This is our third post from director Aaron Beaucher on the making of the new A Pale Horse Named Death video “DMSLT.” An updated gallery follows.

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We spent some time over the past week shooting some of our effects layers for the “DMSLT” video. As you will read below, the process is fairly involved but produces an interesting result; when layered with the original footage, it creates a corrosive, melting drip feel to the treated frame. We chose this effect to help visually represent the content of the track. The lyrics have a heavy focus on suicide and we wanted to convey that through a visual aesthetic as opposed to a narrative. As the video progresses, the effect builds and becomes more apparent. So what seems like a performance-based video actually has this visual thread tied in to enhance the performance and message.

The first part of the process is to select the areas in the edit where the effect will take place and select source images that you can import into Photoshop. We then play with the saturation, levels, and channels of the image to get a solid film negative feel from the highlights and mid-tones. From there, we print the images onto transparency film, spray acetone over the ink, and film the process as it dissolves and washes the image away.

In this Behind the Scenes YouTube clip, you can see a quick test shot we did using Sal’s face. Depending on the amount of acetone used along with coverage (spray, drip, pour), the effect can be completely different each time, yielding a very organic result. We’re looking forward to getting some of these shots mixed in and will share some final composites in our next Glimpse Behind the Horse.

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** Mortuary Drape are Italy’s oldest black metal export. But don’t rely on our words for the truth. Many a Norwegian—you know, the guys who made black metal a household name—genuflected at the altar of the Alessandria-based outfit. Just ask Fenriz next time you see him. He’ll tell you the demos were on par with the Eastern European greats in Tormentor, Masters Hammer, and Root. As for why we’re “into the drape” all of a sudden, well, Peaceville has recently reissued strangeitude effort, Tolling 13 Knell, with bonus tracks, new artwork, and some other neat stuff like an embossed slipcase. Therefore, it’s time for a little astral bewitchment.

Mortuary Drape is relatively unknown to most metalheads. Introduce the cult of Mortuary Drape, please.
Wildness Perversion: First of all, thanks for the opportunity to be here. Talking about yourself is never good because if you exceed with words there would be a risk of misunderstanding, then if you say any less you always come last. I invite all your readers to visit our websites (official site, Facebook) to find information to know more about our band’s history, know about all releases and take a look to all concerts we made around the world.

Where does Mortuary Drape fit in the overall timeline of black metal? I gather most people don’t realize the band’s importance.
Wildness Perversion: We exist and this would be enough. We play our music since 1986, we have fans all over the world that still follow us. And we gained some new fans during the last 10 years. This is a great result for us. We play music and fans repay us with good feedback, a lot of bands, some more famous than us, respect and talk about us, this is enough for us. Then, if someone will help us to reach a higher step, we will be ready to accept the challenge. But unluckily ]it] all depends by who keeps the reins.

How are Mortuary Drape and Italy related? Are there distinctly Italian attributes in the band?
Wildness Perversion: [To] live in Italy and play metal is not easy. Vatican and average man are quite against this kind of music, average Italian prefers mainstream music or singer-songwriters. I don’t feel to describe our music and I don’t know if I could find distinctly Italian attributes. I think that listeners have the last word about it. Despite this, we have a passable metal scene with a lot of good bands which (it happens to us, too) not all could find responses outside this fucking Vatican-infected country. Nobody, or only few bands, are prophets here in Italy.

Tolling 13 Knell was released in 2000. That was 13 years ago. What do you think of the album now?
Wildness Perversion: Tolling 13 Knell is an experimental album for sure; maybe too ahead of time, but it surely fits the Mortuary Drape’s sound. The new reprint under Peaceville will have a new artwork, unpublished photos, and in addition a new cover. We talked with the label and decided to add some bonus tracks to make it more interesting and different from the original release (2001). I created the artwork myself and then gave everything to Peaceville to reprint it. We remastered all songs at Authoma Studios in Alessandria (Secret Sphere, Death SS) and I can say that they sound more powerful than before. You have to check it out, at least once, even better if it will be brought rather than downloaded.

There’s a lot of praise for the tempo on the record. It’s largely mid-paced. Do you recall the songwriting sessions for Tolling 13 Knell?
Wildness Perversion: Yes, I remember we tried to write songs without following any scheme or convention, everything was freely created and composed. We gave the drums the right space and other instruments [the right space]. It’s better to remember that we recorded [with] two basses, so the rhythm section was more complex.

