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MALEDICTION-interview with their leader Rich

: 11-10-2016, 14:41
autor: Death in another way
1.In what circumstances Malediction was founded in 1989? What was Your first line-up and musical influences? What do You think about Your first demo "Infestation" from 1990?

We were all at Teesside Polytechnic in the North East of England and initially wanted to form a thrash metal band, almost as a joke really. Anyway, as you know 1989 saw a great number of classic death metal albums being released, so by the time we got around to seriously doing anything with the band we had decided to be a death metal band.

In terms of influences, I think when I wrote “Infestation” I was heavily influenced by Pestilence, Napalm Death, Terrorizer, Prophecy of Doom, Repulsion, Morbid Angel, that kind of thing. We just wanted to be as extreme as possible back then. We wanted to be the heaviest, fastest, most extreme band in the North East of England. I think the early material on the first two 7”s was always a balance between the blasting Morbid Angel/Deicide style and more mid-paced grind. “System Fear” (the song) was really heavily influenced by what Napalm Death did on the “Mentally Murdered” EP, I loved that recording, still do.

Much as we loved DM though, we were more interested in the lyrics of bands like Napalm Death and I’d always really liked the “real world” lyrics of the progressive rock bands I loved like Marillion (with Fish) and Pink Floyd, so we agreed that the music would be death metal/technical grindcore but the lyrics would steer well away from the gore/death/satan thing that everyone else was doing.

The “Infestation” demo was alright for the time. We hadn’t been rehearsing for long when we recorded it and considering we had no clue what we were doing. I think it’s a better recording than the “System Fear” 7” probably was.

2.Your band existed first in years 1989-1996. In these years You recorded and issued: 4 demos, 3 ep's, one split, one live album and one compilation. Please tell us about them. What do do You think about them? How was cooperation with separate labels in these times? What do You think about Your covers and texts? Where You recorded them? Your line-up was changing in these years, so please tell us about it. What were Your best concerts and with what bands in these times? Did You have any proposal of concerts from other countries, also from Poland? From what countries You had the best support in these times?

I think that they were a fairly mixed bag. In hindsight, I’m not so sure why some of those releases happened, some feel far from essential now looking back on them.

We released the one track “Infestation” demo and that was our first studio experience, it turned out okay all things considered and was good enough (along with rehearsal recordings) to get the deal with Thrash Records which became the “System Fear” 7” EP (released in 1990). I don’t like “System Fear” much now, I think the production on it is dreadful and even in terms of song writing we quickly moved on into more interesting compositions on my opinion. I find the cover art to “System Fear” to be an embarrassment too to be honest, we were trying to make a point in there somewhere but now I view it as a rather laughable juvenile attempt to shock. Thrash Records were really cool, they did all that they said they would, which seems to be a major challenge for most people in the music industry.

The second 7” was “Mould of an Industrial Horizon” on MBR Records and this was much better both in terms of song writing and production, it showed how we had progressed in the few months between the recordings of the first two 7”s. I think it’s a really good release and the artwork and packaging were great for the time. MBR did breach their contract though as I believe there was a second pressing that they didn’t tell us about, they also failed to return the master tapes for the recording.

The third 7” was a bit of a disaster, PS Records totally ripped us off and when the thing was finally released looked and sounded terrible. The songs on it were great, it was just their presentation and production values which ruined it for us. We also had to buy our own copies due to PS Records’ unscrupulous business practices.

When never released our best material, “Ruinous Opiate” from 1994 was going to be on a split 7” with the US band Incarnis, but it never happened. It finally got officially released this year on the “Chronology of Distortion” CD. We also recorded a nine track, 54 minute full length in 1996 which has never been released. Most of the songs on that were brand new and in that recording we went off into some highly experimental directions. In retrospect, I think we went a bit too progressive, but it was where we wanted to be at the time. There were three songs on that in the 9-10 minute range.

In terms of what I think about them, some of them are okay, some I’m really not keen on at all. They are all very much of their time and I suppose capture a snapshot of where we were at the time they were recorded. I still think we have our best material in us, I’m sure we can do better even than “Ruinous Opiate” which I regard as the pinnacle of our song writing to date.

