Blessed Curse thrash‘s our face’s off



Blessed Curse are a US Thrash band that has many influences inherrant of the original US thrash scene of the 80’s and genre blueprint. Previously known as Devestator, Blessed Curse have a debut release out on Cyclone Empire records. This tears your bloody face off! Brutalism spoke to one of the bands founders, Tyler Shatterlee who welcomed us into the Blessed Curse world.


How did you form Blessed Curse? I understand you were childhood friends.
I formed this band back in 2001 with Derek Bean on Drums, then eventually with the addtition of Patrick Hamby on the bass guitar in 2002 with other musicians coming and going. We also went through a number of names and recently in 2010 are officially Blessed Curse after being so fed up with other bands being called Devastator.

What bands are your main influences musically and lyrically? I hear a lot of US thrash metal greats in your music.
That form of metal is definetly in our veins especially since we come from northern california. The great old-school metal bands like Exodus, Testament, Metal Church, Sodom, etc is unbelievable when you start discovering all these bands for the first time like we did many years ago from a very early age. It has always been important for us to try to be original with our own sound. We are influenced by a lot of bands and music forms. I used to listen to‚ Master of Puppets‘ on cassette while riding the bus to the 6th grade so an album like that had a lasting influence on me forever.

You changed your name from Devastator, was this to distinguish yourself in your own right without being confused with other bands calling themselves Devastator?
Exactly.

I must say I am impressed with your debut album, congratulations on that; you must be pleased with the result and the positive reviews received thus far? You can only gain more praise in my books!
Thanks alot  dude! We really appreciate it and hope others enjoy it  as well. We were very pleased with the end product and having nothing to complain about it. All the reviews have been wonderful so far and we are only happy to talk metal with anyone anywhere!

Some of the songs appeared under your previous band name, as I am not familiar with those recordings, did you re-arrange anything when you re-recorded them?
We took riffs, melodies, beats , or rhythms from certain past songs or just updated them like what we did for March of the wicked. Not too much re-arranging just a concern to make whatever we were constructing flow together well hopefully.

In regards the artwork by Marc Sasso, how did you get involved with Marc? Did you give him your songs to gain artistic inspiration? Tearing ones face off perfectly complements your music!
Ha ha, I agree! We were lucky to be referred to him by our publisher Marco Barbieri of Salem Rose Music to contact him for cool artwork and we were lucky persistence paid off. I am not sure if he heard any of our music before hand, but he sure took our vision and did a great job.

Have you got your own prints of the artwork, like a real painting or something similar?
That would be awsome, but unfortuanely no we don’t. We only have the initial black and white sketches up until the final painting, but only on computer documents. Maybe Marc Sasso has a big painting  on ebay. Ha, ha, who knows?

You have toured some parts of the US, and another tour appears to be planned, is there any European opportunities coming soon?
We just recently fnished a west coast tour of the USA which was great as in the response everywhere to the album was very positive and have some other touring plans in the works right as I type this. It would be so bad ass to tour Europe later this year if we can for this record if not sooner! It would be an honor to play for the true metal heads over seas!

How is the US scene for your style of metal? Europe tends to come and go in peaks and troughs, especially when bigger established bands are doing well, smaller bands tend to mirror this trend in Europe. I am always interested to hear what bands think of their local or national scene. After all, it can be said that thrash originated in the US.
I have to say the USA metal scenes seem really good and thriving right now. A lot of kids have seen bands like Blessed Curse (especially in our early stages as Atrosity and Devastator) many years ago and have started their own  bands and their friends started their own bands and each year it has grown all over the place like an old-school network. There are seriously killer metal scenes and young bands everywhere in the USA it is rad. Notable cities are the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Salt lake City, Denver, Reno, Pheonix, west coast cities. Stage divers, moshers, pit-lords, headbangers, and some hot chicks every now and then. Always growing. By now in 2012 all you have to do is point at a city on a map and if you do the correct research, you will discover some cool music.

As musicians, are you self-taught?
Pretty much. I took guitar lessons in the 8th grade when I was 13 for a couple of weeks and then after some basic exercises were figured out, I just taught myself on my own. Derek with his drums and Pat my bass player were pretty much self taught also. Going home everyday after school learning Metallica and Iron Maiden albums was the best part of the day.

What do you do in your spare time outside of Blessed Curse?
Right now it is primarily just job hunting, helping and working for my Parents on their property, and literally doing Blessed Curse stuff as much as possible.

Is there anything you wish to say to your fans or something you would like to say to potential fans of your excellent music?
Hell yeah, if you picked up our debut album Blessed Curse we thank you for the support and hope you enjoy it. Drink some beers, blast it and piss off some neighbours! See you maniacs in the down front in the pit! Beware because the B.C. Beast will be coming to your city very soon!

I thank you for your time, and I give a big thumbs up on your album release, its great thrash music.
Thanks for the time and support Paul, it was an honor!
Interviewer: twansibon
May 9, 2012

Share this: