Ten years ago, Animosity were one of the most hyped up-and-coming bands in the heavy metal scene. In the decade since their break up, members of the band have gone on to create even more influence music in acts like Animals As Leaders, The Faceless, Decrepit Birth and Entheos to name a few. The band's third release, Animal is celebrating its 10 year anniversary and to keep the party going, the band have released some limited edition merch to commemorate the occasion.
We tracked down frontman Leo Miller to catch up and look back on this monster of an album. Take a stroll down memory lane with us.
What memories stick out to you about recording the album?
We spent nearly a month in Salem, Massachusetts making the record. A friend name Brooke let us stay in her one bedroom apartment while she was on the road selling merch and we all slept on the floor and ate Trader Joe’s frozen tamales almost every night. I remember watching Forest Gump, remembering it as some kind of great movie as a child and then it really sucked. We were basically at each other throats a short while into it, but we also had a lot of fun. We often went candlepin bowling at night in the next town over called Peabody. Navene and I took a bus to Brooklyn one night to see Lightning Bolt which I recall being a thoroughly spiritual experience.
The artwork still sticks out to me, because very few bands at the time were using fluorescent colors. Now you see it all over. What do you remember about the process creating the art?
We basically gave the tracks and lyrics to Paul Romano and he just ran with it. Paul seemed to really understand what was driving this record and did an amazing job capturing both the fury and vulnerability of the album. He had done awesome work for our previous album Empires capturing the central themes of rage and defiance towards war-hungry global capitalism. It was very fitting that the follow up imagery for Animal was emotive in a more nuanced and less “traditionally metal” way as the record seemed to come more from a place of looking inward. I think the brilliant colors were a part of that. His work on both of these albums was so perfectly expressive of the content, I think it really helped us communicate with our fans on a different level.
Tracking at Godcity with Kurt Ballou
How did Kurt Ballou affect the recording process?
Kurt played some freeform saxophone at a certain point on the record. We arrived at Godcity with the album written so it wasn’t like he was really producing us as a songwriter. His genius is really about creating ferociously raw and powerful tones without it sounding too muddy.
In hindsight, is there anything you’d change about the album?
The record label…
Animosity live 2006
How do you think metal fans would react if Animal were released today?
It seems that Animal is still a beloved record to many people today, but I am not confident that it would have the same impact. While I am probably not the best judge, it seems like extreme metal has moved more solidly into the realm of mechanical and un-human sounds. I think a lot of the power of Animal comes from the expressive quality of the relatively more natural or raw tones we used, something that Kurt played a masterful role in crafting. I can’t say if that would resonate more or less today, but I do think the album still stands up after ten years.
Was there any discussion of what an album after Animal would sound like? Did you guys ever get to demoing any other material?
No. We basically toured on Animal until we couldn’t stand it anymore and I don’t believe there has been a point where all five of us have stood in the same room since our unintentional last show. We had planned to get right to work on the next album after finishing what would be our final tour near the end of 2008, but it just didn’t happen and that was the end.
Frank's recording rig at Godcity
Animosity was lumped into the deathcore genre, and while there are certainly elements, it seems the album also has hints of grindcore, death metal and slam. How would you classify the sound of the album?
This is the sort of thing that I think really doesn’t matter at all. Why would anyone strive to make a record that fits perfectly into a pre-existing box? Who actually gives a shit what hyper specific terminology is used to describe something that to the vast majority of people just sounds like loud noise anyhow. I think we always just thought of Animosity as a metal band that made music.
Is there any ground left to explore with deathcore in 2018, in terms of originality?
Personally, I had nothing left to explore and I definitely hear a lot of the same stuff being rehashed over and over again with very little innovation. I guess that is one reason why I stopped. That said I absolutely believe that there is always room to grow. Again, the confines of a specific subgenre create pretty infertile ground for growth and exploration. I think the best way to create original work is for people to use the music as a vehicle for self expression instead of just appropriating and repeating the same themes.
Animosity live 2004
The album’s lyrical content was very political. That album was released as the Bush administration was winding down, and there was a lot of things to rage about. Do you feel some of the lyrics could still be relevant today?
What we have today is the the direct result of the Bush administration and is politically not very dissimilar. Anger towards this country’s insistence on endless warfare and white supremacy is clearly still relevant today. Unfortunately, these things don’t seem to change every four or eight years. My lyrics were always political in the sense that they raged against the social and political systems that want to destroy the most of us while enriching a few. I’d say these themes were expressed perhaps more thoroughly on the previous album’s Shut it Down and Empires.
The lyrics for Animal were actually incredibly introspective and personal in a way I had never done before. It was written during a very difficult time for me, when the paralysis of depression was turning more into outright anger. I can say that some others in the band were also feeling generally fucked up and I think the intensity of the album in every aspect is a genuine demonstration of that. There is even a song about the disfunction of our band, questioning if not outright threatening my departure. The process of making the album and then practicing and performing it over and over again was the most cathartic thing possible. It basically dug me out of a pretty dark hole. I think I found a little bit of peace and inspiration through the process and after some time, just did not need to keep expressing the same things because my attitude had changed as a result. In that sense, on a completely personal level much of the the lyrical content is fortunately not relevant to my life in the same way today.
Young Navene with so much hair
Is there any possibility of some one-off reunion shows or perhaps a tour?
I think I probably screwed that up. There was a moment when the enthusiasm was there to do a couple shows but I was really not available. Fortunately, that enthusiasm didn’t end there, and lead to the formation of Entheos, which I think will continue to do amazing and better things. However, in honor of the decade of Animal and all the fans that have continued to jam the album, we are releasing a very limited merch item available only for pre-order at indiemerchstore.com. For better or worse, that is about all we can offer at the moment. If you want one, you will have to go order it right now.
