Rock history is littered with the stories of bands that worked tirelessly to break through only to enjoy diminished returns at best. It is, by all accounts, wildly frustrating; a band can try endlessly to find just the right combination of factors to strike gold, yet consistently come up short each time. Sometimes though, the best results come when a band just lets go and, if ever proof was requisite that some of the best things happen when you're not expecting them, it lies in the case history of Bastard Child Death Cult. The band (including alumni from Damn 13, Cancer Bats, Monster Voodoo Machine and Hell Yeah Fuck Yeah) came together just two years ago when each member was experiencing a lull in their respective careers. The idea was the play around, blow off steam and have a bit of fun, but BCxDC has recently been seeing a startling amount of praise since the release of their debut, Year Zero. “To be perfectly honest, I didn't expect any of this to happen,” says Bastard Child Death Cult singer and Stereo Dynamite Records president Adam “Doom” Sewell, bemusedly. “When we did the Bastard Child thing, I expected it to probably be the worst-selling record that Stereo Dynamite had ever put out [laughing]. I had no hopes or aspirations for it, I just thought it would be a fun thing to do – but I think it must have just had a 'right time, right place' kind of feel to it because it has definitely hit on something and the feedback has been phenomenal. For example, we've never played in the States and here we are going to South By Southwest, and About.com just named us the number two band to see there behind Fat Mike from NoFX. I'm floored by that, and now writers from Kerrang are contacting us and loving what we're doing, and Alternative Press gave us a glowing review.
“All of that is feeling really good so we've just decided to run with it.”
While the success of Bastard Child Death Cult and Year Zero, may have shocked the band, it won't be hard for listeners to understand or fall in line with. Year Zero really does live up to its name; while everyone in the group may be an old hand or long-term fixture in the Canadian punk and metal underground, the album plays like a brand new band insofar as not playing it even a little bit safe at any point; everyone just goes for broke. The dual guitar onslaught supplied by Darren Quinn [once of Monster Voodoo Machine –ed] and Adam Arsenault [formerly of Hell Yeah Fuck Yeah –ed] stands up as a single jagged and imposing force that only gets run through by Davey “Riot” Smedley's monolithic bass (check out the back end of “Radio Silence” if you want your brown eyes turned blue) and chased by Joel Bath's drumming. Particularly on songs like “Buzzkill,” “Blackout” and “Halo,” the band makes the most of its unique hybrid that incorporates metal weight, punk speed and hardcore's ceaseless aggression and doesn't come off as sounding too close to any of them exactly, but doesn't collapse in on itself and spill out as an over-ambitious mess either. Rather, what listeners get is a sound akin to an unrefined (and very, very pissed off) adrenaline rush that strikes out in every available direction and floors it balls-out each time. Simply said, it's actually a terrifying assault that's easy to catch a contact high from and even easier for punk fans to love.
As Sewell says himself, that aggression and passion has certainly already caught the attention of listeners and, according to the singer, the band is in the best imaginable place to capitalize on the attention; because everyone in the group is familiar with what being in a working band entails and has already 'trial-and-error-ed' it through the learning curve with other acts, the members know how to avoid pitfalls and capitalize on opportunities as they present themselves. “There's definitely no sense of trepidation on anybody's part when it comes to the job of being in a band,” says Sewell as he explains the band's combined mindset that has been upheld since it started to look like the band might turn serious. “All of us have toured before – I mean, Darren and I have spent years on the road together; not weeks, not months, years touring and we know how to get through it. I think the thing is that we're not stupid, serious young kids trying to make it more work than it needs to be. We've said before, 'Fuck it, let's go, we know how to do our own gear, sound, anything and everything else, let's go' but what's nice now is the fact that it doesn't feel like we're banging our heads against the wall trying to put it over on people; for one reason or another, there's this connection now and people are starting to understand what we do. It's funny because it was never, ever what we expected; honestly, the intent of this first record was to make something that would be like a band putting out their first seven-inch single or something. We never thought of Year Zero as 'the debut record,' it was like, 'let's go rip ten songs, maybe we'll be able to fit them on a seven-inch.' It was something for fun and it's really cool to see the way that it has connected with people.”
Even with that said though, Sewell does have the presence of mind to not run in headlong like Ramjet the rookie at the first sign of success either. While the band is already working on material for a follow-up to Year Zero, no songs have been set in stone yet and both band and singer would like to get a few more worldly opinions on what they're doing before they commit to another release. “We've almost finished writing a new record – we're getting pretty close,” says the singer in an almost hushed tone. “I would kind of like to get a lot more touring in before we go in to record it though, because I'd like to get a better sense of what people are liking about what we do before we commit to a whole new batch of songs. It's kind of a weird thing; part of what we do is very garage-y and rock-based, and then part of what we do is this hardcore punk thing and I'd like to get an idea of what people dig about us before we go make a record that may lean one way or the other.
We're definitely trying to get over to the UK before the end of the year,” continues the singer. “We're setting little goals for ourselves; this year we wanted to play South By Southwest and do a little US stuff, I want to go to the UK and I want to go to Japan. If we can do that, then mission accomplished and we'll reconvene and set some new goals to try and make something happen.”
Artist:
www.bcxdc.blogspot.com/
www.myspace.com/bastardchilddeathcult
www.facebook.com/bastardchilddeathcult
Download:
Year Zero by Bastard Child Death Cult
Further Reading:
Ground Control's review of Year Zero by Bastard Child Death Cult.
Album:
Year Zero is out now on Stereo Dynamite Records. Buy it here on Amazon .
