Georgia based death metal trio Guillotine’s two front men, Adam and Lance Miller,  sat down with Metal Watson to conduct a short interview. They are working on their second release and will be playing at The Pointe in Conyers Friday, Feb 21st.

Metal Watson: Hey guys, thanks for the time. Please start off with a short introduction of the band (when and how did the band come about, where did the name come from, who are the members) for the people that don’t know you yet.

Lance: Our band is called Guillotine. Founding members are myself, Lance Miller, and my brother Adam Miller.

We basically have two beginnings. We originally started in 2002/03 in our hometown of Donalsonville in SW Georgia. The name Guillotine was selected because we wanted a strong, brutal name. We preferred something with one word that symbolized the style of metal we played. It also symbolized that we sought to play real metal and bring death to fake metal. (Editor’s note: I hear all the Manowar fans out there saying ‘oh yeah’)

We made some songs and played some shows, but then I went away for college. We lay dormant until about late 2014, when we seriously began writing for our first album. We finally got a full lineup in 2016, and played a few shows with a drummer. He left the band and then Evan Posey joined us in early 2017. He began playing shows with us, and played drums on the album. Evan is the third member we were looking for, and has helped with the process of getting our second album done.

Metal Watson: The members are geographically located in Donalsonville and Athens which is a good 4-5 hours apart from each other. How does this influence band activities such as practice, recording, songwriting and gigs?

Adam: Lance and Evan are still in Athens, I moved back to Donalsonville a couple of years ago before my first child was born. It’s a lot of driving on my part. It’s not ideal, but we make it work. With technology these days, bouncing riffs and song ideas back and forth is easy. We just make sure to each be individually prepared in order to make the most of our practice time together. In the past two years, I’ve had two kids and Lance jut had his first a few months ago. Babies have been a bigger hurdle for us than distance ha ha.

Lance: Before Adam moved back to Donalsonville, he lived in Atlanta. We were able to practice a lot during that time, and we were able to become very tight.

Metal Watson: Concerning your 2017 7-track release, who mainly wrote the lyrics? Were there any musical inspirations while composing the songs?

Lance: Lyrically was mostly Adam, but I contributed some lyrics, namely parts of “Black Emperor” and “Kraken”.

Musical inspirations included Satyricon, Six Feet Under, Superjoint Ritual, Goatwhore, Cradle of Filth, Crowbar, Down, High On Fire and Pantera. On the track “Not Worth Saving” I tried to channel Dimmu Borgir, Crowbar and Burzum.

Metal Watson: And how is the sophomore release coming along?

Lance: We are almost there. I’d say 80-90% done with writing.

Metal Watson: What can we expect?

Lance: This album will be heavier and darker. The writing is more mature.

Metal Watson: You guys have played a lot of venues in the Atlanta and Athens area, which ones were the best and why?

Lance: In Athens, the Caledonia Lounge is our home venue. They have always been great to us there, and it’s the homebase for the metal scene in Athens. The Georgia Theater in Athens was also amazing. Great venue, stage and sound. The crew there was also great and treated us well.

In Atlanta we love 529. Great venue and sound. Also, The Masquerade ,which is legendary, and we always have a great time there. The people at The Pointe in Conyers have always been good friends to us too, so they deserve a shout out (Editor’s note: Guillotine is playing The Pointe again on Feb 21st / also see past MW gig review here)

Metal Watson: How would you rate the local Atlanta/Athens metal scene?

Lance: I would say both are strong. Atlanta has a very strong and pretty large scene with lots of bands. The Athens scene has grown considerably. Our crowds at shows in Athens have progressively gotten bigger and bigger. Shadebeast has helped a lot, and the bands that have been there a long time built the roots of the scene. There are now more bands and more metal shows in Athens. It’s no longer just a city of shiny, happy people ha ha (Editior’s note: never been a fan of THAT band anyway). Plus having a metal record store is a big bonus too (i.e. Shadebeast).

Metal Watson: What are the future plans for Guillotine? What are the band’s goals?

Lance: We are putting the finishing touches on the second album. We plan on shopping it out to labels and getting into the studio soon to record it. We have big plans for the future.

Thank you guys for your time. Check out the band on Bandcamp and Facebook.

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