Do you remember how it was received?
Wildness Perversion: I remember various positive interviews and reviews in Italian and international magazines, and a lot of people wrote us compliments about our music. We played several concerts to promote the album, but to be true, I think it could be done more if we could be under a better label. We wanted to play more, do more promotional tours, but we couldn’t find the right support from the old label.

Peaceville is reissuing Tolling 13 Knell. What will metalheads think of it now?
Wildness Perversion: We have a lot of fans, some new, some old and the older ones never left us. What else? I think we are still competitive and people could like us even now. It isn’t the typical expected black metall everybody could imagine sharp guitars, a lot of screams, noise. But this isn’t Mortuary Drape, this doesn’t represent us. We have our style and who listens to us wants it in this way. It could be a “must have” record because [it's] different from others, always intended as black metal record. We own our style and don’t want to copy or follow other cliches. Maybe, it could be a reason to listen it, if you would buy it you could judge by listening. So, enjoy the music.

What separates the Peaceville reissue from the Iron Pegasus reissue from 2001?
Wildness Perversion: I’m sure you are talking about the LP record. Well, this new reissue will have a more well-finished artwork. Peaceville works good and wants only high-level products. Furthermore, as [I] said before, it will include unpublished photos, a new cover and a better sound quality thanks to the new remastering. If I would choose, I would definitely buy this reissue. Then you don’t have to forget that this distribution will be better then the old one and we allow to reach a bigger diffusion than the previous 1000 limited copies.

You’ve been around in one form or another since ’86. Is putting the band to bed a reality?
Wildness Perversion: We want to advise all that we still have a lot of shots to fire with our instruments, so put your mind at rest. When you will rest in peace, we’ll keep on writing music and, at that time, we’ll come to demand for your souls too.

What’s next for Mortuary Drape?
Wildness Perversion: Besides the reissuing of Buried in Time under Peaceville planned for July, we will also release a 7″ split with the Swedish band Shining; Niklas [has] followed us since 1986. I couldn’t say no to the proposal to combine our experiences in this record. Two selected tracks for the occasion. This song was recorded during the new album’s recording session. It’s a pleasure share this release with them. Furthermore, the new album is finished. Some people have listened to the new tracks said that they are good songs and these years of silence at the end were useful to produce an album in pure Mortuary Drape style. During these last days we completed the mastering session, then we will start looking for a good label to print it, publish it and promote it. Actually, we received some interesting proposals, but now I can’t speak up about it. Our mission is to do a lot of promotion which means play a lot. We are negotiating with two promoters to schedule two tours, in Europe and in USA, but at the end everything will depend by the record label we’ll join.


** Mortuary Drape’s Tolling 13 Knell is out now on Peaceville. Order it HERE or face the pope with your pants down. Trust us, the ruler to the bum won’t be the only hurt he pontificates on your succulent flesh.

Montreal thrash-core stalwarts BornBroken unleashed its debut CD/unorthodox prescription The Healing Powers of Hate last week. The band’s mission? “Help the masses find a voice, a face, an ‘X’ that marks the spot through the sounds of beating skins, metal strings and broken chords.” Check out the pummeling rager of a title track below, along with a little track by track insight from guitarist Mike Decker…

1. “Can’t Quiet the Riot”

The disc opens up with the noise of the bustling streets. The sounds of the city can sometimes be comforting, but for him, all it did was drive him a little madder. You see, when the voices start talking you eventually start to listen and loose trust in what you believe. This was actually one of last songs we wrote for the concept album and seemed fitting to be the first. We wanted a straightforward no-BS style song, which seemed to lend more to a hardcore feel for us as a band. It still had to make a statement, as it is our opening track off our debut album. It ends with an almost dreamlike feel — Simon and I came up with it in his kitchen one night — that gets abruptly interrupted, by the daily. Simon watched close to thirty movies to find TV news segments, which while in studio, we opted to use sound bank snippets instead so as not to infringe on anybody’s rights.

2. “Old News”

“Old News” is the second song we wrote as a band over four years ago and seemed to always never feel complete until we got to the studio. The song starts off very aggressively as it all relates to what we feel on a daily basis waking up to a barrage of headlines, which never seem to portray the light at the end of the tunnel. The feeling of having our freedom being spoon fed to us by “Big CORP,” didn’t give him much to look forward to, especially with those voices always taking center stage. We like to groove and this song makes sure you get a taste of what you are about hear over the course of the CD.

