Originating from the Philippines, Intolerant is a configuration of members from Filipino metal bands Skychurch and Loss of Control—vocalist/guitarist Russell Dela Cruz and guitarist Joey Dizon being from the former, and bassist Mic Gallegos and drummer Pepo Gohu from the latter. 

While the band has been on hiatus for a long while, they have recently re-released their 2010 debut full-length Reasons for Unrest which features ten high-powered tracks that are especially characteristic of the Intolerant sound.

Bandwagon caught up with guitarist Joey Dizon, who opened up regarding this latest reissue of their debut album and recounted the inception of the band, particularly how they wanted to form an outfit that steered clear from the politics of the heavy metal scene.

To start with, how would you describe Intolerant’s brand of metal?

Intolerant was born out of two bands, Skychurch which was a crossover thrash metal band, and Loss of Control which was a little more extreme metal with a lot of blast beats and fast stuff. It was a combination of both. I guess for convenience, it was very much a metalcore band with the best of thrash and hardcore because we were also really big on bands like Madball and Hatebreed.

At the time, that was what we wanted to do but Lamb of God was also getting really big and so we sort of incorporated that. We came from the underground scene but we wanted to get away from that stereotype so our first song was actually a heavy metal ballad. What we had in our heads were songs like ‘Fade to Black’ or ‘Nothing Else Matters' by Metallica. Originally it was supposed to be our version of veering away from metal but then we ended up just writing metal songs anyway so we figured that we couldn’t get away from it no matter what we do. 

Your debut full-length album Reasons For Unrest was released in 2010—how does it feel knowing it's been a decade since then? 

Well, it makes us feel old. Everything happened so fast. Basically, Intolerant was such a contradiction to what we wanted to do. We only wanted to play on Fridays and Saturdays because, in Manila, the reality is you can’t be in a band, you also have to work. We said we’re not doing weekdays because we were already involved with bands that were really busy so we wanted to just do this for fun. But for some reason people liked it, and a lot of unexpected stuff happened.

Our first gig was in Hong Kong and we didn’t even have a CD then. We went over there to play a set and we only had nine songs so we had to play two songs all over again because the crowd wanted more. Things essentially went by really quickly. 

Tell me more about the re-release of Reasons For Unrest. Why did the band decide to reissue that album? 

Intolerant folded unexpectedly. All of a sudden, we just realized we didn’t want to do it and a lot of us weren't on speaking terms anymore. But when Spotify came around, somebody uploaded the entire album. Because we weren’t talking to each other, I figured it was the other guys, and they probably figured it was me. We come from a very punk-rock, hardcore ethic, DIY or whatever, so everyone was just thinking, as long as it’s there it’s fine.

But then right before the pandemic, Pepo, our drummer called me up and told me that people were actually listening to the album. We realized whoever uploaded it was making money that should’ve been going to us, and it wasn’t like we wanted that money but we felt maybe we should regain control of our songs. We initially wanted to re-record the album and we even had a studio scheduled but because of the pandemic, we couldn’t do it so we just decided to re-release everything. 

The new artwork was done by Doyle See. What was it like working with him for that? 

Doyle is awesome. When we were still around more than ten years ago, he was this kid in the province of Cebu doing this really cool art and little did we know, he was already doing artwork for international bands. We were supposed to do merch as we had a bunch of t-shirt designs but the band ended so abruptly.

We just kept in touch over the years, and when we knew we wanted to re-release ‘Reasons For Unrest,’ I called him up to get  his permission to use his art. I was surprised because Doyle wanted to make us a new set of artwork. I was already working with him on a bunch of stuff such as the Loads of Motherhood re-releases as I’m in the business of re-releasing old stuff that never got released on Spotify. 

Off the record, your song ‘Eye For An Eye’ is quite reminiscent of Slayer and ‘God of War’ seems to be a nod towards Pantera—do you take any inspiration from these bands? 

Oh yeah, totally. There was so much debate within the band—Mic and I had an argument because he said it sounds too much like Pantera, and I was like “that’s the point.” These are our heroes and you can’t really hide your influences, especially in metal. There’s always room for creativity and you can always put a new spin on stuff but those are the classics. With ‘Eye For An Eye’ I just wanted to make a song that gets people pumped. Rather than cover a Slayer song, I figured we should just make a song that sounds like them. 

