Bleed The Sky

Don't call the band cursed. Call them tested.

In the past three years Oklahoma metal band Bleed the Sky has lost thousands of dollars of equipment to theft. They had a member hospitalized while on tour in Louisville, Ky. And it took them almost two years to release their most recent album, dubbed Murder the Dance and out since June 10.

But lead singer Noah Robinson won't call it unusual, a curse, or even bad luck.

"I look at most of that stuff as a test," Robinson said during a phone interview last week. "How bad do we want it? How bad do we want to keep going?"

Really bad.

The band's doing a four-show swing through Texas this week, which will wrap up Saturday with a gig at the McAllen Harley-Davison Dealership. After that they'll sweep through the rest of the country, not breaking until October.

We spoke recently with Robinson about the new album and life on the road as a metal singer.

The new album is a long time in coming, how do you guys feel now that it's out?

Still doing the waiting game, but we're happy with everything. There's nothing we'd change about it really. All the crap we had to go through and all the waiting we went through was for a reason. It's all worth it for us now that it's out. We're just waiting for sales to pick up and to tour with it.

Jagermiester is your number one friend on MySpace, how does Bleed the Sky party?

I think a better question would be how don't we party. None of us are really into the drug thing. I'm not saying we've never tried it; we're by no means saints. We like to get in, get our business done fast and get to drinking. We're big drinkers. We're big Jagermiester fans. As far as beers go, the cheaper the better. We like Keystone Light.

You guys have some awesome metal screaming and vocals, how have you perfected that?

Honestly the vocals I grew up with were mostly Alice in Chains. They were definitely my idols as a kid. I listened to them at home, in my car, at work, it didn't matter. I was singing it at the top of my lungs. As far as the metal stuff, it was Pantera. Listening to Phil [Anselmo] get meaner and meaner on every album, I was like ‘[expletive] yeah. I want that.' I don't want to rip Phil off, but I want to sound that tough...With the screams and stuff, one day I just tried it and it was there. I really don't know how it happened. I was just like ‘shit yeah, I can do this? Hell yeah.'

If you were entering a room full of strangers, what song would you want playing?

Slaughter by Pantera, no questions asked. I say that because it actually happened one time. It was strangers cause I didn't know them, but they were kids from a show that invited us to an after party. We told them go start partying, we'll pack up our trailer and come. There was like 100 kids there. As we pulled into the driveway I hear Slaughter playing. It was so loud it was shaking the windows. I was like ‘[expletive] yeah. This night is going to kick ass.'

Stupidest thing a fan has ever told you....

I had a fan tell us one time his two favorite bands were us and Korn. I thought that was really bizarre because we sound in no way similar. I told the kid that's kind of stupid. And he's like ‘yeah but I don't know why. I just like both you guys.'

One of the other stupidest things I ever heard, was I had a kid ask me if he could cut one of my dreadlocks off and keep it. I told him ‘no way, you're out of your [expletive] mind. Are you guys listening to this guy? That's [expletive] stupid.'

You guys are launching a massive tour, what's your favorite city to play and why?

Tempe Ariz., is always my favorite. Every time we go there the fans are really dedicated. You haven't been there for months, and everyone in the audience is singing every word to your songs. Chicago is always the same way. There's a couple kids in Chicago that have Bleed the Sky tattoos. That's a [expletive] commitment. If we ever had a doubt, that right there would show us we're doing something.

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Zack Quaintance covers features and entertainment for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4447.

• Catch Them Live

Harley-Davison's 105th Anniversary Rock-A-Thon

With: Oblige and Apiary

When: Saturday

Where: McAllen Harley-Davison, 1201 S. Bentsen Road, McAllen

Call: (956) 687-4646