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About 3 Inches of Blood
There’s a reason fans have come to their shows wearing
Viking helmets and brandishing both real and plastic swords. Born out of a love
for pure metal, weaned on a diet of fantasy and mythology, 3 Inches of Blood
have been slaying the infidel and defending the faith for nearly eight years.
In that time, they’ve released two albums and splattered the
ground with crimson streaks while on tour with Satyricon, Black Dahlia Murder,
Motorhead and Cradle of Filth. These are mighty accomplishments for dedicated
warriors from
exactly the Camelot of heavy metal. And with their new album, Fire Up the
Blades, 3 Inches of Blood have surpassed even their own manly exploits,
crafting a baker’s dozen of anthems and stormers that crash, rip and roar like
a Medieval skirmish.
”With this album, the blacksmith is heating up the blades and we are preparing
for battle,” says vocalist Jamie Hooper. “We are forging the steel that we'll
use to annihilate the heavy metal posers, and in every town we play, the
streets will run red with their blood.”
Throughout Fire Up the Blades, 3 Inches of Blood
demonstrate that the best way to stay ahead of the heavy metal curve is to
write music that comes from the heart and sounds nothing like the horde of
bands tapping into the latest trends. To that end, they draw fuel from their
favorite artists, including Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Mercyful Fate, Manowar
and Enslaved and compile it all into their own lethal potion. Once more, 3
Inches of Blood demonstrate great skill for riding galloping steeds into fiery
realms of crunching riffs and banging heads, but Fire Up the Blades is
darker and more aggressive than 2004’s critically acclaimed Advance and
Vanquish. “Demon’s Blade” starts with a crushing, technical thrash passage
and peaks with twin guitar harmonies over throat-shredding vocals and “Infinite
Legions” features hailstorm blast beats and orchestral swells between martial
riffs.
“This album is heavily influenced by low quality beer, bong
rips and listening to black metal in the dark,” Hooper says. “It doesn’t sound
blatantly black metal, it still sounds like us. But it’s a faster, more intense
version of us.”
Fire Up the Blades marks the recording debut of four out of six of the
bandmembers. Hooper, who co-formed the group, and co-vocalist Cam Pipes are the
only soldiers to return from the last battle, and they’re joined by guitarists
Shane Clark, Justin Hagberg, bassist Nick Cates and drummer Alexei Rodriguez.
But even though the lineup is different, the aesthetic remains the same, and
the skill level actually eclipses that of the last record.
“Sometimes when bands change members it seems like big step
backwards, but this was a major step forwards for us,” Hooper says. “Everyone
new who came in was at their best, which forced everybody else to pick up their
game a little bit and we came up with things we just couldn’t have done
before.”
Also adding to the skull-splintering vibe was Slipknot
drummer Joey Jordison, who produced the record. Jordison became a fan of
3 Inches of Blood in 2004 when he filled in for Satyricon on tour and 3 Inches
of Blood opened. “When he found out we were doing another record, he offered
his services, and we were like, ‘Dude, of course!” Hooper says. “He added a
fresh perspective to the songs and helped us work on some parts and
arrangements. Also, he’s a beer drinking encyclopedia of cult black metal, so
we sat around drinking Pabst Blue Ribbons talking about necro black metal the
whole time, which was awesome.”
3 Inches of Blood started writing Fire Up the Blades in
late 2006 and composed many of the songs in a house they rented in
early this year. They entered the studio with Jordison in October and recorded
at three locations in Vancouver -- The Armory, Mushroom Studios and Hipposonic
-- before finishing up at London Bridge Studios in Seattle.
“Our engineer saw a ghost, but other than that, everything
went smoothly,” Hooper says. “No one was tearing their hair out or yelling at
each other. We were just drinking, having a good time and churning out the
metal.”
Hooper co-formed 3 Inches of
Blood in Victoria, British Columbia in 2000. In addition to a batch of
musicians who are long gone, he recruited singer Cam Pipes, whose high pitched
shrieks both contrast with and compliment Hooper’s vicious growls. In 2001 the
group released its debut, Battlecry Under a Winter Sun, which was
released by a label owned by a local record store. When the shop closed, 3
Inches of Blood self-financed additional pressings of the album, which laid the
foundation for the band’s epic style of music with songs like “Destroy the
Orcs,” “Skeletal Onslaught” and “Headwaters of the River of Blood.”
”When we started, a lot of us came out of this DIY scene where most of the
bands had some sort of message,” Hooper says. “I support that, but we wanted to
be band that was just about good times, and would just cut loose. The music
that we love and puts smiles on our faces is classic metal. And, we’re all fans
of shitty movies and fantasy novels, so we decided to use that stuff as well in
our music.”
Compelled by the band’s dedication and determination,
Roadrunner Records signed 3 Inches of Blood and in 2004 released Advance and
Vanquish, an album that brought to mind the best of bands like Running
Wild, Grave Digger, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Diamond Head. As triumphant
as it was, its creation was a long and bloody process. “We went through about
12 records worth of bullshit making that,” says Hooper. “On the first day of
recording, our drummer and bass player quit. So we had to replace them with
guys who basically learned the songs as we were recording them. And, after we
recorded, our two guitar players quit. But then our new guitarists [Hagberg and
Clark] joined and we were like, ‘Alright, it’s go time.’”
Which brings us back to Fire Up the Blades, an album
that combines fist-tight musicianship, rib-sticking riffs and more monsters and
mayhem than a game of Dungeons & Dragons. No longer, do 3 Inches of
Blood sing about pirates and cyborgs, now they’re more rooted to a dark,
mystical era when great beasts roamed the land, and a man was defined by the
strength of his armor and the power of his sword.
“The general theme of the whole thing is that we are all
united in battle,” Hooper says. “But a lot of the songs are also about the
imagined Christian demons coming forth from their imaginations and reaping the
whirlwind, so to speak. It’s more of a post-apocalyptic doom scenario. ‘’Mad
Max’ barren wasteland, everybody’s fucked kind of stuff.”
While 3 Inches of Blood are eager to see how fans react to
their new album, and are even looking forward to the return of the kids with
swords and shields, they’re also curious about what new kinds of lunatics will
pop up at their shows. “The music’s more extreme now, but I don’t know how much
more extreme some of these fans can get,” Hooper says. “In Cincinnati, we had a
fellow come onstage with a pig’s head on a stick. He fell down and dropped the
head and we had to soccer ball kick it off the stage. Then, in Fargo, North
Dakota, a guy came on holding a severed deer’s head over his head. The tongue
was sticking out and blood was dripping all over his face. How much more metal
can you get than that?”
Take a running dive into The Blades, and find out.
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