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INDEX
INTERVIEWS
GUESTBOOK
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BRUTAL DEATH METAL/ NEW
YORK
INTERVIEW
/ Michael (Vocals)
1. Hello, are you ready for an interview? Which cools things happened in the camp of DEHUMANIZED lately?
What’s up Nihilistic Holocaust Webzine?! This is Michael from Dehumanized. Right off the bat we are still alive and breathing so we still have a chance. We’ve been playing some really awesome local shows in support of our newest release ‘Beyond The Mind’ and have been extremely happy with the reaction it has gotten.
2. Your new album "Beyond the Mind" was released recently. How do you feel about it? Anxious to read the flow of reviews and to play some gigs?
We’re very proud of the new album. You can definitely hear the progression of our combined talents. With a solid consistent lineup for the last 5 years we’ve been able to develop a strong chemistry that allows growth musically. We are undoubtedly feasting on the energy of the crowd when we play the new material live!
3. How long did you spend to compose and record this album? Is it about months or years? Is it always easy to find a guitar part to follow this killer riff you found 2 months ago? (Perhaps you have songs in the work that remain unfinished since too long? AhAh). Does everything happen “live” in the rehearsal room, or do you need to record songs and take some distance to hear what's not efficient enough?
The actual recording process and tracking took roughly two weeks. We came into Full Force Studio prepared and rehearsed the same way we did with ‘Controlled Elite’. Most of the material was new but there were a few songs that Dehumanized had written many moons ago and never recorded them; most notably the title track (which was the very first song George and Rich ever wrote together).
4. What are the differences between this album and the previous one "Controlled Elite"? Why is the new one the best? :)
hahaha I like that little twist you put on the end of that question. The theme of ‘Controlled Elite’ was mostly about the theories of secret powerful societies and their methods of controlling the human race. It seems to me, and I don not speak on behalf of the whole band, that a ton of metal bands are riding this particular theme into the ground. So with ‘Beyond The Mind’ I wanted to take a different approach in that it deals more with mental issues both personally and objectively. I speak a lot from experience in the lyrics being that I had a depressive episode myself that nearly ended in suicide. Maybe this is why ‘Beyond The Mind’ is getting more praise than ‘Controlled Elite’? It exhibits a grand combination of our growth as musicians, artists, and as people.
5. Would you say your music is more influenced by old or newer SUFFOCATION? When talking about deathcore, do you prefer the modern stuffs of the old kickings of MISERY INDEX? Could we say PYREXIA is an influence, or it’s more you share common tastes in brutality?
The style of death metal Dehumanized plays definitely is influenced by the pioneers of the slam/groove method like Suffocation, Internal Bleeding, Pyrexia, Dying Fetus, Afterbirth, Devourment etc. Individually our taste in music varies immensely. Most of the time you’ll catch us rockin’ out to some Human League on the way to a gig lol. We’re very open-minded when it comes to listening to many different types of music. We don’t strictly listen to the heavy stuff all the time. We just like playing that style of music the most.
6. I saw a few peoples complain because you have slam riffs... From my point of view I can tolerate these riffs because it's not too frequent, and it's sometimes structured in a riff manner... I don't know, didn't these peoples confuse modern slam/ deathcore with the slower parts of old brutal death? SUFFO frequently had groovy breakdowns, and Devourment or Cinerary had these stuffs as far as I remember...
We have no control over how people view what we write. We just write the grooviest and heaviest stuff we can that fits into the mood of the song itself. We don’t try to label ourselves too much to fit in with certain groups. We’re an extreme death metal band with some NYC flayva. That’s all.
7. The cover of the album looks quite "Old school", it reminds me of the computer generated artworks you could see in the 1998-2005 era... Nice to see some colors on a Death metal cover album AhAh. Who made this artwork? What can you say about it?
That piece was an original done by the great Tony Koehl (Sketch The Soul Studios). It caught my eye when browsing through his gallery because it fit the lyrical theme perfectly. The fact that it had some interesting color schemes to it was just a bonus. Once again, Dehumanized tries to separate itself from what is trendy within the genre so we were not afraid to put out an unconventional album cover.
