Interviews : Divine Heresy – (Dino Cazares) 28/06/2009

Dino Cazares has been a definitive part of the heavy metal scene for the last 15 years.

Not only forming one of the most respected and well known industrial metal bands, Fear Factory, he has also contributed his quintessential guitar skills to many other bands, including Asesnio, Brujeria, Nailbomb and most notably his most sought after project, Divine Heresy.

Metal Obsession recently had the chance to speak to Dino Cazares about the upcoming Divine Heresy release, ‘Bringer of Plagues’, the reformation of  Fear Factory and all things in between.

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MetalObsession.net: Hello Dino, how’s it going?

Dino Cazares: Going good, yourself?

MetalObsession.net: Yeah going good. Thank God it’s Friday. Well, it’s Friday over here at least.

Dino Cazares: Yeah, it’s Thursday over here, what a totally weird day it has been for us over here,  Michael Jackson’s dead and Farrah Fawcett’s dead.

MetalObsession.net: Yeah, I’ve been keeping my eyes open for news of a third celebrity death.

Dino Cazares: Yeah, goes in threes, right?

MetalObsession.net: Yeah. I’m sitting at a wooden table, let’s knock on wood.

Dino Cazares: I’m not ready to go, I’ve still got a lot to prove.

MetalObsession.net: No, I reckon you’ve still got a few years ahead of you yet.

Dino Cazares: Thank you.

MetalObsession.net: Anyway, the new Divine Heresy album is due for release in the US on 28 July Australia on 24 July. The one new track is posted up on your MySpace page, is that one song indicative on what the rest of the album is going to sound like?

Dino Cazares: Pretty much. I mean the rest of the album is pretty intense all the way through, it’s got unrelentant brutality all the way through. There’s only really one slow track towards the end, but that’s really about it.

Metal Obsession.net: The slowest song is usually the last track on an album…

Dino Cazares: Yeah, well would you want me to start the album with the slowest track?

MetalObsession.net: No, you start it with the most brutal track!

Dino Cazares: [The last track] is definitely not the most brutal track on the album, but definitely the catchiest. When you write an album, you know when you are writing a song, which one is going to be the first song on the album. When we were putting that song [the first track] together, we automatically thought “this is going to be the first track on the album” and so we gave it a ripping title, and there you go.

MetalObsession.net: Was there any real or perceived pressure for “Bringer of Plagues” to surpass “Bleed The Fifth”?

Dino Cazares: No, I wouldn’t say it was pressure, but we definitely do push ourselves and we definitely challenge ourselves. We wanted to make a good record and a lot of times and you know, a llot of timeswhen a band play more and more with each other, they get better at it as a band. I think that’s where we’re at and we’re getting really good as a band, as a tight unit, and it’s starting to show in the music.

When Tim and I first started writing for [Divine Heresy] we were like, okay, what can we do to make this fucking spicker? Stuff just started to pour out of us and started to work, and then Joe Ping, our bass player, he started to lay out his stuff and he started to contribute riffs and a lot of ideas and that worked out, and then Travis Neil, our vocalist, when he started hearing the music he thought “wow, this is going to be intense!” and we got ideas and then boom, everything started to flow naturally and we just kinda came out and it was kinda fun.

As you go along it’s like “wow, this is much more intense than ‘Bleed the Fifth’!”

MetalObsession.net: Will the subject matter of “Bringer of Plagues” be similar to that in “Bleed the Fifth”?

Dino Cazares: Yeah. We  try to relate things to the band name. ‘Divine Heresy’, in biblical terms, is good and bad, ‘divine’ being something beautiful and godlike, and   ‘heresy’ being against that, and we try to bring some of those elements in the music and with the song “Bringer of Plagues”, being the Apocalypse, the ten things in the biblical sense that will be in the Apocalypse, the end of the world. That’s kinda what it’s about. Our singer came up with the album title, we thought, “That’s sick, now we’ve just gotta write about it”.

