I start off the band section here with a band that I have heard only ONE song. FUNERALITY from Sweden have one song on their myspace player, and one song on the Mystical Music Zine Comp CD. It is the same song “Master Of The Foul Arts”. They have managed to get my attention with this one song. They are THAT good. And 1 second within hearing this great song, I was fucking sold. They have captured THE SOUND. For me, the ultimate “Death Metal Sound” are the demos of the past greats. The power and energy, the evil feeling and dark production. Funerality have the Autopsy “Critical Madness” sound almost down to a T! When you listen to a recording like this, it sounds like the vocalist is going to jump out of the speakers and kill you. These Swedish mad men also have the killer riffs to go with the diabolical vocals. Some would say that it is a classic Autopsy rip off. But I say these fuckers know what they are doing, and if you are going to “sound” like a band, then Autopsy is always a great one to sound like. There is a dirty ass punk vibe with these fuckers as well. A Repulsion influence being strong, of course since they were the kings of punk/death so to speak! haha. Digging deep into this band, I found that it is one fucking guy that makes this death noise! He plays all instruments and does all the vocals. SICK! I wonder if he will join the “one man death metal band” trend? hahahaha. Funereality has put out a demo on CD that was only 20 pressed. There was a 2nd pressing of this demo on tape, with only 100 pressed. This demo is a 3 song release called “Funeral For A Fuck”. Talk about rare as fuck! This is some kvlt underground shit! I don’t know if there are shirts available or not, so get in contact through the myspace. This guy is also in Old Bones, a killer Swedish death/doom band that has been making noise in the underground. On the Funereality front, I understand that a 2nd demo will be coming out soon. Maybe this side project will become a more serious one! It sure has the potential to blow away 90% of the other “old school” bands that are spawning everywhere! I can’t say enough about this guy and his song! hahahaha. I look forward to getting my copy of the demo!

FUNEREALITY

www.myspace.com/reversefuck

Keeping with the Swedish theme, we have MIASMAL. I hear more of an early Dismember vibe with these guys. And of fucking course this rules! It is simple, straight forward and to the point. Just like any of the great Swedish death metal bands, there is the crushing heaviness, the catchy riffs, and the addicting melody. The song writing is always top notch with the good ones, and Miasmal are one of them. Ohhhhh, those lovely fucking skank beats! ARGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! Gives me the fucking chills like the creep that Iam! The production is dense and heavy as fuck with their songs. In the end, these guys do the classic Swedish death metal GREAT! They fit right along side of all the old heavyweights that killed us back then! Everything from the vocals, to the riffs and drums are awesome! The songs move at a ripping pace and never get boring. The 3 songs on the myspace are fucking killer! These maniacs will be playing the Kill Town Death Fest in Denmark on Sept 16th. As well as the Nuclear War Now! Fest #2 November 19th in Germany. FUCK, I wish I could go to these fests! Miasmal will be playing with quite an impressive line up at both fests! The Denmark fest is their first actual show playing live. Quite a opening gig when you see the line up on the fest! How, you might ask, can a new band that hasn’t played live or released an album yet, play 2 major European festivals? Well, when you are as good as Miasmal, you just get killer gigs, so shut the fuck up! OK, now these guys seemed to go out of their way to print up their stuff for the true underground buyer that likes rare shit! The Miasmal demo has become quite legendary in the underground and has a few pressings out there in circulation. The original tape had 250 copies made. Then Detest Records and Nuclear War Now! did a picture disc at 250 copies as well as a 12 inch record at 250 copies, of this sought after demo(collectors rejoice! Good luck scensters! haha.) Now, also, Detest and Me Saco Un Ojo also put out a super limited 2 song 7 inch that had 500 copies made (100 red vinyl, 400 black vinyl.) Again, collectors and scensters alike will drive themselves crazy trying to find these. Represses of the EP 7 inch record, demo tape and demo 12 inch record will be out soon though, so keep up with Detest Records to find out about those. There are also Miasmal shirts available too. Support this killer horde!

MIASMAL
www.myspace.com/miasmalband

No we venture to Italy to take a look at the paisanos UNDEAD CREEP. Any band with CREEP in their name is fine by me. Well these Sicilians mix Dismember and Autopsy with perfect and deadly accuracy. Throw in some prime Entombed/Nihilist as well. Of course, as with quite a few of the “throwback” bands, there is a HUGE Swedish death metal influence in their sound and writing style. DUH! hahaha. Which is fucking fine by me! I mean, come on, if you are still reading after 8 of these articles, then you know what I like! hahahaha. We only have 2 songs to listen to on their myspace page, but they are AMAZING displays of death fucking metal. You will swear that these guys are from Stockholm and not Palermo. What I forgot to mention in the 2 articles above, about the ACTUAL Swedish bands, is the “punk” simplicity to all of this. To the newer heads, you remember in the Swedish death metal book when Daniel was talking with Nicke/Entombed and they talked about the punk/hardcore influence? Well, Undead Creep play the Swedish death style and it also has that “punk” type of simplicity that just shreds. What it is, it goes straight for the throat with attitude and aggression. It is stripped down and has a simple formula. A “rock” formula, if you will. It is just played with down tuned guitars, with tons of heavy metal pedal distortion, and the vocals are screams and growls from the grave. Undead Creep have all of these qualities and have been doing their homework for sure! It is THE TRUE sound. Again, I’m impressed with the song writing here. And this band just formed in 2009. These creeps have a 5 song demo out that you can get by contacting the band. They will be also doing a full length album that is a joint release between Dark Blasphemies Records and Dark Descent Records. Unholy Domain Records also put out a tape version of this demo. Not sure about shirts, so contact these creeps and get this stuff. The album is going to be MASSIVE if this demo is any indicator! The gates are open, and the horror of the Undead Creep is coming!

UNDEAD CREEP
www.myspace.com/undeadcreep666

And I will go to the UK for the next band! We get darker and blacker though, as HAIZUM plays thee black metal. These self proclaimed “Vatican City” slayers play black metal just how I like it: cold, raw and ugly. There is a Darkthrone vibe going on. And a bit of this reminds me of Craft. Well as far as black metal goes, those 2 are GOLD for me! The thing about some black metal is that it gets too “tin-ny” with the guitar sound and there are just a bunch of “evil” sounding melodic cords played at fast speeds. And the speed of it all. Funny how the strings are tuned up, yet sometimes it’s hard to understand the riffs and shit. Well NOT with Haizum. Like the aforementioned bands of black that I like, Haizum has RIFFS! And like Darkthrone, some of them are MASSIVE metal rippers. And like, let’s say early Deathspell Omega, there are quite a few time and flow changes, but it is all done very well and it leads to a killer main riff. And the trademarks of killer black metal are there like: sad and dismal melodies, awesome fast parts that still have power, sick razor throat ed vocals, and catchy riffs that stick in your head. The heavy low end is also here, ala Craft. This is what sometimes separates good and bad black metal, the heavy bass lines/low drum parts. The songwriting is killer with Haizum as well. The production is lo-fi and raw, yet is well done, to where one can hear everything going on in this evil world they are in. Here we have quite a band to watch out for in the near future that shall be making some noise in the underground I’m sure. There message is clear “Haizum stands against the worthless elements of Black Metal. We promote strict devotion, a return of focus and dedication. We are the scourge!” Enough said! The myspace site has 2 killer songs to murder to. As with a lot of black metal kvlt-ists, they don’t seem to check up on the myspace very much. Now it seems that this band has become a one man project as well, with Xeper doing all instruments and vocals. And I understand that he is now living in California? Crazy! Haizum has 2 demos out “Orthodox Black Ritual” and “The Temple Of Diseased Flesh”. But get in contact or look them up online to find out about merchandise and releases, and to see if these demos are available. The next release will be called “Blood Redemption: Seven Penitential Psalms of Ascetic Devotion”. Not sure if this is a demo or album. Haizum kills so check them out!

HAIZUM
www.myspace.com/templeofdiseasedflesh

The drunken maniacs from WARFIST come from Poland and they have come for your women and beer! Total fucking balls out Venom/Motorhead/Sodom demos/old Slayer metal worship madness here. Yes, I’m a sucker for this sound and style! But it’s metal as fuck and a fun time that will also kick your ass! The songs on their player are all raw and sound like that they were recorded on an old ghettoblaster radio, on some beat up TDK tapes. But that really doesn’t matter, the songs come through with bloody flying colors! Great stuff here. What do you get? Killer riffs, kick ass skank beats and shredding vocals. What more do you need? These guys join the black thrash punk metal of death madness just perfectly! These maniacs are a 3 piece right now, and are looking for a 2nd guitar player. They are also working on their debut full length album as we speak. Since forming in 2004, they have done 2 demos(”Pure Fucking Hell” and “Tunes of Hell and Alcohol”) an EP on Iron Bonehead “HellTyrant Rising”, 3 way splits with Witchtrap/Acral Necrosis and Mesmerized/Exhalation, and a split with Empheris. These mighty Polska mother fuckers will be slaughtering the underground so keep an eye on them. The metal runs through their veins. Just like all of the other great bands that play this style, it is true and real! There is nothing fake about them. The conviction comes through and the mighty Warfist prevails! These guys are an essential part of any true metalheads collection. Especially the black/thrashing, metal/punk loving, hard drinking, manic headbanging and satan loving variety! Warfist even does a killer cover of  “Pure Evil And Hate” by Behemoth,off that bands debut EP “And the Forests Dream Eternally”. You might say that would be a odd cover for them. But not only are Behemoth also Polska, but Warfist decided that it was just a great song to cover and yes, it is! The early Behemoth stuff is total raw and ugly. Another cool thing is that the artist Klaudiusz Witczak does all of Warfist’s artwork. He has done stuff for Nunslaughter, Throneum, and Anima Damnat. Get in contact with these drunken maniacs before they drown in vodka and metal! GREAT BLACK THRASHIN ROCK A ROLLA!!!!!!!!!!!

WARFIST
www.myspace.com/warfisthorde

And I end the band section with FILTHEATER from here in the United States. The band is a mystery actually. I’m really not sure what state or city they are from. Could be anywhere these days since the plague of underground metal has spread all over. We do need a band from Maine, or Alaska, which these fucks would fit in over at those places! hahaha. The members names are even a mystery. I’m sure they intended it this way, so good for them! Anyways, the music is fucking oppressive, heavy as fuck, and one would almost feel dirty and filthy after listening to them. They have moments of slow doom, mid paced headbangers with killer riffs, and balls out grindcore. The guitars are DOWNTUNED and the vocals are low gurgles in an old school way, with the occasional screams of anguish. Always disgusting though! There is also tons of feedback, that gives everything that “messy feel”. It is not a comfortable listen, and I don’t recommend this to everyone. But I think it’s fucking awesome! As far as a comparison, it’s almost sounds like the first Disembowelment demo mixed with Rottrevore, and the infamous Rhode Island band Phlegm. The guitars are devastating and sludgy, and it is a fucking dismal affair with Filteater, just like Rottrevore was with their demo and first EP. This is some BRUTAL shit Maynard! Not for the weak at all. If you put this on, and are not prepared for it, you will either puke in disgust, or shriek in terror at the manic and pungent death noise coming out of those speakers! But if you are ready, the cavernous Filtheater will shake the foundations of your house with a vengeance and everything will be shreds and dust by the time the first song is over. Again, I don’t know much about Filteater, so try and contact them through the myspace page about their self released EP “Caliginosity”. They also have some shirts out there. As well as the same EP released on cassette tape. Keep an eye out for these heavy fuckers of sludgy sewer death! It’s a mess, but it’s fucking fun and great! In a popping pimples and playing with the puss kind of way! hehehehe.

FILTHEATER
www.myspace.com/filtheaterband

That’s all for now. Blood. Piss. Death Fucking Metal! If you don’t like it, don’t read it! If you still don’t like it, go fuck yourself! Hails To The True Bretheren Of Death! And The Hellheim Horde!
\m/ M \m/

Being one of the most popular bands of the 1980s thrash metal scene New York City go getters Anthrax has spent the past 29 years touring and creating music. If that wasn’t enough having the return of original vocalist Joey Belladonna makes this even bigger and better than ever. Percussionist Charlie Benante spoke to me over the phone about the band’s musical career as well as what they have in store for the end of this year leading right into next.

1. Can you give me a brief summary on your musical career?

Charlie:  A brief summary on my musical career? Wow… so brief in just 20 years. I guess I was outa high school and fell into a band that band was called Anthrax. We did our first record went on tour and got signed to a major label in 85 did more touring. It become part of a movement known as thrash metal and then part of “The Big Four” with Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth. Then went on to have some platinum records a had a cross of musical boundaries when we did something with Public Enemy called “Bring the Noise” that started a whole different genre of music. We’ve have been going on ever since.

2. Which drummer has inspired you the most?

Charlie: Uhhhh boy that’s a hard one. I think I can never give one name I mean there are so many different drummers that I’ve respected and looked up to everyone from John Bon, Neil Pert, to Alex Van Halen all of these drummers are a part of the drumming that I do.

3. Do you have any tips for up and coming drummers?

Charlie: Ummmm…. It’s funny because I see so many up-and-coming drummers some of them really have something and some of them have something that somebody else has used. They don’t have any bit of originality to their style; you can just tell how they’re going to play by the way they set up their kit. That’s the funny thing as soon as I see them setting up in a certain way I’m like “Oh is he really influenced by that?” But then they are some that come out and completely blow you away.

4. What’s it been like playing alongside Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer?

Charlie: Those shows were awesome. It’s so hard to sometimes live in the moment because it happened so fast and beforehand I wanted to appreciate every moment I had with doing this. But before that I had watched the documentary and started remembering things this experience and what not but for me to be around other musicians that play the same style of music as I do but they do it in a whole another way is unbelievable.

