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Shatter Messiah's sound is a viciously intense mixture combining Hardcore, classic Thrash, Power Metal, and Goth, resulting in compositions of over the top aggression and melodic skill, with a flair for dramatic song writing.

The band have just unleash their 2nd album "God Burns Like Flesh" which shows once more their uncompromising ferocity and technical virtuosity that few bands are able to match. With the release of the bands second album we decided to catch up with guitarist Curran Murphy again to see how things are going.

Metal Mayhem: Thanks for answering a few of our questions again, how are things at the moment?
Curran Murphy: Things are pretty good, I wish we where out on the road right now but we are in the process of trying to make that happen as we speak. SHATTER MESSIAH is getting great feedback from the new album and my recording studio I own and operate is getting busier and busier.

God Burns Like Flesh MM: Let's jump right in, you're second album "God Burns Like Flesh" has not long been released, how happy are you with the finished product?
CM: I love it of course. HAHAHAHAAHAHAH I really knocked myself for a loop with the dead line for delivery and everything on this album BUT I also think that this made for a more intense feel and sound on this album. For me everything got bigger and more defined on this "GBLF". Which is what I wanted to do from "NTPTS" to this record. make everything bigger and more massive, solo's vocals, drums get the bass in the mix a bot better this time! HAHAAHAHAH

MM: The thing we noticed here, is that this one sounds a lot darker and beefier. What exactly did you do differently?
CM: Well for starters I have gotten better as a producer and engineer. I am able to take an idea for production and get it into a mic and back out of a speaker with more impact. A big part of the "GBLF"'s sound was moving from a Di guitar sound in the studio to actually putting a mic in front of a cabinet and slamming some volume into the preamps !!!HAHAHA also really taking time and working on drum sounds to try and avoid the bullshit trigger production that is so prevalent in metal today. And letting WAGS really take my lyrics and run with them in the melodic direction HE wanted to instead of me sitting there in the control room dictating melody lines and rhythmic ideas.

MM: Also, it's a lot more diverse and varied than "Never To Play The Servant". Do you think that this is a fair statement and do you feel that this it may take a little longer to grow on the listener?
CM: I feel like the "GBLF" is a bit more coherent than "NTPTS" was. I really wanted to unify the sound of the songs and even some of the style of it on purpose. BUT them there is always the asshole self indulgent musician that says lets put a blast beat in this song or make a section of song with no lyrics for about 2 minutes OR why not make a song with about 72 tracks of guitar for the fuck of it HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH I like to make everything as difficult as possible I guess and then bang my head against the wall when I have to re-learn it all for touring!!! HAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Curran Murphy MM: How would you compare "Never To Play The Servant" and "God Burns Like Flesh"?
CM: More coherent, and powerful in sound, depth and song writing. It shows a definite level of growth for me and the band, PLUS it has music written by everyone in the band this time which is awesome in my book!!!

MM: Did you approach the new record different anyway in terms of writing or recording?
CM: Yeah I actually got to get the entire band in a room once or twice to play and work on these songs before we had to record them. AND I made BOBS record the drums for this record about three times as well!!! GOD he was pissed off at me when I told him I needed him to re-do the drums for the third time!! HAHAHAHAAHAH so I would say we did a ton of preproduction and writing together as a band and a team which really opened up new doors for me as a writer, and a guitar player, and made he band better over all as well!!!

MM: How about the lyrics, what can we expect with "God Burns Like Flesh"? There is a strong Religious theme throughout. I think on the last one you said it was about things that eat at you and just drive you fucking nuts!!!
CM: Still the same thing as before BUT now I am getting into deception in my lyrics!!! Using words like god and Christ in a context of mortal men/ leaders/ heroes/ people we elevate to god like status and worship while they leave their piles of shit for us to eat and praise. This is also a record of lyrics about my own internal workings as a human with my own set of frailties and neurosis. Nightmares that keep me awake for weeks. People I have worked for that do not deserve the adulation they are given by their worshippers, leaders that betray the trust and faith of the people they are supposed to help and serve. That kind of thing. I just use the god stuff to piss off the stupid and annoy people who want their lyrics to be right out front, it is more for in my opinion of ten people read the words I put to music and come away with ten different feels or ideas about what I have put to the music.

MM: You did all the lyrics for "Never To Play The Servant" if I'm not mistaken. Did you do all of them again this time round?
CM: Yeah!!!

MM: You had me confused for a while with the hidden third track, what was the reasoning behind this?
CM: That was a joke to fuck with people HAHAHAHAHAHAHA IT WORKED!!!!!!!!!!!!! The idea originally came from a slayer vibe on their last few records. They would put two very different songs together in one CD track list and you would listen to it and think you are into a different song but it was the same one. So I thought it would be cool to do the same thing. Make two very different feeling songs and have them both untie in the lyrics, only don't list it as song I and song II leave it blank so people would have to double check the album sleeve maybe go to the web site to see what the fuck was going on. You know just try and wake people up a little and force them to contemplate SHATTER MESSIAH beyond the music. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA I know trying to be wayyyyyyyyyyyyy to deep aren't I ?!?!?!

Shatter Messiah MM: Are there any tracks on here that you are particularly proud of, any with a special meaning to yourself perhaps?
CM: The loaded question!!!!!!!! I dig all of the tunes because they are the new songs for the new record, I would have to say that the title tracks are awesome because of the playing on them and also the vocal work that WAGS did on the second half very beetles like on some bits, "TOMMAROW IMMORTAL" is a favourite of mine because of the 189 tracks of production I put into it plus the lyrics are really cool and it has the super cool "STONE HENGE" break down in the middle that Jason HATES hAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH DIRGE OF THE CHRIST is sweet because WAGS and I had NOTHING when he came in for the last day of vocals for that tune and we came out with a fucking winner!!!! Amazing chorus that hooks and brilliant delivery from WAGS. Pathway is also a fav because DUSTY wrote the intro riff that made the rest of the song come into existence. Isolator is fucking awesome because BOBS wrote all of the drum lines and I hated them when he first played them for me and I wanted him to do the UBER lame drum machine pattern that I had programmed for the song but now I can't even imagine the drums NOT being the way BOBS recorded them. HE is the new beast on the block. There are very few drummer that can touch BOBS he is a MONSTER on the kit

MM: Are you happy with what you have achieved so far playing live? There were tours and a festival in the US, but I don't believe there were any European dates. Can we expect you over in Europe in support of "God Burns Like Flesh" this year?
CM: I am not happy at all......! I feel like we did not get to tour or work "NTPTS" as hard as I wanted and so far I do not feel that I am gonna be able to work the new record how I want to either. Of course we are trying but it always seems to take wayyyyyy to fucking long to get anything pulled together. I hope we are gonna get over to Europe and England this year but we will have to see what happens!!

MM: Well, thanks for speaking to us again, and we really do hope to see you over here hopefully sooner rather than later. Any last words for our readers?
CM: We also hope to get over there as soon as possible!!! I would just tell people if they dig what they here you need to start yelling for us to get out on the road and come to your town drink your beers and rape your goats!!!!!!

Chris Rogers