Mass Grave has been blasting away since 2001, pummeling Vancouver and beyond with their brutally grinding crust. Their drummer, Hesher, was kind enough to answer some questions. The questions are bold, his responses ain't.
You used to play with Fort Nelson / Vancouver grinders NeckBeerd, whom I got to see once when I was 16, opening for the Dayglos to a tiny audience at the local youth centre. That was one of my first exposures to grind, and was a pretty big turning point in my interest in more extreme music. How long was NeckBeerd together, and are there any recordings still available?
I remember that show. The best part was the promoter of that show cut the Dayglos a check for like 15 bucks or something. I think it was a benefit so that's cool but that's some funny shit. We also played the Royal too and I remember all these hippies skanking around to the Dayglos and it was really weird. Neckbeerd was around for quite a while. We started in 1997 and I think we played our last show in 2003. My good friend Braden and I were the 2 constants in that band. We had a few different bass players. We just wanted to emulate all the Slap-A-Ham Records type bands. Spazz, Hellnation and all that stuff. You know power violence or whatever. Looking back it is kind of amazing that we found out about that shit coming from such a small town. One of our friends went crazy and gave all his records to Braden. In the collection we had all of the Bllleeeeaaauuurrrgghhh 7"s. They were old Slap-A-Ham comps with like 70 bands we liked. That's how we heard about Assuck and Man Is The Bastard and all that kind of shit. We used to call all the numbers too. I remember calling the guy from Black Army Jacket and just shooting the shit. We also called the drummer from Eyehategod's house at like 4 in the morning and talked to his mom. We were just dumb ass 16 year olds. Neckbeerd released a few CDs and split 7" with Suckcess. There are still a few copies of the record kicking around.
Mass Grave has a bunch of releases on tons of DIY labels, including several on Unrest Records. How did you guys first hook up with Mikey and Unrest?
Goat has been friends with Mikey for a long time. Mikey has always been really cool to us and when it was time to do a record he offered to help us out. He has a lot of bad ass bands on his label and a killer record store in Edmonton called Octopus Ink. People should check that shit out. Another label that we are working with right now is Mangled Ankle Records out of Calgary. Todd is going to be putting out our new split 7" with In Disgust and the split LP with Stormcrow. He has a killer distro and is an all around solid dude for sure.
Lots of Mass Grave reviews cite Disrupt as a major influence (largely because of the dual vocalist format). Do you see Disrupt as a major influence? Who are some of the drummers that have influenced your playing?
Disrupt is definitely a major influence. We even took our name from one of their songs. We don't mind getting compared to them. That's how music is- you start off emulating a style or a band and then expand on it. Some of my favourite drummers are Dave Lombardo from Slayer, Anders Jakobson from Nasum and John Bonham of course. You can't fuck with that dude.
You did a major tour with Catheter this summer. Are there any highlights from it that stick out? Are there any touring plans in the works?
That tour was so much fun. I think for all of us playing the Bay was a highlight. It was just such a rad day. We hung out with the dudes from Stormcrow and they took us to this huge cemetery in Oakland that overlooked the whole Bay Area. We got blazed up and took a bunch of pictures and shit, then went and played Gilman with Diskonto, Catheter, and Stormcrow. It was killer playing that venue and having everyone get into it. Also playing with Bloody Phoenix in L.A. was sick as fuck. Our set got shut down at the original show spot and got moved to the Bloody Phoenix jam garage. It was a really bad ass night. It ended up turning into a raging party and man Bloody Phoenix played and just fucking killed it.
Touring with Catheter was awesome. We got along really good and grinded our asses of for about 2 weeks together.
Mass Grave's lyrics tackle issues like war, deforestation, pollution, and apathy. Do you see music as a legitimate social tool, or are you more one for rocking out and having a good time (or possibly a combination of the two)?
I don't write the lyrics so I can't really elaborate too much. The guys basically write about what pisses them off. We take our music and lyrics seriously but we try to keep it fun. I do think lyrics can change things for sure. Maybe not society as a whole but I know I have been affected by bands' lyrics in positive and negative ways. I personally get into music first and if it has cool lyrics to go along with it then that's great. Birdflesh is one of my favourite bands right now and their lyrics are absolutely ridiculous and funny as hell. For me music is fun and when bands take themselves too seriously it kind of makes it not fun. I guess if you want to get into the lyrics would should talk to Woody or Goat.
Thanks for answering my questions. Do you have any final words for the bored suburbanites that might read this?
Start bands that are influenced by Black Flag, Black Sabbath, and Discharge. Oh yeah, and fuck hard drugs. Thanks for the interview and for the interest in Mass Grave.
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