Misfire: When Old School Meets New School
Thrash metal has been written off so many times as a dying art, a genre that had its ‘hay day’ back in the 80s. Despite this mindset there are countless bands who have continued to prove the doubters wrong, you only have to look at the likes of WARBRINGER, TOXIC HOLOCAUST and the rapid resurgence of EVILE to see that thrash is alive and kicking. From the ashes of dissolved outfit DIAMOND PLATE rises the bright spark known as MISFIRE. A collective which has its roots firmly planted in the old school but with a sharp, refreshing edge.
“Myself and Jay [Johnson, vocals/guitars] have a lot of history together, we started DIAMOND PLATE back in seventh grade,” explains drummer James Nicademus. “We grew up on METALLICA and MEGADETH. We were even those kids that were like ‘METALLICA! Fuck all other bands’. We’re so deep rooted in thrash metal and with my job doing production, lighting and audio at a music venue and taking some time off musically after DIAMOND PLATE I got to the stage where I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to start another thrash project. It was just the next natural step for us. Our past helped us a lot and definitely gave me a lot more perspective heading into something new.”
MISFIRE‘s debut release entitled Sympathy For The Ignorant arrived at arguably the best and worst time all at once. “The original plan was just to put some demo’s together but this record that we recorded in 2020 turned out to be what got us a deal with MNRK so in the end it turned out pretty great,” admits James. “We’ve been writing too so we have even more material to put out there, quite an overflow of stuff! We’ve been twiddling our thumbs and sitting on this for so long that we just want to get out there and play it live. I think we got pretty close to capturing that raw, live energy that we have when we are all playing in the same room. With DIAMOND PLATE we did an album to a click track and that is something I never want to do again as it kind of fucked the album up a bit. We went for a more natural, organic vibe and I think that a lot of albums are missing that these days. We want the human element to be there. If you can’t play it, don’t put it on the fucking record. There is nothing worse than when a band goes out on tour and they sound like shit.”
With their previous experience in the industry, on and off the stage, MISFIRE know exactly what they want to achieve with this project and this has enabled them to be laser focused with their ambition. “We all write and work on new material, everyone in the band plays multiple instruments and contributes to lyrics so we’re never stuck for ideas. We start like most other bands, someone writes a riff, we get in a room and start putting the pieces together. Everyone has their own flair and adds a lot of flavour to our music. Each song is strong enough to stand on its own individually but they are all tied together by the lyrical content, which is all pretty much about how fucked up the world is. We also engineered the whole album ourselves and had no expectations as to the outcome but it turned out great.”
In the age where music is available at the click of a couple of buttons it is an essential requirement to stand out and grab the attention of any potential listeners. With this in mind, Nick reached out to an artist to assist in bringing his vision for this concept to life. “I hit this guy up on Instagram and I’ve seen some of his previous work and thought it was pretty cool. I gave him the song Sympathy and the lyrics and nothing else. He came back with that design and I was like ‘Oh shit, this is exactly what we wanted’. He nailed it right off the bat and that’s never happened with an artist in my previous experience. We’re stoked with it!”
Sympathy For The Ignorant is out now via MNRK Heavy.
Like MISFIRE on Facebook.