Melbourne Trashers Pizza Death Are Set For Froth & Fury

‘It’s funny when a lot of the reviews that have been on our albums, say from people who are usually do reviews on metal albums and real metal elitist gatekeepers – they’re just renowned for just giving bad reviews to bands – there was a very common theme that we found from these sort of critics and that was ‘this band Pizza Death – it’s surprisingly not shit.’

Melbourne thrashers Pizza Death are talking in preparation for Froth & Fury Fest having just had a stint in Northern Europe. For the initiated, Pizza Death – while comedic and chaotic performers – are an extremely talented metal band who sing about Pizza. And Death. And Death by pizza. Literally. I’m speaking with vocalist Pat and bassist Kane.

Pat: ‘You would think it would be, and I kind of think if I got told about this band, I’d be like, there’s no way I’m going to like that. But I think that makes it more intriguing.’

Kane: ‘So when someone goes, oh, it’s a crossover thrash band, and they have a pizza thing, you’re like, oh, that’s going to be shit. And then yeah, most people are like, oh, actually pretty good.’

The humorous music is an extension of who they actually are, take for instance a recent tour story from Belgium.

Kane: ‘We just played a small town, Kortrijk, and it was great. That was the first show of the tour. It was this small little venue, it holds a hundred people. It was sold out and it was wild there.’

Pat: ‘I reckon it held 50. That place was tiny, everywhere. It was just next to the bar.’

Kane: ‘The entry part of the venue where we had the merch set up – so directly across from the merch -there’s no wall or door or anything separating it. There was just a fucking urinal there. So there’s the merch desk, and no shit, two metres away from us was the urinal, and right next to the urinal was the door taking people’s money for entry into the show. When we were first loaded in, I saw the urinal just there and I was like, I thought the prop. Surely this is not a thing that’s still used. But no, people were just fucking pissing there. It was fucking funny, man!’

Pat: ‘Our drummer actually very proudly walked over in front of me and he just did it. I was like, I can’t believe you didn’t get stage fright. No way I could do that in front of you.’

Kane: – ‘People are just standing around in there drinking and whatnot, and then you just turn around and piss on the wall. It’s fucking something else.’

The band shows are, shock horror, fucking something else too. Anarchy with a dash of furious metal.

Kane: ‘Fast songs, really fast and a fast dinner and a show experience.’

Pat: ‘We haven’t discussed this with our accountant yet.’

Kane: ‘Yeah, well, there could be pizza. We asked the promoter from Froth and Fury, because we knew that there was going to be food trucks, and I was trying to ask, is there going to be food trucks with pizza? And he seemed to have just ignored the email. Can you reply to me please? It’s been a couple of months. Usually there’s pizza. You can get pizza, you can get really fast songs and people, and there’s usually an inflatable slice of pizza where you can ride the human wave of filth. And we have props, we smash pineapples.’

Pat: ‘We like to make it as chaotic as possible. We had a friend recently say he heard someone in the pit say ‘what the fuck is going on here?’ That’s kind of how we want our shows to be. If you’ve never seen it, it’s just like, why are they doing it? What is going on? I guess we always try and do something different and make people laugh. And it’s funny to play really fast, really angry music.’

Kane: ‘We’ll dress someone up as garlic bread and wrap them in tinfoil, all sorts of things. Yeah, just the usual.’

The band became an entity during the great lock down of yesteryear and have grown like fungus on 3-week-old pizza – rapidly and not without a little stench. Constant touring, a seamless personal transition, Europe teased with and more to come however it’s the twenty or so album tracks all named after pizza like Death By Garlic Bread, Excruciating Painapple and Pasta Of Puppets the band drop every two years that 2025 has on the menu.

Kane: ‘There will be an album release next year. What time of year? I don’t dunno. But it’s a safe bet. It’s a safe bet that we’re going to be recording the new album next year.’

Obviously will the lyrical content be about pizza?

Pat: ‘Politics. The situation in the Middle East.’

Kane: ‘We’re well-educated people and we really keen to show that side of ourselves. In Europe we fell in love with their kebabs over there.’

Pat: ‘Don’t say that contractually. Strike that with the record. We’re not supposed to say that.’

It’s been a crazy interview, so I’ll leave you with one last brilliant way to solve the world most controversial question.

Kane: ‘You get to express your opinions on pineapple on pizza in a wall of death, and we encourage you to really hurt each other. Just if someone falls down on, don’t fucking pick them up. They are your enemy. Spill the blood. That’s what we want to see.’

Interview By Iain McCallum

Catch Pizza Death at Froth & Fury Festival at Harts Mill, Port Adelaide on Saturday November 9. Tickets from MoshTix…