Interview with black death metal band from United States - BLASPHEMOUS.
Answered RK (vocals) and Hal Microutsicos (rhythm guitarist), thank you!
Recenze/review - BLASPHEMOUS - To Lay Siege and Conquer (2024):
Ave BLASPHEMOUS! I'm listening to your new release "To Lay Siege and Conquer" right now and I have the insistent feeling that I'm at an evil black mass. You play black death metal and this is your fourth full-length album. Can you tell us how the new record came about and what direction you wanted to take from the excellent previous releases? Did you want to be even faster, darker, more evil?
RK: At this point, we are doing what feels right to us. Some of these songs have been in the works since 2019. We took a lot of time and put a lot of rehearsing into it and wanted to get to the point where it was second nature and didn’t want to waste time in the studio.
HM: Thanks for checking it out and the kind words! Alot of these songs are many years old by the time the record comes out. We’ve been slowly writing little by little and refining things over the years until we were happy with the songs. There’s no real direction or vibe we are going for as we enter the writing process - whatever comes to us naturally.
You know what literally punched me in the face right away? The sound on the new record. It's organic, it's dusty, the album has a black spark to it. It's literally a refresher in this day and age of overdriven and compressed formats. I think it sounds like hell! Please tell me, where and how did you record? How did you achieve this sound?
HM: We worked with AJ Viana (Cognitive, Hath) to record the album. We worked with him on our “Eternal Misanthropy” single and he nailed what we were going for as far as production so we decided to work with him again. We captured guitar DI and re-amped everything through microphone amps. Mostly the guitars, pedals and amps we use for live shows anyway, so it sounds very much “like us”.
RK: Like Hal said, we did the album with AJ Viana. When we did the “Eternal Misanthropy” single with him it felt right. All our previous albums were done in-house, the first two were recorded by our former drummer, and “Emerging Through Fire” was done by our current drummer Mark Vizza. It was a good thing to have an outside set of ears to put their two cents on things, whether it was attacking a line differently, or adding a little something
I'm exactly the kind of old-school fan who approaches music in such a way that if he likes the album, he buys the CD and the T-shirt. I have to say that the motif on the cover of this year's album is really good. That's how I imagine medieval hell. Can you tell us how you chose the motif, who is signed to it and how it relates to the music?
HM: Misanthropic Art handled the album cover for this release. We have worked with them previously on our “Eternal Misanthropy” release as well as another t shirt design. Considering the general themes of the album we thought he’d be another great fit for this release too.
Looking at your line-up, you are a band that is made up of all experienced musicians. How do you actually create new music? What is the actual process of creating new material? Do you have no problem with the process of making a deal? After all, experience can be a hindrance sometimes. You know, ego and all that.
RK: We’re experienced, but definitely have no egos here. We hang out and get along well, which helps with the chemistry when it comes to writing. With this album, Hal took a bigger role with some of the lyrical approach, Some vocalists tend to be possessive when it comes to lyrics and I used to feel that way too. But I definitely felt a bit of relief that it’s not all on me.
HM: We struck gold with this lineup - there’s no egos and we are all good friends at the end of the day so writing is not hard at all. Steve and I normally trade riffs and ideas through email and then I take everything and compose the songs. RK and/or I will then lay down lyrics on top once we have an idea of what we want to write about and then refine things before flowing out to the other guys. I have a small home studio which allows me to record guitar, bass and vocals. I also program the drums so we have a full demo that I can send to everyone else to learn. I don’t think it’s an uncommon way for bands to write songs nowadays.
For me, the American school of death metal has always been associated with a certain darkness. Even when I was young I used to be fascinated by the references to Satanism, the kind of filth, the rottenness that you could feel in your bands' work. How did you get into that style?
HM: This release has a varied array of lyrical themes. I actually don’t think there are any direct satanic references. For instance, the three songs I wrote lyrics for are about being buried alive and feeling the pain of decay as the body rots (Dead and Still), a witch that casts a spell on a village causing everyone to murder each other (Curse of the Witchchrist) and the Chaos Daemons from the Warhammer 40k lore. So very different within themselves.
RK: Definitely a variety of themes lyrically on this album. While no overt Satanic references, the song “Spiritual Enslavement” is a anti-religious theme. The title track “To Lay Siege And Conquer” has more of a subliminal interpretation, in my opinion can be seen as anti-religion or an anti-political theme.
I wonder what it's like in Philadelphia, music-wise? How did you get into music and who were your role models? What about your scene, clubs, fans?
