Taipei Metal

Into Eternity - Point of Certainty

“I need 3,500 Taiwanese dollars!” Into Eternity’s multi-octave vocalist Stu Block says as he pokes his head in through one of the windows beside the semi-enclosed booth at the small café inside the Taipei venue known as the Wall where the band will play on May 17th, 2009.

“OK, what for?” Asks band founder and lead guitarist Tim Roth like a father asking a son why he needs an advance on his allowance, his shaved head and severe goatee suggesting a stern figure, a far cry from his utterly approachable and outgoing personality.

“I’m going to get the logo right here on my arm! The tattoo guy next door is going to do it right now! I will pay you back!” replies Block in a staccato rapid fire manner that reveals just how genuinely excited he is about getting some new ink. Never mind that the band will be on in a little over an hour. Roth agrees and just a few minutes later Block is under the needle, getting the Into Eternity logo on his right arm between the bicep and the forearm. As many metal enthusiasts are already aware, the pain of getting a tattoo is temporary, but the mark lasts a lifetime.

But sometimes pain, one of the deepest sources of inspiration for metal, is not such a temporary thing, and leaves a mark far more indelible than any a tattoo artist could etch into one’s flesh, something Roth is acutely aware of; probably more so than many who would presume to understand pain. From late 2006 to late 2007, the man endured one tragic loss after another. First it was Danny and Dave Stephenson, brothers and friends to Roth who were active in the Regina, Saskatchewan metal scene that spawned Into Eternity. Sadly, the two passed away within two months of each other, both falling to cancer while only in their thirties. A year later, Roth lost his father, also to cancer, which had also previously claimed his mother. Two best friends, both parents, all taken by the same terrible disease.

Roth, who has been at the helm of Into Eternity for over a decade, seeing the band through five full length albums and numerous early lineup changes, turned to writing to see him through this painful time in his life. The result is The Incurable Tragedy, the progressive death metal band’s most epic album to date, and also possibly its most introspective, pain-filled and yet, in its own way, triumphant in the sense that it was the music that saw Roth through the overwhelming process of grieving for multiple loved ones taken too soon.

 

“It was definitely the hardest thing I’ve done in my life,” says Roth, looking back on those dark times. “The day my dad died, when I got home from the hospital I wrote ‘Time Immemorial.’ The events influenced all the songwriting on the album. Some of the songs I can’t actually listen to now and even the album itself I don’t listen to these days at all because I was so close to it. At the same time it was also a release when I wrote the songs, but it was tough.”

The album, a concept effort focusing on a person who is diagnosed with terminal cancer, mirrors Roth’s own raw experience with the disease as it struck those closest to him. Though the album was obviously heartfelt, an expression of pure anguish, frustration, sadness and helplessness, something many who are into metal can surely relate to, and the reason why many metal heads find this music so empowering, Into Eternity’s label, Century Media, wasn’t initially sold on its marketability.

“They said, ‘How are people going to sing along to such depressing lyrics?’” Roth recalls.

Still, there was no way Roth was going to change the album.

“If we were on a bigger label it might be an issue,” he states in a matter of fact manner, “but at the same time if I was getting paid a lot of money then maybe I would think about it. But if I’m not getting a ton of money I’m going to do it for the art’s sake. We haven’t sold out yet I guess,” he says, laughing.

Sold out? Hardly. Into Eternity is pure grit and perseverance embodied in five individuals who are committed to taking their band to the highest level possible. In 2005 and 2007 the band was on the road 200 days out of the year, returning home to their day jobs and businesses during brief reprieves from touring. Even today, despite tours with bands like Megadeth and Iced Earth under their belts, they still have to do the day or night job thing when they go home. But they still have their eyes on that next level.

“We’re not there yet,” says Roth, the hunger evident in his voice. “We’re underground metal. I can see a vision of our band and where we should be and we’re not where I want to be yet. What we have done is great and for being from a small town is really amazing but I’m never satisfied. We’ve toured 24 countries but we want to do more.”

Hearing Roth make such a statement is a little hard to wrap your head around, given that it comes from someone who by virtue of his membership in one of underground metal's hardest touring bands collects passport stamps like a traveling diplomat and has gone on the road with just about every type of band in metal’s far-ranging pantheon, from brutal death metal bands such as Dying Fetus to giants of power metal Symphony X and all things in between. It hasn’t always been easy being the only band on the bill that combines elements of progressive music, power metal and death metal into one airtight package.

 

“We’ve had plenty of middle fingers when we’ve been playing,” Tim says as he looks back on some of the responses they’ve received on their many tours. “We’re the type of band that uses all these influences into one sound. We have our own sound and we’re lucky that we can jump on to do all these tours. There’s not many bands that can do that. Of course we don’t expect death metal fans to love our band because of our high singing. But at the same time a lot of death metal fans do because we still have tremolo picking and double bass and death vocals. Most Dying Fetus fans probably hate our guts, but Dying Fetus themselves actually like us. It’s kind of ironic.”

