VISION OF DISORDER Frontman Says New Album 'Came Out Better Than Anyone Expected'

Hutch13 of Hails & Horns recently conducted an interview with vocalist Tim Williams of New York hardcore/metal veterans VISION OF DISORDER (a.k.a. V.O.D.). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Hails & Horns: When did you start writing the [new V.O.D.] record ["The Cursed Remain Cursed"]?

Tim: 2009. It was a slow drawn-out process. We had a lot going on. We were doing a lot of shows. And each one would set us back for months. That’s the way we are. We had a lot of business things to iron out. Then you take time off for the holidays, you take time off for this, you get sick of each other. Everything combined, it took three years to write the record. It was a long time. It’s amazing.

Hails & Horns: When did you feel confident enough to go into the studio?

Tim: We thought, "Ah, we got to get this done." So, it was probably towards the end of last summer. We were thinking, "We got to get this out. People are waiting." Left to our devices, we might not have finished the record. We were looking around for deals. One deal would fall through for one reason. Another one just didn’t seem to work out for that reason. There were a couple we were looking at and Candlelight seemed to be the best scenario for what we wanted to with V.O.D. But once we hooked up with them, we had a goal. Things moved at a good pace.

Hails & Horns: Candlelight seems to be a metal label; black metal, doom, and stoner rock. Seems a weird place for V.O.D.

Tim: Our management is based in England where the label is. A couple of people at the label and our management talked. They have done some deals. They have known each other. It came up like that. Our management told us that they did CROWBAR and CORROSION OF CONFORMITY. We said, "Oh that is interesting." So, we checked out their roster. We got on the phone with them with the guys. We liked what we heard. We will go with whatever suits V.O.D. We don’t need any bells and whistles. We needed the right deal.

Hails & Horns: How did recording go? How did it go? Who produced?

Tim: We did it with Will Putney at The Machine Shop in New Jersey. It went extraordinarily well. It came out better than anyone expected, which was real exciting. We knew the songs were good. The songs started to get tracked and come alive. And a good studio session will do that for any song. We started to see these song become monsters. We were really excited. We bounced them off of some label folks, management, some close friends. People were really amped. And, most of all, we were. We really liked how they were beginning to sound. It was getting big and staying heavy, which is important to us. V.O.D. has the potential to be a radio band, in some people’s eyes. And that is not where we wanted to go at all. We were very skeptical. We were very nervous about that going into the studio. That is another reason it took so long.

Reada the entire interview from Hails & Horns.