“Everybody that comes up to me after a show is like, ‘Dude, you were the first Christian band I ever listened to,’” muses Christopher Wiitala, bassist for the Blamed. “Which is kind of funny, so I say ‘That's cool. What do you think of us now?’ [And] try to get them to talk about the new stuff. With the Living Sacrifice/Luti-Kriss tour I think we were received very well, like the newer songs. I think the energy we try to have is good. People really feed off of it.

“It's kind of funny, because we had our table usually in the middle of Living Sacrifice and Luti-Kriss, and people would walk up to our table and be like, ‘Oh, that's cool,’ and then go on to Living Sacrifice. When they were standing at our booth it would be like, ‘How much is that CD?’ And then [they would] buy a Living Sacrifice CD. So, it was sometimes a little disheartening ... I don't know, maybe I'm just assuming, but I think that some people don't get us.” And now radically different from the “first Christian band” many kids listened to, the Blamed is trying to convince kids that there is much to ‘get’ with the release of their manic rock-roll album, Isolated Incident, on Grr Records. Not to mention their newfound ability to absolutely destroy live shows with an affecting rock passion not seen in quite some time.

Touring Europe for the month of January helped cement that ability. “Our first show there was a riot,” singer/guitarist Matt Switaj notes. “All you heard were the breaking of bottles, and we went outside to see it all, and there were all these German cops there. [When] we played in Hungary there were five fights, and Johnathon and I were playing on the floor because the stages are so small. I smacked some kid in the head with my guitar. It was a crazy show.”

On the differences between U.S. and European shows, Christopher observes: “In a couple of countries it was really small – like twenty or thirty kids – and they still showed enthusiasm. I think it was just a genuine showing [that] they were into it, whereas here kids just stand there with their arms folded.” And they continued the mayhem in the States. “I would say in the last month of shows ... we've really experimented with the end of our set – going nuts, as far as chaos – grabbing each other's instruments and playing them. People are just kind of like . . . they look at us like, ‘What did you just do?’ At our last show at the Cornerstone Club with Headnoise and Point of Recognition, Johnathon (Ford, of Unwed Sailor) was playing his keyboard on his head, and like going crazy. People were just like, ‘That was insane.’ They didn't know what to think. I think generally keeping that sporadic-ness is helping keep our audience.”

Managing to maintain an audience for any length of time is tough, and so is change. With a history spanning some seven odd years, they simultaneously shed and embraced their punk rock roots, and introduced a new line up with their limited release EP, Germany. Isolated Incident takes Germany and pushes it in a more rock direction. As guitarist/vocalist Matt Switaj explains, “I think there are the elements of punk and hardcore, but also 70s rock. Some of the stuff on the new record is influenced by old rock: Yes, The Who, Zeppelin, [that] kind of stuff.” Having been together as a new line up a total of three weeks before recording Germany, there are some even more obvious differences in the new album. “It's slicker. There's a lot more going on,” Christopher describes. “We experiment more with layering keyboards here and there. We took more time on it. We took like a day to mix each song, so we really put everything we could into the songs, as far as after we recorded everything. I think in general the direction kind of jumps around more a little. There's one or two songs where Bryan (Gray, band leader and guitarist) wrote more of like a punk rock direction, more or less, and the rest of it is just kind of like everybody's ideas rolled into one.”

Surviving through an almost entire lineup change, and yet managing to thrive is a trick many other bands would love to learn (and perhaps one ZAO could teach). Drummer Trevor Wiitala (twin brother of Christopher) confides, “Well, Bryan has been in the band since the beginning, and he's been the main song writer for most of the band's existence. He would write the songs, and the other guys would follow along. It's only just recently with the new line up that we've all been more involved with the writing. Basically, we're all learning how to write off of each other. With this line up there have definitely been times where I thought things weren't going to last, but I know that none of us want to give up too easily. We're all hard workers, and we want to continue playing together.”

“I really think it's because of the Lord,” Matt adds. “I think that we have never forgotten why we are doing this, and Who we owe to. I really believe in the verse when it talks about trusting in God with all our heart, and all these things shall be added unto you.” Christopher goes on to describe the changes: “We're not playing any of the older, more hardcore songs. That'll hopefully bring our set into a more flowing, continuous motion of non-stop energy.”

Along with the changes has come the report of a future label change. As for the summer, “Well, we're playing Cornerstone, Tom, and Vision Fest,” Trevor says. “We're also playing some shows on the way out to Tom Fest with the Colemans. Other than that, we're not doing much, because Bryan's wife is pregnant. We are planning on touring this fall.” “We head out in September for the U.S.,” Matt adds, “and we tour Scandinavia in November.”