Interview - PERDITION TEMPLE - Lyrical subject are always something related to chaos, ruin, and abominations. ~ DEADLY STORM zine

Interview with black death metal band from USA - PERDITION TEMPLE.

Answered Gene Palubicki, thank you!

Translated Petra, thank you!

Question prepared Jakub Asphyx.

Recenze/review - PERDITION TEMPLE - Sacraments of Descension (2020):

https://deadly-storm.blogspot.com/2020/04/recenzereview-perdition-temple.html

Ave PERDITION TEMPLE! I am listening to your new album „ Sacraments of Descension“ and I have the perceptive feeling that I am at an evil black mass. You play black death metal and this is your third full length album. Can you tell us how the new recording was made and in what direction did you want to move from the great previous album "The Tempter's Victorious"? Did you want to be even faster, darker, more evil?

Answer: For this 3rd album I think it might have more of the immediacy of the 1st album, "Edict of the Antichrist Elect" while on some songs I go even further with some of the strange and atonal patterns of some of the riffs that was more prominent on the previous "Tempter's..." album. Maybe some of the best elements of both previous albums forged with new ideas to make this 3rd album what it is. It has always been an internal goal of mine with this music to find some new dark place to take the music that might not have been traversed on a previous release. And for sure I've never had any compulsion to step away from deliberate constant attack in my musical works, despite whatever commercial limitations that might bring on.

You know what hit me into the face? Sound of this new record, It's organic, rainy, the album has a black spark. Nowadays, between overwhelmed and compressed formats it is literally refreshing. This is what I think is true hell! Please tell me where and how did you recorded? How did you get that sound? How was your cooperation with Jarrett Pritchard?

ANSWER: Ronnie recorded his drums at his home studio, I did my guitars at my home setup as well as vocals, and our bass player, Alex did his parts at his home studio as well. So the actual tracked audio was entirely created by the band members. For my guitars there was only one mic put to my speaker cabinet. The exact way it would be positioned at a live gig. So the guitar sound I got on the album is the same exact type of sound I would have live on a stage. The mixing and mastering process of the album was done by Jarrett. The great advantage of doing this with Jarrett is that he has the same ear for this music as we all do. So communication was very easy during the mixing. It was like we could finish each others sentences/etc... Which is very important and valuable to have that sort of rapport when doing projects with speed and limited budgets.

I'm the kind of old school fan who approaches music by buying a CD and a T-shirt when he likes the album. I have to say that the motif on the cover of this year's album is really good. That's how I imagine real hell. Can you tell us how you chose the motif, who's signed and how it relates to music?

ANSWER: Daniel Corcuera from Chile did an excellent rendering of the vision I had for this albums cover. I wanted something that looked like it was taken from old classical paintings of hell and damnation, but in a way that represented a long life of devotion to darkness and finding a sort of inverse sense of reward and grandeur at the end! I also like that the cover art has a whisper of old album covers like HELLHAMMER or SLAYER. So for sure this cover art is one of the best ones created for any work through my entire career! I've been fortunate to have works from some great artists like Daniel, and Adam Burke, C. Moyen, Joe Petagno. So this new one stands up well with those of the past!

When I look at your line-up, you're a band that is made up of experienced musicians. For example, you played Gene in the famous ANGELCORPSE, drummer Ron went through BRUTALITY, MALEVOLENT CREATION, AMON, Alex plays in great BLASPHEMIC CRUELTY. How do you create new music? What about the process of creation new material? Do you have any problems - after all, experience is sometimes an obstacle. You know - ego etc.

ANSWER: We are all members of the band that have long experience now with this music. We are past needing to "figure it out" or find our place. That has long been established. We are at the place where there is full confidence in being able to do whatever it is we choose to create without any doubt that we are doing exactly what we should be doing with the music of PERDITION TEMPLE. It takes away any sort of guessing what to do as new stuff is created.

For me, Florida's death metal school has always been associated with a certain darkness. When I was young, I was fascinated by references to Satanism, the filth, the rot that smelled of your bands. How do you explain that Florida is the cradle of so many great dark bands? After all, you have a pleasant climate, I would expect something more "cheerful".

ANSWER: I think it was most prominent here in the late 80's into the early 90's that some of the most creative stuff evolved from here. Like the early beginnings of MORBID ANGEL, INCUBUS, MONSTROSITY, OBITUARY and others... I would say the region/climate had nothing at all to do with any of it. The same reasons that bands evolved in this place are the same reasons anywhere in the world that bands started to do this stuff. My early bands, like ANGELCORPSE did not even originate from Florida, that band started in Kansas City, Mo.

Let stay in the past. I wonder how it was like in Florida in the 1990s when it comes about music. Do you like to remember that time? How did you get to music and who was your idols? What about the scene then? Please tell us.…

ANSWER: During my youth/teen years i lived in the state of Minnesota here in the USA. I got into this stuff fairly independently as most other young guys from where I lived had nothing of interest in this music. So in the mid 80's I was really taken by the bands like POSSESSED, SLAYER, DARK ANGEL, SODOM... and then later bands like MORBID ANGEL, CARCASS, PESTILENCE/etc... It was great watching it evolve from other bands then, and also forming ideas of how/what I might want to do with the music myself.

