SHADOWS FALL Singer BRIAN FAIR Discusses OVERCAST Reunion

MetalSucks recently conducted an interview with SHADOWS FALL singer Brian Fair about his involvement with the newly reformed OVERCAST, the acclaimed Massachusetts band which released the "Reborn to Kill Again" CD this past summer on Metal Blade Records. An excerpt from the interview follows below.

MetalSucks: How do you feel now looking back on this material? You hear the phrase "metalcore pioneers" batted around a lot with you guys.

Brian Fair: It's pretty funny, because at the time it was a lot more of "Keep your metal out of my hardcore." It's kind of funny that ten years later it's become such a norm to have those styles combined. We definitely had more of a kind of CRO-MAGS and INTEGRITY sort of vibe than anything that's really going on now. I think our stuff has definitely stood the test of time. When we were playing live recently, they definitely carry the impact and power that they had years ago, which is funny because we always had to down-tune to be heavy.

MetalSucks: Do you feel like an elder statesman of this particular subgenre?

Brian Fair: Sometimes at these shows, I felt like an elder man [laughs]. I definitely got beat up a few times during the sing-alongs and pile-ons. We definitely didn't feel like OVERCAST did back then because the scene was such a contrast to begin with. I'd go to shows with SICK OF IT ALL and NAPALM DEATH. The death metal and hardcore scenes were kind of merging together because you had to; because it was such a small underground scene at the time. We were just a product of what was going on in Boston at the time, which was a total mix-match of hardcore, death metal, grindcore and everything.

MetalSucks: It sounds like you really enjoyed playing these smaller crazier shows as opposed to...

Brian Fair: Oh, totally. It was such a flashback. We even played in places we played at ten or twelve years ago, like Valentine's in Albany, with all the kids that I hadn't seen in a decade. It was such a time warp, but it was fun.

MetalSucks: Have you had to explain to any of the younger fans that this is not a new band?

Brian Fair: Maybe, I don't know. I know definitely people were asking if SHADOWS FALL broke up or something and I would just say "That's still my day job." Some people might not know [about OVERCAST's history], and that's really cool. And what's cooler is when kids haven't heard the records and don't know that we were in other bands. We want to play shows with the younger bands so we can get the younger audience to keep these songs alive.

MetalSucks: Do you think that you might ever want to get together to record new material or do you think that's just out of the question?

Brian Fair: We've actually talked about it because Pete [Cortese] and Mike [D'Antonio] definitely have ideas for songs. We just have to make sure that they're OVERCAST songs, you know? And not just a Pete song. Like I said, it has to be tuned to E and there has to be a mosh part that goes nowhere and there has to be random time changes for no reason. All those things have to be there in order to make it an OVERCAST song. We're definitely not opposed to [writing and recording new material]. It may or may not happen, it depends on if the songs are quality.

To read the rest of the interview, visit www.metalsucks.net.