Interviews

When a duo decides to combine Old School Swedish Death Metal, the mighty buzzsaw sound, with a good dose of Doom/Death that reminds of Asphyx, Gorement and God Macabre, and the groove of Bolt Thrower, you can at least say I’m intrigued. After buying the 7″ at Cosmic Key Creations HQ I could only conclude P.J. (vocals) and D.M. Deveastator (guitar) created 2 solid tracks and I wanted to know a bit more about this creation called Crypt Feeder…

D.M.: In August 2022 I was playing guitar for My Silent Wake when our keyboard player Si, who lives a fair distance from the rest of the band, mentioned he knew someone looking for a guitarist to get an OSDM project started. He put me in touch with Paul and I enquired as to what sort of old school Death Metal he had in mind and sent him about four or five rough demo tracks, mostly just guitars and programmed drums to see what he thought. Some of these songs had been hanging around for over ten years, written and then rewritten for various other bands and projects that had maybe two or three rehearsals before imploding. The most recent and relevant was a band called Chapel Rot from around 2021 with a couple of members of My Silent Wake. The band essentially fell apart when Gareth and Addam left to concentrate on reforming Gareth’s old band Amputated, and as both are in several bands already there was no way they could continue to commit to Chapel Rot. So I had these songs and the buzzsaw ringing in my ears and was keen to do something with them. The timing seemed ideal really, Paul liked what he heard and we chose two songs to concentrate on and go from there. All of this was done by email. We wouldn’t meet in person for over two years, in fact just before ‘Into the Crypt’ would be released. So the concept was Paul’s, the songs were mine and fate brought them together. Perhaps one of the hardest things was coming up with a band name that immediately screams OSDM and hasn’t already been taken. The eternal struggle of many a fledgling band!

So, that mighty buzzsaw sound…
D.M.: For me personally it began when I found an original Boss HM-2 pedal for sale locally and bought it on impulse, maybe around five or six years ago. Probably until that point it never occurred to me that I might really write in this specific “style”. Even back then it had already been very fashionable for several years for everybody and their brother to have an HM-2 project, and I thought maybe people would be bored of it by now. I’ve never really thought digital plugins or emulators sounded much like the actual pedal, and their poor availability at the time (pre Waza Craft version) didn’t help either – so didn’t really put much thought towards doing one myself. I’ve only ever had one proper guitar amp (I’m a Peavey guy) so that is the sound all my live bands have had which has worked great for everything from my first Thrash band to various styles of Death Metal and Death Doom, but it’s never going to sound like ‘Like an Everflowing Stream’ or ‘Left Hand Path’. I absolutely love the tone Dan Swanö engineered for Hail of Bullets on ‘Of Frost and War’. Tracks like ‘General Winter’, ‘Berlin’ with the slower doomy feel absolutely crush. Given Paul’s Death Doom heritage with Enchantment, that slightly slower feel sits well with us, but not all the time – it needs to be balanced with a bit of pace and I love bands like Vomitory and Vader too much to not have some speed in there. Besides that, I haven’t yet actually written any new songs specifically for Crypt Feeder. I do believe you have to play to the pedal to an extent – it does lend itself to certain riffs which probably does help shape the style. Paul has input and suggestions for all the tracks we’ve been working on, so even if a song was “finished” on paper in 2012, it’s open to changes with Crypt Feeder. Paul certainly is more knowledgeable on other bands within the “HM-2 sound” and is a massive fan of old-school Death Metal in general, he’s a bit of a collector, which is probably why this band is his idea. It’s in his blood for sure.

t’s hard not to be influenced by those Entombed and Dismember albums, Carnage’s ‘Dark Recollections’, the classic ‘mid era’ ’92-‘98 Bolt Thrower albums and the newer takes on the style by Hail of Bullets and Bloodbath, some of which could be considered modern classics. I also really like early Hypocrisy albums ‘Penetralia’ and ‘Osculum Obscenum’. This sound certainly does not reinvent the wheel, and I think people who play it and listen to it know that and love it just the same. It just keeps on rolling, picking up rotting flesh along the way like a giant festering snowball. I love it.

