Mike Greenwood, Colton Bennett, Cole Rideout, and Jesse Price

Interview by: George Archibald

Photos by: Andrew James Bastion

With the fans support, Canadian band Angelmaker got the opportunity of a lifetime, having been voted onto The Summer Slaughter Tour line up. This great feat maybe what pushes this band even further into the mainstream of deathcore. Already gaining popularity withtheir EP split with A Night in Texas, this band hopes to continue riding the wave gaining loyal fans. I got to speak to Mike Greenwood, Colton Bennett, Cole Rideout, and Jesse Price about how this tour has impacted the band, and what is next for them.

GA: How about we start off with you guys telling me a little about the band?

MG: We have been a band for 6 years now, but only started touring last year.

CB: We were mostly a local band for a long time. We just started to branch out and put more quality into all our material.

GA: The band went through the voting process to get onto the line up at Summer Slaughter, what was your reaction to all the fans support?

CB: It was very surprising to win. We have a very strong fan base. That is one thing that I have respected is how loyal our fans are. So, I think that really helped drive us to where we are as a band.  It’s just really cool.

CR: It’s amazing, we never expected to be here with these legendary bands. To be the little guys on this tour it is very humbling to meet everyone, and everyone is just so nice and supportive of our music. It is just awesome.

JP: We just found out the way everyone else did. We just woke up one day, and seen that the poll had ended, and we won. We were ecstatic. We immediately went and got all our visas together and tried to get everything prepared. We had a long drive to get here but it’s been very worth it. Every single person on this tour has been nothing but awesome to us.

GA: I’ve heard about, and have been following the band from the numerous deathcore groups on Facebook, you guys have quite a following.

CB: A lot of kids put time into theorizing how our music is written and performed. There are a lot of covers even though our music doesn’t have any official tabs floating around. There is a ton of fan art. They are a really cool devoted fan base that we have, that is awesome. We are very lucky.

GA: I’ve listened to the split the band did with A Night in Texas called An Unholy Alliance, how did that collaboration come together?

CR: We were getting mentioned a lot in the same conversations with A Night in Texas, and vice versa. We contacted them, and said we should do something together, and they agreed. Both sides worked on their tracks, and everything came together right before Halloween.

MG: It was kind of a year or so ago process. I reached out to Cory Judd who is their guitarist, and was like; ‘Hey man, I think we should do something together considering a lot of people compare our album, Dissentient with your album, The God Delusion, because of how similar they are. We should do something like a split EP.’ Initially the idea was just tossed around, and there wasn’t anything serious. Then, a few months down the road Cory hit us back up and was like we should totally do that. That’s how the seed was planted.

CR: It was kind of a wink, wink, nudge, nudge sort of thing, being in the same class as them. A lot of our fans, are fans of A Night in Texas, and both bands released music around the same time frame.  It just made sense to pair up, and work something out.

GA: Did you guys have any input on the album artwork?

JP: We did have the idea of having two big ass beasts fighting each other. We wanted some sort of battle. When we found out what it was going to look like, we were stoked.

GA: Were there any challenges trying to put that EP together being Angelmaker is based out of Canada, and A Night in Texas is from Australia?

CB: Not really, it was more the communication period because of the time zone difference, so we couldn’t get immediate answers.  If you needed them, it was like you send them a message, and then have to wait for the response (due to the time difference). We previously did a split with a bunch of bands from Michigan, so we were familiar with the process of putting together an EP with other bands.

MG: It was a little difficult because they are on a label, and we are a DIY band so we had to come up with our own terms, where it would be fair for both sides. Other than that, it was relatively smooth sailing.

GA: What gear do you guys use live?

CB: I use a Schecter Hellraiser 2, I recently started playing with, it handles our tuning quite well for a 6 string, since we play in drop A. That guitar has been super sick, and I plug that into a Line 6/Bognar collaboration tube head. I also use a Boss suppressor pedal, so nothing to serious at all. It’s just pretty much plug in and play. Matt (Perrin) has a couple more pedals he uses, and he also has his Aristides. He is endorsed by Aristides, this company that makes incredible guitars. His rig is a bit more substantial, he is using a Peavey 5150, and a bunch of pedals for crazy lead tones.

GA: Have you ever thought of playing on a 7-string guitar since your tuning is so low?

CB: I just recently had a guy give me a free 7-string guitar. I guess there would be some pros to using it, but the music we have written already there is no point in playing with a seven. If we were to write new music incorporating a 7-string guitar that would be cool.

JP: I use a Sonar drum kit, Evans heads and a mixture of Zildjian and Meinl cymbals. I use Pro Demon Drive Pedals. I also use a Roland TM2 trigger module, which we use our trigger sample through, and our bass drop sample through. I run the bass drops through a bass boom bar that I run separate of the triggers, and that’s about it.

CR: I use Musicman Basses, I’ve loved them for ages. They have a great diverse sound, you can get a nice warm low end, and they have a little bit of grit to it. With the pickups I have Sterling 5, which respond well with our low tuning. As far as amps, I have been switching between a GK and an Ampeg. The GK has been good for tour since it is easy to carry around. I have been looking at getting a Darkglass, because it is kind of the standard in metal right now for bass tone. It just offers so much flexibility in your tone. 

GA: What has made Summer Slaughter stand out to you guys from other tours you have been on?

MG: This is the biggest thing we have ever done. This is the first large tour we have been a part of, compared to the last few tours we did where we headlined them. So, it was our fan base for the most part with some support bands fans thrown in; but now we are playing in front of Dying Fetus, Black Dahlia Murder, and Oceano’s fans. It is huge because they are such big bands. It is intense. Since we are the young bucks coming in, we have been getting whipped into shape. Everyone has been super nice, and we have been getting some great tips. We’ve become great friends with everyone on this tour. This is like everything we have done previously to this point but 10-fold.

JP: The number of bands and the gravity of the whole tour; we never played with big names like this before. The number of bands on this tour is astounding, being able to load in 10 bands, and fit 10 whole drum kits behind stage every day is mind-blowing.

CR: It’s cool to be playing with The Black Dahlia Murder every night. 10 years ago, they were playing Nocturnal for the first time, and now here they are 10 years later playing the album in its entirety. It is amazing to watch.

GA: What’s next for the band after Summer Slaughter?

CB: After we finish tour, we are going to finish writing our next full-length album, and hopefully hitting the studio at the end of this year. We also have some stuff lining up to do another big tour. We are hoping to have our next album released early 2018.

GA: Anything else you guys want to add?

MG: If you haven’t heard us check us out on iTunes, Spotify, Bandcamp, YouTube, and all that. We got merch on our Facebook page for sale. Check out An Unholy Alliance, our split with A Night in Texas.

CR: That we are stoked to be here.

JP: Thank you to everyone who voted for us and brought us to where we are now. We are going to keep pushing, and hopefully make everyone proud.

I want to thank all the guys in Angelmaker for taking time out to talk to me. I am looking forward to seeing what happens with the band in the future. For now, check out their album Dissentient or the EP split with A Night in Texas, An Unholy Alliance. Also check out the band's Facebook for merchandise and all updates on the band.