Los Angeles - home to Hollywood stars, music moguls, some of the best tattoo artists, and of course, Rock stars. But Los Angeles is also a new breeding ground for Metal music, and in recent years, many bands have been emerging from the oversaturation of Pop, Hip Hop and Rap acts. One such band is ABYSMAL DAWN, a pure Death Metal four-piece who have taken it upon themselves to play their music no matter what the outside world dictates. As far as growler/guitarist Charles Elliott is concerned, he just likes to keep his life simple and bring his music to the table regardless.

How did you get started in your band, ABYSMAL DAWN?

"Well, let's see... in about I think it was 2003, I had just left a band I was playing in for a while called RISE. Once I left that band I was thinking about re-starting the band I was in previously - INHUMAN VISIONS - and I got together with those guys; we had a couple of rehearsals, and I called up Jamie (Boulanger - guitar) and it was like 'Hey man, we're getting the band back together. Do you want be a part of it again?' 'Cause I had just gotten together with the singer and the drummer, who were the original members that actually started INHUMAN VISIONS. They actually joined later on. I was telling Jamie about it and he was like 'Yeah, I want to do it.' Then the drummer said he wasn't really into playing Death Metal anymore and the commitment - he wasn't really into it anymore. He was more into playing music for fun. There's not a whole money to be had in Death Metal, you know (laughs), and he wasn't really into putting that time commitment into it and money into it, and I think the singer was kind of more into it for nostalgia. I don't think he was really that current on Death Metal and extreme music in general... Black Metal or whatever. He kinda fell out of it, but he always had a really good time with the band and he enjoyed performing live. I don’t know, I could just see that he wasn't completely into it, I guess, or not into it for the same reasons that I was. So I decided to start something with Jamie; Jamie had a friend Terry (Barajas - drums) who actually was a big INHUMAN VISIONS fan and used to come out to the shows. We tried him out with a couple of INHUMAN VISIONS songs and he could play and we were like 'Fuck yeah, man!' We all got along really well and just started writing new songs then and from there, it wasn't my initial idea to sing and play guitar. Originally I just wanted to find a separate singer because I'd never really sung in a band except for backing vocals. We tried out Dan Dismal from CREMATORIUM. He's a great vocalist, you know, but he didn't really have the time for it. He has his other bands and they go out on tour. And we're like 'Man, we need someone that's going to be committed and want to do the tours with us.' Sooner or later I was like 'Fuck it! I need to do it myself', and I'm glad I did it because I had an idea how I wanted the band to sound vocally and lyrically, so I just had to step it up and improve on my vocals and just kind of learn to sing and play guitar for the first time. I think it worked out really good. I'm happy I did it like that. We've been going strong ever since."

Good job. It must be really difficult to play guitar and grunt and growl at the same time.

"You know, I used to think so too, but maybe I was just over-thinking it. You just gotta fucken do it, you know. If you know the guitar parts it's just kinda like second nature, I guess, to sing as well."

Isn't it difficult though to thrash out the riffs while singing?

"I'm not completely head-off either because I have to keep my bearings too and stay conscious (laughs). You'll blow your throat out if you really scream your head off. It's a certain technique behind it, you know. It's hard to explain, but you have to do it in moderation and it's not like going balls out really, even if you do sound really pissed (laughs)."

What drove you to form the band? Is it your love of Metal?

"I guess I love being creative and playing guitar and creating music. I think when I was playing in RISE I was more like a guitar player. I wasn't really doing much writing - just playing leads basically. Man, that was like a year of my life and it was just kinda killing me because I wasn't... like in inhuman visions I was like a driving force in that band at the end, even though I wasn't an original member. It kinda became like my band or I became a big part of that band. I don’t know, I just wanted to have my own band again from creating the music to just pushing the band to succeed. I have certain ideas how to get to where I want to be in a certain amount of years and I just felt like I wasn't really achieving that in RISE or whatever. I just love playing this style of music and I guess I wasn't doing exactly what I wanted to do before in that band (RISE) stylistically. Even though I really liked their music at the time and I was a fan when I first joined, there was just something missing for me, so I had to go and do my own thing."