What can you tell us about the making of your ‘Into the Crypt’ EP (7″ vinyl released by Cosmic Key Creations), from the creative process and challenges to the reception and anything interesting about the release?
D.M.: The two tracks were the first we chose to work on from that handful of songs I had when I initially contacted Paul, so they had existed in one way or another for a long time. We didn’t really plan on releasing 2 tracks, I think the plan originally was to produce an EP of around 5 songs. Paul made some suggestions on changes to the tracks that he thought might improve them. For example, the slow section that starts halfway through ‘Open the Tomb’ was Paul’s idea. The lead melody is essentially the same notes that were there before, played differently, but the rhythm guitars and drums had a much faster feel before, more like the style of Vomitory. He suggested we slow it right down and focus on the melodic lead. The new quarter-time feel sounds much better this way, it sounds cavernous and brooding, and for me is the highlight of the song. ‘Reborn Through Flesh’ is largely the same as the original version that was rehearsed with Chapel Rot previously, except for one riff which was a homage to Hypocrisy and probably too close to one of their riffs to legitimately call ours! I re-recorded the new arrangements to see if I’d achieved what Paul had in mind and as a basis for him to write and record lyrics over. I then have a similar opportunity to make suggestions on the vocals if I think some ideas could work better in places. He sent the final vocal tracks to me to mix, but I am no music producer, so everything is very rough with probably too much reverb at this point! This took over a year as I was working on the Angelivore album in my spare time. Wouter at Cosmic Key Creations who had handled some recent releases for Enchantment was very keen to hear the songs and immediately expressed an interest in releasing them as a 7” demo which was amazing – but left us with a slight problem as they were never intended for public release. The guitars were recorded quickly and were full of mistakes and only had basic midi drums and bass guitar. I had recorded these guitar parts at home, plonked an SM57 in front my guitar cabinet and recorded them with very little knowledge about what I was doing. There was no time spent agonizing over mic placement or anything. It was very quick and dirty as I was only trying to get the ideas across – but then we suddenly had to make it work. I asked a couple of good friends if they would help out with recording bass guitar and drums, guys I have known and worked with in various projects for years – Idna and Havenless (known for their current Black Metal band Deheubarth, but also individually in the past from bands like Desecration, Extreme Noise Terror, Fen, Irony of Christ, Mulch and numerous other bands over the 20 years I have known them) recorded their parts in Wales and sent me everything to then forward to get mixed by another good friend of mine Charlie Nevett who I’ve also played in a band with previously, who had recently finished mixing the Angelivore album. He did some fine work polishing the turds and turning them into a release that we could be proud of! There are still obvious mistakes on there, but it’s a Death Metal demo, it’s supposed to be dirty… and honestly, I’m proud of it. We have had a very positive response to this release, which is incredible.

Who writes the lyrics for Crypt Feeder, what are they about, and how important are they to the band’s overall vision?
D.M.: Paul is responsible for all that!

P.J.: There weren’t actually any specific influences for the lyrics on this release. After writing for the two Enchantment albums, it was actually refreshing not to overthink the lyrical side of things and to just have fun penciling something horror/gore-based. The emphasis was purely to capture and create some catchy vocal arrangements, that would hopefully sound like the songs had been written in the late 80s/early 90s. After all, old school is the only school when it comes to death metal, right?

