Municipal Waste Start Their Australian Tour Tonight…

MUNICIPAL WASTE finally start their triumphant and probably somewhat inebriated return to Australia shores for the first time since 2013! Formed in Richmond, Virginia, the homeland of the American Civil War, Thrash Metal Crossover party dudes Municipal Waste rose from the salty remains of a New Years Eve Keg Party in 2000/2001, in which they were later blamed for inciting a minor riot. MUNICIPAL WASTE have uncompromisingly stuck to their guns for over twenty years as the hard-partying and even harder-hitting torchbearers of twenty-first Century Crossover Thrash Metal. After staggering on to the scene with their 2003 debut album Waste ‘Em All, MUNICIPAL WASTE have transformed from a cult favourite into metal mainstays for a generation by reviving the Thrash scene.

MUNICIPAL WASTE are seven albums (and a string of EP’s) deep into a career that shows no slowing down, no matter how hard they party, in fact if anything their career is on an upward trajectory! Metal Hammer christened 2007’s The Art of Partying one of “The 50 Greatest Thrash Metal Albums Ever,” whilst 2017’s Slime and Punishment crashed in the Top 3 of the Billboard Heatseekers Albums Chart, while they have also sold-out countless shows on multiple continents and piled up tens of millions of streams in the process. Ryan Waste talks to Hi Fi Way about the tour.

Great to be talking to you must be really excited to be getting on that plane to head down to Australia?
Yeah, for sure, man.

Does anything sort of prepare you for that long haul flight at all?
Well, I got home from BAT tour two days ago, so nothing like just being on the road to stay on the road.

It’s definitely been a long time between drinks. Has there been a little bit of pressure from fans to return back to Australia?
I feel like everyone’s pretty easy going over there, man. I’m not even worried. I think it’s going to be great. We had such a good time the first two times we were there. So. I mean, we’re just excited to get back.

Is there anything in particular that you’ve missed about touring Australia?
It was one of my favourite places I ever toured. It really is about the people because everyone’s so laid back and we just fit right in, you know, I mean, I feel like, it could be a second home to the Waste if it wasn’t so far away.

It’s been a pretty big year already for the band celebrating twenty-first anniversary of Waste ‘Em All. Did you do anything special as a band to commemorate the occasion?
Yeah, we brought back a lot of those songs on the last few tours. We had written them over twenty two years ago with our old drummer who had passed away. It was a way of honouring him. So yeah, we have put them back in the set with this lineup, who wasn’t on that record but have been with us, Dave and Phil have been with us coming on twenty years now. It’s crazy, just playing the old songs, they’re really intense, they’re actually still hard to play, even though we were young kids writing them. Bringing that intensity has been a challenge, but it’s really fun to do.

Do you remember a lot from that particular point in time and the bands that influenced that record?
I was just telling my friend the other day, I remember that era of the band more than I remember what I did last year because it’s like our formative years. You remember when you’re playing at like squats, house shows and DIY places and just kind of developing yourself in a band like those memories will never go away. So, it’s really nostalgic to go back and play these songs again. I’m not looking at newspaper clippings or anything. I’m just remembering what I can. It’s wild, man. It’s been twenty-five years and seems like we just travelled through time. When you’ve been on the road this long non-stop it it’s crazy how time flies. We were in Australia 2006 for the first time, that’s almost twenty years. If you just keep going it it’s it flies by man.

Can you believe how much things have changed from a touring perspective?
We were about to come over there, we had an offer right around COVID. That’s why it’s taken this long. We were we were ready to go. We’ve always been ready to come back. With the amount of touring I wish there’s more time in the year, but everything’s changed in that regard, but you know everyone had to deal with the same shit, so nobody is special when it comes to that. We’re just happy to be back on the road.

With this tour are you focusing on any particular album?
We’re just doing what we always do. We bring one hundred and twenty percent everywhere we go. The fact is it’s just a little bit longer of a plane ride, but you’ll get the same show that we give everybody.

Are there any plans for a new album?
It’s always top secret, man. You start saying there’s a new album and people get antsy, and then they say, oh, it took too long. Nobody’s got patience anymore. Everyone wants shit instantly, so everyone can wait, you know, element of surprise. Everything I do secret and I’m old school.

Beyond the tour what’s next?
Between BAT and Waste I’ve been out all year, you know, and this has probably been the busiest year I’ve had since starting. We’re going to Europe with Cannibal Corpse in the fall. I’m actually staying in Australia, getting tattooed and hanging out in in Melbourne for a week after the tour, so I get a little vacation after this tour, but it’s I’ve been out all year between the two bands between BAT and Waste. I’m digging it, man. This is the way I want it.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch Municipal Waste on the following dates, tickets from Troubadour Presents…