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Interviews : “You definitely get the patched jacket type, old school traditional metalheads” – An interview with Ben Drennan (Lethal Vendetta)

By on April 25, 2018

Lethal Vendetta – Ben Drennan

Ben Drennan is the guitarist and one of the guiding hands for Sydney based thrash-meisters Lethal Vendetta. The band plough an evergreen field of speed metal that will appeal to the broader audience of old-school fans of Metallica, Sacred Reich, D.R.I. and the crossover thrash metal that Harley Flanagan and John Joseph produced on the critically overlooked early 90’s offerings from Cro-Mags.

Drennan and his comrades in Lethal Vendetta have just released the epic No prisoners No Mercy. While the listening experience can be filed in the same category as the bands previously mentioned, Drennan is keen to express the Lethal Vendetta’s desire to produce unique and original metal.

“We never set out to consciously have anyone’s particular influence, we’ve just sort of gone for our own type of sound and influences have come through. It’s definitely a bit of old school but (we) also tried to put a little bit of a modern take on it in some ways as well. Really looking forward to (No prisoners No Mercy‘s release), it will be curious to see how people react to it.”

Discussing the broader appeal of the bands take on speed-metal, the band have the draw to win the affection of a broad cross-section of the metal listening public.

“There’s a bit of a mix. You definitely get the patched jacket type, old school traditional metalheads. Even sometimes people coming to gigs that you wouldn’t think are metalheads. They’re the ones up front moshing, but they’re just dressed in everyday clothes. It’s an interesting crowd that’s been coming out to the gigs lately.”

The creative process is a collaborative effort that allows for the band’s members to express an opinion and share ideas as the song evolves. Musicians in the readership who have spent many weeknights refining ideas in a rehearsal space can doubtless relate to Drennan’s comments.

“On this particular album, I spearheaded a lot of the riffs. The vocals are all done by our singer. When I say that, I might have brought a riff into a rehearsal studio, then it sort of evolves from there where the other guys will have a different idea. We’ll try a different tempo or suggestion, (such as) ‘this isn’t really working for the chorus, let’s try something like this’. The songs are always constantly evolving to the point where we just get it and we’re like ‘yes, boom, that’s it, we’re done, that’s where we want it!’ Then we take it out on the road, test it out at a gig, see how it goes.”

No prisoners No Mercy has an urgency that can only come from an old-school approach. If one listens to the genius of many Motown recordings, a significant aspect of their appeal lies in the way the cuts were tracked. Live! Looking at your bandmate for a cue and anticipating a change rhythm… it all adds a special feel to the music. Lethal Vendetta were keen to ensure the songs across No prisoners No Mercy gained an authenticity from the same technique.

“We recorded it at Music Feeds studio in St. Peters (Sydney). It’s an old school studio, big analogue desk, massive big wooden room for the drums, which is what we were after. We were trying to go for an analogue style approach… old school, no click track. All the guitar cabs were isolated in individual rooms but we’re all playing together, playing the songs from start to finish. It obviously took quite a few takes. To us it was more important, we wanted to try and capture that live energy and vibe rather than just trying to for the sake of getting absolutely everything crystal perfect on metronome and stuff. It definitely does have a little bit of a live vibe to this album given the way we recorded it.”

Catch Lethal Vendetta supporting German Teutonic thrash icons, Destruction, on Saturday, 28th April at the Manning Bar, alongside Killrazer. Tickets on sale now via hardlinemedia.net.

No prisoners No Mercy is available now. Available now via iTunes, Spotify and the band’s official website.

About

Andrew is a musician who has spent many years performing on the stages of the pubs and clubs of Queensland. A devotee of the broad church that is rock, punk, funk, jazz and of course all genres of metal... he now shares his enthusiasm via a burgeoning pursuit of music journalism. Follow him on twitter @andymckaysmith