As mentioned, your EP is released on 7” vinyl. Is vinyl important to you? Would you like to have something on cassette as well? What’s the significance of releasing your music on vinyl and cassette, both as an artist and a collector?
D.M.: It is funny you should ask about a cassette as we have been working with Into It Records for a cassette release, and I think they will announce it soon for a release in early Spring, maybe. ‘Into the Crypt’ is my first ever release on both vinyl and cassette so it’s very special to me personally. It’s still very expensive to produce for a label, so I am especially grateful that Cosmic Key were willing to release it on vinyl and of course to the people who’ve spent money supporting an unknown band.  It’s not a cheap release compared to other formats and they have put together a nice little package for us with the sleeve finish and flood fill, it looks cool, but ultimately it is only two tracks. As someone who started buying music 30 years ago I’ve seen formats come and go and come back again. I had to progress from a listening to a Sony Walkman cassette player on my commute to college to an iPod to get my fix of tunes. Now I have some mp3s on my phone, but not many. My car is still old enough to have a CD player in it and no Bluetooth. Digital might be convenient, especially for checking out new bands quickly, but there is nothing that can replace holding physical media in your hands. Examining the artwork for details, reading the notes in the sleeve. I used to maybe only afford one album a month back then, now I tend to buy a few albums all at once and then I don’t have time to read through all the lyrics obsessively as I once did, but it’s there in your collection whenever you want to. We both probably spend too much on vinyl! Now we have the Metal Archives to find out who played guitar on that album from 1988 or 2018, etc, if it’s correct. Great for pub trivia, but I like loads of info written in the liner notes on a physical release. I also like artists getting paid a little bit more than $0.003 a play and to an extent buying physical media helps a bit, especially in the underground scene. Whether a label released an album or it was self-released, if you like the band you need to support them by buying the music, in whatever format possible, but physical supports the whole industry. You can’t be in this scene to make loads of money, but for bands, labels, distros and promoters to exist it has to be cost effective, and shifting units is the first way to keep bands able to keep making music and fund the next release. Paul is a big fan of cassettes so he is chuffed to have it released on cassette. I haven’t had a cassette deck for a few years, and I have some friends who can’t play vinyl or cassette and have asked about a CD release also. Hopefully they’ll get their wish one day.

What are your expectations for Crypt Feeder in the future? Have you already written any new songs?
D.M.: We have several new songs in the works in various stages of completion. As they haven’t been written as an album I’m sure there are differences to ‘Into the Crypt’, but it’s probably fair to say if you like the first two, you’ll like these new tracks. So far I have written all of the music, but we may involve other people in the writing process if we are able to form a live band and of course everyone would be welcome to bring new ideas, riffs and songs in the future. Paul and I live about 3.5 hours drive away and of course have day jobs so it would probably remain a long distance project with infrequent rehearsals. Either way we hope to get an album out hopefully this year.

You are involved with acts like Angelivore & Enchantment. Any news on them to tell our readers?
D.M.: Angelivore is essentially a solo project so it really depends if I can find that time to work on new material, record and produce it. The response to ‘Fleshfeast’ wasn’t that great partly I think because not many people heard about it. It needed a lot more time and money on the promotion front than I could give it, and it was hard to generate much interest. As it just appeared out of the blue, I probably should have released a demo or physical single first to give people a heads up. It is very hard to get people to notice you over the noise of so many new bands these days. I think if I did do another album I would learn from the first one and do things slightly differently in that regard. But for now, I am dedicating my spare time to Crypt Feeder. My day job is taking up a lot of my time with training and exams so if I can even pick up my guitar for an hour a week I feel like I am doing well, so it’s highly unlikely that I will start anything new with Angelivore for quite a while.

P.J.: From an Enchantment point of view, the band is firmly in hiatus. There was a new song written shortly after recording ‘Cold Soul Embrace,’ but that has since remained only in raw demo status, with no current plans to commence writing further new material. Never say never, though!  Not so much joining another act, but I have written and recorded guest vocals for some cool upcoming releases. The first will be on the new ‘Live By The Sword’ album, which will also feature Karl Willets of Bolt Thrower/Memoriam fame.

Are you involved in any other way in the music scene?
D.M.: I used to be a lot more involved, years ago. I have a graphic design background, so I used to create logos, cover art, layouts and websites mostly for underground/unsigned bands. Over 25 years ago I used to run a little metal webzine called Last Labyrinth with a friend. I did the thrash and Death Metal reviews, he did the prog and power metal, but it was far too much work to keep going and we weren’t able to cover enough releases or gigs for it to become successful. I think at that time we both were spending more time playing our own guitars, so we stopped doing it. I formed my first band around that time. I used to do live promotion in Bristol with another friend for a couple of years. We put on mostly local bands in tiny venues but we did put on a couple of shows with more well known bands like Cancer and Vital Remains. Now I pretty much only do logos, graphic design and videos for my own projects, but I do help out friends in other bands occasionally. Most recently I have produced layouts and a lyric video for the new Deheubarth album and a lyric video for my old mates in My Silent Wake, and of course Crypt Feeder.

