Interview By: George Archibald
Photos By: Andrew Bastion

California heavy hitters So This is Suffering are out currently on the Street Fight tour with God of Nothing, Lack of Remorse and Reign for select dates. The band is known for an intense live show with heavy breakdowns, fast paced drums, and a in your face attitude. Formed in 2007, the band has undergone several lineup changes which has seen the band release 2 eps and 2 full length albums during its tenure. So This is Suffering is currently working on it a new album, due for release late summer early fall of 2018. I got a chance to speak with vocalist Rudy Flores, guitarist Robert Brown, and drummer Steve Guerrero about their tour, the new album, and the state of metal in general. Here is our conversation.
GA: How about we start off with a little about the band and how it began?
RB: This is the quick version. The band started out around 2007-2008, none of the original members are currently in the band anymore. The band started with the two original members Zed (Zedadiah Martinez) and Zeck (Zeckariah Gamez) from California playing shows. Then skip forward several member changes and the guitar players leaving; they hit me up to join. We kept grinding, and more members kept dropping off, we picked up Rudy during our tour with Here Comes the Kracken, and Steve came in right before our tour with WhiteChapel. That is how we came to be.
GA: This is one of the first dates of the Street FighTour, when gearing up for tour what are your expectations when the band hits the road, anything you would like to see or be apart of?
RB: I don’t know, we are already kind of prepared before we leave. So, we kind of know what to expect. We have done several runs and we all know what needs to be done. When we are out we like seeing cool shit, like when a place posts on Facebook about a large event or site, like “world’s biggest such and such.” One thing I want to see is UFO shit, I have not gotten to see any of that yet.
GA: Are there any favorite cities or stops, even for days off?
RF: I’m not sure if we have any favorite stops, usually we just wing it. We are always looking for a good place to eat, we just hit up a bomb BBQ place that was on Food Network the other day.
GA: Your last release was 2017’s Palace of Pessimist, is nasty as all hell. Can you tell me a little about the album, who you worked with, your favorite song to perform?
RB: Originally for that album we were supposed to record with Michael Keene, because him and I are cool. He ended up having to do tours, and we were kind of in a hurry to record so we went with Mike Sahm, the guy that did the last Chelsea Grin album. He hit me up on Instagram about wanting to track our album. So, we talked it over and drove up to Portland, and knocked it out. Favorite song is kind of hard to say. They are all fun to play live.
GA: Is the band currently working on any newer material?
RB: The last two months we have been working on the new album. Rudy and I have been grinding on perfecting the sound for the new album. At this point we are finishing up the instruments, then after this tour he will be coming in to do the vocals.
RF: I am trying some new stuff this time. The last album, I was trying to keep the, So This is Suffering vibe. I still want to keep that feel, but I am going to try some new shit as well. Put more of my own personality into it.
RB: We already have the title, and artwork done for this album. There are also some features to look forward to. That’s about all I can say about it for now.
GA: What gear is the band currently using live, any endorsements please mention?
SG: I use Roland, Zildjian, and DW drums.
RB: I am using my Fractal AX FX into my 2 Mesa cabs, and my biggest sponsor is Legator guitars.
RF: We also have Sullen Clothing Company, they are like a tattoo shop style of clothing. Ink Pagoda also out in Cali reps us.
GA: Do you do any kind of preshow rituals or warm up routines to get ready to go onstage to get your vocals ready?
RF: Yea I do just like anybody. I do breathing techniques, trying to keep the throat warm. Sometimes I will take a shot. The guys will do a shot of Jack (Daniels) or something, but I like to do Jamison because of Ian (Bearer) from Rings of Saturn.
RB: I like to do some C4 before the set, got to get that pre-workout in.
GA: STIS has shared the stage with some heavy hitters, are there any bands that you haven’t gotten a chance to tour/ play with that you would like to in the future?
RB: There are so many, Born of Osiris, After the Burial, Volumes, Meshuggah, all that shit. If you are sick we want to play with you. We want to play with them all one day. Even Drake, it would be sick to be apart of some random festival and get that kind of opportunity.
GA: The new thing in metal now is everything is Slam. This new style of metal to me is reminiscent of the old school grindcore and death metal of the late nineties with bands like Napalm Death and Morbid Angel experimenting with quick paced barre chords and technical patterns. Then it had a bit of a reemergence in the mid-2000s with bands like Celphalic Carnage, Disfiguring the Goddess, and Annotations of An Autopsy bringing that sludgy styled guitar playing into the mix. What are your thoughts on Slam and the current state of this style of music?
RB: All of us are from the same time period, we all graduated around 2008, 2009. When we got out of school that style of music already existed. There were people already doing that shit. There were so many deathcore bands, and chug bands out there, doing the pig squeals and the downtempo beats. This shit has been done, and now these younger kids are just discovering it. Its cool because the newer music is sick, but we have to sit back and laugh because its like dude this shit is old. It’s already over 10 years ago, its been done before. This newer generation of slam is getting mixed in more with hardcore. It is getting confusing because people are labeling their music this and that, then throw in the general label Slam on everything.
RF: With our new album about to come out, we have just about every type of metal you can think of. We just wrote what we felt and mixed it up, any style, any type of progression. We even put the slams on there along with the breakdowns.
GA: Where can people keep up to date with the band online, and if they wanted to buy merch where can they find your store?
RF: We are on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/sothisissuffering) , Instagram (@sothisissuffering) we use IndieMerch (https://www.indiemerchstore.com/b/so-this-is-suffering) and Big Cartel (https://sothisissuffering1.bigcartel.com/).
GA: Anything else you would like to add?
RB: The new album is coming our soon, we are looking for a late summer, early fall release. We also have some new tours coming out.
RF: More announcements coming soon.

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George Archibald

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