The life and politics of death metal through the eyes of Kam Lee (BONE GNAWER)

(by Mike Riddick)

Kam Lee discusses activities with his latest bands, most notably, BONE GNAWER, and explains why the rebirth of MASSACRE didn’t happen. We also catch a glimpse of the 80s-90s underground death metal movement through Kam’s eyes and get a snapshot on the early inception of DEATH! Below is our chat with Kam…

Hi Kam, please tell us about the inception of Bone Gnawer. What inspired the formation of the band and how did it follow that the members all reside in various locations around the world?

The band was conceived in mid-summer of 2008, but I was introduced to Rogga Johansson (online) through a mutual friend at the time, months before, as I was asked to work together with Rogga on a project called REVOLTING. After sometime though… things with REVOLTING’s label didn’t work out, and my involvement with that project ended. Yet, Rogga still wanted to do a project together with me, and so we discussed a way to create a band together that would not only be a “recording project” but would have the potential to be a “live performing” and “touring” band as well. That band ended up becoming BONE GNAWER. The concepts of BONE GNAWER are all based on ideas I’ve had for awhile, but I didn’t have the proper band to utilize these concepts and ideas with until BONE GNAWER was created. The concepts of cannibalism, serial killers, and human butchery… really didn’t fit with my former band Denial Fiend, and I felt that I needed a “proper” death metal unit to be able to express these concepts in the right way! I still live in Florida – while Rogga and the other members all live in Sweden. Rogga suggested using Ronnie Bjornstrom as the guitarist, (whom he has worked with together on RIBSPREADER and some other projects) and Rogga would actually take up the position as bass player himself. He also suggested recruiting Morgan Lie to come in as the drummer.

The members are all significant veterans of the extreme metal community, including you, having been an early component of Mantas / Death, and of course, Massacre. The other members have experience with bands like Paganizer, Naglfar, Hate Ammo, etc. It seems to be the perfect blend of early American death metal meets early Swedish death metal. Was this intentional? It states in your press materials that Bone Gnawer performs a style of death metal reminiscent of the early ’90s. Your thoughts?

Yes, Rogga and I are both big fans of that era of death metal… we feel the late 80’s – early 90s death metal bands and style to be the “true staple” sound of “real and true” death metal! This is the kind of death metal that both of us played in the 90s and the kind of death metal that we both helped to create and forge. It would be ridiculous for us to try and “copy” some more modernized death-core/slam-core/grind-core style sounding bands – as those bands pretty much are influenced directly by the sound and style we created in the first place.

The music is full of groove and straight-up ‘in your face’ death metal! Is the band seeking a sense of death metal purity, a sort of blueprint for what real death metal is versus all of the technical stuff that’s popular at the moment?

PUTING THE HOOKS BACK INTO DEATH METAL! That is pretty much our “slogan/tag line” – I think that statement pretty much says it all. So yes… it is the full intention of BONE GNAWER and its members to preserve the original style and sound of that Swedish style 90s death metal buzzsaw onslaught, and to have the hooks and catchy grooves of early 90’s Floridian death metal bands.

You had Killjoy (Necrophagia) guest some sick ass vocals on “Feast of Flesh.” How did that come about? I understand you and Killjoy share affection for the horror genre…please elaborate and tell us about your favorite flicks!

I’ve been friends with Killjoy for sometime now… I’m a huge NECROPHAGIA fan – I’ve known him since 1984. I’ve been wanting to do something together with him for some time, so once I got BONE GNAWER going I knew this would be the “perfect” band to have him come and do guest vox with me. When I asked him about it – he was more than happy to do it for us, and I was more than thrilled to have him do it for us. Stevo from IMPETIGO as well as Dopi from MACHETAZO too were both a great thrill for me to have done this with us. Well… any fan of our bands would be able to see horror influences throughout our material. Killjoy and I have a big love of all things horror. Horror films, horror books, horror art – Halloween is our favorite holiday – and our houses are decorated more like something out of a “horror movie – halloween store – haunted mansion” than a normal house. The horror genre in general is a huge part of our lives. Hell, I have a life sized rubber severed “Satan head” that hangs next to my bed, and a full-sized skeleton in my closet “for real” – as well as several zombie body parts and other gory props around my home. Jack-o-lanterns, human skull decor, gargoyles, bats… tombstones, horror movie posters – all that fun stuff!

What are some next steps for Bone Gnawer? Can we expect another album on Pulverised next year?

We have a split coming up for Halloween 2009 with the band BONESAW! Three new tracks of brutalizing cannibalistic groovy death metal! That’s our next serving to be dished out for cannibal consumption. Then we will begin working on the next album. We already have a few tracks written – and it’s going to be even more intense and brutal, but still retain those hooks and grooves as well. Not sure if it’ll be out on Pulverised yet or not… we will look at what options we have when the time gets closer to when we will start to record.

