Puncture Wound is an old school death metal band from the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. We find out a bit of history behind the band in a recent chat with the band.
Metal-Roos: Puncture Wound formed in 2016. What is the story of your coming together? What’s your history?
Trigger Finger Trav: In May 2016, I decided that I wanted to start and old school death metal (osdm) band. This was for a few reasons, two of them being my passion for osdm, another was boredom. In the first week of June 2016, I met Aaron (guitar) by selling some death metal records online. After a few chats, we realised we had the same musical tastes, so I decided to ask him to join the band that I was starting, purely based on osdm. On the 6/6/16, I decided on “Puncture Wound” as the name for the band and I wrote our first song which was ‘Gorruption’. In August 2016, I went to see ‘Cryptopsy’ live and was introduced to Alix. She was a drummer looking to join a band at that time. After one jam session, that was it, so I advertised on a local Metal Facebook page to find a singer and Gene contacted us. After organizing a jam, he mentioned his mate Beau was a bass player… there you have it. We were a full 5 piece band by about November 2016.
M-R: Your 2017 debut release EP Brutal Butchery Of Bargain Basement Bodies, is 4 tracks of excellently executed chaos, controversial lyrics wrapped up in ferocious Death Metal, how have your fans responded to this EP? And how do you measure its success?
Trigger Finger Trav: To be honest, its hard to measure the success of Brutal Butchery of Bargain Basement Bodies (BBoBBB) as we really haven’t done much with it or pushed it hard. The initial release was only limited to 50 hand-numbered copies in a slipcase. These didn’t last long at all. The EP was unavailable for the next year or so until we finally set up a Bandcamp page and had digital copies for sale. Then at the start of 2019, 10-54 records contacted us about releasing our debut album. After a brief chat, it was settled they would give the ‘BBoBBB’ EP an official release in a digipack CD format and they would release our first full-length album. The feedback so far has been very positive and it seems to be in line with our osdm goal, which is great.
M-R: Puncture Wound hails from the Gold Coast, Australia. One might not always associate an Extreme Metal scene amidst this tourist destination. Is there a solid Metal Community there? Do you get a good turn out to the Gigs you guys do in your area?
Trigger Finger Trav: The metal scene on the Gold Coast specifically isn’t that big. There are a few bands, but none that do what we do. If you expand out further, there is a fairly good scene in Queensland. We have Misery, Laceration Mantra, Dereign, Asylum, Awful Noise, Wartooth, Degeneratum, Therein, Odius, Abola and a few more. The turn out at shows is healthy, obviously, all local shows can always do with more support. Attend shows and buy band merchandise. The metal community itself is very supportive and I would say it’s not treated like a competition.
M-R: Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide often have renowned venues who support Extreme Metal gigs and welcome them plaguing the stages. What venues do you love to play at on the Gold Coast? And Why?
Trigger Finger Trav: To be honest, we have only played 1 home town show, and the venue wasn’t that great. All the good venues are in Brisbane. I love the Backroom. The Backroom is the place to play in my opinion. There are a few other that host the odd show throughout the year, but nothing like the Backroom.
M-R: Your track Indiscriminate Slaughter is one of my favourite tracks of your EP. What is this track really about? Does it go deeper than the title of this track suggests? How?
Trigger Finger Trav: I really do wish the lyrics on Indiscriminate Slaughter went deeper, but I wrote the lyrics and I am not very good at it at all. I pretty much just selected a few words I wanted in the song, found some rhyming words and structured it into a short story based on the song title. That’s it. It took me about an hour. hahaha. The music itself, I wrote the first 2 riffs back in 2002. They are the last riffs I wrote before having an almost 15-year hiatus from music.
In relation to the lyrics I wrote, I feel sorry for our singer, Gene, as he has to sing the shit I wrote. hahahaha. I’m a little embarrassed about the lyrics, but they work. The band is extremely lucky to have found Gene as his lyrics are so much better, with so much more thought put into them.
M-R: Brutal Butchery Of Bargain Basement Bodies has shock factor imagery on the cover and all 4 tracks are fuelled with equally as shocking, violent and aggressive lyrical content and music, which is oh so choice. Where does one get the inspiration for such imagery and lyrics? What process do you go through to come up with these lyrics?
Trigger Finger Trav: Myself, I absolutely love horror films, as do most metal maniacs. I draw a lot of inspiration from these. I look at my songs as a short horror movie. It has to be brutal, extreme and horrifying, or at least try to be. It is hard to be individualistic as nearly everything has been done before. So that aside, we just try and do the best we can. If we get compared to another band, I take that as a compliment, especially if I like that band. hahaha. I love the lyrics on the first 3 Cannibal Corpse albums and the first 2 Carcass albums.
