Inside Amplifest 2014: Pallbearer

There’s a unique and coherent idea behind the sound of Pallbearer. Their name says it all: they carry coffins with a mitigating guitar-lead strength, dooming their way into our memory and defying time, erosion and nature with spinebusting tunes. The weight of the doomster’s responsibility as messengers of the morbid isn’t enough to question the quality of a critically acclaimed first full-length “Sorrow and Extinction” and of the way it has been delivered live. Pallbearer are now known for knocking socks with walls of sound, riff after riff, after riff and we’re not expecting least from them for the Amplifest concert, their first in Portugal. They’re on tour right now, but Joseph shared a few words with us:

What do you expect of the Amplifest audience?
We have no idea! We try not to have any expectations other than hoping that people will be able to immerse themselves into the music as much as us, whether we are performing or listening. So, if that’s the case, that will be awesome.

We like surprises, but what can we expect from your show?
Primal emotion.

What band do you really want to see at Amplifest?
SWANS.

If you had to pick a band or a musician of this Amplifest edition to play with who would it be?
That’s a tough one. SWANS and Wovenhand are both personal favorites.

What records have you been listening to lately?
Really been enjoying Martyrdöd’s new one Elddop, the War on Drugs’ Lost in the Dream, Sharon Van Etten’s Are We There, and since Autumn is now in full effect, the Type O Negative discography.

Enough about music, Amplifest is also about other arts. What books have you been reading and what movies have you been watching lately that you want to recommend?
I’ve been reading the new Haruki Murakami book “Colorless Tsukuru Tsazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage” which has been great. Not much in the way of movies, since we’ve been on tour for a month at this point, but I can’t wait to get to watch “This is Spinal Tap” for the millionth time next chance I get.