Any touring plans in spite of the distance between members?

We’ve been trying to secure a tour, but so far – NO luck yet. I haven’t been able to get any word from promoters, and I will admit… I’m getting a little annoyed with that. But we want to tour… we just need to be able to find a promoter or promotion company willing to work it out with us. We don’t have an agent/manager… so part of that is what’s making it hard.

There was some talk about the reformation of Massacre. What is the current status of this if you care to share?

Sorry, but I must report: it’s not going to happen now. MASSACRE is DEAD!! It was killed by the former ex-members. I’m sure you heard that I was going to reform the band for a new album in 2010, but without any of the former members. This was due to several factors… but basically because I can’t work with those guys anymore. Too much bad blood between us all… and I refuse to be involved in their petty drama, lies, back stabbing, two-faced bull shit anymore! Once they got word of me trying to reform the band… they went into ape-shit temper tantrums and basically made a huge deal about me using the band name. They basically did not want me continuing on with the band without them being involved. It basically turned into a fucking three-ring circus with the clowns as ring leaders for awhile. Finally, I just said ” FUCK IT!” I don’t need MASSACRE to continue my music career…I don’t need to get myself involved in a bunch of shit and drama that I really don’t need. So I opted to just leave it all behind me. If my friends and fans really want to hear more of what I’m doing… they’ll follow me no matter what bands I do.

Tell us what a day in the life of Kam is like!

Horror – horror – horror!!! It’s all about horror! No, really, my life is pretty full these days… I try and keep busy all of the time. I’m 24/7 in creative mode. I have ideas flowing out of my brain all the time. I’m either busy with band business online… promoting BONE GNAWER and my other projects, or I’m writing. I work on lyrics and ideas, as well as some story lines and script out ideas. I have set days that I do things… I have a certain schedule I follow. On weekends I have rehearsal with my only “local band” that I do – which is not a metal band. CRYPTIDZ is a fun band for me to do. It’s an “old school style” Horror-Punk/Psychobilly-type band in the vein of early MISFITS meets THE CRAMPS. And it’s just a real cool, laid back, fun band that I do with my friends… it’s a basic “party band” that we just sit back – drink some beers, and hang out together for fun! During the week I’m doing interviews on the phone or via the internet, to promote my band BONE GNAWER and also THE GROTESQUERY, and I’m always working on new music and ideas. In-between all that, it’s movies…mostly horror. I have horror movies playing all of the time… sometimes older movies I’ve seen a hundred times. I’ll have those on in the background while I’m working. Sometimes I just have them on as a background visual while I have some music playing on the stereo. It could be old school Shaw Brother Kung Fu flicks, or even some other Hong Kong action films. But, most of the time it’s horror films. Then in the early evenings between 6 and 10, I put aside a few hours to watch new stuff. My late nights are when I usually game. I’m into a lot of survival horror games. There’s recently been a lot of RE5 and L4D on 360, as well as some SILENT HILL Origins on PSP. By the way, did I mention that I do NOT sleep. Oh yeah, I barley sleep…maybe two or three hours a day, that’s it. I don’t waste too much time sleeping.

You are credited as being one of the progenitors of the ‘death growl’…a huge honor in the annals of death metal history! Do you agree with this honor and what inspired your vocal style back in the day?

I’m much honored to have this credit, and it’s ”cult” recognition at best. As the mass majority is still pretty ignorant of this fact, it’s not widely known that I created the “death growl” nor is it the norm. To most people outside of the “underground” scene – they tend to think that either Mark Greenway {Napalm Death} or Chris Barnes {Cannibal Corpse} were the first to do the “growling” style vocals. That’s not the case, they may have growled deeper and eventually developed and perfected their own styles later, but it was from what I created back in 1985 – that they went on to copy and form their own unique techniques and styles. Back when I started as a vocalist I took influences from Tom G. Warrior of HELLHAMMER and Cronos of VENOM, plus a bit of Quorthon from BATHORY.

Can you tell us a bit about the early incarnation of Mantas and Death? If I recall, it was a three piece band. What was the energy of the band like in those days and what steps were you taking to get the band names on the map?

It was summer of 1983 that we first got together as MANTAS. Rick and I had rehearsed a few times before under the moniker of INVADERS FROM HELL, but once we got together with Chucky (we all were listening to VENOM a lot back then) we first called ourselves MANTAS, based upon the guitarist of VENOM. Shortly after recording the first rehearsal/demo “Death by Metal,” Chuck suggested changing the name to DEATH. I drew up the original logo that night with a ball point pen on a piece of notebook paper, and pretty much the rest is “history.” What we had to do back then to get any recognition was “tape trade.” Both Chucky and I were into tape trading, and this was how we got the band’s name out. There wasn’t Internet and e-mails, Mp3s/Wav files or anything like that back then. Everything was done through the “snail mail” post, cassette tapes, and through the “true underground movement.”