But this is something the band has gotten used to over the years, ever since they took their first tentative steps outside their own scene to other cities in Western Canada.

“Our first out of town shows in Canada were Winnipeg, Edmonton. We’d play a strip club in Winnipeg and there would literally be maybe 10 people there. There’s nothing more embarrassing and degrading when there’s 10 people there and you’re playing your heart out. And you think, ‘Nobody cares about this band.’”
But Roth makes no mention of thoughts of packing it in. He was prepared to push the band and do whatever he had to do to make people see what he saw in his own music.

“I just couldn’t give up. I liked this music so much eventually, hopefully, people would feel the same way. Now, sure enough, in many countries people love our band. But everyone hated our band when we started. Even in our hometown we would have five, ten people there. But does that stop me? No. If you believe in your band you do and that’s it. Playing in front of ten people will freak most musicians out and they’ll quit because that’s not what you think it is. But at the end of the day it’s supposed to be about art. Are you in it for art or are you in it to be the rock star? For me I’m not about that.”

But for others in the band, touring was not what they expected it would be, and those who couldn’t handle it, understandably, stepped aside to let others fill the ranks.

“We toured so much nobody could afford it and nobody could deal with that lifestyle. If you tell someone you’re going to be on the road 200 days a year, you won’t see your friends or family or girlfriend and you’re not going to make very much money see how many people are going to do it for that long,” Roth says of the undeniable toll touring takes on a musician's personal life and bottom line.

Those who joined up following the departures quickly found out what the life of a touring musician, especially one who plays such a niche style of music, is all about. On returning home from one European tour totally broke, bassist Troy Bleich nearly found himself living on the street, and were it not for the willingness of a new female acquaintance to take him in, could very well have ended up homeless.

Life on the road also presented its share of bizarre moments for the band. Bleich also recounts a story of a North American tour with German thrash legends Destruction. The bands, who were sharing a tour bus, were crossing the border back into Canada near Toronto. Destruction's bassist and vocalist Schmier had in his possession a bag of unmarked prescription pills, which was discovered by the border guards. This, in tandem with Destruction guitarist Mike Sifringer's perpetually emaciated appearance, led the guards to jump to the hasty assumption that the bands had been in possession of heroin, which Sifringer must have ingested just prior to their search of the bus. The bands were then jostled into the border station, and promptly strip searched--the only revenge of the bands being the fact that they hadn't showered in the past six days. They returned to their bus to discover that the guards had torn it apart, leaving their merchandise and gear strewn everywhere, naturally finding nothing incriminating.

In spite of episodes such as this, Into Eternity has had a stable lineup since 2006, a lifetime in metal years and long enough, as Roth points out, for many bands to go from inception to demise. That was the year drummer Steve Bolognese, a Boston native and the only member of the band who doesn’t currently live in Regina, joined the band. Bolognese, a former member of Beyond the Embrace, was originally a fan of the band, and attended Into Eternity’s shows when they played at the famed Palladium in Worcester, Massachusetts.

“Steve would always be there harassing us saying, ‘Hey, I know all the beats,’” Roth remembers, having a bit of a dig at his affable drummer. “We’d be like, ‘We don’t need a drummer.’ Sure enough he joined the band.”

What apparently sealed the deal was a VHS tape Bolognese sent Roth of him drumming along to the song “Point of Uncertainty,” shirtless and, according to Roth, nearly naked. But he played the song perfectly, Roth says, and was welcomed into the band, despite any logistical problems associated with having four members in central Canada and one on the eastern seaboard. But they have made it work. To prepare for the recording of The Incurable Tragedy, Bolognese’s first album with Into Eternity, the drummer simply had Roth email him the tracks, put them on his iPod, and jammed them on his own at his rehearsal space in Boston.

“I just did it myself,” says Steve in his heavy “Bahston” accent, “which I like because any time I fuck something up I wouldn’t have to stop the whole band. I just hit ‘back’ on my iPod and start again. I like it that way actually. It doesn’t waste a lot of people’s time.”

Oddly, this scenario may have been more efficient than if the drummer was actually in Regina with the rest of the band, says Roth.

“If you were here [Regina] it would probably be, “Let’s open up a case of beer, let’s chit chat a little bit. Now, when we get together, it’s all business. It’s like if you’re dating some girl and she lives in another city you know when you get together you know you’re full on. It’s like we’re dating him.”

And that’s the way this courtship has gone for the past three years. Bolognese flies into Regina a week at most before the band heads out on tour, they rehearse for four hours a day, and then they hit the road. When the tour is over, Roth, Block, guitarist Justin Bender and Bleich return to Regina and Bolognese goes back to Boston until they get the call again. The funny thing is, even this far into their career, Into Eternity prefer to be the ones being called rather than doing the calling. In other words, they’d rather open than headline, but recognize that, five albums into their existence, headlining is a necessary evil.

