CRYPTIC SLAUGHTER
SCOTT PETERSON
Cryptic Slaughter was one of the progenitors of crossover thrash metal along with bands like D.R.I., Corrosion of Conformity, Suicidal Tendencies to name a few. Cryptic Slaughter was formed in 1984 by then teens Scott Peterson, Les Evans and Adam Scott. They gained rapidly a large following with their speedy thrash-like hardcore. Their debut Convicted sold 25.000 copies within a year. soon after Money Talks was released and it surpassed the debut in sales.
With punkish anti-authorian lyrics Cryptic Slaugher conquered the underground scene but the band broke up weeks before their third album Stream of Conciousness was released. A year later Cryptic Slaughter was reformed with a new lineup, featuring Brett Davis, Les Evans, Dave Holllingsworth and Brian Lehfeldt of Wehrmacht. They released one last album called Speak your Peace but they soon disbanded again. I have spoken with the founder of Cryptic Slaughter, drummer Scott Peterson.
We can begin with a small presentation of Cryptic Slaughter...
We were a 4 piece crossover band from Santa Monica, CA. We had three records out on Death/Metal Blade Records. Convicted, Money Talks and Stream Of Conciousness.
You made a gig with D.R.I., Descendents and Excel and you got contacted the day after by Metal Blade Records? Is that correct?
No that's not. We met Brian Slagel through Katon of Hirax before a Slayer show. Brian Slagel already had the demo, liked it and told us he wanted to talk to us about doing a track on Metal Massacre VII. Two days later, Les got a contract for three records and a contract for a track on Metal Massacre VII in the mail.
Are you satisfied with how Metal Blade supported Cryptic Slaughter?
We always felt they could have gave us more support, especially when it came to touring. But they did get all our records out there and that did help us build our following.
Your first LP was a success. Were you satisfied with it?
We were happy with it and we were happy with the response that the fans and fanzines gave it too.
You where only kids when your first album came out. Was that an advantage? Or was it harder to be taken seriously?
I don't think hurt us or helped us to be honest. I think our music held it's on and no one really cared that we were just teenagers. I think they were impressed that three fifteen year olds and one eighteen year old were playing the music they heard. But most bands back then were young too, so it wasn't out of the norm that young kids were playing this kind of music.
Convicted
In 1987 you released the LP Money Talks, what do you think of that album in retrospect?
For me personally, that's my favorite. I love the way that we all played on that album and I think that was the album that made us a bigger band! We really came into our own on "Money Talks".
You toured with Angkor Wat in 1988, how was that tour?
It was fun, crazy and a great tour. A lot of good times on that tour for sure!
I've read that you where unhappy with the production for your albums, especially for the "Stream of conciousness"-album?
Yeah that's true. We all feel that album has our best songs as a band, but the productions sucks ass!!!!
Tipper Gore was no fan of Cryptic Slaughter. What was all that fuss about?
LOL!! Don't know if she and the PMRC were or were not. We just didn't like having someone tell us as music fans what albums were safe for listening. Putting a sticker on a record wasn't going to stop any kid from buying a record! All it did was make the kids want to get those records more!!
Why did you disband?
Well at that time Bill was planning on going to college, some of us weren't getting along that great and after the last tour we all felt it kind of ran it's course. I think if we all would of took a small break from each other and regrouped in a month to talk about the future of Cryptic Slaughter, I feel we would of stayed together. But I totally believe that things happen for a reason and Cryptic Slaughter was supposed to be a band for the amount of time we were around. Stream of Conciousness
What have you been up to all these years? What are the old members of Cryptic Slaughter doing today?
I've been working, traveling, spending time with my family. I still play drums and I still love going to shows. Rob is Ozzy's bass player and has his own management company. Bill lives in Texas with his family and no longer does music. Les lives in Seattle with his son and still plays guitar. We're all still friends and keep in touch!
You (Scott) will join the guys in Wehrmacht for a gig and you are going to play four Cryptic Slaughter songs, tell us about that gig.
The gig is called "Grindcore Fest" and it's in honor of Jesse Pintado of Napalm Death/Terrorizer. It's a celebration of his life and music. His sister and her boyfriend put it on and it's a killer fest. So, Yes at the end of Wehrmacht's full set I (Scotty) will come up there and play a couple of songs on the drums and will do vocals on a couple of them as well.
You have a facebook-page with over 50.000 fans, isn't it time for a proper reunion?
LOL!! I guess it would be. We tried last year to make it happen, but with all our schedules, we just couldn't make it happen. Bill now has made it clear that he has no desire to do the reunion and I don't think the fans would appreciate us coming out with only Les, Rob, myself and a someone who wasn't Bill on vocals. I could be wrong, but that's what I think. We love our fans and we know they want it! Shit I want it too! But never say never.
What bands had the biggest influence Cryptic Slaughter's sound?
Slayer, GBH, Venom, Motörhead and I would also say all the music we grew up on before we got into CS.
What's the highlight of your career?
For me, getting signed! If it wasn't for that, we wouldn't of been heard by so many people world wide.
What's your plans for the near future? No more gigs? Are you still selling merchandise?
We will have some new merch and some new releases (of old stuff, not new) coming out this year. All of these releases/merch are going to be killer.
Have you got any funny story to tell, if anything weird has happened while touring or so?
Too many stories to tell and too long to write them out. Every time we played it was a great time and we had so many great times with the Wehrmacht and Excel dudes!!
Speak Your Peace
Any last words for our readers?
Just thank you for your continuing support of Cryptic Slaughter and for keeping the Cryptic Slaughter name alive! If it wasn't for all the die hard Cryptic Slaughter fans worldwide, the Cryptic Slaughter name would die! Thanks for the interview.
Cheers!
Scotty / Cryptic Slaughter
By/ Ruthless
(03-04-2014)
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