Hello and thanks for taking part in our by-now traditional end of year recapitulation – Welcome to Sentinel Daily! Now, to the questions!

First up, for the benefit of our readers, please identify yourself and what you do in the band… “G’Day, G’Day! I’m Chris or otherwise known as “McThrashy” – I play bass and sing in the Aussie thrash howyagarn’ trio, Hidden Intent“.

What sort of a year do you think it’s been musically, notwithstanding the chaos going on in the real world? And what were your musical highlights in 2020? “Musically it’s been a very challenging time, there’s been no excuse not to practice but at the same time finding the motivation to practice when there’s no bloody gigs is farkin’ hard. That being said our highlights for this year have been writing and recording a new album and developing our business online. People have been super supportive, buying our merch, donating to the band, it’s definitely brought us and the people close together, bloody legends the lot of em’!”

We’ll touch on that band-fan interaction a little bit more later. We’ve covered the highlights, but were there any lowlights for you? Or do you prefer to try and stay away from things that are going to make you disappointed? “Lowlights for us would definitely be not being able to return to the US, we were scheduled to play with Exodus at Full Terror Assault Open Air, which would have been a massive career highlight for band. We even know their guitar tech because he is also a tech for Dark Angel who we played with late last year! Would have been nice to sink some piss with him. Not being able to catch up with our mates in Lich King sucks balls also but heaps of bands are feeling the same so we just have to stay positive and focus on the behind the scenes stuff”.

We can’t talk about 2020 without mentioning COVID- how did it impact on your band specifically? And how did you combat COVID setbacks? And, moving ahead, do you think the way we do things like touring in the future will be able to take any positives from what’s happened since March? “For us COVID hindered our returning to both Europe and the States, which sucks because we were just starting to find our feet there independently. Personally, I’m hoping that people won’t take shows (both local and international) for granted. Time and time again people come up with the list of excuses to not go to a show when they clearly like the band’s music or would enjoy it if they just gave them a farkin’ listen. From what I can see small shows are selling out super bloody quick so it looks like the industry is slowly building up again”.

Slowly. Unfortunately that has to be the key word at this point. Talking of disease, if a worldwide pandemic had happened twenty years ago it’s arguable that the effect on bands may have been even worse given the absence of the internet and social media – Do you think the fact that fans now have a much more direct line to bands meant that social media played a part in helping bands survive this period of financial instability? What do you think of the rash of pay per view concerts we have seen spring up recently? “Most definitely! If we didn’t have the internet right now, we’d be screwed! People would be going bloody mad and bands definitely wouldn’t be able to connect with their fans as directly as they can. Social media is huge for bands now more than ever, some bands are better at it than others, the ones that will kick ass after this is over are the ones that stayed connected throughout this crazy period. I think the pay per view concert is a killer idea, I’d probably pay for one if there wasn’t any small local shows happening. I just hope the pay per view concerts are good quality and kick ass! I hope people are definitely realising how important music and the arts sector in general really is”.

And what about the ‘Zoom Jams’ – are you a fan? If so, what ones should we be seeking out on the internet to cheer ourselves up? “This is where I think it can get messy because the sound quality can be pretty terrible and ruin the perception of a band; that being said I’ve enjoyed some of the Zoom jams that have been edited properly. It’s great to see musicians connecting together and covering songs to entertain their fans. The ones I saw of the Anthrax guys teaming up with other bands were farkin’ awesome. Love how they each film from different locations in their house”.

Yes, the Charlie Benante collabs have been a big hit at Sentinel Daily HQ! Now, shows are tentatively being booked now across the world for 2021 and beyond – what does the next twelve months hold for you? “We’re slowly getting booked for a few small shows for early next 2021 with small capacities, I just hope they’re not seated as that really kills the vibe for us, our music is very energy-based so we need people standing up and moshing! We have one festival booked overseas buts it’s hard to say if we’ll get over there until restrictions lift, praying to the metal gods! I just keep trying to stay connected with other bands of our genre so we can hopefully play with them at some point”.

It’s our end of year round up, so of course our thoughts are turning to the Holiday season. What’s best for you? Christmas or New Year? And what will you be drinking? “Personally, I prefer New Years, great time to reflect with great people and party hard! Me and the Mrs are supposed to be flying up the Gold Coast to visit Frosty from Espionage and his lovely lady but we’ll see how restrictions pan out. That being said I love trying to get my parents wasted at Christmas haha. I’ll be drinking the finest IPA’s I can find then switching to some Lemmys to keep myself awake!”

You’ve been invited to the Sentinel Daily office party -we’ve let you take charge of the stereo for five songs. What will you play?

SodomSodom & Gomorrah, Judas Priest‘s Turbo Lover, Idle Minded by Harlott, Stay Clean Motörhead and Runnin’ Wild by Airbourne“.

That’s quite enough festive fun for the time being– here’s your chance to speak directly to our readers – what would you like to say to them? “A new Hidden Intent album – Dead End Destiny – is out early in 2021; stay safe, stay merry and get a dog up ya! Dave Mustaine for president, cheers for having me”.

Thanks for taking part!