Classic Spins with Becoming the Lion

This is the first time that one of the bands has answered one of the questions in Classic Spins with, essentially, well we did it!

With that, meet Wisconson's native sons: Becoming The Lion.

What started off as a solo project morphed into a fully fleshed out trio. That's right. One man has reproduced asexually by cutting off fingers and those fingers then became a bass player and a drummer.

At least that's how it's happened in my head and NO ONE WILL CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE.

Check out their latest EP on BANDCAMP and be friends on FACEBOOK.

1. My favorite kind of album is the concept album. The Wall is my absolute favorite. Beyond the amazing songs, it has spectacular nostalgia for me. What's your favorite one and why?

I too am a huge fan of the concept album. It seems to take an extra bit of thought and creativity to have songs that have some semblance of connection from one to the next. The downside is that you may be tempted to have too many filler songs/noise to complete the story and for me that usually takes me out of it. 

I would say one of my favorites is definitely The Dear Hunter’s “Act I: The Lake South, the River North." 

All of his albums are great but for me this first one had a nice intro/closing that placed you at the scene, then 30 minutes of solid music taking you from one mood to the next. Not a bad song on that record. 

2. My very first album was Live Evil b Black Sabbath. Since then I've had a strong affinity for the live record, even if they're a bit fake. KISS set the bar with Alive!. Surely, it was fake, but it's got the best concert feel of any one.

Tell me about your favorite live record?

Hmm, I don’t listen to live albums often but Oceansize’s “Feed to Feed” was jut amazing! They recorded 3 live shows where each one was a different full album with encores from various EPs they had. 

So basically you have 3 albums and an EP or 2 in one live release, and, I’ll be honest, the first time I listened to it I didn’t even realize it was a live recording until I was a bit into it. 

3. There are a great number of records I've turned to for my moods. What do you listen to when you're angry? Sad?

For angry I definitely go for metalcore (although I don’t have to be to listen normally). Some Architects usually does the trick or ABR (something I can tell along with is nice). 

When I’m sad I can do the usual emo stuff like Pianos Become Teeth, however throwing some solid post rock like older God is an Astronaut is always a welcomed change. I don’t want to necessarily listen to sad music when I’m sad, rather I’ll listen to something that I can explore my mind and get over sadness with.

4. One of my friends laughs at me, routinely, for loving the Misfit Toys of albums by major bands. Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed, Carnival of Souls by Kiss, Diabolous En Musica by Slayer, etc. 

What's the strange one that you love?

I get crap for it all the time but I really like Avenged Sevenfold’s “City of Evil." I was in high school when it came out so it hit me just right, but really it had solid guitar work and some really different off the wall stuff, even if the vocals haven’t been great since “Waking the Fallen”. 

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5. It's almost fashionable to release live versions of albums or re-record the old ones. King Diamond is releasing a concert with Abigail front to back. Roger Waters has done The Wall twice. Which ones do you have in your collection?

Well this latest EP is a reissue/re-release of a previous instrumental track with a bit of re-imagining and vocals added in. 

We are planning on doing this for the whole collection since they are all somewhat unfinished songs as instrumental tracks at the moment. When these songs were recorded originally it was always experimental in natural, this is now the next step in experimenting and bringing things full circle.