OBITUARY Guitarist On Upcoming Tour With SLAYER: 'It's A Bucket-List Type Of Thing That Took 30 Years'

Hellbound's Gene A. Gaona conducted an interview with guitarist Trevor Peres of Floridian death metal legends OBITUARY prior to their May 25 concert at DNA Lounge in San Francisco, California. You can watch the entire chat below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On "hitting their groove" with OBITUARY's 2017 self-titled studio album:

Trevor: "That was fun. It was a fun album. The whole creation process was basically the same thing we always do. Just some really cool ideas came out. We nitpicked some of the structures a little bit more than normal, but other than that, it was just us trying to write an OBITUARY album is all we were doing. Nothing special. It's cool that everybody likes it. It makes us happy."

On the inspiration behind OBITUARY's distinctive guitar tone and vocal approach:

Trevor: "Well, a lot of old metal. Obviously, like HELLHAMMER, VENOM, CELTIC FROST. I mean, obviously, FROST is a big influence on OBITUARY. We've covered their songs before. Yeah, definitely some FROST, HELLHAMMER for the guitar tone, I think, comes from. At first, we were sounding a little more thrashy, even before it really got as heavy as it did, the first couple of years, but we were babies still. [Laughs] We were 13 or 14 or whatever. But eventually things changed and I bought a different amp and stuff like that and dialed in some different tones and it was, like, 'Whoa, there we go. That's what we need right there.' It was dialed in."

On taking part on the European leg of SLAYER's "final" tour:

Trevor: "Oh yeah, we're pretty stoked about that. It was funny, the other day I did an interview in Seattle and it was the first time I got to say it in an interview. We've known for months; we've known since probably late January, early February, like we knew we got the offer and it was inked in, signed, contracted, whatever you want to call it back then. 'It was inked in blood back in February.' We knew this whole time we've been touring and stuff and we've been biting our lips the whole time. Obviously, SLAYER is a huge influence on OBITUARY and probably every freakin' extreme metal band and if they're not, I don't know what they're listening to, but they are. We've never done a tour [with SLAYER]. We've done some festivals over the years over in Europe, but still, yeah, this will be the first time we've toured with them. It's a bucket-list type of thing that took 30 years. [Laughs] So, never give up. It might happen. It's cool. It's great for us in general being fans of SLAYER. And, then also, the aspect of the crowds we're going to get to play in front of. We've played in front of huge crowds at festivals, but this is different. This is a tour where there's four bands only playing. They're all coming to see these four bands and hopefully a bunch come to see us, too."

On whether SLAYER's impending retirement makes him think of when OBITUARY may one day hang it up:

Trevor: "I mean, I guess all things come to an end. All good things. We don't really think or talk about it. We know we can't do this until we're 80 — it's impossible. It sucks to see them go. I'm sure… this is their 'farewell tour.' They're not going to tour anymore. I can see Wacken one day saying, 'Here's a bunch of money to come do a show.' I would think they would do big fests, I think. They still got it within their heart."

On OBITUARY's immediate plans:

Trevor: "After this [tour], in July, we do some festivals in Europe. I think we're doing a few fests and a few club dates, like nine gigs in July and August. And we're working on some pacific stuff like Australia, maybe Japan, New Zealand. I think we had an offer for Tahiti, which is, like, 'Really? Tthere's a metal scene in Tahiti?' I think we're going to find out because it makes financial sense. We can even go by ourselves even if we wanted to do that as a one-off. We're going to try to squeeze it in with some other stuff."

On whether OBITUARY has started work on new material:

Trevor: "Donald [Tardy, drums] and I haven't physically gotten in a room together to jam songs, something new, but there's been a few times throughout this last year of touring where I actually got my phone and recorded some riffs. Like at soundcheck, a few times, there's usually one of the days you're doing soundcheck and the sound onstage is so incredible that you feel it. I'm doing my line check and all of the sudden I come up with a riff by accident. And Terry [Butler, bass] will be, like, 'What's that, dude?' I'm like, 'I don't know. It's pretty heavy!' And DT is, like, 'Yes, it is!' After we're done soundchecking, we'll record it on the phone. I've got a few riffs here and there."

After parting ways with Roadrunner following the release of 2005's "Frozen In Time", OBITUARY released two albums via Candlelight Records — 2007's "Xecutioner's Return" and 2009's "Darkest Day" — before signing with Relapse Records in 2014.

OBITUARY's second Relapse release — the aforementioned self-titled tenth studio album — came out in March 2017.