3. “ Anger of the Day”

“Today is the day, I love to hate!” spoken, opens up this song. Very quickly we spin the song into and old school thrash/speed metal style pace and try to make it feel like the rush of adrenaline you get when someone just pisses you off. Then just as quickly the feeling and thought of what you are going to do to this person takes shape as the song gets into a very ominous sludge-like pace. The middle melodic driving break makes you feel the disbelief portrayed, as the plot unfolds to his day going to shit realizing that his world, has now gone down a unwanted path due to this person or voice.

4. “I Will Rise”

We wrote this song really quick, everything fell into place and felt right. Not for him, though — life was unraveling and choices were going to have to made as he awoke to this new world laid before him. Call it what you want, I call it the wake… Musically the songs staccato riffing and double bass makes you feel like your mind is being made up for you and you have no choice but to groove to the beat. The middle acoustic break is the calm before the storm — the last ray of sunlight before the inevitable blackness — we wrote this in studio and fit it into the song because we felt the concept needed that moment — a breath of new life — as for the acoustic ending this was a piece that was lingering on a spare track and had a very honest feel to it like he was sitting down playing. We added it to give the concept some realism and depth.

5. “Control”

Third song we wrote together as a band. Once we had the main riff the rest fell into place. We wanted to have a sort of musical breakdown feel in the middle to merge with the mental breakdown he was having, so we added a bass drop with a sub mixed over it. Reversed it and then started the song again as to give the impression of coming out the other side. All solos were built in the studio, as we wanted to hear the feeling we got from the songs first. This was the first single we pushed to the media and the masses as we felt it was one of the most well rounded songs of the CD. The song is actually about the lack of control we have in society, with everybody pushing the end of the world upon us, so much, that even Jesus has given into the rat race and decided to gamble away the lost souls. No god can save him with apocalypse being sold on a shelf and the voices pulling ever so more at his inner being, splitting his reality and forcing his life into the illusion.

6. “It Has Begun”

We always penned this song as the starting of second side if we were to ever release a vinyl Limited Edition. Like any good album back in the day the second side always started out with a bang. So the voices are now running the show, the plot is laid out, it’s them or us! It opens up, with stats about the death rate in the world and how he or they are going to add to it. When we came to writing this we had sort of idea to make this song stand out on the CD, and growing up with the likes of Sepultura and Slayer it made the choice easy. Taking a step away from the speed and making a true to form “South of Heaven meets Roots” song that bowls you over with a blunt force. When it came to the solo I decided to keep the flare “à la” Slayer. Mathieu Marcotte (Augury) who recorded and helped edit the CD guest soloed to give it that 80’s early 90’s double solo feel.

7. “Birth of the Broken”

Simon had this idea rumbling around before the band was even formed, so it became our first song we worked on when we all met. I had pages of lyrics from some past projects that he always wanted to use and it all worked together. We felt the need to have an opening of a soapbox preacher barking to the troops and preparing them for the mutiny of the mind that is about to happen. We used some lyrics from this song as one of our main shout outs — Hear the cry, the broken shall rise! — as it is supposed to instill a sense of patriotism to the cause. A moral booster and an overall war chant. It ends with his voices marching into battle.

8. “Bleed the Sky”

With “Bleed the Sky,” the war has begun; a battle of his illusions against reality. The drums really lend a strong sense of power and the guitar and bass play a grinding chug that we use to convey the force needed to cross the wasteland which has become his life. With the solo again I tried to make it part of the song and not just taking up space. Simon and I wrote the lyrics in one night with the thought in mind there is no turning back.

The coldness of the human race has made the choice so fucking clear, the rape of this world and the blood from rebirth, all innocence dies in the end…

9. “Reborn From The Ashes”

“Reborn” was written about our character’s life spinning into frenzy. He starts to realize that all along, he’s been fighting himself and the inner struggles he is having, while trying to make certain key life choices. He must now rebuild his life from the one he tore down. It’s never easy to admit to your mistakes and ask for help. Pride is hard to kill, but it can be overcome and conquered. We used fast driving riffs with hardcore breakdowns to complete the feeling of the song. We also used a childlike keyboard sound to give a simple feeling of innocence as the fires of his voices burn out

10. “The Healing Powers of Hate”

Hate is a strong word and many a war has been started and fought over this emotion. Many loves lost, and many men/women driven insane. What can we learn from this? How can it help us heal? Can we take this ultimate power and make it burn bright in other areas of our lives? We think so, as our character does from leading the struggles in this story, looks back at his life, death and becomes a better human for it. Sacrifice does not come without a cost, healing does not either. As this is the title track to BornBroken’s Debut CD we wanted to express all the emotions we put into writing this album; pounding drums, melodic metalcore verses and viscous stop dead choruses. I really tried to convey the feeling of healing through the solo by using more of an anthem style approach. Which leads to the climactic end breakdown — This is the healing, now this is the way that we hate — which closes off the CD.

