Hailing from Batemans Bay on the South Coast of NSW, Terravorous has a diverse variety of influences that grind together to form a unique and powerful force. Having already supported an international act like Cancer Bats and supported Aussie metal juggernauts King Parrot (twice) along with countless others, it is easy to see why they seem beyond their 2+ years as band. We talk to Scotty from the band to find out more.
Liam: Tell me a little bit about your band, Scotty. When did you guys first start playing together?
Scotty: The band consists of James Westbrook on drums, Riley Freebody on guitar, Cal Brown on guitar and Rhami who plays the bass. We first started playing 3 years ago at Rami’s mum’s place out in the bush. This was good as there were no neighbours complaining, we could be as loud as we want and no one would give a shit!
Liam: You used to be called Art and Craft Must Die. Why the name change?
Scotty: Funny story about this – when we first started jamming we never expected to get any shows. We just wanted to jam! We got asked to play ‘Riverfest’, a local festival in Moruya – now called ‘Beneath the Surface’. We didn’t have a band name and we couldn’t think of any, so the organiser picked one for us: ‘Art and Craft Must Die’. I didn’t really know about it, it sounded like a pretty weird name. Eventually after a few shows we changed our name finally.
Liam: So where does Terravorous come from?
Scotty: ‘Terra’ is the latin word for Earth, and ‘vorous’ is like an eater. So the name means earth eater. We really wanted to have a fun title, you know. We didn’t want to have three words for our band name.
Liam: Oh no way! I thought it was some sort of dinosaur name.
Scotty: That’s what everyone thinks man! We’ve been called Pteradactylsaurus… just ridiculous shit!
Liam: You guys have played with some pretty big names haven’t you? Didn’t you guys open for King Parrot once? How did you land that?
Scotty: We don’t even know how the fuck that happened. We never thought we’d play with big bands when we first started. It was Tom Roberts, our band manager. He’s friends with Matt Young from King Parrot. Then the manager of the Basement in Canberra put the good word in for us and it was awesome! We listened to King Parrot before we played with them!
Liam: Who else have you played with?
Scotty: Biggest one so far has been Cancer Bats. We played with them in 2015 I think on their regional tour around Australia. They did a show in Batemans Bay and we didn’t even think a band like that would be playing in the bay and we were the only local metal band, so they just chucked us in! We were just like fucken oath! It still doesn’t make sense how we are still so underground with no proper recordings but we have played with these big bands.
Liam: Tell me a little bit about how your sound has evolved from when you guys first started.
Scotty: When we started we didn’t know what we wanted to play since we had all these different influences. I was a deathcore kid back then, so that was the vocals side of the band. James loves blast beats and playing shit fast. Rami and Riley liked the progressive tech death sound. So we tried to mix it all together. Our fast songs sounded like a thrash metal song or some shit. The other ones were fast paced like Lamb of God but heavier. It’s definitely changed. We’ve gone heavier, mixed up the tempos and added a bit more confusing shit. Its evolved for the better. People who have seen us play live have said they’ve never seen anyone like us, so that’s a good start!
Liam: What’s the writing process like for your band?
Scotty: It’s changed a bit now, but what we used to do was Rami or Riley would make a riff on the guitar and Cal would work with that. James would make a beat and after it was done I’d write lyrics for it. Now we are trying to make it like a canvas, so I’ll write a song’s lyrics and try and define those words into sounds. So we sort of make a painting from the lyrics and write the music around the lyrics.
Liam: Your bandcamp has got your music on it but it doesn’t do you guys justice due to the live recording quality. Any chance we can get to hear an EP soon?
Scotty: Yes hopefully. We’ve been talking about this for years. We had always hoped someone would take note of us and record our stuff even if it was just someone dodgy who didn’t know much. At least we would have something out there. We haven’t met someone like that yet and we don’t have the money to get it professionally done. We have met someone now and we are trying to sign a contract and get straight on it. We friggin’ can’t wait, I’ve been so impatient about this! It’ll hopefully be out early next year!
Liam: I remember when I first saw you guys. It was at Heathenfest 2017 in Moruya. You guys had this insane wall of death in a tiny little pub, uniting local footy players, metal heads and old beer guzzlers in a crazy display of mayhem. How does it feel to be up there on stage ordering the crowd to pulverize each other?
Scotty: Oh man, it feels great. Every time I’m up on the stage you feel like a complete outsider to whatever else is going on. Nothing else matters. I sort of try and take it to its limits with the crowd. When we get ready to play we pep talk each other and focus on making sure the show is good for everyone. Make sure we are all concentrating on our performances. Before we go on Riley will come around and say “hey man if we could do a wall of death that’d be sick”, and I just see how it goes! I don’t know how it happens ‘cos we’ve played at some small venues and I don’t know how people can fit a wall of death. So when we see it we think that someone is gonna end up in hospital ‘cos there are some pretty big dudes that are in our pits! It gets pretty brutal.
Liam: What are some of the band’s influences?
Scotty: One of our main ones is Gojira and that’s been a main part of our sound as well. I’m into brutal death metal/black metal. We like thrash, tech death etc. Strong black metal influences like Behemoth, and brutal death metal like Devourment. Bit of Pantera in there as well.
Liam: Tell me a bit about forming a band in a small country town.
Scotty: It wasn’t too bad actually. We had a lot of opportunities thrown at us. We thought nobody was gonna know us but as soon as we started playing shows we sort of became the only metal band on the south coast. It’s been great so far.
Liam: What can we expect to see from Terravorous in 2018?
Scotty: Definitely some legit recordings instead of our shitty live ones. Definitely a tour as well hopefully in the middle of the year. Hopefully writing some more material as well.
Liam: Lastly, convince me in three words to come to your next gig.
Scotty: Mighty Fucking T.
Liam: You’ve convinced me mate. Thank you!
Interview Date: 2017-11-04
Interviewer: Liam Douglas
