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INDEX
INTERVIEWS
GUESTBOOK
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1.
Hello, what's up in Queens/ New York city? Are you ready to answer
these questions, and which record will you listen while answering?
Hello! NYC lately has had non stop rain and misty weather, and the people are going crazy to get some good weather. I live in Brooklyn now and most people have small apartments so they want to be outside as much as possible. The tourists are back in Manhattan crowding up the streets. We are about to elect a new mayor, so that should be fun haha. I am ready to answer! and I am listening to a massive playlist, but the song of the moment is "You Made Me Realize" by My Bloody Valentine, which is not very metal but still awesome. But right before that was Hellbastard . . . .
2.
The musicians of Mortiferoth played in various kinds of bands before,
from sludge metal to death metal... Can you tell us a bit more about
it?
Jose learned
guitar by playing death metal and played in death metal bands after
he came to NYC. I used to play in a bunch of punk rock bands in
the1990's, and a few psychedelic noise type bands. I like to just
jam with friends, so I've been in some improv situations too. I
used to play drums in a jazz band at weddings hahaha. I could not
find anyone else to play metal until around 2005 when I started
300 Cobras with my friends Jace and Kris - that is the first tape
I traded with you! I joined Savagist after that, very heavy and
fast sludgy metal. I also played bass in some very mellow bands
that have albums on spotify, actually. But I like to play drums
heavy and fast, so death metal is my favorite thing to play. Our
first bass player Howie used to play in grunge and alternative bands
in Trinidad back in the 90's, just like me lol. He played death
metal once he came to NYC, though. No one in Trinidad wanted to
play death metal, he said. And new bass player Brian Hobbie, you
have to know him! He is one of the pioneers of death metal bass
playing, he started Internal Bleeding back in the 1990's and has
played with Catastrophic and Vital Remains, and a few others. He
likes to jam on classic rock and rock and roll, and brings a bluesy
feel to things sometimes.
3. Then Mortiferoth was created in 2015, what led to the formation of this entity? Did it emerge from the split of another band? Why did you choose to play death metal in particular, and was it the style you started up with in the beginning?
When we started in 2015, it was Jose, Howie and Steve (me). Jose had moved from Ecuador to Queens long before that and started to learn guitar, and then he joined the death metal band Laceration, and Howie played bass in that band. Laceration broke up and a few years pass by until I move to Brooklyn in 2013. In 2015, I put an ad in Craigslist saying that I was a drummer who wants to play death metal, and Jose answered the ad. I always wanted to be in a proper death metal band, and I figured that it was possible in NYC. Anything is possible here if you know where to look and just get lucky. They wanted to play death metal but couldn't find a drummer. It's really luck that we met. The very first time we played together, we just hit it off and played a bunch of songs. We started off with leftover Laceration songs, but very quickly started to write new riffs and weirder riffs. Jose and I can jam all day just making up riffs. We wanted to come up with our own style, and by like 2018 or so I think we did. Kind of psychedelic and loose at times, but with really intense rhythms and tempos.
4.
Why did you choose the band name MORTIFEROTH? What is "mortiferous"
to the point you have a grudge against it and wanted to name your
band after it?
There are
very few things in this modern world that are more difficult than
devising a new band name. All the good names got taken like 25 years
ago hahahaha. We spent almost a year trying to find a name. I was
suggesting all kinds of stuff, and one day Jose said that he liked
for it to end with a ".. th", so I came up with
Mortiferoth and it just sounded right. There are other bands with
similar names, of course (Mortifer, Mortiferous, Mortifera, etc.),
but not even one that ends in TH. The Mortifer- part is Latin ("death-bearing"
or "death-bringing") but the -TH ending is actually from
the ancient Hittite language, so the name is a mix of different
styles and cultures, just like the band. We don't have a grudge
against anyone; it is humanity that seems to have a grudge against
itself and the Earth!
5. In my opinion, your last recording entitled "...to the Abyss" is your best one yet... Morbid greetings :) Can you introduce this release for those who aren't familiar with it?
Thank you!
We think it is the best one yet as well. Our label Hail Shitar Records
released 200 copies on 12" 180 gram purple vinyl, and they
came out perfect. And then you released it on cassette! One day
maybe it will be on CD as well. The tapes look great, and I am very
pleased to have a European release.