We have hopefully taken you on a musical journey, though aggressive in nature still leaves you with a moral. We all have an important story to tell and how we live it will be our legacy in life.

Calling all drum nerds, fans of Sabbath, Dio, Vanilla Fudge and umm, Rod Stewart (hey, who doesn’t have room in their heart for Rod?) in the Philadelphia and Allentown area; courtesy of the Sellersville Theater we have THREE pairs of tickets for Drum Wars Starring Vinny & Carmine Appice on Thursday June 27th at 8pm.

The show is a sort of sibling rivalry turned mega jam, with both Appices performing duets, and the Drum Wars band will be thrashing out hits from Vinny and Carmine’s back catalogue. With Vinny that means Heaven & Hell-era Sabbath and Dio; for older brother Carmine, that means Vanilla Fudge, Rod Stewart, Beck amongst others.

Just email PRINFO@ST94.COM with the subject line DRUM WARS GIVEAWAY; the three winners will be picked out of the hat and informed on Mon June 24th. Simple. Good luck!

Here’s Vinny in action:

And here’s some Carmine action:

Yasiel Puig is the rookie Cuban sensation for the otherwise woefully underwhelming L.A. Dodgers. In less than a month in the league, he has found himself embroiled in crazy shit like this and this. Mirroring his WTF ascent is the emergence of grindcore supergroup Puig Destroyer, comprised of four dudes from Curl Up and Die, Kowloon Walled City and Thrice. We emailed KWC’s Ian Miller to discover that Puig Destroyer is far from a one-off Kevin Maas sensation. They may be in it for the Mo Rivera long haul.

How long has the idea of a baseball-themed grindcore band been in the works?
Riley [Breckenridge, Thrice drummer] literally came up with the idea 10 days ago. He and I do a baseball/music podcast together, and he cracked a joke about a grind band called “Puig Destroyer.” We both laughed, but then we kept talking about the possibility of doing something along those lines. The next night he sent me drum tracks for the first song, and I started writing riffs. Mike Minnick (ex-CUAD) is a good friend and another big baseball fan, so he was obviously the perfect choice for a singer. And Jon [Howell, also from Kowloon Walled City] is an amazing guitarist and totally got the aesthetic we were going for. It just all came together perfectly.

The band name is, obviously, fucking perfect. When was it decided on? I ask because in the offseason, well before the last few weeks of insanity, the Puig deal was widely considered a reach.
Last Tuesday! But yeah, everyone thought the Dodgers’ front office was insane when they signed him, but Puig’s first week in the bigs dispelled any of that talk. Obviously he won’t maintain that level of production, but he’s got the potential to be a superstar. And he’s really fucking fun to watch. So talented and so raw.

What’s everybody’s team allegiance?
Riley is an Angels fan born and bred. Mike and I are both Giants fans, and Jon roots for the Indians.

Obviously Thrice and KWC are pretty far removed from grind. Can you see yourself doing more baseball-themed songs in those bands’ respective styles?
I don’t think so, but who knows? I think the band name pretty much requires that we keep it grind-y.

Are any of you friends with Pig Destroyer? Heard any reaction from Scott, J.R., etc.?
I don’t know any of those guys personally, but we’re all big fans of the band. Our thing is obviously meant as an homage.

Have you already planned out any 7-inches, splits, EPs, albums, etc.?
Well, we should have the five-song EP finished and up on Bandcamp soon, probably within the week. There’s been talk of a 7-inch — if anyone’s interested in putting it out, please get in touch!

Any plans to release lyrics concurrently with future songs?
For sure! Lyrics will be posted on Bandcamp as well.

Puig Destroyer dropped one song and a few days later it’s linked on Deadspin. Could you have asked for a better introduction to the world?
Hell no! The response has been amazing — better than anything we could have ever hoped for.

Who do you consider the most “extreme” player in baseball history?
I know what Minnick would say if you asked him: Mike Matheny. I mean, check this shit out!

Is it too much to request an ’86 Mets Puig Destroyer song?
That seems totally fitting, given the amount of blow those guys were doing. Maybe do one about The Kid, or maybe Mookie.

