REMAINS - Grind Til Death
Words and banner by: Tom Wilson @thetomwilsonexperiment - Sense Music Media | Monday 11th July 2022
Extreme Metal Veterans Unleash Hell
Lyrics about brutal true crime killings, a frontman who used to helm BLOOD DUSTER and a song called Groganator … If this doesn’t sound like a good time, then there may be no saving you. A who’s-who of Aussie extreme metal – featuring members of CAPTAIN CLEANOFF, THE KILL, FUCK I’M DEAD and THE DAY EVERYTHING BECAME NOTHING, REMAINS are about to unleash their debut LP Grind Til Death, and SENSE had a chat with frontman Tone Bone about closing the book on BLOOD DUSTER and writing songs about serial killers.
Let’s go back to the pre-BLOOD DUSTER days. What was your first exposure to heavy music, and to grind in particular?
Going way back, when I was a little tacker, the bands that drew me into the heavy metal scene would’ve been MOTLEY CRUE, W.A.S.P. … The first time seeing the pentagram on MOTLEY CRUE’s Shout at the Devil, my brother had it, my older brother. The pentagram, it drew me in. “Ooh, what is this? This must be bad!” I never knew what it meant, but I was right into it, and I turned the cover around and here are these four dudes dressed like maniacs. I was like, “This is sick!” Put it on, and Shout at the Devil, the intro, just blew my brains to bits. From there, as it probably does with everybody, it gets a bit heavier – METALLICA, IRON MAIDEN and whatnot. From there, I got right into a bit of German metal, with KREATOR … SODOM … a bit of TANKARD and all that. Yeah, then went to the death metal. Listening to NAPALM DEATH with Harmony Corruption, that was the first time I heard the blast beats and all that, and went back on their catalogue, and started getting into the grind. With a little help from other friends that liked to tape trade back in those days, I got right into grind, and starting in the band BLOOD DUSTER … I was playing their demo over and over before I even joined that band. I was a big fan. That’s when I met Jason Fuller. He used to work in a record shop in Melbourne here, and he’d always tell you about more stuff that you should listen to and all that stuff. It all went from there!
One thing I really regret missing was the last shows that BLOOD DUSTER played. What was that like for you? How did the shows go, and how did it feel afterwards?
It was really good. The show was at The Tote, one of the venues that we played at a lot … They sort of … not “raised us”, but it was a venue that a lot of our crowds in Melbourne came and saw us play at. It was awesome. Great show. It was a little bit sad to see the band ending at that time, but it is what it is. I was totally wasted that night. Yeah. I think we blew the stage lights, or maybe that was the next night at The Corner Hotel. Yeah, fun times, and great memories … from what I can remember, anyway.
Are you happy that you’ve left it there? Has there ever been any part of you going, “Oh, maybe if we took it for another spin?”
Yeah, not at this stage. I’m getting on in life these days. I don’t want to rehearse. I never wanted to rehearse anyway. I don’t like rehearsing, but it’s got to be done. Nah, I’m doing REMAINS now, and my other band called KING … that’s plenty at the moment.
How did REMAINS come together?
The other members, the drummer and the guitarist, Jay and Dave, they sort of started this band back in 2015. They wrote some stuff, never played it or anything … did a few demos and whatnot. It sort of got put to rest, and then Jay and I and Dave, we hang out a lot and we’re best mates … We hung out one Christmas just for a catch up with friends, and I was like, “Let’s do this REMAINS thing. It’ll be sick.” That all started, and that was like 2019. We got Rohan on bass from CAPTAIN CLEANOFF, UNDINISM and a few other bands. Yeah, they had songs, we wrote some more songs, and we were like, “Let’s do an album,” so we wrote even more songs, and here the album is now, ready to be released to the world!
Grind Til Death … what can you tell me about the lyrical inspirations for the new album? What kind of stuff were you writing about?
A lot of the content is fictional, a bit of rubbish, all tongue-in-cheek, all funny. Like Lords of Grind, which is a song about the band killing some fans in the crowd or whoever is watching us, one by one by each member … Other songs that I’ve written are pretty much drawn from murders that have taken place around Australia – brutal, brutal shit. A song like Bludgeoned to Death … Shot Dead … Just basically, I find it easier to go to an article and read something and write from that, rather than just make up stupid shit.
So you’re a bit of a true crime guy?
Not fully, but just to write for this band. It sort of fits the band name, and the style of music that we do as well.
You could do a concept album about the Underbelly killings!
Yeah. [Laughs] Who knows? There’s a song in there that we do … Beast of Belanglo, about Ivan Milat.
You’ve always been a bit of a charismatic bugger as a frontman. Who are some of the frontmen that you’ve looked up to in heavy music, and why?
Number one would be David Lee Roth – he’s a bit of a wild man on stage, as we all know … a bit flamboyant. I look up to heaps of frontmen. Abbath from IMMORTAL, just the way that he talks to the crowd, I find that very amusing. Who else? Dee Snider back in the day, with his costumes … Blackie Lawless from W.A.S.P., outrageous … It’s just something that I like to do; I like to put a show on, be a bit of a show-off frontman. Crowds like it … In my opinion, I find it boring looking at a band who just stands there and doesn’t really engage with the crowd. A few beers under my belt, and I’m away!
Have you heard of a band called CHOOF?
They’re playing on our album launch.
Have you seen them before?
Nah, I haven’t. I’ve seen some stuff on social media and all that stuff. I’ve listened to a couple of songs on their Bandcamp. They’re pretty wild. Looking forward to seeing those guys. They sound like they go off a bit.
Oh man, enjoy. Their frontman is like G.G. Allin reincarnated. I was genuinely worried for my safety. [Laughs]
I think I saw … They did a thing at Last Chance, in the front bar there, and he was just tearing into the crowd. It was great. My kind of dude!
Grind Til Death is out July 15th. The album launch is August 20th at The Old Bar in Melbourne.
Pictured: REMAINS