MetalObsession.net: There’s been some lineup changes in Divine Heresy. Who’s out, who’s in?

Dino Cazares: Everybody’s out, I’m the only guy left! Nah, I’m just kidding, the only lineup change we made was from our past singer to our new singer, who is Travis Neil.

MetalObsession.net: You worked with Dirty Icon for the “Bringer of Plagues” album. What were your reasons for choosing them to produce the album?

Dino Cazares: Because they have the word ‘Dirty’ in the title of their corporation!

MetalObsession.net: (laughs) Is that the only reason?

Dino Cazares: (laughs) Nah, I’m just kidding. Dirty Icon is actually Logan Mader [ex-Machine Head] and his business partner, Lucas Banker. We went with them because they produced our first album, and I also first worked with them on a CD called “The Roadrunner All Stars”. I really like the way they work and they really seem to understand what sound I’m trying to get and they were able to capture that, so we went back with them second time around.

MetalObsession.net: Moving on from Divine Heresy, you recently reconciled with Burton C Bell to work with Fear Fatory again. How did you guys get on good terms again?

Dino Cazares: Me and Burton saw each other at a Ministry concert last year. He was touring with them, and we started talking and we started to catch up, and obviously we made up, and we kept in touch over the phone for quite a few months, and he approached me on working with him again. I said of course, why wouldn’t I? That’s pretty much how we caught up and how we got where we are now.

MetalObsession.net: You’ve got a new lineup together for Fear Factory I understand?

Dino Cazares: A lot of that stuff we’ll direct you later on to the press. We are going to be releasing a lot of things relating to those questions, the answers you need. A lot of that stuff I can’t tell you right now.

MetalObsession.net: I understand that there’s a lawsuit pending between you and Burton and Raymond Herrera and Christian Olde Wolbers over who owns the rights to the Fear Factory name?

Dino Cazares: In reality, we all own the rights to the name. A lot of that stuff is going to be released in due course, but at the moment I can’t comment too much about it, for legal reasons.

MetalObsession.net: Being a legal secretary, I can understand that. Was this pending lawsuit the reason the  Australian tour, scheduled for August this year, was cancelled?

Dino Cazares: No. The reason why, Burton released it on blabbermouth.net, the reason why we cancelled. It was actually postponed, we’re trying to postpone, that’s what we’re trying to do, we were trying to put it to a later date, but things turned out differently. Burton released a statement on blabbermouth.net stating the reasons why we couldn’t do the shows.

MetalObsession.net: Is there a chance you could patch up a working relationship with Raymond and Christian in the future, much as you did with Burton?

Dino Cazares: For me personally, no.

MetalObsession.net: Will there be a Divine Heresy tour in Australia after the album is released?

Dino Cazares: Yeah, we’ve been talking about it, we’re hoping to get a spot on the Soundwave Festival again next year. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for that. We did the Soundwave Festival down there a year ago, and it was very successful, so we’re hoping to get there and do it again next year.

MetalObsession.net: Would you do any shows outside of Soundwave? Your own headlining shows, for instance?

Dino Cazares: Of course! Hell yes! We really wanna go there, but the Soundwave Festival really helped a lot of people really get to find out about Divine Heresy, and Roadrunner Records really pushed us, and the record was really successful so we’re hoping to get back there soon.

MetalObsession.net: Any last words for the fans?

Dino Cazares: I can’t wait to fucking come, I wanna play in Australia really bad, Australia is definitely a home away from home for me, I’ve been there so many times. I can’t wait to go back.

Metal Obsession.net: We can’t wait for you guys to come back!

Dino Cazares: Thanks!

MetalObsession.net: Thank you for taking the time for the interview.

Dino Cazares: Pleasure, I appreciate your time.

Band: Divine Heresy
Date: 28/06/2009
Origin: Mexico/California
www.myspace.com/divineheresyband

Interviewer: Megan Masters (w/ contributions from Anwar Rizk)
Interviewee: Dino Cazares (Guitars)