Spite: New Age Violence
Californian trailblazers SPITE have been putting the deathcore division on notice during their recent rapid ascent, injecting their own chaotic brand of intensity, aggression and danger wherever they tread. 2022’s Dedication To Flesh album firmly dug their flag into the modern metal landscape and since then they’ve never looked back. “Dedication To Flesh opened a lot of new doors for us,” explains guitarist Alex Tehrani. “The different energies and the cohesiveness of that record kind of separated it from a lot of the work we’d been doing prior to that. It didn’t take off right away but as time has gone on it’s been a pivotal building block for us.”
When the world finally opened up again after the COVID pandemic, SPITE spent the majority of their time performing far and wide, ramming their music down as many throats as possible. This paid significant dividends, building a steadfast reputation for being one of the most electric bands on the circuit. With the hype machine well and truly in full flow, the quartet opted to return to captivity to begin working on their next devastating instalment, what we now know to be NEW WORLD KILLER. “We kind of had this idea of writing about all the things that we hated about the world, how we’re affected by them and our internal monologues,” explains vocalist Darius Tehrani. “A lot of bands write on the road but we’re still trying to figure that out but our best product comes from just solely focusing on the writing, we can be fully invested and make sure it’s exactly the direction we want to take. The title was actually decided post writing! We had finished the record and we had a working title but once we had decided on all the tracks and written the lyrics we thought that NEW WORLD KILLER tied the concept and everything together.” Adds Alex. “It was kind of cool coming up with it at the end rather than an album title dictating to us what we should be doing.”
Not everyone has the mindset to work so closely with their siblings but brothers Alex and Darius have discovered the perfect formula, with particularly explosive results. “I tell people this all the time, if you get into a band with two brothers you’ve got to know what you’re signing up for” laughs Alex “We’re both super opinionated and it’s been a bit of a learning curve. People say don’t mix business with family but we feel like we know how to get the best out of each other”.
“I think when people are trying to find members in a band, they’re looking for someone who shares the same passion and love for what you’re doing and it can be difficult to find the right fit,” discusses Darius. “Me and Alex have played music together since we were kids, we played in cover bands. I used to play drums! When things get tough it’s just because we care so much about the end goal. We’ve got a reputation for being quite intense when out on the road but when I see the dynamics in other bands I feel like we’re quite tame in comparison. You see the larger bands and they all have these tight-knit crews and everyone is working and building towards that. I really enjoying working with the same people and building that kind of trust and relationship”.
Releasing new material, particularly music videos where you have invested a considerable amount of time and money in bringing a concept to life should be an exciting time for a band. Unfortunately for SPITE, their Lights Out single, accompanied by a video depicting NSFW imagery based in a church setting was released on the same day as the mass shooting which occurred at the Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis on August 27th. “Lights Out was a hard release for us as the tragedy that occurred on the same day was disturbingly similar to what we portrayed in the music video and it’s not something we condone at all,” sighs Darius. “We were portraying the awful nature of it and the real horror of our modern society and it’s a very real thing that we don’t think people should be afraid to talk about. It was the first song we had released in years and we wanted to show something a little big different. We made a decision with the label to still release the video but release it on our own channel as opposed to theirs and I respect that decision. Whilst we didn’t have the same reach on our own channel it was also nice to see it develop organically. I’m happy we made the decision to continue with the release as if we had released it weeks later it would have looked like we were trying to capitalise on the event. It had eerie similarities to when SLAYER released God Hates Us All on September 11th. I hate being directly tied to something like that but it was just a complete accident.”
After being away from the road for long periods of time, the Tehrani brothers are itching to get back out on tour and showcase the new material. Thankfully they do not have long to wait as they are due to embark on an extensive US tour in support of FIT FOR A KING. “I think the NEW WORLD KILLER video is a direct depiction of what we’re like live,” grins Darius. “I like to think we sound just as good, if not better than what we do on our records. It’s just a wall of sound and I love doing metalcore type bills as the fans tend to be quite open-minded and very inviting. We had a lot of fun on the WAGE WAR tour. We tend to gain new audiences that way as people appreciate the energy we bring.”
“This tour will be one of the biggest tours we’ve ever done and I’m excited to get back our there touring after a long time away,” adds Alex. “We always try to talk as little as possible and just cram as many songs as we can into our time. We just want to be as loud and in your face as possible.”
NEW WORLD KILLER is out now via Rise Records. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS126 here:
For more information on SPITE like their official page on Facebook.