Enforced’s Knox Colby on The Human Truths Behind ‘War Remains’ (INTERVIEW)

Photo credit: Jacky Flav

Richmond, Virginia-based Metal band Enforced released their third full-length album War Remains in late April 2023 via Century Media Records, an album that was recorded shortly after a globe-spanning tour and a life, as a band, that has been pretty fast-paced since they first began recording music in 2017. The band features Knox Colby on vocals, Will Wagstaff and Zach Monohan on guitars, Ethan Gensurowsky on bass, and Alex Bishop on drums. 

While their previous album Kill Grid (2021) was quite fine-tuned, this time around, the band allowed for more input from each member and tried to capture a live feel, bringing continuity between their live shows and their album. The ideas on the new album, however, progress and have a degree of continuity with Kill Grid, and even have some ramifications for what Enforced will record next, but as always, those ideas are drawn from the real world around us.  

Vocalist Knox Colby drew inspiration for the lyrics on War Remains from reading books on psychology and anthropology, but also by then observing the world carefully in daily life and through film and TV. Songs like “War Remains”, “Starve”, and “Hung By My Own Hand” on the album are more than hypothetical, but raise questions about modern life, whereas occasionally song are very personal to Colby, like “Mercy Killing Fields”. I spoke with Knox Colby about the recording of War Remains, his role as a vocalist and lyricist, and some of the ideas that inspired him for this new batch of songs. 

Hannah Means-Shannon: I heard that you recorded War Remains straight after being on a really substantial tour. You weren’t thinking that you’d rather rest for a while? 

Knox Colby: We thought, “Let’s strike while the iron’s hot. We’re all warmed up and tuned up, let’s just keep it going.” 

HMS: A lot of long-lived bands tend to do that because they feel they are more in sync with each other.

KC: Totally. I’m in agreement. That’s probably the best way to do it. Even on that tour, we were already playing stuff from War Remains. We were playing the song “War Remains” and maybe “Hanged By My Hand.” Playing that stuff helped us hone them, and once we were home, we were just ready to do it. Before the album was even announced, some people had heard portions of the album, and that created more interest.

HMS: If you’ve never played a song before, do you tell people that?

KC: Yes, I chum it up. I say things like, “We’re going to play this new song. I don’t know if it’s going to make it on the album or not, depends on how you react to it! If you like it, go nuts! If you don’t like it, just stand there.” Then, people go nuts, and I say, “Okay, it’s making the album!” But I know it’s not only on the album, but it’s the title track.

HMS: Did you already know that War Remains was going to be the album title before recording it?

KC: Yes, the album cover was the first thing that was done, back in February of last year. I already knew what it was called. The next album already has a title and Kill Grid, War Remains, and the next one are all basically set in the same universe and the cover art, by Joe Petagno, is basically the same image zoomed. Kill Grid has a war-torn city, War Remains is zoomed in, inside a city where the bombs just dropped, and the next one will be more mental. 

HMS: It feels like the songs on War Remains fit together in a kind of emotional arc. 

KC: Everything is interconnected in terms of the cover art and the lyrics. One song will reference another song, and that song will reference back to the first song. It’s almost like Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake in that aspect. It creates a sticky web of interconnectivity. It sounds way smarter than it is!

HMS: That’s awesome. That’s stream of consciousness type stuff.

KC: It’s like dream stream of consciousness. It’s connected by all its intangible aspects. It makes sense to me as long as I don’t think about it too much. [Laughs]

HMS: That’s okay, everyone will just think you’re really intellectual now. That sort of stuff’s about intuition and feeling one’s way around in terms of what feels important right now in the world and to you.

KC: Right, and at the same time, it’s wondering, “What can I talk about that people can relate to, especially from a Metal perspective?” There are definite Metal lyric tropes that I don’t necessarily want to hit, but I want the audience to have an understanding of things that aren’t totally new to them. I want to take from those tropes without being super-tropey. The idea of war, for instance, is on almost every Metal album. I want to hit if from a different direction, and I think that anthropology and psychology are avenues that I don’t think a lot of people have taken, so I wanted to do it that way.

