In addtion to being a prolific studio engineer and writng and recording synth music under his own name, Joel Grind has been writing and playing top notch Thrash Metal under the Toxic Holocaust name for over two decades now. His brand of Thrash Metal integrates a strong D-Beat Hardcore Punk influence and Speed Metal elements to create a sound that is furious and instantly recognizable. You know a Toxic Holocaust song when you hear one, as they’ve never drifted too far from the template first envisionned by Grind over twenty years ago. That being said, their records are never redundant. You always know what you get with a new Toxic Holocaust record: high quality, raging Punk influenced Thrash Metal.
Their latest one, Primal Future: 2019, tells the tale of a dystopian world set in 2019…quite fitting for the times we are currently living in. Make sure to check out it now through eOne.
What have you been listening to the most lately?
Lately, I’ve been listening to this band called EXPANDER. It’s a band I just worked on, I was mastering the record and I’ve really been digging that a lot. It’s really cool. I don’t even know how to describe it. It’s Metal of course, but it’s some sort of hybrid between a lot of different genres and it’s really good. The lyrics deal with futuristic kind of stuff. It’s not far off from a VOIVOD or something like that. I think they deal more with cyber aspects of things, computers and hackers and like, they have a song talking about warez. It’s really cool. They did a record last time on Nuclear War Now and this new one’s coming out on Profound Lore. I’d recommend people to check it out. It’s something I don’t think a lot of people know about yet but people should check them out.
Can you name three records that had a strong impact on your musical evolution throughout the years and tell us a bit about their meaning to you?
Sure. The stuff that really kind of led me down this path, if you want to go way back, when I was eight or nine-ish, that would be MÖTLEY CRÜE, and METALLICA and stuff like that. I guess this is what you would consider more accessible type stuff, that was more popular at the time but you got to start somewhere, not everyone becomes underground right away! Especially pre internet, you really didn’t find out about a lot of bands. The way I found out about a lot of bands was looking at their thanks lists. You look at a bigger band’s thanks list and you see a bunch of maybe lesser known bands and then you look at their thanks list or you look at what T shirts they’re wearing and then you learn about more stuff.
For me, with Metallica, Master of Puppets is the one that really grabbed me….And Justice For All also. My grandfather bought a used car when I was a kid and there was a Master of Puppets cassette tape in the glove box. He was like, “take it, it looks like something you might like.” Then I listened to it and I fell in love with it. That was something that, as a kid, especially never hearing something like, that really grabbed me. I was kind of initiated into that heavier kind of sound because my mom was into stuff like THIN LIZZY and BLACK SABBATH. I grew up in a family where music was important, especially harder Rock like AC/DC and stuff like that but to go to that next level, that was definitely the glove box experience finding that Metallica tape in there.
Later on, like I was saying, you would see bands wearing other band shirts and seeing Metallica wear a Welcome to Hell VENOM shirt, I was wondering what Venom is all about. I finally tracked down Welcome to hell and that was what flipped the switch for me wanting to start playing and something that led me down that path of wanting to start something like Toxic eventually. Yeah, I would say that was Welcome To Hell for sure. I listened to that all the time, that was on constant rotation. Then also at the same time, I was really big into Punk and I would say a third record would be DISCHARGE Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing. I just liked how apocalyptic it sounds. It’s very primitive and stripped down and just really dark sounding. The whole thing, the minimalist approach and everything about it, I realized at that time how you could have something stripped back too, it doesn’t have to be a Metallica song that’s seven or eight minutes long with lots of parts. It can be two or three riffs that really cut to the chase, you know?
Is there any universally acclaimed artists that you missed out on when they first came out and discovered a way later? Or perhaps someone you knew about but didn’t like then and eventually grew to love?
That’s a tough one to think of on the spot but I’m sure there is because of the fact that again, pre-internet, you could really only buy the records, or find out about the bands that you had access to, especially where I was growing up. It wasn’t like, you have the world at your fingertips. I’m trying to think of something off the top of my head but there has to be a handful of bands that, at the time, I just wasn’t aware of.
What are some of the most memorable shows that you’ve ever seen?
In 1992, I went to go see METALLICA with GUNS N ROSES and FAITH NO MORE. It’s kind of legendary anyway, considering that those two bands were just massive at the time, those were the biggest bands in the world. That was really cool. I was 11 years old and it was definitely life changing for me. Later on, I saw SLAYER on the Divine Intervention tour, that was also really cool seeing that but I don’t think anything really matched seeing that Metallica and Guns N Roses show. That was just incredible.
