Words: Scott Harrell
Photo: Courtesy Earache Records

For eight years, Richmond, VA's Municipal Waste have endeavored to put the fun - and the classic hallmarks of crossover thrash - back into that gray area between hardcore and metal. Vocalist Tony Foresta recently took a break from destroying kegs and stages in Europe to answer some questions via e-mail about the band's origins, new album Massive Aggressive, and the old-school heavy-music connection.

REAX: For a while there, American metal and crossover were very serious. Was Waste consciously conceived as an alternative to all the killing-your-girlfriend shit?
TF: I think American metal wasn't really serious when we started, it was just really bad. The only metal we took seriously were bands that came out 15 years before. I mean, think about it. We started in 2001. Do you know who were big metal bands then? Limp Bizkit, Korn, Atreyu ... that crap was considered metal. Them and every "underground band" was out there basically ripping off At The Gates riffs over and over again. So yeah, I guess when we started the Waste it was kind of a middle finger to all of that. We just wanted to bring the honesty and fun of punk back to metal, which is where a lot of the great metal bands came from back in the day.

REAX: Obviously, there's a place for bands that take their music seriously without taking themselves or everything else so seriously, but do you think there are fans that are just reacting to the heaviness, that aren't even really that aware of the more satirical side of the band's personality?
TF: I don't really care what they like about the band as long as people are reacting to it. If our songs don't provoke a response then that means we are doing a bad job at it somewhere. The new stuff is a lot less satirical anyways. I think that helps with the intensity of the music. The new album is just way more pissed-sounding all around.

REAX: Are you finding younger fans out there that have gone back and discovered D.R.I. and M.O.D. and Nuclear Assault? Do you see it more in one place - America or Europe or the U.K. - than elsewhere?
TF: Oh, definitely over the past five years. I would like to think that our band has opened kids' minds to a lot of thrash bands even beyond the ones you mentioned. Even when we started, I always tried to name-drop as many obscure thrash bands as I could in hopes that kids would read it and go out and buy their records. It kind of backfired on me though because now Razor and English Dogs LPs are expensive as shit these days!

REAX: Does it bother you guys to be so consistently mentioned in association with older bands? Is it weird that there are all these elements of the band's process - the vinyl, the artwork, some of the sound - that seem sort of classic, and at the same time the band is being called the future of thrash?
TF: No, not really. I like it. I think it's an honor to be compared to great bands like that. I think people are familiar with our band enough now to know that we are not some generic act that's ripping off these bands to cash in. We contribute to the genre, not mimic it. It's cool, because a lot of the older bands have seen that we have worked hard enough and earned their respect. Last summer I met Kerry King and he told me that he listens to the Waste in his iPod I was like, "that's weird. I listen to your band in my iPod!" That really blew my mind. There have been a lot of situations like that, which makes me proud because a lot of these older bands look at us as their peers and not some revival gimmick.

REAX: What's the secret remedy that gets you from feeling like you're going to die to climbing back onstage and sweating it all out again? Have they got PediaLyte overseas?
TF: Ha ha, PediaLyte! My friend made me drink that shit one night before I played a gig on that Lamb of God tour. I was like, "Isn't this for grandparents?" Well, while I'm overseas I just try my best to stay hydrated. Tons and tons of water. Thats basically all I've found that helps. That or just keep drinking, which usually ends up Bad News Bears.

REAX: You've said that the band was more prepared to go into the studio with Massive Aggressive than some previous sessions. Did you do purposely do anything different this time around, or did the songs just come faster or more fully realized?
TF: The one thing we did different with this record than we did with our other albums is demoing. We have never done demos before. We usually just write the shit and then just go record it in the studio. This album, we demoed the entire thing and then listened to it a million times so we would know what sucked and what needed changing.

REAX: With a band like yours, that has a certain sound and is experienced in getting it, what kind of role does a producer like Zeuss play?
TF: Well, Zeuss is a pro. He knows the band really well and he is easy to talk to. He lets us get our point across, and he knew that we wanted a dirtier sound on the record. He's like the fifth band member in there. He wants the record to rip just as much as we do. That's the type of people we like to work with. People that care about the band and don't just see dollar signs with things.

I'm not even sure if I'm supposed to say this, but he took a big pay cut to do our record. He knew we didn't have a lot of money but he didn't care. He wanted to be a part of it because he loves us. That guy is great.

REAX: Do you have any cool collaborative ideas floating around for videos this time around?
TF: We are filming a video for the track "Wrong Answer" in a couple of weeks. I don't want to spill the beans or anything, but it's going to be like The Price is Right on acid.

REAX: What's one thing you always look forward to getting when you tour overseas that you can't get in the States, and one thing you always miss that you can't get when you're over there?
TF: Well in Europe hot sauce is really hard to come by. They've got this lame chili stuff that's barely spicy. I got busted at the airport the other day trying to bring a bottle of Tapatio into the Czech republic on my carry-on. They were like "NO LIQUIDS" and I was like, "C'MON, THATS MY SAUCE!" And of course the beer in Europe kicks us Americans' butts really bad. It's scary, if you don't watch out you can come back from Europe gaining 15 pounds of beer weight!

REAX: Anything else you'd like to add? I heard you've got a new thing going on down here in Florida ...
TF: Yeah, I just recently started playing in a hardcore band based out of Orlando called No Friends. It's really fun. I fly down and practice all the time between tours and we play gigs whenever we can. We've got an LP recorded and it's coming out on No Idea records. I'm really excited about it. Total D.C. hardcore worship.

Massive Aggressive comes out August 25 on Earache. Municipal Waste is on tour in the U.K. through August.

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