Hauntingly powerful, truly heavy and evocative, yet with an insistent melodic sensibility that stills in the hears and minds of all who hear their songs, New Zealand’s Like A Storm are set to propel themselves into the upper echelons of the international hard rock and metal community with the June 22 release of their new record – Catacombs.
Issued through their own Red Music label, the album is a master class in modern metal music, marrying the grinding, scintillating riffs alongside primeval rhythms, and guttural yet still lyrical vocals. In short, it’s an album that needs to be experienced, savoured and to immerse oneself in over and over until the full weight of its evocative message takes hold.
Like A Storm formed in 2005 in New Zealand, after the Brooks brothers – Chris, Matt and Kent – finally decided to collaborate after years of playing in other bands. They brought in long-time pal Zach Wood, and the band soon became a sensation in their south Pacific homeland.
Catacombs is the band’s third studio album, following The End of the Beginning (2009) and Awaken the Fire (2015). There have also been two EPs issued: Like a Storm Unplugged in 2011 and Chaos Theory in 2012. A live album Worlds Collide: Live from the Ends of the Earth, came out in 2013.
The theme and overall message of the new album is reflected in the title and title track, but the essence of it permeates everything on the record. While some of the music had already been composed, it was on a visit to the morbidly fascinating underground burial chambers of Paris, known as Les Catacombes, that steeled the band’s resolve to probe deeper into their own psyches and to encourage listeners to do the same – all enveloped by their unique fusion of metal, industrial, electronica and traditional instrumentation.
“We were about halfway through the process of demoing songs, but we were still introducing new songs all the time and we thought they were better than the ones we already had. We decided to take a break and took a few weeks out of the recording schedule to demo all the new songs that we had. And we’re glad that we did, because about half the record came from that period. When we make records, it’s not like there are separate phases where there’s writing and then pre-production before going into the studio. It’s all one process for us, because we feel its really important to keep that energy that give you the initial idea for the song and maintain that creative energy through to the last moment,” Chris said.
“We had supposedly taken six months off to write and the next thing we know we’re on a European tour with Alter Bridge. And it was a massive tour as well, just an incredible experience and so great that there was no way we could turn it down. But I had decided that if we do it, we have to spend every moment possible writing or at least talking about the album and shaping it. And then we found we had a day off in Paris.”
It was a complex process that was kind of struggling to find an overarching thematic element. The creative deadlock was broken, and the band infused with a new mission after the visit to the haunting underside of The City of Lights.
“We had been there maybe four or five times before and every time we did Zach would say that we have to go to the catacombs of Paris. We always said yeah, yeah, but we never did. So, on this trip we had some time free and decided to go. And it was just such a powerful experience; like nothing you could even imagine. I could never imagine that many skeletons, and of course they’re all real. It’s just insane,” he said, of the nearly six million sets of human remains that inhabit the massive, undulating series of tombs.
“And that really hit us because we found that once we started writing, after all the touring that we’ve done, we were reconnecting with a lot of these deeper emotions you haven’t really touched on when you’re on the road. You’re always busy and focussing on the show that night and the connection with the audience that night and being in the here and now – that very instant connection you share with fans, as musicians, which is what makes the live show so great.
“But there are deeper things going on that you haven’t addressed for years because you have been caught up in the daily cycle and that ongoing grind. So, we started writing and a lot of those issues and a lot of those things going on beneath the surface started coming out. And to go to the catacombs of Paris was like seeing a visual metaphor of all that, where on the surface everything is beautiful, everything looks great and is full of life. But if you go deeper and deeper, there’s the remnants of yourself that you don’t want to face; everything you could not deal with you just buried down. It didn’t disappear. Like the catacombs it literally is still there, and if you don’t face it then it can consume you.”
Brooks and his bandmates believe that the genre of metal lends itself better for these explorations of inner darkness as the music itself can add emphasis and emotional context.
“One of my favourite things about this kind of music is just that it’s honest. It’s deeper than pop music: a lot of pop music is meant to be in the background or just touches on fun, lighter subjects. Heavy music draws you in and makes the listener feel they are right there with us. You don’t tend to listen to heavy music while you’re doing something else, and even if you are, most of your attention is on the music. It is designed to take you to a deeper level. To me, the lyrics are supposed to challenge you or push you or give you a sense of somebody’s core and maybe help you realize you are going through the same thing they are,” he said.
“I think it’s just much deeper as an art form. And we wanted to push ourselves lyrically on this album. We wanted to dig deeper and I think as artists its easier to do that when you have that backbone of the music. We don’t want to necessarily go out there and write a poem about how our lives have all these problems or we don’t want to necessarily give an interview where we talk about that up front. There is something about that music that is very empowering and encourages you to speak your mind.”
Besides the title track, great thought was put into the other tracks on Catacombs, all fitting within the theme of introspection, having the courage to face one’s demons and the perils that can befall an individual, or a society, that fails to do so.
“The song The Devil Inside relates back to that idea that you have these things inside yourself that you don’t want to face. We struggled with that song. Most of the music was done, but it took a while for a some of the key parts, including the lyrics. I woke up in the middle of the night one night, which is actually about 5 a.m. for me, and it was one of those moments where you quiet all the distractions and the voice inside you becomes so clear. I started fiddling around with a little programming for the intro and the next thing I knew I had this lyrical idea and the verse just kind of wrote itself from there, then the pre-chorus and the chorus came along as if it wrote itself,” Chris said.
