Melbourne’s melodic metal/metalcore heroes, Scar the Surface, are mid-way through their biggest Australian tour to date following the release of their long-awaited debut album, From the Shadows to the Fire, and HEAVY caught up with guitarist, Daryl Smeele, before the band heads off on the rest of their tour.
Scar the Surface’s debut album, From the Shadows to the Fire, was a long time in the making, taking two years to complete. “We deliberately took our time with this because we wanted the songs to be the best they could be. We started writing for the album mid 2011. Once we had five songs down we hit the studio late 2011 to start tracking drums whilst continuing with the writing process,” Daryl explains. “We ended up writing and recording 15 songs… knowing that we only needed 11 to 12 tracks. That way we could look at all 15 then choose the strongest.”
Since the release of their EP, Take Your Fight to the Sun, STS found itself two new members, Adam Sinclair on drums and Simon Backman on guitar, whose influence was felt amidst the already strong line-up of Elliot Williams (bass), Daniel White (vocals) and, of course, Daryl Smeele on guitar. “The two newest members… had a large effect on the writing/recording process. We feel that everyone… should be able to express their creativity freely and have equal input in these processes.”
The album was mastered by the legendary Howie Weinberg, famous for his work on albums by Slayer, Pantera and Iron Maiden just to name a few, and it was recorded by Julian Renzo, a man who the band joke about as being their sixth member following his involvement in the recording process. Marc Görtz, guitarist of German metalcore band, Caliban, was also recruited to construct samples, key and guitar parts and to do some editing. The star-studded crew doesn’t end with the recording process either. Mircea Gabriel Eftemi, guitarist of Danish metallers Mnemic, designed the cover art. Daryl enlightens us as to how that came about. “In October 2012 we had the pleasure of meeting Mnemic on the Whiplash Tour of the east coast of Australia. We had an absolute blast and got along really well with those crazy dudes! Mnemic’s guitarist, Mircea Gabriel Eftemie, is also a graphic design artist, having done cover art for numerous bands such as Soilwork, Carcass, Hatesphere… so we asked him to design a cover for us…. and he did.”
Scar the Surface are mid-way through their biggest tour to date, which includes a number of shows in Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales and Tasmania and it’s proving to be a great success. “Our album tour is going really well, meeting a lot of great bands and people and the songs are being well received. The best show so far, I think we all agree, would have to be Brewtality Fest at the Tote in Melbourne. It was our album launch and just an all round killer f**king day! So many great bands!”
When asked if the band had any plans to tour the rest of Australia or overseas Daryl indicates that things are looking good. “We are looking at getting over to Western Australia and Queensland next year as part of our next tour. Western Australia in particular is somewhere we’ve wanted to play for quite some time so yeah… definitely on the cards. As for overseas, it’s something that given the right opportunity we’d love/have to do.”
You can catch Scar the Surface on their remaining tour dates, below, or grab a copy of their album HERE or on iTunes
November 15th – Enigma Bar, Adelaide, SA
November 16h – Northern Sound System, Elizabeth, SA
November 23rd – Albury Masonic Hall (AA), Albury, NSW
November 30th – DV8, Melbourne, VIC
December 6th – The Newmarket Hotel, Bendigo, VIC
December 13th – The Basement, Canberra, ACT
December 14th – The Valve Bar, Sydney, NSW