** Impiety are Singapore’s longest standing black metal act. Once reviled by just about everyone in their home country, Impiety have, in fact, won over many, their impassioned live performances, dedication, and purveyance of the dark arts proving to be an unstoppable force. To celebrate Impiety’s upward climb from the bowels of Southeast Asia’s cleanest (and smallest country) and the impending release of two critical pieces of music—Vengeance Hell Immemorial and upcoming MCD/MLP The Impious Crusade—we’ve queried head demon Shyaithan to learn more about Impiety’s next infernal steps. Also, enjoy a brutal selection of tracks from rarities collection, Vengeance Hell Immemorial. Your Monday morning just got a lot better (and nastier).

20th Anniversary? Where in the hell did time go?
Shyaithan: Indeed, well more or less 23 years now since our first commencement in 1990. It only gets bigger, badder and uglier each time you hear about us!

What keeps Impiety alive at this point? Beer, blood, and bitches?
Shyaithan: Passion to kill and conquer, that’s always a first. Perseverance and hard work throughout the years not to mention plenty sacrifice just to keep the band on top of the chaos. Just glad the past three years with a stable lineup has been less of a stress factor than it was in the past with lots of lineup shuffles due to not being able to find or sustain the right team for long. So, it has been a tremendous journey—but one with much success and trophies adorned in blood.

How’d you decide which tracks to include on Vengeance Hell Immemorial?
Shyaithan: It was a tough decision but since many fans have been asking for an official CD version of the demo, plus other singles they missed out over the years. Singles which were released via 7” EP only were prioritized. Anyways, I think it’s cool that we have the past demo and singles all in one package.

What do you think of Impiety’s sound over the course of time? It’s changed a bit, right?
Shyaithan: Progression is imminent, challenges faced when putting into gear new ideas always keeps us going. Every time we compose, record and put out something new, there’s always going to be some thing fresh, pretty much taking many by surprise.

I remember metal shows in Singapore were policed. Are shows still getting shut down and bands punished for blasphemous behavior?
Shyaithan: That still prevails but [it’s] more lax once gig organizers are able to obtain licenses from the media authority. Better these days compared to the past, but gigs/concerts held without license still face possible shut down. So far, the past years all has been smooth and I guess the public in general are pretty much open to extreme black and death metal.

Do you still keep in touch with the bands with which you shared wax? I was in touch with Whathayakorn from Surrender of Divinity for a long while but then he dropped off the face of the planet. Or maybe I did.
Shyaithan: Yes, definitely I do. All except the split 7” with Profanatica, I don’t really know where Paul Ledney is right now. But speaking about Whathayakorn, he’s still very much in touch, a close friend and brother, and still hard at work with Surrender of Divinity not to mention busy with his label InCoffin Productions, which also handles not only distribution but organizing international concerts for Thailand, etc.

What’s Impiety up to now?
Shyaithan: We are just about to release a new five-song mini album The Impious Crusade via Hells Headbangers Records, which we just signed earlier this year. August 6th is official street date worldwide. Plug and destroy when you get the chance—it’s plenty vicious and worth the kill!

** Impiety’s collection, Vengeance Hell Immemorial, is out June 28th on Hells Headbangers on wicked fucking wax. It’s available HERE for the blackened and degenerative.

** Impiety’s new MCD/MLP, The Impious Crusade, it August 6th on Hells Headbangers. That, too, is available HERE or face the (s)executioner.

Well, we’re in the start of the summer, so that means some new stuff is finally coming out. Here we go.

MEGADETH‘s Supercollider. This thing sucks butt. You really have to check out Mustaine’s review of his own record. It’ll make you want to punch yourself in the dick, or laugh. This is the audio equivalent of getting HPV, but what’d you expect? 1 Fucking Peck.

HAVOK release Unnatural Selection, and while is not a huge departure from their previous releases, this is pretty beaking good. This may actually win these Denver thrashers some new fans. There is a noticeable injection of space and some nontraditional thrash elements here, which creates some catchy moments, yet doesn’t seem to stick after a couple of listens. There is a little more melody on this record, too, in part due to the vocals. Don’t me wrong: This is a thrash record through and through, and they certainly don’t come across as some genre-hopping bandwagon riders. The punk elements seem to soak through this release, which pleases this birdbrain to no end. All in all, this is a solid album. It just kind of feels like a band in transition, although that’s just in my opine. 7 Fucking Pecks.

Chicago’s blackened noise geniuses LOCRIAN release Return to Annihilation on Relapse. This is a bit of a departure for the trio that’s sometimes referred to as “black metal.” Those parallels are here: This is dark and dense, and definitely moody. Comprised of ambient soundscapes that at times are equally beautiful and disgusting, the epicness of this release is hard to deny. There are elements of rock, drone, electronic, noise rock and whatever these guys can summon up from the dark recesses of their collective fucked-up psyche. This one is hard to fit into a nice little box as far as a description goes, but it’s really good. Definitely not metal in the traditional sense, but this thing is heavy. Check this out, you won’t regret it. 8 Fucking Pecks.

