Canadian extreme metallers Cryptopsy have been playing to sold-out crowds across the globe for eighteen years now, cooking up their own brand of brutal metal to a legion of fans. The release of their second full length, now classic ‘None So Vile’ album back in 1996 played a large part in Cryptopsy taking a top seat on the extreme metal scene. Not only were they making waves in Canada, now people all over the world were sitting up and taking notice. There is no doubt that front man Lord Worm’s onstage antics also helped Cryptopsy get noticed by fans and critics alike in those early days. Throughout the years the band has undergone a series of line-up changes which included the departure of front-man Lord Worm, who had taken an eleven year absence and concentrated on his alternate career as an English teacher. Now back with the band Lord Worm is sounding better then ever and for most of us we are happy to see him back fronting Cryptopsy. In May of this year for the very first time, Cryptopsy played a series of sold-out shows for Australian audiences which were astonishing to say the least. I was fortunate enough to catch up with the band before and after the show and pulled front-man Lord Worm aside to answer some questions for all of our readers. Despite all the rumors that have been said about Lord Worm over the years, he is a very down to earth gentleman, who gracefully answered everything that we threw at him. We spoke about his alternate career, those crazy on-stage antics, the rumors , new material the guys are working on and even managed to get a world exclusive. This is one interview you don’t want to miss. Metal Fanatix: Hey guys, welcome to Sydney. When did you get in? Lord Worm: We got in yesterday your time, today our time! Today’s tomorrow it’s great [laughs] Metal Fanatix: [Laughs] oh yeah it gets nice and confusing! You guys have a very busy schedule; while you’re here will you have time to see any of the sights? Lord Worm: Well we did yesterday actually, we seen the bridge and the opera house, walked around, it was great. I went and touched the opera house so I can say my index [finger] was here. We will get a chance to see as much as we can while we’re here. We actually have a day off in Perth before the show. Metal Fanatix: Mate; congratulations on the latest album ‘Once Was Not’ you guys have been getting rave reviews, were you happy with the outcome? Lord Worm: Pretty much, were happiest when people like what we do let’s face it. When we put out crap it’s not that much fun, we’re really looking forward to putting out the next one, we’re workin' on new material right now. Metal Fanatix: Awesome, were you involved with the writing process for the new album? Lord Worm: Yep 100% Metal Fanatix: How long after you came back did you start writing? Lord Worm: Oh I started writing immediately. The material was pre-written and pre-arranged. They gave me an instrumental cd and told me to put down some lyrics. It took me longer to get my throat back though after an eleven year absence and cause we continued to have financial problems between us and the label, what we basically have to do is make our own money and the best way to do that is gig around. So, before our now ex-guitarist Jon Levasseur left had a good idea as well, we never really toured for the now classic album ‘none so vile’ we did an none so vile tour in 2004 -05 and people went ape shit for it so that’s why we financed this album. The material was actually written in early 2001 it took a bunch of line-up changes including two singer changes in that time to finally get a stable line-up to finish the fucker. Metal Fanatix: How hard is it to get the band motivated to go into the studio after taking so much time off from recording? Lord Worm: Part of it was gigging around and playing meaningful live shows, identifiable early Cryptopsy engendered an identity of its own and then changed and then re-changed but for members that have been around from the beginning all of a sudden you realize that no we were right the first time, it feels comfortable. I’m me, this is my skin, and I feel good, let’s do it. Metal Fanatix: Was there a new energy in within the band when you come back? Lord Worm: There was an upsurge in the energy level despite the fact that I was there [laughs]. Metal Fanatix: Was it the same with the fans; were they as excited with the news? Lord Worm: For the most part, there is the contingent of worm haters and I respect them, they have an opinion and a reason for their opinion because of that amazing first effort to change part of my delivery to the Mike DiSalvo way of doing things on the new album where there’s a greater clarity with my delivery, this music is a combination of melody and rhythm and my style is pure melody and without a doubt pure rhythm I try to incorporate some of his rhythm in my clearer delivery to give the DiSalvo fans something less to bitch about, so it doesn’t have to be just worm, so that’s what I tried to incorporate on this album here. Metal Fanatix: While you were off you were teaching English I believe Lord Worm: Still am! Metal Fanatix: Oh really! Lord Worm: I’m an English teacher, that’s what I do. I’m not gonna be here in Cryptopsy all my life, I’m going on forty one here and I’m not gonna be doin' it when I’m forty five my body can’t take it. Metal Fanatix: Lord what are you saying? Does this mean four years from now Cryptopsy will be no more?