M-R: Today, we have the Political Correct (PC) movement and its soldiers starting to force their PC argument into the Music scene, let’s face it Extreme Metal is the target right now. Do you ever cop backlash for the misogynistic messages, violent and aggressive content of your art which is delivered through your music? Does this have the potential to deter you from being open as an artist and force you to consider keeping within certain boundaries so as not to offend? or does it make you more determined to up the “shock factor” anti for the sake of artistic freedom?
Trigger Finger Trav: We don’t get much shit about or artwork as we aren’t all that well known. I have seen one person hang shit on us on some Fakebook site because the album art depicts butchered females on it, and our drummer is a female. I think because this has all been done to death in the metal scene, maybe you become desensitised to it. The thought never crossed my mind about the artwork as its just that, artwork. It’s not a pro statement for killing females, and to whoever thinks like that, they can fuck off and ruin someone else’s scene.
M-R: Your thoughts on ANTIFA? Go.
Trigger Finger Trav: Never heard of her.
M-R: Death Metal particularly that of the early 90s, was seen as promoting extreme violence toward a woman and there were fewer female fans of Death Metal at that point in time. Do you see this changing? Has it changed? Are there more female Death Metal fans? and why do you think this is?
Trigger Finger Trav: There is way more female death metal fans now when I started getting into this in 1990. Back then if there was a female at a show, it was someone’s girlfriend they dragged along. Over the years, with the internet and social media shit, it has become bigger and more well known, and its just natural that the odds are more females will be in the mix. It doesn’t bother me at all, the more people that are into this extreme form of music the better as there was a point in the mid to late 90s to early 2000s where death metal could have died off and no one would have noticed. There is always the diehard fans like myself that kept the flame burning.
M-R: Who are Puncture Wound’s biggest influences (outside of the Death Metal genre), who have helped you become the band you are today?
Trigger Finger Trav: I personally don’t have any musical influences outside of death metal. It is my life. All the usual suspects influence me, such as Suffocation, Incantation, Immolation, Mortician and on and on. But to be honest, I simply don’t have time to waste listening to anything other than metal, specifically death metal. The other guys and girl in the band have a broad range of musical tastes.
M-R: Why Death Metal? Have you guys always been a fan of this sub-genre? What attracted you to this form of Metal?
Trigger Finger Trav: Growing up, music has always been a part of my life, and I was always looking for new music and bands. In 1988 I found Anthrax and I was hooked. Then I was shown Metallica. Then I found Kreator and fuck me, I thought that was heavy. In 1990, I was introduced to Deicide and Morbid Angel. I had found my niche. I have been listening to death metal since. In the early 90’s I got into Black Metal a bit, but I always found myself going back to death metal. I don’t know what it is but its just the best feeling in the world. It’s calming and soothing. If I’m in a bad mood, I just need to put ‘Symphonies of sickness’, ‘From Beyond’ or ‘Effigy of the Forgotten ‘ on, and I’m much happier.
M-R: When you guys aren’t brutalising stages and recording, what is your go-to music? To either unwind, write your lyrics or just to get your creativity on.
Trigger Finger Trav: Suffocation, Malevolent Creation, Carcass, Massacre, Unleashed, Bolt Thrower, Morbid Angel… Basically any old school death metal from the late 1980s to the early 1990s.
M-R: Where is Puncture Wound’s biggest fan base and why?
Trigger Finger Trav: I don’t think we have a fan base. Maybe one day. hahahaha
M-R: Who would Puncture Wound like to share the stage with, given the opportunity? Which band would be the pinnacle and why?
Trigger Finger Trav: Incantation, Immolation, all the bands I’ve mentioned earlier. It’s just what we are about, so to be able to share the stage with any of these bands would be awesome. I guess the pinnacle would be Cannibal Corpse just based on they are the biggest death metal band and would pull the biggest crowd. hahaha
M-R: What is next for Puncture Wound? Can we expect a full-length album in the near future and if so – what should fans anticipate?
Trigger Finger Trav: We are in the process of recording our debut full-length album right now which will be released on CD this year on 10-54 records. We are looking for a label to possibly release it on tape and vinyl. There should be 11 tracks of old school brutality on it. We have not decided on a title for the album as yet, but we have tracks called Occasional Butchery, Necroinsemenation and Postmortem Frenzy to name a couple. We have had a new t-shirt design for some time but with all, that’s going on in the band right now it has been put on the back burner until we get some money funds together. So there is a lot happening and 2019 will be a big year for us. Also, we are playing the Brisbane leg of Shredfest again this year, which is always a pleasure.
Thanks so much, Kelly for the interview, and your support over our existence. You are an asset to the Metal Community worldwide.
Interview Date: 2019-06-14
Interviewer: Kelly Tee