Our lyrics developed along with the music so we went from being overtly humanitarian, critical of big business (“Infestation”, “Murdered From Within”), critical of society (“System Fear”) into more ambiguous lyrics which were more dreamlike and full of imagery liked on “Doctrines Eternal Circles” or “Framework of Contortion”. Those later songs are still about real things, the meaning is just slightly more ambiguous. I really like lyrics that are open to all kinds of interpretations, that was the aim later on. We got a lot of shit over our lyrics, I think a lot of people thought it wasn’t the done thing to be a death metal band and not have lyrics about zombies or some shit like that. It never occurred to me to write lyrics like that, I mean, what for ? It’s a none subject. There’s stuff I wanted to say and still do. If you want gore and zombies there are already bands that do that, what’s the point in being another just conforming to some sort of set of rules. The thing that attracted me to extreme music in the first place was the lack of rules. I thought that this was the kind of music where anything was possible and that was the appeal of it.

3.Why they did occur split-up of Malediction in 1996?

It just kind of ended after we recorded the album (“The Millennium Cotillion”). I think we were sick of each other to a certain extent and there was a bit of acrimony during the recording. I just think the band was done by the end of 1996. It was never discussed, it just stopped being a thing.

4.What were You doing in years 1996-2000?

Personally, I just got on with life. To be brutally honest with you, I think I was guilty of attempting to try and become “normal”, not play music anymore just become like everyone else. That lasted for a year or two and then one day I had an epiphany which was like “fuck you, I used to be in a death metal band” and I went back to music and playing guitar again.

I think in that period of time the only person from the band that I still saw was Mark Fox, we used to talk about the band a lot, of course. It’s been unfinished business for me for a long time.

5.There was come back of Malediction in years 2000-2001. Please tell us about it.

Following on from talking about the old times, me and Mark Fox decided we wanted to have another go at doing Malediction. We spoke to Mark McGowan who also wanted to do it. Anyway, we recruited a drummer who is/was quite well known in the UK and worked really hard rehearsing old and some new material and we were planning to release an MCD/album thing. It just didn’t happen, we worked really hard on it but we just couldn’t quite generate the necessary momentum to make things happen. Mark McGowan wasn’t really able to participate as he had other things going on in his life and the drummer we had chosen just wasn’t in any way equipped to deliver what we needed.

We recorded a few tracks in 2001, but the drumming on them is so poor that we couldn’t use them for anything. So once again the band folded and this time it looked like for good.

6.Your last issue was compilation from 2016. Please tell us about it.

Over the years a few labels had contacted me via email of via Facebook about doing a CD release and I was really quite against it for a long time. I just wanted to put out a two or three CD set with all the recordings and the album on it but all these labels were only interested in the demos and 7”s and my interest in them was limited, I just thought that the material was nowhere near as good as that from the 1994 and beyond period.

Anyway, eventually Dave Garcia from Dark Blasphemies got in touch and he was very much the same as the previous labels, he was just interested in the demos/7”s. I talked about this with Mark Fox and Mark McGowan and they basically (especially McGowan) convinced me that the time was right to do it.

So, the CD called “Chronology of Distortion” was released in May 2016 and includes 15 tracks from the 1990-1994 period. It’s not really a “discography” release as we have recorded some rare tracks and remixes of the songs previously released. The brief for us when putting the thing together was “okay, these are the things we’ve released, what are the best versions of these songs that we have ?” Many of the tracks had to be restored from some quite poor sources and then mastered into a cohesive whole and I think it sounds great and tells a story. The tracks are in chronological order of recording and you can see how these young guys who had no clue what they were doing in 1990 actually ended up sounding quite accomplished three to four years later. I think it’s a great release and the packaging and artwork and everything are really outstanding.

It’s also due (shortly) to come out as a double vinyl album on Mexican label Dark Recollections, which just in the process of the sorting out the packaging for that and it should be really killer, gatefold sleeve, printed inners, coloured vinyl, the works.

7.Is there any chance of Your come back, some new issues and concerts? Where would You like to play the most, also on fests? What is going on with Your ex-members? Do You have contact with them?

This has something that has been discussed on and off for many years.