Metal Fanatix: [Laughs] What do your students think about your profession as the front-man for Cryptopsy? Lord Worm: They don’t know, and that’s why I kept the worm moniker not only for myself and family but for them too. The guy onstage and the guy off stage are two very different people. For the sake of my students I’ve kept the moniker so that they don’t associate me with music, but this way they associate me with the guy who’s teaching them, this is how it’s done, this is what you have to know, this is why you have to know it, this is your homework. If they are focusing on my alternate career then they’re not learning anything. Metal Fanatix: That’s a good point. Going backwards for a moment you said you guys are writing at the moment while touring, can you give us any working titles you may have at the moment, tell us about the tracks? Lord Worm: It will have to be different from the last album although it will be in the same vein. It’ going to be another concept album another very general concept rather then a story book concept like Pink Floyd’s The Wall which is not really a story but, I like the idea of taking things that are related to one an other lumping them all into a ball and give them a linier progression which is what we did ‘once was not’ and it’s what we’ll do with ‘The Book of Suffering’. Metal Fanatix: How about your schedule with touring, when will you be putting time aside to enter the studio and get the recording done & the production. Is there a date. Lord Worm: Happily we don’t have to worry about that. Our newest guitarist and hopefully permanent member has his own studio. He wants us and we want him; it looks promising. He has recorded some bands out of Québec and he continues to perfect his craft so we’re just gonna do it with him. Metal Fanatix: So he’s still not a full time member, no talks have been held? Lord Worm: Oh he’s going to be, we just have to finish this tour. Metal Fanatix: And see if he survives it [laughs] Lord Worm: Oh he will! He’s young enough, hungry enough and energetic enough, he’s sleeping back there though [laughs]. Despite that though, he will become the newest member of Cryptopsy when he has recorded with us. When his name and face is associated with an entire album, these are all cover tunes for him. Metal Fanatix: Are you guys filming any of the shows on this tour and can we expect to see something released later in the year or early next year? Lord Worm: Not with this tour although it would had been a good idea, we’ve done so much filming in the past couple of years and very little of it been used. A lot of the footage was shot for Flo’s drum DVD. One show that was filmed in Montréal, it looked fantastic lacked sound. It’s not 1921 it’s not a silent film it’s music. You’re expected to hear something [laughs]. It was the soundman’s fault he was on all kinds of ecstasy and forgot to plug in the bloody console. So we’ve got this great live show but you just don’t hear it. Metal Fanatix: [Laughs]. Lord Worm: But we do have an official DVD planned it’s going to be a double filled with an awful lot of extras, hours and hours of stuff. Metal Fanatix: Mate, what goals have you set for yourself these days when you look back on the history you guys have created? Lord Worm: I lived through it and now I’m living through it some more Metal Fanatix: Do you enjoy the traveling? Lord Worm: The act of being on a moving vehicle no, but when we have actually landed someplace and can walk around, see things eat some food and talk to people yes that part’s great. This being our first time down here so far it’s been great Metal Fanatix: You guys were actually supposed to play here a couple of years back at a festival in Melbourne! Lord Worm: I remember hearing something about that and even before that back in 2002 we were supposed to come down here for a tour with Sodom. Metal Fanatix: Oh really wow, I didn’t know that! Do you feel that you guys have played a large role in influencing many of today’s metal bands? Lord Worm: This is what we here, but it’s nothing that we set out to do. We just do hat we do and If people are influenced by that I’m sorry. [Laughs] Metal Fanatix: Laughs, ok mate let’s talk about the worms. Over in the states and Canada you are very well known for one particular part of your show where you go off to the side of the stage with audience members and munch on some worms, tell us originally where did the whole idea of that come from? Lord Worm: It came from founding member Steve Thibault who’s on the demo and is on the first album and contributed 50% of the music on the now classic none so vile. Steve came up with that idea when we were the direct support for Suffocation the very first time that they came to Canada. Back when no one had ever heard of anything like Suffocation and the fact that we got picked out of everyone in Montreal we knew that all these people were going to see us and we had to do something to be remembered. Steve turned around and said well you’ve got the name, why don’t you eat worms onstage. And I thought about it and said “alright I can do that but let’s add a new dimension, let’s share”. It was Steve’s idea and all it was for was to get attention because we were opening for Suffocation and that was a big deal. Unfortunately it worked and I’m still doin' it [laughs].
