ALL THAT REMAINS Guitarist: 'I Definitely Consider Myself To Be A Musician First And Foremost'

The Scream Queen recently conducted an interview with Oli Herbert, founding member and lead guitarist of the acclaimed metal band ALL THAT REMAINS. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

The Scream Queen: You just released "For We Are Many" [in October]. How has the response been so far?

Oli: It seems to be pretty decent, you know. You have, obviously, the haters out there on Blabbermouth, but whatever. (laughs) But no, I guess we made #10 on the Billboard Top 200, so can't complain about that.

The Scream Queen: Do you think that because your music is kind of diverse, meaning it has a rock side to it and a metal side to it, that it opens doors for new fans who've never really listened to metal before?

Oli: Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, if you tell someone you're in a metal band, they get the impression that you're in CANNIBAL CORPSE if they don't listen to metal. I know when I was a kid, I hated metal. Like, when I was 11 or 12, I used to listen to British pop music, you know because it was on the radio and stuff, PET SHOP BOYS, you know. My friends would be like, "Do you like metal?" I'd be like, "No, that stuff is noise to me! They played MÖTLEY CRÜE and I instantly liked it. So, I didn't understand the difference. I think with metal, people's ears have to grow into it. I think that fans of more mainstream-hard-rock will find us more accessible than say, a band like CANNIBAL CORPSE, who are an awesome band, but they're a death metal band.

The Scream Queen: What is something that's always intrigued you about metal?

Oli: I think there was some kind of combination, inner power of darkness, because I was kind of a picked on kid and I needed some kind of strength; something, you know. When I heard MÖTLEY CRÜE's "Shout at the Devil", it was my first foray into metal, and it just brought me into the world. And I started getting into, I was a Dungeons and Dragons geek as a kid, and I started getting into all these fantasy type metal bands like CANDLEMASS and stuff. It just all fit together, and the imagery, back then especially, the mid-'80s was very powerful for a kid entering his teen years, like myself. There was so much allure back then. I got into Satanism for a while, and I had my Satanic bible in school; you know, because I always wanted — I always knew that kids who called themselves Christian, you know, were mean to me, so it must be a bad religion. I read the Bible, I went, "Oh, this makes sense, Do unto others as you would have others do unto you... If someone hurts you, you punch them in the face." (laughs) It made perfect sense to me! So, I think that everything kind of came together, like the whole package of metal, I just fell in love with that part. Later on, down the road, I went to school for music; I consider myself more of a musician than just a metalhead, but definitely when I started off, I was proud to just be called a metalhead, and you know, I still am, but I definitely consider myself to be a musician first and foremost. Not an artist. (laughs) You know people think I'm an artist, it's like, "Shut the fuck up!" It's the most cliché thing people say. I'm a musician. But, metal flows strong through my veins, plus other music, but metal is it.

The Scream Queen: Since you just said you got your Bachelors Degree, what is something you've learned throughout college that you've applied to being in ALL THAT REMAINS?

Oli: Oh God, pretty much everything. I got into composition because I'm a big song-writer in the band, and that's obviously important to be able to have a grasp of what's going on. The way you orchestrate the guitars and just having a handle on being able to listen to different kinds of music and understand it, analyze it, and apply that to a metal situation, I think, is crucial. Because, like you mentioned before, a lot of bands coming out, sounding repetitive. I think the problem with a lot of the new bands that come out is that they're listening to a group of groups, and basically, all they do is copy that; and they're not going back to what influences them, they're not really studying the music. Say, if you wanted to understand, let's say, LED ZEPPELIN, well, you would study blues guitars before them, you don't just — you've got to go to the roots in order to do that. I think bands just don't do that anymore. Well, some do, I don't know if you're familiar with the band DAATH?

The Scream Queen: Yes!

Oli: Eyal [Levi] is — he's a good guitar god! (laughs) But he's a real jazz guitar player, the guy is just amazing. And he's doing Django Reinhardt stuff, the way he incorporates it into metal, it reminds me of Alex (inaudible),it's just a takes you there.

The Scream Queen: What is it, do you think, that makes metal such a tight-knit "community," I guess you could say?

Oli: I think metal, you know, it's kind of got a working-class vibe to it, I was talking to a guy down the street, he was like, "Yeah, you guys should play Red Rocks [Amphitheatre]!" "Like what's the cap[acity] there?" "9000." I'm like, "Nobody in the metal genre, except METALLICA could fill that place." Look at the biggest bands in our genre, I would say like SLIPKNOT and DISTURBED, ROB ZOMBIE, those three together could pack that place. (laughs) SLIPKNOT could pull, you know 4,000 or 5,000. It's tough right now. I think that, coming from that, you're not making a lot of money, but you're having a strong impression on the kids. So, you're also getting to know each other well, you're not isolated in the fancy dressing rooms, you're in one green room with all of the bands. So, I think it's important for bands be friends with each other because if you piss off other bands, you're going to burn bridges. You're going to meet each other down the road at more opportune times. Again, things aren't — I started playing guitar in '88, and in that time period, you had the big arena-rock bands, and there was so much money thrown at them, and in my head I was like, "So that's what being in a band is like!" That was part of the allure, of course in starting too, and then you get to 2010 and obviously it's nothing like that. (laughs) And you better love it, and if you don't love it for what it is, then you're in the wrong business. It can be great, like what fans think, lavish, but it's not like that. (laughs) Those days are gone.

Read the entire interview from The Scream Queen.