RAMMING SPEED come at us with their unique blend of thrash, grind, D-beat and punk on Doomed to Destroy, Destined to Die, and it rips. Calling them a thrash band just barely scrapes the surface of what these guys unleash on these 13 tracks. It moves and it breathes, due in part to the Kurt Ballou production, and is a nonstop ride of pure fun and mayhem. Intense and full of raw emotion, this in unrelenting and unforgiving. Good nods to NWOBHM too with the solos. 7 Fucking Pecks.

Swedish melodeath titans Dark Tranquillity make their Decibel Flexi Series debut via exclusive new track “Sorrow’s Architect.” Find the bloody Scandinavian thunder reigning in sliver on green wax in the webstore right now. But act fast, as supplies are extremely limited!

Chris Dick recently sounded a black metal call to arms – specifically to state that the Deciblog needs to make like a Cajun dish and get blackened – and when Chris Dick calls our arms, he gets them.

Dyed-black-in-the-wool underground demo aficionados don’t need much encouragement to vomit filth in any given direction, as I found when, some summers ago, I mentioned to a coworker that I’d been getting more interested in black metal.  This coworker – a Mr. Shuman – immediately targeted my mailbox for blast ‘n’ rasp overload.  Data CDs loaded with entire discographies of 3rd tier blasphemers with photocopied cover art, cast-off compilations, and duplicate copies of CDs from the times that he bought music by the lot off eBay – all got shoved lovingly into the little space usually reserved for progress reports and department memos.

At the time, I couldn’t fully appreciate the wealth of material he’d presented me – and let’s be honest, most of it sounded like sun-baked shit – but I recently dug out those brittle plastic coffins again.  Here I introduce you to some of that misunderstood (or not so much) grimness.

Almighty Sathanas hail from Greece, and are apparently still kicking through their split and EP output, though they’ve never released an official full-length.  My Shuman-approved introduction to AS came through the band’s second demo, Spit on Virgin, and now, probably, so does yours.  Included below are portals to the YouTube homes of each of the tracks on that demo.  Fair warning:  if the words “black metal” and “demo” haven’t tipped you off yet, this post is not meant for fans of Cynic, the entire Cruz del Sur catalog, or anyone with any real sense of self-respect.  Hate the world.  Taste the Sathanas.

Unholy Goat

 

Ouroboros

 

Dysangelium

 

Spit on Virgin

 

Om Mani Padme Houm

 

The Dance of Cosmos

 

With a self-released EP on the horizon, a European tour about to kick off in a few weeks and an animated video making the rounds, things are busy for Canadian grind freakazoids, Fuck the Facts. More so when you consider they’re doing this all by themselves now, a fact I wasn’t made aware of until the first respose to the first question. Guitarist Topon Das and vocalist Mel Mongeon took time away from their FtF-related workload (not to mention caring for their daughter) to talk to the Deciblog about all that’s going on.

Why, especially considering that you’re signed to Relapse, are you taking on the burden of self-releasing and promoting this EP? Don’t you have tours to go on? A kid to raise? Do you hate sleep that much?
Topon: I think there’s this voice in our heads that keeps telling us that this is a brilliant idea. It’s only after we’re knee deep into the process of doing a self-release that we really realize how much fucking work it actually is. As I write this interview, we’re preparing to leave for a European tour in three weeks, I’m dubbing and assembling cassettes, talking to the folks pressing the 10″ vinyl and trying to get records in time for the tour, taking my daughter to gymnastics class, working on new FTF songs that we’ll start recording next week, e-mailing and talking to fine folks like yourself to promote the new EP, mixing other peoples music to pay my bills, and somewhere in there I’ll find time to make a sandwich and hopefully play some guitar. Where do I find the time? I don’t. Everyday is waking up to a check list of things to do and I do my best to get it all done, but most of the time I’m squeezing things in just before the deadline, kind of like this interview. All that being said though, there is an excitement to all of this, and when things are going well it’s an amazing feeling. We handle all the pre-orders, merch, promo, booking, etc… so we’re constantly in contact with the people that are into what we do and having that personal contact makes a real difference and puts a face to your audience. There’s a lot of people that we always recognize their names from orders and over the years we see these people at shows or we talk on-line and we’ve created friendships like that. So we’re not playing to a faceless audience, we’re making music for ourselves and our friends. We actually just finished our contract with Relapse, but even when they were releasing our albums it was the same thing. We would hit the pavement and contact magazines, radio stations and blogs, we were booking our own tours and doing everything we could to get the word out. That’s just how it’s always been for us. As a band, we don’t make anyone any money doing this and I’m sure Relapse never made any money putting out an FTF album. We just do this because we’re proud of what we’re doing and excited to share it with other people.

