Vision of Disorder’s Tim Williams Talks New Album ‘The Cursed Will Remain Cursed’ + More

Vision of Disorder frontman Tim Williams was the guest on Full Metal Jackie’s radio show this past weekend. Williams spoke all about the band’s latest disc, ‘The Cursed Will Remain Cursed’ as well as the group’s hiatus and how the time apart helped the evolution of their music. He also discussed Vision of Disorder’s endurance throughout the years and much more. If you missed Full Metal Jackie’s show, check out her interview with Tim Williams below:

Vision of Disorder obviously took a seven-year hiatus before re-grouping in 2008. Now five years back together, what was the biggest advantage of that separation and how is it continuing to affect the band?

Just taking that time off, I think the biggest thing it did was allowed us to grow as individual musicians. Everybody kind of trailed off and did their own thing for a while, any old beefs we might have had were buried by then. I think it was a good time to just take some space away from the band and when we got back to the studio, everybody was ready to go, riffs started rollin’ and here we are.

What were you able to do on this new record ‘The Cursed Remained Cursed’ that never would have been able to be possible on a Vision of Disorder record in the past?

We had a lot of control, creative control over this record – to go in and record and not have any label pressure, that might have been the one single best advantage. Not so much as physically recording the record but in writing the songs – we weren’t in any rush schedule like, “Oh we got to get out on the road or this person’s not going to like that.” We were able to do whatever we wanted to do, finally. I think it really shows in the music, it’s a record we wanted to make.

We got really lucky Will Putley wanted to produce it because he didn’t take any of the bite out of the stuff where in the past some producers we worked with and some labels wanted to mellow us out and paint us as a crossover and that was the biggest enemy of this record, we didn’t want that to happen again. We got to record the record wanted to write.

Over the course of the last 10 years, how do you think you’ve changed more as a musician or as a music fan?

As a musician, I’ve just grown. I think being a musician is a big journey and looking back on my career which it is what it is – it’s been pretty good but I’ve stayed around almost 20 years now, maybe 15. The longevity within a musician is really good because it gives the person time to grow - either it’s a guitar player or drummer or singer I think growing is the most important part. If you’re  going to stay in the game or play music on your own terms you have to grow.

Tim, what have you come to appreciate about Vision of Disorder now that maybe you didn’t realize 15 years ago?

Again, I’d have to go an pull the longevity card. I never thought when VOD ended in 2000 I never said never but I didn’t envision us coming back and doing anything else. I went off and did Blood Simple and that was a crazy ride and it was a good ride. We did well but it was nuts. When I was out there on the road a lot with Blood Simple people would always ask me “When are you doing the next VOD record?” I would be like “What are you talking about?  We’re not doing that plus I’m killing myself doing this band. Where were you 10 years ago when we were looking for fans then?”

For VOD it was just strange that the name sunk in so well and especially the record ‘Imprint’ everywhere I go, worldwide – people are always talking about that record. To me, I would much rather be remembered in that regard as opposed to just getting huge and being on top for six months or whatever it is these days. To command that respect and that longevity, it’s the most important thing for me.

This coming weekend, Full Metal Jackie will welcome Alexi Laiho of Children of Bodom to her show. Full Metal Jackie can be heard on radio stations around the country — for a full list of stations, go to fullmetaljackieradio.com.