When’s the last time that you discovered a band live that just blown away?
We were on tour recently and I saw this band INVICTA from Toronto. They were the opening band on the show and they blew me away. They were really great. Right after I saw them, I had to go buy their record, it was that good. Sometimes you just see a band and that’s a killer.
What’s the band that you’ve toured with that you were the most impressed with? The one that you just had to watch their set night after night, no matter what.
Well, we toured with ENGLISH DOGS and they were on fire on that tour. They were killer every single night. There’s been a handful. I mean, I really don’t have any ill experiences with any of the bands that we toured with but something really stuck out with that English Dogs one. I was just really blown away, they were really good.
Do you have any unpopular music opinion that you’d like to defend? Something that you really love and yet can hardly find anyone to agree with you?
Well, kind of the opposite thing is, I’m not a huge GHOST fan and it seems like everybody else is for some reason. That’s a band that never really spoke to me for some reason. I guess that’s pretty unpopular considering how big they are but that never really did it for me.
What are some of your hidden gems then? Something where most people are about the one record or band but to you, the best stuff is somewhere else.
Actually, one thing that’s kind of an unpopular opinion is, I like a lot of the VENOM stuff with Tony Dolan, Demolition Man. Most people are just Team Cronos and I am too but the later day stuff, I think is really cool and I think a lot of people talk shit on that stuff. Like the record Prime Evil, I think it’s killer, but a lot of people don’t like that because there’s no Cronos.
Can you think of a band or artist that put out only one fantastic release (album, EP or demo) and then disbanded? One that you really wish would have kept going?
There’s the band VOOR from Canada. I mean, it’s basically two demos but they never even made it to an actual record. They did a demo and they kind of re-recorded the same demo twice, it’s called Evil Metal. That’s a killer band and I don’t think a lot of people know about them, but I think they could have been up there with like, Possessed and things like that but just never made it past that demo stage for some reason.
What are some of the heaviest riffs of all time, in your opinion? Let’s say three examples, off the top of your head?
The band SACRILEGE, I think the riff in Shadow from Mordor is definitely up there. I love that riff so much, man. It’s such a heavy riff and it’s got a good feel to it. There’s a lot of MEGADETH riffs that I could point out because I think Megadeth has a certain way about them that I think is really cool but Wake Up Dead is such an awesome riff, man. I mean, there’s so many cool riffs in that song but the main riff is just fucking very heavy and the part towards the middle or towards the end where it kind of just…I call it the jam out session because the vocals are done for the rest of the song and that’s just music and that part is so heavy.
Can you name three songs that you consider to be perfect and tell us what makes them so special to you?
I would say the song Master Of Puppets is definitely a flawless song that takes you on a full journey. There’s so many different elements to it. It’s super catchy. I think it has all the elements of a perfect song for sure.
Is it something that you’re looking for actually in a perfect song, something with different parts and a lot of dynamics?
Not necessarily but I would say a perfect song would include great lyrics, it’s got to be memorable and it’s got to be catchy. If you get that trifecta, you probably have a perfect song. It doesn’t have to have a lot of dynamics, but I do think it’s got to have a good arrangement. I think arrangement is very key to a perfect song. You can have an awesome riff, but if you play it too many times, it kind of gets old pretty fast. The songwriting has to have a craft that makes sense for the riff. Sometimes, a good riff you maybe can get away with playing it “too much” but a lot of times, trimming down the fat a little bit is better than overplaying stuff.
To know when is enough and you shouldn’t add anything else.
Hundred percent. It’s tough because you can just keep adding elements, you know? You can potentially just keep adding on and on and on, and then you just have a mess. I think the key to any good art is knowing when to stop, knowing when it’s done.
Is there any up and coming bands that you’d like to recommend?
Yeah, definitely. EXPANDER like I said, they’re killer. Let’s see. There’s this band TAKE OFFENSE, they’re really good. I guess you would say they are more Hardcore but they have Thrash elements too. The newest record, I kind of liked that they’re adding more Metal elements into it. You know, I’m definitely more of a Metalhead at heart. I’ve always liked that kind of crossover thing where the Hardcore bands went Metal. I really liked that sound, like Leeway and stuff like that. I like when they add Metal elements into Hardcore.
No Comments