In what ways do you feel Amer differs from previous Fuck the Facts works?
Topon: Everyone is involved in the writing, and this might be one of the releases that is the most balanced in everyone’s involvement. It’s what I like to see and what I really think makes a “band” and not just a group of people playing one guy’s songs. But mainly, this EP is just a different group of songs. We’re constantly writing, and how the music gets split up into releases really just depends on when it comes together. I would like to think we’re getting better at what we do in respects to writing, playing and recording, but I’ll spare you the classic “This is the best thing we’ve ever done!” line, because from a personal point of view I don’t think it’s the best Fuck The Facts release. That’s probably not something I should say in an interview, eh? But I have my personal favorite release and I think it’s important, that even though I started this band, it needs to be bigger than me and my ego. I want it to be a representation of the five individuals involved and that takes a lot of compromise from everyone.

How was this batch of songs written? Any differently from the past? Are you refining or finding it easier to attack the writing process with two members of the band living 5/6 hours away?
Topon: The base of every song on this EP started as a demo one of us wrote on our own and was then sent to the rest of the band. We have a Dropbox that’s overflowing with demos and ideas. Some of these have been sitting there for years and some newer songs get put ahead of the queue when we dig them more. It all depends on what we feel like doing. For this EP we started with seven different demos and the first thing is our drummer Vil learning all the songs and putting his own twist on the songs. He plays guitar as well, and writes in the band, so sometimes there’s not much of a change to the drums, but some of the demos can be pretty rough. Then Vil and I get together and just jam them out for a while. As we play them things will slowly change and we’ll come up with new ideas and structure changes and even riffs change. After that we start pre-production demos, sometimes we do a stupid amount of pre-prods, but I think there was only one for this EP. There we get to really hear how the song will sound recorded, make adjustments and try different ideas. Usually we record just before a long tour. That’s our deadline. So we recorded all the drums for the Amer EP before our European tour last year and did the guitars and bass sometime after we we’re back. Mel did the lyrics and vocals after everything was recorded. That’s how the EP went, but sometimes Vil and I will write stuff by just jamming. That’s how pretty much 90% of our album Disgorge Mexico was written, and is my preferred way of writing. There aren’t really any rules to how we write and things are always changing as life changes and we have to adapt. It gets easier in the way that we’ve all been doing this together now for over five years, but the long distance thing is definitely tough. We play way more shows than we ever have full band practices, which can be a bit stressful when you’re trying to be a well-oiled machine. But I think in general we pull it off pretty well because we all make sure we have our shit together on our own end, and it does make it pretty exciting when we do actually jam as a full band.

I’m assuming the EP recorded/engineered/produced by yourselves as well? How difficult do you find recording yourselves and being able to objectively stand back from performances and takes in the quest to get the best out of everyone?
Topon: Having our own studio space and being able to record ourselves is really awesome but it involves a lot of discipline. The biggest problem we ever run into is having things drag out, because we don’t really have to look at a clock and there’s no one rushing us to get shit done. We haven’t really gone into a studio, recorded everything and then released it right away since we did Stigmata High-Five back in 2006. Die Miserable was released almost two years after we had recorded it, and Amer is over a year since we started recording it. Even now we have some unfinished recordings waiting to be done. But it’s something we’ve gotten used to. We work with the backlog and always have different recordings and releases in different stages of completions. Maybe it’s not the ideal way to do things, but it just seems to be the way it naturally works for us and more importantly; the way we can make it work around our everyday lives. Performance wise it’s never been a problem. Everyone in the band is more than concerned enough with what we’re doing and we’re not going to let a shitty take pass. A release is never done until it’s been sent off; we’re always open to making changes and having our own space leaves us the time to do that. So it’s sort of a double-edged sword because we have all the time we want, but if we get carried away with that it’ll never get done. For the mix of this EP, I gave myself a strict two week deadline. Two weeks is a long time, but anyone that has mixed their own stuff probably knows it could go on forever if you let it.

