Interview with death metal band from Poland - ABOMINATED.
Answered Marc (guitars), thank you!
Recenze/review - ABOMINATED - Traumatic Putrefaction Abominated (2023):
Ave ABOMINATED! Greetings to the Polish underground. I hope everything is fine with you. It should be because this year you have released a debut full-length album in your band's career. I have to admit it has literally blown my mind. It is dark, energic and as if it cuts by the sharp edge of the knife. I can hear from the record you did a really good job and you added a big portion of the talent, too. How do you perceive the new album in comparison to the previous demo „Decomposed? Where did you want to move and in what are these records different?
Greetings Jakub! Our full length was planned since 2021, but we had to collect some new songs for it. We were playing a lot of rehearsals and few gigs to test new songs and to improve imprefections. We also changed a bit our sound, which was previously focused mostly on Boss HM-2 pedal. Now we wanted to sound more europeanl, not swedish in 100%.
And of course, demo was recorded just in beggining of our career, so our playing was a bit sloppy. That’s why we decided to make production of this demo a bit more like a garage/basement vibed. New recording was made in exactly same line-up and with same producer, but our equipment and our skills were better this time. Demo was catchy and had good songs, but tempo was kinda slow, so we decided to record them again. Many of death metal did this pattern. Overall we are very happy of our LP as well as about our demo. It was just next step for us. And for sure not the last one!
“Traumatic Putrefaction Abominated“ includes all attributes of good death metal. For me personally, it represents the record, which I really like to listen to. How did you produce it? How look the writing process of new material in the case of ABOMINATED?
Such an complement, thanks a lot! Writing new material was exactly same as old one, main writer of guitar riffs was me, Marc. I played a bunch of riffs in my bedroom and tried to combine them in one song. At the rehearsals we played those riffs toghether, drummer was adding his parts and after few tries we were skipping some parts or adding other ones. At Decomposed era all riffs were mine and all the lyrics were written by drummer – Ordynathor. On Traumatic Putrefaction Ordynathor added few of his guitar ideas – what a gifted guy, huh? – and Greg added lyrics to new songs. And about producing – it was exactly same as previous recording. Ordynathor (John) recorded drums, ZB recorded bass lines and I added guitars for left and right channel and later I added some floyd rose based solos in the center.
I found out that Paweł Sota is signed under the mix and mastering of the new record. I have to confirm that the sound is literally killing. It still makes me add volume to the player. Paweł has created a sound that is cruel, raw and at the same time dark and organic. How went the work with him and why did you choose him? In which studio did you record it? How did the recording process look like?
Oh yes, thats true and he did our both releases. So! Our choice was quite simple, because Paweł is our friend, that’s the reason number one. Reason number two was that he had an opportunity to use Chróst Studio, which was founded by Winicjusz Chróst from famous polish rock/blues band Breakout. This studio is equiped with analog pre-amps, consolletes and vintage microphones. We wanted to pay a tribute to the 90’s death metal sound, which is not that easy to achive nowadays, because most of studios use modern equipment. And I have to tell you, modern amplifiers, pre-amps etc, sound just like XXI century and we wanted to sound like pre - XXI century band. Of course new recording gear was also used, but it wasn’t main thing there. We hope that it is hearable here and also on Decomposed demo! And about recording process - studio was booked for four days. At first day we recorded drums, on second day bass guitar, third day guitars and last day was for vocals. After band’s job was done Sota was focusing hisfelf on mixing and mastering. He is talented producer, but whole idea of sound was done by the band. We just explained how we want it to be done and he did the rest of the post production magic.
An important part and a kind of extra bonus for fans today is the physical CD. You released the new album at CD through Godz's War productions, and it has a terrifying cover art. The author is Juanjo Castelano, whose work I admire very much. Why him? How did you get together and why did you choose this particular motif?
Yeah, Godz ov War together with Behind The Mountain released us on CD and Vinyl. But we also worked with Destruktion Records which released us on Cassette. This format is of course is dedicated to die-hard, old fashioned metal fans! We were looking for Dan Seagrave vibe for artwork and one day my friend Johannes Chn from Destruktion said „Hey, have you checked Juanjo’s artworks? He’s future Dan Seagrave“. And yeah... I checked them. His arts blew my mind. We wrote to Castelano, asked for price, send our music and lyrics and boom! Done! He said that his favourite album of all time is Left Hand Path and that he hears some Entombed influences in our music, so he did his job very fast and we all were very happy of results!
I have been wandering the underground for over thirty years and I still go to Poland for music with certainty. I think we have a similar nature and taste when it comes to metal. I like your bands a lot and I monitor your scene carefully. Maybe I envy you a little, because we only have a few death metal bands that are worth it. How do you explain that black and death metal are doing so well in your country? How do you perceive your scene, fans, labels?
Dude, I just don’t know, but big and recognisable bands from Poland are playing only black metal, rap or disco. Sometime death metal, but more modern or black-ended. Some people around the world say that we have this our... feeling to this music and you know what? I think it has roots in our ethnic music, polka beat, haha. I know that people in USA are crazy about it. And as a fan I think we have bunch of bands, but I also have to say that the best bands play more in Czech Republic than in Poland. You have better festivals for sure. And about labels, yea, we have underground and independent ones here, but still most famous ones are from western europe and USA for sure.
