DEVIL'S ISLAND featuring Chub
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 find Chub sat on the beach. The island is far from their home, so how did they end up here and how did they 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.
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?
Greg - Scurrilous by Protest the Hero, because every single song is a certified BANGER, and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of listening to it. It’s one of the albums that kickstarted my lifelong love of prog metal, and is just the dankest shit you’ll ever hear. It’s also criminally underrated. Go listen to it!
Kyle - My favourite album of all time is Leviathan by Mastodon, I bought it and Blood Mountain in HMV when I was 14 because I thought the art on both was sick. Hearing those first few notes of Blood and Thunder when I got home was a life changing experience that put me on the path of sludge and groove worship. And who doesn’t need a bit of existential dread about Moby Dick and drowning at sea to really enhance the desert island experience?
Zakk - Airbourne’s Black Dog Barking! Sick album.
Ben - ONLY ONE?!? Blimey uhhh… it's a hard tie between Turn on the Bright Lights by Interpol, and Toxicity by System of a Down. Very different based on my mood haha.
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?
Kyle - Probably has to be a Baroness album to be honest, maybe Gold and Grey? Their frontman John Dyer Baizley does all of the artwork for their albums and they’re all gorgeous. He also did the artwork for Kvelertak’s first two albums and those are two of my favourite pieces of art in general.
Zakk - Back in Black, can also be used as a mirror!
Ben - Atonement by Killswitch Engage. Not my favourite KsE album (As Daylight Dies #1) but it's still a banger and the artwork is absolutely stunning.
There's also a bar on this here island. But alas each of you only get to choose one drink for the entirety of your stay. What's your tipple of choice?
Greg - Headband pale ale from Verdant brewery, because I’m pretentious.
Kyle - I’m embracing my true pirate nature and sticking with Dead Man’s Fingers spiced rum. Hopefully there’s lemonade behind that bar as well, otherwise it’s NAGS O’CLOCK BABYYY!
Zakk - beer yumyum
Ben - If you like Piña Colada, and getting caught in the rain But yeah also beer. Longman Long Blonde.
Your suitcases were lost when your ship sank, but you each managed to salvage one item of band merch. What’s the merch and for what band?
Greg - My Alestorm shirt where it’s a duck’s head on a banana. Can’t be beat.
Kyle - I dunno, maybe Metallica Monopoly to pass the time and slowly drive us insane until we murder each other in a capitalist rage? Only if I can play as the Metal Up Your Ass toilet. Or maybe we could sail the Kiss Kasket home…
Zakk - I never leave the house without my trusty 8ft statue of Ozzy Osbourne.
Ben - It's gotta be my favourite T-shirt of Make Them Suffer, they’ve been one of my favourite new bands that I've been obsessed with recently, and the design has a cobra with a skull, with my favourite colours Green and Orange. What's not to love?
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?
Kyle - Nobody, they’re my best buds in the whole wide world (Scarlett Johansson)
Greg - Literally anyone.
Zakk - Daniel Radcliffe as the Swiss Army Man.
Ben - Tidal Wave from Transformers. Because he can turn into a bloody boat. (Just realised I still have the toy on my shelves too)
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?
Greg - System of a Down from Download 2011. It was my first festival, and I got to see my all-time favourite band (who haven’t been back to the UK since ) headline, and that’s pretty much when I peaked in life tbh.
Kyle - The seminar “How to Build a Raft” by my favourite musician, Bear Grylls. Nah seriously though, my favourite gig I’ve ever been to is a really tough question. If it were a video I’d go with Rammstein at Download 2013, the spectacle of it was absolutely insane, unforgettable. But purely on audio? Probably recency bias but Opeth at Bloodstock this year were absolutely immaculate. I’ve seen them a few times now but the sound was PERFECT, literally sounded better than the records.
Zakk - Ghost at the Royal Albert Hall from 2018
Ben - Man I've been blessed to have gone to SO many amazing gigs. Again, a tie between seeing Wine Lips this year in Hackney, one of my all time favourites, AND KsE at Download 2012. Godrays poking through rainclouds during the break in “Arms of Sorrow” onto the stage. Just incredible.
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 most suitable for a rescue attempt. Who is it?
Greg - The singer of Whitechapel, because he will find me.
Kyle - Angus McFife (well, Angus McSix now). He can come and pick me up with his Legendary Enchanted Jetpack. I was gonna say Alestorm but I don’t trust them to navigate, far too much booze…
Zakk - Johan Hegg from Amon Amarth, I don’t mind putting my back into the oar…
Ben - Bruce Dickinson. He has a plane AND is a pilot. He can pick me up on the way to headlining Download for the 20 billionth time.
You've been stuck here 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?
Greg - Ben’s probably the meatiest.
Kyle - Yeah, Ben’s eaten a lot of ass in his time. Karmic justice has come.
Zakk - I’ve always wondered what I would taste like…
Ben - C’mon guys let's share, we’ll take a leg from everyone. There's plenty of CHUB to go around!
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?
Greg - My friend, Josh Garraway 🙂 You’ll find out who he is when he finally releases some fucking music already ffs. Gonna take the world by storm.
Kyle - I don’t know if there are many musicians that have shaped my way of thinking so much, I tend to keep music very caveman “it sound good and make me feel things” in that sense. In terms of composition, musicality, overall genius and one line zingers, it has to be Mikael Akerfeldt. Opeth is just pure distilled majesty, I’d love to pick his brains and see how he composes. But in terms of like, outlook on life, probably Zack de la Rocha from Rage Against the Machine? I was absolutely obsessed with Rage in school, they really helped bridge the gap between my pre-teen hip hop phase and my rest-of-my-life perpetual metal phase. And his lyrics are the first I really dug into and paid attention to, they were probably the main driver for my interest in politics and social issues. I’d have to go with Mikael though because he’d be a lot more fun, I think hanging out with Zack forever would just make me rage all the time…
Zakk - Nikki Sixx, we can get loaded til we’re saved!
Ben - Hard question, my biggest influences definitely don't have much influence in the music I make (Ella Fitzgerald, Robert Smith, Billy Corgan etc), so if I had to pick based on influencing my vocal CAREER most, probably Joe Talbot from Idles. Shouty shouty.
