Pristina, ‘The Drought (Ov Salt and Sorrow)’ — New Album

Meriden, Conn.'s Pristina, who borrowed their name from a Faith No More song -- and were unaware that it's also the capital city of Kosovo and an electronica band when they christened themselves as such -- have a pretty impressive pedigree and guest list on the title track their album, 'The Drought (Ov Salt and Sorrow).' The album is due out Sept. 28 through Trendkill Records.

Collectively, Pristina feature former members of 100 Demons, A Thousand Falling Skies, Cable, Invocation of Nehek, Dry Kill Logic, Born Under Saturn, the Farewell Order, Godsburn and the Sons of Montana. On the album's title track, Today Is the Day's Steve Austin and Starkweather's Rennie Resmini appear, as does Bloodlet's Scott Angelacos. If you've got a hankering for '90s extreme metal, then these cameos will certainly wet your whistle.

"At first I was really nervous to work with them both," Pristina vocalist/bassist Brendan Duff told Noisecreep about Austin and Resmini. "I mean, they are legends at what they do, and as can be the case with meeting people you look up to, I was afraid they'd be huge douchebags and totally ruin the image of them I had in my head. This was not the case at all. They were both amazing, and I learned so much from them. I am proud to now call them my friends.

"Watching Rennie do his vocals was awe-inspiring. He went for his part so hard that he turned bright purple and veins were exploding out of his head. He is no joke, man. When he sings, he gives it everything he's got. He is also a really great guy to hang out with. Same goes for Steve. He was unbelievable to be around. He made the whole thing fun to do.

"Making the record was a huge undertaking, but it really felt like nothing while working with Steve. By far, my least favorite part of recording is doing vocals, but he helped me out and made it so comfortable that it ended up being no big deal for me. Not to mention that in our off time he took us to a firing range to play with automatic weapons."

Duff said that Angelocos was also a dream to work with and the result was killer.

Extreme is a recurring quality for Pristina, since the song 'The Drought (Ov Salt and Sorrow)' clocks in at 23 minutes, which isn't something most bands who end up with epic-length songs set out to do. "I originally came up with an idea for us to write a 'long song,' and I was thinking originally more along the lines of a 10-minute song," Duff said. "Something that would be a little different for us and challenging.

"I wasn't sure of exactly what I wanted the song to be like, but I knew I didn't want it to be just a series of repetitive riffs and drone. I thought it would be boring for us to go that route. I wanted it to be really interesting and artistic. As the song progressed, it just became longer and longer. It took a while to shape it to what it is now.

"Between gigs and putting together other material for an EP, I think the writing process took over a year. As I was writing lyrics for it is when I thought it would be great to get some guest vocals on it. I thought of Scott, Rennie and Steve. I was sure there was no way they would do it. At the time I didn't know any of them personally, but I reached out and asked anyway. Amazingly, they all said yes and we got it happening."

While the members all come from rather disparate metal backgrounds, they found a musical common ground, which took some honing. Duff said, "Musically we were trying to play fast, loud, obnoxious music. For the next few years, Pristina was something we did for fun when we felt like it when we had down time from our other full time bands." Around 2006, the members started taking the band more seriously, so their sound started to evolve a bit into a gnarly beast that's akin to Dillinger Escape Plan on 'roids. "It became less about being obnoxious and more about writing good music that meant something to us," Duff admitted.