Lord Worm: Yes they are. There are right up front with their mouths open like baby birds and there are just as many girls as guys that do it. Metal Fanatix: Wow really. Lord Worm: When guys do it there all aggressive and intense about it and when the girls do it, it’s like love in their eyes and it’s great. Eric [Langlois] our bassist, it’s his favorite part of the show seeing the girls eating the worms; he’s like “look at that mouth”! Metal Fanatix: [Laughs] Lord Worm: His second favorite part is when he sees their faces and he realizes“oh you chewed that didn’t ya”? “You didn’t swallow that that hole”. Metal Fanatix: Oh that’s too much [laughs] now I notice you have a couple of containers next to you there. Will we get to witness the act tonight? Lord Worm: Unfortunately no, these ones are alive and too small & the other container contains dead worms that are also too small. When I am back here [Lord walks down the corridor] and I hold up one of those worms you would never see it out in the audience. From back here all you can see is a bunch of fingers. Fingers mean nothing, worms mean something. You’re just not going to see these [takes the lid off the container to show us the size of the worms]. Metal Fanatix: Oh yeah no chance, oh dude that’s disappointing. Lord Worm: It’s ok; we’ve got five more shows, we’ll make up for it. Metal Fanatix: What’s the craziest rumor you’ve ever heard about yourself and or the band? Lord Worm: The band, very few rumors. We hear opinions certainly rumors., yeah they tend to concern me. I'm pretty rumorable I guess. I have heard that I am a pedophile, that I inject my worms with heroin, I don’t even know what heroin looks like! There are all kinds of things. Metal Fanatix: What does your family think about what you do, I mean the worms especially when you hear rumors. such as those that you just mentioned? Lord Worm: They don’t know about it. My family knows that I’m in the band Cryptopsy, that I use the lord worm moniker onstage and that it’s metal. That’s as much as they wanna know. It’s not there thing and I can totally respect that. But my family don’t know about the worms and they certainly don’t know about the rumors. Rumors. are just advertising! That’s all that is. Its word of mouth that keeps the name going and people say the name and others hear you say the name and maybe that will be influential so I don’t mind the rumors. The young lady that I am seeing right now, the minute people saw us in the same room touching each other the rumors. started to fly. “Oh they must have sex with worms”. Metal Fanatix: [Laughs] Lord Worm: Don’t you people have a life? Leave this poor girl alone. Metal Fanatix: [Laughs] Over the years you have shared the stage with so many great bands. Who have you enjoyed touring with the most and could you share a funny road story with us from the tour? Lord Worm: Aborted of Belgium, fabulous people on our North American tour with label mates and well our mates anyway Despised Icon and the great Suffocation a nice little roving tour there four bands and a caravan. Somewhere out in Western Canada, the whole tour was an RV tour with recreational vehicles were dragging trailers with all our equipment and we had to sleep in bunks basically cause we couldn’t get a tour bus. This was around the time of hurricane Katrina busses and vans were all going down to the hurricane victims as part of the hurricane disaster relief program so when your in a RV you have to find some place to park to spend the night if you’re not playing too far, if you’re only playing 2 – 3 hours away. this is was what we were doing on this particular tour. We pulled into this truck stop/gas station and sometime early in the morning you wake to the sound of cows. Yeah they sound like cows but they sound like the south park version of cows [laughs] we were saying to ourselves “that’s fucking Aborted”! Only they would get up early in the morning to moo at us Metal Fanatix: [Laughs] Lord Worm: So finally our bassist Eric lost his cool and went storming outside and came face to face with a truck full of cows. Metal Fanatix: [Laughs] Lord Worm: And so later we told Aborted all about how we blamed them for cows being present, they took it very graciously, we all drank and a good time was had by all.
