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The release of Xentrix's sixth LP is very close, so I thought it is time to find out more about the new record and their plans for this year. My questions were answered by guitarist Kristian Havard. Now dive in and relish the vivid conversation of ours!!!
The forthcoming album of Xentrix is called "Seven Words". It will be issued on the 4th of November, 2022 by Listenable Records. What should the diehard fans of the band expect musically from the 10 new songs of yours? Will they differ somewhat from the songs of the "Bury the Pain" album or continue it organically?
- "Seven Words" feels like a natural progression from "Bury the Pain". I think that the people who liked that album will love this one. Musically it has some of the same ingredients, but it feels like we've grown together as a band and I think you can hear that on this record. We're also really lucky to once again have Andy Sneap behind the mixing desk for us, he really knows how to make us sound crushing. Personally, I think this is the best sounding Xentrix album, but then I always think that when we do any new recording.
The new album will feature a cover version of Alice Cooper's "Billion Dollar Babies" song. Whose idea was to cover it? Why did you choose exactly this song from his arsenal? Any special stories behind it?
- It was actually my idea to do the Alice Cooper track. I saw him live in 1986 and he blew my mind, the show was like nothing I'd ever experienced before and Alice was such an amazing frontman, you couldn't take your eyes off him. I wasn't a huge fan at the time but the theatrics totally drew me in and made me go home and listen to his music. I remember they had these giant balloons filled with "Billion Dollar Baby" dollar bill notes that they rolled into the crowd and people popped them and got showered with the dollar bills, it was so cool.
We always like to do a cover on our albums and we try to make it "our own version" rather than sounding like the original, so this is Xentrix doing Alice... it's not that true to the original, but I hope we didn't murder it.
Could you please unfold to the readers what topics are involved in the lyrics of the "Seven Words" album? Who wrote them and what has been influential on you while writing them?
- For this record our singer Jay Walsh wrote most of the lyrics. He wanted to take a bigger role in the writing of the words this time and seeing as he's the one that sings them, that was fine with me. This album has songs about greed, war, misinformation, rage to name but a few. Most of this record was written during lockdown in the UK, which probably influenced our viewpoint on a few topics. The song "Seven Words" is about being driven far past your limit of patience with someone or something then deciding on impulse to break the situation definitively, for better or worse, regardless of absolutely anything that decision might bring. "Altar of Nothing" is a candid thankyou to all who think that they bless, aid and teach us all with their shrine-like minds of priceless knowledge and wise counsel. Where would we be without them?
The cover artwork was once again done by Dan Goldsworthy. He did an excellent job with it. Its vibe is pretty warlike and post-apocalyptic. How does it connect to the lyrical content and is there any metaphorical meaning behind it?
- Dan is amazing and we're so glad we found him and now he's our go to artwork guy. The song "Seven Words" has a revolution theme to the lyrics so we wanted something that would portray that in the artwork. I spoke to Dan and sent him some ideas I had, which were kind of along the lines of a French revolution painting, but I wanted to include our guy from "For Whose Advantage?" to make it sit stylistically with the other records.
Your line-up seems constant since 2017. How many times per week do you have rehearsals? Do you spend a lot of time together? I mean when you're not on tour or playing festivals? Do you still keep in contact with the former members of the band?
- We're always on WhatsApp, sending each other jokes and pictures, we all enjoy our time together, it's never just going through the motions. When we found Jay, one of the biggest things was that we all got on and had fun together, otherwise it's too much like hard work. Jay lives 3 hours drive from the rest of us, so we rehearse with him when we need to, but the rest of us get together once a week, just to keep the chops up.
In support of "Seven Words" you will visit Europe in November. On that tour you'll be joined by thrash metal pioneers Vio-lence, Whiplash and Artillery. Please share with us more details on the MTV Headbanger's Ball Tour 2022. What kind of set list can we expect from you on those tour dates? Do you prepare some special stage visuals & effects for that run?
- We're really honored to be playing on that bill of legendary thrash acts, it's going to be a great tour. We haven't been told set lengths yet, but it will include songs from "Shattered Existence" and "For Whose Advantage?" as well as the new ones.
Two years ago there were two digital compilations spread online, namely "The Roadrunner Albums" and "Questions". Can you please talk a bit about their content and what were the purposes of these digital releases?
- Actually I haven't got anything to say about those, because they had nothing to do with us. They are just playlists that the publishing company (Warners) just put out there one day, we knew nothing about them beforehand.
Music on Vinyl took a good care of your first three records. How do you like those limited edition colored vinyl reissues/represses personally? Do they come with the original sound or all of them have been remastered?
- Again, we didn't know about those releases beforehand, but the people at Music on Vinyl are nice guys and they did a great job. I actually got an email from Mark Palmer (ex-Roadrunner now at Nuclear Blast) asking me had I seen the Amazon preorder for "For Whose Advantage?" on blue vinyl? I was quite surprised and after ordering two for myself I emailed the guys at MOV and they responded and sent us the first four copies. The audio won't be remastered, but it probably has been limited for the vinyl pressing.
You've recently visited Hellfest Open Air Festival. Please tell us your impressions. Don't you plan to release some kind of live footage in the very near future?
- Hellfest was great, but it was super hot! It was 39 degrees! We're form the North West of England, we can't cope when it goes over 15 degrees. It's an amazing festival that is really well run and everyone behind the scenes was really nice and easy going, which is what we like. We got to watch a bit of Sepultura from side stage, they were brutal, Eloy Casagrande is a beast!
At the end, please hail all the Xentrix fans in Ukraine. Hopefully we can see you playing live over here at a peaceful time.
- We hail all the people from Ukraine, not just the Xentrix fans. We can't imagine what millions of families are going through, as a husband, father and grandfather my heart goes out to every one there, I hope things will change soon. It would be amazing to get to play there, fingers crossed.
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