Tainted - Endorsments Along the Path of Vengeance
Author: Richard Thorne (photography by Tamryn Howard)
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Arizona-based Jackson Guitars are widely renowned for their affiliation with metal-heads and shredders. Jackson models come with names like Warrior, King V and Rhoads (after the late Quiet Riot/Ozzy Osbourne guitarist), and the endorsee artist list on the jacksonguitars.com website is headed with players from bands like Hatebreed, Bullet For My Valentine, Iron Maiden and Lamb of God.
Scroll a little further down that list and you will now come across five-piece Christchurch metal act Tainted. Unfortunately it's a US, not Kiwi flag that's raised alongside their name, but that's not such an issue - the point is that three members of Tainted have been made Jackson endorsees. What better way to kick into the promotion of their new album 'Carved and Created' than with the news that the legendary US metal guitar maker reckons you've got what it takes to represent their brand?
Scroll a little further down that list and you will now come across five-piece Christchurch metal act Tainted. Unfortunately it's a US, not Kiwi flag that's raised alongside their name, but that's not such an issue - the point is that three members of Tainted have been made Jackson endorsees. What better way to kick into the promotion of their new album 'Carved and Created' than with the news that the legendary US metal guitar maker reckons you've got what it takes to represent their brand?
Tim Facoory isn't the hoarse-throated vocalist for Tainted, that's Slim (or Campbell Jenkins to his nearest), but Tim is the direct link to the band's just-announced Jackson deal. In Auckland along with drummer Leith Skinner to tell the big city media about 'Carved and Created', he is one of the two remaining members of the four-man Tainted which released 'The Awakening' as a debut album back in 2006 - bassist Sean McCurry being the other original. They reckon the thriving Christchurch metal scene draws strength from a tendency for members to switch around between bands, Leith likening Tainted to a train that has kept running through.
With Sean and Slim sharing lyric writing, content includes international conflicts, new world orders and inevitably the darker side of Christianity. The song Carved And Created has its origins from when the Kahui twins' tragedy came to public attention, but as the album's title, reflects more how this recording, and Tainted as a band, have been shaped over time. Tim says the new album has taken exactly a year from start to finish, but really it got a start with the recording of third track Scars back in May 2006.
"When we decided that we were going to do another album and do it properly we talked with Jeremy at York St and Clint [Murphy - the album's producer/part engineer and mix master] had just come back from overseas. He had some time and suggested we do a song to see how it would work - he was looking at doing something outside of rock and pop and he hadn't done any metal for a while. We recorded Scars with him over three days and after that decided we would do an album. He said he wanted 20-odd songs to pick from and we had about seven songs already, so we went away to write more."
Tainted had a membership carve up not long after that, with the addition of vocalist Slim, and Leith replacing Quentin Foster who retains drumming credits on Scars. Former 8 Foot Sativa member Justin 'Jackhammer' Niessen sang on that track and Clint Murphy added a few of his own musical touches elsewhere, but the remaining nine tracks on the album belong to the current Tainted line up.
"It was really good working with someone that has an opinion we respected," says Tim. "I don't think he has changed our sound - he's just made us sound how we are, and put it onto an album.
"We would email Clint tracks that we had recorded in a very simple manner in Christchurch, then he would decide exactly what songs he wanted to work on. We split the biggest part of the recording in two. The first time we went up to Auckland and did pre-production with Clint in a practice room for a day, then went into York St. and did our click tracks and guide tracks, then continued to record four songs.
"The second time (in June this year) was different from the point we had a better idea of the sequence of how it all came together, we knew we didn't all need to be there at the same time. The drums are the foundation of a song therefore it was important to take our time with those first. Clint flew down for a couple of days to do pre-production and final selection of songs. Once this was done we laid our click tracks and guide tracks so Leith could go to Auckland and just concentrate on the drums. We then split up the next three weeks into a schedule of drums, guitars and bass and vocals until we were complete. It was about 28 days in the studio all up."
York St Studio manager Jeremy McPike has high regard for Tainted's motivation in doing so much off their own bat, and in particular for having belief enough in their music to spend their own money to record in a professional studio.
