Rudy Orozco - Vocals & guitars Giovanni Milhet - Guitars Fanny Tachin - Bass Guitar Yader Moreno - Drums  MMK - What type of band are you? Yader Moreno - Death Metal/Psycho-Brutal  MMK - Describe your sound and your style? YM - If jigsaw from Saw started a band, it would be Suffering Tool. MMK - Who is coming up with the music and the lyrics? YM - We are influenced a lot by movie scores and soundtracks, the overall lyrics are written based on the psychological aspect of the movie "Saw", so we try to add that feel to the songs; if you were to live those lyrics, Suffering Tool it's what you'll be listening to.

Interviewer: Melaine Schweighardt Suffering Tool is a death metal band from Miami, Florida. Originally formed by Fanny Tachin, Giovanni Milhet, Raymond Rodriguez, Alain Candia and Ramiro Pupo in Havana, Cuba in 2011. 2 years after playing all over the island, packing and selling out venues, getting a league of fans and recognition among their peers, they got recognition from an A&R person from the US, who was visiting Cuba, and got offered to come to the states. After arriving to the United Sates, they were granted political asylum and are now residing in Miami FL. Shortly after parting ways with R. Rodriguez and A. Candia, the line up changed joining forces with Miamian veterans in the South Florida metal scene: drummer Yader Moreno and guitarist Rudy Orozco. Later on parting way with R. Pupo and Rudy taking over vocals duties, to form the new, revived and well-sharpened SUFFERING TOOL! The band is currently working on their debut studio album to be released in the fall 2015, as well as booking national shows in support for the album. Expect very promising things from this band in the coming years. Spread the Suffering!!

YM - All of them, the songs have their own character, and a bit of everything for everyone. At times, it actually becomes hard to choose which songs to leave out of our set. 

YM - We have a few shows in town, 2 festivals, then we start pre-production for our EP, then a 2-week tour in late July with Solstice, and then hit the studio in August.

YM - Using social media helps, but can only take you so far. Now it has become a bit saturated and high traffic. So we rely on the old school way of doing things, DIY, some elbow grease and leg work. We promote at any show we attend, passing out fliers or any info about the band. And it's working very well for us, thus far.

YM - Work hard, be humble, practice your instrument and treat your band as a business as well. It almost feels that those words shouldn't go together (music & business) but you must have a plan and meet goals, no matter how big or small, and stay busy, find ways to give originality to how you sell your band. If you are passionate and serious about what you do, all will fall into place.

YM - Wow! Many, many, moons ago. I personally started playing drums in my mid-teens at 16, but it wasn't till 22 that started doing it more serious (and getting paid for it, lol)

YM - Musically, I'm influenced not only from metal drummers or metal bands, even though I have a few metal drummers I like to follow (Tomas Haake, Mario Duplantier, Gene Hoglan), I've gotten inspiration from Dave Weckl, Benny Greb, Jojo Mayer and Stewart Copeland. Even though different styles, I like to borrow ideas from them and apply my own twist. Non-musical, I'm a huge Salvador Dali fan boy and his style of painting, it's almost musical in a way.

YM - To me, it was Nicko McBrain from Iron Maiden. They were my "gateway band" into metal. A neighbor let me borrow a recorded tape of Headbangers Ball and the first video was "Wasted Years", I was blown away. So I asked for more, of course lol, and got my hands on the Live After Death LP, played it and as I opened it, I saw the insert with the Powerslave tour stage, I looked at that massive drum kit in the picture and my next thought was: "I wanna do that!"

YM - Lol, that's a funny question, and that's a term thrown around so loosely, as far as that; it would have to be the already overwhelming support that Suffering Tool has received, or other drummers giving me props on my playing as I get off stage or see a video of the band. That is definitely humbling and inspiring. 

YM - We are doing a 2-week east coast tour with Solstice, Ancestor and Koroidia, all south Florida bands. Looking forward to hitting the road with all these amazing bands and musicians. 

YM - Many say that my hobby has turned into a career, not just with music, but drums, I love drums, selling them, talking about them, and sharing tips. And of course family. I really enjoy spending time with my kids if I'm not doing anything music related. In a way, they are an inspiration as well.

Interviewer: Melaine Schweighardt LOYAL UNTIL DEATH started in 2012 by Nik, Greg and Matt (their old drummer). They were all in the band A NEW BELIEF together and basically wanted to go in a different direction musically and lyrically. They recruited Damon and Steve, who were in SOCIETYS FAULT at the time., they parted ways with Matt and brought in Lance and basically "beat, hammered and shaped the sound that we have today.” South Florida’s hardcore at its best has a loyal following and it’s well deserved. I have seen 40-year-old men start a circle pit and drag the kids in. This is the band that will get you on your feet. Like them on Facebook, find them on ReverbNation and keep your eye out for them.

GL - Nik and I write the lyrics, and Lance and Nik write the music.
 
