The time has finally come and Arizona thrash metallers INCITE have released their new album Wake Up Dead! Forged from blood and sweat, this new release combines the greatest strengths of extreme metal. INCITE jettison the extraneous bloat of slicker bands in favour of authentic grit and determination. The very spirit of heavy music culture, and attitude, courses through the veins of singer Richie Cavalera, guitarist Eli Santana, bassist Christopher “EL” Elsten, and drummer Lennon Lopez. Across five full-length albums and a handful of EPs, the Arizona powerhouse declared war on injustice, wealth inequality, and a bevy of similar societal ills with focused rage and violent intent. We talk to Richie Cavalera about the latest album, getting back to touring and having his step-father Max Cavalera guest on the album.
On getting back to touring after a 2 year break due to the pandemic:
Richie: We did 5 shows last year, it’s crazy. Prior to the pandemic we were doing 200 shows a year and now in the last 2 years it’s been 7. The shows and everything feels relatively exactly as it did before, I think the thing you do notice is people – and they were enjoying themselves before, but they are enjoying themselves to the fullest now. We’re loving that shows are happening again and hopefully it will start panning out to international stuff soon.
On the new album “Wake Up Dead”:
Richie: Each album the progression [is] stronger, more bold, consistent and I think you hear from album to album we bring fresh, new ideas but we never stray away from what we’re good at as a band and thatr’s groove and thrash and punk and all this kind of stuff. With this album we wanted to return fully to that, our last guitar player was more drop tuning and things we didn’t really like so much. So now having tuning up again and the drummer Lennon taking hands on writing with this record to kinda just get us back to where we are happy and this record is one thousand percent us.
On having Max Cavalera guest on the song “War Soup”:
Richie: We were discussing guests because that’s always been a big part of an album to me, is having a guest or two. So the scheduling worked out and Max was just kinda chilling because we’re quarantined up, it was the right song, to me it was like the moment where it was like, ‘Alright he’s the dude. Let’s throw him on here, let’s see if he can reach back and grab those Chaos A.D. kind of vibes’ and that’s what he brought.
Check out the full interview
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/iZJWJrj9DxM
Listen on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3KiSax1
Get Wake Up Dead here: https://incite.afr.link/WakeUpDeadPR
