South Florida's troupe of fearlessly experimental extremists, Orbweaver released its debut EP Strange Transmissions From the Neuralnomicon last year to a chorus of critical interest. The media and audience were seemingly as enthralled as perplexed by the ambitious group's Lovecraftian take on heavy metal.
The limited-edition cassette of the EP — released on Shroud Eater cofrontwoman Jean Saiz's Primitive Violence label — was given the ultimate treatment for a band with a flair for science fiction. It includes rad extras like comic cards that feature Saiz's illustrations of characters found in the lyrics. The music is finally available as a proper vinyl release through Corpse Flower Records.
The band is slated to open many of the higher-profile metal shows coming to South Florida and has a new album in the works. Orbweaver is starting to see its hard work payoff. We spoke with the band's vocalist/guitarist and sonic manipulator at large, Randy Piro, about the vinyl release and all that is exciting for Orbweaver at the moment.
New Times: Have you received your copies of the album yet? What was it like to reacquaint yourself with the album? I know after touring behind a record and all that goes into promoting a debut album, the glow can sort of fade. Did you fall in love with it again?
Randy Piro: Dude, it looks totally killer! The vinyls are all cool colors — translucent blue, purple, orange — and we had James Plotkin [of Khanate and OLD] remaster it for vinyl release. To be honest, for me, none of the songs have gotten to the point where it's like, "God, I hate this song." You know what I mean? Of course, I have my favorites and ones that I don't necessarily like, but that album as a whole is one that I love, and getting to revisit it and listen to the trip has been awesome.
It was just announced that you guys are opening a Miami date featuring High on Fire and Death Angel. I can't imagine how stoked you must be!
I am superstoked! And we have a lot of stuff on deck before that that's really cool too! But that was the coolest email to come home to last night. I will say this: I was always more of a Sleep fan, but I've grown into High on Fire in recent years.
You mentioned recently that the band is already working on a full-length. Are you going to debut some new tracks at the High on Fire show?
The next show we're doing is on August 2, the Death to Miami show. It's going to be the release show for this vinyl, and we're taking that opportunity to do that; we're going to play some new tunes that night. Pretty much all of our live sets from this point on are going to be focusing more on the new material. We'll always play a couple of the older tracks, but we're looking to the future from here on out.
It's got to be gratifying to finally have the band's debut on vinyl.
When Corpse Flower came to us, it was totally out of the blue. It was just before we were going to go out on tour, and in my head I was already closing the chapter on it and moving on to the next one. So when moments like that happen, it's definitely gratifying. But when you work like we do, you don't get many opportunities to step back and look at the whole picture.
For these new songs, given a budget that allows for just about anything you want, with whom would you like to record?
I definitely want to work with Erik Rutan [of Hate Eternal and Morbid Angel] someday. The dude just gets music. He's so disciplined at what he does that you have no choice but to perform at your highest level when you're there. I think Billy Anderson [who worked with Cormorant, Eyehategod, Mr. Bungle, Sleep, etc.] would be another one, someday. [Chicago-based producer and engineer] Sanford Parker maybe. It's hard because I want each record to be different, you know?
