Interview with Custodian Killer and The RAz of Graveyard: People that listen to our music are sociopaths and psychopaths!

27/01/2022 Video Interviews Share

Minions! We were honored to sit down and have an interview with The RAz and Custodian Killer of Graveyard. The band released their album Time Ran Out in October, which we ranked as #3 on our list of 40 best metal albums of 2021! You can check out our review for that album here. And don’t forget to BUY IT here! So what happened is, we had a really long Skype interview, with a total of 2 hours! We pretty much talked about everything.

Regarding the upcoming Graveyard release, Custodian Killer said: I’ve got 9 tracks and I want to do 30, to make an hour and 15 minutes of this * loud heavy metal noises in the background* . It’s just a taste of what we are doing. Time Ran Out was really a test for us to see how the process is gonna work. So this is the direction that we are heading in right now. After an hour and fifteen minutes, the next album….This way it will fully, in broken people….after they listen to this. Anyone who listens to this will crack a brain in half. It was long enough to sledgehammer ‘em.

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Regarding the Time Ran Out album name, The RAz said: Custodian Killer goes like this: That’s it, man! TIME RAN OUT! And I was like, that’s the name of the album! ‘Cause this… no one has any hope left, it’s over! It’s finished! You can’t do anything! It’s over!

When asked why Time Ran Out had only 22 minutes of music, Custodian Killer stated: We were testing the waters with the way we are recording. We are trying to get away from the other last two releases and go into a different direction. And I think we ran out of time, too. Because it was close to the end of the year and we wanted to get it out before the year’s end so we had to sacrifice some things. I think it was 9 tracks, but there were 19 tracks.

I also asked them whether they were aiming for the EP format for Time Ran Out. Custodian Killer said: That’s where kind of my mind was at with it. I was just thinking. We want to have something to represent us for that year, you know...

<a href="https://graveyardthe6thextinction.bandcamp.com/album/time-ran-out">Time Ran Out by Graveyard</a>

After that, Custodian talked about the problems of global warming and the end of the world as he sees it. "I say by 2035, there will be very few humans left. Only underground settlements would be around. And they will be hanging out on to sterilized water and canned peaches...That would be New Zealand by the way, the last billionaires who are underground there. Well, you gotta remember...Out of the all extinctions we had, and we had five. This one is different, in only one way. We have nuclear plants, chemical and military weapons, and chemical plants, which none of the extinctions ever had nothing to deal with. We’re close to the 4th extinction which is with the global warming event. So anyone that wants to say it’s 100 years, are full of cr*p. It’s not 100 years. They already came out and said, we thought it was a lot later but...No matter who are we listening to, we got about 15 to 20 years. Being able to grow, harvest, store, and transport grain will be compromised, which is the basis of all food and that’s only in the few areas along the region. This is outside of any of the political stuff we are talking, this is basic Earth stuff. Everybody wants to talk about this and that stuff, but nobody is focusing on this, ’cause they forgot all about it. It’s not about the 6th extinction that we are...It’s ok, you know, once the time ran out, but now we got a new, 2022, we have a couple of years left, so we gotta...It’s not up yet. I am firmly a believer that there is no hope.

When it comes to the upcoming release, The RAz said: It’s all driven by the music, because the music is what’s distorted about. That’s what’s disturbing about Graveyard. We’re not talking about the lyrics, the vocals…we are talking about the guitar. The guitar is the most disturbing thing about Graveyard. And we just like it disturbing. And if that’s disturbing, the album is gonna be disturbing.

Then, The RAz talked about how Custodian Killer sounds as if he is possessed when writing music. Regarding the influences, Custodian Killer mentioned Autopsy, Carcass, Destruction, Darkthrone, Cadaver, Possessed. The RAz mentioned Coroner, Pungent Stench, Messiah (Switzerland) Megadeth, and Voivod.

When asked who did what on the Time Ran Out album, Custodian Killer said: Basically, I did all the guitars. The RAz: It’s all Custodian Killer, I did nothing, man. When Custodian Killer plays…I’m not that kind of level, man, sorry.

I had to ask the guys who the girl that sang on "Gruesome Forest" was. The RAz told a story how he met a professional singer in Turkey. Simply put, one of the best moments on the entire album! We then proceeded to talk about the overall short song length on the album. Custodian Killer also said that you can’t find many repeating parts on the latest album, when compared with the previous ones, Opus V and The 6th Extinction.

After that, the discussion was about the movie samples that can be heard throughout the whole album. One of these was taken from the Bloody Pit of Horror, Crimson Executioner, Twilight Zone. Regarding the artwork, Custodian Killer said: Usually, I did all the covers. I make all the covers usually. This is the first release where I really didn’t do it. But I did provide the front and the back cover and then RAz has taken care of the production, the writing on it. But I found the picture on the front, of the Chariot of Death. Mowing over people with the black plague. As you can see, standing on top with this scythe.. and underneath are kings and queens being mowed down… Custodian Killer said that he doesn’t know the name of the painting but that he saw it in a book and wanted to tear that page out. But I did some research and found out it’s a 16^th century Psalter called The Triumph of Death contained in a British manuscript.