Is there an overall theme to the lyrics and art for Amer? What’s the thinking behind everything being in French?
Mel: I was writing the lyrics for our new EP and I started with the song that is now called “Jour de Souffrance.” I usually do on average one French song per release. While working on “Jour de Souffrance,” I had a lot of fun and really enjoyed playing with words in my mother tongue. Enough that I was like, “Let’s do another one in French!” So I did “Vend du Nord.” I already had some rough lyrics for that one that were in French already. After that song, the idea came sort of naturally to keep going only in French. So I finished all the lyrics in French and kept our interlude instrumental. Later in the process, our not-French bass player wrote a few lines for that interlude, which is now “A Void.” That’s how we ended up with six French songs and one English one. To give the EP a French title was then a logical step. I really liked Amer because it sums up well the lyrics and blends perfectly with the artwork. The artwork and the lyrics have the same slightly depressed mood, if I can say. It is easier to get a coherence when the same person does both. The concept of the cover and back cover is the people standing together looking at a abstract burnt sun. The front cover is half of the image. There is a palpable void and silence between them. A certain despair. It really echoes with the lyrics from the track “Une triste vue” :
” À quel moment sommes-nous devenus misérables?
Le dos courbé, la tête baissée; nous nous regardons à peine.
L’intense vide entre nous deux.
À quel moment sommes-nous devenus si tristes, si misérables?
Était-ce le jour où nous avons tout eu? ”

Tell us about the animated video for “L’enclume et le marteau.” Lay out the who/what/why/how of how it got from idea to execution.
Topon: We got hooked up with this guy Phil Osborne (Osborne Oddities) through my buddy Leigh Newton. Phil had done some really cool animated videos for Leigh’s bands The Sun Through A Telescope and Daiquiri, so that’s where we got the idea to contact him for this project. We gave Phil the lyrics to the song and carte blanche to do whatever he wanted. I remember watching the first draft of the video and thinking “Man, this is really weird. Maybe too weird.” I just wasn’t sure if it was for us, but the more I thought about it, I liked that I was uncomfortable with it. We never wanted to do the typical video where you’re fake playing a song in a dark alley or anything. We want it to be different and not a typical metal band video. Phil is really someone that doesn’t listen to metal or grind at all and he doesn’t know anything about this scene, so his approach is coming from somewhere completely different. When it was done, I went to his place to watch it and talk about it a bunch. It was really cool to hear his perspective and find out where the ideas were coming from. He made 800 different drawings for the video and gave us all of them. We’re going to be putting one or more of the drawings in each copy of the 10″vinyl.

What’s on the horizon for the band?
Topon: We’re leaving for Europe in three weeks for a three week tour. We’ve never been there in the summer before and we’re going to be going to the UK and Spain for the first time as well as playing Obscene Extreme for the first time, so it’s really exciting for us. We have all the music for our next album recorded and Mel is working on the lyrics and vocals now. When we get back from Europe we’ll be recording those and I’ll be mixing three songs that we have left over from the Die Miserable sessions. We’ll also be recording drums for another future release next week, and finish recording that when we get back from Europe as well. Then, it’ll be back to writing and a tour through Eastern Canada in September. It’s hard to slow down when you always have something on your plate, but this band exists because we always have something to finish.

A new track: “Panser la plaie au lieu de soigner le mal”

FUCK THE FACTS 2013 EUROPEAN TOUR
07/01 ITA Milano | Blue Rose Saloon
07/02 CZE Karlovy Vary | Slashbar
07/03 GER Berlin | Koma F
07/04 CZE Trutnov | Obscene Extreme Festival
07/05 HOL Rotterdam | Baroeg
07/06 HOL Nijmegen | Nothing Changed Fest
07/07 UK Brighton | Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar
07/08 UK Leeds | The Fox & Newt
07/09 UK Manchester | Kraak Gallery
07/10 UK Bristol | The Stag and Hounds
07/11 UK London | The Unicorn Camden Live
07/12 BEL Brussels | DNA
07/13 FRA Lille | Le Bistrot de St So
07/14 FRA Toulouse | Pavillons Sauvages
07/15 SPA Bilbao | Sentinel Club
07/16 SPA Logroño | Villatruño Squat
07/17 SPA Zaragoza | Arrebato
07/18 SPA Torellò | Eclectic Club
07/19 SPA Barcelona | TBA
07/20 FRA Luynes | Le Korigan
07/21 ITA Bologna | Freakout Club

Pre-order links:
10″ vinyl & cassette: fuckthefacts.bigcartel.com
digital: fuckthefacts.bandcamp.com/album/amer