HMS: With some more concept-based albums, we’re dealing with a fictionalized world or even a science-fiction-based world. With this album, I feel like you’re drawing from the current world or near future world. It’s more grounded and immediate in that way. There’s an apocalyptic feeling, but that’s a modern thing, unfortunately.

JC: The topics that are covered are tangible, real things that occur every day, so in that regard, it is something that people can relate to. It’s not a dystopian future, it’s very real. It’s very now. I didn’t write the music on this album, but the lyrics on this album were written by finding something I was interested in, then seeing something else about that out in the world, and going down weird rabbit holes. I took these different paths to try to encapsulate my interest and why I was inspired in the first place.

HMS: So, you were literally looking at the world around you, and just noticing things?

KC: Yes. And for the next album, I’ve already found some inspiration just from watching Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsay. I was bored and starting watching it, then thought, “Wait a second!” So I watched three seasons. I saw these reoccurring situations and problems and realized, “Everyone thinks like this.” Everyone has this pride and this ego about their restaurant or about their casserole! They are delusional and even at the bottom of the well of despair, they still won’t face the facts. There’s a song. Thank you, Gordon Ramsay.

HMS: The psychology is so clear on those shows. I totally agree. Human aspirations and human views of oneself are so grandiose. You can see it coming out. But you can also see people who have low self-esteem for no reason. The human situation comes out clearly when watching those shows.

KC: The human situation ties in perfectly with what I like to write about and things that I find fascinating. 

HMS: Writers have been watching humans for thousands of years.

KC: People watching is one of my favorite things to do.

HMS: Do you notice the audience members when you’re performing?

KC: Oh, I’m super-focused on the audience when I’m playing. If everyone has a role, that’s my one job, to engage with the crowd and kind of be a part of them. I’m like their spokesperson on behalf of the band and I have to get them engaged to make it all more meaningful. It wouldn’t be fun for me otherwise. There’s never been a time when I haven’t done that. 

HMS: Traditionally, vocalists are that person, that lightning rod out front.

KC: I’m okay with being that front-facing person for the band. I also have more time than the other guys to talk with people. There are four other dudes who are way more important than me!

HMS: I saw some references to all of the other bands that each have you have been in before you were in Enforced. I’m sure that previous experience has been part of why you have been able to move ahead relatively quickly and build such solid albums.

KC: We’ve all been in bands. I’ve been in bands since I was 13 or 14, and all of us have been in bands since high school. We already had tons of playing experience, we just hadn’t played together. When it came to starting a band, playing shows, and doing a DIY tour, we already knew how to do that. We knew what to expect from playing in Hardcore, Punk, and Metal bands. 

HMS: How do the lyrics come together with the lyrics. Do you all come up with the music first, and then you take inspiration from that for the lyrics?

KC: I’ll have some ideas set aside and kind of sequestered and an idea of order. That’s before I’ve heard any of the music. When I hear the music, I’ll be able to tell where I want to do vocals, and then I’ll pick and choose which lyric ideas might fit the song best. I work with the music rather than against it. “Mercy Killing Fields” has a chorus that I had written already. When I heard the demo, I thought, “That has to be ‘Mercy Killing Fields’ because the chorus fits perfectly.” That was easy. I’m always trying to shift things around to make the most cohesive sense for the lyrics to work alongside the music. Sometimes things get added last minute, but I like that challenge.

HMS: It’s interesting that you mention that song because it’s pretty unique in terms of sound among the songs on the album, and also in terms of the sad situation that prompted you to write it, regarding the death of your cousin. I think the music and the lyrics go so well together. You’d need really special music to go with a topic like that.

KC: Right, the stars would have to align to make that work. If it didn’t work, I wouldn’t have used those lyrics. I would have kept them aside and waited for the next album. I have notebooks full of garbage lyrics that may turn into gold someday. I just use them to try to sort out what I can say and how I can say it to sort of knock at the door of the human spirit and get it to answer. That’s the hard part, but it’s the fun part.

