.
So to say they’ve sort of experienced the highs and lows of being an American rock ‘n’ roll band would be an understatement.
“I just think the idea of people being excited about good old rock music is very trying because the filter is a lot different,” Spaulding said. “You see bands now that are totally disposable. It’s hard to believe that it has lasting power with the people, but the collapse of the industry has a lot to do with that. Record companies are gonna go with what makes the money.”
In other words, as long as people keep shelling out their cash for Nickelback records, you’re not going to see a resurgence of real rock because no one with any clout is going to take a chance on it.
BOTD have run the gamut of small record labels as well. They currently reside with Cruz Del Sur from Italy and had releases on the also defunct Scarey Records (also Italy) as well as the dwindling Dead Teenager Records (run by the dudes from Zeke) from Seattle who haven’t put anything out in nearly a year.
“Cruz is still going pretty strong,” Spaulding said. “They’re going to do our new record this summer. You have to find the labels that will at least help, because there are so few left.”
That most of the indie metal labels left are in Europe poses another problem for the BOTD crew. The band straddles the line between rock ‘n’ roll and New Wave of British Heavy Metal in many aspects.
Spaulding explained.
“The reception is a little bit different over there,” he said.
“Europe is way more polarized. There are certain scenes you have to get into before you can even book shows. There’s a lot of metal purists over there. We’re not in one thing or the other, so it makes it hard when you’re on a bill with four bands who are all dressed to the nines or have on some stupid fucking face paint.”
That BOTD doesn’t fit into a specific sub-genre of metal might not get them shows in a few select European cities, but it bodes well for their sound specifically on their latest offering “Freedom Metal.”
The band has done concept records in the past though never letting the overall idea get in the way of the songs.
As Classic Rock Magazine said about “Freedom Metal,” “This is BOTD album we’ve all been waiting for: a relentless death-gallop of completely mental twin guitar ass-chuggery and New Wave of British Heavy Metal-esque power. It’s a head-on diesel locomotive train wreck of the collision between Budgie and Angelwitch with an extra helping of Thin Lizzy circa ’76. Sure man, this one’s a concept album, too, and the concept is this: Bible of the Devil rock you so hard your fuckin’ brain falls out.”
“The Thin Lizzy thing has always been there,” Spaulding said. “When we started there was more of a garage rock feeling. There wasn’t a lot of twin guitar harmonies, but you could see where it was headed. With our music it’s gotta be an anthem, and you’ve gotta rock. You’re playing it to have a definite impact. To this day we still listen to so much Thin Lizzy, a lot of bands have gotten away from the signature guitar harmonies. People want to be weird just for weird’s sake, and it becomes so weird it becomes unlistenable. 20 years later I still hear Slayer and Megadeth and Guns and Roses in my head.”
Spaulding summed of the BOTD album philosophy quite simply.
“Every song needs to rule on an album or don’t even bother,” he said.
And Bible of the Devil remains committed to surviving on the road.
“It’s still about bands doing what they want to do,” Spaulding said. “That’s the biggest challenge. It’s almost about what you have to tune out, and there’s a lot of bad shit, and you just have to block it all out. It’s just all about being smarter about how you do things. If you want to do it, you keep finding a way.”
Bible of the Devil will find their way to Youngstown on Thursday, May 12 at The Royal Oaks. Touring partners in crime High Spirits will be with them, and local hard rock/metal-slingers White Cadillac will open.
WHO: Bible of the Devil (Chicago), High Spirits (Chicago), WhiteCadillac (Youngstown).
WHEN: Thursday, May 12, 2011
WHERE: The Royal Oaks
COST: $7 at the door
ONLINE: www.bibleofthedevil.com
Influences on his sleeve — BOTD drummer Greg Spaulding rates his metal
Bible of the Devil drummer Greg Spaulding knows his metal and rock‘n’ roll. Youngstown Pulse got the call from him shortly after a four-hour band rehearsal where the group found itself re-learning some ofits classic tunes since they’re hitting areas they haven’t hit in awhile (Spoiler alert: “Cocaine Years, Cocaine Tears,” “Kicking
Birth,” and “Guns Germs and Steel” are among the top contenders to return to the band’s set). But eventually the formal interview devolved into a bullshit session on heavy metal where I asked Spaulding to rate the following bands on a scale to 10 and give hiscomments. Here’s what he had to say.
Iron Maiden – 10. “Definite ten. Highly influential.”
Venom – 8. “Important thrash. The feel was there. All about excitement.”
Judas Priest– 10. “Definite ten. Anthemic. Even more so than Maiden. We always go for that British Steel drum sound.”
Volbeat – 3. “I don’t know if I can rank that. I think that was another Metallica find. A lot of that shit to me is not truly
bringing it. Maybe I just haven’t heard it enough to comment and need to give it another listen.”
Motley Crue – 10. “Just for the importance of Tommy Lee’s rockdrumbeats. Can’t go wrong with any of that shit. Sixx is a greatsongwriter, Mars is a great guitarist and Neil can sing when he wants— sometimes. The playing is still good.”
Zeke – 10. “What the hell? We’ll give them a 10, too. Those guys have probably some of the worst attitudes ever but it works. Just to see how they deal with the crowd. We were hanging out with Zeke and Camarosmith, they just tore everyone a new asshole.
Raven – 8. “Raven is cool. Fun dudes, It’s intesting seeing a bass player with a headset mic. Those guys always have anthemic songs. We can play with guys like Raven and Paul Di’Anno and it’s all cool. Those guys still all have the right perspective on that thing.”
Metallica – 7. “Obviously they had some seriously classic albums. You can’t deny the past songs. But our friends The Sword were opening for Metallica. Apparently Lars was all drunk going ‘blah blah blah’ about the new Metallica record and I guess it was a very awkward situation.Who would’ve thought that no one would hear what you want to saybecause you’re acting like that much of a moron? They said it was really weird and no one gave a shit what the next Metallica album would sound like. They got so big they almost employed too many people. You wouldn’t see Iron Maidenmake “Some Kind of Monster.” Does anyone want to see Kirk Hammett wriring lyrics? No one wants to
see that. But no doubt, they did three landmark records in a five-year span which was incredible. Then one of their main songwriters died. I kind of have mixed reviews about them.”
Voivod – 9. “Just for sheer innovation. Not the most catchy stuff, they do the weird kind of chords. Anyone in the metal community would pay attention ot that and how progressive that was. I always thought that band was cool. There was always an element that they were different.”
Anthrax – 9. “I like the older stuff, but I thought “Sound of White Noise” was absolutely great. Killer riffs. Charlie Benante is a great drummer. I was more of an SOD fan because of all of their riffs. Scott Ian is kinda weird for me because he does so much VH1 shit, but I’ve always liked his style. I was more a Bush fan. They are a unique band. The John Bush stuff was a lot more forceful.”
Motorhead – 10.“Lemmy is 65 years old and he just keeps going and he’s totally comfortable where he’s at. Isn’t that kind of more important to leave the legacy, rather than face plant?”
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