The EP has 2 newer songs
and 2 older ones, and the lyrics are about the end of the planet,
the corruption of society, the brutality and foolishness of humankind.
6.
While your first demos and Eps sounded rawer, this one has a more
"rounded" good old school production in the spirit of
the 90's! What has changed in the way your songs were recorded?
Was it done in a more professional studio, or did you order some
new recording hardware? Was this change only about the means of
recording, or did you also change something in the way of playing
or composing the songs itselves?
As you know,
I am a DIY kind of person and am not afraid to release something
that does not sound that good haha. I am a difficult drummer to
record because somehow my hi-hats are always louder than everything
else. So we started to put out demos in 2016 because we were still
finding our style, and only had a few songs. When the Secret Secrecy
demo came out, we knew that we had really found our sound, our way
of writing songs, so the next thing was to learn how to record it.
For the Fatal Spiritual Failures EP, I had a professional record
the drums, because I just can't do that properly, and then Jose
and I recorded the guitars, bass, and vocals on my 8 track recorder.
Me and Jose learned a lot about recording his guitars during that
session, and the EP is great, but is still very raw sounding.
I
wanted to have a recording good enough for a vinyl release, so for
the " . . .To The Abyss" sessions, we had Jon record the
drums again, and this time the bass too. Brian and I played everything
live together, very few overdubs. By then, Jose lived in Miami,
Florida, so I went down to Miami to record the guitars and vocals.
Jose had built up a home studio, so we did all the guitars and vocals
over the course of a year or so, and when we were done we sent all
the files to Jon and he mixed the record. My friend Joel in Athens,
GA, mastered the record and made it sound phenomenal.
7. Would you say your kind of death metal is more influenced by the American or European genre? I hear both in your songs, but rather the styles from the early 90's... If you had to name a few bands that sound alike, which would you quote?
Another tough question! I think more of a European influence, honestly. My main influence for death metal drums is the first Entombed album, that drum performance is so so good. He plays with a bit of a swing, like a punk drummer, and that's what I like. I think you can hear in us some Hypocrisy, old Grave and Unleashed. The first record from Vomitory is a huge influence on me personally, those riffs are incredible and the drumming is great. But American bands of the 90's are huge too - Morbid Angel and Obituary have such amazing lead guitars. I don't know that we sound like too many other death metal bands, but we still are firmly in that 90's old school style.
8.
Some of your newer songs have a somewhat "progressive"
side, not for the technicality but there's something in the structures,
there's perhaps also a "mysterious" touch... Do you enjoy
some 70's prog rock perhaps, or it's just a natural musician development?
We do enjoy
some 70's rock! You are right, we are not super technical for a
death metal band, but we do create some complicated textures and
soundscapes. It is a natural development: I gravitate toward odd
time signatures, and Jose and I both like to experiment with sounds,
to try to create something strange and unheard before. I do like
it to get blurry and mysterious . . . .
9.
The artwork of this last Ep doesn't really look like the usual necro/
morbid artwork, it's more abstract & luminous (In a quite spiritual
way)... Somewhere it also reminds me of some 70's artworks in the
spirit... Who did this painting? Was it painted on request, or perhaps
you were shocked when you discovered it in an art gallery and knew
you had to use it? :)
The artwork was done by Dick Lucas, the singer of the Subhumans, one of my favorite punk bands EVER. He was very cool to work with. I saw it posted on his Instagram page and I immediately thought that it could be a good cover for the EP. All that you said about it in the question, I also thought when I saw it. "Abstract and luminous" is totally right. I emailed him and he charged me a very small fee to license the image for the record. He paints a lot and there are a bunch that are really cool, but this one just looked like it should be called " . . .To The Abyss"
10.
You released most of the band's recordings on your own label HAIL
SHITAR. Can you tell us more about it? What is better when you release
your music on your own label? Is it about having more freedom? Knowing
what is happening first hand?
Mostly, I made the label because nobody else was going to put out my band's music on cassette. When I was a kid in high school in the 1990's we put out our own tapes and sold them at local shows. When I started 300 Cobras, I did the same thing, but as Hail Shitar, and I found a bunch of people to trade with. You know the rest :) I do like to have control of everything, though, so that is a part of it. For me, making the art, and folding the covers and all that is the best part. I hate having to sell stuff, I am a terrible salesperson. Just look how long it took to do this interview! However, I am very good at playing shows, and selling stuff at shows, and making shirts and stickers. Having the tape come out on NH for Europe is awesome.
