interview by Black Bubblegum, photos by Toby Tenenbaum

DOWNLOAD: Tombs - "Gossamer" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: King Generator - "Tell Me Why" (M4A)
DOWNLOAD: King Generator - "Plagues" (M4A)
DOWNLOAD: Tombs - "Course Of Empire" (M4A)
DOWNLOAD: Tombs - "Darker Than Your Nights" (M4A)
DOWNLOAD: Versoma - "Symbols & Abbreviations" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Versoma - "The Black Train" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Sino Basila - "Draconian" (MP3)

Recently I was talking to a record label owner about Tombs which quickly moved to a discussion about Tombs frontman Mike Hill. The label owner responded:
"He's a lifer."
It's evident by Hill's years slugging away in the metal underground, his many projects, recordings, and his label Black Box Recordings that Hill most definitely IS.

Mike Hill came up as a member of Anodyne, the noise-hardcore band formed in the fertile scene of Boston in the 1990s, a scene that also gave birth to Converge, Isis, Disrupt, Grief, and countless others. Over the course of eight years, two cities (Boston & NYC), two LPs, two EPs, and three 7-inches, Anodyne toured the world until finally dissolving in 2005. Hill's next project, the short-lived Versoma with Jamie Getz of Lickgoldensky, was a sharp left turn from Anodyne, but nonetheless lead to the critically-lauded EP, Life During Wartime. Jamie Getz went on to form Gods & Queens.

Outside from his time on stage, Mike Hill also stayed involved behind the scenes as owner of Black Box Recordings and as an engineer/producer. With Brian McTernan (Battery), Mike Hill co-founded Salad Days Studios which lead to a string of production/engineering work in multiple studios for a veritiable who's who of the hardcore underground including Isis, Premonitions of War, American Nightmare, Hot Cross, Burnt By The Sun, Lickgoldensky, and many others. As Anodyne came to a close, Mike Hill kicked off his Black Box Recordings imprint with The First Four Years: Discography Vol 1, a compilation of Anodyne's recorded output, eventually releasing records by Engineer, ASRA, The Wayward, and a retrospective by the late, great Black Army Jacket.

Which brings us to Tombs, Mike Hill's latest undertaking with Andrew Hernandez (ex-ASRA) and Carson James, who are readying their second LP and Relapse debut entitled Winter Hours. A tour de force of jaw-clenching hardcore, frosty black metal, and swirling shoegaze psychedelia, Winter Hours is one of the few records to stand head and shoulders above the pack in this young new year. We sat down to talk with Mike Hill about the new record, his collaboration with Dave Witte (Discordance Axis, Municipal Waste, others) as King Generator, his time in Versoma, and who he feels is a truly unsung band from the heavy underground.

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Winter Hours is very powerful... not just in a "killer riffs" sense, but more importantly, in an emotive sense. That said, do you care to share your thought process on or where you were (emotionally/personally/spiritually) when you were writing "Merrimack"? Seems to me to be a very cathartic track.

It's about choosing the wrong path with someone and completely destroying something that could have been beautiful. Basically, the character in the song gave into selfishness, ego and immaturity and ended up alone at the end of it; it's similar to gambling, thinking that you can achieve more than you need and losing it all.

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