The Fast and The Furious - A Wilhelm Scream

“They want ‘rock-stars’, they want a lead-singer who is a ****ing asshole. They want an image they can market. They will put a guy who looks like a girl on the front-cover and apparently girls are going to eat that shit up!” sneers A Wilhelm Scream bassist Brian Robinson about the current climate of the music media and record industry. This may sound like a bitter, jealous-laden rant, but within a minute of chatting to the guys, or as soon as you hear their music, it is anything but envy. They plain and simply don’t want that. They are a band, they tour, record albums and have one hell of a time along the way. They don’t marry a stick insect with an even smaller brain than her coke-ravaged body. They don’t have a convenient drug addiction revealed just before their latest album drops. They don’t conspire slagging matches with other bands. They don’t squeeze into ball-breaking skinny jeans, don make-up, or create alter-egos. They have ethics - they have a soul.

“It’s like a guy working at Chuck E. Cheese’s (American children’s fast-food outlet), I don’t envy that guy, I don’t care if he gets paid ****ing £150 an hour” philosophically states guitarist Trevor Reilly. “I don’t give a ****! He still works in Chuck E. Cheese’s. You know what I’m saying?” Latest album ‘Career Suicide’ confronts such issues and the message is very loud and very clear on their stance on such trends and hollow scenes. “Career Suicide is about bands aiming for whatever’s hot, whatever the hot trend is. Playing not from heart but based on money” explained Reilly. “You’ve got one band doing it - guess what? You’ve suddenly got 1,000 bands doing it! And 995 of them are going to ****ing fail. Then they are left thinking ‘what the **** are we doing?’ You can tell when a band’s in it for the money or not. It’s plain as day.”

New Bedford, Massachusetts hardcore/punkers A Wilhelm Scream are in the middle of a riotous tour of the U.K. Chilling with Gigwise backstage at the Leeds leg of their venture, the rabid response and mass turn out of fans has overwhelmed the lads. “The Music Box gig in Manchester was amazing. Edinburgh was freaking awesome! Aberdeen was great, man they have all been so rad” insists Reilly. “A lot of people have been going crazy for the new stuff, it has kind of flipped. It’s so cool” admits Robinson. Although ‘Career Suicide’ is not readily available in the UK as the lads recently found out. “We looked for it in HMV but we couldn’t find it!” reveals Reilly.

Thus A Wilhelm Scream are certainly somewhat of a secret on theses shores. With barely a mention in most ‘alternative’ mags, and it being near impossible to pick up one of their albums in most record shops, it is hard to just stumble across their furious blend of razor-sharp riffs, riot-inducing roars and searing melodies. But those that do ultimately succumb to such a refreshingly raw and simply stunning band. ‘Career Suicide’ is album number three under the guise of A Wilhelm Scream, after being previously named Smackin' Isaiah. With three albums released in as many years, the lads have managed to keep the quality sky-high, which has recently been acknowledged in the music press’s reviews of ‘Career Suicide’. “I read a lot of the reviews and I’m yet to read a bad one” Reilly admits. “All the reviews have been really overwhelming and positive. The reviewers I think got what we were trying to do.”  Robinson interjects: “We just write whatever makes us laugh, we have fun writing.”

Fun is certainly the ethos behind the band, something that previous member Chris Levesque decided he was not experiencing anymore. The guitarist called it a day in 2007 after stating he was not enjoying the day to day touring life. Robinson and Reilly certainly don’t hold his decision to ‘retire’ against him, and although they are still fully committed to the touring life, they understand his situation. “Well I think anybody can imagine feeling the way he did. He just got to the point where most of the time he felt like that. Everybody’s human, everybody has good days and bad days” reveals Robinson. “I think **** man, I could be playing Xbox at home now instead of being here freezing my ass off! Jokes Reilly.