Terror frontman Scott Vogel is notoriously vocal. Not only is he known across the industry for his desire to keep hardcore ‘pure’ and ‘fun’, he’s also famous for his penchant for stage diving and rambling on and off-stage banter.
The story of Terror began in the early 2000s.
“From my perspective anyway, the band formation was kind of accidental,” Vogel said.
“I had been in some hardcore bands back in Buffalo, and I moved away deliberately trying not to be in any bands.
“Then for some reason some of Carry On’s ex-members called saying, “We’re starting a new band and we want you to sing for us,” so I rented a car, drove to LA and we started the band.”
Vogel said he and his bandmates were dedicated to music.
“We are a 110 per cent authentic hardcore band,” he said.
“We’ve always just been five kids that love music, we go to shows whenever we can.
“Right now I’m listening to The Gaslight Anthem a lot, but I pretty much listen to anything given the chance.”
As such a vocal ‘ambassador’ for the hardcore genre, Vogel came under fire some time ago for calling The Ghost Inside a “bullshit” band.
“You know, I really don’t want to stir the pot,” he said of the incident.
“The Ghost Inside is a decent band, just not one I listen to a lot.
“I think the problem with them is the problem with a lot of bands, who take the word ‘hardcore’ and throw it around as a label.
“Hardcore is more than a label, hardcore is a community and it’s a way of life and part of that is going out to shows and supporting the industry as a consumer as well.
“I have lived in LA for nine years now, and I can honestly say I’ve never seen Vigil (lead vocalist of The Ghost Inside, Jonathan Vigil) at a show, and when I’m at home I go to shows a lot.”
So could we attribute the “bullshit” quote to Vogel’s tendency to say whatever is on his mind? It has prompted one fan to create a web site dedicated to his ramblings, vogelisms.com.
“You know, I think the site is kinda dumb,” Vogel said.
“In one way it’s a little bit flattering I guess, though to be perfectly honest sometimes stupid things come out of my mouth, usually when I’m drunk.
“When we’re having a good time, when we’re having a bad time, when we’re having an okay time – but usually when we’re having a good time – I tend to say some stupid shit.
“Knowing someone had started writing all of it down and putting it on the internet basically made me stop talking.
“I mean, Terror is pretty serious in terms of music, we take the band very seriously, and I didn’t want people to just know us for the stupid stuff I say.
“If we play a 15 minute set, we might stop once, I’ll say something to get a chuckle from the crowd and we keep playing, but they’re immortalising that one random thing? Nah, man, I’d rather just play.”
Terror released Live By The Code earlier this year, their first album through Victory Records. An effort Vogel said he is proud of.
“It’s our fifth studio album,” he said.
“If record stores still existed as strongly as they did back in the day we’d have a whole section for ourselves by now, instead of just being tossed on the shelves randomly… that’s pretty cool to think about.
“After we released Keepers of the Faith, everyone loved it, loved the message and the art and we all really loved it too, so going into the studio this time I was a little intimidated.
“But I knew, when I heard it, we had done a good job with this album, too.”
There is one notable difference with Live by the Code, though.
“We really thought about what we could do to push this album more,” Vogel said.
“We had a friend in the UK doing this fanzine basically exposing the stupidity of hardcore while still letting people know how great it is.
“He did our artwork and incorporated the lyrics and made it almost a mini-fanzine itself, a reason to go buy the CD instead of just downloading it.”
Vogel said that was one downside of modern technology.
“I just got an iPhone like a month ago,” he said.
“I don’t know if you’ve used the app Spotify, but it’s the coolest thing ever, except you don’t get the artwork or lyrics any more, there’s so much missing today.
“It’s fucking sad that bands don’t even include their lyrics any more… I remember that was the highlight of buying a new album when I was a kid, getting to see the art and read the lyrics sheet.”
Terror will be heading Down Under in February for Soundwave, a tour they are already looking forward to.
“I think we’ve been to Australia six times now, or this might be our sixth trip,” Vogel said.
“Either way, we’re really fucking lucky, we love Australia.
“Last time we were down there with H2O, which was just amazing.”
And who is Vogel looking forward to seeing in February?
“I haven’t really looked at the lineup yet, but I know Your Demise will be there,” he said.
“They’re not my best friends, but they’re cool, you know, I’ll hang with them.”
For more information on the Soundwave tour, visit the official web site here.
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