“Our music is tough to do for 75 minutes or 90 minutes,” says Roth on the difficulties of playing such technically precise music for the long periods of time required in a headlining slot. “The perfect set for us I think is 45 minutes.”

The music's demanding nature doesn't lend itself well to elongated set times, and Roth's personality is also at odds with metal's night owl lifestyle.

“I hate going on at midnight. I’m an early morning kind of guy. I like getting up at like five in the morning. I don’t like living this rock star lifestyle. I kind of picked the wrong thing to do I guess. But it’s tough when you’ve got a lot of albums. Eventually you have to start headlining.”

“You never want to be known as the band that’s always the opener,” Bolognese elaborates on the dangers of always being the ones who are on early.

“It’s kind of like being the bride’s maid and never the bride,” Roth uses the old adage.

 

And so they’ll headline when they have to, as they did in Taipei. The band ripped through a flawless set that, despite Roth's earlier lamentation, lasted over an hour. Roth and Bender exchanged note-for-note perfect replications of the ripping leads and blistering rhythms on tracks spanning the bands past three albums, Buried in Oblivion, The Scattering of Ashes, and The Incurable Tragedy. Bassist Bleich, who had never traveled outside the band’s home province of Saskatchewan before he joined the band at age 25, attacked his instrument with tactile precision, putting on an absolute clinic for fans of slap bass. Bolognese, shirtless as in his days of mailing VHS cassettes, showed why Roth didn’t hesitate to bring him into the fold. And Block…honestly there isn’t enough room in this article to describe what the man can do with his voice. His high range sirens aren’t just Halford-esque, they’re almost enough to make one commit heavy metal blasphemy and say they’re better than those once offered by the Judas Priest metal god. Block’s range just might be peerless in the metal world today. By the time the show is over, Bolognese’s earlier comment on the band’s popularity makes perfect sense.

“When people like our band they don’t just like it. They love it more than any other band on the planet. If they like it, they love it. It’s been my favorite band for five years,” he says recalling the days when he was just a fan.

During the show, the tracks from The Incurable Tragedy stand out, and one can get a definite sense of the suffering Roth has gone through, as has anyone who has lost someone they are close to. But for the next album, Roth is ready to put all that behind him. Now that two years have gone by since the loss of his father, he seems to have fully exorcised the pain of the terrible experience, and is looking forward to moving on to something entirely more hopeful.

“It’s going to be about power and strength, life. It’s going to be nothing about negativity or depression or death. It’s going to be the opposite lyric wise. No more of that at all. I’m at a different point in my life. Two years ago that’s where I was, but not anymore. I feel great. I got that out. I had to completely change my entire life after all that happened because my dad was always the go-to guy. I’d be on tour; he’d be dealing with everything back home. But now I have no one. Both my parents died of cancer. Now that I have the baby I have to be that guy, which is no problem. I’m ready. My life has totally changed from two years ago and that’s going to reflect in the music.”

In saying this Roth also reveals another, relatively new element in his life, one that takes an important place beside music, which was once the all-consuming focus of his existence. He is a father and a husband now; a family man.

“Now music is just going to be part of my life and I’ve got other issues to deal with. Business at home, family, the wife—before my life would just be 100 percent metal and ‘Let’s tour every single day.’ But now I’m 33 and I have different priorities. But of course metal is still going to be there, I just can’t be the same person I was because I’m not 20. Steve can have all the fun for me now.”

Fans new and old will be happy to know that despite his new welcome obligations at home, Roth already has 30 minutes of music written for the next Into Eternity album which, as he mentioned, will have a decidedly more positive outlook. However, despite the change in direction, don’t expect the music to lose any of its edge, but do expect something different.

 

“I know it’s going to be faster, more aggressive. I want to have lots of riffs from when I grew up, even like classic metal, Scorpions. I want to focus on lots of actual, real riffs and every riff has to be there for a reason. It’s going to be the first time that we’re not going to worry about song structures. For the past two albums I always did three minute song structures, four minute song structures. We’ll still have our interludes and solos. But we want it to be no rules. If it’s a seven minute song and it’s killer then that’s what we’re going to do.”

 

And if people don’t react well to the change, so be it. Roth has been around metal long enough to know the true nature of the beast.

 

“That’s the way metal is. You can’t please everyone. Our band is not a band that follows trends. This is our sound and we will always write this way—the hybrid style. If thrash is big like it is now, great. It doesn’t affect us. Next year maybe death metal will be big, whatever. So hopefully someday we’ll get our day when progressive death metal is big. But so far that hasn’t happened.”

But one can’t help but think that Into Eternity’s day is indeed coming. For over a decade they’ve been pushing, never giving up on their style, never selling out their beliefs and never jumping on any of the trends that have come and gone in that time. In spite of the middle fingers, regardless of the low turnouts and in the face of membership changes, the band has continued on. And if Roth can survive all that has happened to him in recent years and still come out of it with a positive attitude toward life, and still have it in him to write a powerful, positive new album, then there truly is no limit to what Into Eternity can accomplish.

by Joe Henley