5. Are you looking forward to touring with Megadeth and Slayer this fall?

Charlie: Oh yeah that’s going to be great. I’m actually going to see them tonight they’re playing here so I’m going to go down there and say “Hey”.

6. You’ve toured all over the world is there a spot you have yet to tour or visit?

Charlie: I’ve never been to China. I don’t know how they would take us down there.

7. When can fans expect a new album from you guys?

Charlie: Ummm I would say there will be a record out next year during the spring time because that would be the best possible scenario for us. For having Joey returning to the band he plans to bring a whole another element and will definitely change up the style and sound a bit.

8. Have you been involved in any other projects lately or have anything in the works?

Charlie:  I still do side projects from time to time there’s this band from Chicago called Heavy the Fall. We’re trying to finish their first record and it’s taken a while to get it completed. Now we’re going to start working on the vocals but they’re a really good band with some really great songs.

9. What does Anthrax have planned for the remainder of this year leading into next year?

Charlie: We’re going to do this tour in September/October then we’re going to South American in November and continuing to work on the new record.

10. Is there a message you’d like to say to your fans?

Charlie: All I’d like to say is thanks a lot for sticking with us and for dealing with the loss of music for a while it’s been a little hectic and we’re trying to get everybody back in shape and we’re be back in shape better than ever.

www.anthrax.com

Over the course of time there have been several armies from World War I & II to the Civil War, Cold War, so many various types. But those weren’t the only types there are even wars within other topics you probably wouldn’t even think of. Like music for instance there has been a variety of acts that have their own type of recruits working for them, getting their name out into the open letting everyone know who they are. Well these so-called music wars began with the legendary army of heavy rock n’ rollers KISS. Well now a new era has embedded itself among out mists the era of the Black Veil Brides….

Who have welcomed in people by the masses into their own army taking in all the unwelcomed outcasts just wanting to be accepted for who they are not for who they’re not. Bassist Ashley Purdy reached out to me to discuss this summer’s most anticipated album “We Stitch These Wounds” released by Standby Records. If that’s not enough the band is currently on their second headlining run being a part of Hot Topic’s The Scared Ceremony Tour alongside Vampires Everywhere!, Modern Day Escape, and Get Scared, there is no telling as to where this will all end up next.

1. How did Black Veil Brides originate?

Ashley: Well, Andy 6 the Vocalist started the band in Ohio a few years ago and penned the band name Black Veil Brides. There were various member changes in trying to find the ideal players that fit the concept and vision of the band. It wasn’t until Andy moved to Los Angeles and met myself that we then began to shape that vision and then find the rest of the members that are currently in the band. Black Veil Brides became a natural progression visually and musically to come into full fruition that it is now.

2. Can you tell our readers a little history behind the name of the band?

Ashley: Black Veil Brides is a Roman Catholic term used for when a woman marries into the church and gives up all the pleasures of life to devote her life to God. She is then deemed a Black Veil Bride. Sorta’ similar to a Rock band where you have to give up many things in pursuit of what your passionate about or believe in. It also has the dichotomy of the positive and negative. The happiest time in one’s life, could be getting married. And the opposite of that in one’s life would be at a funeral of a loved one. It all tends to fit really well for a dark and heavy rock band.

3. It is good and catchy. It does stick in your head. What would you say is the main message behind your music?

Ashley: We carry a message of believing in yourself and letting no one tell you otherwise. We stand up for the underdog and the disenfranchised. Anything strange, odd, or unique… we embrace that. So basically standing up for yourself; have fun and live your life how you choose. You only have one life, make the most of it.

4. When going into the studio how many songs did the band have written and how did you decide which songs would make it onto “We Stitch These Wounds”?

Ashley: I couldn’t put any number figure on it. But like any band or process we started writing and a lot of the initial writing either got scrapped or re-written. Some made the album and some didn’t. Through our progression we shaped an album that is consistent and is a seamless story from beginning to end. I wouldn’t call it a “concept” album per say, but it is a very cohesive album.

5. Can you explain the meaning behind the new album’s title, “We Stitch These Wounds”?

Ashley: Again, the message is one of hope and over-coming adversity. We all have a past or a scar, but we learn and grow from it. It makes us who we are, so we cherish that. Have fun, live life with no regret… life’s short and is about learning. Learn from the things you don’t like in life and make one that is enjoyable to you.

6. Do you have a personal favorite track off the new album?

Ashley: Perfect Weapon stood out to me right away in the writing process. It’s probably the most straight ahead grooving rock melody with the Bass and Drums just pumpin’ on it!

7. With so many people downloading music instead of buying it do you think this is the beginning of the end of the CD?

Ashley: Yes and No. Yes in the sense that if you have a crappy product and music with only filler, people will just download the one or two songs.  But if you put together a solid album, people will buy it and want to have it. It’s pretty simple. I know that we take this notion into consideration and we try to make every song a single, so that you will want to purchase them all individually or as an album. However, we do come from the school of music where we loved having something tangible to hold and look at while listening to the record, so I can guarantee you, every Black Veil Brides Album will have killer artwork, hidden treasures and extra inserts in the Album that you can only buy at stores. It gives you more of an incentive to purchase the album. But it also gives our loyal fans something more they deserve for their money.

8. Are you surprised at the success Black Veil Brides has achieved so far?

Ashley: Not really over all. It’s come a little quicker than anticipated. We are a little enamored everyday when we achieve something new before our debut album even comes out. But generally speaking for myself and Andy; We always knew we were Rockstars, we always believed we were going to be ones, it’s what we always wanted to be as kids and basically embodied the “fake it, till’ you make it” motto. So everything we each did on a daily basis was in ways of creating a larger than life Rock band like that of KISS and Crue that hasn’t existed in decades. We’ve learned from our predecessors in what to do and what not to do, so far so good in ways of us putting out a product for a large audience that enjoys what we’re doing. We are also grateful for that.

9. Where do you see Black Veil Brides 5 years from now?

Ashley: Wow, that’s a big time frame. But Sky’s the limit! Right now, we’re already doin’ so much before our record drops, that even in the next year I see us growing out of the large club circuit into Arena venues. But in 5 years, definitely in Stadiums and we’ll most likely be on at least our 5^th record and on top of the world if things keep progressing as they are with the help of our loyal Bridesmaids..!!

10. What does the band do with their down time when they are out on tour?

Ashley: We each are constantly working on Black Veil Brides on a daily basis on every aspect. From writing, conceptualizing, image, staging, booking, art, merchandising, etc., basically working on all the business of BVB to up the ante’ and try to bring you bigger and better music and a live show than the previous one. We’re always thinking and working ahead to outdo ourselves of where we’re currently at.

11. What is the best way for a diehard Black Veil Brides fan to get their CD signed by their favorite band member?

Ashley: Just come out to a show. We love our fans and take the time to meet and greet every single one of them. We’ll stay for hours after our set and sign autographs and take pictures. Without our fans we wouldn’t have a CD to sign.

12. What do you think of the other bands playing on The Sacred Ceremony Tour?

Ashley:  They’ll all good guys. For a couple of the bands on the package, this was their rookie experience for touring so they got to learn the ins and outs of touring and being on the road. Glad we got to be the ones to pop their cherry and make their touring experience an enjoyable one!

13. Do you have anything left to say to your fans?

Ashley: We Love YOU..!!  BVB Army Forever…

www.myspace.com/blackveilbrides

I’m a bit hesitant on interviews because so many are either boring and pointless publicity, or the alleged artist’s are assholes and worthless to bother with, you know the type: “I’m evil and dark and ethereal…I don’t give a piss, shit or fart about what people think of my expression of dark desires through my art…”. But thanks to a positive response over the review from the band and judging from the types of bands on HHR, which has been a bulk of my reviews recently, I figured these guys might actually be worth talking to, and I was right.

Metal Maniacs: I got access to HHR to review some of the recent releases and yours was one of the top priorities so I got it and was completely blown sideways by it. I wrote a review for “Pandemic Ululations of Vesperic Palpitation” almost immediately after the first few listens as I was completely intoxicated by the “raw” power of it. It just reeks of true to honest filth and fury!!!!! You may not have known it, but you were definitely aiming for my disturbed mind and attention when releasing that chaotic raucous. So for the start of things, what do you guys want to say about the band and album? How did you come about releasing it, how long have you guys been active…blah…blah…the usual questions?

Prosanctus Inferi.: Prosanctus Inferi was formed in 2005 I believe. It’s hard to keep track of that sort of thing. It was formed by myself and Steve Mercer the first drummer. We both played in death metal bands of a raw nature so we wanted to make something very intense but also primitive and dark, black metal to a degree but very riff driven, not atmospheric, or thin and gay. We rehearsed for a few months and did a 3 song rehearsal demo that never saw the light of day hardly. I made 5 copies and gave them to nearly no one (Angelo from Proclamation I think is the only person outside of my immediate local circle I gave one to).

After rehearsing for another year or so and really developing the sound some more we recorded the demo “Sacreligious Desecration In Excelsis”. This seemed to do rather well and got a good response so 300 tapes were made, 100 being on white pro tape and made by the Canadian label Intolerant Records. Another year then passes with little to no activity, some shows most noteable of which was the Sacrifice of the Nazarene child fest in Texas, and writing a little bit more material and recording 3 songs for a split 7 inch with Witchtomb through Hells Headbangers.

Not long after Mercer was ejected mostly for creative differences and my close correspondent and band-mate from Father Befouled, Antichristus joins Prosanctus Inferi on drums. After a few months of rabid rehearsing we record “Pandemonic Ululations of Vesperic Palpitation” in August of 09, nearly 1 year ago. The release sees the ultimate vision I had initially, which is to create caustic, morbid and extreme black death with intensity, sincerity and legitimacy.

Metal Maniacs: Shit…you succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest expectations then. Everything you had hoped to achieve in terms of unleashing a full fledged black death holocaustic album came into being with this release. For me, it’s the rawness and abrasiveness in your sound and bands like: Profanatica, Inquistion, Vomitor, and many others, that just have this energy and sense of “Fuck You” that makes it …well, honest actually. It’s alive and bold, none of this generic piss and dribble that passes for black and EVIL. Half of that shit either bores me to sleep, and I’m a chronic insomniac, or it is just so worthless that it’s not even worth pissing on if it were on fire. As of lately I’ve been going back to raw death metal and Hellhammer, grind/crust stuff, it has this unique and refreshing vibe to it that either works for someone or it doesn’t, I personally find it electrifying and definitely see Prosanctus Inferi falling into that area more so than purely black metal, which is already a novelty blanket term these days.

So, to pry a bit, what makes you guys enjoy being perverse and nihilistic in sound and lyrical content? What is your choice of anti-Christian and just vulgar themes and rants in your tracks? And….where the hell did you come up with the album title from…it’s completely insane, not to mention awesome?

Prosanctus Inferi: In large part I think most people get into creating black and death metal for superficial reasons. Of course no one would admit that or care if they ever realized it. Either they think its “fun” or they’ll create a status for themselves in one way or the other. I think they underestimate the level of dedication that goes into creating something that’s not safe and easily digested. I’m not talking so much in an empirical sense in regards that one has to validate their own convictions based on the approval or praise of others, but a personal subjective sense.

It isn’t difficult musically to create something that’s “satisfactory” to your own creative urges. For them the process is masturbatory. To go beyond that and refuse to give in until you sit back and go “shit, there it fucking is” takes an obscene amount of time and stress. It’s very little reward for quite a bit of effort. Again, this is all completely subjective. Many reading this ranting may think, “so what about your music? …So and so was heavier… so and so was faster…so and so was more creative… so and so was more technical…more “evil” or blah blah blah…”, but that’s not the point. The goal was outdo MYSELF each time. Each riff and each song, to just push it a little further.

Our anti-Christian and vulgar themes are essentially complimentary to the music. The riffs give off a sensation of insane depraved dread and horror, as they are somewhat abstract. It’s only natural for the lyrics to be the other side of the coin, the vocals are indecipherable mostly but the lyrics are still important and they’ll be printed so people can read them. As for the title, the title is just something I made up, a combination of words to give off a feeling. I always have somewhat of a motif when it comes to the process of creating a “thing”, which is really all these things are, combinations of “things” whether they may be: words, or positions on a fretboard. As to why these intervals and combinations give the feeling they do, that’s where the real mystery and magic comes in. I think its because they elude to something more un-nameable. The sum total of the results is essentially an artificial projection of the motif from different perspectives and angles. Whether it be lyrically or musically, it’s always a concentration to reproduce that “feeling” that cannot be easily communicated otherwise.

Metal Maniacs: That completely explains it, the reason you guys have what you do. I just finished my first year returning to college after a few years off for health reasons and just finished my portfolio for an art course review today. I generally never turn in or create something that doesn’t meet my own expectations, it’s a bitch to do, but it’s damn worth it when you can enjoy it from all perspectives afterward. That’s part of what really inspires me in my life and what I really look for in other bands/artists work. Mystery is always a good thing when done right as it is here.

Now for an interesting question: What “provokes” you guys to be provocative? I just seem to be born with that vice where I have to challenge and question everything and call bluff. Hell, it’s really fun at times too, I can barely pass up the chance to make a vulgar joke or comment when the moment presents itself.

Prosanctus Inferi: I think there’s just a natural inborn urge to create. For some it’s more acute and astute than normal. I think ultimately sentience is imperfection, its only natural to want to call the bluffs and point out the impurities. In a way what we do glorifies the impurities, uplifts the primality of instinct and strikes down the divine unreachable perfections lusted for by those whose only havens are the spiritualities of their unconscious. I’ve no interest in living forever or becoming flawless, or even aware. It’s not a willful ignorance at all, but a kind of embrace of unknowing.

