Answered Adrian Marquez.
Translated and questions prepared by Petra, thank you!
Hello, SKELETAL REMAINS! How are you guys? The time goes so quickly and in the following weeks, your upcoming record “Devouring Mortality” will be released. How do you feel, what are your expectation regarding the new album?
Hello! Everything is good here at the SR HQ! I just cracked open my daily after work beer, relaxing, talking to you fine people, you know. Everything is going pretty good. yea! time definitely flys by man, and fucking fast as hell. Crazy to think that we will be releasing a 3rd album soon a month or so, we are so pumped for it, we cannot wait for everyone to hear it!!
You made a big step from the debut album to the second record. How would you compare the new album to „Condemned to Misery“? What is the biggest improvement or difference between them? What we should expect from the new material?
Yea man, you know, You have to In a way out-do what you have done in your pervious releases and sometimes that's pretty challenging. But for us, we wouldn't even think to release an album if we felt it wasn't a step up from its predecessor.. For us, taking a step back just isn't our cup of beer. We like to set the bar high for ourselves in order to make sure we can meet or surpass that bar with the next record. We feel Devouring mortality is a big step up from condemned to misery, bit more technicality/time signatures added all while keeping that old school style of death metal sound.
Your collaboration with legendary Dan Swano is great. How did this succeed to you and how did this collaboration take place? Do you know that also mastering of the new PESTILENCE record “Hadeon” was made by Swanö? What do you think about this album? Do you like their musical progress?
Yea man Swanö did a fucking fantastic job! We cant thank him enough for it. Swanö was one of the name we had in mind to do the mix and master for the album so when he said he was interested we decided to go with him. And how the fuck can we say no to having Dan fucking Swanö mix and master our new album!? Haha! I was just an honor for us and we are completely blown away on how great he made this record sound.
Yes we are aware he did the new pestilence album and being fans of the early records pestilence did we where amazed of how good this new album came out it’s like a modern testimony of the ancients with a bit of spheres it’s really a great record and the lead work is amazing!
Another great thing, the cover art for “Devouring Mortality” was prepared by the very famous author Dan Seagrave. How was this collaboration formed and how did it take place? Did you offer him some your ideas, concept, expectations or you provided him a “free hand”? Has the cover art some connection to the title of the record or to some track? Which cover art from Seagrave do you like the most?
After the signing with Century Media, they gave us a Budget for the album recording/artwork and all that. Having some art done by seagrave has always been a dream of ours since our first release so we mentioned it to both labels and Matt from DD got us in contact with him. And we were super stoked when he agreed to do the art for the album. We gave him some ideas, you know, sent him images and art of cataclysmic type environments. We also sent him some of the lyrics to a few of the songs. And he went from there. so amazed by the outcome, it was exactly how we pictured it. The art definitely has some connection with almost all the tracks on the album, especially the title track. We felt Devouring Mortality was the perfect title for the cover art. Death is all around you, and you're all going to be devoured by it.
We also told him to include 'Skeletal Mike' some where on the cover, since he's been on all the album covers for the pervious albums(the skeletal remains lying on the tomb on the cover for Beyond the Flesh, and the skeletal remains burning in agony on the cover of Condemned) we figured we could continue it. kinda like our Eddie( of iron maiden) he's the SR mascot. You can find him on the bottom right corner of the art, laying in his tomb.
We also told him to include 'Skeletal Mike' some where on the cover, since he's been on all the album covers for the pervious albums(the skeletal remains lying on the tomb on the cover for Beyond the Flesh, and the skeletal remains burning in agony on the cover of Condemned) we figured we could continue it. kinda like our Eddie( of iron maiden) he's the SR mascot. You can find him on the bottom right corner of the art, laying in his tomb.
Hmm good question.. For me personally, I'd have to say Erosion of Sanity is probably my fav Seagrave album cover, Left Hand Path is up there with it as well.
Could you reveal us what is the background of the lyrics at the forthcoming album? Are they somehow different in comparison with the previous records or is the death still the main topic?
A lot of things come into play when it comes to the lyrical content on the album. From natural disasters to autobiographies and stories on historical figures, science-fiction movies and even video games believe it or not. Just a lot of what we are into and fine very interesting on a regular basis. And I don't wanna say 'death' is still the main topic or anything but you know. it's a Death Metal record so death definitely mentioned a lot. Because only death is real..
Who plays the drums on the new record? I think you don’t have luck with the drummers, currently this is your fourth one. Is it hard to find a right person for this position in your neighborhood? Or you were not satisfied with your previous drummers… Do you have now a permanent drummer?
