COLISEUM
Renegade Action!
By: Josh Schafer
Launching forth their most powerful and confident effort to date, Louisville’s heavy-hitting COLISEUM is all set to unveil their debut Relapse full length No Salvation. Now evolved into their own kind of monster, COLISEUM’s new album is a jarring, breakneck paced hell-ride delving into the darkest depths the band has confronted yet. I recently had the pleasure of picking the brain of vocalist/guitarist Ryan Patterson. So, without any further ado, here is the lowdown on all COLISEUM’S current affairs straight from the horse's mouth.
Resound: So No Salvation is your third full length record. How do you think it weighs in comparison with your other material? ??Ryan Patterson: “It’s actually our second full length. The Goddamage EP is just 8 songs at about fifteen minutes, although it feels like a complete album. In hindsight we should’ve tacked on a few extra songs and made that our second album, because it’s a lot more substantial and confident than the first album. ? No Salvation is still so new to me. I haven’t had the time to reflect on it yet. I have a hard time comparing it to the other records. It’s written, played, and recorded so much better than anything we’ve done previously. When the band started we were basically paying tribute to some bands we really dug and didn’t really have a lot of our own identity. Now I feel like we’ve developed a lot more of our own thing. Goddamage started to toy with songs that had heavy melodic elements alongside some D-beat and straight-forward hardcore, but No Salvation doesn’t split up the ideas as much. It’s a cohesive idea musically with hooks and melodic elements fused with songs that really push the limits of speed and intensity for us. People have been asking me if the new album is more punk or more metal or more rock and all I can say is it’s just more on all levels.”??Resound: Relapse put out a split 7 inch with you guys and YOUNG WIDOWS, also hailing from Louisville. Is that what sparked the relationship with you guys and Relapse? How did you and the 'lapse initially get in touch???Patterson: “It’s kind of wild because I don’t think we ever thought we’d end up on Relapse (laughs). Maybe we’re too humble, but we didn’t think we’d be a band that the label would be interested in signing. I’ve been good friends with Relapse’s Gordon Conrad for many years and he’s been a person my brother (Evan of YOUNG WIDOWS) and I have trusted for advice through many bands as well as a home base for us in the Philly area for nearly a decade. A lot of great labels had contacted us about putting out our records and we’d been really flattered, but nothing really felt like the right decision.”
“While out playing some shows with MUNICIPAL WASTE, another great friend Dave Witte, (who also happened to hook us up with our drummer Chris!) suggested we get in touch with Relapse. It’s something I think neither I nor Gordon ever considered, but it turned out that we had a lot of fans at Relapse and we all decided it would be a really awesome combination. I feel like Relapse is without a doubt the best label for heavy music and we are psyched to be a part of such an incredible roster, currently and throughout the history of the label.” ??“The split 7 inch actually came about during the process of talking about joining the roster and it was a cool first release on the label for us. YOUNG WIDOWS are (literally) our brother band and we’ve toured more with them and their previous incarnation, BREATHER RESIST, than any other band.”??Resound: I am aware that you are very busy man running your own label, playing in COLISEUM and doing a good deal of freelance graphic design. Is it ever hard to allocate time to do all of these things? Do you have any other hidden talents you would like to share???Patterson: “I don’t think I really have any other hidden talents to speak of (laughs). I’m an obsessive movie fanatic. That’s my other huge passion outside of music and design. I’m lucky enough to make ends meet by designing shirts and records for bands, so I’m able to devote all of my life to music-related endeavors. I don’t have to work a 9-to-5’er, answer to the man, or even really deal with "normals" all that often. I’m pretty fucking lucky. It can be difficult at times. COLISEUM spends a lot of time on the road so balancing all these things can be kind of rough, but I can’t complain. My record label, Auxiliary (www.auxiliaryrecords.com), is just a small thing we do to put out occasional COLISEUM, YOUNG WIDOWS and BLACK CROSS releases, as well as other Louisville bands we really like, so it’s not much of a business or a source of stress; just something we do because we enjoy it. Auxiliary Design (www.auxiliarydesign.com) works with mostly underground bands and labels, so it’s fun and fulfilling to be able to be a part of the visual identity of so many cool bands. It’s all a part of the same mission in my eyes; being able to create and exist outside of the "norms" of society.”