The recent departure of guitarist Tom Britton seemed to come as quite a shock to the fans although they soon bounced back with not one, but two new guitarists! Josh Callis-Smith spoke to us about the new line up.

LH: Hello! How are ya?

Josh: Aright, things are going great thanks, thrashtastic in fact!

LH: You’re guitarist Tom has recently left the band. Would you care to shed a bit of light on the reason for his departure?

Josh: There where a number of problems with the previous line-up which lead to a clash of personalities within the band. We felt this would be the best move for the band, however this is old news now we’ve moved on, the new lineup seems to be kicking arse. It’s brought a whole new spark to the band.

LH: I hear that a replacement has been found already. So who is going to be the new Pitiful Reign axeman?

Josh: Well the original plan was to just replace Tom. We had Alan Pashby fill in for us but at the same time were already auditioning Nev Britton (not toms brother just a coincidence) we found the two of the both to be essential to the band so we decided to sit down and talk about what to do. We eventually decided that Josh would sing and act solely as a front man and that we would take on two new guitarists. We feel this has added greatly to the band, Josh’s vocals and range seem to have vastly increased, the guitars have become a lot more technical with new material been written faster then we can play, as well as old stuff been revamped. Its brought a whole new lease of energy to the band, something we know is going to melt face even more at our live shows.

LH: Has the new guitarist been in any other bands previously?

Josh: Yeah, Al was in Infobia while as Nev’s still a band virgin except for back in the 70’s when he was guitarist/song writer for the legendary midlife crisis, that was when he was known as Nev Bristonholmes lol. Make sure you check them out, it will make you laugh www.myspace.com/midlifecrisisrock

LH: How did you find Tom’s replacement? You were pretty lucky to find one so quickly.

Josh: We knew Nev initially from the Snooty Fox gigs, he was always down the front raging and we knew he’d worked out most of our material so it made him the first choice for audition, he came down and blew us away so he was in. Al we’ve known for a long time we’ve all looked up to him as a guitarist since we’ve known him and we’d travelled all over the country watching his old band Infobia, he’d played on stage with us several times and filled in for us during Tom’s departure, he did such and good job we couldn’t say no, plus he has the best guitar collection ever. So things went from there.

LH: You have been busy lately writing new material for the follow up to “Toxic Choke”. How is the new stuff coming along? Do you have any plans to get back in the studio any time soon?

Josh: The new material is coming along great, and really fast too. Nev and Al have added so much to the band in such a short space of time, there’s so many ideas flying around, its allowed the bands guitar sound to become much more dynamic, while Josh’s vocals sound a lot more controlled with plenty of high notes, which he never did when he was behind his guitar. As soon as this is all ready we will be hitting the studio but we’ll be playing live very soon so you’ll have to get your arse down to a live show to check it out.

LH: I heard that there has been a bit of interest from a few small underground labels. Do you have a record deal in the pipeline, or are you really holding out for something a bit bigger?

Josh: There has been interest, but at the moment this has to be kept within the band.

LH: Speaking of which, what do you think about Evile signing to Earache?

Josh: Evile are great friend of ours and have been great to gig with over the last two years, we want them to do the best they can, they really deserve it and we look forward to more shows with them in the future. UK thrash can only keep growing

LH: What are your live plans for 2007? Are you planning to do any touring or play any festivals?

Josh: At this moment were more concentrating getting the new line up fully settled in and the follow up to Toxic Choke new material wise. We will let you know more about this as we do, there are things in the pipeline, but no doubt we will gig as per usually pretty soon.

LH: Before we wrap this up, are there any good thrash (or metal) bands you’d like to recommend to those reading this?

Josh: Yeah the UK scene at the moment is awesome. Check out Rager, Hallowed Point, Gama Bomb, Evile, Mutant and make sure you buy Killin Peace by Onslaught as its an absolute belter.

www.pitifulreign.co.uk
www.myspace.com/pitifulreign
www.myspace.com/midlifecrisisrock

Interviewed by Luci Herbert