Blessthefall have been blessing our ears with wonderful music since the glory days of Warped Tour. Much like ONE PIECE , rather than let all of the new up and comers take over as kings of the scene, the band decided to remind everyone of their power with their newest album GALLOWS . With plenty of what fans have come to love about the band and some new twists, like guest spots from fellow anime fans Alpha Wolf and wonderfully fun music videos, the future is looking insanely bright for one of metalcore’s stalwarts. A band this good had to have an anime fan within its ranks, right? So of course I had to sit down with guitarist Elliott Gruenberg and talk about his latest anime obsession Kaiju no. 8 , the new album, and the commonalities of fandom when you’re a nerd. So what all have you been watching lately? Elliott Gruenberg : I've been watching Kaiju No. 8 and trying to keep up with it weekly. I love that one. I did Suzume recently on a flight when we were doing South America. I always try to download some of the older ones. Dragon Ball is always one I'm going to watch as well. Re-watching that has been fun. Kaiju No. 8 is my number one though. I’m up to date on the manga so I have to watch that one and compare the two versions. And then My Hero Academia I've been watching that. I finished the manga and am binge watching to make sure I’m ready for the finale coming up of the anime. The manga definitely had some parts I had to “get through” but the end is like… I can't wait. I can't wait to see these battles come to life. It's crazy. That story has so many different characters and personalities. They do a really good job of giving everybody a really great moment. Kaiju No. 8 grabbed me straight away though. I loved the concept of Kafka being in the clean up crew, and it just goes from there. I annoy my girlfriend with it. She's like what the heck are you watching and I’m like, it's just so good you don't understand. I also watched the live-action version of I Want to Eat Your Pancreas first, and then found out it’s an anime. It all made so much sense afterward. I love romance stuff, especially rom-coms. Like Love, Hina . I also really liked the new Trigun . It feels really different from the original, but it was great. I was curled up in my bunk on the Emo’s Not Dead cruise watching it all. With Kaiju no. 8 , finally people in their 30s have a show they can relate to. Gruenberg : Yes! I felt that hard as a 30-year-old I was just like, we still have energy in us. You don’t have to be a teenager to change the world like Deku or someone. We have a 30-year-old that we can get. Even if your dreams failed and you didn't get to do what you love, you still hold on to hope. That's my guy. RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Lore Premieres Video for New Single "Senpai" and Discuss How Anime is Always on When They're Writing We’re here talking about your new album GALLOWS ! Of course I have to ask about the song with Alpha Wolf and the video with Valkyrae, since they’re both also massive anime fans. How did that all come about? Gruenberg : It all happened really fast where we thought about making music. We had a song that we were working on, and it lined up where we were plotting out some future plans leading up to this album and realized we should probably release some music. Then we got this offer to go out with Polaris and we were like, should we go with them and not release a single or stay home and release the single but then watch everyone say they want to hear it live? So we finished the song just in time to go on the road with Polaris. It was funny like the art for it, like I literally took a photo because we all went to Iceland like going on two years ago, and I think that used to be like my phone background forever. So we put the song out, but to get the actual video done was like moving mountains because I was out with another band and Beau is in Canada, but we finally found a way for our schedules to sync up and get it done. Then Beau hit up Valkyrae about being in the video, just like randomly, and she ended up being a fan of the band and was totally down to do it. It was really cool how you can find these small moments of commonality in unexpected places. Like you and I have footy and music. It's like oh, I can connect with someone on a whole extra level outside of just certain things. So yeah she was super down to do it and the video turned out awesome. It just looks like Queen of the Damned . Jared and I drove to LA from where we live in Arizona and back in a day to shoot our scenes. And I had this crazy strap burn from my head banging. It looked like it looked like someone had sliced my neck like they would a Titan or something. The end product looks like Queen of the Damned meets Final Fantasy XIII . The sad part is we didn’t get to talk to Alpha Wolf about anime during any of the process. It’s been super cool to see the reception to our new stuff. Because we’re not the young up and comers anymore, we’re kind of the old heads. But throughout our career, anime was always a black sheep thing. And now, I wore a Sesshomaru shirt from Inuyasha that someone gave me the other day, and I got people screaming “that’s the sickest shirt I've seen!” I remember back in the day I'd be kind of embarrassed about wearing it. So I kind of love that you can really just be yourself now. Now that we’re on the subject, what is it like seeing so many bands come through that are wearing their anime fandom proudly? Gruenberg : I feel like Master Roshi a little bit and seeing new bands come through is like seeing Goten and Trunks. They’re lucky they have so many options. I feel overwhelmed by all of them. RELATED: Employed to Serve's Justine Jones: Dragon Ball Z is Metal It seems like heavy music fans and anime fans are pretty similar when it comes to nerding out over different subgenres too. Do you think that ability to deep dive is partially what brings the two fanbases together? Gruenberg : I think it also helps to have Japanese metalcore, like SiM being on such a prominent show like Attack on Titan . And other bands that have done more openings like Coldrain and Survive Said the Prophet, you know, like there's some really incredible Japanese bands that are getting really good looks. I mean, we did shows with Coldrain in 2013. They recorded with Elvis Baskette, who did our album Awakening. And it's like it's one of those bands you want to see breakthrough because they're so good. And I feel like now that getting an opportunity to do openings and endings allows them to finally have that breakthrough exposure where they can hit these Western markets. So that's really cool for the scene to see different bands be able to mix. And they can bring Western bands over to tour with them. Anime is the vessel through which all this can happen. I remember we were writing Hollow Bodies , and I was writing like “Dejá Vu.” I was just watching Neon Genesis Evangelion , and I was just trying to write something that kind of sounded big like that. That's where my headspace was always at or like we want. We also did one called “Sakura Blues” on Hard Feelings , and that's us totally trying to make an anime theme. Did anime help get you into heavier music at all? Gruenberg : Oh, sure. The Bruce Faulconer original score for Dragon Ball Z would get me so hyped. During the different Dragon Ball Z movies too they'd always have like Disturbed or Drowning Pool in Lord Slug and Tree of Might. It was so sick. At the time I was really into Linkin Park but I wasn’t fully into the screaming side of things yet. I was like, “OK, what's Slipknot? What's this Limp Bizkit thing?” And then I got into anime and my life was changed. I grew up in Ohio and that scene was so inundated with metal bands because everyone was coming up at the same time. You’re pretty open about also liking soccer. Do you find your anime and sports fandoms occupy the same headspace? Do you behave the same way about both things? Gruenberg : I'm definitely only a nerdy sports fan, because I'm a nerd from anime and like RPGs and stuff like that. I got so into being a nerd that when I started liking sports I became nerdy about it, because that's how I express my love for things. You know, you never want to see your heroes lose. Like when you're watching Fullmetal Alchemist or something you always want to see Ed win. But it does make it more satisfying when there is that adversity, where they get beat and have to come back. Like with Slam Dunk where they lose a game in a big tournament, but come back better next time and the wins are much more satisfying that way. When you see the adversity, when they get a chance to have a rematch, it feels that much more dramatic. You're so much more into it as a viewer. Like, if Liverpool beat us (Manchester United, the team I support) that sucks, but if we get a chance to play them again and we win, it almost feels like we get an extra leg up. That's kind of how I feel with anime: if it's a well-written story, and if it makes you feel anything, then that means it has done what it needs to do, whether that's disappointment or joy or whatever.