8. Peoples are generally more nostalgic, and come back to their 90's Death metal roots... I can feel some older death metal riffs here and there on your album, but do you think it could take more space in the future? Perhaps you would create an old school death parallel project one day?
If you’re hearing old school riffs on a Dehumanized record it’s because members of Dehumanized are old lol; not too old to the point where we can’t throw down with the younger generations though. We just write what sounds good to us and our tastes root from that specific time period. We don’t like to ride that nostalgia train too much because music is about taking risks and exploring new horizons. I’m confident in saying that future Dehumanized releases will contain more and more interesting material as we continue to gel.
9. Some new brutal death albums are very chaotic and have a very raw production which doesn't really make it a pleasure... Some are so technical that it's a pain in the ass to hear... Perhaps I'm becoming old, but wasn't the listening pleasure lost somewhere? What's your opinion about it? I ask this question because your music is kinda riffs based and can be catchy, so you might have an opinion not too far from mine ahah
Music, just like life, benefits from maintaining a crucial balance. Finding this perfect balance is almost impossible to do so the closer we can get to executing it, the better our music will be. The human ear can take only so much of an onslaught before it puts up its defenses. Some people have more tolerance for relentless attack than others pretty much. It all depends on the individual.
10. You last two albums were released by COMATOSE Recs, so I guess you're happy with his job? Did you sign a record deal or it's just vocal agreement?
We signed a deal with Comatose and have been very satisfied with Steve Green’s support and performance.
11. Now
comes a few questions about the past.
A member of the band used
to play in 420, which was another incarnation of REPUDIILATION,
if I'm not wrong... I remember an album was almost completed, but
never released... Can you help clear my views about it? I used to
write letters with Brian of Repudilation in 1998 and he seemed to
be very motivated back then.
George Torres was the drummer for 420 and reunited with Matt (420, Repudilation) in 2010 but put out the material under the new name Between Two Evils (which eventually featured Yours Truly on vocals).
12. Which memories do you retain from the Death metal/ Brutal death scene in New York in the 90's? From a French point of view, I of course knew SUFFOCATION, PYREXIA, MORTICIAN, IMMOLATION, SKINLESS, and also Internal bleeding, but I'm basically interested in more obscure bands, so if you can remember the names of great demos bands, that would be great :)
Afterbirth,
Immortal Suffering, Malignancy, Demolition Hammer, to name a few.
13. In the ends 90's I was quite exposed to the Texas Death metal scene, due to Corpse gristle zine... Do you remember the fanzines or labels from New york that were quite active?
I certainly do remember tons of D.I.Y. fanzines being passed around but most of the names escape me. I do recall “Grimoire Magazine” having some cool interviews and pictures of hot chicks.
14. Was "Prophecies Foretold" an album or a MCD? It came with 6 new songs and 4 tracks from the demo... It was something like the 4th release on PATHOS records, how did things happen then? Were you happy with the label?
Ultimately we view ‘Prophecies Foretold’ as a full-length album even though it’s split into two different recordings. I was not in the band at the time that record deal was signed so I’m sorry I can’t give you an accurate report on how it all occurred.
15. What do the members of DEHUMANIZED listen to the most lately? Which newer bands kicked your ass a lot? And which older bands come back the more often on your playlists?
I can only speak for myself here so I’ll say I’ve been listening to a lot of new releases from bands/acts like Brujeria, Anthrax, Death Angel, Nile, Ache, Incontinence, Thanatology, Odiusembowel, Gojira, Cryptopsy, Malignancy, Obituary, Nails. That’s just off the top of my head.
16. What will come next with DEHUMANIZED? More gigs, merchandising? Feel free to use this question as a marketing space lol.
hahaha thank you! We will be planning out potential tours/shows after the New Year. We still have plenty of places in the world we’ve yet to visit like Indonesia, Japan, Australia, more countries in Europe, South America. The globe is at our fingertips :). We will be pressing a bunch of new merchandise that will be available at our webstore: www.dehumanized.bigcartel.com and at our upcoming gigs. ‘Beyond The Mind’ is also available for digital download at our Bandcamp page. Follow us on instagram, Twitter, and Youtube as well! We’re tossing around ideas for music videos so be on the lookout. And of course, we’ve already started writing music for the next album too!
Web page: https://www.facebook.com/DEHUMANIZED.NY
