Herod: Sowing Seeds Of Destruction
Fresh off of releasing a new album, you’d think a band would be getting out on the road to pummel their new songs into fans’ faces. But for HEROD and their new album Iconoclast, there’s no such dice. “I’m about to become a dad for the second time,” says Pierre Carroz, guitarist and mastermind of the Swiss groove metal band. “I love my family more than anything, but it does stop the international growth of a band.” Beyond a couple of release shows in Switzerland and a support slot with JINJER coming up in Lausanne, HEROD are just going to have to let the album do the talking on its own. Fortunately, it should be more than capable having had years of work poured into it.
“It’s a good feeling for the album to be out,” says Carroz. “It’s mostly a relief because it was such a crazy long process! It’s been five years since we riffed the first parts, and the riff on The Prophecy has been in my hands for maybe 10 years. How we do the work is in the rehearsal room with drums and guitars, building the tracks from my ideas. But I’m not a drummer, I don’t know how to build a final result by myself so it has to be very collaborative between me and the guys.”
It’s not just collaboration within their ranks though, as HEROD opened out their world to include some of their friends and leading lights in the world of extreme music too on Iconoclast. “I’m so, so stoked with what Loïc Rossetti from THE OCEAN did on The Prophecy. And we worked with Matt McGachy from CRYPTOPSY for The Edifice, too. That’s the heaviest track we have ever done and he’s such a nice guy.” But it’s not just extreme peers they’ve roped in, because there’s the fascinating inclusion of the Bulgarian National State TV and Radio Choir as well on The Ode To.
“Oh, that’s a long story with The Ode To,” Carroz laughs. “I originally discovered the choir at home with my dad. We would listen to LE MYSTERE DES VOIX, which was a guy from Switzerland who went out to discover choirs, so I knew I wanted to work with them for a long time. At the beginning, I struggled with bringing the track to my bandmates but they eventually saw what I was trying to do. We actually went and found the man’s son to help us make this happen, so we became very tied to the core. We pre-produced the track and sent it to them to work on; the husband of one of the voices turns out to be a music director too, so he helped work on it. When they sent it back we were blown away with what they’d done.”
But while Carroz was bringing in new ways to expand HEROD‘s sound, he was also hard at work further developing their signature guitar tone. Somewhere between a rusty chainsaw submerged in a swamp and the sound of the violent collapse of civilisation, theirs is an abrasive and unforgettable sound that is continually being fine tuned. “We did some serious work on the guitar tone on Iconoclast,” says Carroz. “As a band, we pushed every aspect that makes us special to the maximum, from that proggy MESHUGGAH thing we do to the production.”
It’s no secret that MESHUGGAH has long been a huge influence on HEROD, but Carroz also points to THE ACACIA STRAIN – “particularly the guitars around 2010 when they did Continent and Wormwood” – as being a key part of his inspirations and discovery of tone, as well as mathcore band ION DISSONANCE and groove/djent outfit A LIFE ONCE LOST to help nail their sound, which has become its own process nowadays. “I actually use two rigs to make the guitar sound so dirty. Rig A was your typical chuggy sound and rig B was over-the-top nastiness, and then we just mixed them.”
You’d think that with all the blood, sweat and tears that went into making Iconoclast over the years, HEROD and Carroz would be happy with the result, but alas: “I’m actually not happy with a few aspects of the production,” he admits. “Maybe I’m too into it or maybe I’m just fed up with the tracks because I’ve heard them for five years. But I think we could be heavier. I need to seek the path of heavier guitars. That’s the aim next time.”
As for when that “next time” will be though is anybody’s guess – Carroz included. In addition to becoming a father for a second time, he’s gone back to school. But this is not just any old business course he’s taking. Far from it. “I’ve gone to school to become a farmer! I already raise sheep and grow vegetables which I sell. We moved to the countryside and life is a lot more static now. I think from this point, touring will happen less but be higher quality. Touring is tough and in HEROD, we still feel like newcomers so it’s very difficult. But I’m definitely looking forward to getting back on the creative ball, digging some ideas out of my ‘riff graveyard’ and getting a new record finished.” We look forward to it too.
Iconoclast is out now via Pelagic Records.
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