Custodian Killer then mentioned that he is doing a giveaway of The 6th Extinction DVD. He mentioned that the movie was banned from YouTube due to some copyright issues regarding the Godzilla movie. And we then continued the discussion about our favorite kaiju and the CGI in the movie industry.

When talking about the new stuff, Custodian Killer said: The mindset of the herd is really, really more in a bubble than it has ever been. But it’s up to us to stay on our bubble of creativity for the next album and just make it…I refuse to conform. We’re gonna try to be unhinged, disturbing….

We then proceeded to talk about the Time Ran Out album. Custodian Killer was also speaking about the 9 songs the band didn’t release on this album and called them "radical".

After that, we talked about Graveyard’s The Slaughterhouse Experience video. And of course, then we talked about veganism and the meat industry. And after that, we had a discussion about the lyrics, starting with "Gruesome Forest", one of the best songs on the album. The RAz mentioned that him and Custodian Killer met at a Coroner show. When I asked the guys about the demonic vocals, Custodian Killer took out a tube and started growling like a beast! Priceless!

After that, I asked the guys whether they are going to do some touring in the future, and we also talked about the very first Graveyard show (a literal once-in-a-lifetime event). We also talked about the last shows we’ve been to. The guys said that they are planning to release some new music videos in the future. Custodian Killer said that he has a big collection of horror movies, and movie-samples.

Custodian Killer then showed us his big collection of guitars. He has a total of 57 guitars and 450 guitar pedals at FrozenCorpse Studios. Totally sick! He then talked how Bill Steer, Napalm Death, Carcass and, Immolation, Tampa Florida Death metal, Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, Carnivore, Obituary, Mortician, and Entombed were a huge influence on him. Claude then started shredding one of his double-neck guitars! We also talked about analog vs digital recordings and drum triggers.

Claude also talked about his collection of vinyls (3000!)

Then The RAz and Claude talked about the most memorable show they ever witnessed. RAz mentioned a Coroner show. And of course, we had to talk about Coroner and Voivod and about how Piggy changed heavy metal forever. RAz then talked about the metal scene in Turkey and Sodom + Pungent Stench show in Instanbul in 1992. Claude mentioned Voivod opening for Rob Halford’s Fight. The RAz mentioned that he met Fenriz in Oslo, Norway, at the Transylvania bar in 1998. Then, RAz recalled interviewing Chuck Schuldiner of Death (RIP) during the Leprosy era. We then talked about life on the road and Destruction.

Our discussion then switched to Lemmy. Claude said that he is a huge fan of Lemmy’s first band – Hawkwind. RAz mentioned that Graveyard reformed the day when Lemmy died. We also talked how drugs influenced music, from psychedelic to heavy metal. We then talked about The Beatles.

We were also talking about how Chris Reifert, in an interview for Agoraphobic News, stated that death metal music is "strictly for freaks"! So The RAz followed suit: “The people that listen to Graveyard are sociopaths or psychotics! We have a very sick following! You gotta understand that!”

We then proceeded to talk about the music we are listening to these days. Claude mentioned that he is listening to Led Zeppelin’s "Dazed and Confused" live version and Autopsy’s Skullcrusher. After that, we talked about the negative reviews.

In the final part of the interview, we talked about traveling and touring on these crazy days. Claude reminded the audience that he is doing a 100-copy-giveaway of Graveyard’s movie The 6^th Extinction.

00:00 Upcoming Graveyard album
2:40 Time Ran Out album name
7:55 Custodian Killer’s take on the end of the world and The 6^th Extinction
11:45 Upcoming Graveyard album
13:08 Influences
16:46 Who did what on Time Ran Out album
17:55 Female vocals in „Gruesome Forest“
21:30 Movie Samples
23:00 Time Ran Out album cover
24:50 The 6^th Extinction DVD giveaway
32:00 9 unreleased tracks on Time Ran Out album
39:15 Lyrical break-down of Time Ran Out
48:45 Touring? Concerts
53:30 New Graveyard music videos + Horror movies, movie-samples collection
55:27 Custodian Killer’s guitar collection
01:00:19 Analog vs digital recordings
01:08:43 Most memorable shows?
01:17:42 The RAz interviewing Fenriz of Darkthrone and Chuck Schuldiner of Death
01:25:44 Lemmy of Motorhead + Hawkwind
01:32:12 Current playlist?
01:34:28 The people who listen to Graveyard are sociopaths or psychopaths!
01:35:24 Negative reviews
01:41:33 Traveling + Touring
01:50:42 Last words
2:01:19 Last words part 2

Interview with The RAz of Graveyard (2020)

Graveyard - The 6th Extinction Review

Graveyard - Opus V review

Graveyard on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PHILOSOPHIESOFTHEREALITY

Bandcamp: https://graveyardthe6thextinction.bandcamp.com/album/time-ran-out

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