??Resound: I was talking with Chris Maggio (drums) recently and he told me Kurt Ballou over at God City did the new record with you guys. He seemed to be immensely pleased with the way the recording came out; the drums especially. How was the progression of the recording with this new album? Any good stories from the studio???Patterson: “Man, the recording was quite an experience. We were really, really prepared to go into the studio. We’d spent the last three or four months practicing every other week for five or six days straight. It was grueling. We worked the songs to the bone and recorded countless demos of everything. Once we got in there with Kurt for preproduction, we had to work even harder. As Kurt says, ‘The hardest part is "unlearning" something that you’ve done a million times’, so some of the changes we made right before laying the songs down to tape were total mind-fucks. Overall, things went really well and Kurt pushed us to put down the best performances possible. Our other records were generally recorded quickly, often recording songs right after they were written. This time we wanted to be at the top of our game and I think we were.”??”My favorite story from the studio? Well, to get to the bathroom at Godcity you have to cross through the main room of the studio, where all the drums, guitars, and vocals were recorded. So, if there’s any recording going on, you can’t enter that room. For some reason, Mike (Pascal, bass) would just always end up walking across the room to the bathroom at inopportune moments… sometimes right when we’d be about to do a take and sometimes during the take. Then late one night while I was doing guitar tracks from the control room, Kurt stops the tape and yells ‘What the fuck is he doing in there?!?!?!’ We look up and Mike is posing in front of the guitar amps (while we are recording them) taking photos with his camera on self-timer! He then walks in the control room with a video camera moving it all around and making ‘swooshing’ noises. Kurt and I were both just like ‘What the hell is wrong with you?’. We thought he’d gone stir crazy and lost his mind! It was all explained later when we got in the van and smelled the evidence of a little renegade action Mike had taken part in just before all of this happened. We were just relieved that he hadn’t gone completely nuts!”??Resound: I know you guys have been taking a considerable amount of time to record as of late resulting in not being able to play as many shows. Have you had a chance to play the new stuff live much? How has that been working out???Patterson: “We’ve been playing a handful of the songs live since late last year but the short tour we did after recording was our first time playing some of our favorite songs from the new record. It’s been a blast. It’s been great to see some surprised faces as we play songs like ‘No Benefit’ that are so much faster and more intense than anything else we’ve done.”??Resound: What are guys writing about with the new album? Is there any particular message(s) you are trying to convey with No Salvation? ??Patterson: “I don’t think we’ve ever tried to convey one specific message or idea. If anything, COLISEUM is about a search for answers and having an outlet to vent our anger, frustration, and confusion. No Salvation deals with some of the darkest territory we’ve explored yet; namely death. ‘Defeater’, ‘Profetas’ ‘Funeral Line’ and ‘The Burden’ all deal with death in some form, whether it’s the fear of losing the people that make life livable or trying to understand what makes someone kill another person. The album title, No Salvation could be interpreted many ways, while the cover art depicts looming destruction and the fall of America’s government foundations, No Salvation means a lot more to us than simply apocalyptic annihilation.”?
Resound: So after the album is out, what kind of touring are you guys planning on doing? Plan on touring with any hometown buddies???Patterson: “We will certainly be touring with our Louisville brothers in YOUNG WIDOWS & LORDS again sooner or later. But our focus after the record is out will be to play with bands we’ve yet to tour with. We want to get out there and demolish stages in front of people who haven’t seen us before. We’ll be doing tours with MODERN LIFE IS WAR and then HIGH ON FIRE right after the record comes out, then another trip to Europe and more US touring after that! We will be churning lots of pavement in the coming year!”
COLISEUM will be releasing their new album No Salvation through Relapse on August 21st, 2007.
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