With:	Junior Rodriguez
Conducted by:	itsjoeymoose (e-mail)
Published:	23.06.2009

Darkness Dynamite recently released their debut album 'The Astonishing Fury Of Mankind' through Metal Blade records. Their vocalist Junior Rodriquez talked about metal in France, their influences and the new album.




'The Astonishing Fury Of Mankind' is your first full-length release, what expectations do you have for it?

To be the best album people listen to this year. We've worked on the record for so long and so hard that in the end all we want is to share it with the rest of the world. And of course sell millions of albums and be rich!

Not a great deal of high profile metal bands come from France, how was it growing up there and trying to have a successful band?

It was definitely a challenge. It was very motivating to want to have a successful band. You know that you have to work twice as hard as bands from say America or England for instance. You have to believe that your band is better. At the beginning we always worked a lot and wanted to be as professional as we could. Growing up in France is very pleasant, because you have the feeling that all the professionals are looking at you. It also brings pressure, but the good kind.

Were Gojira an inspiration to you in the sense of a successful band coming from France?

Of course. Gojira were one of the first French bands to massively succeed in the metal scene. We want to be bigger than them, not because of jealousy, but it's a motivation to see that French metal bands can succeed in the world. We all are young in the band, so I can't see why we can't be the next big band out of France.




How do you think your band is different from other metal core/melodic death bands in the world?

Simply by the fact that we don't make that kind of music. Of course you can hear different influences like thrash, hardcore or death metal, but we are most influenced by the bands of the 80/90's like Pantera or Metallica.

How is the music on 'Fury...' different compared to your 2 EPs?

The music was written by just one person in the band for the EPs. After that, the band evolved and we became more mature musicians, so naturally the music gained more personality. The entire band worked on the new album and it's more representative of Darkness Dynamite than the EPs. We're very proud of it.

I hear elements of Soilwork and As I Lay Dying in your music, would you cite them as major influences?

To be honest we don't listen to Soilwork, but we all respect and like As I Lay Dying so it's normal that they have a small influence on us.

Was the front cover of 'Fury...' meant to be black or was that a last minute thing?

It was meant to be like that yeah. We wanted something simple and classy and not something like blood and some creepy place with bones like a lot of bands have. For us, simplicity is stronger. This first album is like an introduction to us, and putting the logo on the front cover was a way to say, "Hi! We're Darkness Dynamite, check us out and come back for the next one!"

How hard is it financially to be in a band these days? Do make any profit from albums, T-shirts and touring?

The thing people have to imagine is that you always have to fight for anything. Getting signed to a label is pretty cool. Getting signed to Metal Blade is even cooler, but we don't get anything from them except their network and distribution. All the money we earn is made from our hard work.

What were the best and worst moments on tour so far?

The best moment we've had just happened, which was opening for Korn in front of 2,500 people. It was incredible having the crowd digging our music and then talking with the guys from Korn after the show, especially when their new drummer told us he liked our show. That was really cool. One of the worst moments was probably when one of our guitar player's amps burned during the show. That sucked but we had a great crew and it was fixed really fast!

Thanks to Andy Turner from Metal Blade Records.