Interview with black death metal band from United Kingdom - PURGATORIAL.
Answered Kris Mayers (vocals, guitars, bass), thank you!
Recenze/review - PURGATORIAL - Fading Whispers of Voidbound Souls (2024):
Ave PURGATORIAL! I'm listening to your new release "Fading Whispers of Voidbound Souls" right now and I'm thinking that this is what the music they will play at the end of the world will sound like. I think you've done a really masterful job. What are your feelings about the new album? Have you gotten any feedback from fans yet? Have you played the new songs live yet? And how do they work?
Thank you so much for your kind words. It’s great to hear you think it sounds like the end of the world, because that’s exactly what I was going for! I’m quite proud of this album, it is the first collection of music I have produced myself and professionally released so to hear people enjoying it really means a lot to me. Plenty of friends and fans have expressed their liking to it and it leaves me speechless each time. I wasn't expecting many people to get in touch and tell me that. I don’t have people to play these songs with live for the moment, but I have played along to them with my friends Ryan and James in a practice room before. I have ideas for potential live shows, but I am just keeping them secret for now. I’m not sure if/when they’ll be.
How do you actually create new songs for PURGATORIAL? Are you a traditional band that locks yourself in a rehearsal room and composes there or do you use the internet, which is so popular nowadays, and email ideas to each other? I'm interested in the creative process itself.
I’m a little bit precious with music. I write all the music myself and then hire my friend Neil to help out with the drums. Neil does amazing work with Blackbraid and as soon as I heard that band I just knew I had to work with him. He’s also an amazing guy and we get on really well. If we lived closer this would definitely be a 2-man project officially. I’ve tried doing things the traditional band way but it never works out. It probably makes me look like I have a huge ego but I definitely don’t, I just know what I want.
Lyrics are a separate chapter in PURGATORIAL. What are they about on the new album and where did you get the inspiration for them? On "Fading Whispers of Voidbound Souls" they fit the music perfectly. What came first, the music or the lyrics?
The lyrics are mostly me venting my frustration at the things going on in the world. I think some of them are obvious and some of them are not. I have a lot of anger and sadness surrounding the wars currently going on and I blame our political leaders entirely for allowing it all. A few of the songs have personal themes though. For example, “Pelagic” touches on how uneasy open water makes me. Even just watching it on a screen makes me feel anxious and panicked. I put myself through hell a little when I was gathering the whale click samples at the end of that song - I had to watch videos of sperm whales approaching divers to understand what it would sound like and it made me pretty uncomfortable the whole time.
I have to admit that the cover for "Fading Whispers of Voidbound Souls" is excellent - it fits the music perfectly! It's mysterious, mysterious, sad. How did you choose the cover and why did you choose Tryfar? Did you hear new songs beforehand for inspiration?
I have to give most of the credit for this to Mauro who runs These Hands Melt and Tryfar who regularly works with the label, as he did a brilliant job of the CD layout. I originally had a cool bit of artwork made up by somebody else, but it just didn’t feel right when I tried to use it as album art. I’ve archived it for now and plan to use it for merch instead, but this also made me unsure of what direction to go in for the front cover. Mauro reminded me of the cover for the final Altar of Plagues album and he was spot on with that idea. I did a lot of digging online and eventually found the perfect photo. It was taken by photographer Reynaldo Yodia, who is now a great friend of mine, along with his wife Tessa who is the model in the picture. I chose this picture because it fits the vibe I had set. It has a mysterious aura to it and also a bit of sadness, like you mentioned. It’s perfect and I’m glad I came across it.
The sound of the whole record is great. It's dark, cold and sharp at the same time. What studio did you record the album in? Did you as a band have a say in the final sound, the mastering?
You might be a little surprised to hear this, but it was all recorded in my study at home. Neil made the drums up at his place and did the mastering afterwards, but I mixed the whole thing on Reaper on my laptop. Very much a DIY album, just like Darkthrone did in the old days, except with a more modern approach. Even though it might sound a bit crude in some parts, I like it this way. I get full control over the sound and don’t have to argue with anyone about it. I think I will keep it like this for future releases too - it works very well for me and I saved a lot of money not having to hire out a studio. I have a newer, more powerful computer now too so the next album will definitely sound better!
The new album was released on Italian label These Hands Melt. Why did you choose this label and how satisfied are you with their work?