We have the unbreakable curse of the Spinal Tap! Our drummers just blow up at random! Lol. I'm joking of course. But on A more serious note, It's more of personal reasons why pervious drummers are, well, pervious drummers, haha. It's hard for a band to continue as a unit when someone isn't on the same page as the rest of the band, you know. When someone isn't on that same page it tends to slow things down, and it doesn't usually sit well with the rest of us. We only have 2 speeds, Fast and Faster ;). And sometimes people are too busy with their personal lives to go the distance, if that makes any sense. And yes we have found some, Mr, Johnny Valles. he's been in the band for over a year now, he's a fantastic Drummer he had to take some time off as he has some personal stuff going on but He did record the drum tracks on Devouring Mortality. But he will be coming on tour with us in May and hopefully he will stick around for good this time.
In 2015 you were on tour in Europe. You must have a lot of memories, experiences. I am actually from Slovakia, where you also had one concert in Bratislava. I must confess I didn’t know about this show, because promotion was probably insufficient. I heard that only a few fans came to this concert, so I hope you don’t have the bad memories on our country and you will come back sometimes in future.
Oh yea I recall that tour, it was with Morfin. It was the first time we toured during the winter in Europe and hell yea that was definitely an unforgettable experience.. You know being from California, we weren't used to those types of temperatures and we definitely weren't prepared for it , Haha. I do remember the show in Bratislava, it was probably one of the coldest nights of the tour. And the show was actually very good. At first it was kinda dead but as soon as the bands started, a lot of ppl ended up showing.
Up and it was a great time. And I'm sure we will definitely return in the near future :).
When metal bands generally from US compare the concerts in America and Europe, usually the European shows win. Do you have a similar opinion? Why it is like that? Which concert was one of the best for you and why?
Yea, we can definitely agree with that, The European metal scene in general, from Traditional heavy metal to Death metal and everything in between is far more passionate about the music then the metal scene here in the states. Complete diehards when it comes to metal. And that's probably why the metal festivals are far better in Europe than here in the states. A lot of bands (old or new) who's shows probably wouldn't be as good here in the states as they would be out there. We can honestly say our fan base is far bigger out in Europe than it is here in the states. To put it into perspective, we have done 3 European tours and zero U.S tours, I mean, we did short west coast run with Asphyx, which was like 7 dates, but never a full on tour in the states. Shit, At one point we even thought about relocating out to Germany but that was before we all became fathers.
I know your big inspirations are the old school albums from Pestilence, Gorguts and so on. You play such death metal like these bands have played in early 90s, however, now they are writing exactly different death metal. Do you think that also you will make this kind of move from old school to more progressive death metal in 10 years for example?
Honestly, We've never really been the ones to plan ahead. We focus on the moment at hand. Take it day by day/week by week with band rehearsal, writing sessions, focusing on whatever show is scheduled next and so forth. it's hard to give you a legitimate answer on what we will be doing 10 years from now. Shit, I might not even be alive 5 years from now, haha! So who knows. But what I can tell you is that right now, our only focus is to write death metal we enjoy playing. Death metal that we, as a band, are gonna be satisfied with. We're not swaying away from it because someone is telling us too or because it will attract or satisfy a different type of crowd. Everything we do, everything write, we do for ourselves. And it's the ultimate fucking high seeing others enjoy it just as much as we do. All the people we speak to, wether at a show or through messages online, all share the same passion as we do, and it's truly a special feeling for us. So as long as we are happy with what we are doing, and as long as the fans are enjoying as much are we are, thats all that matters, really.
I am sure that you are the metal fans too. Do you still go on concerts and support bands? What was the last album you have purchased? What have you been listening recently?
Yea, of course man. We have a lot of friends here that play in bands so we try to make it there shows and also if there is band we really want to see we do our best to make it. Of course it’s not as easy before as some of us have kids and daily jobs so it’s s bit harder for us to attend every show that happens here but we try our best to make it out if there is a band we really want to see. The Last show we went to I think was mammoth grinder here in LA that was killer and I picked up there latest release. Besides that some recent stuff I purchased was some stuff from dark descent. A few blood incantation and horrendous LPs as i don’t own them so wanted a physical copy. Recently I’ve been listening to necrot, regurgitated guts, cist, resurgency.
What about concerts in the near future, are you planning a tour to support a new record? Perhaps some European tour.
Yes! We actually just announced a euro tour scheduled for May. It's about 3 weeks or so, across Europe supporting our label mates Angelus Apatrida! Can't wait for that! We are also playing our first Canadian show with the mighty Demolition Hammer! March 17th in Winnipeg. There are a few more shows and tours in the works,so keep an eye out for updates ;)
Thank you very for the interview. I really appreciate that you have found a time. I wish you all the best, a many successful concerts, happy and satisfied fans and many sold albums. I am looking forward for one of your concert; I hope you will also visit Czech Republic and Slovakia. Many thanks, guys!
Thank you for having us! We appreciate the the support and the kinds words, it really means a lot to us. And we definitely be seeing each other soon! Cheers!
Interview done by Adrian Marquez.
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