Chicago Cord : You recently released your sophomore album "Blitz of Anguish". How was it recording that, or what was the writing process?

Devin Shaeffer : First off thank you for your time and for the interview. "Blitz of Anguish" is our sophomore album which is long overdue. The first self-titled album came out in 2000 with Rescue Records. After a bit of lagging on our part, some member changes, a name change to name a few, we finally made it back into the studio once again. As far as the recording was, Jim (drums), Mike (guitars), and myself Devin (vocals), have been working together for some time, so we really have a good feel for one another’s styles and the way we work, so on that end it was very professional. On the other hand, we are all perfectionists, so its tough when you have a limited budget, yet still want to capture the best sound possible. We are happy with the final outcome however, and what you can hear on My Space: www.myspace.com/fasedown and Pure Volume: www.purevolume.com/fasedown is not quite as good of sound quality as the actual album came out. There are three different songs on both of those sites, so you can actually hear six total if you like. So far of the group and from our shows, the song "Forward" (available on Pure Volume) has received the best response. 

CC : I know many hardcore groups nowadays are Christian, including you guys. How did that go down with fans or has everything gone smoothly?

DS : Yeah its actually not that big of a deal. There are of course the exceptions, people who refuse to listen to you or taunt you on stage because you are Christian, but again those are the exceptions and relatively few and far between. On the other side of the fence there are some people who usually are older and more traditional that say "that music can't be Christian". Either way though its really water off of our backs. We love our music, and our message is what we believe and stand for. 

CC : Where do you get most of your inspiration from?

DS : I would say God number one, without him I know I wouldn't really be doing the band thing anymore. On the music side we all have different influences and such. I grew up on Sacrament and Sepultura learning my growls and screams. Currently I'm much more influenced by the screamers of bands like As I Lay Dying and The Agony Scene, those guys have some insane pipes. The rest of the band has wide-ranging influences from Blues to Punk Rock and all the way to Death Metal. 

CC : What would you like to achieve with this band?

DS : I don't know really. This has been asked to us before. I'm not sure that there is a number of CD units that is our goal to sell or certain venues we want to play or anything. We just want to share our music, and really its kind of cool when people see that our message is a little different from most. I like that what we have to say is positive, full of hope and determination. One of my pet peeves is the attitude of people...even in the underground scene whether you are talking about metal, hardcore or whatever, there is this expected cookie-cutter image that you are supposed to conform to. As a band we really don't care what people think. Be who you are, be proud of who you are and the talents you have no matter how miniscule they may seem. What other people think doesn't matter. 

CC : So what plans do you have for the future?

DS : Who knows what the future holds. I'm not that old, but I've had so many of my goals and dreams change so much already in my life already. We'll leave it to God's plan and let the big picture take care of itself. In the short term we just want to play more shows, maybe a few fly-out shows around the country and have fun doing what we love. 

CC : Anything else you would like to add?

DS : Thanks again for the interview and for your support of Fasedown and the underground scene. We love to meet new people and hear from people all over, so feel free to visit our My Space page: and join as friends, post up a message, e-mail saying hi and everything, and we will do our best to get back to you. We do answer personally, there isn't somebody who does it for us. Our My Space page is also more frequently updated than our website as far as shows go and other band updates. Lastly, if you like what you hear, you can purchase the album directly from our website at Rock on!

Links:

www.myspace.com/fasedown
www.purevolume.com/fasedown
www.fasedown.com