Lord Worm: For instance the set for Australia which is twelve very carefully selected songs from every album just in case, cause everyone’s got their favorite album right? And we don’t want to piss anyone off. And the only albums that will get a little more played will be ‘none so vile’ and the new one, let’s face it you’ve got to promote the thing. Metal Fanatix: What’s the most ridiculous thing you have ever asked for on a tour rider? Lord Worm: Ya know what this is going to sound silly, but we are so very humble. We don’t want to ask for anything crazy pretentious and stupid. It’s nice to know that we don’t have to pay for our supper, we ask for it and we get it. It’s nice to know that there are towels provided for the guys to wipe their face during the show. I don’t use them but the other guys do and it’s just nice to know that these things are there for us. We don’t ask for anything to extravagant, we don’t want to abuse the promoters, we want to be welcome. Metal Fanatix: Do you feel that you need to go out and hit the road with two or three other major acts these days to make money as opposed to hitting the road with a couple of up and coming bands? Lord Worm: Asking me that questions you’ll probably get an answer that doesn’t answer your question at all. We’re at a stage now where we don’t have to tour with anyone. We can go on the road all by ourselves as we’re doing now and will do across Canada in the fall in October. Back in February we had an interesting line-up across Europe and will have two of the five bands that we played with touring behind us when we go back out in August. We’re going back out with Aborted and Vesania from Poland. We don’t need them, they don’t need us. It’s just fun to tour with them. No one at this point needs anyone it can be done if you have a following and in order to have a following you need to write quality material and promote it. Too few bands write quality material. It’s fun to offer the fans something so overblown that they can’t refuse. Metal Fanatix: How do you keep your voice in such a good shape, it’s one thing to sing your standard metal but doing such extreme metal it must be very hard to keep it in tip top shape! Lord Worm: It’s not something that I do. It’s a series of events that I don’t do. Just tonight because we haven’t practiced or done anything in a week we all had to get our chops back, cause it’s too easy to rust. So tonight we did the two song sound check instead of a one song sound check. Some nights we don’t even do a sound check. No alcohol before the show and that’s a minimum three hours. Milk products minimum eight hours before the show. I don’t want that screwing up my vocals. You need to gak and milk products cheese, butter whatever it is will eliminate gak and then it’s just dry. Metal’s not dry, it’s juicy, it’s got puss behind it. Metal Fanatix: [Laughs] Lord Worm: Something else that’s good is lemon tea and or ice tea with honey just because it feels good. Room temperature water, just one bottle, the perfect lubricant! If you drink too much that dehydrates you too cause your body doesn’t know how to deal with it. Metal Fanatix: I have always heard how fantastic the Canadian metal scene is and yet so many bands are constantly overshadowed by those that come from the united states, tell us about some of the bands we should be checking out from your neck of the woods! Lord Worm: Oh there are a lot of them. You’ve probably heard a lot of them. Voivod of course, rush, earlier I mentioned Despised Icon they are a great band. Neuraxis, even older bands like Razor, Annihilator, Exciter, and Anvil. There’s a whole bunch let’s face it and most of them come from Quebec. Don’t know why, that’s just the way it happens. Metal Fanatix: I recently read an article and I’m not too sure what one of you guys had said it but there was a quote that said something like Americans were uneducated when it comes to the way Canadian’s live and the Canadian way of life. It comes across to me like you guys were saying that Americans were stupid. I would imagine that when American fans read the article you guys are not going to come off looking too good. How do you rectify yourselves after comments like that? Lord Worm: No, that would not come from Cryptopsy, that’s either a misquote or slander. We would never say something like that. Metal Fanatix: I wish I had bought the article in with me for you to see. As I was saying when American fans get a hold of the magazine where this quote is written, it will only take one fan to read into the quote in a negative way and that causes all kinds of problems for you guys. Lord Worm: If something like that was actually printed with our name behind it, it looks like we have got some damage control here, if that’s the message that’s being sent. We’d never say anything like that, god we don’t even think that. We live differently of course, but the metal scene is the metal scene no matter where you go on earth. Metal Fanatix: Mate what would you say have been your greatest achievements to date? Lord Worm: Getting out here to Australia is one of them absolutely no question. It’s a fabulous achievement for us finally. Getting over to Japan was pretty cool to and doing some of the major festivals like Wacken. This is all pre-worm all between worms as I like to say [laughs]. Making it into the metal encyclopedia was cool. Metal Fanatix: What advice do you have for those who are trying to break into the business? Lord Worm: Don’t go there, actually do go there but what I’d have to say would disappoint a lot of people and that’s the trouble with my advice, it’s negative. Don’t take it too seriously chances are very good that you are not going to make a living out of it. Don’t even try. I hope that whoever you are, you meet with all the success that you want but don’t expect it. Anything good that comes your way you have to make happen. Very few good things will reign down on you just because. Make things happen don’t just sit back and think that your shit don’t stink, too many musicians out there will do something on the guitar neck and say well I just created something. I create something every time I take a dump. It stinks I wipe my ass and I flush then I forget about it. Just because you make something doesn’t make it good. Don’t publish everything you make not that many people are interested really! And lets face it a lot of albums most albums are collections of songs some of which become popular most of which are not forgettable but there not the popular ones. Not to say that they a fillers but not everything we create is magical and you have to get used to that idea. Don’t work yourself up into a disappointment cause then it really sucks.
