- Hello, Dan! Could you please introduce your band to our readers? How was it "born"?
- TON was "born" in 1993. We formed in Canton Ohio and our goal was to create the heaviest music we could. We were influenced by a lot of thrash metal early on and discovered Death Metal about the same time we formed the band. Obviously Death Metal influenced us more and more as time went on. - Do you remember how you recorded the first demo? It was quite difficult to spread the music and send the tapes to different magazines and labels if you compare it to nowadays. - We recorded our first demo at a studio in Canton Ohio. We made as many cassette copies as we could to spread through the mail and at shows. It's pretty amazing how the metal underground stayed alive through tape trading, magazines and zines. People that loved metal would seek out new bands by being active in the underground. Those were great days. Bands really had to work hard to spread their name.
- In 1998 you released a compilation CD which included "Blind Follower" and "Point of View" demos. Did you remaster the sound? It sounds really heavy and brutal!
- No we didn't do anything to it. The sound on the demos is the same as the CD. Back then we didn't have have much money to record so we just went in played the best we could mixed and master as quickly as we could. - A few years later there was another release of this compilation, but with a different artwork. Who came up with that idea and who was the artist? - We never released those demos with any other artwork. They were self released on cassette by the band then by Pathos Productions on cd and more recently re released by Fresh Blood Management. - Do you have any plans to release the first 2 demos as well? Do you still have those original copies? - I do still have the original DAT tapes for those demos. There is a possibility of those being added to the Rerelease of our Plague cd later in 2015. As long as the tapes are still good. They're pretty old now.
- You are recording your new album now, how could you describe it? What can we expect from your upcoming CD? Will it include any special guest appearances?
- You can expect some heavy death metal. The songs are coming along great and we are very excited about the release. You will hear some similarities to our old stuff but a lot of years have gone by and we've all definitely improved. I think anyone that liked us before will definitely like what we are doing now. You won't hear any keyboards or sing songy parts. Yes I think we may have at least one guest vocal appearance. - TsunTsun Productions is in charge of mixing and mastering. How did you establish the contact with Alexander? What can you say about working with him? - I found out about him through facebook. When I checked out the bands that he worked with I was very impressed with the sound he was getting. We felt like if we had him do our mix and master we would be able to achieve a very heavy sound. Killer songs and awesome production is the only option for our new cd. We're writing killer songs and we are very confident Tsun Tsun will hook us up with awesome production. So far he has been great to work with. Definitely knows what he is doing and really wants to do the best he can for the bands he works with.
- Can you reveal any details about the album cover already?
- We do not have any artwork yet. We will be looking for someone very soon to do the art for the album. We have a few ideas floating around we just need to choose one and have someone bring it to life. - Do you plan any tour to support your new full-length? Will it be possible to see you in Europe as well? - We will be doing shows and some fests. Mostly weekend shows. We have been asked to come to Europe a couple of times. We would love to spend a week or two in Europe but the cost to get there is just too much for us right now. - Thank you for the interview, Dan! Do you have anything to add in the end? - Thank you very much for the interview. Look out for our new cd to be released at Las Vegas Death Fest in June 2015 on Ossuary Industries. Follow Ton on Facebook |