HMS: These songs are quite complex with many different parts. They don’t necessarily follow simple repetitions or song-structures. They aren’t built in a circular way, but more on progressions. There’s more variation here than you’ll hear from some Metal bands.

KC: That’s more of a Hardcore Punk element, I think, that’s there. Bands like Minor Threat, Bad Brains, and Black Flag, have no rotation. There’s a beginning, middle, and end, and it’s all progression. There’s not a lot of repetition in a lot of those songs. Having a formula is something that a lot of people love, and a lot of people hate, and maybe that’s how songs are made. But songs like “Mercy Killing Fields” and “Avarice” have choruses, a small part that repeats, but the song is still moving along. 

HMS: A lot of these also have brief or long instrumental introductions, too. I think that helps set up what’s coming in terms of storytelling. It’s a dramatic structure that’s set up. 

KC: It fleshes it out before the song actually begins. That’s how I felt, too, about “Mercy Killing Fields.” The intro felt dramatic. 

HMS: What sort of situations in the world made you think about the ideas in the song “Starve”? 

KC: “Starve” and “Hanged By My Own Hand” are where the road splits. The road is life, let’s say. You can either do what “they” say, and be a good boy, and they’ll fucking starve you to death, or you can take matters into your own hands and take yourself out of the equation. Suicide by protest is probably one of the most profound things someone can do. It’s like the burning monk on the Rage Against the Machine album cover. Actually, there was a dude who lit himself on fire in DC during the pandemic, and it got almost no airtime. That was horrible that no one even batted an eye. That’s how desensitized everything has become. 

I know this sounds super-bleak, and it is, but if you choose to do that, don’t expect much from it, I guess. You are living life on your own terms, at least. That’s one of the most powerful things you can do.

HMS: There’s dignity in that, unlike in the “Starve” scenario, which is more like predation.

KC: Yes. That’s someone being forced to live this way until they starve financially, emotionally, communally, creatively, culturally. If everything is so vapid, then you’re technically dead and you don’t realize it. You’re no longer really contributing.

HMS: That can be a kind of binary. It’s a philosophical question, like many you pose on this album, about what makes life worth living. 

KC: That comes up at the end of “Hanged.” It comes up at the end of “Mercy Killing Fields.” I don’t have any answers, but I do like to pose the question, as dark as it might be. Everyone should be comfortable with having a dark thought. 

HMS: I agree. Just accepting the world as it is, is a scarier thing, actually. Accepting everything without questioning things is much scarier than questioning.

KC: Yes, and there’s a lot to say about it. Whenever I’m asked what I want to say to audiences, I say, “Be vigilant of your surroundings, literally.” Take stock of everything around you and be more aware of the life that you’re living. Also of the lives around you and of your community. Just think about it. You might make huge discoveries thinking about things from a third-person, macro perspective.

HMS: Is some of this philosophical questioning where you got the idea and the title from, War Remains?

KC: It kind of goes back to the psychological roots of the lyrics. There’s a wonderful book by the psychologist James Hillman called A Terrible Love of War

HMS: I actually have read some of his other books, but not that one.

KC: You’ve got to go out and get that one. I have listened to countless hours of his lectures. I love him. Someone quoted him in another lecture and it led me to that book. I listened to the audio from a book tour that he did where he reads from the book and explains each chapter. It’s fascinating. I bought the book and honestly, I was so disgusted by humanity and bummed out, because it’s a heavy topic. It was really bleak. 

He tries to analyze war, this huge human experience, and understand it. His conclusion is that, as long as there are humans, there will always be war. There are more wars than recorded history. It has a kind of purpose. It paradoxically progresses us further all the while. War pushes innovation and society so much. If you don’t war, then we, as a species might stagnate. The back of the book jacket says something like “in order for humanity to exist, war will always remain.” I knew that was the title of the album. It really drives it home. The way the album is constructed, and every song fits together with that.

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