DIVINE HERESY Guitarist Says His Band Has Made 'A Great Metal Record'

Chad Bowar of About Heavy Metal recently conducted an interview with DIVINE HERESY guitarist Dino Cazares (ex-FEAR FACTORY). A few excerpts from the chat follow:

About Heavy Metal: What kind of response has "Bleed The Fifth" been getting so far?

Dino Cazares: "The majority of the response is very positive. But we are between a rock and a hard place with my FEAR FACTORY past. It's either too much FEAR FACTORY or not enough FEAR FACTORY for those fans. But I think we'll get past that and people will realize that this is a great metal record."

About Heavy Metal: How did DIVINE HERESY come together?

Dino Cazares: "The biggest challenge in putting this together was finding the time, really. I had plenty of other projects going at the time. I met Tim Yeung [drums] around 2003 and we kept in touch. We finally met up in 2005 and started writing songs. Tommy [Cummings] came aboard in 2006. Tim and I had recorded songs and sent them over to Tommy for his vocal audition. We heard passion and anger in his voice, which was something we wanted. It was also very aggressive. We flew him out to L.A. and went straight to the studio and started recording with him. That's how it came together."

About Heavy Metal: You recently brought aboard Joe Payne as your new bassist.

Dino Cazares: "On the record Tony Campos from STATIC-X did three songs. I had met Joe Payne in 2005 when he was touring with NILE. I saw him play live. Three months ago he called me. I told him to come on down, he had the spot. I already knew he was a kick-ass bass player and a good guy. Tim also knew him really well. He came highly recommended. We did have bass auditions for a lot of people, but we were picky. Joe is both a bass and guitar player, and he is able to play the bass like a guitar, which I really like, which is another reason we picked him."

About Heavy Metal: Is he a permanent member, or just a touring member of the band?

Dino Cazares: "We feel good about it. We're going to see what it's like on the road. We have two big tours coming up. As of now, he's pretty close to it."

About Heavy Metal: How did you decide on Century Media as your U.S. label?

Dino Cazares: "We decided to go to Century Media based on how they were on the creative side. Previously on Roadrunner they wanted me to do a lot of radio and commercial type stuff. Century Media gave me creative freedom to do whatever I wanted. I am still on Roadrunner in Europe."

About Heavy Metal: I understand the video shoot at the Salton Sea in California was a bit rough for "Failed Creation" because of the location.

Dino Cazares: "It was pretty nasty. It was about 116 degrees with rotted, dead fish everywhere. The water there is really polluted and thousands and thousands of fish die every year. Birds flock there and think they can feed on these fish, but when they do they end up dying too. It's a perfect place to shoot a video. (laughs) The combination of the smells and the heat made me throw up. I had to throw my clothes away after the shoot. We'd be jamming and someone would have to throw up."

Read the entire interview at HeavyMetal.About.com.