A few bands I know already used These Hands Melt for their releases so they came highly recommended. I like the aesthetic of their products and the fact that there are no elitist or sketchy ties - it’s just great music by great people. I didn’t honestly expect Mauro to be interested in Purgatorial as it’s a fair bit heavier than his usual roster, but my friend Lucia does graphic work for them and said I should show him. I did exactly that and here we are! They’re a great label - I’m impressed and appreciative of everything they’ve done. The release wouldn’t have been the same without their help.
The history of the band is not very long. How did the idea of playing death metal come about? Who was your role model? Please reminisce for us! If I'm not mistaken, PURGATORIAL was originally Kris Mayers' project. It was only after that that the others joined. Or am I wrong?
You’re right that Purgatorial is formed by me (Kris) but I’ve probably caused some confusion with the other members. Originally I was going to build up to 5 members (including myself) but it just hasn’t worked out this time around unfortunately. For now it’s going to be a solo project where I hire in help with drums and any other instrumentals I want but I’m too rubbish to perform. I have another project that I run called Eowa which focuses on a much more black metal sound but I was beginning to write songs that sounded a lot more in line with death metal, so I decided to keep them seperate. Eowa is going through a bit of a reset at the moment as I wasn’t fully satisfied with the album I released, so to clear my head a bit I formed Purgatorial to see if releasing these detuned death metal songs under a new name was worthwhile. It seems like it was a good idea, because now I have 2 extreme metal bands that I enjoy writing for in two seperate styles. My main role model is Gojira. Most of my guitar work is heavily inspired by Joe’s riffs. Purgatorial is not quite as progressive as them but I might get there one day. Other metal bands that helped me shape my sound includes Blood Incantation, Ulcerate, Knoll, Altarage, The Black Dahlia Murder, Abduction (UK) and Portal. I’m also a huge fan of Sleep Token and Nine Inch Nails - I’d love to get some elements like that into my music someday. Just maybe not the clean singing. Not yet anyway.
It's very obvious in your band how much you enjoy your music. Do you have a goal that you want to achieve? For some people it's a famous label, others want to play a big festival.
I think the ultimate goal for Purgatorial is to get as many people listening and work towards becoming a proper live act some day. I don’t know if that will ever happen, but if I keep trying then maybe it will. I’d love to be able to bypass the use of major labels too and have a big enough following to be more self-sufficient. When bands move to the bigger labels I find the quality of their music tends takes a dive eventually, and the focus on very average looking merch becomes their main priority. I really don’t want that - I think fans deserve better if they are sinking their hard-earned cash into something.
What's it like playing death metal in the UK? Do people come to your gigs? Do they support you, do they buy CDs? If you do an event, how many people come?
So far a few people that are local to me have expressed enthusiasm and are keen for me to get playing live. I’ve also sold a good amount of CDs from my batch of personal copies so it feels like the UK definitely has a liking towards death metal. I will be honest though, I am not very clued up on the underground death metal scene here. My previous focus was on the black metal scene, so I really need to do my homework…
Death/black metal is a tough hobby and an even tougher lifestyle. What does it mean to you? What do you enjoy most about it and how do you perceive it? How did you get into it?
Again, I’m probably going to surprise you a bit here - I love making and listen to black metal and death metal for sure, but I don’t really consider myself a “true” metal head in that respect. I’m not a fan of corpse paint, bullet belts, battle jackets and all of that jazz. It works for some people but it’s just not for me. I’ve been into heavy music since I was 14 and I started out with Lamb of God. Shortly after that I became obsessed with Slipknot for many years and they probably shaped my music taste the most. Joey Jordison made me love blast beats and fast drumming and I think that is why I ended up making the music that I do now. That combined with Paul Gray and Jim Root’s powerful but simple riffs. I was able to play along to their music in my early days of guitar since they weren’t overly technical. Because of Slipknot I discovered the likes of Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, Death and Mayhem which opened up a whole new can of worms. I’ve been enjoying a lot of different stuff recently though, just so extreme metal doesn’t burn me out.
I deliberately ask this question to all the bands so they can do a bit of promotion for the future. Please tell us what PURGATORIAL are planning in the near future? What can we look forward to?
To put it bluntly, more music! I don’t want to give away too much just in case I change my mind on how I want to do things but you can definitely expect new music in 2025. There might even be a cover or two that are close to completion. Who knows?
Thank you very much for the interview and I wish PURGATORIAL a lot of sold-out records and sold-out venues. May you have a good personal life as well. I'm looking forward to the next death/black metal apocalypse!
Thank you so much for having me and for all your kind words. It is very much appreciated. It was great answering these questions for you - I hope our paths cross again! 🙏
Recenze/review - PURGATORIAL - Fading Whispers of Voidbound Souls (2024):
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