RK: The scene in Philly is pretty killer. I started going to shows back in 1990. When I first got into Metal, it was the traditional & glam metal, then evolved into thrash with Metallica & Slayer, then to Death Metal with bands like Deicide,Obituary, Morbid Angel, and then Black Metal and Hardcore too. It helps things to thrive a bit when you have Decibel Magazine based in Philly, Relapse Records is based right outside of Philly. There’s a lot of talented bands the area(Philly, Southern New Jersey, Delaware)
HM: The philadelphia music scene is great. Sometimes there are multiple metal or hardcore shows going on in one night (which has its downfalls). There’s a wide array of extreme metal represented by the city and many VERY talented musicians. Several of them we are honored to call our good friends. I did not move to the area until 2016 and I grew up in Virginia. My mom would play classic rock radio in the car when I was small, so I heard alot of Ozzy, Metallica, Alice in Chains, etc. Some of the first CDs I got as gifts were Blue Oyster Cult Essentials, …And Justice for all by Metallica and Dirt by Alice in Chains. Eventually my curiosity peaked for the heavier stuff and went down the rabbit hole of discovering bands like Sepultura, Cannibal Corpse, things like that. Again, not an uncommon story for many others.
You're also very dark in your lyrics. Of course it belongs to death black metal and I like it, but I would be interested in the origin and the origin of the lyrics. How did the lyrics for the new album come about? What are they about?
RK: There’s a lot of things happening in this world that are dark & evil. And some of it does strike inspiration into me, for better or for worse
HM: When I write, it’s mostly about fantasy. Things I’ve seen in art, movies, shows, etc.
There have been many times in the history of metal that some bands have been banned because they shocked, had different views from the mainstream society. Have you ever had problems? In this day and age of the internet, it's awfully easy to immediately condemn someone, spread a rumor, destroy them. How are black death metal bands perceived by mainstream society in Philadelphia?
RK: The only negative things we really encountered was a bomb threat at a show back in 2012, not sure who it was directed towards. And we had to deal with protesters when we opened for Horna back in 2019, but that unfortunately was directed at them.
HM: I think the general perception of extreme metal in the city is positive. There’s alot of “metal-friendly” things going on in the city, including Decibel Metal and Beer fest and a few of the breweries are very supportive, like Attic Brewing, so we don’t see anything like shows being protested regularly or anything like that.
Have you had to make any changes in your approach to music because of new technologies? The internet has made the world a completely different place, bands have to approach everything differently. How do you feel about these changes?
HM: It’s good and bad. The internet is full of tools for bands to advertise themselves in a manner for success but there’s also SO many bands out there that you can become irrelevant VERY quickly. You really can’t rely on a gimmick in your music nowadays. There has to be a spine of good quality music to support your band, otherwise the next gimmick comes along and you are forgotten. We feel our music is true, and we have never compromised in what we want to write or play just because something else is more popular. Our friends and fans see this and it’s why the band has been around since 2003 and has had a stable lineup since 2016. Not many bands can say that.
How are BLASPHEMOUS doing with concerts? I've seen that you don't perform anywhere that often. Aren't you tempted to tour Europe? I could imagine you alongside POSSESSED, DEICIDE, they come here quite often.
RK: I’d love to be on a show with Deicide or Possessed. But we all work full time. And life does get in the way. If we can make it work, we’d love to go play Europe. Hopefully with the new album, we can get to some places we haven’t got to yet, even here in the USA
HM: The pandemic of 2020 set back the head of steam we had with live performances. Prior, we were finishing up a successful summer tour in 2018 and a string of shows in between that and the pandemic, including shows with Monstrosity, Ruin, Ringworm, among others. We played some shows in ‘22 but sank all of our time in ‘23 to write the new record. We only have two shows under our belt for 2024, but they are both ones we are proud to have been a part of. One with Exhumed, Skeletal Remains and Morbikon and the other is with Antichrist Siege Machine and our friends in Entrail Asphyxiation. Everyone in the band works full time so it’s tough to make time for more shows but we do what we can. We plan to get back to playing more up and down the east coast in 2025 and maybe other parts of the country!
What does death metal, black metal mean to you? How would you define it and how do you perceive these styles as an experienced musician? I'm not asking you to describe your playing technique, I'm more interested in your view, feelings, energy transmitted and so on. Try to be a philosopher for a moment.
HM: I think I touched on it earlier but death and black metal, and the styles that blend the two, allow such a wide range for creativity, both musically and lyrically. There’s almost no bounds to it. I personally did not expect to get into this band as much as I did when I first joined, but when I started writing and had that revelation, it made me really fall in love with it. If I write something dark and moody, or melodic and triumphant, or even thrashy, it’s all fair game.
RK: Hal kinda said it best. There’s really no boundaries There’s a natural energy with the music, and there’s no way you can fake it.
Thank you very much for the interview. I really appreciate you taking the time to write for this site. I wish your whole band a hell of a lot of inspiration, sold records and enthusiastic fans. May your personal life be good as well. I hope to see you live sometime.
RK: Thanks for asking us. I hope all is well with you too!
HM: Thank you so much for the opportunity and I wish the same good success to you!
Recenze/review - BLASPHEMOUS - To Lay Siege and Conquer (2024):
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