Absu Guitarist Vis Crom Gives Post-Tour Recap

Freshly-minted Absu guitarist Vis Crom recently returned from the band's whirlwind European tour and was kind enough to give Noisecreep a quick post-tour wrap up. The tour, which took Absu, American psychedelic doomsters Zoroaster, blackened U.K. thrash brigade Razor of Occam and Norwegian progressive black metallers Pantheon I across the continent, was Vis Crom's first with the band since he joined several months ago. The good-natured axeman looked back on tour hijinks, Eastern European adventures and the dangers of absinthe in our exclusive Q and A.

How did you guys get along on tour when you were out in Europe?

It's hard to describe the camaraderie and good times since day one. Pantheon I, Razor of Occam and Zoroaster were all different sounding but excellent bands and people. It didn't take long before members of each band were infiltrating each others sets on all instruments. I played guitar with Zoroaster during a lot of shows on the song 'Spirit Molecule,' which was an honor for me as the band crushes. For 22 people being crammed in one bus with enough seats for about 10, it didn't get too claustrophobic. A great mix of personalities and nationalities.

Did you ever run into any trouble overseas with local governments, crazy fans, visa issues, the sorts of things that seem to plague touring bands on every Euro run?

Local governments or visa issues didn't cause any problems which is surprising because we had so many nationalities on the bus and crossed many border checkpoints. I credit Avocado Booking for making that smooth. Our bus broke down and we got a new one in the same day. The Razor guys, who also play in Destroyer 666, had some passport stories and also the most stamps in their passports. I am a live guitarist for the Philadelphia band Woe, who's LP I was selling at some shows ... In London some wasted guy came up to me outside to sign the record he bought ... I came back outside later and it had multiple signatures on it even though I was the only Woe member. He asked me to sign it again so I did. Later on, I saw about 30 signatures on it. Everyone from each band had signed it multiple times. Unfortunately I didn't get to interact with fans as much as I would have liked because once we were done and walked off stage these venues usually kicked people out.

What were the best, worst and craziest moments of that tour?

Everyone on the tour will tell you something different, but for me the best moment was actually visiting Tara in Ireland. Facing the gate to the underworld and standing at the Stone of Destiny at dusk while gale winds were blowing is something I'll never forget. Another interesting moment for me was arriving off the flight and meeting the other bands while having 10 fresh stitches in my head. Stopping at a rest stop in Frankfurt Germany, grabbing one of the bottles of vodka that Pantheon I brought to start the tour off, walking into a Burger King bathroom and having Aethyris take the stitches out of my head by dipping small scissors into the vodka I was drinking and then arriving to the first show. I can't really talk about the truly crazy moments of the tour, but seeing Ezezu win a drinking contest, with Nick the light guy from Zoroaster, who is twice his size, while we were all Absinthed up in Budapest was a good time. This was right after he'd been pied in the face ...

What were the Eastern European shows like?

Eastern Europe were my most anticipated shows, and they were better than I imagined. We didn't get all that far east, but Hungary, Czech Repuvblic and Slovenia were amazing shows and crowds. I loved being in these countries and want to go further east. I enjoy the people and small doses of the culture I was able to see.