Witchgrinder are about to hit the road in support of their brand new album Nothing Stays Buried. It marks the third full length release from the Melbourne industro-groove quartet and comes after a vast nine year gap since Haunted that was occasionally filled by singles and small pockets of live work.
“We have been around a long time, but there has been a big gap between the last album and this album,” admits frontman Travis Everett. We did a couple of little singles here and there – we did a [Metallica] cover song – but because the line-up was never locked in as a full line-up, it was more just a touring band…and then we had COVID that got in the road.”
Witchgrinder hopes Nothing Stays Buried will re-establish them within the scene, and the early signs are pointing in their favour.
“The album came out [March 28] and the response so far has been really, really good. Better than what I thought,” Everett says with some evident surprise. “I know we put a lot of work into this album and it’s good – I reckon it’s fucking awesome, actually, but ‘cause we released it independently it’s a bit hard to know who’s going to pick up on it, who’s going to listen to it…that was the choice we decided on, so the feedback we’re getting from it has been amazing.”
Their current campaign began in the wake of COVID when the band finally developed a solid line-up and “everyone was keen to get straight back into it”. Last year Witchgrinder played Melbourne shows with Powerman 5000 and Static-X as well as a sprinkling of festival dates to help funding the upcoming recording. Admittedly an act that doesn’t always set concrete plans, Everett found that having a proper band around him helped keep him motivated and focused on getting the album completed.
“We had a goal,” he says, “we knew what we wanted to get and what time we wanted it by, and we managed to do it. We stuck at it and got it done. The other guys are really hard working, so if I slacked off, they pulled me up. It used to be the other way around. If I told them I’d give them something, like a riff or something, they’d be on my back right away.”
For Everett, it’s the first time Witchgrinder has felt like a complete unit.
“The other members were great, and we’re all still friends to this day. It just didn’t really feel like a band, it was just a touring machine. Now we all want the same thing out of the band. We all want to write, we all want to push for certain goals and we’re all very good friends.”
With longer-term plans to head to Europe or back to Japan at some point, right now they’re about to head off on a seven-date national tour that begins with a show in Sydney with old friends Our Last Enemy on 12 April. It will be the first extended run for Witchgrinder in a few years.
“To get on the road and do a full tour, a headlining tour on own – we haven’t done that for a long time. We’ve done a couple of Halloween tours, but this time we’re going all over the place. We’re going to Tasmania this time – we’ve never been. Two of the boys were born and grew up in Tassie so it was a no-brainer to go there this time.”
Afterwards, Everett says they’re keen to continue writing – he says they haven’t stopped working on new songs – with a view to get another album out next year. Between now and then, however, Witchgrinder will be one of the headline acts at a new outback metal festival coming up in October. Metal to the Max is planned for the replica Mad Max 2 compound at the film’s shooting location of Silverton, near the NSW/SA border. Witchgrinder is one of over 20 bands who’ve been asked to appear and Everett can’t hide his excitement at the prospect.
“Who doesn’t like Mad Max? Straight away…it didn’t take long for us to say yes. When I approached the other guys, everyone’s looking forward to it. We found out a few of the bands before it was announced. We kept that to ourselves, but everyone was getting excited because if i don’t know one of the bands, then one of the other boys do – they’re mates with them, or something, so it’s just cool regardless of how it goes. I hope it’s really successful, but we’re going to have a good time with all the bands out there. It’s gonna be just wild! Out in the desert for a couple of days! What could go wrong?”