Metal Maniacs: Damn Fucking right!!!!!! Never take anything as solid and swallow it whole, you’ll typically wind up shitting yourself sick for a long time afterward. Afterall to create, build and advance, many times one must also destroy, whether it be convention or a literal structure.

I remember back when I emailed you the review right after I had written it and got a response back that you were basically smiling the whole time while reading it, I also got some props from some readers about it too which leads me to ask, how has the response been to “Pandemic…”? How do you guys feel about it in hindsight?

Prosanctus Inferi: I’m completely pleased with the album. There are some small things here and there that I may try and focus on fixing in future efforts. The album is actually going to be re-mixed/mastered at the last second by an individual I found with great power in these regards. The final release will sound even more powerful and fuller than the promo copies that a lot of ‘zines, yourself included, have received. The new version will decimate the old one. The reviews have been largely good. The complaints superficial, as those who have found it to be completely undesirable don’t seem interested in this facet of metal music anyway, so their opinions are null and void, and would probably find more pleasure in Aerosmith. I’m glad that you enjoy the album and I appreciate the interview very much. Thank you.

Metal Maniacs: I’m glad the interview worked out, it actually was a blast to read over and finalize. I appreciate your efforts and honesty, as I do many other bands out there that operate under the same general ideals. It shows in the final product and thankfully it weeds out the assholes that really don’t have the heart or intelligence to understand anything past their two-second attention span. I will be first in line for the official copy and wish you guys the best of luck. Stay harsh and jagged, it’s fun and always a good route to take. After all, it was a mad genius like John Waters who said that his idea of a standing ovation was if several people puked in the audience at viewing his films, so send the prickless running for a teddy bear and juice box and NEVER compromise if it ruins your vision and integrity.

www.hellsheadbangers.com

By: Mike Abominator

Hails Ralf! How are you doing these days?
Ralf: Cheerz Mike! I’m more or less recovering from PARTY SAN festival. What a hell of rain, mud and madness! There was nearly no green left on the whole place…really extreme conditions. Anyway seeing AUTOPSY finally was worth the trip. TRIBULATION did a killer gig as well…right now I’m having a beer and try to fix your questions!

2. Tell me about the latest issue of Mystical Music Zine.
Ralf: Issue #15 just came out in early August – it’s again totally written in English and dedicated to the ancient way of Death Metal madness. The title is actually “Explosion of rotten Death” – expect 88 pages of pure old Death Metal with DISMEMBER, TORMENTED, a Dan Swanö Special, STENCH OF DECAY, ENTRAILS, a PUNGENT STENCH special, a Kam Lee special, MASTER, AEON, DEMILICH & many more. It comes along with a free CDR sampler and a pro done GRAVE / EDGE OF SANITY poster. It’s limited to 500 copies and it’s selling really well so far…in case of interest drop a line to hauber@mystical-music.de !

3. What got your started doing an underground fanzine?
Ralf: Oh! This was back in 1995/1996 when I was 15 years or something! Together with a friend (Hi Dominik!) we’ve ordered demo tapes and first releases of MONSTROSITY, DARK FUNERAL, DEW – SCENTED and many more. It was a sort of “magical” first discovering of a scene beyond the big magazines. You know, as a teenie back then you’ve put most of your small pocket money in music/shows. Back then you really checked the music in a more dedicated way, you took countless of listenings to a band etc.; well in the end we’ve reached a point in which we wanted to contribute something from our side to this scene. It was really a naive way of thinking, pretty much selfless…you simply wanted to support the music you like most!!! Well, as you see I am still doing this, a lot of stuff has changed since issue #1 (1996), but in the end it’s the same like playing in a band: You really have to be dedicated in what you do over many years, in good and bad times and somehow the people will recognize you for what your work stands for!!! Bloody dedication!!!

4. How do you feel about the differences between the olden days of tape trading, written letters and printed zines; compared to now with file sharing online, communication through myspace/facebook, and webzines?
Ralf: Wow, is there really a cooler feeling than waiting for the postman to catch up your latest snail mail with trades etc. – I guess no e – mail can compensate this sort of personal touch!!! Anyway I’ve experienced both and I also have to say that the modern way of file sharing and internet promotion can help you a lot. Stuff like myspace is really a good podium for underground acts to do a sort of world wide promotion, but in the end it’s still the same: If you want to archive something than you have to work hard!!!
Biggest difference nowadays to me is that this scene is even more overloaded with everything! You can check out tons of new bands everyday without any big struggle, so let me say the magic is lost in some way!!! A lot of kids nowadays don’t take care about having an original in the collection, back in my early days you’ve treated your latest offerings like pearls. Nowadays you can put 1.000 MP3s on one DVD, but in the end you don’t give them a proper listening, because of the overkill effect!!!

5. What are some of your favorite interviews that you have done over the years?
Ralf: Well, I try to avoid repeating myself in the band selections of each issue, but I must say that especially since issue #13 we’ve managed somehow to come along with some really 90ies killers in the content list!!!
It’s hard to pick up favorites, but I really appreciate it when I hear that maniacs more or less discovered new bands like GRAVEYARD, LIFELESS, AXIS POWERS, MORBUS CHRON or MASSIVE ASSAULT by reading or checking the CDR sampler which comes along with each issue. I mean it the end it’s still the duty of a fanzine to support new bands as well, so in the end it’s always more a challenge to have good mixture of classical old and promising new stuff!!!

6. Tell me about the metal scene in Germany. As well as the underground death metal scene there.
Ralf: Germany, a country with 83 mil. Inhabitants, is a really huge market for Metal with countless of festivals, big business names like Nuclear Blast, Century Media etc. and fact is that nearly every touring band stops in the bigger cities of Germany.
The general problem is that here we have a huge overkill of everything, so that the Metal consumer is really picky. You have countless of bands here in Germany, too, but the major problem is that a lot of bands lack in originality and the average extreme Metal fans mostly buy and support bands from the US or Scandinavia.
The Death Metal scene has turned a lot to the better since Black Metal lost a bit of it’s influence. Bands like NECROPHAGIST or OBSCURA really helped in that way, too. A few years ago you wouldn’t expect RELAPSE to sign a German band!
I mostly prefer the old way of Death Metal and here you have that one with bands like FLESHCRAWL, LIFELESS, EXCORIATE, NECROS CHRISTOS, PURGATORY, CHAOSREIGN, MANDATORY and some more who know what the essence of that particular style is really all about!!!

7. Thank you for the time my friend! You are a true underground warrior! Now is the time to plug your band, future plans, favorite beer, best live band ever, favorite woman on earth, stuff like that! Any last words?
Ralf: Well, I try to separate MYSTICAL MUSIC from our band IMMORTAL RITES, but those who are interested in a sort of 90ies Swedish style mixture could take a listen at: www.myspace.com/immortalrites666…
Future plans: Right now I am working on selling issue #15, maybe, maybe, maybe there will be a new issue in 2011.
Favorite Beer: Hm, we prefer to drink here a nice mixture of white beer, coke and cherry liqueur…this may sound strange, but it kicks ass!!!
Favorite woman: well, my girlfriend is sitting beside me, so I better keep my mouth shut!!!
Anyway Mike thanx a lot for your support!!! Really appreciated!!!

REVIEW OF MYSTICAL MUSIC MAGAZINE #15.

Review By: Mike Abominator

Back in the hey day of the “golden era” of the extreme metal underground (let’s say a 5 year period from 1987-1992) fanzines were a HUGE part of the movement. These cut and paste, home made “rags” were a way to find out that new band you were seeking and get their demo cassette tape and actually send a letter to one of the members of the band. The real name for these hollowed pages were called “fanzines”, since it was a fan that would have a talent to put together a magazine that would be home made and also to help spread the word about quite a few of these. The labels would listen. They got smart and would have their ear to the ground(or to the tracks) so to speak and when the underground would talk, everyone would listen. When a band was getting rave reviews in these fanzines world wide, you KNEW that they would be special.

Mystical Music has that special feeling of yester-year. It does feel like a fanzine that was made back in the day. Ralf has been at this for years now. This current issue is #15. The layout and flow of the zine is top notch. The quality is also great! It starts off with an interview with Dan Swano of Edge Of Sanity fame and goes through talks with Fred Estby ex Dismember, Corpse and Antti of Winterwolf(also talking about their bands Deathchain and Demilich), Entrails, Grave Miasma, Kam Lee, Paul Speckman, Repugnant, Jorgen Sandstrom ex Grave, Stench Of Decay, Zombiefication, Hooded Menace, Alex Wank ex Pungent Stench, Tormented, the great artist Putrid, and Aeon. The interviews are done very well and they don’t drag on, or get boring. You can tell that Ralf did his homework and it shows with these chats. He gets in depth with the people/bands involved and also makes it fun/humorous at times to loosen things up. The talks with the death metal legends Kam and Speckman are amazing. Killer interviews with 2 of the godfathers of death metal. The talks with Swano, Wank, and Sandstrom are also bad ass! 3 more legendary names that helped move the music along after Kam and Speckman started it up. It was also to see my bud Putrid get a feature after all of his hard work that helps teh bands LOOK killer with his sick and awesome artwork! Guys like Putrid, Zornow, Nev and Riddick are just as important to our movement than anything. Without them, the concept would be dead! And the best part of these fanzines are discovering newer, up and coming bands and finding out about other scenes and outlooks around the world.

Once the interviews are done, the special part comes with the reviews. I have ALWAYS looked forward to the reviews of all of these zines. Both to find out about new and killer bands, and to get info on bands and other labels, distros, zines to send my bands stuff to. But you will feel like a little kid finding out about these new bands that get reviewed. Sometimes it is a small label from some far off country. Sometimes it is a small label in your own backyard. Sometimes it is a demo of a new band that hardly anyone knows about. You can be the “cool” person in your group and tell them, “OH I HAVE A DEMO OF A KILLER NEW BAND THAT YOU WILL LIKE!” What you get review wise is 11 demo reviews, 4 seven inch record reviews, 56 full length album reviews, a DVD review of Dismember “Under Blood Red Skies” and 13 fanzine reviews. The reviews are quick, yet they tell you exactly what you need to know. Straight to the point. Just how it should be! The full length album reviews consist of everything from obscure, total underground bands/labels, to the bigger major bands/labels in the death metal scene. Obviously Ralf is specific with what he covers. And it is mostly a death metal affair. But he is an old school death metal fan, so this is his passion. One of the other things that is cool are the ad pages. Here, you can find labels that are putting out killer music and then you can find out what new releases that you want to get. Again, it is everything from brand new labels/distros, to the bigger labels that still put out killer stuff. You never know when you will find the next gem of a release with this either. There have always been classic demos and 7 inches that have come out over the years that people will tell you “YOU HAVE THAT!”

AND! To top it off, you get posters from Grave and Edge Of Sanity, dome in the sick old school way. AND you get a CD compilation featuring amazing bands fom the death metal underground both old and new : Abscession, Defloration, Desultory, Deteriorot, Diabolic, Entrails, Ered, Funerality, Grave Miasma, Haemophagus, Horrendous, Interment, Mandatory, Miasmal, Nominon, Sinners Burn, Undead Creep, Undergang, Winterwolf and Zombiefication. 20 songs of rabid death metal mayhem! From established acts that have been around for years, and reformed bands of yore, to the new blood of death metal maniacs. It is a great compilation!

And also, Ralf plays in a band called Immortal Rites. The CD that he sent me was recorded back in 1999. It is called “Beyond The Gates Of Pain”. Ralf being the death metal maniac that he is, Immortal Rites have a different kind of sound, surprisingly! It is total melodic black/death metal sounding, with some traditional heavy metal riffs thrown in. Some of the vocals might have a death metal growl to them, some have the screaming type, and back and forth. In the end, it is true death metal though. This is still a style that goes way back. The way the songs are arranged and written is very good though. If a comparison is needed, I would say that they remind me of Dissection mixed with a little later At The Gates. And some Edge Of Sanity thrown in there. With a bit of Witchery. So there ya go! hahaha. But I quite enjoy this recording. “The Shadowsouls” starts this EP off. It is a roller coaster of shredding riffs and melodic solos and breaks. “Tormenting Emotions” starts off fast banging and then kicks in with a great metal riff/mid paced banging. The double bass picks up and the fast banging comes back. There are quite a few tempo changes and riff changes in their songs. But they are done well. After the creepy music from the movie “The Omen” acts as a middle piece to the EP, the title track is next. Fast, ripping and melodic is the order of the day here. The riffs are fantastic as well. “Weeping Tears” is next with it’s anthem-ic riffs/notes of melody. It is total mid paced/double bass style and it stays mid paced for a bit until it takes off fast again. Overall it is more of a mid paced banger. The end of the song is all balls out speed though. To end the EP we have “The Script Of Sadness” with a sad type riff that fits the title, that is not doomy, more fast picking, but has a sad vibe to it. The emotional, slower part comes next. The song stays slow to mid paced in the early Katatonia/Paradise Lost “Gothic” style for a bit. The pace starts to pick up with the mid paced/fast double bass, until it goes back to the slower, sad vibe again. Very cool! Again, not really my style, but it is very well done and the songs are strong. And for a recording to stand the test of time from that era is also cool.