Are there any bands or albums of your recent playlist you would like to mention? Any other bands of your region of United Kingdom that are worth mentioning and to check out for our readers?
D.M.: I’m always late to the party with checking out new stuff these days just because I’m so busy and cannot listen to music at work. I did recently pick up the Grave Ghoul CD which is a compilation of two demos. Very cool and satisfying horror-themed Death Metal, and it has been on heavy rotation in my car. Death Collector also sound cool from what I’ve heard. Paul always has his nose close to the ground, recommending me stuff and adding to his collection!

P.J.: Obviously, I’m a massive fan of most HM-2-sounding bands, although the likes of Burial Remains, In Pain, Denomination, Rotten Casket, Gravestone, Carnal Savagery, and Feral all hold a special gory place in my doomy heart. All the aforementioned should be in everyone’s collection.  Regarding an unsigned band/overlooked gem, I think everyone needs to check out the Canadian band Glutted Swarm and their debut release ‘…of old.’ Sure, it’s pure Obituary worship, but it’s so fucking good. I’ve not been able to stop spinning it since I bought a copy of their self-released CD last year. I truly anticipate big things for the boys, and it will be well deserved when they are picked up by a large label.  From a U.K. perspective, it’s hard for me not to mention Grave Ghoul or Seven Doors. Both bands are from the sick and creative mind of Ryan Wills. If utterly putrid, old-school-sounding Death Metal is your thing, then you need to jump on both.

Also do you have favourite labels you always keep an eye on when they announce a new release? Favourite cover artist, zine, distro….?
P.J.: When it comes to labels, I wouldn’t say I have any favourites as such, although I do tend to order a lot from the likes of Transcending Obscurity, Into It, Raw Skull, Dry Cough, Me Saco Un Ojo, and Xtreem Music. All seem to discover and release killer bands/albums which I find hard to resist pressing the ‘Buy Now’ button. That, and struggling to find the time to play everything is definitely the curse of the collector!

Luckily from a U.K. perspective there are a lot of good distros knocking about. I’m always checking on Plastic Head, Devil Dog, but also Dry Cough and Me Saco Un Ojo (although they are labels in their own right but also stock some cool distro releases).

When you mention illustrators or artists, obviously the likes of Ed Repka and Dan Seagrave immediately come to mind. However, I’m also drawn to the amazing works of Dan Goldsworthy, Mark Riddick, Axel Hermann, Julian Mora Ibañez, Markus Vesper – along with a whole bunch more. I think getting the right-fitting artwork for any release is nearly as important as the music itself.

Annoyingly, I don’t get the time to read many printed or online-only zines these days. I have a stack of old ones from the late 80s and 90s, but not that many thereafter. That said, I do like to keep up to date with the likes of ‘Slowly We Rot’ zine, whenever possible. I obviously need to find the time to read more zines, including yourselves!

D.M.: I’ve always been a sucker for the classic art by Dan Seagrave, Andreas Marschall, Wes Benscoter, Joe Petagno but also Pär Olofsson and of course the grandfather of metal artwork, Derek Riggs. I wanted to do cover art for a living when I was a kid! I tend to buy from Me Saco Un Ojo a fair bit.

Before we wrap up this interview, is there something I’ve forgotten to ask you which you would like to mention? Thanks for your time!
D.M.: I definitely want to thank you and everyone else for checking us out. As I said, as a new band it can be difficult to get yourself noticed and we’re very grateful to everyone who has spent time and money listening to us, supporting our physical release and buying our merch. To see these songs finally find a release and be enjoyed by people is a great feeling, and I really hope we can get the time and opportunity to get a full band assembled and rehearsed, so we can play them live.