Polyphia’s Tim Henson on the mundane side of guitar-centred metal: “Literally everything is just solos on solos on solos”
“We’ve certainly done records that were solos on solos on solos but between them we actually had hooks.”
Credit: Press
Polyphia guitarist Tim Henson has voiced his opinion on contemporary guitar-driven music, proclaiming “It’s not really cool to be in a metal band”.
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Henson made his comments in a new interview with Guitar.com about their new album Remember That You Will Die, saying, “It’s not really cool to be in a metal band because they don’t make any money.” He continued, “Literally every guitar-centred thing is just solos on solos on solos. We’ve certainly done records that were solos on solos on solos but between them we actually had hooks.”
Henson compared the mindset to his band’s when it comes to how they’ve innovated shredding, explaining, “We take inspiration from anything. If you were to take away the guitars on the past few records and just listen to the drums and bass, they’re just playing beats, whether they’re trap beats or future bass beats.”
“The guitar is the only guitar-y thing about Polyphia: the rest is just humans playing programmed parts.”
Vai has previously discussed his collaboration with the band on the album’s finale track and first single Ego Death, sharing that he had thought the band weren’t fans of his contributions to the song at one point after he heard how the band had “chopped” his parts, though he described the project as “special” to as he had to “decide what I was going to do wasn’t the just going to be the same thing that I would normally do.”
Henson and Scott LePage assured the shred legend that he had heard an unfinished version of the track, however.
Polyphia’s upcoming album Remember That You Will Die will be released this October 28 via Rise Records. Polyphia’s last album came in the form of 2018’s New Levels New Devils, their third LP since they first shot to viral fame with a YouTube playthrough of Impassion.
