Ken and Buz, guitarists of popular metalcore band UNEARTH, who just finished their participation in Ozzfest, took time out from their latest tour to explain to LIETV some of the motivations and creation process to their newest album "III: In the Eyes of Fire."

LIETV: Why did you title the new album, “In the Eyes of Fire?”

Buz: When we were writing the record, we didn’t have a name yet. There were a bunch of names on the table and Trevor (vocals) came up to me one day and said, “Since we’re all so determined to write a heavy record and our heads are all focused in the same place, ‘In the Eyes of Fire’ is a good title.” It reflected who we are as people.

Ken: I thought it captured the vibe of the music contained on the record. For the first time ever, all five of us agreed on something, which was nothing short of a miracle.

LIETV: On the last few albums, you guys dealt with global and domestic issues in your songs, but on this album, you seem to be talking more about personal matters. Why go in that direction?

Buz: We just play guitar. From what I’ve gathered, Trevor definitely dealt with some personal issues and had to get some stuff off his chest. It was an outlet for him to express how he feels about certain things. This also touches on a couple of political topics. There’s crazy shit going on in the world that needs to be addressed, so it touches on that too.

LIETV: How did you guys hook up with Terry Date? What did he bring to the new album?

Buz: We were thinking about using a couple of different producers, and we met up with a few other really talented guys. Terry was a last minute kind of thing. We wanted to talk to him and check him out. Our label sent him our catalog and he was interested, and I had him over my house for dinner with the guys. Everything really seemed to click. We understood that he was going to do a really good job. He was responsible, and he was a funny guy. He was just a good all around dude.

Some guys have different shticks to them in what they like to achieve when they record. Terry seems proficient, as well as attitude-wise, and what he was gearing us up for was on the same level of what we wanted to do for a record. We wanted to make a live and organic record with no click tracks and no bullshit, and Terry kept us loyal to our devotion to make a record that was faster, thrashier and real. We’re lucky we used him. I really learned a lot from him, and I think the guys did too.

LIETV: Why did you choose Giles as the first single from your album?

Buz: When we recorded it, we captured the vibe and the aggression of that song very nicely. It encapsulated what the record was about as a whole. You can pretty much get an idea of the record from that song with the brutality of it, and the mix of different styles that are in that song translate throughout the whole record.

Ken: Some fans who listen to Unearth anyway say, “Oh, that’s typical,” but it paves the way, as Buz said, for a lot of new styles and new things to be integrated within our sound. We progress with every record, and this record is definitely faster and more live and is technically sound as well as heavy. It paves a good focus into the record.

LIETV: How do you both work together being that you ar both the main guitarists?

Ken: Buz plays a lot of the lead stuff, but we go back and forth. The music is written to have integrated guitar riffs throughout. Right now, it’s not about soloing. We will indulge in that in the future, but I really think that what we play is difficult as is, never mind soloing.

LIETV: The song “Big Bear and the Hour of Chaos” is different style-wise from your previous songs.

Buz: It was kind of a half-baked experiment that we did drunk one night. To be perfectly honest, we didn’t want to get too involved with this, so one night, we got drunk off of 40 ounces of malt liquor called Big Bear and we just went in to have some fun with it. We took about a minute or two to map it out in our heads, saying, “Okay, we’re going to do this part, go into this part, and then this part.” We just went in and played it twice. Everyone was real loose about it; there was no pressure. The next day, we came back and listened to it and we thought it had a really cool vibe to it and we all really enjoyed it, so we wanted to put it on the record.

Ken: I think the record is so fast and so angry that it lets kids have a little bit of a release before they can stomach another full listen to our record. With other metal bands, everything is so fast and powerful, and nothing ever really breaks it up and sets you up to listen to that record again. Sometimes you just say, “It’s so brutal that I have to put on a rock CD.” This song was perfect. As Buz said, we had a few drinks and were relaxed. At the beginning of the song, you can hear some of us on the floor laughing or yelling, and for all of you tech dudes that like to record, we just put the amps in the room with the drums and everything was natural and live.

Buz: It’s kind of the orange sherbet of the record.

LIETV: Metalblade.com has a bio about you guys where you say that metal was ruined in the 1990s because it was infused with too much of “ pop choruses.” What do you mean by that?

Buz: I wouldn’t say it was ruined by that type of stuff. The scene is really clogged up with bands doing a really bad job at trying to turn a quick buck by adding a cleanly sung chorus to try to get some radio play. There are so many bands doing it. There are definitely bands that do it that we love, but there are so many bands trying to copycat it, so it’s very cluttered now and maybe some of these bands should stop.

Ken: I listen to a lot of records because I make records all the time. It seems like anything that’s on a click track is something you can do. In our first record, we are guilty as charged, because “The Oncoming Storm” was supposed to be a refined record that was very polished and slick. People were just starting to get into that, and now it seems like you can listen to Band X and Band Y and not know the difference between the two bands by the styles and the timing of everything. It’s so perfectly placed and the guitar riffs are sometimes cut and pasted in perfect places so that they sound exact every time. To be honest with you, it takes away everything real about music.

