Korn‘s Jonathan Davis was so excited by ORGY that he created his own record label …
Like many bands in the heavy music scene, Sydney deathcore act Pillager have something to say; and they’re not afraid to say it.
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With their latest EP Forsaken Nation sporting an album cover that features parliament house on fire and tracks like White Plague and Crime Minister, they clearly have a bone to pick with the state of our nation. What exactly is the message they’re trying to get across? Vocalist Kurt Taylor makes it pretty clear: “Pretty much everything that’s going on in Australia at the moment. You know, from the prime minister pretty much, fucking being a bit of a shit cunt (laughs).” says Taylor.
In all serious, Pillager’s new EP Forsaken Nation is a politically charged record that the band hopes will incite some real conversations with their listeners; something that’s key to the music they play, according to bassist Jacob Mackney.
“I think to a certain degree as a band, we’re always going to be playing angry music. When you’re writing music about stuff that makes you angry, I think politics and stuff are always going to leech into it a bit, cause people get really heated about stuff like that. And if you’re heated about it, when you’re trying to write the angriest songs you can, it’s going to come out.” says Mackney.
And that anger certainly does come out in Forsaken Nation, with the band tackling some hard-hitting issues in Australia’s social and political climate, as explained by guitarist Chad Shah.
Why the fuck does this holiday exist? Why is there a public holiday for genocide?
[ Chad Shah ]
“The track White Plague, that was written about colonialism … I mean Australia Day, the anger and the drive is where that song White Plague came from. Cause we played a show on Australia Day, like last year, and I sort of had a bit of a rant, just being like, ‘Why the fuck does this holiday exist? Why is there a public holiday for genocide?’” says Shah.
White Plague isn’t even the most head-turning political song on the EP, with the final track Cardinal Hell sure to capture the attention of most listeners.
“The drive for that song, Cardinal Hell, was drawn from George Pell, being basically a released paedophile, you know, the whole idea of being this religious, high profile figure being let off the hook.” says Shah.
“Yeah, the world just let the church get away with it again.” adds Mackney.
Much like the lyrics in the album which take inspiration from a number of different topics, instrumentally, Pillager have brought a wide range of influences to this latest release.
“For Forsaken Nation, the sound of that EP is being pushed towards Thy Art Is Murder, Emmure, The Acacia Strain and that sort of stuff. But interestingly enough, like when I was coming up with some of the riffs, like for Forsaken, that main riff that’s in Forsaken, I was actually thinking about Bring Me The Horizon’s Shadow Moses … People think that it was a deathcore driven EP, but there was different influences.” says Shah.
This wide range of influences musically is something that Pillager intend on keeping as they move forward as a band, with Shah, Mackney and Taylor already planning the sound they want to achieve on their next release.
“I think for every release that we put out, we do want it to be significantly, like when we mean significantly different, we don’t mean that we want to be jazz on the next record or anything like that, but for the next release we still want to keep, I think what Pillager has a consistency of is; it’s heavy obviously, but I think we want to try to go through different pallets of heavy.” says Shah.
“So, for the next release, we want to sort of, rather than having it be, like a Thy Art, or that sort of flavour to it, maybe for the next release, we’re probably thinking of turning it down, maybe to like a Traitors, Knocked Loose. So, still heavy as fuck, still having breakdowns. Still, you know, having those moshy sections, but probably going for the more hardcore leaning.” continues Shah.
“Between the two releases [Forsaken Nation and 2016’s Cut Throat], I feel like Pillager has already hit a pretty wide number of styles. Like one thing is, a lot of bands start to sound the same on every song and every release. Like, if you showed someone the two Pillager EPs and didn’t tell them that they were the same band, it wouldn’t be surprising if people didn’t figure it out on their own. So, I think we’re keeping it fresh and just doing what we want to do with every release instead of trying to put out the same stuff.” adds Mackney.
While a new record should be sometime away with Forsaken Nation still fresh from its release this year, Pillager are in the same boat as most musicians, with many of their plans to promote the album drastically affected by COVID-19.
“Well, we wanted to do another music video, for White Plague, but along with COVID and some other things we didn’t get to do it.” says Taylor.
“Our last show we were meant to play, which we had put a lot of work into, it was going to be the best show we’d ever played, and then that got cancelled. Cause that was right at the start of COVID, so that was, we had at least one song that we hadn’t played live yet. We had our backings rig and everything perfectly set up, and then COVID came and we haven’t played a show in what, like six months or something.” adds Mackney.
Readjusting to gigs in the post-COVID world is going to be a challenge for all musicians, but with heavy music specifically being one of the more high-contact audience experiences, it’s an obstacle that Pillager are already anticipating.
“I reckon there’ll probably be some road bumps, for sure. I mean, you can’t expect to come back fully after COVID, especially with the seating, you gotta be seated in a show.” says Taylor.
“Yeah, it’ll be interesting. Cause it’s like, ‘How do you make a heavy show worthwhile?’ Cause we’re used to when we play a show, people are in the crowd, getting physical and moving around and all that sort of stuff. But now it’s just like, there’s going to be like a golf clap, in between each song of the set of people just sitting down, you know?” says Shah.
“It’ll be like a burlesque club sitting down sipping wine (laughs), you know.” adds Taylor.
While no band can predict the future, oddly enough, certain aspects leading up to the release of Forsaken Nation have been strangely fitting to our world today.
“So, when we were creating the artwork for Forsaken Nation there was a lot of fire, well actually before that, before the fires and everything, we wanted the fiery effect on the artwork. And then it just so happened to hit Australia with all the fires and then, sort of the graphic scene around the parliament house, we wanted that to sort of reflect on current events. So, it’s all sort of eerily coming to life, so (laughs).” says Taylor.
“Yeah when it came to that EP, like with the artwork, I think it was October or November when, or even earlier than that, I’d always keep bringing up ‘I think it should be parliament house, just fucking engulfed in flames’. Just straight, direct, ‘Fuck you’.” adds Shah.
“When it came to actually getting back that artwork, and it was January, and it was fucking bush fires everywhere, all over Australia. It was just sort of like, in a weird way, it sort of seemed like we were predicting the future (laughs). Eventually, through songs and, White Plague, like that songs about colonialism, but then, you know, coronavirus comes and in a sense that’s a plague, you know.” continues Shah.
“When we got back the final version of Cardinal Hell, that would have been about when it was like, ‘Oh, he’s in prison now, it’s all over’. And then before it came out, like a couple of weeks before as we were building up to releasing it, I think we’d already put out the single, they were like, ‘Oh, he’s out of prison now’.” says Mackney.
Though they’ve managed to predict a few things with Forsaken Nation, the future’s not written in stone for Pillager just yet. With their sights set on a full-length debut some day in the future, Taylor leaves fans with only this to prepare them for what comes next from the band:
“I mean, that’s probably it for Forsaken Nation, but for our upcoming stuff, I’d say. I don’t know, expect some whammy, some whammies influence on the guitars. A bit more nu-metalcore influence, but still heavy. But yeah, I don’t know, I guess that’s all I can say so far.” says Taylor.
