Blistering.com: You didn’t play on Genesis, but you obviously play the stuff. Most of the time artists will say the new album is the best album they have done because the newest one is always the best. What makes this album better than the last one?
Rice: For one, it wasn’t thrown together in two months. We had six months to sit down and figure out what we wanted to do with this record. We had time to look over everything, so if a single note was off, we would sit down and fix it. That really helped, as well as getting a shit-ton of new influences. We all search for new music everyday! That helped, as well as getting new members. We also recorded with Jason Suecof [Trivium, God Forbid, etc.], who is a phenomenal producer. He has great ideas, which really helped. He really added a lot to the record, including a great guitar solo. I think all of that made this, without a doubt, a better record than Genesis, and I think 99% of the people who listen to it will say the same thing.
Blistering.com: The deathcore tag had thrown me off. I thought, “Oh, this is just another shitty deathcore band.” What got me wanting to hear the new album, though, was the press release on what this album is all about. I’m a huge Alex Jones fan and am all about fighting the NWO. Does your album title Ruination describe a central lyrical theme?
Rice:Ruination envelops the entire album. It’s not so much a theme as every song floating around that idea. Jonny [Davy] writes all our lyrics, and he is a huge conspiracy theorist. He’s a big Alex Jones fan. MSNBC is on the TV every day. He is constantly reading, writing and thinking about all of those things that are completely wrong in our world. He might latch on to an idea like nukes in North Korea or our own government, and write a song about it. He’s a phenomenal lyricist and a great vocalist as well. I think that’s the idea behind every song—there is some problem that he wrote about.
Blistering.com: It seems like each song is the thing that leads to ruination. Every song presents the worst-case scenario.
Rice: Yes, he writes from the perspective that everything is fucked, we know this, and it’s not going to change any time soon. He writes from that perspective and his opinion is completely fucked up. He does a very good job of it.
Blistering.com: You played “Constitutional Masturbation” during your set today. Tell me about this track.
Rice: I can’t speak about the lyrics because I haven’t read them, but musically, it has a lot of great blasting. At the end of the song, we have a great Cannibal Corpse type groove. I think it’s a great song, and I’m glad we have played it as much as we did before the record. The kids knew the song because we had a single for it. Kids would come down and ask for it, and get stoked when we play it.
Blistering.com: How has this album done so far compared to Genesis? Have you sold more records?
Rice: The first week wasn’t as good, but it charted higher, which is an inverse. It has to do with how records aren’t selling worth a shit right now. The first record did 14 (k) the first week and debuted at #54. The record industry is just shot. After that, the record starting selling really well, better than Genesis. I think people started, through word of mouth, figuring out that the record is good, especially kids who have come down and seen us play those songs live on Mayhem Fest. Those songs go over well.
Blistering.com: How is this tour going? We have JFAC, Behemoth, Cannibal Corpse, and Slayer—there is a diverse crowd. Do you think you’re getting into a different section of the metal fold?
Rice: I think so. It has been really fun on this tour. All the bands have been phenomenal. It has been fun touring with them. I think we are crossing over into the crowd that is into Killswitch Engage, Trivium and All That Remains. We really appeal to the Lamb of God audience. We definitely have the most extreme stage presence on this tour, and I think this is finding appeal with a lot of the audience. We’ll see a lot of kids coming up to us on this tour wearing Bullet For My Valentine shirts, which is cool. It’s really cool that these kids are finding out about older death metal bands, especially Cannibal Corpse. You should see the crowds Cannibal Corpse is pulling in. There are kids, younger kids, that have probably never heard them before, but they are out there head banging during Cannibal’s set. It’s really cool to see one of the founders, Cannibal Corpse, draw such a large crowd.
Blistering.com: I’m used to seeing Cannibal Corpse play mid-level clubs. It’s astounding to see so many people come out to watch them play.
Rice: The festival draws 15 to 20,000 people, and every day you have six to seven thousand people watching Cannibal Corpse. Some kids are going to grab their seats for Bullet, but the diehard metal kids will stick around. It’s great seeing all this crazy shit. It’s really awesome!
Blistering.com: You previously toured with Behemoth. What’s it like going out on the road with them again?
Rice: It’s really cool! They drink a lot. They taught us how to drink a lot.
Blistering.com: The Poles always drink a lot.
Rice: Yeah, they are crazy. Nobody can hang with them! If you try, you will die! We’ve pretty much toured with every band on our stage [Hot Topic stage], except for Whitechapel—they are awesome—so it’s like a huge summer camp. Everybody hangs out. We have death metal parties back stage. Even Killswitch hangs out every day. Bullet hangs out every day. Slayer hangs out every day. It’s fucking awesome! Marilyn Manson...members of his band hang out every day. It’s very cool. There aren’t really any egos on this tour.
Blistering.com: Is this the biggest crowd you’ve ever played in front of? You’ve probably played some bigger shows in Europe.
Rice: We did Wacken and we did Download Festival. Wacken was 45,000 people that we played in front of. That was the single greatest moment of my life! That’s the biggest metal fest in the world. Download has over 100,000 people each year. We played in front of 45 to 50,000 people. In terms of the U.S., this is the biggest tour we have ever done! I think it is picking up where Ozzfest, unfortunately, left off.
Blistering.com: Where does JFAC go after this tour ends?Rice: It has just been announced. We will be touring with Lamb of God, on their off dates from their tour with Slayer, and Gwar. That starts September 16 and goes through November 11. After that, we are doing shows with Gwar all the way through December. Then we have stuff lined up in Europe. We are pretty much booked on tour for the next year-and-a-half to two years. It’s a typical album tour cycle, I guess you would say.
