Bloodletting: 3 Inches of Blood Rides Again

Bloodletting: 3 Inches of Blood Rides Again

- By Creative Team

After stepping away for nearly a decade, first-rate falsetto frontman Cam Pipes reveals why he got his NWOBHM-worshipping band back together.

Words by Kurt Orzeck

There are countless metal bands across the world. But theres only one 3 Inches of Blood. Consisting of five Canadian heathens who hold the NWOBHM torch as tight as a pit bull with a marrow bone, and fronted by a clean vocalist with the highest falsetto this side of King Diamond, 3 Inches of Blood cannot be measured on the same spectrum as most other metal bands.

British Columbias finest were a true anomaly during the awkward period when heavy music transitioned from nu-metal to metalcore in the early aughts. Their shows were populated by graying metalheads still stuck on Priest, metal-curious hipsters who smirked more than screamed at 3 Inches of Bloods performances—and D&D enthusiasts locked into vocalist Cam Pipesfantasy, role-playing lyrics.

By January 2015, 3 Inches of Blood had dried up, their metal spirit hollowed (or drowned) out by far fiercer subgenres on the one hand, and the invasion of hipster metal on the other. It felt like a good time to take a step back, as Pipes recalls. They went kaput in November of that year and remained dormant until about a year ago (a period during which Ash Pearson honed his tech-drumming chops by joining Bostons Revocation, of which hes still a member).

And yet, while 3 Inches of Blood were outliers through and through, their absence was sorely missed. Sure, metal exploded over the subsequent decade in terms of both mainstream and underground popularity, to an extent no one expected. But along the way, metal—or maybe just metal fans—seemed to take itself more seriously than before, lost some of its imagination and strayed slightly from the roots that had established metal as arguably musics most entertaining genre.

Its anyones guess whether those trends will reverse themselves anytime soon. But in the meantime, 3 Inches of Blood have brought us a ray of light by re-forming after an eight-year hiatus. And earlier this month, Knotfest caught up with 3IOB battle commander Cam Pipes, the bands only remaining original member, for a bloody good conversation.

 

Congrats on getting the band back together, as the saying goes. How did it play out?

Pipes - Thanks. Initially we decided to do some reunion shows in Vancouver in January (2024). Then things steamrolled, and we added more shows throughout the year. We did about 10 across Canada and a couple in the U.S.

Were you surprised by the demand for a 3 Inches of Blood reunion, even though reunion tours are all the rage right now?

Pipes - For sure. The level of the reception and the size of venues took it to the next level. I don't know how much better we could have done this year. It was way, way, way, way beyond our expectations. Everyone's delighted.

How many times did you toy with the idea of reuniting before committing to it?

Pipes - Well, no one really brought it up until (rhythm guitarist/screaming vocalist) Justin (Hagberg) called me one day and said he was feeling inspired. I had always thought I would be into the idea of reuniting, but I didn't want to be the first one to bring it up. We sat down for a couple hours one day and talked about the possibility and how we'd go about it. Then we approached the other guys, and everybody seemed to be like-minded. We spent at least a year getting together, and practicing here and there. We're all kind of spaced out in the lower mainland and around Vancouver. And (bassist) Nick (Cates) lives in Seattle, which is a two and a half hour drive away. Being able to get together was a little challenging at times—but we made it happen.

Once we decided to plan some shows, we gave ourselves tons of time to step up the production, promote (the shows), get the buzz going and finally announce it. We were trying to be a lot more professional this time. Not that we weren't before, but…

In what ways did you ramp up the scale of the production? 

Pipes - Most of our past shows (involved us) flying in having to source local production within a certain budget. We wanted these shows to be much more spectacular and bring the crowd something they'd never seen from us before. Also, we used to tour in a 15-passenger van and a trailer. We weren't making too much money back then, so bringing a lighting person with us was not in the budget. This time around, we got more lighting and effects onstage. We have some buddies in town in Vancouver who work in the local film industry and helped us with some pretty cool hookups. We also did confetti cannons at our Vancouver shows, and some smoke machines too.

Needless to say, you couldnt have footed those bis in the early dayseven when you toured with Ozzfest.

Pipes - We had just finished a tour with Death Angel in fall 2013, but even before then, we had to ramp down our touring schedule because it wasn't financially as viable for us to be a support band on a packaged tour. It was getting really difficult. The opportunities were really lackluster, in terms of the quality of bands we were trying to be packaged with, and the money that was being offered. So it was like, Yeah, it's not worth it.” So after the Death Angel tour, we kind of reassessed our whole situation and decided to take a break for a year.

Some of the guys wanted to go off and do other stuff that they had been kind of working on in terms of family business and education and that sort of thing. After that, we played a couple shows, but more or less, we were on an indefinite hiatus. After a year or so, we reconvened, and people's attitudes had kind of changed. I'm not talking about me, but someone in the band was like, Im at a point where I have a really good career path I can take.” And someone else was like, Yeah, I want to pursue this family business, et cetera, and work on other musical projects.”

I wanted to give them their time. I would have liked to see it keep going, but the consensus was, Let's just call it a day and go our separate ways.” But we all stayed friends. And by the time we got back together and decided we were going to do this again, it wasn't really a continuation of what we had been doing. It was a rebirth. We didn't consciously put it that way amongst each other, but that's sort of how it's felt. We're kind of re-familiarizing ourselves with each other and these songs and just rediscovering how fun they are to play. That's really where it's at. We're a little older, a little wiser, and we're at—I think—better places in our lives than we were back then.


When you decided to reunite, did you want to be pretty even-handed in selecting songs to perform from each of your albums?

Pipes - We were relying very heavily on Advance and Vanquish, being that it was the 20th anniversary this year. We didnt play the entire album but did do about three-quarters or more of it on any given night. We swapped out songs here and there. No set was identical this year, I think.