Ralf is a true hero of the underground. And a total metal maniac! Support this guy and his amazing magazine. If you are looking for new death metal bands to blast in your player THIS is the magazine that you should order. It is $10 but it is worth every penny! You get the Comp CD and the poster as well. For an old school method, you can actually still write him a letter and order it that way. Or just get in contact with him from the Ad that I posted above to start the story. Hails to you Ralf my friend! YOU RULE! Here are the links to the website and the myspace sites:

www.myspace.com/mystical_music

www.mystical-music.de

www.myspace.com/immortalrites666

Review By: Mike Abominator

These death metal maniacs have been in the metal underground since 1993. And coming from the state of Kentucky, Abominant has been unleashing their brand of killer metal for years now. “Where Demons Dwell” is their 9th album. 9 ALBUMS! INSANE! It does seem like yesterday that I heard about a new band forming in the ashes of Sarcoma(the first death metal band that I remember from Kentucky) and members of the other long time death metal merchants Assisting Sorrow. With this album Abominant continues their reign of death metal. This album shall catapult them into legendary status now.

“Baptized By Steel” has the familiar war themed intro that this band uses and then here comes the death. The evil open riffs and drum rolls give way to the blasting fast part that kicks things off. Then the verse part/riff comes in, and back to the main riff, back to the chorus. KILLER arrangement! I’m reminded of prime Morbid Angel here with the riffs. So far, everything sounds very “Blessed Are The Sick”, which is GREAT! The slower part makes you want to bang your head clean off. Once the song gets fast again it shreds with a more black metal feel, then back to the fast main part/verse again. There is a bad ass slower tempo double bass part that kills to end the song. “Bloodland” starts off with a great guitar riff that is evil and melodic at the same time. Abominant have always been great at mixing melody and heaviness. Their melodic parts never sound lame or to “wussy” as some would say. This song is no different. It has an almost black metal feel to it. It is a total balls out fast banger that doesn’t let up until you are all bloodied on the floor in a daze. Oh no, Abominant isn’t killing you yet! Not quite! This is a slow process of beatings and torture! The blasting mixes well with the fast one/two beats. There is also a killer mid paced banging part that goes into a slower break, that if your head is still on your neck, good luck with keeping it this time! Then back to the fast banging! ARGHHHHH!!!!!! KILLER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! “Firestorm” also starts with a killer riff and fast blasting. This song starts off almost total old school grind! The way the riffs are played. It is like Morbid Angel/Terrorizer. The break riff is amazing. It has a total evil vibe going on. Has quite a classic feel to it. It has that soul destroying style as well. Then the song ends with all kinds of fast banging going on. And the riffs that make up this tornado of death are all killer. “Rain Of Ash” blasts next. Again more of a black metal feel to it. The middle part of the song has a killer mid paced banging part. That is another thing that Abominant has always been good at, the thrashier elements thrown in that make it that much more catchy. It is a perfect break from all the ripping fast parts that have slaughtered everything so far. It then goes into a killer, almost Destruction part on speed that would make Destruction proud. And back to the fast banging main riff to end it. Abominant have some of the style of black thrash, but they also have more of a death metal feel to them that sets them apart.

“After The Fallout” begins the 2nd half of the album with a slow guitar part/drum build up. The beat kicks in and this song is defeinatley different! But it works great and kicks into a heavy as fuck slower/middle paced riff that has the vocals on it. Heavy fucking stuff here! This song has a doomy feel to it. The slow, prodding riffs creep along with abysmal pace. Then the fast part kicks in and has a couple of awesome fast banging riffs going on. It heads back into the slower, doomier stuff to finish the song. Reminds me of old Obituary here on this one! “The Wolves Of Hate” starts with killer riffs and drums rolls, then goes into my favorite riff of the album so far. It blast away with intensity and sadness at the same time. It is that perfect mixture of blackened death. One of those riffs that I wish I wrote! The mid/fast banging part that kicks into the one/two beat is also killer. It has another fast part that does the Morbid Angel style again, and then ends with the classic riff/arrangement. AWESOME!!!!!! “Blackened Earth” is next and it starts with the familiar blasting away again. It gets into a fast one/two beat and back and forth. There is a slow and melodic break that comes in that will be a sure headbanging part live. The song goes back into the fast banging from the beginning and ends. Another killer banger for sure! After a short intro of some eerie classical music the title track brings this album to a close. It has the fast banging blast parts. The riff is awesome and strong. A fast one/two part also comes in with the blasting for a change up like before. Once the black/death mid paced part kicks in to give you a break from the ripping fast madness, your head now has no hope(if it is still even on your head!) It will fly, clean off at this point. It gets back into the fast banging again, complete with insane guitar solo orgies of death. And the yet another mid paced banger of a riff that reminds me a bit of Bolt Thrower. What a killer song!

Abominant gets my respect for being from Kentucky. Bands that come from big cities take shit for granted and it’s easier for them to find places to play. There are also “scenes” there with plenty of people for support. A smaller town band, from a state not recognized for metal, has many obstacles to over come to get their music heard. PLUS Abominant have been doing it for YEARS now. Even MORE respect! And to top it all off, they have been putting out quality albums this whole time. Any metal head out there would enjoy this band, and any of their 8 albums. “Where Demons Dwell” might just be their best, and as I said, it should put them in the classic status that they deserve. They have a perfect mix of death metal and black metal on here, as well as the usual thrash elements. Fans of the older, less technical Morbid Angel will dig this album. And fans of black thrash mixed with American death metal will dig this as well! One thing Abominant never has a shortage of is good riffs! Riff after riffs is shredded on here. And vocalist Mike Barnes can growl and scream with the best of them! The guitar solos are done well and fit perfectly. And the production is strong and heavy. Great job guys! Keep putting out killer albums like this for another 20 years!!!!!!!!!

www.myspace.com/abominant

Disclaimer: This is a story about Me spending my early adult years with the people of the O.C. Underground Music Scene. Now I also spent a lot of time with the L.A. Underground Heads as well, being orginally from L.A. and there being many more shows to go see out there. But I moved to O.C. with my family at one point and started also hanging out with the people in this story. I basically tried to make it as simple as possible and keep it as I usually do in my writings; fast paced and cramming a lot of stuff in there(trying to cover a lot of ground without going on and on like an idiot!) I have recently re-connected with most of these people these days. We all seem to be still playing music in one form or another. And a lot of the friends that were made back then that supported our bands are still here as well. Like true friends, it’s always great to re-connect. Oh and we call it O.C. Maybe we are just too lazy to say it or spell it out, maybe we just don’t give a fuck. It’s not the “OC” like that show, those house wives, or those spoiled brats from Laguna. This is O.C. motherfucker. And yes, we are proud of where we are. Just ask us. And we made more noise with a few bands than your whole city does with tons of bands, so fuck off! This story is dedicated to the friends that we lost due to illness, suicide, accidents, murder, or drugs(unfortunatley, too numerous to mention!) So here we go:

“It doesn’t matter how you travel it, it’s the same road. It doesn’t get any easier when you get bigger, it gets harder. And it will kill you if you let it.”
– James Brown

I remember first seeing some of the people from the Orange County punk/crust scene back in 1990. Me and my buddies went out to see Nausea from New York play in Long Beach. Some of these people that were there went on to make history, as well as A LOT of noise, over the next 2 decades and on. Same goes for the Born Against/Rorshach show a bit later on. The bands that played on these shows and many other shows and back yards included: Apocalypse, Confrontation, Glycine Max, A//Solution, Mindrot, O.C. Pestilence, Psycho Babble and Phobia. Little did they know, they would help shape a sound and a movement. It was to become a special thing. Backyard parties all over L.A. and O.C. Counties and Cities soon followed. As well as actual gigs all over too. Later on came Morgion, Carcinogen, Dead America, Malfunction and Dystopia.  In that time, we ended up going to gigs all over at places like Hart Park, Salon Mexico, Coming Soon, Toe Jams and quite a few rehearsal studios spread around Orange County. For a while, the claim to fame for O.C. was being the home base for both Final Conflict and Hirax. Those 2 bands and a few of the others mentioned above had started well before 1990 and were already established, but just on an underground, “cult” level.

At the time of meeting these people, I was helping out my friend with his fanzine Extinction Of God. I was already deep in the underground both local, national and international. Local bands that came from L.A. were starting to pop up and try and compete with the big boys from all over the world. Darkness, Nausea/Terrorizer/Majesty, Necrophagia, Sadistic Intent, Demolition, Noctural Fear, Dead and Bloated, Maniacal Genocide, Disaster Area, Hellrazor, Excruciating Terror and others were making their mark on the metal world. But Orange County was more of a breeding ground for melodic punk/hardcore. At the time, I started to play with a buddy that played drums and we started calling ouselves The Legion Of Doom. We did all kinds of covers of Pestilence, Cro Mags, DRI, Dark Angel, Carcass, Discharge, Kreator and Sodom ( yeah I know, weird mix, but we liked everything extreme.) Then I started jamming with a death/doom band called Bereavement. It was an attempt to try and play like early Paradise Lost, Thergethon, Winter and “Mental Funeral” Autopsy. Both of those bands never went anywhere and I then started jamming with some guys that had a band called Disintergration. It was more grindcore. A couple of those guys decided to keep that name and get new members, and then the rest of us formed GASP. That didn’t go anywhere and I went on to form Malfunction, which also played grind, with a death metal influence. Malfunction was semi successful for a time. Funny enough, a few years later, I would re-form GASP, leave, and then re-re-form GASP again. But back to the early days.

The Orange County guys were different. They had a peace punk influence with their ideals and look. Dread locks and crust patches replaced long  hair and long sleeve death metal shirts that the L.A. dudes wore. There seemed to be more of a brotherhood, rather than a competition, within the O.C. group. It seemed to be a super tight knit set of folks. Once me and my friends started going to more and more of these shows, we became friends with these guys. And then got invited to their band practices. Or if someone wanted to trade or buy stuff from me or one of my friends, we would meet them at their rehearsal studio. The place that we would meet up with them at was Shurguard Storage in Santa Ana. EVERY band that was a part of this scene practiced there. Some had their own rooms. Some shared rooms. Sometimes there would be 3 bands in one room. And sometimes all of the side projects that these guys would do, would also be in those rooms. Shurguard was just outside of the barrio area by first street. It was in a more industrial part of this area. Shurguard was a storage facillity that usually was used to store people’s items that wouldn’t fit in their houses. Or just basic junk for business people for whatever extra stuff that wouldn’t fit in their work place. Somewhere along the line, someone thought it would be a good idea to let bands start practicing there. At one point, on any given day, 7 days a week, you could cruise by and see what bands were practicing and go hang out with them. If I was bored, I would bring some friends,a friend, or just go by myself. Grab some beer, and head down to Shurguard and see what bands were playing that night. There was always at least ONE band playing. On some nights, I might strike gold and catch 6-7 different bands playing. SERIOUS! The whole of Orange County would be there. And the cool thing about this, is that ALL of these bands kicked fucking ass. The O.C. scene had some of the most talented players around. Making some of the heaviest and sickest music in metal. There were usually like minded people that did what I did, so there was also plenty of people to hang out with. But it was all about the music. My band Malfunction practiced in a rent by hour studio that we had to lug our equipment in and out of. These guys had this 24 hour lock out that they could come and go anytime they wanted and leave their stuff in their rooms until it was time for shows. Even though the place was a run down dump, it all seemed so professional. The bands were able to put up all kinds of cool posters and had couches and tables in there. It was a real “jam room”.

People started to take notice of these talented O.C. bands. Although Apocalypse, Glycine Max, Confrontation and some of the others had long since broken up, the scene was strong with Mindrot, Phobia, Morgion, and Carcinogen leading the way. Labels started looking into these bands and Relapse Records signed Phobia, Mindrot and Morgion. Carcinogen broke up, but Dystopia was formed. Dystopia released their own stuf and toured on their own dime. They went on to become pretty legendary and the “Metallica Of Crust” so to speak! haha. Not an insult as I LOVE Dystopia. At one point, some dickless coward tried to start shit between the L.A. and O.C. bands. He created a bunch of lies and spread it out to the L.A. bands to be against the O.C. bands. I was a part of the crew who knew both camps and wanted to put an end to it FAST, so we did! And then the killer L.A. bands started playing shows with the killer O.C. bands. It was pretty classic around here back then! The gigs were killer and frequent. Bands from both counties opened for bigger touring bands that passed through. And the OC bands continued to play off, little dive bars and warehouse type places that were awesome displays. The releases started coming out. The tours started happening. Some CLASSIC material was being made. It was a legendary time lookig back at it. At the time, it just seemed normal, everyday. Now, looking back, it was a special time. Going over what the bands did, there is both awe and at times frustration. The material should have thrown these bands into the upper echelon of metal. But it was a short lived phenomenon. Let me concentrate on what we would call “the big 4″.

Mindrot was kind of the catalyst of this scene at first. They started with the demo, which was heavy as fuck and frightening to some that these crusty punk metal guys from Orange County could play this downright thunderous noise. The playing was loose and maybe not as focused looking back. There was potential for that though. Once a new drummer was found and the rest of the guys honed their chops, they became a machine. Evan Kilborne on drums was a revalation. It was like Neil Peart and John Bonham had a drum baby and he played extreme metal. The “Faded Dream” promo might be my favorite promo tape EVER! It was made to give to record labels. That recording, and the 2 “Live In The Studio” demos that Mindrot did are all bonafied classics. In my opinion, it is also their finest hour. At their shows, reps from Century Media and Metal Blade Records started showing up. The band settled on Relapse and released “Dawning”. This album is also incredible, but the production is too light on the guitars for a band that is THIS heavy. My only complaint. Then, the band started to get sucked into the “Nu Metal” trend and started getting that type of groove going. The album “Soul” was a forgettable affair of disjointed styles and then the band broke up. At one time, Mindrot might have been one of the best bands on the planet. In their prime, few could touch them. In great news, Dan Kaufman has formed Destroy Judas, which has a lot of the best qualities of Mindrot and expands on them. Glad to have that style back! Glad to have you back Dan! Destroy Judas will soon take that mantle of “best band in the world”. Trust me!