Lord Worm: Yeah, that means bad mouthing someone and you don’t wanna do that in any genre. This is not to play politics, I’ll respect any performer who gets out there and means what they do. Not to make money, they’ve got a creative mindset and they just like to do that, they like to show people the neat things that they can do, that’s cool. There are a lot of bands and performers that I don’t enjoy but naming them isn’t going to help me and it isn’t going to hinder them. But there are certain musical styles that you could gently phase out of existence and I wouldn’t complain [laughs]. Metal Fanatix: [Laughs] Mate I hate this fucking rap, hip-hop shit. Lord Worm: Thank you for reading my mind. It could leave and I wouldn’t miss it. Metal Fanatix: Since when did someone scratching records become a form of music. Lord Worm: Yeah you can make interesting rhythms, got it. Spoken word can sound really cool, got it! Next! There are exceptions to that rule. I mean if you’re calling Cypress Hill hip-hop then there are exceptions. I love them, I adore them. Metal Fanatix: Mate I really wanna thank you for your time tonight. I won’t bother you with anymore questions [laughs]. I will let you go and grab dinner and rest up before the show. Again it’s great to see you guys finally in Australia. Do you have any final words for our readers? Lord Worm: So far so great. Thank you for being so accommodating and thank you for having us over for these shows. We’re gonna put out the best shows possible, and hammer as hard as possible every night that we’re in Australia. Cryptopsy’s Latest Album ‘Once Was Not’ Is Out Now. Grab Your Copy Where All Great Metal Albums Are Sold. For All The Latest News and Tour Dates Check Out The Following Websites: http://www.cryptopsy.net - Official Cryptopsy Site http://www.myspace.com/cryptopsy - Cryptopsy MySpace Site http://insideout666.mysite.freeserve.com - Dedicated to 40 years of hard rock & metal music Make Sure You Catch Cryptopsy Out On The Road Ripping It Up At The Following Venues: Wed 07/19/06 Philadelphia, PA First Unitarian Church Thu 07/20/06 Springfield, VA Jaxx Fri 07/21/06 Poughkeepsie, NY The Loft Sat 07/22/06 Latham, NY Saratoga Winners Sun 07/23/06 New York, NY B.B. King's Blues Club Mon 07/24/06 Hartford, CT Webster Theatre / Underground Fri 09/29/06 Saint John, NB Nep-Tunes Sat 09/30/06 Halifax, NS TBA Mon 10/02/06 Quebec City, QC Imperial Tue 10/03/06 Montreal, QC Le Medley Wed 10/04/06 Ottawa, ON Mavericks Thu 10/05/06 Hamilton, ON Absinthe Fri 10/06/06 Rouyn-Noranda, QC Petit Theatre Sat 10/07/06 Toronto, ON Opera House Sun 10/08/06 London, ON The Embassy Mon 10/09/06 Sudbury, ON Jubilee Centre Wed 10/11/06 Thunder Bay, ON Kilroys Thu 10/12/06 Winnipeg, MB Royal Albert Hotel Fri 10/13/06 Regina, SK The Exchange Sat 10/14/06 Edmonton, AB Mead Hall Mon 10/16/06 Victoria, BC Sugar Nightclub Tue 10/17/06 Vancouver, BC Columbia Hotel Thu 10/19/06 Calgary, AB Stetson's Sat 10/21/06 Columbia Heights, MN Star Central Sun 10/22/06 Mokena, IL Pearl Room Mon 10/23/06 Cleveland, OH Peabody's Down Under © Cameron Edney June, July 2006 Not to be re-printed in any form without written permission. |
