Robert caught up with Ben Savage from Whitechapel to talk about Jack The Ripper, their current tour and much more.

Hello can you give us a brief history of how you came together as a band and got to where you are now?
We just started in our home town of Knoxville Tennessee we were in 3 local bands, and when they spit up and we all knew each other so we started Whitechapel, Phil was in to serial killers at the time, he just took the name from the jack the ripper thing, and it’s a cool name for a metal band, so it fit perfect for the music we wanted to make, so we rolled with it, made our first album and toured off that, and now were here.

You are called Whitechapel named after the location of the infamous Jack The Ripper Murders, is this a subject you are passionate about?
I was into for a while but it was just passing phase and just something we did at the time.

Who would you say your main musical influences are?
It’s a difficult one and there's always new bands popping up too, Opeth, Mastodon, Bloodbath, we sound nothing like them well, maybe Bloodbath a little, there bands that that really inspire stuff that you can take stuff from, and turn it into your own little concoction, even the bands you tour with, like JFAC, you see reactions and you get feelings from live settings that's cool, that you want to use in our music.

You released your third album ‘A New Era Of Corruption’ through metal blade records in June how has the album gone down with your fans and the press?
It’s gone over extremely well I think, we put a lot of time into the record, it was nice to get a good response from it, we were very excited about it.

A New Era Of Corruption’ features many special guests such as Chino Moreno, Vincent Bennett, how did these appearances come about and were you happy with the final result?
Vincent were friends with him and have toured with him, so that was a no brainer to get him, and Chino came up because our manager, managed chinos old band, they live in the same area so he asked chino to do it, and said yeah cool.

What are the themes and stories covered within the new album?
It’s a real negative record, the more hate filled the better, some fantasy stuff some real world stuff, Stuff that’s happened in Phil’s life, corruption, evil people and hate. I'm not really a hate filled person But our vocalist has a lot on his mind.

The artwork for the album is really impressive where did the ideas come from?
This guy Brent Elliot White, he designed it, we gave him the song titles, and said go for it, and he came up with it real fast, and he talked us through each song title and where it fits into the cover and album art.

How would you say ‘A New Era Of Corruption’ compares to your previous albums?
Its more mature, This is Exile was written real quick, too quick, we really didn't want to do this with this album, we worked really hard on it, made the song structure more catchy and flowing, made the riffs tie together, it’s more of a solid record, we refined and fine tuned our sound, The riffs are better too.

You are well known for having three guitarists, how did this idea come about?
Like I said we were in 3 local bands that split up, 3 guitarists were interested in the position, we didn't want to disappoint anyone, and we rolled with it, it just happened and stuck with it, it works to because it adds to the nasty heaviness of it, the crunch of it. It as hassle at practice every one twiddling around, but were all friends. If we lost a guitarist I don't know if we'd get another one, because I don't know if I could stand another guy, twiddling around, id get pissed off with it.

You are currently on tour with Job For A Cowboy how has the tour been so far?
It’s awesome, we've toured with them before, there's no getting to know you thing, we just walked on to the tour, just hanging out, that's what you want when your touring, people you can live with and get along with and respect, its smooth, Its sucks for bands over here, being in a cramped van, the weather sucks, it’s cool being with a band you can hang with.

As soon as you finish your show tonight you are off to mainland Europe, are you looking forward to any shows more than others out there?
Looking forward to Holland tomorrow, Switzerland will be cool because we might be going to the H.R Giger museum, Belgium, Italy, Germany, looking forward to all of them really.

You are an extremely hard working band who are forever on the road touring, what do you end up doing before and after shows to keep you busy?
We have a lot of down time, you got to find something to do, play guitar, work out, other people read, shoot the shit talk, hang out, you can gotta have motivation and when you get to the venue you gotta chill and relax.

Christmas is quickly approaching what is a typical Christmas for Whitechapel?
Just like everybody else's really.

MySpace seems to be a big tool in the music industry these days with artists communicating with their fans over it and some even ditching their own website and having just a MySpace site, what are your opinions on MySpace as a tool in the music industry?
It was I guess about few years ago it was, you could put your band on there, add people and it was free promotion, now facebook is new thing I guess, when MySpace was big, it was an awesome tool,.

Where would you like to see yourself this time next year?
Making more money, ha ha, taking more time off at home, more time to write at home,

One last random question that we ask every band, if you could be an animal out of a Zebra and a Giraffe which one would you be and why?
I’d probably be a giraffe, you never see them getting eaten by lions, and it would be cool to have a long neck; zebras stand out in the wild!

Thanks for your time; do you have a message for your fans reading this?
Errrrrrr go to hell, no I'm joking, thanks for sticking with us, and hope you stick with us because we’re only going to get better

Interview By Robert Lawrence