As far as singing choruses and stuff like that, everyone is auto tuning their voice and everything’s pitched corrected and is horseshit. There are some bands that do it really well, as Buz said, but for the most part, it’s really killing metal and metal is lacking spirit. I really do believe that. The term “new metal” is raising its ugly head back into music, and it’s in the shape of metal. There are certain bands that have taken it to that other level where they can’t write pop choruses and stuff, but they’re becoming a little bit successful. New metal is taking over again.

If people looked back at why metal lost its spirit in the first place, it was because of bands like Poison. People are slowly dipping into that, and you know what’s going to happen? Metal is basically creating an open platform for pop or rock and roll, or a Nirvana to become big again — someone dark and dungy that speaks the truth. We wanted to keep it real and make a real record for the kids who like real records, real playing and real music.

LIETV: How do you guys as a band escape from that trap?

Ken: You don’t forget your roots. You’re humbled every day on the road. We’re not rich. We put our shoes on one foot at a time like everyone else, and even if you do write a somewhat commercial record, know where your foundation is. Know what you do well. I think this band has a clear indication of that.

LIETV: How do you guys come together and create a song?

Buz: Ours is definitely more of a group effort. We can come up with a lot of the riffs, bring them to practice, and sit down with Mike and start throwing riffs at him and getting beats together. Maybe we’ll have half a song done and then have another half. It’s all about just putting everything together like a puzzle until it makes sense as a song and it feels good to play it all the way through. We often look at each other and say, “I feel really good about that song.”

Ken: Buz and I are on each side of the room kicking dirt, but in the end, we do what we do.

Buz: When you get five guys who are as passionate about it as we are trying to push ideas, it definitely can get hectic with people yelling at each other. It’s only because everyone believes in it so much and they have the same drive.

Ken: Since we’re older, you get more talking rather than more riffs. Back in the old days, we used to just throw riffs around like crazy, and Buz and I don’t like that as much as the rest of guys. I think it’s just a waste of time. But we have a method, and I have known Buz since I was 17 and we have a good relationship as far as music goes. Without him, there’s no me, and vice versa.

Buz: It’s a very slow and agonizing process, but in the end, it’s worth it. We’re all happy with the material that we create, so we try not to put out anything that’s unacceptable.

LIETV: Explain to us how you guys came together as a band.

Ken: He comes from Lynn (MA), which is kind of a rougher element of town. It’s close to Boston, and Buz will probably tell you that there are a lot of dudes who will punch your ear for a bike. I grew up in Danvers, which was very focused on education and sports, and everything’s really tight knit and very Brady Bunch. I was a suburban kid finding really good dudes to play with, and Buz was one of those guys that I wanted to play with. The relationship worked over the years. We found Trevor from Wakefield, which is kind of in the middle of the two.

Buz: We had our old band that was an early incarnation of Unearth. We needed a guitar player. We got Ken and then we needed a new singer, and then we decided to change the name, so we got Trevor. That’s how the ball started rolling. That was around 1998.

LIETV: What music influences you as a band? What music are you just not into?

Buz: Personally, Iron Maiden, Crowbar, All Out War, Hatebreed, Anthrax, Megadeth and Metallica have always been really important to me on the metal end, but I also like things such as the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Air Supply and the Bee Gees — really random weird bands that my parents listened to have paved the way for a certain type of listening that I do. It’s either really left of the fence or really right of the fence. I like stuff that’s really metal and really unique, and then rock that’s really unique and pleasant to listen to. I really can’t get into anything in-between, but I don’t like power metal. I like a few bands like Rhapsody of Fire and Sonata Arctica, but power metal is not fun or exciting for me.

Ken: Usually when someone asks me that question, I say country. I can’t stand it. As far as my influences go, when we first started this, I was way into In Flames and Arch Enemy and At The Gates. That type of stuff really made sense to me, and I still enjoy it. I also like Cave In, Iron Maiden, Lamb of God and Children of the Bodom Slayer. When I was younger, I was all about metal, and if you put on some Air Supply, I would say, “That’s gay!” But as I get older, I have begun to appreciate the classics and the way you listen to stuff. If you don’t like Zeppelin, I don’t know what to tell you. Black Sabbath and Billy Joel are great. I listen to ABBA a lot. It’s gay, I know, I’m sorry.

Buz: All of us have eclectic tastes. It’s cool to be in a bus or a van where people might yell at you and say that something’s bad, and then they’ll step back for a second and say, “You know what? I actually know where you’re coming from.” So we’re not too far away from each other.

LIETV: After this tour is over, what are you guys planning to do next?

Ken: We’re going to do Japan and Australia with Lamb of God. We’re going to do Europe with Hatebreed and the Twelve Tribes. We’re going to do some US tours after that. We don’t know what yet, but it’s all on the way.

LIETV: Thank you for your time.