What was the biggest stumbling block or obstacle that you had to overcome to make the reunion happen?

Pipes - Nothing really major, only little wrinkles. Practicing ahead of shows was tricky with everyone's work schedules and being able to get everyone into town at the same time. Revocation have been recording a new record and touring, and flying overseas, etc. Ash has (also) been playing shows with Marty Friedman in Asia. Actually, there was a situation where Ash was playing with Marty in Indonesia and Singapore, and then he had to fly back and only had a day to recoup from jet lag before practicing for a day with us and then flying to Winnipeg to play a festival where we headlined one of the nights. It all worked out great. Dude's a road warrior. He figures it out, because even though he fills his schedule up pretty tight, he knows how to manage his time pretty well.

How are your vocals these days? Have you been keeping them in pretty good shape over the years?

Pipes - I didnt do much musically (during the split). I played in a Scorpions cover band a couple times and started working on a new band with some people. We never had a full lineup, though, and while we were writing songs and rehearsing and trying out vocal ideas and whatnot, COVID hit, and no one could really practice together. Beyond that, the only singing I did was karaoke at our bass player's wedding—and singing in the car, of course, which I love to do when no one's around.

That mustve been a rough re-entry, then.

Pipes - There were definitely a couple songs where I was like, Can I still do this?” But that was during my first rehearsal in a while, and I was getting the cobwebs off, shaking the rust off. I still feel like I do pretty well. I definitely felt it after the three nights in Vancouver, where I really kind of pushed it, and it took a few days before I could really talk normally again. But I didn't completely lose my voice.

What's the hardest song for you to sing?

Pipes - Oh boy. Axes of Evil” has always been a challenging song for me. Not only (in terms of) hitting certain notes, but also there's a lot of really word-heavy verses and continuous shifting. Managing my breathing patterns is always like trying to get it out and not get totally gassed. But having that (song) in the set now and practicing a lot has helped get me used to doing it more often. It wasn't always a song that we played a lot. 

Were you jittery before any of the shows, whether it be the first one you played after reuniting or the Vancouver homecoming gigs? 

Pipes - Absolutely. The first night in Vancouver, I had that pre-show anxiety that I tended to get all the time (before). But once you get up, play a couple songs, then your nerves kind of settle, and you get into the rhythm, and then that nervous energy kind of goes away. But this was a different kind of thing … our first show back in over eight years, and tons of family and friends there, a sold-out show, a thousand-plus people there in our hometown. My wife was also there to calm me down and reassure me. We rehearsed so much, there was no way it could go wrong. 

On a more artistic level, being away from your craft for so long, what excited you most about returning to 3 Inches of Blood?

Pipes - I've always liked being onstage, and I really missed doing it with this band. I think I kind of got in my own head after the band first called it a day, and I wasn't really motivated to start anything new for quite a while, until some friends were like, Hey, what are you doing musically? Do you want to try and work on some stuff?” (But) the pandemic shut that down. Who knows what would have happened if the world hadn't shut down? But I can't really look back and wonder what if, right? 

(That said,) I did keep our social media somewhat active and would post memories from years gone by. There were always lots of words of encouragement, and people calling for a reunion tour. So we knew people out there who wanted it.

 

Is it too premature for a proper reunion tour?

Pipes - We have some festivals booked. There's more on the way that hasn't been announced. We really like doing the European festival stuff. And I'm glad that people are coming along for the ride. 

Are you surprised by how metal has evolved during the time you've been gone—and the direction that death metal in particular has taken?

Pipes - Well, all genres evolve in some respects. But I'll be honest: I havent really kept up with current trends in music over the past eight to 10 years. I tend to stick to my regular playlists with a lot of old-school music across all sorts of metal genres.

(Some people) tell me, Wow, you guys really influenced a resurgence in traditional metal.” Thats really cool to hear—and surprising as well. It kind of makes sense, Because when we really first came on the scene in getting signed to Roadrunner in 2004, and then putting out (that years Advance and Vanquish and 2007s Fire Up the Blades), I think we (stuck) out like a sore thumb on a lot of tours. It wasn't always discouraging, it was like, OK, we stand out, that's good.” But there were definitely tours where people just did not receive us very well. Not booing us or anything like that, but just like, standing there, arms crossed, getting no reaction whatsoever. 

But it is what it is, and we persevered. Even though our influences are very much rooted in the 80s, traditional metal, New Wave, British heavy metal, etc., we sort of were ... behind the times, but also ahead of our time. We were kind of stuck, maybe the way some metal bands were in the early 90s, when grunge came in. Nu metal was still kind of popular, and metalcore and deathcore were just sort of emerging. Our sound was very different from a lot of what people were doing. Some promoters, labels and press wrote us off as like a joke band, and I never really understood that. 

Especially in the U.K. in those early days, people thought we were taking the piss, as they say over there. And I was like, What the hell?” I'm really into sci-fi, fantasy, medieval history and whatnot—that inspires a lot of what I write about, because that's what I would read and study when I was growing up. Because we weren't writing socially provocative political treatises, maybe they thought we were making fun of metal. It was definitely something that dogged us in those early days, but I think we've worked hard at overcoming that.

We didn't really worry about it too much. We just did our thing and we had our fans and they stuck by us. And so that's all that matters.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

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3 Inches of Blood are currently scheduled to perform May 17 at Milwaukee Metal Fest; June 13 at the Grave in Leeuwarden, Nederland; and August 7 at Bloodstock in Catton Hall, England. More dates are expected to be announced soon.

Snag 3 Inches of Blood clothes on EpicMerchStore.com, merch on TemporalDimensionsPatches.com and the remastered vinyl reissue of Advance and Vanquish on RealGoneMusic.com.

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