In your lyrics you often mention Satanism, darkness, many of them have strictly anti-Christian themes. Of course it belongs to death metal and I like it, but I would be interested in the origin of the lyrics. How were the lyrics for the new album created? Why Satanism and the Devil?

ANSWER: Lyrical subject are always something related to chaos, ruin, and abominations. Whether real world horrors or fantastical there is no division for me for subjects... sometimes a fusion of both within topics. I guess my notion of "Antichrist" in relation to subjects could be applied as an adversarial stance towards any organized illusory theology. I also like to explore dark chapters in human history and I've always been influenced by the sort of cosmic horrors of the writings like H.P Lovecraft/etc...

In the history of metal, many bands have been banned because they shocked, had different opinions from the majority society, and in the US, where Christians are in a strong position, you must have met this. Did you ever had problems? Nowadays, in the Internet age is so easy to condemn someone immediately, just create a fake news and then destroy him.

ANSWER: Back in 1998 on tour with ANGELCORPSE the mormons in Salt lake City, UTAH got a venue to close a show, And also in 99' a show in Laredo , TX got cancelled because someone saw a flyer and thought it was a sort of satan ritual (at a local bar... haha!!!) Other than those things so long ago there have never been any other troubles. PERDITION TEMPLE is no sort of political or theological stance band so that is not something we really encounter.

Gene, you as a musician have been through several bands since the 1990s, you are an experienced composer, you have recorded a lot of great albums. Did you have to change your approach to music with new technologies? Thanks to the Internet, the world is completely different, groups have to approach everything differently. How do you perceive these changes?

ANSWER: back in late 90's when doing the ANGELCORPSE records, we did demo tapes in our basement on a 4 track cassette recorder, and the albums done on huge recording consoles at a huge expense! Ever since 2009 all recordings done since have been to record guitars/bass/vocals on a BOSS BR-1600 8 track multitrack recorder(an old external machine/device not even manufactured anymore) and either have drums recorded in a studio or a home studio environment. Only mixing and masterings are now done in a pro studio since that is gear that as of yet I've never trifled with..yet. But It is good to have gone to a pro studio for mixing and masters and be able able to have one good set of outside ears to assist in getting the best for the finished work.

What about PERDITION TEMPLE and gigs? I noticed you don't get out so often. Do you like the tour over the Europe? I could imagine you alongside such POSSESSED, DEICIDE, as they come to us quite often.

ANSWER: We had been doing sporadic live shows at fests/etc here in USA over the years. Actually, this last year(2019) we did a 5 weeks tour supporting CANNIBAL CORPSE through the USA and CANADA! And for this year we have plans for the later part of the year to get to Europe, which we will see what happens with all of the plague epidemic things going on worldwide.

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 do not want you to describe the technique of playing, I would rather be interested in your gaze, feelings, transmitted energy etc. Try to be a philosopher for a while.

ANSWER: In musical artistic form, the music I've made over the years is the ultimate expression of all that has influenced me in all ways. Every sound that has ever moved me, dark visions from arts and elsewhere that affected me, readings I'd done... personal life experiences and the feelings evoked are all part of what guide the mind and hands to create this stuff. There are traces of influence that find their way into the content either lyrically or musically that date back to when I was a young child even, up until things that may have taken my interest even in recent months.

When I was a young guy and I started with metal in the 1990s, Florida and your scene fascinated me. Actually, it still fascinates me. How does your scene, clubs, concerts, festivals work today? What about the fans? Are they buying T-shirts, CDs, and supporting bands?

ANSWER: There are not so many new bands that I feel are of great merit. Some really good ones emerge, but might drop off before reaching even a demo level. Many of the old guard are all the ones still doing anything... like MORBID ANGEL, MONSTROSITY, DIABOLIC,, SORCERER, CANNIBAL CORPSE, and DEICIDE or BRUTALITY even. And usually most of the bands only do a live gig as part of a tour that has a Tampa, FL date included. Local "pub" shows really struggle here now for new bands. New bands have the added burden of so much access to new music on internet that it is 100 or more times harder now to even make anyone aware of new releases since by just going on youtube or spotify/etc you can quickly sample EVERY new release from anywhere in the world EVERY day... not like in days gone where there was trading of tapes/cds, and word of mouth that brought new bands any attention. Now it is essentially just as possible for an underground garage band to put their music up through social media and youtube and quite possibly have as much chance of making an impact as some major label releases... or on the other hand for the same reasons just as much chance of getting buried by the 1000 per week new bands that emerge vying for the same space in the universe... This is not something isolated to the Tampa "scene", it is worldwide.

Thank you very much for the interview. I really appreciate you taking the time for our web-zine. I wish your whole band a lot of hell inspiration, sold out media and enthusiastic fans. Good luck in your personal life. I hope to see you live.

ANSWER: Thanks so much for the massive support!

Recenze/review - PERDITION TEMPLE - Sacraments of Descension (2020):

https://deadly-storm.blogspot.com/2020/04/recenzereview-perdition-temple.html

https://perditiontemple.bandcamp.com/album/sacraments-of-descension
https://www.facebook.com/perditiontemple/
https://shop-hellsheadbangers.com/

http://perditiontemple.com/