So would you say that that craving to create and do your own thing keeps you going?

"Pretty much, man. I think there's nothing better in this world than getting up and playing in front of a bunch of people, especially with your own music and having people just love your music and give you that energy that you felt when you wrote it. Hopefully one day this will be my day job (laughs)."

I don't think there are a lot of Death Metal bands, or Metal bands for that matter, that can actually do it full-time, unfortunately.

"Yeah. I know you get older and you have more and more responsibilities. I try and keep my life as simple as possible so I don’t have to worry about these things, you know. I don’t drive a brand new car and I try and keep my bills to a minimum. I can go out and still do this. I try and keep the material thing sin life at a minimum because what I really love is playing music and I don't need a fucken new car and a new house and a big screen TV and whatever... the latest technology and all that shit. Man, all I want to do is fucken play music. So I try and keep my life simple so I can keep on doing that, you know."

I respect you for that. There are so many people who are so materialistic who are like "gotta have this, gotta have that" and everybody wanting to be like celebrities. It's like" why?" Why would you want that?

"Yeah (laughs). I can't barely watch TV 'cause I can’t fucken stand commercials and all the horseshit they try to shove down your throat on that shit."

So you guys are in the studio recording full-length number two. Can you tell me what you have planned and what the new material is like?

"Well, we have eight brand new songs. We're probably gonna add an instrumental in there as well..."

On top of the eight?

"Yeah, so nine songs. The songs are just a lot faster, a little more technical. I think maybe 'From Ashes' was a little bit nostalgic in its sound to a certain extent, and this one I would say... I don't know, it's more of our own... more of our own style, maybe a bit more modern-sounding in a way. It's gonna be different though, man, but I think people will hopefully like it. I think we've definitely topped 'From Ashes' in that it's just way more interesting as a musician, to me, and yet we still keep those elements. We're still writing songs that I think that you can remember and there's actually some substance behind it. I say technical but you know, I still think we’re writing good songs that people will remember, not just showing off and fucken wanking off for five minutes, you know... the songs are a blur or anything. I don't know. A lot of these bands now today just place strict emphasis on 'technical'. I like some of it, I do. Some of it just sounds like a fucken Nintendo game. I don't remember the songs. I'll dig it and I'll listen to it for a bit and like 'This is sick!', and then about five or three songs in I'm like 'I'm not gonna fucken remember any of this!' (laughs).It doesn't register; it doesn't keep me coming back for more. It's just more like a shock value thing. I know the thing about Death Metal that people really respond to, I think, is always pushing that envelope and making it more and more extreme, and I think we do that to a certain extent, but I think we still try and keep an emphasis on song-writing and actually having songs that people will remember. So there's that element too. We're trying to step it up as far as some of the leads on the album go. I think they're gonna be fucken sick! Vocally I'm trying a couple of different things. We toured with SIX FEET UNDER, KRISIUN and DECAPITATED last fall, and I think that was the most I ever sang in my life, like every day for almost two months. You know, I'm mainly a guitar player by nature, and I got to try a lot more things with my voice and improve on my vocals. I felt like I found my vocal style a little bit more on that tour... just getting out there, because before that it was just kinda like we'll play a couple shows here and there and we recorded the album ('From Ashes') and my vocals sounded different on that than on the demo. I just feel like I keep on improving and learning so much more vocally as we go on. So I think that will be a big step up as well."

Do you do anything special to enhance your voice and/or take care of it?