Recently (this week in fact) we have announced that myself, Mark Fox, Mark McGowan and Shaun Stephenson are working on new Malediction music. The plan is to record a two track 7” with two brand new songs (one written by me and one by Mark McGowan) for release in 2017. After that, we would love to finally be able to release a debut Malediction album.

The technology now means that we can record and have 100% control with none of the compromises which hurt some of our recordings in the past. We can now take as long as we want or need to make a recording which is really appealing.

We don’t have a drummer at present, so we’ll be looking to use a session for at least the new 7” recording.

New music, which I’m writing at the moment kind of encapsulates all the disparate styles we followed back when we were last active. The songs are going to be shorter and more direct than some of the really long songs we did on our unreleased 1996 album, but there will still be experimentation and we certainly won’t be limiting ourselves to a purely death metal sound.

We swore never to play live again after our last disastrous gig which was in London in 1995. However, playing live is another bit of unfinished business and I think if it was the right gig at the right venue at the right time we would like to be able to play live again. It just wouldn’t be (as it had been in the past) a case of just playing a gig for the sake of doing so. I have some great ideas about how we could play live and put on a great show with a really good set, I think it’s something we could do.

We never got to play outdoors and it’s a dream of mine to play one of those great European outdoor metal festivals. To play outside the UK is also a big dream, hopefully we’ll one day get that opportunity.

8.You are very active on Your Facebook profile. Please tell us about it and about contacts with Your fans worldwide.

Facebook has been an utter godsend. If it weren’t for FB we wouldn’t be having this conversation and I wouldn’t have been able to get in touch with old band members, other musicians and music fans all over the world, it’s that simple.

People love to malign social media, but no complaints from me at all, it is and has been an utterly invaluable tool.

I love to hear from people into the band, it still surprises me how far the music has reached places like Indonesia and Costa Rica. People stop by the page and say “hello”, it’s very cool. I love that.

9.What is Your life philosophy?

“Do no harm” and “no gods, no masters” spring to mind.

I haven’t mellowed over the years, in fact I would say I am even more political and radical than I was when I was in my twenties. The world has just continued to go to shit over the intervening years at an alarming rate. There’s certainly a plethora of material for new Malediction lyrics.

10.What are Your favourite bands?

Morbid Angel, Death, Celtic Frost, Rush, Napalm Death, Akercocke, Marillion (with Fish), Pink Floyd, Candlemass, Dead Can Dance, Emperor, Lock Up, Enslaved, Killing Joke, Voices, Fields of the Nephilim, Nevermore, Ultravox, to name just a few. I like music of all genres really, and I certainly don’t stick to a “metal only” diet when it comes to what I listen to.

11.What are Your interests?

I’ve been really heavily being getting back into the whole guitar thing over the last year or so, I’ve acquired a great rig and a few nice instruments and have been working hard on my playing.

Apart from that I’m passionate about movies, politics, religion (or lack thereof), science, technology and the future of humanity (if it has one). I’m a consumer of books and just love to read about new ideas, philosophy and new technology. Huge science fiction fan as I think if you want to understand the future or even contemplate whether we as a species have one, you need to read SF.

12.Please tell us about Your plans for future.

Finish writing my song for this 7”, get the thing recorded and out there and hopefully get to do the Malediction album. I’m meeting up with Mark McGowan next week in Scotland and no doubt we’ll crystalize some of our plans for the new songs. I’m just writing away at the moment, new riffs are coming thick and fast, it’s just a question of quality controlling them to see what’s useable.

I’m also in a crust punk band called Bastardised with Carlo Regadas (Carcass, Monstrance, Devoid), Chaz Blade (Solstice, Fireblade), Ben McCrow (Extreme Noise Terror, The Rotted, Gorerotted) and Nick Barker (Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth, Lock Up, Brujeria) and we’re just putting stuff together for a 7” with that and should be gigging in 2017, so look out for that, it should be totally raging.

Many thanks for the opportunity to answer these questions Mariusz, I really appreciate your continued interest and support of Malediction.

For anyone interested in finding out more, you can find us on Facebook at facebook.com/MaledictionUK and on Twitter @MaledicitionUKDM.