OBITUARY Guitarist Says New Songs Are Influenced By HELLHAMMER

In a recent interview with Metal Maniacs magazine, OBITUARY guitarist Trevor Peres spoke about the songwriting process for the group's much-anticipated new studio album, tentatively due in June via Roadrunner Records. "It's what you would expect from us," he said. "I'm not sure I know what people expect from OBITUARY, but we're going to do what we do. There's some slick, chunky, groovy shit that makes you want to bash heads, you know?! There are driving songs; songs that make you wanna get in your car and out your pedal to the metal."

Metal Maniacs: Where would it fit in with the rest of the OBITUARY catalog?

Trevor Peres: "It's hard for me to say. Some of my songs are being influenced by HELLHAMMER right now, it's ridiculous. The last four years, I've been listening to nothing but HELLHAMMER [laughing]. I'm sitting there writing these two-chord riffs that are so fast and heavy but it's like that old HELLHAMMER, you know [sound effects]. It's just heavy."

Metal Maniacs: What have you been listening to — outside of the new songs that you've been writing and HELLHAMMER?

Trevor Peres: "Recently I haven't been listening to shit. It's weird. I've been so busy working my ass off, trying to pay the bills, I don't do anything. But I love my old stuff. It's what I really listen to, if you get down to it. I listen to SLAYER, POSSESSED… I still listen to LYNYRD SKYNYRD, THE ALLMAN BROTHERS, ZEPPELIN and all that stuff."

Metal Maniacs: Will OBITUARY put out the next record via Roadrunner?

Trevor Peres: "Yeah, we owe them a record."

Metal Maniacs: Oh, I thought the live record ["Dead"] and "Anthology" served to fulfill any contractual obligations you had left.

Trevor Peres: "No, to be honest, I thought we owed them more than one, because we did five studio records and the live record, which I don't know if you can count as a record on the contract. I thought we owed them nine total. But maybe because of the years that have gone by and all that, I don't know. Maybe there's like a clause that if we break up and get back together we owe them one more record. I don't know how it works, but basically we're trying to talk to them about some numbers in the contract. But yeah, I'm sure it'll be on Roadrunner, 99.999 percent sure."

Metal Maniacs: Are you worried about not being on a more death metal-oriented label? Back in the early '90s, Roadrunner seemingly owned death metal, but climates have changed a bit.

Trevor Peres: "Well, the owner of the company said he was really excited about us getting back together. Actually, he said he wanted to revamp [the company]. He wants to get his metal department back on track and what better band to do that with than us? We know that once we do something, they're going to pump it very good. They told us they don't want to leave us hanging."