Malefice Interview
Interview with Dale Butler of Malefice
Words by Warren Zannin
Malefice has become a familiar name on theUK touring circuit over the last couple of years and has grown in strength and might since the release of debut album Entities in 2007. The metallers from Reading have since shared a stage with the likes of DevilDriver, God Forbid, Sepultura and Morbid Angel. Earlier this year Malefice released its second album Dawn of Reprisal under new label Metal Blade Records. Heavier and more brutal than ever, the band continues to carve a path along the metal highway to success. We had a chance to catch up with the guys to pick their brains about what makes Malefice tick.
Tell us a bit about your musical influences and what brought you together to form Malefice?
Unfortunately it’s the same old boring story of we all met at school and have stuck together playing the music we wanna play ever since! We all take our influences for completely different bands, that’s what makes our sound so diverse. Although Pantera is probably the only band that comes up with all of us, they were successful playing heavy music and not giving a fuck about media hypes or gimmicks. That’s something we’ve always looked up to and replicated in our career, everything we’ve achieved has been down to guts and hard work, so even if it ended tomorrow we know we did things our way. The right way!
You recently played at IIT Rendezvous in India, how were you received? We believe you have a couple of funny stories?
Dude it was unbelievable. Nothing you can read or watch on the TV can prepare for what you’re hit with the second you arrive in India. It was a completely different culture and way of life, that’s really hard to get to grips with if you’re from England. The show itself was equally as intense as the country, the kids were unbelievable, we couldn’t hear ourselves over the p.a and thousands of people rushing the stage at the end was the icing on the cake! Check out our myspace for vids, you’ve gotta see it to believe it!
I guess by the funny stories you’re referring to are the wrestler remarks? Literally everyone there thought we were from the WWE, one guy came up to me in the street and thought I was ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage. I look nothing like him. When we went to the Taj Mahal it took a step to the next level, there were more people there taking photos of us than the Taj itself, we took it in our stride though. People out there only see big white dudes covered in tattoos on TV, so it must be pretty weird when they just turn up and are walking around your city?
You’ve played with some Icons of metal, and at some amazing shows and festivals. How does it feel to be you. I mean every young metalhead dreams of this?
We’re totally living a dream man of course. But when you get to this level you realise it’s a job, and its not the ‘rock n roll’ lifestyle that everyone thinks it is. The 30 mins to an hour you’re on stage is what everyone sees, they don’t see the months of hard work and the teams of people working behind the scenes to make sure tours work and records get released. But don’t get me wrong, I’ve never wanted to do anything else, and this is the best job in the world. I grew up listening to bands that I now consider friends, I get to travel the world, experience different cultures and play music with my best mates, I couldn’t ask for anything else?
Malefice was nominated as Best New Band at the Golden Gods awards this year, amongst some stiff competition. It’s a pretty huge nomination in the world of metal. Where does it rank Malefice’s goals?
Firstly it was a fucking honour to be nominated and to be recognised by our peers for being a serious fucking metal band. We never expected to win it because of who we were up against, bands like us don’t win awards….yet! We’re the underdogs that everyone gets behind, we don’t come out with fancy haircuts and designer clothes, we bring intense riffs and beats you can break your neck to.
Your 2008 appearance at Download is something of a legend. Any news for Download 2010?
I dunno dude, you’d have to ask our agent? I know we’re going to be at a lot of festivals in 2010 but I don’t know which ones as of yet? Download for us is the holy grail, we’ve been going there since we were kids so it was an incredible honour to be the other side of the barriers! If we get the call of course we’ll play it but until then I guess we’ll have to wait and see?
People are saying good things about your second studio album (“Dawn of Reprisal”). Seems as if you certainly are cementing your place as one of Britain’s première heavy metal acts (to quote from your Myspace page). How do you feel the second album has done compared to the debut?
I think it was a giant step up in maturity as people and musicians. We explored a more melodic side and a much, much darker side of Malefice on this record, and it’s definitely brought our sound to a lot more new people compared to Entities. Dawn of Reprisal has taken us to that next level that we needed to reach after signing to Metal Blade, and it’s made the whole industry stand up and take notice of who we are!
Where To now. Where do you want to be in 2 years time? Has Malefice got more material in the pipeline and what’s the plans for your next studio album?
We’re always writing dude, we’ve got a few demos down already that are already head and shoulders above what we’ve ever done before. I’m sure you’ll hear something about a new record in 2010!