Phobia had their demo and then were the first band to get signed when Relapse snapped them up in 1992. They went with a more grind/crust direction as far as labels went with releases on Slap A Ham, Pessimiser, Deep Six and others. They eventually ended up on Willowtip Records. The material has been consistant, but they have yet to release their “classic”. My favorite is “22 Random Acts Of Violence”.  They have quite a few classic songs that stand the test of time. They are still one of the longest running grind bands at this point, so they get the respect from the scene. To be in this business as long as they have, Phobia has to be doing something right. I think Shane and Steve will be doing this band until they die! Some of the albums have been inconsistent and maybe the critics haven’t rushed to adore them like many modern day, newer grind bands. But NO ONE can deny the fact that Phobia are now legends. YES! Legends. They have been around for years and show no signs of stopping anytime soon. This legend will only continue to grow. And unlike other bands that have changed up their sound with expirimentation and different styles, Phobia has stayed total balls out grindcore. No trends! No bullshit! If anything, they have stripped it down and thrown a bit more punk in it over the years. Which is back to roots of this genre. HAILS GUYS! I’M PROUD OF YOU!

Morgion was the band that I was the closest with. I became very tight with these guys. So it might be objective of me to write about them. But I was also close or at least friends with ALL or 90% of these people/bands featured in the article, PLUS, it’s MY article, so kiss my ass! I think the Morgion guys will tell you that I will be honest here. I always was with them. At times, Morgion too might have been one of the best bands around. Their sound was always rooted in a more of a European direction. Regardless of the early, more death metal days, or the later, total doom metal days, the sound was not Ameican. The sound of the band was heavy and suffocating. Back then, the Swedish guitar sound was just that, Swedish. But Morgion took the heavy metal pedal and turned those fucking knobs all the way up, all the way up, all the way up. And turned those amps to 11! Jeremy’s vocals were from a deep abyss. Those early songs were doom/death masterpieces. But it wasn’t the path that the band truly excelled at. There was a destiny of true doom that they would need to do. And they did. This was Morgion at their best. It was a style of hope and despair, of love and hate. One minute the melody brought positive emotion, and then the suffocating depression would set in and rip all that hope away. It was true doom after all. Rhett would play the “slow” drums better than most ever had and the keyboards were done well and not too over the top. It fit perfectly. Still some of the heaviest metal to ever come out…PERIOD! The rabid cult following that Morgion has proves that they might have been a bit too ahead of their time. But those of us that have seen them play live and listened to their music for years know that they have a solid place in metal history.

Dystopia started as a side project of members from Mindrot and Confrontation. After a few practices, and once Carcinogen broke up, Dino sat on the drums, then took over. Mauz quit Mindrot to focus on Dystopia. Dan quit Dystopia to focus on Mindrot, and the rest is histroy.The ironic thing is that Dystopia became THE band to come out of O.C. Even though; #1 It was a side project and #2 The band eventually moved up north to Oakland. In the meantime, the band put out the classic “Human=Garbage” album. It was down tuned death/punk. It was really death metal, played by punkers, or vice versa. Then there was the other, more expirimental influences that set them apart from everyone else. The song writing was top notch. The lyrics deep. The music heavy. The playing awesome. The pain and conviction of these guys was felt so much, one would get goosebumps and want to give them a hug. It might have been more depressing than both Mindrot and Morgion combined. And Dystopia wasn’t even a traditional doom band! You could smell the suicide and anger a mile away. Next, Dystopia toured Europe. They did it! That was always a goal for any band, especially the bands of O.C. But they DID IT! Phobia and Morgion would both eventually tour Europe but Dystopia did it first. They came back heroes. And it was just this ONE album for now. The band continued to tour and record songs for comps, splits and an EP. I witnessed a show at a small club one time that had a capacity of 200 and there was 300 people inside, plus maybe another 150 or so that couldn’t get in. And this was a week night! The whole place inside was singing along to both the lyrics and the samples! INSANE! Their nail in the coffin was their last album, “Self Titled”. It was awesome and even more prodding and focused attack. Listen closely! We are losing one of the best bands of our generation! One of the best from the TRUE sense, and the REAL underground. It just took the feeling home for me. At that point, I knew what I felt all along. These guys were truly special. They DID become one of the best bands ever. Music that gives you the chills and the you never forget. Not bad for a side project!

In the end, Phobia is the last band standing. And that’s fine, because Shane will be doing it until he keels over. What set the O.C. bands apart from others is that they didn’t fuck around. They went out and got shit done. They didn’t lag, or make excuses. That’s why these bands were able to be successful. Being a small part of this movement and seeing these friends of mine live their dreams was awesome. I had a very small stint in Phobia, and it was before they really took off to become the grindfathers that they would become. One of my bands Malfunction had 2 members from O.C., we practiced in O.C. But we played in L.A. much more and really only played O.C. with these heavyweights just once. My stint in Excruciating Terror was even shorter than the one in Phobia. So I was also part of the L.A. underground movement as well. Not just because of E.T. but just going to shows out in L.A. since 1987 and seeing a lot of the same people. My next band GASP were a part of the O.C. movement towards the end of it. By then, the bands of O.C. were well on their way to establishing themselves on an international level with their albums and touring. But we did play with Phobia and Dystopia especially quite a bit. Dystopia even took us under their wing so to speak. I will never forget that and will always appreciate that. When GASP started to take off and play out of town shows/tour, we would stay with Dino or Mauz in Oakland. We would hang out with them whever they would be back in their original home of O.C. One funny story(and there are TONS) I remember is Dystopia playing a backyard party in Huntington Beach and some of the guys from Korn showed up. The looks on their faces was priceless! haha. And this type of party with real die hard underground metal and punk heads was probablly the only place where no one was impressed with them being there(with maybe a hand full of jock “bros” that were sucking their cocks). I think we were all MORE stoked that the cops didn’t show up to break up the party, which would ALWAYS happen in O.C. Plus we never respected them or any of that “nu metal” Bro crap. But that’s for another story. This is my story and I’m sticking to it.

Also, we have some people from this movement that are still making some sort of noise these days within the music scene. Along with Dan and his Destroy Judas mates: Steve Burda(Phobia), Seth Baker(Asunder/Skaven from up north), Steve Nelson(Winterthrall/Noctuary and a million other bands), and Nicky Bernardi(Eyes Of Fire), guys who have been in other O.C. bands, as well as Gravehill: Rhett “Thorgrimm” Davis(Morgion) and Myself(GASP, Malfunction, Phobia) and Semtex Vest: the above mentioned Steve Nelson, Christian Duran(Dead America) and Rueben Lugo(Winterthrall). And you L.A. Heads reading this, don’t worry, YOUR story is coming. I played it by ear/heart, and I felt this one right now, so here it was. Here are some links to the bands that I’m talking about. This is for those who haven’t heard of these bands. You MIGHT like some of them, or all of them. And to those who knew these bands, or love them, use it as a trip down memory lane:

www.myspace.com/mindrot1

www.myspace.com/phobiagrindcore

www.myspace.com/morgion

www.myspace.com/apocalypse13

www.myspace.com/glycinemax

www.myspace.com/brainamputation

www.myspace.com/dystopia

www.myspace.com/asolutioncrustcore

www.myspace.com/psychobabbleoc

www.myspace.com/ocpestilence

www.myspace.com/carcinogencrust

www.myspace.com/deadamericaoc

www.myspace.com/silkorbita

www.myspace.com/gasp562

And here are the links to the new bands of OC(with some of the old farts in them!)

www.myspace.com/destroyjudas

www.myspace.com/gravehill666 (in case you forgot, hehehe)

www.myspace.com/semtexvest

Interview By: Mike Abominator

1. Hails Matt, thanks for the interview. Let’s start from the very beginning. How did you guys all meet up and what was the goal of the band?
MATT: Wow, now you’re going way, way back. Well, I was in high school, like ninth grade, and I had tried to form a band in Jr. High, called Darkness (I wasn’t aware of the German one at the time), and that had dissolved, with me and the guitar player, a guy named Rocky Torrecillas, another kid from my school wanting to go in a heavier direction, influenced by bands like Coroner, Kreator, Sodom and for me at least, Celtic Frost, Onslaught and Venom, while the other guys were more into Rush, Metallica, and a bit of Slayer at the most extreme. Luckily, I was able to talk my best friend (then and now) Col Jones into learning the drums. Col and I met on the school bus in grade 7, when he was a super nerdy kid who had just moved to California from Utah, and I was an averagely nerdy kid whose main interests were TSR games, Marvel comics and Thrash Metal. Once we got into high school, we met a guy from Col’s high school (Pioneer High School, San Jose, CA, I went to Willow Glen High because of the bussing integration policy in the school district) named Jake Giardina who had moved out to San Jose from New York, and Jake was more into Overkill, Sick of It All, and stuff like that, but his older brother John was a big fan of the older death and thrash stuff like Sacrifice, Venom, Exodus and shit like that, along with a lot of New York Hardcore from the mid to late 80s. We had another guy from Col’s High School named Peter Rossman who played bass, and a friend of ours named Steve Crowe (also from Col’s school) that would do vocals, and we used to cover “Riot Of Violence”, “Bombenhagel”, “Persecution Mania“, “Regurgitated Guts”, and “Sacrificial” back in my mom’s first apartment in like 1989 I think. Steve wasn’t that serious about being in a band anyway, he just did it more for a laugh, and then he moved to Arizona after our freshman year, and Jake became the vocalist. Then we all started getting into heavier shit, and although we started with a Leprosy / Scream Bloody Gore type sound mixed with Kreator and Sodom, we quickly moved in a new direction after seeing the Death / Pestilence / Carcass tour in October on 1990. We had already heard Carcass, Entombed, Napalm, and a few other bands, but I think we were still a little too timid to try and do that kind of shit until we saw a band like Carcass do it live in front of us and experienced the power and intensity that real underground Death Metal and Grind could deliver.

By then it was me and Col, with Jake on vocals, and Rocky and Peter on guitar and bass respectively. I don’t think Rocky and Peter were really ready to commit to entering full-on Death Metal / Grindcore territory yet – Col, Jake and I used to fuck around after Exhumed practice, just improvising on Autopsy and Napalm Death rip-off type riffs in a band we called Constipated Gut, just a joke thing. But that was heavier and more extreme than Exhumed at the time, and we decided we wanted to pursue that kind of sound full time in Exhumed – because even at 15, we knew that Constipated Gut was a really stupid name. So in the beginning of 1991, Peter and Rocky left the band, and we got Derrel Houdashelt on guitar that summer. We met Derrel through a guy who answered our Guitar Center flyer for a guitarist and bassist, even though he was a drummer. His name was Brian Rubio, and he was totally out of his mind. Col and Jake went to his house to watch his band Corpse play. They thought that everyone there was really weird (we were more like nerdy kids who were into comedy, D&D, and goofy shit – not into being “brutal” or “evil” at all) except this guy Derrel who played guitar and cracked jokes the whole time. So they talked to him and when I got back from vacation with my folks to the grand canyon, I jammed with Derrel and we ended up getting him in the band. Derrel lived in the same neighborhood in South San Jose more or less, although he went to the high school a bit further down the street (Gunderson High). Derrel was much more of a rocker than us at the time, he had dangly axe earrings and skull rings and shit like that – which we always used to make fun of him for, and he always wore sleeveless shirts, which is where we kind of adopted that from.

Our first few songs were of course really terrible, there was “Spill Your Guts”, and a song that was called “Premature Burial” (really original) that we changed to “Unnatural Disgorgement of Intestinal Fermentation” after hearing Carcass. Keep in mind, I was still 15 years old when all this was going down – Col and Jake were 16, and then when Derrel joined, he was barely 17. We wrote a couple more songs like “Culinary Pathology” and I think another one, that ended up on our first rehearsal tape.

At the time, really the goals of the band were pretty simple. We wanted to play a show – a friend of mine named Shane had put together a band and played a show at a birthday party a year and half earlier, just silly punk / thrash stuff – I remember they had a song called “Death Vacation” or something really stupid like that – and then he moved to Washington with his family. I was really jealous at the time that he had played a “show” and I hadn’t yet, haha! Our other goal was to get a proper demo recorded so we could start trading demos with other bands. We had just started getting into the whole Seraphic Decay roster (Abhorrence, Crypt of Kerberos, Mortician, Goreaphobia, Incantation, etc.), as well as Impetigo, and Carnage, Cadaver, and some of the more obscure Earache bands like Filthy Christians and Sore Throat and were really excited to hear more extreme music. It was something that just got into our blood in those days and we could never get enough. We recorded our rehearsal tape and then kept looking for a bass player. In the start of a long running tradition, I played bass on the tape. Then we found a guy named Ben Marrs to play bass, I think through another flyer at Guitar Center or something. He was eighteen, a little older than us and not as goofy so we had a bit of a hard time relating to him, although he was a pretty cool guy. We ended up playing our first show in October 1991, like five days after I turned sixteen, and cutting our first demo in December of 1991, for release in January of 1992, when we got our first real break, scoring opening slots for two shows in January ’92: one with Autopsy / Immortal Fate / Plutocracy and one with Cannibal Corpse / Atheist / Gorguts.

