Aggression, intensity, speed... all core elements that fuel most modern-day Metal bands. Now throw in both talent and technical precision to the mix and what you get is much more than just your average headbanging sensation. Take, for in stance, Canadian newcomers THREAT SIGNAL. With their debut full-length album, "Under Reprisal", the Hamilton, ON-based youngsters are successfully fulfilling their dream of being part of Metal's ever-expanding roster, but not without some help from a few well-known names in the business. First off, FEAR FACTORY guitarist Christian Olde Wolbers produced their debut album, and if that wasn't enough to raise the hairs on the back of their necks, Nuclear Blast picked them up, awarding them with a worldwide recording deal. Drummer George Parfitt talks to METALEATER about the new album, working with Wolbers and the impact signing to a major Metal label has had on the band, along with his thoughts on their upcoming fall 2006 tour with SOILWORK, MNEMIC and DARKEST HOUR.

So you guys signed to Nuclear Blast.

"It's a great label. It feels very good to be on a label like Nuclear Blast. The level of musicianship in the bands on Nuclear Blast is just incredible. Not too many labels will have that many good bands."

Nuclear Blast does have one of the best rosters in Metal.

"It seems like they sign stuff that they like instead of signing what's popular, and that's incredible. What's also incredible about Nuclear Blast is they will give you time to make a career from it, you know. They're not like a major label, where they expect you to sell a million copies the first time out because that's really hard to do. They'll let you come up - you sell 30,000 this time, and then 60,000. They'll let you do that. I think a career is more exciting than selling a ton of records, and then never being heard from again."

So how did all that come about? How did it all pan out?

"Yeah. What happened was is we put up a song 'Rational Eyes' on Garageband.com and it just kept going up and going up the charts. Eventually it made it to number one. What's the first thing you want to do when you're looking at charts? You want to find out what number one is. So because of that, as soon as it went to number one man, we never even sent anything to record labels. As soon as it went to number one record labels started contacting us and we knew that Nuclear Blast would be the one."

How quickly did that happen? Did they have a listen to your demos and did they fly you down there after that? What happened?

"They started inquiring right away when 'Rational Eyes' came out. Then they got the 'Rational Eyes' demo, which was four songs; and then from then on it moved forward."

It's a pretty great accomplishment for you guys able to put out your debut CD on such a prominent label.

"Oh absolutely! And in Europe, Nuclear Blast is so prominent. It's a mid-sized here, but over there it's... Boris from Rock Hard (magazine) was telling me that when he came over here that it's big or bigger than Roadrunner over there. So that's incredible, you know what I mean?"

Let's talk about the new album (“Under Reprisal”). It's very technical; it has such an amalgamation of sub-genres of Metal. It's got Thrash, some Hardcore elements in there if I daresay, some Industrial, some more darker stuff. Is not your typical mainstream Metal album, because as you know, there are a lot of bands out their now who are pretty much clones of each other.

"Well, see that's the thing. That's what we've always wanted to do. We never really wanted to be anybody else. We just wanted to do what we like and what we happen to like was all these different things, you know. It's like, I love Death Metal but I wouldn't want to be in a Death Metal band, you know what I mean? It's kind of like just one emotion, and are you just one emotion all the time? Are you always said? Are you always pissed? No. You go through a day have many different ups and downs and I think your music should reflect your life and you should be able to paint with that, you know. Instead of just using one colour, use a bunch of different textures."

Music wise, how did you guys come up with such technical material? Not to knock you, but especially since you guys are so young.

"Oh yeah, we are a young band. That's why THREAT SIGNAL is so exciting for me. The oldest kid in this band is 24. The main songwriter in this band is 21 (laughs), you know. It's amazing. How the technical thing kind of came about was, obviously it was just music we wanted to hear so that's what we had to do - to play the music; the ideas that were going on in our brains. But we wrote unconventionally. A lot of bands will get in their rehearsal space and write their record. We didn't do it like that. Kyle (McKnight - guitar) tapped everything out on Guitar Pro. What's crazy about that is you can swap parts in minutes and seconds instead of hours. Instead of re-recording stuff, you can just re-tab it. So we got all these midi files that sounds like Nintendo music. You can write a step further then you can sit down and maybe even play right away, you know. It's like, you name this bar a little higher and then you have to learn it (laughs), which is the fun part. But I think that's how the kind of technical edge came about, 'cause it was originally written as midi in a guitar tab program. Then from there, we take it and put the real guitars on it and the drums and everything; then just keep working through it until it was exactly where we wanted it."

How was it working with Christian (Olde Wolbers - FEAR FACTORY)?

"Oh, it was awesome. He's killer! Actually, when Jon (Howard - vocals) got the phone call that Christian wanted to do it - Omer (R. Cordell - photographer) was actually the reason why that happened - he thought it was a prank call. I mean, how often does somebody from FEAR FACTORY call your house, right? So he's like 'Come on! Stop shitting me.' Well. It ended up being in. Because of Omer giving him a demo, that's how it all came about. It's pretty incredible. It's not everyday you can spend five weeks. In one of your favorite artist's house, you know."

That's great that Omer helped you out with that. I think you're doing this for the right reasons.

