Photo credit: Alexander Malecki

This past summer I had the privilege to sit down with guitarist Jordan Posner from the Los Angeles hardcore/metal band Terror at Brutal Assault. We talked about their current album “The Walls will Fall”, and what the process for them is when they write an album.

I am here with Jordan from Terror, How are you doing today?
 I am doing very well thank you!

For any of our readers out there who may not be familiar with your band, how would you describe Terror’s music?
I would say we are a pretty good representation of what a hardcore band should be and I am proud to say that because they come see us live, check out our music and our message. I think this is the best way to win people over.

So lets talk about your new album “The Walls Will Fall”, what is the story behind the album title?
(laughs) You know, that’s probably a better question to ask Scott because he is the lyricist of the band, but (laughs) I am just trying to think if I could take my best stab at this question as well because you can take your own interpretation about these lyrical messages and what not. (laughs) I think I will leave that question because its definitely a question for Scott.

Can you give us some insights on how Terror writes for a new album? Do you have a sound or idea and build on that?
It always depends, Nick and myself are the ones who write the music for the band, and Scott writes the lyrics, but now the 3 of us for the past 3 albums have been the team that collaborate with each other and work out every song. It’s always a different process where you know we are off tour, so I’ll go home and work on some songs myself, Nick does the same. Scott comes up with some lyrical themes and what not and and a lot of the times what I have noticed too is he’ll come with the album title. Then we take it from there and build on that to get in of a general vibe for the album perhaps, but that’s usually how it works. I live in Canada, and they’re in LA, so I will go out there and spend a couple of days in a practice space cranking up the song ideas that we have, and then when its all ready we go to he studio.

For the new EP, you cover Madballs “Step to you”, why was this song chosen in particular?
We actually were going over a bunch of songs because we wanted to put a cover on the EP, so we threw around a bunch of ideas. Over the years we have heard this cover before, and we wanted to do something kind of different, and we like to gravitate over like the old New York bands, because that’s one of our biggest influences. So from that we thought “well, what song or band can we do that’s a little different, and that we respect and love?”. Madball has always been one of those bands, and we thought maybe it’s weird if we cover more of a current song that they may still play live. So we kept this in mind and we went back into their older catalog and “Step to you” has always been a favorite of ours, and we thought “Lets do that one”, because they have not played it in years, so we did it, and it was a lot of fun to do. We got Roger to do back up as well for that, which was really cool.

What do you feel has kept the band together for so many years?
I think it’s just realizing that this what we do full-time, and we are around each other so much so it’s a matter of just consideration and respect, and love for each other because we are a team (laughs) like a gang. We all dedicate our lives to this fully so lets try to be as functional as possible.

What differences do you find between hardcore scene in Europe and the US?
I might just have to give the general answer (laughs) but its 100% true. Here in Europe everyone is not so much concerned about trends or what the flavor of the week is and people have a more general appreciation for heavy music. A lot of bands give this answer because its the truth, in America, everything seems to be a little more spoiled over there because there is an abundance of bands and everyone is constantly touring and everything. In Europe, you have people from all genres from hardcore, death metal etc, coming out to see us because it’s the live interaction of it, and it seems if you win someone over here they stay with you and truly become a fan and they will come out to see you, every year or whatever.

Any future plans that we can know about for the band?
We have been a little more conscious about our touring and we don’t want to burn ourselves out as easily. So to promote the 7 inch we just did, we are doing through this year do 3 tours, of the east coast, west coast and the midwest in the US. That’s 10 shows per tour. So when this European tour is done, we have a 2 week run throughout the US and then do the same thing in December, a 10 day thing, then back in Europe in January. Then maybe try to do something back in the US in the early year, and then try to go back in the studio in the springtime and do the next album. Terror always has a year’s worth of plans (laughs)

Anything you would like to say to our readers?
Thank you for showing interest in our band for many years, and we are appreciative and very grateful and we are going to keep coming back as long as you guys will have us!

Thanks for the talk!