Geared Up: Anagnorisis Guitarist Zak Denham Get Seriously Detailed About His Current Rig

If you thought you knew heavy music and you’re not yet familiar with Anagnorisis, then you just may have to alter your definition thereof. This is an unsigned Louisville, KY-based Black/Death Metal quartet that pushes sonic boundaries in every way. Their latest album, 2013’s Beyond All Light, boasts music akin to the recording’s title, dark as shit. We caught up with lead and rhythm guitarist Zak Denham in order to get a better idea of how the band’s sound comes to be.

What one piece of gear do you use to obtain your signature sound?
Denham: As much of a gear slut as I am, I feel like “my sound” comes from me, not a specific piece of gear. I tend to play my custom UVA guitar on just about everything that we have done in the past five years so perhaps that is now a large part of my signature sound. Another important part of answering this question is whether or not we are discussing live sound or studio sound. In the studio, I am open to anything to achieve a sound that will work for the record. Live, I use an Axe-Fx II because of the versatility and programmability. The Axe has become an essential tool for our live performances. More on our crazy live set up below.

How was this gear used during the recording of your latest album?
Denham: Beyond All Light was recorded using my UVA guitar, a Diezel Herbert, and the Two-Notes Torpoedo VB-101 cab simulator. There were a couple instances where I used one of my Mesa Recto cabs and a couple of mics as well (Royer 121, MD421, SM57 – Vintech 1073 pre amps). The Axe-Fx II was used for a few tones, but primarily the Diezel was the amp of choice. I also had an Evertune system installed on my guitar before tracking. This made things much more stable as the Evertune system is AWESOME!

How do you recreate your album (guitar/vocal/bass) tones in your live set?
Denham: Since the Diezel is so heavy, large, and expensive, it was not my first choice to haul around on tour. In addition to that, the Diezel is not stereo and I don’t have the loot to buy two. Thus, I use a Axe-Fx II for live performances. The Axe is very programmable, runs in stereo, and sounds very good – not quite as good as the Diezel, but close. On the album we have many things going on: just looking at the rhythm guitar tracks, we have at minimum two separate parts, and sometimes as many as six. Of course, not every layer is equally important, or vital to the piece.

To present as many of these layers live to the audience as possible, I use pre-recorded guitar tracks to augment our live performance. Most of the time you will just hear two parts live, stage left and stage right. Whatever side I am on is my live guitar (channel 1 of the Axe), while the other is the pre-recorded DI track that is playing back through channel 2 of the Axe. These two channels always come through the on stage cabs. On a couple of parts a third clean guitar is present which is included in a mixed sample track that plays through the PA.

In order to pull all of this off we have a Pro Tools session set up with a click track, announcements (song titles, count offs, etc.), the pre-recorded guitar DI, an Axe-Fx patch change midi track, the front of house sample track, and in ear monitoring auxiliary channels. Sam, Chris, and I monitor various sources in addition to the click throughout the set. Since we have so much that is programmed, we cannot improvise arrangements or tempo, change our set/song order, or miss a beat. If we fuck up at all, we have to get back on track very quickly, or else the tracks will have to be stopped. I am working on moving our performance sessions over to Ableton which should give us more flexibility and address some of the limitations mentioned above.

To execute all the system described above, I use a Apple Macbook Pro, Behringer Firepower FCA610, Axe-Fx II, Crown XLS dual channel power amp, and 2 Mesa Boogie Recto 4×12″ cabs loaded with Celestion Vintage 30s. I have worked to simplify my system for years. I finally have everything I need in a 4U rack that is quite light and manageable. Though the Behringer isn’t my first interface choice for sound quality, it has every feature I need in a 1/2U format. It is really the perfect interface for what I am doing, with plenty of I/O and good sound for live use.

For reference, here are some of my past live rigs:

What are the major pros and cons?
Denham: Pros: When we play venues that sound good, we sound great. The second guitar track and sample layer, in addition to all of our performances really fills everything out and presents to the listener an accurate representation of our material. Cons: Technology is great when it works, and it is the bane of my existence when there are issues. As we were taking the stage for our first show of the last tour, my main power amp literally caught fire and burned up. Luckily, a friend let me borrow a power amp to finish the show and tour. Since our set up is complicated, there are many sections to troubleshoot if there are issues. My recording studio knowledge of understanding signal flow has been essential to designing, operating, and maintaining our gear.

Do you have a backup for this gear, if so, what?
Denham: Everything I can afford to have a backup of, I do. Unfortunately, I use some expensive shit, so I cannot afford to have backups of much. Instead of having a backup of everything on hand, I try to design our system so that (if needed) we can either use gear that could be borrowed from other bands or purchased from a local pro audio shop. If we were a large band that had more income and more space in our touring vehicle, I would have backups of everything.

How long have you had it, how do you use it, would you ever change it?
Denham: My rig, along with just about everyone else’s rig in Anagnorisis changes almost every tour. We try to take the least amount of gear, that uses up the least amount of space, that is as light as possible. Doing all this allows us to tour with six people in a 15 passenger van – without a trailer – and fit in all our gear and merch. If we find a piece of gear that sounds great, is smaller and lighter that something we currently have we will likely make a change to it to make touring more efficient.

Give us your best “gear goes wrong” story.
Denham: Though there have been many situations where gear has malfunctioned, we haven’t had too many that have been disastrous. The story above about my power amp was the most recent example of something like this. The power amp I borrowed for that show didn’t have 1/4″ speaker outputs, so after I hooked up the amp to the rest of the rig, I had to cut and strip the speaker cables that connect my cabs in order to connect them to the screw-in post terminals on the amp. I carry a soldering kit with me to every show just in case something like this happens. I had to grab some wire cutters/strippers and get on with it. I am happy to say that it only took five minutes or so to find a power amp, install it, and rewire my rig. I put a ton of responsibility on myself to make sure everything gear-wise works as intended show to show.

Any final thoughts or comments on the gear?
Denham: Firstly, I have learned a ton about gear and meet some great people on www.hugeracksinc.com – check out their forum if you are into guitar related gear. As much as I love gear, it really is all about the player and the music. I try to put as much time into writing and playing as I do into researching and fucking with gear. I hope it shows in our performance. If you are interested in gear and happen to see us play, please search me out and we can chat. I always love talking gear, so thanks for the opportunity!

Check out the album ‘Beyond All Light’