Interview with The Burial guitarist Todd Hatfield

The Burial has just released their newest CD, The Winepress via Strike First Records. This is the band’s debut for Strike First and let me be the first to tell you this is a solid metal CD. The Winepress is filled with incredibly intense guitar riffs and a vocal assault that is guaranteed to satisfy even the most discriminate metal head. The Winepress is brutal, heavy and is absolutely worth checking out. I recently spoke with Todd Hatfield about the new disc and what we can expect from the band in the coming months.

Your new CD, The Winepress just came out. Now that it is complete how do you feel about it and are you satisfied with the outcome?
Todd: Yeah for the most part I am pretty satisfied with it. I guess you are always your own worst critic. There is a lot of stuff we wish we had done different but overall we are really happy with the way it turned out.

Did you guys all write together or was this more the efforts of one particular member of the band?
Todd: It is a little bit of both. The song, “Delegation Of The Seven Plagues” was something I pretty much wrote myself and the rest of the guys helped shape it obviously. It was kind of a weird writing process because we had a strict deadline to record and we were kind of freaking out a little bit. Right to the end, we finished up three songs in two weeks which is unheard of for us because we are always so picky and we stress out over songs. Usually it will take us a couple of months to write one song and get it where we want it. With that being said we were very excited about how it all worked out.

How long did the whole process take?
Todd: A couple of the songs we had written for over a year and we just had to refine them. So there were a couple of songs that were already done. We probably wrote solid for a good four months with three practices a week, sometimes four, just really trying to hammer it out and then we recorded in February and March.

Can you give us some insight into the meaning behind the title The Winepress?
Todd: It stems from (a verse in) Revelation 19:11 which talks about the return of Christ and Armageddon. It talks about the winepress and the harvest of the earth, how it is going to play out. Nobody knows for sure but just the description given in The Bible is pretty brutal and it is absolute judgment. The other side is absolute justice and vengeance upon all the bloodshed on the earth.

Are there any tracks on The Winepress that are personal favorites or that have good stories behind them?
Todd: My personal favorite would have to be “Reconciliation.” The story behind this song is that God is calling us to reconcile us to Himself through Jesus. From His brutal death to His feeling the utmost separation from the Father. We have no idea what that felt like but He did it that so we might have a way back to the Father.

The Winepress comes to us by way of Strike First Records. Are you happy with the way they handled the record regarding distribution, marketing and promotion? How has the label been accommodating to the band’s needs?
Todd: They have been great since day one. They have been good help and have provided a lot of advice. They are on the ball, you know, when you ask them about something they have an answer and if they don’t, they have it for you shortly. They have just been great all around especially since we are a young band starting out with them. They have gone above our expectations. They are dealing with A Plea For Purging’s new release, For Today’s new release and War Of Ages’ new release, you know these huge bands and they still are able to put in a lot of time for us. It feels real good to have that kind of support.

Do you have any touring plans in support of The Winepress?
Todd: At the moment we have a couple of tours that look like they are going to fall through so I don’t think we will be hitting the road until mid September, October and November. We were trying to get out to the West Coast but that fell through so we are still trying to set something up for that. We have some van and trailer issues that are going to cost a lot of money to fix and that has set us back but we are definitely going to be on the road by October.

Are there any particular bands you are looking to tour with?
Todd: That is kind of up for grabs right now. We were in talks with Becoming The Archetype because they definitely want to go out with us, but it is just a matter of when. It may not happen until Spring because they have an opportunity to go to South America, I believe.

What kind of preparation goes into your love show?
Todd: Nothing really other than a lot of practice so we are tight musically. We just rock out and try to put as much energy into the show as possible.  [ END ]