"Not really, man. I mean I don't smoke or anything like that. On the tour I barely drank. I drank maybe... it was pretty much like two nights out of a month and a half where I got plastered (laughs), but every other time I barely got drunk. I had a beer here and there, even though I wanted to get fucked up (laughs). But you know, we were touring in a Ford Explorer with a trailer and having to drive yourself for eight hours after each show, and being in that cramped space with all these people, and just playing night after night... I just couldn't drink or anything else otherwise it would just fuck up my throat. That whole tour I didn't really have any vocal problems at all... like I didn't lose my voice or anything. So I must have been doing something right, I don't know man what the fuck (laughs)."

Does drinking actually impair your voice?

"Drinking just dries up your vocal chords, which you don’t want to do 'cause they rub together to make that noise, and once they're dry they get irritated I think and your voice just swells up and changes the timber of your voice. That's why I think a lot of people lose their voice."

What about the smoking?

"Um, I don't know. Same shit (laughs). I think cigarette smoke has fiberglass and shit in it and tears up your throat from the carcinogens. Then you lose your lung capacity. It's not good to be out of breath when you have to belt out and scream your fucken lungs out for an extended amount of time every night."

Tell me how your experience was opening for IMMORTAL and EMPEROR?

"Both shows went great, man. With EMPEROR... fuck dude, I was probably the most nervous I've been in forever for a show. I don't normally get nervous for shows, but that one for some reason I just felt sick almost before I went on (laughs). I think part of it was because when I played with INHUMAN VISIONS with EMPEROR, on their only U.S. tour, my (amp) head blew, and it was like the worst experience of my life. I had to plug directly into the board and it sounded like complete shit. People were waiting outside for hours and then they just came in and sat down in the seats when we were about to play, and it was just a shitty show, man. It was terrible. I remember the singer had thrown out his back and was having a hard time. So with this show, Jamie hurt his back at work. I was like 'Fuck, deja-vu!', you know. I felt like I had to prove myself again, and it had been a while since we played. I think when we did that EMPEROR show, the last show prior to that was in February or March (2007). We played the (Los Angeles) Murderfest, so it had been a while since we played. We'd just been working on the new material all year for the most part. We just really wanted to make that a good show. We weren't sure how people would accept us. We have Black Metal elements to our music, but I would say we lean more towards the Death Metal side. So we weren't sure how people would receive us. But when we played the fucken crowd went nuts. People were buying merch before we even played. It was just a fucken awesome experience, man. It was a great show. I think maybe like seven years ago or something, the crowds were a little bit more segregated as far as Black Metal and Death Metal go. Why, I don't know fucken know because they're two extreme genres and they both have blast-beats. All the fans wear black t-shirts so what the fuck's the problem, right? (laughs). Yeah, I don't know man... the same with IMMORTAL. We had a fucken great time, great performance. We played at The Avalon (in Los Angeles) so that venue holds 1,500 people or something, so that was awesome. That was probably at least the biggest venue to capacity so far. We played a couple of festivals where they were at large venues but we'd go on early in the day and they're not to capacity. I think the IMMORTAL show was sold out, so that was a fucken incredible feeling playing on that huge stage with people pumping their fists in the air at you. We know opening for bands like IMMORTAL... people paid to see them you know (laughs). They didn't pay $50 or maybe even $100 for tickets to see us. Maybe we were like an added bonus. We weren't the reason they actually paid $50. But people fucken gave an incredible response to us and we were so grateful that they their fans allowed us to play for 30 minutes or whatever, and didn't think we were shit (laughs)."

It probably also gave you a chance to maybe reach new fans who hadn't heard your music before

"Yeah. People travel from all over to see those shows, and there were some people that were like 'Who the fuck are these guys? You guys are awesome.' So that was a really cool experience and feeling."

How was the LA Murderfest?

"That was great too, man. The room we played in was fucken packed to the gills, so that was really cool. It had been a while since we played at that time. Like I said we had just been writing. That was our first show with our new bass player Mike Cosio. It went really well. The LA crowd pretty much knows who we are at this point. It was just really cool to play a good fest in LA. I mean I can't think of any other fest that's that fucken good. That's pretty much the fest to go to in LA now. It was a really good experience." [FIN]