"You have to, man. You doing it for money, this isn't the jobs do (laughs). If you doing it for chicks why are you playing Metal? Kind of have to just do it 'cause you love it; you get off on it, you know. I think that playing is better than any drug out there. When you come off stage, man, there's nothing like that, you know. If you can look out, and there's even one kid that knows the words, how awesome is that? It takes me back to bands that I loved. Even seeing METALLICA dude - seeing that changed my life. That was an experience; and from then on, I knew I wanted to play. So you gotta remember that stuff - the bands that took the couple of minutes to be really cool to you and hang out with you. You gotta remember that because they'll be fans forever. I'll never forget the day that MESHUGGAH brought me up on the bus and hung out with me for like six hours or something at Ozzfest one year - just shooting the shit; taking the time to answer my questions. You'll never forget that sort of thing, and that connection with the fans is really what makes your band, you know. It's the same thing with PANTERA man. PANTERA is one of the best bands ever, and they took the time to be cool and to be nice to people, that means a lot. Same thing with MySpace; MySpace is great because the connection is even closer to the fans. Jon and I make sure that we reply back to every single person on MySpace that messages us or whatever because that might need something them. We're nothing yet, but maybe someday we will be, you know, and maybe they'll remember that."

That's good on your part because some bands don't care.

"Oh, I know that I've met a band that's like that too. There's one band that sticks out; I'm not going to name who they are, but they were complete shitheads to me, man. This was before it was signed, and all I wanted to do was give them my demo. I didn't want anything from them, but he took my demo and threw it on the ground. It's pretty shitty. And I remember that to; as much as I remember the good things, I remember stuff like that too, and I'll never be like that to a kid, you know. If the kid wants me to check out his band, bring it on man! You never know; it might be the best band you've ever heard. So take the time to do it. I don't listen to Punk Rock music but I understand the vibe; nobody is better than anybody. This is an outlaw form of music, man. It's not like were going to be playing on MTV or anything, so you have to really extend your hand everybody to become a community within it."

That's what it's all about. Metal is a brotherhood.

"Yeah, and it's 90% friendship. When it comes down to a time like 'Okay, who is going to get picked for this tour?' It doesn't matter. If you're a cool band, and everybody knows you're an easy band to get along with, you're probably going to get that tour before a band that's not very easy to get along with, you know."

What are your thoughts on the upcoming SOILWORK tour?

"Oh man, it's beyond a dream for me. A year and a half ago, or even a year ago maybe - I probably a little longer - to go to some of these shows and just dream about being on these tours, you know what mean? Were going to be playing B.B. King's in Times Square. To actually be flipped this quick - not that we haven't been working at it for a very, very long time - to actually be on the other side of it finally is really, really incredible. I remember seeing FEAR FACTORY as a little kid and just dreaming about being on that stage; and then the dude ends up producing our record, you know. I look forward to it, man. This is a great tour to be on. I don't think we could ask for a better tour. I mean, as far as the lineup goes, I think all the bands complement one another. It's going to be a good tour for everybody - for the bands and for the kids."

It's good to hear you're so enthused. It's very difficult to make a living at music and I admire all artists who actually just go for it.

"And you have to, you know. I don't want to be in my 40s or 50s or whatever and regret that I didn't try as hard as I could to do it, you know what I mean? 'Cause I can always go back and do something else later, but I have to do this now - just give it everything that I can and then look back on it someday and be like 'Yeah, I tried as hard as I could. Even if we never made a living off that, I was in a signed band; we played festivals. That's something I'm never going to forget. Plus you get to see the world; you learn a lot; you get to see different cultures; you get to see somebody different things, which is incredible, you know. Even within countries to get to see so many different things; like playing in Atlanta, Georgia is a lot different than playing in Fargo, North Dakota. So even within that you get completely different people, and it's so cool to see the different types of people that come out and like your band. One thing I do as I do this T-shirt check; I always like seeing what other band's kids like. If you see a lot of SLAYER T-shirts you're doing something right."

Looking back in the last year or so, did you ever think that any of this was going to happen like it did?

"No. No no. Definitely not. Obviously, I really believed in it, you know what I mean; I really believed in what we had 'cause we worked so hard on it. But for things to happen like they did, nobody expected it. Like I said before, we didn't even send anything out to a label. We weren't even thinking that at that point, 'cause at the time, THREAT SIGNAL wasn't a full band. When THREAT SIGNAL got signed there were three guys. So, to be thinking about getting signed when you don't have a drummer or a bass player yet is pretty insane, you know. But it just lined up; it just happened, and what are you going to do, say no? (laughs)"

Where would you like to see yourselves in the next five years?

"Would it be cocky if I wanted us to be like PANTERA? I want to be a band that big. We'll never compromise our music to do it, but I really want to succeed at this. I want to be able to play 5,000 seaters. I don't know if that's going to happen in five years; it might not ever happen, but I'd love to see us get to a level where we can do that and not have to worry about anything else. You know, not have to worry about 'What are we going to do when we come off tour and we don't have any money?' I'd love to get to the point where we're really packing places live. Live is my main objective - as long as kids come and see us live. You have to aim higher than you think you might even get to, because if you aim low, you're going to get low. You're not going to go beyond that. It's the same thing with the musicianship: if you keep raising it you always have some place to go to. You always need that headroom there to go someplace else with it. You can always take it up a notch, you know; do something different with it or try to reach more people. It goes back to talking to people on MySpace - if they like and they're going to tell two of their friends about it and then those two friends will tell 10 friends, and that's how it's going to be with this band. We're not going to be on TV and were not going to be on the radio. I guess that's fine, 'cause that's never really been our objective. We need to do a lot of touring now. I can't wait to get back out there." [FIN]