DEVIL'S ISLAND featuring Asian Death Crustacean.
Welcome to this weeks edition of Devil's Island! Every week we maroon a band or artist on the island and see what they get up to, how they cope with being all alone on a small island in the middle of the ocean. It's not your average desert island and we'll see just how each person copes with the extreme conditions.
This week when we arrived at Devil's Island we found Asian Death Crustacean, the outfit that fuse the unlikely combination of jazz and black metal into masterful pieces of musical art, sat on the beach. Whilst we'd not seen them in the flesh for a while we assumed this was due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Turn's out they were actually stranded on our island.
How did the band cope with life on Devil's Island? Find out now...
Welcome to The Razors'e Edge and our somewhat lovely, warm desert island. Don't worry about it's name I'm sure it's not as bad as that would suggest.
So you're marooned here on this island, but before you ended up shipwrecked you chose one album that you couldn't live without. Which album did you each chose and why?
James: Given the situation, it has to be Club Tropicana by Wham! on an infinite loop.
George: Based On a True Story by Fat Freddy’s Drop. Chill, varied, very repeat listenable and should suit the (hopefully) sunny climate on our island.
Just behind that palm tree is a shack for each of you to stay in, with enough space for you to put up a poster on the wall of one album cover. What album cover do you each chose?
James: Given I’m stuck on their island, I’m going to take any opportunity to get into the good books of my diabolic host, so it has to be ‘Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam’ by Gorgoroth.
George: I choose a poster of Sleep's Dopesmoker in the hopes that it will be infused with enough fumes to keep me happy while I struggle to live out the remainder of my days trapped on the island.
There's also a bar on this here island. But alas each of you only get to chose one drink for the entirety of your stay. What's your tipple of choice?
James: While it's tempting to avoid having to spend most of my time desalinating sea water with a fire by just choosing some mineral water, I might need something to occupy the days. There’s no guarantee of a coffee machine, so I’ll combine some vices and go for a coffee stout.
George: Whisky. Something smoky. Delicious beverage, precious anaesthetic and antiseptic.
Your suitcases were lost when your ship sank, but you each managed to salvage one item of band merch. Whats the merch and for what band?
James: I’m not getting stuck on this god-forsaken island without some fabulous Rings of Saturn beach shorts.
George: Probably a Descendents t-shirt of some kind. If I end up the last band member alive (who said cannibalism? I didn’t say cannibalism) then I might be able to stay sane by talking to the little Milo character who’s printed on most of their stuff.
You're sat on the island thinking "I'm stuck here on this island with my bandmates for eternity"... who would you rather have been shipwrecked with?
James: Only the devil who owns the island would try to plant that kind of traitorous thought in my mind, don’t think you can get to me that easily.
George: A doctor, a farmer and an engineer? Sounds a bit too much like the first line of a joke though, especially given that there’s a bar on the island for them to all walk into together.
There's a walkman in your pocket, on the tape inside is the recording of the one live show that stands out for you. It could be any show, from any band, anywhere in the world. What show is on that walkman?
James: Given the extreme state of delirium I would have to have reached to think that a walkman has suddenly appeared in my pocket, it's most likely I’m going to be hallucinating that I’ve dissolved into the dry ice at the Sunn show I saw in Birmingham in 2014.
George: Erykah Badu’s live album. One of the few live recordings I basically always listen to in preference to the studio versions of those songs.
You're getting desperate, you decide the only course of action is to put a message in a bottle and hope someone finds it. Your message could be to any member of any band, but should be the one musician most suitable for a rescue attempt. Who is it?
James: Only the most evil devil would try to trick me into voluntarily leaving an eternity on a satanic island, but if it comes to that then it's going to be Johan Hegg (Amon Amarth) solo-hauling a viking longboat to the rescue.
George: I think the chances of an organised, well planned rescue effort are probably higher if we send the message to literally anyone on the planet who’s not a musician. Failing that, maybe Tom Jones? I don’t know if he can actually fly a plane but he flies one during his cameo in Mars Attacks so that’s good enough for me.
You've been stuck here for a while and food supplies are running low. There's only one thing for it... which fellow band member gets sacrificed to help the others survive?
James: There’s no way Dan’s getting off the island alive after the number of guitar layers we had to get through for recording this album.
George: I think Dan would already have succumbed to insanity by around day 3 without access to his home studio. So yeah, we’d eat him first.
Finally, when the ship sank you each managed to save one person from the wreckage. That person is the one musician that has influenced your career the most, shaped your way of thinking and your outlook on life. Who did you save?
James: I don’t know who would live up to a bar that high, but I think Travis Ryan (Cattle Decapitation) would do just fine on an island separated from the rest of humanity.
George: James Brown, simply because he’d be a lot of fun to have around for eternity if necessary.
Sadly there is no room on our boat, so we have to sail away from Devil's Island leaving the band on the beach. Considering we only found James and George on the beach, we have to wonder.... have they already sacrificed the others for their own survival....?