Either way, we were never ashamed to wear our influences on our sleeves, and you hit the nail on the head. ‘God of War’ is a very Pantera song and ‘Eye For An Eye’ is a very Slayer song. We argued about it but when we put it out, I guess people didn’t mind it. The occasional underground asshole would be like "you ripped them off" but that’s totally the point, we’re not hiding that fact. It’s total Slayer. 

And, are there any other bands that have influenced the inception of Intolerant?

A lot of our influences are actually non-metal influences. We were tired of being called sellouts. We were tired of people telling us you can’t do this if you’re a metal band. Both bands, Skychurch and Loss of Control, were both just so tired of the politics so we wanted to put together a band that didn’t have rules. Our thing was, we were a metal band who were playing non-metal shows. We were really breaking the mold. We wanted to be part of that live circuit.

A lot of our influences were the big four, and as for Lamb of God—we weren’t trying to sound like them but we were influenced by how they put their sound together. Russell and I are also suckers for really good pop music. I always joke that if Boyz II Men and Slayer had a concert on the same day, I’d probably go to the Boyz II Men show. Mic was really into this weird artsy shit like Explosions In The Sky and Sunn O))) type of stuff. Pepo engineers hip-hop albums and tracks too so it was never about one kind of music. That’s why we were so eclectic and there were so many left-turns on the album. 

Since you’ve started, you’ve played for notable events such as 2007’s Fete del Musique, 2008’s UP Fair and PULP Summer Slam. Out of all the gigs you’ve put on, which ones have been the most memorable thus far? 

The PULP shows weren’t really memorable for me because I worked there, and it was tiring working and then playing a show but we opened for a lot of bigger bands like Hatebreed and Arch Enemy. We were also on the same bill with Death Angel.

The overseas shows were even more memorable as during that time, it was sort of unheard of for a metal band from the Philippines to actually go round and do it properly. There’s also that stereotype that if you’re a metal band, you have to gig in poor conditions but we wanted to do it right. We wanted to make the finances work and do it the professional way, and we were actually really lucky because Hong Kong happened. The Hong Kong show was what set things off for us. We got to play with really cool bands like Shepherds The Weak.

When we played Singapore, it was sort of like a homecoming show because a lot of our Filipino friends who worked there showed up, and we played with amazing bands like Truth Be Known and other local Singaporean bands that really floored us. It was a great gathering of metal bands. 

How would you say Intolerant is different from the other metal bands you’ve been in? 

I played guitar in a bunch of bands including a punk band and an alternative band that covered 90s stuff but Intolerant is really different because it’s one of those things that just happened. There was some element of planning but everything just happened organically. But when something happens organically, it can also disappear really quickly.

I guess that was kind of the Intolerant experience. It achieved so much in so little time by heavy metal standards. In no way am I claiming that we were a big band or whatever but it was a crazy ride and everyone just hung onto the crazy train. We had to navigate our way through all this craziness and played anywhere and everywhere for a good 4-5 years.

We knew we wanted it to be a self-sustaining band so we were doing stuff that was sort of unheard of in our circle. We were also getting sponsors and so we actually learnt the business on the fly. It became an entity that was bigger than the four of us. It really was a well-oiled machine but then it fell apart. It’s such a cliche but I guess that’s really how it works—you get that one in a million chance and you just take it and ride it out till the very end. 

Lastly, do you guys have any future plans for Intolerant? Since the band has been on hiatus for quite a while now, I was just wondering if you’ve got any projects that are currently in the works? 

I have a bunch of solo stuff that I was recording through the years. There was one track that was sort of an Intolerant song that never got released. Basically, the music was written by me, Pepo, and Mic but I released it with other guys from Hong Kong as a collaboration. It was a single called ‘Might of Your Words.’

Pepo and Mic are so musically open-minded and creative so they’re still exploring other stuff, and when we released the Intolerant stuff, we were saying that maybe we should put out the other stuff out too under one account. We thought it was a cool idea so that might be the stuff for the future. Russell’s busy with Skychurch so right now, I would say no definite plans. But you know, never say never. 

Listen to ‘Reasons For Unrest’ on Spotify.