Weird Band Alert! Austrian Death Machine Pay Tribute to Cinematic Quote Machine Arnold Schwarzenegger
BLENDER: The songs on your debut Total Brutal are based on Schwarzenegger one-liners. Why the Governator?
AUSTRIAN DEATH MACHINE: “I love aggressive music, and Arnold is the embodiment of brutality—but he also has moments where he’s unintentionally very funny,” says Tim Lambesis, 28, whose main gig is singing for Christian metalcore band As I Lay Dying. Lambesis performs everything on the album, save for the Arnold spoken word parts, provided by Destroy the Runner frontman Chad Ackerman. When the band plays live, Ackerman wears an Arnold costume designed by the guys from Gwar.
B: Has Governor Schwarzenegger heard the album yet?
ADM: “It’s hard to know for sure, but I would assume at this point he’s probably caught wind of it,” says Lambesis, who describes his side project’s shredtastic sound as “purposefully meat-head.” “Our attorney actually is in the same building as a relative of Arnold’s—his nephew is also an attorney—so the plan is to present it to him in the most positive light. It could appear that it’s making fun of Arnold, but it’s paying tribute to him in a strange way.”
B: What’s your favorite Ahnold line?
ADM: “You can’t argue with, ‘Who is your daddy, and what does he do?’ from Kindergarten Cop,” Lambesis says. “Another favorite, which I’m saving for the next album, is from Total Recall. When Arnold realizes that his wife is actually a bad guy—or bad girl—who betrayed him, he shoots her and says, ‘Consider that a divorce.’”
B: How come you haven’t done Ahnold’s two most famous quotes yet?
ADM: “Like ‘I’ll be back’? I have to save some of the gems for the sequel!” Lambesis explains. “I have recorded ‘Hasta La Vista, Baby’ already. It’ll be the perfect last song on an album—a triumphant, epic outro.”
Watch "Get to the Choppa" below:
