Disfigured Dead
Wywiad przeprowadził Wouter Roemers
Hailing from death metal capital New York the promising young outfit Disfigured Dead don't sound anything as their hometown would suggest. Inspired by the more earlier forms of death metal Disfigured Dead count Autopsy, early Death, Obituary and Repulsion chief amongst their influences. In a scene polluted by kids sporting scene haircuts and playing deathcore or slam-death it was refreshing to hear some young metalheads cranking out a more traditional form of the genre. Disfigured Dead drummer-vocalist Kyle Kratzer wasted no time in answering the questions we had for him.
Hello! Thanks for doing this interview with us. Your new album is out for a little while now, and I must say, it is absolutely crushing! I guess you are knee-deep into promoting this new album in the metal press. Is Hells Headbangers setting you up with a lot of promotion work, interviews and such?
First let me say hello, I'm Kyle (drums, vocals) in Disfigured Dead. Yes, Hell's Headbangers have been doing a great job promoting the album. I've done many interviews and many people went and did cd reviews on the album. Some good, some bad but people are hearing the music all the same.
Since this is your first interview for Masterful Magazine, could you briefly introduce the band and its members? A short history, so to speak, to get our readers up to speed with Disfigured Dead.
Well, the band at the time of the creation and recording of "Visions of Death" was Dave Gruver (guitar), Evy Thompson (bass, vocals), and myself, Kyle (drums, vocals). Umm, I was in a band before and that had just come to an end when Dave and Evy also whom I've been in bands with before had nothing going on. Death metal was what we really wanted to do. The bands we all played in before were just grind bands and thrash metal bands. No complete death metal and that's what we really wanted to do. That's how the idea was spawned anyways, afterward we just really set to work writing.
Influences from Autopsy, Repulsion and "Scream Bloody Gore" and "Leprosy" era Death are easily recognizable, but also Massacre, Cannibal Corpse and Obituary can be heard throughout. Is there anybody in particular that you look up to, musically, from the ‘90s death metal scene?
Mostly Cannibal Corpse, Death. I can see why so many people think there's a lot of Autopsy influence, but to us there wasn't any. The bands I personally love the most like Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, Morbid Angel and such aren't heard as well on "Visions of Death". Since the band has taken long beaks in between the recording process for we had a hard time paying for it. When we started playing again we had so many ideas we just started writing. These newer songs are a lot more technical, biggest influence now Suffocation and Cannibal Corpse, but for "Visions of Death" it was more about Cannibal Corpse and Death.
Autopsy and Death seem to be peculiar importance to Disfigured Dead. The dual vocals are quite similar to the vocals of the late Chuck Schuldiner and Autopsy drummer-vocalist Chris Reifert. In today's scene of overproduced and sterile sounding death metal records, it's good to have a band like Disfigured Dead, who sound all more primitive. Do you miss the gloom and doom of those classic early-to-mid ‘90s death metal records as well?
Yeah, I definitely agree. Evy's vocals are very much influenced by Chuck's [Schuldiner, vocalist/guitarist of Death, ed]. But to say I'm really miss the old days I'd have to say not so much. Death metal is such a limitless genre. You can do whatever you'd like. It can be over the top technical or slow. Brutal or insane and it's all so good. When we made "Visions of Death" it just came out with a natural old school-ish vibe and that's great, but our newer material has a much more modern technical vibe. I love how death metal has evolved. I love bands like Nile, Suffocation, Behemoth, Cannibal Corpse, ... They all push the limits on speed and technical riffs, and complex structures. The old days and the records that came from them will always be a very important part in the history of death metal. Songs of the best records were written and recorded, but we can't live in the past forever I'm all for embracing the new advances in the genre.
As far as songwriting and the creative process is concerned, is that a collaborative effort or does somebody take the lead over the other and writes the majority of the material? Are songs born from traditional rehearsals – or do you guys write a lot individually as well?
It is very much a collaborate effort. We all think of riffs. Evy will throw some in, Dave always puts his in and I write a lot of riffs myself. I can't play guitar though, so I basically hum or mouth Dave the riff idea and he figures out how to play it, haha. It's funny but it works. Dave will come to practice and have some riffs and shit he wrote at home but then we always assemble together, using riffs he might have had with others either I or Evy had, and we all help in making the structures. No one really takes the lead in the band, we all play a big role in each songs creation.
I love the production on "Visions Of Death". It has that gritty analogue warmth, the bass guitar features prominently (as it should be!) and the drum kit sounds absolutely crushing: hammering snares and a heavy but organic kickdrum that is bowel-shaking. My digital promo didn't come with any production notes. Was it home recorded affair that was treated in a (semi-)professional studio for mixing and mastering?
Actually it was recorded in a real studio. We had a hard time paying for the recording. We had it all recorded, but couldn't pay it off to get the master for a while. Matt Barnes, the guy who produced it, is an old friend of ours. He plays drums in a punk band that I've played many shows with way back in my first bands when I was 13-14 years old - those were some times! He has been recording music since he was 17, he is very good. We wanted the album to have an older sound to it. It just fit the music at the time. So, we didn't trigger or sample any drums that's how they sounded as I played. Just wanted it to sound heavy with the right amount of punch and Matt did a great job.
"Visions Of Death" comes with artwork by an artist called Jason Leer. Somehow, I think a genre painter such as Ed Repka, Dan Seagrave, Axel Hermann or Wes Benscoter could have done even more for the visual representation of the band's record and sound. How was it working with Leer and is he an established artists or just a friend of the band?
All the painters you've mentioned are all great and have done a shit ton of classic covers, but they those painters have a big price tag for a cover. We definitely don't have money to pay for that. Jason I never knew or heard of until he contacted us. I got an email from him one day saying he heard our shit on MySpace and totally fell in love. It really touched him and he went on to say he was an artist and would love to do the cover to our first album. He asked me to give him our idea for the cover and he just wanted to draw it no matter what, and for free whether we used it or not. I was really surprised anyone would want to do so much for nothing really. So I gave him the idea I had come up with that everyone liked. It was based on the lyrics to a song I wrote, ‘Screamatorium', or track 3 on "Visions of Death". He went to work and within a week had it back. We all loved it. It was cool, not what I pictured in my head but that was the thing it was different, had its own feel which I really liked. We had the idea for the dual cover: the front looking into the crematory and the reverse side from inside the crematory looking out. I love the depictions for each, they are just so awesome. Ever since I first spoke with Jason we are actually good friends now. We talk often and he is a really cool guy. He also did the entire layout for "Visions". Actually he has already drawn the cover for our second album that is 3 songs from completion and that picture is just insane as well.
Originally the album was slated to be released on Reaper Metal Records, a label I never heard of prior. Due to contractual difficulties it was handed over to Hells Headbangers for release. Can you detail this whole debacle a bit, what exactly led to the record being hauled over Hells Headbangers – was the original label having problems honouring their contractual obligations?
Well, it was nothing like that actually. Craig who ran Reaper Metal Records is in the band Crucified Mortals who we've played shows with and have been friends with for while. We had a bunch of different offers for labels, but just wanted to go with Reaper Metal. Craig's brothers are the ones who own Hell's Headbangers and for whom Craig also works for. Craig showed our material to his brothers and they wanted to release it right then, so that's what really happened.
This album is your first for Ohio-based label Hells Headbangers, who are a established American label and distributor. How did you hook up with Hells Headbangers, were there any other labels interested and what made you sign with them in the end? Are you happy the way Hells Headbangers has been pushing and promoting its bands and releases so far?
Craig, who was going to release our album on his label, showed his brothers and they just loved it. Of course we wanted to do it with Hell's Headbangers. They are all so cool of guys and the label is very well-known. We had other labels but some in other countries which I didn't really like, but there were others in the US. I think just knowing the guys personally at Hell's helped make it feel safer than other options. We've known them and talked many times before Disfigured Dead was even thought of and they are a well known label, so why not? The promotion has been great and things seem to be going really good.
Unlike many bands in the scene, Disfigured Dead never formally recorded, released and distributed any demos or promos to get the band name out. Despite that you only formed in 2008, you cut no demos and immediately debuted on an established label. That must have been a blast! Tell us a bit about the early days of the band and how the contract with Hells Headbangers came about.
Actually, we did! We made a ton of songs and we wanted to record a 6 song demo to send around and see whose attention, if anyone's, we could catch. We sat down and picked out 6 songs (‘beyond the darkness', ‘screamatorium', ‘the act of an unsound mind', ‘possessed, dead, trapped between worlds', and ‘visions of death') and recorded them with Matt. After that we made our MySpace page and started adding friends and labels to whom we sent messages to about checking us out. The next day I have 5 labels who were interested in possibly doing something. One day we had a lot of response it was so awesome. We almost release with Kitchen Vomit Records before Reaper Metal, but the contract was so outrageous so we said fuck that. That why the album was record in two sessions. We did the demo be we played those songs very well , so after we wrote and picked what other 6 we wanted to record the album we couldn't afford to re-record the first 6 tracks plus they sounded awesome, so we just recorded the 6 newer picks and blended the sounds bit so it wasn't as obvious as it already is. If we had the money we would have started fresh but it just wasn't an option at the time.
The sales of physical CDs is down across the board over the last couple of years due to piracy and illegal downloading. Smaller record stores and decent small labels are closing down every day because kids no longer want to shell out money for the complete package that a CD or LP offers. What's your take on all that?
I actually haven't found someone more pissed off over it than myself actually. It's just fucking disgusting really. I've always taken such a pride and joy in getting albums I can't see why others would rather have some media file on a computer than a case, booklet with lyrics, artwork maybe liner notes, an actual CD!!! I wish the government would really crack down on the downloading scene. Even buying the mp3's to me isn't much better. The bands out there that are trying to go somewhere and make a living, eat are having the hardest time. Instead of buying a CD for 10-15 dollars, some people rather go pay 7 and download the whole thing, and the cut for the band is just pathetic. Downloading music in my mind is single worst thing ever to happen to music since gunge and Nirvana.
Thanks for the interview! Good luck with all your future endeavours. I would like to extend my praise for your killer debut album. The last words are yours.
First, let me say thank you for the interview opportunity. It's always great to do, to get the word out and get a chance to set things straight and talk about our music we are very gracious for that. Thank you for your kind words about our album, I'm glad you enjoyed it, bro. For anyone out there would hasn't heard our music yet, please check it out you may just like it.
Myspace.com/disfigureddeaddeathmetal You can pick the album up from us, Hell's Headbangers or various other record stores online. Thank you again and support death metal.
Info: www.hellsheadbangers.com/
Booking: www.myspace.com/disfigureddeaddeathmetal
