Battle Cry Of The Wicked

By Josh Pierson

3 Inches Of Blood

Saturday, February 2, Slims in San Francisco was invaded by skinny kids with mohawks and long hair, and old school metal heads that were cruising the bar every couple of minutes, and Canada’s unholy crusaders 3 Inches of Blood. These crusaders over the last eight years have scratched and fought for every single soul they have thrashed, as well as lost some members down the road, but gained others that seem to fit the bill a whole lot better. On this rainy cold night, I entered into a beer drinking, shot taking, mosh pit bearing Slims to interview the full bearded, Viking-esque guitarist Shane Clark.

If you can imagine a Slayer, Testament, and Iced Earth show all in one, then you’ve only begun to scratch the surface as to what these guys are all about. You must be ready for some pounding by the pit, loud screeching aggressive vocals matched with some of the most driving guitars you’ll ever hear. If you’re lucky you may even catch a guy walking around in full armor preparing for the battle ahead.

Canada’s 3 Inches of Blood makes me remember what it’s like to be a kid and hearing my first Iron Maiden or Exodus record. It’s where metal meets dungeons & dragons, and fantasy meets reality, and if you close your eyes and listen to the lyrics you can almost picture a battlefield with bodies laying on the ground and only one hero on his mighty stead still standing. Fringe: There was recently some lineup changes?

Shane: We actually kicked one guy out recently, our drummer. Some people aren’t able to tour. Mainly it’s just been that people want to have a life, and stay home, have a yard and a dog and a steady income and white picket fence. We’re really good friends with almost everyone that’s been in the band.

Fringe: You did most of the interviews over Ozzfest, how was that experience?

Shane: Yup, it was great exposure for us, I don’t mind talking about myself or the band, I’m a Leo. It was great exposure to other people that otherwise would have no idea who we are, a lot of the fans we won over, not all, but a lot. It gave people a chance to hear our style of metal, what we were doing on that particular Ozzfest wasn’t going on, so it was great for us to do that.

Fringe: So I see your supporting the East Bay with the Neurosis shirt…?

Shane: Totally, I like it all, you can look at them and they grew and are still growing, that to me is good honest music and art, Neurosis is a perfect example of that.

Fringe: How’s this tour been going so far, any crazy deer or pig head stories yet?

Shane: No, I actually stopped drinking in December. I’m not using words like quit, I’m on hiatus. I don’t know if it’s because I stopped drinking, but this tour has been pretty mellow. Since last years standards at least, but having said that, the shows have been great. We’re really good friends with Black Dahlia Murder, Hate Eternal and Decrepit Birth, there’s a lot of camaraderie going. So, it’s a diverse heavy metal show, there’s no scene going on, there’s no fashion show, it’s reassuring. We’ve been on a couple bulls#@! tours where you need to play the game a little bit, you gotta introduce yourself to fans that you don’t know. We toured with Static-X and that tour felt like work. This tour isn’t like that. This is the type of tour where you’re driving in the van at night thinking ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this for a living’ This f’n rules!

Fringe: British Columbia isn’t exactly the capital of metal by anyone’s standards, yet here you are?

Shane: It’s not the capital of much, maybe pot, trees, mountains. I was around in the Vancouver scene when these guys were starting out, but I was doing my own thing. It’s not a very big city so you know everything that’s happening. Having said that, it’s a lot like a series of small towns, like western Canada. For example, if your a Canadian band, that’s where you’re going to start out touring, because its small towns that crave anything that comes around, so that was really a great place to start out. You start to learn how to be a band, and you constantly tour on that small scale. They really got a great big following, they also started the metal skate scene. Vancouver’s got like, the opposite of camaraderie, it’s competition. As soon as one band gets success everyone kind of shuns that band because they’re doing something. So many bands in Vancouver will wallow in obscurity, because they have delusional D.I.Y ethics that a band can’t make it to that next level or else they’re selling out. It was easy for 3 Inches of Blood to get a good following and it really spilled over onto the west coast, Here, it spilled over really once they got the record deal, and that’s when I joined and Justin (another guitarist) joined.

Fringe: Joey Jordison of Slipknot fame produced the last album. Can you shed some light on that experience?

Shane: Starting out, it was his first time in the producer’s chair. The lineup was the same as it is now minus the drummer, so it was kind of our first time recording together. We knew him (Jordison) before. He knew the vision we wanted and was able to take the music in the direction we wanted. We’re really happy with the way it turned out and so was he.

Fringe: After Advance & Vanquish there was a huge lineup change, what of it?

Shane: It was actually during Advance & Vanquish, the recording. Up to that point the band was original, Cam was actually the last to join. The two guitar players, one of which was the main song writer, they had a business at home they decided they wanted to focus on so they didn’t want to tour. At that time those guys didn’t want anything to have to do with the record industry because you have to play the game a little bit, so that’s when Justin and I joined. Also, during the recording the drummer and the bass player quit, the drummer quit, the bass player was his brother, so it was a brotherly thing. As soon as recording was done, guitar players left, so in a matter of like three or four months, four guys were different But I’ll sum it all up, touring’s not for everybody, Alexi Rodriguez was the replacement drummer, Nick Cates who’s still here was the replacement bass player, that leads into being able to tour with people. Our drummer man, was never our “bro”, from the get-go he seemed like an employee and felt like the world owed him something. We never grew together, the band grew and kept going. Being a guy who couldn’t handle his alcohol very well, he was always on the outside so, lots of situations happened over the two years he was in the band where we were always kind of thinking, ‘we should have picked someone else’. We were at a festival in Europe last year, he got in some trouble and broke his elbow, so we decided that was the last straw. Unfortunately in the Internet age, it’s under the assumption that he was kicked out of the band because he broke his arm, but that’s not the case. I never tell anyone this, I just have a huge respect for Bay Area’s honesty and art and music and bay area thrash metal. Maybe my little insight story there can help the kids, I mean you can have the second coming of Christ on guitar, but if he’s a douche-bag there’s no point in being in a band with him. I’ll never say Alexi’s a bad drummer, but for us, that’s all he has going for him. Now we have Ash Pearson, he’s like 22 and positivity for our band is at an all-time high.

Fringe: Any plans after this tour?

Shane: Not doing Ozzfest, doesn’t look like we’re going to be doing any kind of festival, right after this tour we’re doing a short tour with Devildriver, Arch Enemy and Opeth, those are going down in Europe.

Fringe: Any new albums you guys are totally digging right now?

Shane: The new Pig Destroyer, the latest Neurosis, I love the new Down record, that Baroness record that’s getting a lot of praise from critics. Pretty much I’m a big fan of a lot of what Relapse releases. The latest Birds of Prey is a good one too.