You play devastating death metal influenced by, among other things, the Swedish and British school. Today, the band can't avoid comparisons, but I would like to know how the idea to start ABOMINATED was born, who was and is your metal idol? Where do you want to move your band? Are you attracted to large foreign festivals, for example, are you willing to go on tour with a more famous band?
Comparing isn’t anything bad for us, because this music had it’s golden era about 30 years ago and we are under huge influence of those bands. At the very beggining our metal gods were youngsters from Nihilist for sure. I just can’t say how much we were listening to their demos. They were so raw, fast and brutal. We wanted to copy this atmosphere on our demo, but yeah, of course we werent recording it in Sunlight Studio Stockholm in 1988, but a bit later. We also realased that it’s not late 80’s or early 90’s anymore, so we kinda want to have our thing in this mocking/paying tribute to first era of death metal scene. We want to play local gigs in Poland with bands simmilar to us, like Chainsword, Clayirvoyance, Martyrdoom and many more, but besides it, we also want to play gigs in our neighbour contries like Czech, Germany, Lithuania, Slovakia and of coure, OF COURSE some open air festivals. Recording in studio is awesome, but we are all playiing our music at rehearsal place, because we want to play it live as good as we can. And about those more famous bands, it’s kinda tricky. If we will be more recognisable, yes, of course. But now I think that we have to work more on our reputation and beeing more visible.
When I started my website six years ago, I had a vision that I would try to support bands that are not so much popular, or they are lost in underground. To let the world knows about them. I think I'm doing quite well, at least according to the responses. How do you approach the promotion of your music? Do you rely upon the label or do you send the CDs for various reviews by yourself? For example, I buy albums that I really enjoy. What about you? Are you also fans who often support your colleagues? Do you go to concerts?
We trully apreciate your works and I also think that a lot of bands can be more recognisable, because people like you! About promotig Abominated we are more focused about how our labels work. They are sending our stuff to zins, websites etc. Tons of PR is also done by YouTube channels like Death Metal Promotion. And we try to do our job by posting stuff on band’s and private social media. We all are visiting local concerts of our friends, but nowadays metal has it’s boom on scene, really! A lot, a lot of concerts, sometime it’s hard to choose which one you want to visit. But yea, if we like music of local bands, then we go to gigs, buy merch etc!
On the one hand, today the new band has a lot of opportunities to make themselves more known, but on the other hand, there are a huge number of groups and the fans are getting lost in this big metal sea. A lot of people just download mp3s from the internet and instead of to visit the concert they prefer to spit poisonous saliva on Facebook. How do modern technologies affect you as ABOMINATED? What do you think about downloading music, google metalists, streaming music, etc.?
I like this question a lot, so! It’s easier to record music by yourself, do promotion basicly for free, music instruments are more reachable and we are not country from behind the irond curtain anymore. But I have to tell that metal music is not that mainstream popular like it used to be some time ago. I remember how much metalheads were in my primary school! Now I don’t see that much kids in Iron Maiden t-shirts. And I remember stories from older friends like on small concerts they were like 300-500 people in clubs! Now numbers are much, much smaller. We played with Nun Slaughter and Convulse and number of sold tickets was like 100-150 maybe. And downloading music. I remember how much old bootleg tapes I had when I was 14 year old kid. You know, all those Kreator, Sodom, Destruction and Slayer. Bands haven’t seen anny cent of it, but piracy was very popular in my country in 80s and 90s. It’s just like downloading mp3 files now. Google metalist are like dogs barking behid the cage, but when it comes to face to face confrontation they are just sniffing theirsellves and smiling. And streaming... You know. I discovered a ton of music because of YouTube and Spotify. When I enjoyed it I tried to buy at least CD or T-Shirt on concert to support those bands, streamin isn’t that bad, I use those services.
I like to ask the musicians what death metal means to them. How would they define it, whether it is more the philosophy and lifestyle thing for them or "just" relaxation? What does it mean for you? How do you perceive and experience it?
I just love this vibe and energy of classic death metal albums. And very often when I have a hard day or exhausting tasks to do, I just listen to Deicide or Cannibal Corpse and my good mood and positive energy are back, haha. This music just makes me feel good. I also like this vibe of scenic presence and artworks aesthetic in death metal. It is just outstanding!
Finally, a classic but important question. What is ABOMINATED planning in the upcoming months? Where can we see you at the stage and when will you visit the Czech and Slovak Republics again?
We will play some local gigs in our city – Warsaw and among the Poland, but we’ve sadly never been in Czech or Slovak Republics yet! Once I played on Deadly Storm Festival with my past band Incinerator, also oldschool death metal, but more in style of Florida. But hey! If any promoter would like to invite Abominated, we would love to play In Czech or Slovakia! All we need is gas money and some Kofola and Knedliky after show haha!
Thank you so much for the interview. I wish a lot of success to the new album and let the number of your fans expand as much as possible. I will look forward to seeing you somewhere live again. I wish you a lot of success both musically and personally. I'm going to push "Traumatic Putrefaction Abominated" into my head again!
Thank you very much for support and all kind words!
Keep supporting local scene and young metal bands!
If any fans would like to reach us, just write on FB fanpage or abominateddeath@gmail.com!
Cheeers!
Marc, Abominated
Recenze/review - ABOMINATED - Traumatic Putrefaction Abominated (2023):
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