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Cry Murder The ability to survive ultimately comes down to strength. This quality is often tested in everyday situations, and like all situations there are two possible outcomes: success or failure. Within a band setting, strength is undoubtedly put to trial through many ways, all of which can at times torture a band, and their strength is what they rely on to succeed. What happens though when significant members of the band cannot survive the lifestyle anymore? Is it possible to continue on through the turmoil? In the case of local metal outfit Cry Murder, guitarist Stacey Taylor tells me that writing and recording the band's debut album 'Above Us The Waves' was no easy feat. "After losing our first drummer Liam, there was a period where we were unsure of whether we would stay together. He was a key member and it created some difficult times. What made it harder was the replacement we found didn't really work out either, and this was during the time we were really focused on writing the album. To make matters worse, our singer at the time, Matt Hede, also decided to leave. In the end, all of us love being involved in music too much to leave it, so we found new members and continued on." Finally with a full line-up consisting of replacement drummer Dharran McMahon and vocalist Dylan Cameron (formerly of local death metal outfit Nessun Dorma), Cry Murder were able to complete writing their debut full-length. The album, which gives ample evidence of just how talented the five members of this outfit are, moves away from the quintet's first EP 'From The Shadow Of Doubt'. 'Above Us The Waves' incorporates multiple subgenres, including elements of thrash, death and even doom metal. "We did want to move away from the metalcore sound of the EP, we have a lot more variation of influences than that which we love to play. Also with the new members, the songs we began to write seemed to work more cohesively and move away from the metalcore sound quite naturally which was great. Dylan's voice is also more suited to the newer songs too; it helped because we knew what he was capable of from seeing and hearing his old band, and he was a friend of the band before Matt left. He actually worked for the band originally, so having him in the line-up was not difficult at all." Since 2005 Cry Murder have supported and toured with some of the best metal and hardcore bands in Australia and the world including Hatebreed, Converge, Himsa, Parkway Drive, I Killed The Prom Queen, Day Of Contempt and many more. The band is certainly no stranger to the touring lifestyle, and March will see the five-piece embark on their own headline tour to promote the new record. Amongst all these incredible supports they have on their resume, I had to ask Taylor which was her favourite? "Probably the Himsa tour with Parkway Drive, that was just a huge honour to be a part of and we got along with the Himsa guys really well. We made great friends with them and they were so cool and easy to hang out with. Of course playing with I Killed The Prom Queen was always great, they are great friends of ours and played amazing shows before they broke up." "We are really looking forward to touring our own album; it's something we haven't really done a lot of because of the writing and recording process as well as all the issues we had to face. We will be performing mostly songs off it as we all love the record and it's going to be fantastic to push those songs live." Ascending to a full-length from an EP is without a doubt a huge challenge, and I had to wonder whether the band had ever considered recording another EP before venturing into the task of an album, something Taylor ensures me was never even considered. "Another EP was never a possibility; we were always going to do an album. We are always writing new music and we have so many ideas all the time that we could not contain them into that smaller space. We even have a piano track on the album which I guess shows how diverse we can be." Will Oakeshott Cry Murder play at The Underground on Thursday 5 March with Anime Fire, Abandon All Hope, In The Burial and All Life Ends. |