Once you had left the band, did it upset you to see Death securing the kind of success they were experiencing or was it something you were proud of them for?

Sure. At first I fucking hated the fact that DEATH got a record deal. At the time, Chuck had moved around from Florida and ended up California. In the meantime, I had moved from the Orlando area to the Tampa area and got MASSACRE going. Chuck got “lucky,” but it was also due to what “we started” together with the demos and his “connections” in the industry. Despite what people say, it’s not what you know, it’s WHO you know in any business. At the time, Chuck knew all the right people and so by moving to L.A., and getting with those people, his career took off once he reformed the band with the members he got in California. What was a worse blow was when he moved back from California to Florida in 1987, and basically my entire band, MASSACRE, left to join DEATH. That was what first showed me that each and every one of them only cared about themselves and their selfishness and greedy bloated egos. I thought, at the time in 1990 when the entire line-up came back to re-join MASSACRE and to finally record “From Beyond,” that they learned a valuable lesson about “stabbing people in the back.” But the simple fact is none of those bastards have ever learned anything other than to be selfish. Still, to this day, not one of them has ever given me an open apology for what they did, and I don’t think they ever will. Their selfishness and over-righteous self-pride will not allow them to say they are “sorry” for fucking me over not once…but several times during our careers. I gave these guys chance after chance to befriend me, work together in bands with me, and they always ended up screwing me over somehow, or someway, in the end. I would be the one to keep “forgiving and forgetting” and the one to bury the hatchet, over and over again. I have now learned my own lesson, and that is: I have burnt those bridges. I will not forgive those guys for not only destroying the friendship we had, but totally destroying the band MASSACRE as well.

Was it surprising to see the launch of death metal in this way? What are some of your thoughts on its rise and what do you think made it so appealing in comparison to what other bands were doing at the time?

Sure. I think the rise of Death Metal took everyone by surprise back in the early 90’s. It was like an unstoppable tidal wave in the music scene. I didn’t come from a “metal” background myself, but rather a hard-core punk/horrorpunk psychobilly rock background. Bands like The MISFITS, SAMHAIN, The CRAMPS, 45 GRAVE…these were the bands I was into. So, at first, I hated most metal…especially the metal of the early days. The N.W.O.B.H.M. movement I was not into and I hated those high-pitched girly vocals. I never could stand that bollocks! I also loath guitar leads. I think that shit is just bullshit. I appreciate the talent, but it seems every one of those so-called “Guitar Heroes” is self-bloated egotistical assholes. I liked the first wave of sick death metal like HELLHAMMER and even the old school black metal like VENOM and BATHORY because this stuff was just so vile and untalented. It was MISFITS-type horror vibe turned up to 100. That was what got me into the “death metal” scene.

Tell us what else you currently have on your plate…you’re a busy man for sure!

I just finished up recording for THE GROTESQUERY, another death metal band that I’m doing with Rogga Johansson. Only this time we are doing something a little different than BONE GNAWER. Even though it’s still in the old school 90’s style, it’s more or less like bands such as UNLEASHED. It’s very dark and occult driven. The album will be a “Gothic Horror Tale” told around the 10 tracks from the album. I think it’s unique and original for the “death metal” scene. The scene has been lacking as of late with something innovative and original and I think we’ve done just that with this album. It will be released through Cyclone Empire Records out of Germany and we should see it released around the “New Year” of 2010. But before that…remember BONE GNAWER has a release coming out for Halloween of 2009…a split with the band BONESAW, so that should be out soon! I also have a few other projects in the works. One is the project BROKEN GRAVESTONES with Noel Kemper of ALTAR OF GIALLO/GRUSOME STUFF RELISH, and another project I have coming up will be GRAVEWAX. For the most part, I think these will be recording projects only, but it would be sweet to do at least a few shows with them if it could be arranged. I’m into doing “horror movies” now, and together with my friend Rob Rieder, we created an independent film company called AKOHON FILMS. We did our first short film called: BETTIE DEADLY. It’s a sort of zombie-comedy coming of age film. It’s about this girl named Bettie that is basically a geeky, nerdy, unpopular girl in high school. All she has ever secretly wished and dreamed for was to be the most popular, well respected and wanted girl in school. Then, one morning, she finally gets what she always asked for: to be perched up high on a pedestal with the entire school, students and teachers alike wanting a piece of her! Too bad they’re all zombies!

Any closing words for our readership?

Thanks for the interview and thanks for the support. I hope to see the fans and friends keep on supporting my efforts and my bands and projects, because in the end I’m really doing it for the fans and my friends.

www.myspace.com/bonegnawerband
www.pulverised.net