NR - Yea, that’s pretty much how it goes. It’s crazy. Lance and I can be in the warehouse for 5 minutes and write a song. We write very well together. I mean, we literally wrote 8 songs for the new record in like 2 weeks. 

GL - The ideas for lyrics come from all the fucked up shit going on in the world and all the assholes in it. The songs evolve from just jamming in the warehouse.

NR - I write the music in one of 2 ways. I either come up with some riffs at my house using a drum machine and just piece it together, then I email it to Lance and he writes his own drums to it and we iron it out at the warehouse together, or I come up with a riff at the warehouse while we are practicing and we see if we can write off of it. We always record it with our phones and if we can’t write from that riff, it will usually get placed into another song. Those 2 processes have been working well for us so far.

GL - Personally I like performing “Can’t Stop“, the best one cause it kicks the show off.

NR - I like them all. 

GL - Nik and Lance are ALWAYS writing new music!

NR - Well, we have 3 new songs that we recorded last October. 2 of them got put on a killer compilation that was put out on Eulogy Recordings, and 1 of them is going to be on a compilation being put out on Old School Cartel Records, that is going to be available for free downloads. It’s being released for S.E. Asian kids that are heavily into hardcore and punk, but can’t afford to buy the music. Besides that, I have been writing a lot lately. Pretty much since Lance joined the band last April or so. We have more than enough material for a new record that we will be putting out this summer. It’s going to be the hardest, heaviest shit that LOYAL UNTIL DEATH has put out yet. 

NR - I do most of the promoting. Mostly through social media like Facebook. We pass out fliers when they are available.

GL - To just love what you’re doing, write music that you love, not what other people want to hear.

NR - Yea. Just play what you love and want to hear. 

GL - Just started doing vocals about 5 or so years ago when I joined Nik’s last band A NEW BELIEF, but Nik and I have been jamming since the early 90’s with him playing drums or guitar and me playing bass or guitar. I have had a love for music for as long as I can remember.

NR - I pretty much picked up a guitar 27 years ago and haven’t put it down yet. Started out by learning Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden songs, then just started to write my own music. Created my style and here we are

GL - My musical influences have been the same for 20 plus years, Agnostic Front, Madball, Biohazard, Black Sabbath, Sick of it All, etc. As far as non-musical, my biggest influence has to be my sister Nicole who got me into Hardcore and Punk at about age 10.

NR - Pretty much the same bands. Sabbath, Crowbar, AF, Judge, Strife, Entombed, Maiden, SOIA, Biohazard. That’s probably why it’s so easy for us to write lyrics and music together. We all have basically the same influences as far as bands are concerned. And I think that really helped to create our sound. 

GL - Again my sister Nicole, if it wasn’t for her, I never would have gotten into this Hardcore thing I love. And seeing Roger Miret and AF when they were young was fuckin sick!

NR - For me, it has to be Black Sabbath. Definitely the most influential band in my life.

GL - I’ll let you know when it happens!

NR - Haha. Exactly!!! Or maybe when we actually got a free bar tab at Area 7 one time. That made me feel like a rock star. 

GL - Agnostic Front, Madball, Sick of it All, Biohazrd, Terror, and since this is hypothetical it’s got to be CBGB’s.

NR - Crowbar, Biohazard, Agnostic Front, Strife, Judge. Any festival in Europe!

GL - My other interest besides music is my daughter Haley who takes up all my time.

NR - My other interests are working out, cooking, eating, and spending time with my fiancée and my cats. 

MMK - What type of band are you? JG - Melodic Death Metal MMK - Describe your sound and your style

JG- We have a Gothenburg style to our music, very Swedish inspired but American at its deepest roots.

JG- The music is normally a mix of all of us but Reggie writes all the lyrics.

JG - Normally all of our songs come from us just jamming to a riff someone came up with, the rest just happens. 

JG - We all have different favorites to play live. They are all fun as hell to play.

JG - Actually yes, we are about to make three major announcements this week. We are releasing our long awaited album "Methods" along with a music video. We will also be announcing a special guest that is featured on our album :)

JG - Mostly through social media, but going old school with flyers outside of a venue is not uncommon.

JG - Patience pays, love your fellow band members. Admit when you are wrong, treat it like a marriage. 

JG - I (Jay) started when I was 15.

JG - My musical influence from the get go was (still is) Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin. I knew how to play every song off Physical Graffiti at one point. Beside that I would have to write an essay on how many influences I have hahaha.

JG - Soilwork, Scar Symmetry, Mercenary, Devin Townsend and Killswitch Engage at Revolution. 

JG - As my wife would say TO MANY!!!!!! I build race cars and fly airplanes haha.

JG - This year will be our 5th Krypt fest!!!! We are very proud to be a part of such a legendary Miami born fest. As a participating band we can see this festival growing in popularity and making its own mark in Florida metal history. It has come a very long way from what I can remember, Oski and Yader are doing a great job of keeping this monster alive. It is an honor each and every time we hit the KF stage, wherever it may be.