interview by: Roberto Martinelli

From the very first seconds of "Through Deep Snow, Darkness Stalks the Hunters," track #1 on All is Suffering's album The Past: Vindictive Sadisms of Petty Bureaucrats, you'll know that this is a special disk. This American group takes all the best elements of all extreme genres in the metal world and fuses them all together: frrezing walls of black metal riffing, jarring, water-tight grind blasts, mad vocals, bits of crushing, classical choir, melodic death riffs, all delivered with fierce punk 'tude. I'd never heard of this band. I hope that you'll discover them through this interview with guitarist Lenny Likas.

Maelstrom: I casually put the CD in my walkman and was like, "what IS this?" From the first two minutes of The Past: Vindictive Sadisms of Petty Bureaucrats, I was enthralled. You've got this sinister, wall of noise guitar intro that's like black metal. In fact, it reminds me a lot of this super obscure BM band called Weakling, who are one of the best ever, but no one knows about them. I sort of think about you guys as Weakling if they were a bunch of punks. What are you influenced by to write such parts and then mix in grind and punk 'tude?

Lenny Likas: We write music the way we want to hear it. I have never heard Weakling, but we all like good black metal and metal of all other kinds. We mix everything up because we're tired of bands that seem to have such a limited scope and are entrenched in a one dimensional sound--in respect to ourselves and our music, we would be bored without growth. Building up our sophistication and proficiency is inspiration for us. But sophistication and proficiency doesn't necessarily equate to musical technicality. Understanding the power of the simple musical statement is most important to me--be it a power part or meaningful melody. We all like to hear music that really gets us going. Some of my favorite bands are really straightforward, like Sodom, Bolt Thrower, Repulsion, Discharge, Bestial Warlust and Motorhead. But I also like more experimental bands like Celtic Frost, Amebix, Crass, Neurosis, Satyricon and especially Voivod. We like to blend what we consider as the best sensibilities of many earlier bands. Our music reflects our own extremely jaded tastes and builds from the past. As for being punks, we're punks in that we want to destroy institutions and instruments of mental slavery.

Maelstrom: You talked about the past. That makes me think of the curious title of your album, The Past: Vindictive Sadisms of Petty Bureaucrats. I'm mostly curious about the inclusion of the "past" part.

Lenny Likas: The title is simply meant to convey vastness - A historical perspective, but a vague one. The past is important to some. We are forced to resort to it in protest of the future.

Maelstrom: Cool you like Bolt Thrower. They're one of my favorites, although I think they went sharply downhill after Whale left and then pretty much in the toilet when Willetts left.

Lenny Likas: I agree wholeheartedly on that one. The early shit up to …For Victory. Realm of Chaos was my favorite because of the production. The faster shit was better.

Maelstrom: Have you heard that live album of theirs (Live War) that was in the limited edition …For Vitory?

Lenny Likas: I have that. I like Karl's voice alot. He has character."Dying Creed" is fucking awesome on that disc.

Maelstrom: It was pretty funny to talk to Gavin Ward about that and how he said there were only like 15 people at that show (read more in the interview in issue #8). It's true, you can hear it.

Lenny Likas: Yeah, it does kind of sound like it, like when Karl says "this one goes out to all the guys who were here last time..." You can hear like ten dudes and one chick yelling in the background. Over the years, I've come to appreciate some vocalists that I used to despise, but I've also come to despise some vocalists that I used to think were cool. The first really really heavy death metal album I bought was Harmony Corruption. It blew my fucking face off.

Maelstrom: Me too! That's still my fave ND album. I'd like to hear more about vocalists that you used to hate and now love, and vice versa. I know I never used to like M. DiSalvo of Cryptopsy until I interviewed the drummer of that band (talk about amazing drums). He gave me a new take on the guy and now I totally love what he does. Too bad he's gone. The new guy is pretty run-of-the-mill. Do you like Marduk? What do you think of Legion's vox?

Lenny Likas: I'm not really into Cryptopsy too much. Just not a big fan of their style, that's all. I really enjoy Marduk. Legion is a cool frontman and his dedication is obvious. His vocals are seriously strained and choked in an awesome, evil, raspy way. Good black metal vocals, but they do get on my nerves after an albums worth of listening.

Maelstrom: In the booklet, you've all got silly nicknames. Then, it says that all songs were performed by a bunch of famous metal guys. What's that all about?

Lenny Likas: We've all been friends for a long time and we like silly nicknames and having fun. We all have a sense of humor, but that doesn't come in contact with the recorded music, we save it for band practice. Musically and vocally we are exclusively negative, hateful and crushing. We are completely serious about this.

Maelstrom: That's cool. It's a nice fuck off to the standard of black metal that it can't be "fun."

Lenny Likas: I think anyone who is a good band must be having fun. If you're uninspired and not into it for the right reasons, your inadequecy is written plainly in your music.

Maelstrom: I'm totally floored each time I hear that male choir on the album. It's another wonderful dimension to all the parts of your album, parts that contrast but don't clash - they seem totally in place with one another. Where did you find that stuff?

Lenny Likas: Good classical music is cool. I enjoy it more than a lot of other shit out there. Creating interesting sound dimensions is what we're all about. It's like getting a glimpse of another place, somewhere strange and unknown.

Maelstrom: I wonder if you're familiar with the choir compositions of Henryck Gorekci. Miserere is absolutely crushing stuff.

Lenny Likas: No, I haven't heard of him. Beethoven, Wagner, Holst, Anton Wieburn, the guy who wrote "Pierrot Lunaire" - the name escapes me - folk music; these are some of my favorites. I also enjoy soundtracks like "Conan the Barbarian." Godspeed You Black Emperor! are one of my favorites. They bring me a lot of bittersweet joy and sorrow.

Maelstrom: I like the new Godspeed a lot, greatly because there aren't any of those sound clips. Those bother me. I mean, they're ok once. My friend likes 'em, but most people i know don't. What do you think? If you like that band, there are others that kick ass like Set Fire to Flames (a Godspeed side project) and this band Magyar Posse. One of the coolest shows ever was seeing Godspeed in Chicago. Speaking of Godspeed and their old label, Kranky, do you like Stars of the Lid?

Lenny Likas: I think the best Godpeed album is F#A#. I think the new one is incredible also. Their past use of sound clips was appealing to me because of the ideas they evoked in my head. The numbing, alienating stretch of concrete and death that the world is swiftly becoming encapsulated in the sound of an impersonal gas station announcement with racist overtones, or the delirious rants of panicked homeless man, or the sonically manipulated voice of a Christian blabbering on and on pathetically, sounding like complete lunacy set against the soft, tragic instrumental music. I thought they were great when I saw them in Baltimore. They played in a partially gutted church, the lights and the stained glass and the projections made it surreal. That show actually made my girlfriend nauseous it was so intense. I haven't heard any of those other bands you mentioned.

Maelstrom: Do you ever meet women through your musical endeavors? I mean, like, women that you find appealing?

Lenny Likas: Not really. I'll see some hot babes at clubs every now and again, but I don't really talk to a lot of people anyway, be they male or female.

Maelstrom: If there's anything I can say even remotely negative about your album, it's how songs that go over more than one track are cut when the track changes. What happened there?

Lenny Likas: Poor editing and mastering. Shoestring budget.

Maelstrom: How many other recordings have you made?

Lenny Likas: We've been recording since about '95 or so. To date, six professionally recorded sessions, all at Mike Bossier's Oblivion Studio in Upper Marlboro, MD. Our latest session, from July 2002, has been made into a MCD, which we designed, manufactured and released ourselves. It's called Execution by Flamethrower and it has some of our best new songs.

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