2. Did you ever think that Exhumed would ever reach “legendary” status like you guys have?
MATT: I don’t know man… I don’t really think of the band as anything like that at all – if people like it, that’s great, but I don’t want to buy into any “legendary” type of thing, because there’s the danger of crawling up your own ass and believing all the bullshit and becoming a raging douchebag. We’re just a band that’s always stayed true to what we’ve wanted to do, and has tried to adapt and survive through all the bullshit involved in being an underground band. I think it’s great that people still give a fuck about it after all this time, and I’m really grateful for that. Even when we started, I didn’t really think I’d still be talking about it 20 years later. I couldn’t even conceive of being 20 years old at that time. I was fifteen then, and I really just wanted to make some noise with my friends and eventually get laid. I think that as a kid, I would’ve thought that by now in my life (age 34) I would’ve settled into a career, marriage, kids, that kind of thing. But no such luck – such are the wages of metal I suppose.

3. Your discography is long and pretty confusing. Let’s go from the “Goregasm” album, all the way to the last actual Exhumed album, “Anatomy Is Destiny”. What are you memories of the early, self released album, through this last album? Go over each album and what do you think of each one as of now?
MATT: Just to warn you, I’m not one of those musicians that just creates the record and then walks away and never thinks about it again. I get pretty analytical after the fact and try to really learn from each record and see what works and what resonates and what doesn’t. So I’ll preface everything here by saying I like our records and am proud of everything we’ve done as a band, all the mistakes are just as important as the things we’ve done right, so don’t get the wrong idea when I bring up what I consider to be the flaws with our albums… Enough disclaimer-ing…

“Goregasm” was something that Afterworld Records asked us to do – after releasing the “Excreting Innards” 7” – more on that later. They wanted us to do a full-length, so we recorded the songs from the 7”, plus a couple new ones and some songs from the demos. There was no budget, asking for money for recording was something that never really occurred to us, to be honest, so we did everything in two days, and of course it sounded terrible, not to mention the fact that for whatever reason, I don‘t think we‘d rehearsed in like a month when we went into the studio. When Jason, the dude from the label, said he was going out of business, it was kind of a relief, because I think even then, we knew that what we had recorded wasn’t any good. It was really sloppy, even for us at that time, and we had clearly bitten off more than we could chew. At that time, Ben (Marrs, bass) wanted to go in a more experimental direction, influenced by Atrocity and Voivod, but the rest of us were happily plowing the Carcass / Napalm / Bolt Thrower / Cannibal Corpse / Grave type stuff we were already doing, so Ben left shortly thereafter. I think we kicked him out, I’m not really sure for what now, but I’m sure at the time it seemed very serious. At any rate, there was never an official release, although we did circulate some recordings of the session as a demo cassette a couple of years later for some masochistic reason.

Jumping ahead 7 years to recording “Gore Metal” – it’s hard to even compare, because by then we really had a vision of what the band was “about” and what our sound was. We weren’t just coming from the perspective of fans, we were trying to make a statement of our own. At the same time, we were still very loose and sloppy and didn’t really have a handle on recording at all. Listening back to that record, I like most of the songs, but the production is awful sounding. Also, between Col, Ross, and I, we all had different ideas about how the album should be – even down to what songs should go on the album. Col was very adamant that none of the album songs could be taken from any of our 7”s from that period, so a lot of songs that I think are really strong from that period, like “Totally Fucking Dead”, “Dead Again”, and “Instruments Of Hell” didn’t make it on the record and we recorded songs like “Deathmask“ that were a lot older and less interesting in my opinion. Also, we recorded a few other songs that never got mixed for consideration for the album and have since been lost, a couple of which I really would have rather had on the record than some of the songs that are on there. Basically we ran out of money / time, and James (Murphy) had the masters, but due to his illness (he had brain cancer and was acting really erratically and irrationally at times in those days), he got evicted or something from his studio in Oakland and lost all the shit that was stored there, including the ADATs with those songs. Ross (Sewage, bass / vocals) wanted to fill up as much space of the CD as possible and get as much stuff as possible on the record, which I also was against, so the album ended up being too long. It was a big compromise between three strong-willed people with their own visions, and at the end of the day no one ended up really happy, and we all hated the production on the album, even immediately after it was finished. Mike (Beams, guitar) had just joined the band as didn’t really have much to with the direction or the material at all yet, which kind of sucked. We all thought we could do a lot better. But for better or for worse, that album really established the band, especially in America.

When we did “Slaughtercult”, we felt a lot more comfortable as a band, musically, and personally. We had actually played a tour and played live consistently, so we felt like we were getting a handle on what really worked for our band – and that’s what we tried to express. Having Mieszko produce the album was a HUGE step in the right direction, because we finally felt like we had a nice raw yet clear sound that was really powerful and in-your-face. I think this is the album where we came closest to achieving our goal – just a brutal, simple, direct group of songs that were very up-front and live sounding. We were really proud of the lack of double-bass in these songs at the time. It was kind of a novelty, especially when Nile, Angel Corpse, and Dying Fetus were reigning supreme – a death metal album with under two minutes of double-bass drumming total I think. There are a few things in the performances that I’m not happy with, like the vocals in general and a few leads and things, but overall I really like the record. The vibe is there, even if some of the particulars are a bit muddled at times. I think that some of the stuff on “Gore Metal” – the dual guitar harmonies in “Deadest Of The Dead” and the sound affects and things were kind of too much, too soon as far as trying to bring in “professional” type album elements, that’s why left all that kind of shit off of “Slaughtercult”, and then built back up to it on “Anatomy…” where I think we did it a lot better, tighter, and more effectively.

“Anatomy” was a big step forward for us in a lot of ways – the songs were a bit more “musical”, there were more articulate harmonies and solos, and the production was really crisp, especially the guitar tone. The real problem with the album from my point of view was the lack of really memorable choruses. At the time, I was writing really involved lyrics that had layers of meaning and tons of puns / plays on words that kind of got in the way of the directness of the songs, making even the best ones musically (“Death Walks Behind You”, “Consuming Impulse”, “Waxwork”) not nearly as catchy as some of the stuff from the first two albums. Thank god I didn’t write the lyrics to Mike’s songs until after the music was already completed, making “The Matter Of Splatter” the catchiest and most direct tune on the album. In many ways it’s our best album, but in just as many, we missed the mark on a bunch of things. Hopefully we’ll be able to take the strengths from our past releases and leave behind some of the weaknesses from them on the new album.

4. Now also 6 demos. What are your memories of these early days of tape trading and demo cassette tapes?
MATT: Tape trading was really fun with the first demo “Dissecting The Caseated Omentum”. We got a bunch of positive responses from fanzines and a lot of bands around the world. I really liked demos from bands like Execration, Embalmed, Excavation, Sepulchral, Butchery, Embalmer, Funeral Feast, Necrony, and a bunch of others at that time. It was always an adventure to see what would come in the mail, just a really exciting time. Our friends in the local band Colostomy were always turning us onto new stuff back then as well. They were totally into the whole Nuclear Blast Roster, Afflicted, Dismember, Pungent Stench, and all of those bands. Then we did the 7”- more on that later – and by the time the “Grotesque Putrefied Brains” tape was out in early 1993, it wasn’t quite as fun anymore. Bands were changing and times were changing. Things were getting a bit more sophisticated and weird. I remember hearing demos from Timeghoul, Phantasm, and Embryonic Death back then and just not being that into it, although the Gut demo was a favorite from that era. I was more into industrial and shit like that at that time, aside from the classic Death Metal bands of course. I think the whole scene was changing then, because we did some weird shit on the “Cadaveric Splatter Platter” tape(s) that we recorded in the fall of 1993. Ben Marrs had been gone since the end of 1992, and Jake left after “Grotesque…” – right after Col and I graduated from high school, so the lineup and the whole dynamic was a bit different, starting to get a bit more serious. We had a track with some keyboards in the intro (“Intercourse With A Limbless Cadaver”) and a track with a chick singing during the bridge (“Rancid Fermenting Stench”) as well as an acoustic guitar segue, none of which were really good ideas in hindsight, although some of the other songs like “The Pallor Of Unliving Flesh“ and “Bleeding Heap Of Menstrual Carnage“ were a lot better and kind of harbingers of good things to come. We also had some very Cannibal Corpse / Incantation / Suffocation riffs going on. That session was kind of confused sounding and we didn’t really circulate that tape that much. I think we were kind of shook up by having a bunch of line-up changes, plus the changes in the scene, and all the clubs we were playing being shut down that year, so we really didn’t have the confidence at that time to really carve out our own niche yet. Plus, by then bands like Beherit, Impaled Nazarene, and Darkthrone were starting to make waves, “Necroticism” was already over a year old and things were looking pretty grim for old school, aggressive Death Metal. . Death Metal seemed like it was pretty much dying out to me.

By 1994, when we did the last demo, “Horrific Expulsion Of Gore” – all my favorite bands had kind of moved on – that was the time of records like “Fear, Emptiness, Despair” and “Heartwork”, etc. That’s why we started getting more and more influenced by older stuff like Possessed, Venom, Exodus, Slayer, Razor, etc. We had a new line-up and felt pretty energized. There was Ross (Sewage- vocals) and Matt (Widener – bass), and our sound had become so “uncool” that we no longer gave a fuck about fitting in with anything, and finally started just writing music we wanted to listen to. The bands we were trading demos with by then were almost all only influenced by Cannibal and Suffocation, which I was pretty much over by that time. Ross started handling all that by that point, which was fine with me – There were some good bands mind you (Sodomized, Internal Bleeding, Adnauseam, etc.), but just not my thing – except for one band from Ohio – Hemdale. Their demo really grabbed all of our attention. That was also about the time we all started heavily getting into the European scene and bands like Haemorrhage, Regurgiate, Dead, and Dead Infection – along with C.S.S.O. and the “Fisting The Dead” EP by Blood Duster. We always felt more like we wanted to be a part of that scene rather than what was going on in America at that time.

5. And also the lone 7 inch EP that Exhumed did alone, “Excreting Innards”. What do you think of this release?
MATT: That one was a lot of fun. It was early 1992, and we were just writing like crazy. It seemed like every week, we were getting a flood of great ideas. I remember after seeing Bolt Thrower in early 1992, we had a band “meeting” where we talked about how Jake needed to have better stage presence like Karl Willets and we needed heavier, more distinct riffs. It seemed like every time we heard a new record, we were energized to get better and better and heavier and heavier. Of course, the EP is chock-full of mistakes and bad playing, but the songs really are a lot better and more ambitious than the tracks on the demo – except for the Suffocation-influenced riffs that we did there – but this was right after “Human Waste” had come out, and that was a really new sound at that time. Getting Stevo from Impetigo to do the cover was really the cherry on top. We were truly honored that he would do a cover for a bunch of dorky high school kids from San Jose, CA.

I remember seeing the AX/ction records distro list in an issue of Maximum Rock ‘n’ Roll I was perusing at Tower Records with our EP in the list and being really, really excited. Our record was right there with Agathocles and other bands we liked and respected – I felt like my band had really “made it” at that time, haha! Maybe “Excreting Innards” is not our best material or performances, but this EP really has a special place in my memory. Everything about it was really fun. In the photos Col and I were proudly rocking our brand new Master shirts (a clear sign of getting better influences), and I took the picture of Ben puking in my toilet after we ate barbecued catfish at my dad’s house before heading to the Omni to see whatever death metal show it was that night. It was just a really positive, energizing time for me back then. After the EP came out, we started drawing better crowds in the area than Immortal Fate, which was crazy, because we looked up to them, and they really were a much better band than us at that time. Everything seemed to really be coming together when all that was going down, which is probably why we had the hubris to try and record something like “Goregasm“ later that year.

6. And finally to round out the discography, the splits. Talk a bit about those and what is your favorite one? Also, talk a little about the “Platters of Splatter” best of that Relapse did, as well as the “Garbage Daze Re-Regurgitated” album of covers.
MATT: Wow… there are a lot of splits. “In The Name Of Gore” with Hemdale is definitely my favorite though. That one was not only some of our best material, but really was a turning point in the timeline of the whole band. We recorded it in August of 1995, Matt Widener had just left the band, and Ross was literally learning how to play bass as we were rehearsing for the recording, but we were just really, really excited about doing that record. We recorded it at Ross and Col’s old high school – I think Ross graduated in 1994, and Col graduated in 1993 (Senior Class President and Homecoming King if you can believe that!) and Ross’ mom, Bonnie (a super awesome lady) was a volunteer there or something – and she got us a classroom there to record in. I remember that Derrel and I got in trouble for drinking beer on campus, haha! We were working on the songs for a while, and we felt really confident in the material, even if Matt Widener didn’t agree on the songs, and quit the band to join the marines (which came out of left field for all of us). We really thought that we were finally ready to take over the world, whatever that means. Unfortunately, the record took over a year to come out, and in that time, a lot of the wind got knocked out of our sails. We did the “Blood And Alchohol” split with Pale Existence for Max‘s (Ward, Spazz / Plutocracy / Capitalist Casualties) label the next summer and that still came out before the Hemdale split. Derrel kind of burnt out and lost interest and was out of the band before the record even came out I think. We got Leon Del Muerte (later of Impaled, Intronaut, Phobia, now Murder Construct, Destroyed in Seconds) on guitar in 1996, and we did the four-way “Chords of Chaos” split for a Brazilian label called Lofty Storm Records, which came out really raw and aggressive sounding, and featured some much improved recordings of some old demo songs, but our musicianship and focus was already starting to slip by then. Leon left the band, we were a three piece and did the “Instruments of Hell” split w/No Comply which was pretty raw but still had good material, and then the even better “Indignities To The Dead” split with Pantalones Abajo Merenero (pre-Bodies Lay Broken) in 1997, but by then we kind of had our sound more or less established, and we were more focused on getting covered in blood and breaking animal bones onstage and being obnoxious than playing accurately or getting a good recording. At that time, we liked playing shows with bands like Spazz, Deadbodieseverywhere, and Noothgrush. That was what was going on in the Bay Area, and Death Metal was really dead. So playing with power violence and crust bands was a great match for us, because the music was also really intense, but we stood out a lot. Some of the serious vegan / crust kids didn’t like us at all, but most of the bands respected what we were doing, and we also liked that scene, not just because the music was awesome, but because it was a bit more thoughtful than the metal going on at the time – which was either black metal occult nonsense or jock / Pantera / Fear Factory shit. Once we did the “Grind Over Europe II” tour in the winter of ‘97 and got the Relapse deal, we got Mike (Beams, guitar) on board and started getting a bit more focus, hence the better playing on the Retaliation split “Tales Of The Exhumed” and the Nyctophobic split “Totally Fucking Dead” – which I think has the best material of any of our split 7”s. After the first album, we tried to do more splits, and while it usually ended up being more filler than killer, it kept the tradition alive. I do like the split with Sanity’s Dawn that we did though. That one was pretty fuckin’ good, even though I lagged on sending in the art so there’s no cover art.

