Interview with death metal band from Australia - CEMETERY URN.
Answered Andrew Gillon (Bass, Guitars, Songwriting), thank you!
Recenze/review - CEMETERY URN - Suffer the Fallen (2023):
Ave CEMETERY URN! Greetings to the underworld. I'm listening to your new album "Suffer the Fallen" and I have to say that it literally has a magical effect on me. It acts like some evil, ugly and dark mantra. How did the album come about and how do you feel about it? Have you ever played any songs live? What did the fans say about them and what is your feedback?
The songs were forged over a long period of time which involved changing a few band members, changing studio and multiple attempts at recording the material. The final production is a perfect representation of what i wanted. A couple of the older songs have been played live over the time but not fully writen versions. Most of the maniacs at our shows are so hammered i don’t think they even knew we were playing new songs!!! But there was some headbanging going on that night so the maniacs were definately getting into it!!!
Apart from CEMETERY URN, you also play in other bands (ABOMINATOR, ESKHATON, etc.). Who actually composes the music for CEMETERY URN? Is that Andrew? Is the approach and way of creating new songs for CEMETERY URN and other bands different?
I’m a founder of the band Abominator and am still active in that. I don’t play in any other bands. Our new drummer Brandon plays in Eskhaton. Chris Volcano, drummer from Abominator/Starfallen/Igvivamous is back working with us on vocals at the moment. I write all the music for Cemetery Urn. On this album, eventhough i had the beats planned out, i passed the finished songs onto Brandon, who worked with Volcano to finish the drum arrangement. So the difference on this album is that we had 2 drummers going over the final drum arrangements.
I really enjoy the sound of "Suffer the Fallen"! So much darkness, so much dirt, evil and cold! You recorded with Adam Calaitzis from Toyland Studio. That's new, previous albums were sound master someone else. Why the change? And how did the recording itself go? Did you talk a lot to the sound?
My last producer was loosing the essence of Cemetery Urn. I had an exact idea of what the production should sound like and Adam totally nailed it. Adams work flow is very fast and well suited to the extremities of our music. For the guitars It’s an old school recording approach. No amp isolation, you record right in front of the speaker box. So you get all the noise and feedback. The most important time for me is setting the guitar tone. After the guitars are set and tracked i’ll always be there but only contibute when called upon. I’m happy to leave it to the professionals.
The author of the cover is Mark Riddick. How did you cooperate and what is your motive? Mark is a great artist who can accurately express darkness. How did you choose the packaging and how did you get together?
Marks art style perfectly conveys the essence of Cemetery Urn. I made contact with Mark after the third self titled album for supplemental art pieces, as i already had the front cover piece. Now Mark Riddick is my primary artist. But it’s not the end of the story....It takes a talented graphic designer to put all this art together and thats where Hells Headbangers graphic design dept takes over.
Your band's description at the Encyclopedia Metallum says your lyrics are about Death, Blasphemy, Destruction. Where do you get inspiration for them? And who is the author?
The primary Author of the lyrics on SUFFER THE FALLEN was our guiarist Dan. Volcano is normally an amazingly prolific lyric writer, but only contributed 3 songs. I would add to that inspiration list... Murder, depraivity conspiracy and also some more obscure ideas that you wouldn’t know even if you read it. As an example on our previous album theres a song called TENDRILS OF DEFILEMENT which was writen about chemtrails. We have a song called THE SICKENING SECT on our third album written about the Westboro Baptist Church. So we mix it up. Dans always contributed to the lyrics, but really stepped up this time around.
In recent years, Australia has been full of great death metal bands. When I recently interviewed WEREWOLVES, ESKHATON, I wrote them that Australia is the promised land. I don't mean the area, but rather the number of great groups. How do you explain that? What is the your underground, what labels, fan support?
I’ve always thought that there great and crap bands in every scene, and there are a few good bands here, but they get drowned out the sheer amount of average and outright shit bands. Over a longer period of time there has been a great Metal tradition forged over here by some inspired induviduals/musicians. Some of these bands such as Corpse Molestation and Sadisik Execution could only have been created by the unique characters who can only be found in the Australian Metal scene. If the younger generation of musicians are introduced to the correct releases, metalcore and sludge will be long forgotten. One of the best new labels in Australia is United Force Productions, which is run by D. Bloodstorm the Vocalist from Bestial Warlust!!!
How are CEMETERY URN doing with concerts? I know that everything is mainly concentrated in big cities on the coast, but are you and the band planning any tours to introduce the new album? How are the shows going for you and what about the fans?
We’re starting back live in Feruary 2024. We don’t wan’t to play all the time with low quality bands. We want all the bands to be totally killer!!! It’s hard to co-ordinate as everyone is in a different cycle, writing or recording and so on. So we’re not going to be playing very often. I’m working on a tour next year for Europe so we’ll see how that goes. EU Van tours are not easy to arrange as a 5 piece.
I listen to "Suffer the Fallen" over and over again, and I feel like I'm locked somewhere deep underground. In an old moldy dungeon. The record is gloomy, it has a lot of black and doom moods. Do you have to be in a similar mood to play songs? Music is about passing on emotions. When you try together, for example, how do you get into similar states?
When we have a full band at full volume the song’s convey some very dark and cavernous fellings. The multilayer effect of dark harmonies with a touch of doom and blasts gives a lot of depth and contrast to the songwriting that paints a very dark soundscape. I play the music very often as it’s impossible to play extreme guitar without putting in the hours. So i don’t need to be in mood for practice, i just need to find some motivation!!! As a band you definatly hear and feel the difference when your nailing it.
I've always been fascinated by darkness and coldness on death metal. Cruelty. What does this style mean to you? Why did you choose death metal? How would you define him and how do you perceive him as a musician?
This style is open to whatever i feel like doing at the time i’m writing. I was trained by a jazz guitarist at a young age so i’m deeply aware of music theory and i’m able to apply any techniques i like in this style. I would say Death Metal has the biggest scope of writing possibilities of any Metal genre. I got into metal after i’d already been learning guitar for a while, which is probobly the opposite experience of many other players. So i’ve been a metal player for many years and it’s really just a natural metal progression to want to take the intrument to its extremes of darkness and intensity. Metal guitar is the most extreme form of guitar at any point in time, and Death Metal is the pinnacle of that.
A necessary question at the end. What are CEMETERY URN planning in the coming months? What can fans look forward to?
Look out for us playing live in support of the new album SUFFER THE FALLEN. Check out Hells Headbangers for the CD’s, Tapes, shirts and LP’s early in 2024. Australian maniacs can go to United Force Productions and Hells Headbangers for worldwide. Also i’ve been working on the web site which is online!!! www.cemeteryurn.com
Thank you very much for the interview. I'm going to play "Suffer the Fallen" again. It's dry and cold outside. Ideal weather for listening to CEMETERY URN! I wish the album the biggest sales and sold out concerts. I'll look forward to seeing you live. Good luck to you in private!
Cheers mate!!!
Metal on!!!
Recenze/review - CEMETERY URN - Suffer the Fallen (2023):
Recenze/review - CEMETERY URN - Cemetery Urn (2017):
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