Victory Records

I mean, everybody was getting signed.

It was either Victory Records, Trust Kill Records, Ferret Records, you know, all those labels, Undecided Records, John from Morning Again, he had his record label.

So, I mean, it was like everybody was just kind of snatching bands up and putting things out and really creating a scene.

And you could see the bands were changing.

They did all hail the dead with them.

And it just didn't work out.

So Premonitions of War signed to Victory Records.

We went on tour with like Morbid Angel, Suffocation, all these like death metal bands, Six Feet Under, Macabre, like you name it.

Then eventually he worked for Victory.

So Victory Records, that's why when we did the Abomination CD, that's why we have the Victory tag on our CD because he was kind of affiliated with that.

So they kind of – I don't know if there was a release together or a distribution with Victory.

Yeah.

There are a handful of bands.

I mean, obviously in that time frame, everyone can reference what I refer to as the big three, which is Strife, Snapcase, Earth Crisis, you know, Victory Records of that time.

But then there was also some of the bands like 108 and Resurrection that were like big influences on South Florida.

Resurrection was a huge influence on South Florida.

I mean, okay, picking a producer for a Darkest Hour record is hard.

Why? Because we have worked with the fucking best now yeah listen you guys i mean there's a lot of producers out there but let's let's go through there first brian mcturnan has done hundreds of fucking amazing records from hot water music to thrice to uh you know any anything in in this punk hardcore ethos over here revelation records equal vision records victory records i mean he he's been killing it then you also have uh Devin fucking Townsend.

You ever heard of him? Just a

little guy.

Does it feel like a good home now for Darkest Hour?

Well, they actually control the Human Romance, Godless Prophets, Perpetual Terminal, and now this record.

And that is the only other label other than Victory Records who has that many titles.

But the difference between Monarch and the now defunct Victory is that they're not interested in being a lifestyle record label where like they're the marketing focus.

It was a big hit.

Um, and then it ended up with, you know, we signed to Victory Records after that.

Mm-hmm.

And, you know, that was a long, tumultuous relationship.

[laughs]

So, you know, some ups, a lot of downs.

Uh, and I think, you know, w- we, we were young, we were kids, and Victory Records put out some of Mike and I's favorite stuff.

They...

Right.

However, I did find a zine from the year 2000 with an ad straight from Victory Records, like a full-page ad from Victory Records, and it says, "Designs from Automotion" on it.

[laughs]

Huh.

Yeah.

And-

Maybe Victory Records just fucked it up and then ran the ad and then, you know, by the time they pressed the CD, like, that became the name of it.

I dunno.

yeah yeah because then you needed to sell physical copies you have to it was the only

way so there's no i'm not promoting anything i'm promoting frustrating people so i said until we get that fixed i'm not gonna go on tour and that kind of slowed down progress yeah until wrote until black train jack happened uh took gray area happened and we moved to um victory records and that was a much better deal all you had to do was fill out song scan reports and vinnie did that and we edge of the stage that they were going crazy

that a couple questions with um with with black train jack so well one is it looked like there was a quick turnaround from no reward to you're not alone alone right was that like a year almost about a year turnaround with the album like how did that work like you were able to tour and support for no reward were you writing i guess at the same time yes and hit the studio tour you because that was that's yeah it was a quick turnaround how did it work out so fast like that way you just happen to have the material i guess um so like like

um A lot of bands, they go through that cycle where they'll record, take some time off, write some songs, record, tour, take some time off, and go through that cycle.

But Gray Area here, because we're going to get into the record, and you guys don't miss a beat with this new record, and I know a lot of these songs are not last year new or this year new but they're new they're new you know they're new so people don't have but just good classic like melodic punk rock catchy my band's got to play with you guys a couple of times at coney high and swing set with sick of it all that was a good show with you guys that was a great show gray areas you know just just a great band so let's talk how the formation of gray area came together so the formation of gray area

happened like this sorry Black Train Jack was losing steam because we didn't think there was any point in going on tour if we're not going to sell anything what's the point so then at that point in time things started to lose steam and whatever everything falls apart and then ladies died So then I went to Raby's wake and it was huge.

There was a giant bus there from Victory Records and it was a big deal, right? It was like the first one of us to phone, right? And there I saw Vinny.

Now I knew him a little bit from just being part of the scene, but at that time we started talking.

This is their second EP from 2001.

Um, this is the first Atreyu s- th- CD I ever got, um, because I, I heard them fir- in, first on a sampler, like a Victory Records sampler, and one of them was a song from this EP and, um, this is the first thing I got.

I got it at Hot Topic back in the day in 2001.

And, um, yeah, this is just an EP.