“Platters Of Splatter” was a really cool way to bring all of the shit we had done before Relapse together. We always appreciated bands that celebrated their entire catalog, and we wanted to do that. Also, kids were paying a lot of money on Ebay for shit that was just not necessary. I mean, I like the Exhumed / Hemdale split, but no one should be paying $75 for it, that’s just crazy. So it was a cool way for us to summarize a big chapter in our timeline and it was also a cool bit of the band’s history that was affordable and convenient for the kids. The idea was for it to be 100% complete, but even with the third disc, there wasn’t room for everything – the first rehearsal tape and “Goregasm” were omitted, and there were a few tracks from “Cadaveric Splatter Platter” that didn’t quite make it either. To make matters worse, I accidentally sold the box of the triple-disc version of “Platters…” that was for the band members on the Morbid Angel tour we did and to this day, almost everyone in the band doesn’t have that. Whoops… Hopefully in another few years, we’ll have enough material to put out a volume two. I would love to do some more splits and shit.

The covers album (“Garbage Daze Re-Regurgitated”) was intended to be a kind of stopgap release between “Anatomy…” and album #4 that would buy us a bit more time to break in a new line-up and let the chemistry gel naturally to come up with a new record. Obviously that didn’t quite work out as we had planned. I like most of the tracks on that record, and was consciously trying to experiment with some different ideas there, like the dynamics in “No Quarter”, and the slower stuff in the Amebix and Pentagram covers, but really, the most confident-sounding stuff on there is just the all-out grinding numbers like “Uninformed” and “Drop Dead”, although I have started getting more and more people telling me that they liked the Zeppelin cover lately. Some of the other stuff was a bit hit and miss. The line-up with me, Wes (Caley, guitar), Leon (on bass / vocals) and Matt (Connell, drums) just didn’t come together on the tour we did for the record, so I was pretty much ready to pack it in. Not the most fun time for me personally being in the band, but I did like a lot of the stuff on the record. I really wanted to do a record with Wes, because I love his playing style, but the timing was just not right. The stuff I was writing at the time also wasn’t really right for Exhumed at all – a lot of it actually got tuned up to E (standard tuning) and was used in Scarecrow – so that should give you an idea of how off the mark it would have been on an Exhumed record. At the same time, after the band had split it had been bugging me for years that “Garbage Daze…” might be the final Exhumed record, because a cover album seemed like a really lame note to go out on.

7. OK, WHEW! All for now about the discography! hahaha. Now at one point Exhumed really started to take off and it seemed was ready for a take over of metal with tours like Morbid Angel/Deicide, Testament/Halford, The Relapse Contamination Tour and Cannibal Corpse to name a few. Tell me about those memories and what were some others that were favorites?
MATT: Man, we logged a lot of miles between 1999 and 2005. The first tour was really special, because we were just getting used to the fact that we were a band on a record label that had fans and shit like that. When we got to Milwaukee, it was Bud’s (Burke, bass / vocals) first show, and the whole room was packed to capacity and just going fucking apeshit. We also met the Nausm guys that same day, that was a day I’ll never forget. Hanging out on the first tour was great, getting to know Bill and Brann, then of Today Is The Day, now Mastodon, and Ben from Soilent Green / Goatwhore, as well as getting reacquainted with our old friends in Morgion was great. That whole tour is pretty for me to look back on because after Mieszko died a few years ago, it really brought it home that the times you’re out with your buddies getting wasted and acting like an idiot really are quite possibly once-in-a-lifetime things, so you’ve got to try and make the most out of them. Then a couple years later, Scotty from Soilent Green got killed, so I’ve lost two friends from that tour, which is pretty heavy. On a lighter note, every tour has its own lexicon of in-jokes and a whole library of weird, humorous shit going down, but a few things that really stand out were doing the dates with Halford, Testament and Vio-lence, and hearing Halford mention all the other bands on stage as part of his banter and him saying “Exhumed’ in the death growl – that was pretty fucking electric, man! Not to mention hanging out with Phil Demmel and running around doing shots in the backstage maze at the house of blues in Vegas, what a great night. The first time we went to Japan was really amazing, doing our first (and only) record store signing in Tokyo, hanging out for over an hour outside the show in Osaka signing shit for people and taking pictures with them was pretty wild. Playing the Obscene Extreme Fest in the Czech Republic in 2001 was pretty crazy – our set got postponed for an hour and a half due to a hurricane, except we thought it was cancelled, so we all got hammered with the Regurgitate guys, and then they came in and told us to play – yikes! Our headlining tour for “Anatomy…” in Europe was great, we toured with Inhume and Cephalic Carnage, two of the coolest bands to hang out and party with, plus it was our first time in an actual tour bus… We came back to do the Cannibal tour over there and shared a bus with Vomitory, who are an amazing group of dudes to rage with night after night. Our livers probably still haven’t recovered from those trips. The bottom line is that I really enjoy touring and playing shows, it’s one of those things that you either like or you don’t, and I don’t blame bands that don’t. But I truly like it, different cities, people, food, beer every night. Great times that I wouldn’t trade for anything, and I look forward to many more nights of alcohol-fueled stupidity to come.

8. Now that you are a veteran of metal, what do you think of the current state of metal and the new influx of technology? Like the social networking aspect replacing zines and file sharing replacing actual records and CDs?
MATT: You know, I’ve been into metal for over twenty-two years now, and of course, I prefer the way things were when I was growing up, but I think that it’s awesome that people can connect with bands and other fans really quickly and easily via the internet. In some ways, I wish it was that easy when I was a teenager. I think I would just surf the internet all day looking for the heaviest and most intense Death Metal and Grindcore. Shit is always gonna change and whether it’s good or bad, and it just doesn’t make any sense going on and on about how much “better” shit used to be- seeing the past through rose-colored glasses is easy, and usually untrue. I’m not gonna be some cheesebag that tries to be all “cool” and “current” or whatever – I don‘t say “LOL“ and shit like that, but whether its records, cds, 8-tracks, tape-trading, file-sharing, whatever, it’s just a way for people to get music and hopefully enjoy it. I dubbed cassettes nonstop during the early 1990s – so what’s the difference with file-sharing? I was living in Hawaii for a year and a half and all my shit was in storage- thank god I could download most of my record collection so I had some shit to listen to out there! Obviously being in a band you hope that whatever you come out with will be good enough that people will want to buy it rather than just download it (or dub it on a blank tape), but bitching about people doing that shit is just a waste of time. The other thing is that the internet and the availability of recording technology now make it infinitely easier for bands today as well, so really it’s a win-win.

9. Now let’s get into the present day, and more recent shit. For a while, you had Dekapitator, Scarecrow and then also jammed in Repulsion. This is an Exhumed interview, but real quick, why did Exhumed go on hiatus and then you worked on these projects?
MATT: Dekapitator has been going on for a while now, it’s just sporadic. We started in 1996, then recorded our first EP in 97 (the “Blood On Steel” split with Nunslaughter), followed by the first record (“We Will Destroy… You Will Obey!!!”) in 1999. With Exhumed not going on tour, Col and I were finally able to give the band enough attention to complete “The Storm Before The Calm”, which was a good feeling, as we’d been trying to gain some momentum for years with the band. We’re going to start working on a new album of Headsplitting Thrash Metal this winter.

I started playing with Repulsion in 2004 I think – which was a dream come true for me. They had tapped Col to fill in for Dave Grave after he didn’t want to go to Europe with the band. They heard the Cretin stuff and immediately recognized the Repulsion drum sound, so it was a natural. Because Col was in San Jose and the other guys in the band were in Los Angeles and Michigan, Col asked me to learn their songs to rehearse with him. Then when Aaron bowed out, I already knew all their songs and had met the guys the previous year at MDF, so I was able to weasel my way into the band for a few years. When Exhumed wasn’t really happening, Repulsion was the perfect way to scratch that Death Metal itch, and it really was an honor to get to play in one of my absolute favorite bands – how many people get to do something like that? I’m really thankful to Matt, Scott and Col for getting me involved in Repulsion and it’s something I have no problem bragging about and will still be talking about at the old-folks home for washed-up Death Metallers in 2050.

After “Garbage Daze…” I was pretty burnt on Exhumed. The fact that the band hadn’t really gotten any bigger from album to album, along with the “Anatomy” lineup falling apart were really frustrating, especially in light of how much work we had done. I felt like without Col in Exhumed, the band didn’t really have any credibility anymore, and I was just tired of teaching new people the songs and hoping that they would “get” where the band was coming from. I needed someone equally into Carcass, Napalm Death, Anti-Cimex, Exodus, and Van Halen in order to really get what the band was all about. After all that burnout, I really wanted to kind of reconnect with what it was that I loved about metal in the first place. I felt like I had kind of been hiding behind all the blast beats and incomprehensible vocals because I didn’t have the balls to come out and play in E and sing with any semblance of melody, that led to Scarecrow. I think doing that was really necessary, because I was writing stuff for Exhumed at the time that basically sounded like Metallica (if you’ve ever heard Scarecrow, we bore more than a passing resemblance to James, Cliff, Kirk and Lars) – and that isn’t right, not for Exhumed. So Scarecrow ended up doing the demo which became the split with Landmine Marathon, and then we played a lot of shows around the bay area, before I pretty much lost focus and sort of quit / got the boot simultaneously. It’s a bummer because we had a bunch of songs written that were never recorded, hopefully that will be rectified one of these days. I thought things would happen a little bit faster for that band, and then we just started playing local shows nonstop and it kind of took over my life at a time when I was going in a different direction.

10. You then moved to Hawaii. How did that come about?
MATT: I just was really tired of living in San Francisco, and I’m still tired of living in big cities and everything that goes with it. I also felt like I had only been doing metal and working various jobs since I was fifteen and I wanted to just totally change my whole surroundings and lifestyle – so I did. But of course, within a few months, all my friends on Maui were metalheads and I got involved with the metal radio show out there on KRKH, the commercial rock station on the island, Ace’s Radio Rehab, eventually becoming the host for a couple months before I left to come back to California. So obviously I can’t escape the whole thing, nor do I want to – it’s just what I do.

11. Then, it was back to the states and Exhumed is back. Tell me about how that came about.
MATT: I moved out to Hawaii planning on being there for only a year or two, and I knew I’d be moving back to the San Luis Obispo area (halfway between San Francisco and LA) and I’d be a lot closer to Wes, so when I realized I’d be moving in a few months, I hit him up to let him know I’d be back and see if he wanted to jam. He kind of jokingly said we should get the band back together, and I kind of jokingly said if we could get Leon and Danny (Walker, drums) on board then it would be a go. Mind you, I’m at work, just texting because my job sucked, and within fifteen minutes, everyone was on board. It was really easy and natural. From there, I just took some of the heavier stuff I had been writing (I don’t really ever stop writing music, regardless of what band I’m in or not in at the time) and went from there to writing new Exhumed songs while Wes wrote songs in California. I called Relapse a week or two later and they were 100% on board. Again, it was a very simple fifteen minute conversation and things were underway.

12. Talk about this current incarnation of Exhumed and the line up and how is the songwriting going for the new album?
MATT: It’s been going really, really well. We’ve come up with about seventeen songs that are strong contenders for the record, as well as about seven or eight more that we may record in the future for splits and whatnot. So out of the top seventeen we’ll record them all and then cherry-pick the best ones for the record, and the rest will be bonus tracks or used for splits or something. For the first time, the writing has been split pretty evenly, which makes my life a lot easier, and also inspires me to up my game to make sure that everything is of the highest caliber. I think the new stuff really combines the directness of “Slaughtercult” with some of the musicality and sophistication of “Anatomy…”, hopefully with the catchiness of “Gore Metal”. Of course every band says this, but I think it’ll be the best Exhumed record so far. Hopefully the “one” I’ve been chasing after for almost 20 years.

