Aversions Crown: Hell Came For Us All

It is an excruciatingly early morning in May. The alarm has barely ceased ringing and the day’s inaugural coffees are yet to be poured but via the power of Skype, Distorted Sound is already Down Under – with the pay-off for this pre-dawn timeslot being a good yarn with AVERSIONS CROWN‘s Mick Jeffery. Speaking from his home on Queensland’s Gold Coast, the guitarist is affable and honest, and his stoicism remarkable as he proceeds to ruminate on the cancellation of the band’s mammoth March/April US tour alongside headliners (and fellow countrymen) THY ART IS MURDER after just one date as a result of the Coronavirus. A daunting prospect at the best of times for an overseas band – visas, flights, the outlay for merch – there is usually always some degree of personal funds being ploughed into any tour. Throw in the added caveat, as Mick surmises, of not being “that huge band making the huge dollars to go with it” and it’s sadly no surprise to learn that the tour’s premature end was “definitely a big financial hit” for them.

Another hit, from the perspective of the old-school “Australien” fan contingent anyway, came in the departure of now ex-vocalist Mark Poida, who eventually left the band in 2019 to address the personal demons that had long plagued him. Featuring heavily across the band’s merch designs and album iconography from the beginning, the extra-terrestrial subject matter was nothing new by the time he joined AVERSIONS CROWN in 2015. However, this dark, destructive and deliciously twisted lyrical imagery that coursed through subsequent songs appeared to really come to the forefront with Mark as a vocalist – and now, years later, he has ultimately left behind a legacy of sorts. With such a concerted focus on the whole sci-fi motif previously, could it be argued that it’s ended up becoming something of a hinderance to AVERSIONS CROWN’s sonic evolution because the fans are just so invested in it?

“We ended up being dubbed under the moniker of Aliencore – people always like to put a label on bands and we just embraced it,” Mick explains. “The sci-fi themes are still there and probably will remain to some degree, but it definitely felt like it was time to branch out – especially with us changing vocalists and seeing what else they could bring to the table lyrically. It is natural for bands to evolve and want to evolve but you see it all the time – one makes that change and the fans all react with the standard ‘oh why’s!”

A slight weariness creeps into his tone as we reflect on the aforementioned but he believes there’s another significant reason behind the average deathcore fan’s recalcitrance towards artistic change. “I think it’s ‘coz it’s a genre that was born in the age of the internet – before that people learnt to find music organically from going out to shows and buying magazines. Back in my day, you had to leave the house to find music for like of a better term. Hahaha listen to me! Man, I’m feeling old here,” Mick trails off laughing. “A lot of these fans have never had to go through that – it’s a product of their time. Today you can just sit on your computer on YouTube or Spotify and literally find any band in the world without having to put in that extra mile that a lot of other people did. It’s just a different generation. And while it’s unfortunate that they’re closed minded in some ways, I also appreciate that they’re so passionate about the kind of music they love. And it’s just great to see people that are into extreme music full stop. Everyone’s gonna have an opinion but the important thing here is that they’re listening to it. The worst thing that can happen to a band is that you put music out and no one knows. As long as they do know, then they’re entitled to make their own opinion from it.”

And those opinions have already been flexed heavily online following the release of singles – The Soil and Born in the Gutter – ahead of fourth album Hell Will Come For Us All which is scheduled to drop on June 12th. Drawing inspiration from topics like societal divides and humanity’s ongoing war with itself, in terms of lyrical and thematic content, its perhaps AVERSIONS CROWN at their most relatable musically; as the four-piece expand their artistic scope in order to tackle and explore the events of modern-day reality. Jeffery is quick to insist that the singles are not indicative of the album as a whole and after a couple of listens we’d be inclined to agree – because without giving too much away, there are certainly some curveballs at play (including a conceptual four-part story and some blackened symphonic synthwork for gloriously skin-tingling measure) across the nine tracks that will shatter any pre-conceived notions from what’s been heard so far. The chaos and ferocity heard on past records has not dissipated but instead its been augmented, which according to our interviewee is down to tenacious new vocalist Tyler Miller (“We just sort of plucked him out of Tennessee and threw him onto a tour bus in Europe. But he killed it every night onstage!”) who combines the caustic and catchy in his structured yet bone-crushing delivery.

“I think the band has always wanted to really push that more aggressive sound – it is something that we’ve always done with our live shows and with Tyler that’s where he really shines. He’s just got so much aggression in his vocals and it’s what we’ve been missing,” Mick states emphatically. “There’s a lot of great vocalists out there that have the technique but not a lot of them can bring that raw aggression to the table when it comes to it. He just has that.” And as our conversation draws to a close, the driven guitarist is even quicker to insist that today’s incarnation is indicative of AVERSIONS CROWN at their strongest. Coronavirus be damned – it won’t diminish their self-belief or excitement in what Jeffery believes to be the most potent collection of songs they’ve ever committed to tape. Shows may be off limits for now, but it will always be a case of go big or go home for this Aussie.

Hell Will Come For Us All is set for release June 12th via Nuclear Blast Records. 

Like AVERSIONS CROWN on Facebook.