“It’s about these things inside you and not dealing with them and then realizing they are controlling you and that they have made their way into what you’re doing for the rest of your life. You have this idea in your head that you control them; you think you’ve repressed them and then you realize they are spilling out into all these other areas of your life. That’s what The Devil Inside is about. It’s about battling your demons. It’s about that voice you hear inside yourself, and if it goes unchecked, its not long until it’s controlling who you are.”
Pure Evil takes a different tack to the subject matter of people not facing their own truths, to look at those who are deliberately masking their true nature and true intentions for their own gain.
“It’s about the hypocrisy of people who are proclaiming themselves to be so virtuous and proclaiming themselves to be the true leaders of everyone else and condemning others and criticizing other for their choices and behaviours, and then you realize that these people are worse than anyone. These people have hidden behind a veil of virtue when in actual fact they are just evil to the core and exploit everyone around them,” Chris said.
“The idea of exploiting people needs to be challenged. Its something that just can’t continue: the exploitation of people and the planet. You see examples of it in politics, you see examples of it in religion. I think Pure Evil is about that juxtaposition between someone who is preaching about the virtuous life who turns out to be the most evil of all. And musically we wanted to represent that as well as in the lyrics. So, the music goes from these really ethereal, really calming beginning to these really heavy parts.”
While the band was founded in New Zealand, they moved collectively to North America in 2009. That connection to this continent, and to the beautiful northern part of the landmass, is profoundly deep and long-lasting, as two of the Brooks brothers were born in Canada, and one – Kent, still lives here.
“We live between the U.S. and Canada. Zach Wood, our drummer lives in L.A., my brother Kent spends pretty much all of his time in Toronto where he has a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter. And Matt and I commute between Toronto and Las Vegas. Las Vegas is where we came to write the album and we recorded it both in Vegas and Toronto. And my dad actually grew up in London, Ontario. Now that Ken is in Toronto, my dad and my mom split their year: they spent half in Toronto and half back in New Zealand,” said Chris.
“And dude, I was born in Canada, Calgary to be precise. Kent was born in Yellowknife. And believe it or not I was supposed to be born there too, but it was a complicated pregnancy and the doctor said my mom should go to Calgary. Matt was born in New Zealand. When we moved to New Zealand, I was really, really young, like before I was walking. My dad was a psychologist and eventually he became a business author and business consultant. But I also think he felt it was important that we experience different things in the world, that’s why he put us into music when we were like, six or something.
“Our parents wanted us playing sports and being active in the outdoors and to show at least an appreciation for arts. When we were about halfway through school they took us back to Calgary. And later on, we all moved back to New Zealand and got involved in the music scene in Auckland.”
The intention was not to form a ‘band of brothers’ because the Brooks’ didn’t want that ‘gimmick’ to detract from the music itself and become the main story. But the inevitability of the connection the three had to one another as musicians and songwriters brought them together to form Like A Storm. All three are multi-instrumentalists with Matt and Kent both starting as drummers. Today Chris is the leaf vocalist, rhythm guitarists and helps with programming. Oh, and he also plays the didgeridoo (more about that later). Matt is the lead guitarist while Kent plays bass. Wood plays drums.
“We had pretty high expectations for what the fourth guy needed to be. He had to have a connection with us, the same that we had with our brothers, and he had to be great enough on drums that he was better than Kent or Matt at playing drums. So, Zach has been a perfect fit. We had known him for a long time but, just like the three of us brothers didn’t jump right in to playing together, we didn’t jump into play with him. We never thought about it and then suddenly it was like, ‘why haven’t we been doing this. We have known him for a long time. He’s a great dude, we have a great connection with him and he’s an incredible drummer.’ Once he came on board it really rounded out the band dynamic,” Chris said.
Now, on the subject of the digeridoo. Chris has loved the ancient instrument created by the Aboriginal peoples of Australian thousands of years ago all of his life. The hauntingly deep cascading drone also seems to fit well with the music of Like A Storm, in a subtle, underpinning way. It’s not super obvious that one is being place on the album, but live it has its moment in the spotlight, adding a uniquely mesmerizing dimension to the band’s performances.
“When I was a kid I always wanted to learn how to play it, but I didn’t know anyone who could teach me. It was a pipe dream because it’s such an exotic instrument, not only the sound of it, but what you have to do to be able to play it is unlike anything else. I taught myself to play it just for me as an artist because I found the process of learning it and playing it fulfilling. When we moved to Canada and started playing to nobody in the bars, we found it was a cool way to differentiate ourselves from any other band that was playing that night. For us to walk on there have this didgeridoo play captivated everyone in the audience instantly,” he said, adding that it really didn’t make an appearance on record until the single Love the Way You Hate Me, which was a number one hit on Sirius XM Octane for five weeks in 2015.
“We knew we wanted to push ourselves musically and we got to the middle of that song during the writing process and got stuck. We wanted to do something different and Matt saw my didgeridoo sitting in the corner of the room and suggested we just try it. We had never heard it before with the full band and had no idea what it was going to sound like. So, we went for it, recorded it and as soon as we listened back to it we though it sounded incredible alongside our electric guitars, bass and drums. These instruments that were created 10,000 years apart from each other just fit so perfectly together. The didgeridoo is such a heavy and such a dark sounding instrument that it was so cool and have now incorporated it more into our recordings and our live show.”
That live show will be seeing by hundreds of thousands of fans throughout the summer as Like A Storm has a coveted slot opening for metal heavyweights Shinedown and Godsmack throughout the United States. No Canadian dates are on this tour, but Chris said the band is hoping to get to Canada before the end of the year, most likely headlining or co-headlining a tour of large clubs.
For more information, visit the band’s social media pages or http://likeastorm.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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