13. What are some of your favorite guitar players and singers over the years? Both with playing ability AND attitude?
MATT: As far as guitar players… When Exhumed first started I was pretty much only into being influenced by Bill Steer, Matt Olivo, Eric Cutler, Mike Amott, and James Murphy… But I pretty much learned to play from aping riffs from Kill ‘Em All, Morbid Tales, and Scream Bloody Gore, so James, Tom, and Chuck should all get their due. Now my influences are a bit broader, guys like Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple / Rainbow), Robin Trower, Buck Dharma (Blue Oyster Cult), of course Gary and Rick of Exodus, Gary Moore and John Sykes (Thin Lizzy), Bones from Discharge, Hank Shermann of Mercyful Fate, Michael Schenker (UFO), Uli Roth (Scorpions), and of course Jimmy Page. I also really like guys like Justin Broderick, M. Gira from the Swans, Mark Kozelek from the Red House Painters, Kevin Shields from My Bloody Valentine, just people that can create a distinct sound and vibe with the instrument. For singers… as far as those that have influenced me directly, there’s Darren from Sadus, Mille from Kreator, Rob Halford, Quorthon, Cronos, and last but not least, Sheepdog from Razor. As much as people have tried to say I sound like Jeff from Carcass, I don’t really consider him that much of an influence – his lyrics, definitely – those are still the best lyrics in Death Metal, ever, but his vocal style not so much. I strive to be a bit more screamy and aggressive like Mille in the old days, really. I also try to keep the attitude rock ‘n roll and loose though, like David Lee Roth or Robert Plant, because so much metal these days is so stiff. Really where modern Death Metal loses me is that I can no longer see / hear / feel the link from rock ‘n roll or punk to what’s happening, and that’s where it goes right over my head or under my radar, or whatever cliché you want to use. I grew up on mostly stuff from the 60s that my Dad listened to, shit like Jefferson Airplane, Hendrix, Cream, John Mayall, The Yardbirds, shit like that, so once the rock ‘n roll is gone, there‘s nothing for my ears to latch onto. That could be my age, or maybe I’m not hearing something that’s there, but most newer Death Metal (and Metal in general) leaves me a bit cold, because it just doesn’t rock. There’s no attitude there, everyone seems too busy being technical, or brutal, or emotional or something. It’s just kind of alien to me for this kind of music. I think that attitude is at least as important as ability when you’re doing a show, and probably more important than being able to play well as well – at least that’s been my excuse to showing up to most of our shows really drunk throughout the years. That’s why I’ll always love Bon Scott, he just reeks of attitude, seemingly without even trying, and he has a great sense of humor in his lyrics which I’ve always tried to maintain throughout the years in all my lyrics. It’s all really for a laugh as far as I’m concerned.

14. What are some of the plans that Exhumed and Relapse has for world domination for 2011? Tours, Fests, Albums, etc…
MATT: The new record should drop in April, followed by Maryland Deathfest in May, then European dates and festivals all summer, and hopefully if things go well, more American dates in the fall. So save your strength, go get your sister / girlfriend / mom(?) some slutty clothes, and stock up on beer for the day we come to your city, then come out and rage with us!

15. What are the top 10 albums that have influenced Exhumed musically?
MATT: Hmmm… If I could only pick ten…
Napalm Death – Mentally Murdered, Repulsion – Horrified, Carcass – Symphonies Of Sickness, Metallica – Master Of Puppets, Autopsy – Severed Survival, Possessed – Seven Churches, Master – Master, Terrorizer – World Downfall, Exodus – Bonded By Blood, Razor – Violent Restitution

16. Thanks for your time Matt, any last words of wisdom for the Metal Maniacs out there?
MATT: Thanks for the interview, Mikey, you thorough son of a bitch. Now anytime anyone wants to know about anything, I can just refer them to this interview. As far as words of wisdom… Don’t start a band – go to school, get a solid career, marry a nice girl and have 2.5 children and live in a clean, safe neighborhood with a farmer’s market and good schools. Or just get drunk and crank up some grind! See you all on the road next year, should be a good time for all – except poseurs.

Exhumed discography:

1. Rehearsal Tape 1991, 2. Dissecting the Caseated Omentum demo tape 1992, 3. Excreting Innards 7” EP 1992, 4. Goregasm demo tape 1992, 5. Grotesque Putrefied Brains demo tape 1993, 6. Cadaveric Splatter Platter demo tape 1993, 7. Cadaveric Splatter Platter promo tape 1993, 8. Horrific Expulsion of Gore demo tape 1994, 9. Track “Necro-Fornicator” on the Deterioration of the Senses Compilation CD 1995, 10. Exhumed / Haemorrhage Live split tape 1995, 11. In The Name Of Gore split CD with Hemdale 1996, 12. Blood And Alcohol split 7” EP with Pale Existence 1996, 13. Track “Intercourse With A Limbless Cadaver” on the Orchestrated Chaos Compilation CD 1996, 14. 4 tracks for the Chords Of Chaos 4-way split CD 1997, 15. Instruments Of Hell split 7” EP with No Comply 1997, 16. Indignities To The Dead split 7” EP with Pantalones Abajo Merenero 1997, 17. Totally Fucking Dead split 7” EP with Nyctophobic 1998, 18. Tales Of The Exhumed split 7” EP with Retaliation 1998, 19. Gore Metal CD 1998, 20. Track “Exhume To Consume” on the Requiems Of Revulsion: A Tribute to Carcass Compilation CD 2000, 21. Track “Cannibal Apocalypse” on the Wizards of Gore: A Tribute to Impetigo Compilation CD 2000, 22. Track “No Presents For Christmas” on the Tribute to King Diamond, 23. Split 7” EP with Sanity’s Dawn 2000, 24. Slaughtercult CD 2000, 25. Split 7” EP with Gadget 2001, 26. Deceased In The East split Live 10” with Aborted 2003, 27. Anatomy is Destiny CD 2003, 28. Platters of Splatter 2CD / 3CD compilation 2004, 29. Garbage Daze Re-Regurgitated CD 2005, 30. Something Sickened This Way Comes split 7”/MCD with Ingrowing 2005, 31. 2 tracks on the Headfucker Singles Collection Compilation CD 2008 (originally released as Tales of The Exhumed)

Exhumed:

Matt Harvey – Feculent Funerary Fugues and Excrescent Exhortations: Guitar and vocals 1991-present

Leon DelMuerte – Decrepit Detuned Dirges and Repulsive Recitations: Guitar 1996-1997, Session live bass 2001, 2003-2004, Bass and vocals 2005-present

Wes Caley – Thanatotic Threnodies and Ulcerous Ululations: Guitar 2005-present

Danny Walker – Blood-Soaked Bludgeoner: Session drums live 2003-2004, Drums present

Col Jones – Drums 1991-2003, Derrel Houdashelt – Guitars 1991-1996, Jake Giardina – Vocals 1991-1993, Bass 1993, Ben Marrs – Bass 1991-1992, Mark Smith – Vocals 1993, Kevin Flaherty – Session bass live 1993, Matt Widener – Bass 1994-1995, Ross “Sewage” Sublett – Vocals 1994-1995, Bass and vocals 1995-1999, Dan Martinez – Session guitar live 1995, Lorin Ashton – Session guitar live 1995, Mike Beams – Guitar 1998-1999, Guitar and vocals 1999-2005, Sean McGrath – Session bass live 1999, Bud Burke – Bass 1999-2003, Bass and vocals 2003, John Longstreth – Session drums live 2004, Matt Connell – Drums 2005

Exhumed links:

http://www.smnnews.com/board/forumdisplay.php?f=11

http://www.myspace.com/exhumed

http://www.audiostreet.net/artist.aspx?artistid=16484

http://gorefuckingmetal.blogspot.com/

Metal Maniacs: I really lucked out to get to work with Solitude Productions as they release some of the best in abysmal funeral doom like Astral Sleep and now you guys. How has the reception been to “Withered Shades” so far? Are you guys happy with the official release?

Phil: The album is out now for only a month and promotion just started, so we did not get that much reviews yet. But so far, all reviews have been good, some even extra-ordinary awesome. It seems we made an album that can match up with our last one, “Stream Of Misery”. Ourselves, we are happy with the result. We wrote on the album for over two years, and we think we made something we can be proud of. We are also very proud of the artwork and the overall sound of the record. Both Dusan Belohlavek (cover) and Jens Ballaschke (producer) made an awesome job.

Metal Maniacs: You should be happy with it!!! It’s really moody and all encompassingly HEAVY!!!! So while we’re at it tell us all a bit about you guys, you are new to some of us but massively heavy so you’ll be sure to keep a strong following with some of us new listeners and the die-hard originals.

Phil: With the exception of one interruption Ophis has been around for some 9 years now, and “Withered Shades” is our 4th release. I founded Ophis in late 2001 as a side project originally, but the band split up after a few months, so in 2002 I decided to go alone and made it my solo-project. I recorded and released a demo (which was re-released by Karge Welten Records in 2008). In 2003 Ophis reunited as a band, 2004 we signed to Cxxt Bxxcher Records and released an EP, then played all over Germany. In 2007 we signed to Imperium Productions, releasing our debut album “Stream Of Misery”. A year later we toured Europe as support to Pantheist and Skepticism, and also played a lot of one-off shows in Germany and other countries. Now we are on Solitude Productions and our new album is here. We were also featured on a lot of samplers and played some festivals.

Metal Maniacs: Sadly I’d missed you until this release as I’m a huge fan of the style and sound that you have going, but now I’ll be checking into the older releases as well and am glad to have another band to add to my Esoteric/Evoken style doom collection.

What do you want to create in your doom? Listening to you reminds me of bands like: Ahab, Esoteric, Evoken and Astral Sleep, as you all create the darkest and most morose and depressing atmospheres as well as some of the heaviest doom metal, but yet it all has it’s own mood depending on the artist and is always powerful. What are some of your personal influences?

Phil: Influences differ on musical influences and influences from life. The latter being the reason for the overall atmosphere in the songs and lyrics, the former being the “school” that taught us how to channel these personal influences into music. Put both together, and you have our sound.

Our musical influences grow over the years, as we widen our preferences in Doom Metal. I guess we each have different ones, so it’s hard to say. But we sure are all influenced by early 90s Doom/Death and old school Death Metal. There is not much else musically, that inspires us for our songs. It’s also not too good for a band to consider their musical influences too much, because that might manipulate your writing and therefore your creativity.

As far as our life-influences go, it’s even more different, though I must say personally, that my own influences shifted a bit from more personal things to rather global social influences since “Empty Silent And Cold”. But it may yet shift again or even move back. I don’t regulate this at all.

Metal Maniacs: I completely agree with you as far as how focusing on influences can affect your sound, I should have phrased it better as general interests and life-influences. I’m a huge death metal fan myself and seem to listen to that most of the time aside from doom, and am also obsessed with rare Italian horror/doom/prog/metal stuff and any acts related to that sound new or old. I’d probably even skip eating one meal a day if I had to just to buy a really good record, nowadays that would be anything over $10 sadly enough.

You have a few shows lined-up it looks like (from your website), so what do you guys have planned for the near future overall in terms of live actions?

Phil: There won’t be a bigger tour in the near future because we all need to work or study, and there is also no financial tour support from the labels, so this won’t occur for a while. But we plan on a mini-tour currently, also including other countries. Nothing sure yet, except a show in France with Ataraxie and some gigs in Germany with Totenmond and Moder and Dead Remains, so I can’t say much about this yet or promise anything. Playing live is important, so we keep working on it.

Metal Maniacs: I’m currently a student (reason I’m poor) and struggling to finish my last year and go on to a PhD program, so if anyone understands the work and study routine it’s me.

Writing reviews and hearing so much music is awesome for me, but it also has some disappointments when I hear so much bland and uninspired stuff being released as well, it makes the really good stuff pop out even more to my ears. Even given that last statement I still find it damn near impossible to name my favorites unless it’s on a week-by-week basis. If you had to name a few favorite bands and/or albums what would they be?

Phil: Just like you, I could only do this on a week-by-week basis. I could even hardly decide for 50 top-of-all-time records, it ranges from old Manowar-stuff like “Hail To England” over Morbid Angel up to Skepticism “Stormcrowfleet”, but also includes (a little) non-Metal stuff like early 80s New Wave. Ultravox “Rage In Eden” for example.

Metal Maniacs: I also like a lot of non-metal stuff like power electronics/krautrock/heavy psychedelic/ neo-folk/dark ambient/ experimental stuff and some classic industrial like Cabaret Voltaire, Skinny Puppy or The Revolting Cocks, Ultra-Vox are pretty cool…I also really dig a lot of death rock/post punk stuff like: The Chameleons, Alien Sex Fiend, and Red Lorry Yellow Lorry as well. Lately it’s been a mix of grind and crust with Obituary, “Cause of Death” and Napalm Death “From Enslavement to Obliteration” being the two dominant ones.

Phil: That’s not a bad choice.

Well, my most played records during the past week were: Remembrance “Fall, Obsidian Night”, Malevolent Creation “The Ten Commandments”, Drautran “Throne Of The Depths”, Lords Of The New Church “Anthology” and Iron Maiden “The X-Factor”. Rather melodic these days, guess it’s because of fucking summer, hehe. “The X-Factor” is an awesome album, by the way, and Blaze is a cool singer. All the hate against him is totally unnecessary.

Metal Maniacs: I fucking love that Malevolent Creation album, and coincidentally Drautran is one of my all-time favorite metal picks over the last two years or so, Helrunar is another band similar and equally awesome. My current week now that this interview is in the final stages consists of: The Dead, Lord Vicar, Mirror of Deception, and Paul Chain. The last few weeks have been very rough so the doom stuff speaks to me from my own mood and perception of things at this time, i.e. pain and struggles.

So to wrap this thing up, is there anything that you would like to say to close this interview?

Phil: I’d like to thank my good old aunt Marion for introducing me to the sexual pleasures of gasmasks when I was five, and for teaching me not to scream when it really hurts down there. RIP aunt Marion. You were much too young, but that disgusting pus-virus really got you, eh?

Janet, thanks very much for interviewing us, it’s been a pleasure. Thanks for your support.

Cheers to all the readers.

Metal Maniacs: That’s Fucking awesome!!!!!! I love comments like that, great ending Phil…

www.ophisdoom.de
www.solitude-prod.com