If they are opting for safety in numbers, it’s perhaps because they’re not overly comfortable with the conventions of interviews, with our many requests for explanations, the proffered (usually incorrect) interpretations, and the countless probing ‘hows’, ‘wheres’ and ‘whys’. Despite the sense of separation, this collective feels like a gang, making them intimidating interviewees, because, as is the case with gangs, they seem to close ranks, which may be the real reason they’re speaking to K! en masse. Guitarist Jeremy Martin lives there too but is with his girlfriend in New York, appearing flanked by cardboard boxes, occasionally coughing into his hoodie. One is made up of four members – with Anthony and Matt joined by bassist Jon Lhaubouet and turntablist Benno Levine – crammed into the same Zoom screen from the apartment they share in Lowell, Massachusetts, sat with their arms crossed and expressions stoic, as if bracing for a moody photoshoot. When Kerrang! finally catches up with Vein.fm, two days later on New Year’s Eve, there are audibly blocked noses and hoarse voices. Then, coronavirus struck the camp, infecting all five men and resulting in bed rest and another deferral.
Unsurprisingly, collaring multiple musicians proved akin to sweeping sand in high winds, despite the majority of the band living under the same roof, and that original appointment was postponed by a week. This interview was originally scheduled for two days before Christmas, with the whole band keen to participate, underlining their sense of brotherhood. It's hard to say which is the trickier proposition – securing a chat with Vein.fm or the conversation itself. What follows, then, is something of a grappling match… Unfortunately it’s not one the band are that keen to elaborate on, believing they’ve said all they need to comprehensively enough on their new album. It’s an intriguing precis for This World Is Going To Ruin You. “We’re living this shit and we’re breathing this shit, so we’re playing this shit.” “We had friends dying, parents dying, and lost people because of disagreements and shit,” says Matt of the hardships since Errorzone that have informed this new era and a seriously jaded worldview. What has happened is they’ve made a record that turns things up entirely – denser, darker and imbued with the kind of despair that only comes from living through troubling times. “But that’s definitely not what’s happened.” “I think a lot of people were under the impression we were going to do some kind of weird Deftones record,” laughs Matt. Despite the quality of Errorzone and the many positive things it’s done for Vein.fm – they changed name in 2019 to differentiate themselves from the many other acts who also go by that – the band look back on it now as “an isolated thing” (Matt) and “like Vein goes to outer space” (Anthony), which perhaps gave listeners the wrong idea about where they’d go next. That song would eventually become Welcome Home, the opening track to their second album This World Is Going To Ruin You, which acts as a “welcoming message” to a markedly different offering. “We knew then it was the song we were looking for,” recalls vocalist Anthony DiDio of that pivotal moment. It was during the set at Outbreak that Matt impulsively decided to play drums over the top of the loop, transforming it into something else entirely. The sixth track on Errorzone is called Demise Automation – a writhing anxiety attack of a composition – and soon took on a new significance for its creators, who looped its opening riff, distorted it and began using it during live shows. The best, however, was and is yet to come.
It garnered critical acclaim, earned comparisons with such luminaries as Converge and The Dillinger Escape Plan, and resulted in tours with everyone from Thursday to While She Sleeps. “There’s definitely footage of it somewhere,” drummer Matt Wood teases.Īt that time, the Massachusetts band went by the name Vein and were days away from releasing Errorzone, a dizzying debut album that combined elements of hardcore, mathcore, screamo and nu-metal. And it was where one of heavy music’s other shining lights, Vein.fm, inadvertently stumbled upon a key component of what would go on to become 2022’s most savage album.
It saw the likes of Code Orange, Turnstile, Cro-Mags, Higher Power and Jesus Piece wreak sonic havoc upon the now-defunct Canal Mills venue in the English city of Leeds. It marked the 10th edition of the annual celebration of DIY punk, hardcore and metalcore. Outbreak Fest 2018 was a momentous affair for several reasons.