Killswitch Engage’s Adam D. on How the Themes of Serpentine Dominion Relate to the Election, the Value (or Lack Thereof) of Music School, and More
The mighty Adam D. from Killswitch Engage is our guest on this week’s special election-themed episode of The MetalSucks Podcast! Adam may seem like a somewhat peculiar choice for this episode, given that he’s not especially political. But during the course of our chat, he told us about the lyrical themes on the debut album from Serpentine Dominion, his new project with George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher (Cannibal Corpse) and Shannon Lucas (ex-The Black Dahlia Murder), and it turns out they’re incredibly relevant to this week’s events:
“[The album is about] the corrupt things that exist beyond what you can see out there. There’s a lot of stuff behind the scenes that a lot of people aren’t aware of, with all the corruption in the government, and all the big business corruption, and all the big money making schemes out there, and all the dirty people out there not really thinking about the general public [but] more so about greed and wealth and power.”
Also worth noting about the Serpentine Dominion album: despite the fact that KSE’s Jesse Leach wrote lyrics from the record, he still took his cues from Adam from Corpsegrinder. Says Adam:
“We gave Jesse a broad topic to just expand upon and write some free-from stuff with. From there, he took it, and then I actually added stuff to it. George and I had had the idea of what we wanted the record to be about before we even spoke with Jesse. George, I think, was the one who came up with the whole theme of the record.”
Speaking of Jesse Leach, Adam also shared this gnarly story about Killswitch Engage’s days touring in a van:
“[Jesse] has the smallest bladder in the entire freakin’ world. We were still doing van tours back then, and while we were driving, he would just piss in a Gatorade bottle and leave ‘em on the floor of the van. So my driving shift would be over and I’dd go lay down on the floor and I’d wake up and there’d just be like a warm bottle of piss in my face.”
Gee. We’re sure Adam misses those days very much.
And while we’re on the topic of the past, we asked Adam: if he had it all to do over again, would he still attend the Berklee College of Music? Adam’s answer might surprise you:
“No. Absolutely not. If I knew what I know now, I probably wouldn’t have even bothered with college. It depends what you’re going into… I’m sure it’s worth it if you want to be a doctor, obviously, but it just depends on what you wanna major in.”
So, there ya go: Adam D., successful heavy metal icon, multi-instrumentalist, and producer, says don’t waste your money on music school, kids!
Stream this week’s episode below, or here. Other topics of conversation include Adam’s plans to solve the Middle East crisis, legalizing various consumables, and, of course his appearance on the Price is Right.
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