11. I remember reading some old comic books from France years ago, and sometimes the editor wrote something like "XXX litters of coffee, XXX packs of cigarettes and XXX days without sleeping were consumed to achieve this volume"... Would you say running HAIL SHITAR is more about consuming the coffee, the cigarettes, or the sleepless nights after work? ahah
Hahaha there is lots of coffee, a fair amount of beer, and tons of weed!! No late nights though, I wake up super early and do work then. I have been known to put cassettes together while sitting on the floor watching cartoons
12.
What does death metal mean for you? This is probably your favorite
kind of metal right now, but if we think about the words "death"
and "metal" gathered together, does it take a deeper meaning?
Are you the kind of guys who spends hours wandering in the cemeteries
or deep forest to think about death through the centuries and other
philosophical ideas, or are you rather the kind of dudes who spend
hours in the local bars to gather impressions about the new local
beers and endlessly talk about the evolution of beer taste through
the centuries? :)
I think that
death metal, for us, is how we choose to express ourselves in this
world. It is a reaction to what we see. The world kinda sucks right
now, and it is brutal and overwhelming. It is too much to fully
understand without going mad, so in order to deal with it, we make
"music" that is brutal and overwhelming. Only death metal
has that mix of heaviness, brutality, violence, but also can let
you explore majesty, philosophy, and the eternal struggle of humanity.
We do talk about beer as well, but mostly whiskies and amaros
hahah.
13. When you rehearse or play live, do you happen to play cover songs? If so which songs or which bands? Are there covers you play just for fun and aren't really linked to the style of the band? (Perhaps Kiss or Judas priest? ahah) or are you more serious guys who play only "real death metal"?
When we first
started out we played covers, "Inner Self" by Sepultura,
"Pleasure of Molestation" by Hypocrisy, "Rise from
the Ashes" by Nuclear Assault, and Grave's " Satisfied".
We
played the Grave and Hypocrisy songs live a few times, and those
made it onto the demos as well. But we also would jam on some classics
- ZZ Top, Van Halen, Judas Priest. Brian knew a lot of Mercyful
Fate songs. Playing covers is a blast, it's great to learn any song,
really.
14.
Did you already try to play the riffs of bands you enjoy inside
out, and found out it sounded great... And finally found a new riff
this way? Sometimes jamming a song you enjoy might turn into finding
good riffs by accident, you never know how it comes with inspiration
:)
You know, we have done that, started with a known riff and then have it branch off into something else. Sometimes trying to learn a riff can inspire a new one altogether. You know, a good example is Corrosion Of Conformity song "Redneckkk" - it is actually the 2 riffs from Black Sabbath "Symptom of the Universe" but sped up really fast.
15. If Mortiferoth was a bear, would it rather be a polar bear, a brown bear, north American black bear, panda bear, or another one? It seems women on social medias were very attracted by bears recently, so perhaps we need to be more informed about this animal? Ahah...
We would definitely be the Spectacled Bear, native to the Andes Mountain range in South America. Excellent bear, I'd definitely rather hang out in the woods with one of them than some random guy haha
16.
A classical question: Tell us the bands or releases you listened
to the most the last months...
Let's see . . . Reckless Manslaughter, Hyperdontia, Noxis, Burial (Ita), The Exploited, Unembalmed (great underground US band!), OLDSKULL (Fra), Writhing, :Wumpscut, and as always lots of CCR and Memphis Rap
17.
What do you have in mind for Mortiferoth in the coming months? Where
can the readers go to buy your records or some merch? Thanks.
Hopefully soon I can get my ass back down to Miami so Jose and I can finish writing some new songs. I expect another demo and maybe a 7" EP down the road. I would like to have some shirts soon too as well. Right now you'll want to go to our Bandcamp page to get stuff, all our releases are in stock and also some patches. I will totally ship to Europe, so don't be afraid!
Thanks Gabe,
you have always been a big support! Hails!
Steve - Mortiferoth
/ Hail Shitar Records
Web
pages:
https://mortiferoth.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/Mortiferoth
