Interview with death metal band from Chile - UTTERTOMB.
Answered Sebastián Salce (guitars, vocals), thank you!
Recenze/review - UTTERTOMB - Nebulas Of Self-Desecration (2024):
Ave UTTERTOMB! Greetings to Chile. I hope everything is fine with you. I was really looking forward to your new album „Nebulas Of Self-Desecration“, I have always had a lot of fun with previous EP and I was happy to come back to them. How did the new piece come about and why did it actually take so long?
SS: Thanks for the inquisition. Time has passed since we’ve released NoSD, and now that I’m answering these everything turned out to be interesting for us. Even though we don’t care about the results and feedback, it was revealing the reviews here and there. It took that long to be released because it’s the way that we do everything. We kept it step by step maturating and decomposing before it became something relevant to release.
I must say that the news literally cut me open. It is dense, massive, dark and at the same time cold as a corpse's hand. That's exactly how I like it! The mix is signed by Claudio Salinas. Did you record directly with him, or did you just mix the record? How did you feel about going to the studio and how did you manage to get such killer material?
SS: We have been friends with Claudio for so many years, so he knows everything about us pretty much. We know what to do at this point of our traveled path, so it was a natural situation to execute all the planification that we made this time. With Claudio we recorded only the strings and voices, the rest of the instruments were recorded at DM6 Studio. In the studio I have no nerves or anything bad, I feel comfortable doing that and as it is one of the most important things in my miserable life, I put everything of my energy and soul on it, to just desecrate my own work moments later. How it must be.
I always take the recordings as a whole and you underestimated not only the sound but also the cover. Stefan Todorović is a great painter. How did you get together and how did the packaging come about? Did you have any requirements, or did you choose from already prepared paintings? And how the cooperation went.
SS: I saw his work when I was looking for someone to do this endeavour. After so much effort and time invested on this, almost two years, we achieved what we wanted with him. It represents all what’s this record is all about, nothing is random on this record, but it was made through chaotic states enough to be real and not a plastic square of a work.
Texts are an integral part of the album. It states that you deal with death. So classic death metal themes. What are the lyrics to „Nebulas Of Self-Desecration“ about, who is their author? Where did you get your inspiration for?
SS: I’m in charge for everything. It’s a mixture of all what’s lurking in my mind, since the mental vision of everything around those tormented ideas that haunts me must be canalized somewhere. The lyrics fall upon the abyss from the concept of corruption of life, desecrating our own beliefs and secure valours, miserable fate, and the acceptance of our irrelevance as humans. How would a simple sack of flesh and bones think that we are important? I despise the elevation of mankind where they don’t belong.
And what about concerts? What about them in Chile? Do fans go to concerts or do they just sit in front of the internet? I need a club, beer, girls!
SS: We have a strong metal culture, every week there’s some international show or local show of many styles, be it on Santiago or elsewhere through the longest country in the world. There’s a bit of everything on the shows, guys fighting, paying attention to the bands, drinking or wasting time and air on the venues. But I can say that the intensity and tension is always there, and anything could happen. Gotta have eyes on your back…Be aware or be dead!
And what about the underground scene in your country in general? Does it live in Chile? Are you from Santiago, it's a big city, do you meet somewhere for death metal? If I visited the city, where should I go to the concert? And what about the fans? Do bands support?
SS: In Santiago there’s many scenes praying and living their own way, call it Thrash, Punk, Black, etc. Most of the biggest concerts are in the center of Santiago, but you can find on the outside or near there many other places to visit. If you go to take a quick walk on the streets, you can find from a kid to an old man with Metal shirts, from Iron Maiden for example to a bum with a Voivod shirt. The underground is more than alive, there’s so many things happening that I’m not able to know all of them. Even though it could sound interesting, and the level of the Metal bands is increasing year by year, there’s still just a couple of bands that keep pushing the boundaries and making things out of the copycat comfort.
Do you have any dreams with the band? In the underground you have a good name, but you want to move somewhere higher? I mean, are you attracted to a tour with a big name, to play at a big festival, to release another record at a well-known label? What dreams and vision do UTTERTOMB have?
SS: To get deeper on the foremost perdition place that we can. I don’t care playing live unless somebody is interesting and offering us something worth our attention. We are not doing this for anyone else but ourselves, and that will keep us loyal to us. There’s no point or objective for the rest. If a tour group or festival needs us, then it’s ok, but we are not going to pay to play or cry for an opportunity. We are focused on creating obscure music for our interests to be, nothing else. A new LP should fit our hunger now.
What does death metal mean to you? Why did you choose this style? How did you get to it and what kind of musicians were your role models when you started? Do you perceive death metal "only" as music or is it also a lifestyle for you? You can look at this page philosophically.
SS: To be honest, it’s just music, I’m not a preacher or something else. It’s a categorization of something bigger that’s into Metal, which probably is almost all about my life means to die for. I don’t consider Death Metal nothing but a key, a language that it’s natural to me and fits what my ideas and ambitions musically. It’s the perfect tongue for a depth context and contempt for us. When I was like 10 or something I’ve got a glimpse on Deicide and Cannibal Corpse through some friend’s relatives, and I hooked on that as a fly crawl into a carcass. After trying other instruments as a kid, I chose the guitar and got obsessed with it, playing almost all day at home. Of course, I enjoyed a lot of guitarists like Malmsteen, Azaghtoth, or Steve Vai for example. This last one has some classes on his page, but not just technical stuff or empty licks. He had a vision about what do you try to express, your mental vision and how to materialize things that cannot be expressed by simple words. Get deeper into the foremost limits of yourself, to find your voice. That lesson really had an impact on me as a novice, and I applied it on Uttertomb through Death Metal.
Do you have a band in your area that you would recommend to us? And what are people going to see when they are going to clubs in Chile?
SS: In my area I think there’s not something interesting that I can recall right now, but if we are talking about interesting Chilean releases that comes to my mind on the last year I can recommend Wrathprayer – Enkoimeterion, Unaussprechlichen Kulten – Haxan Sabaoth, Horrifying – Dreadful Parasomnia, Blood Oath – Lost in an Eternal Silence, Capilla Ardiente – Where Gods Live and Men Die, Hellavenger – The Primordial Fire. Get a glimpse on these ones! In the clubs you can find everything you want, but gotta know where are you standing and with who!
What can we look forward to from UTTERTOMB in the upcoming months? Aren't you going to release „ Nebulas Of Self-Desecration “ on vinyl also?
SS: Now I’m writing this, the vinyl and cd versions are sold out from our hands. It turned out to be a great pressing, so I’m satisfied with the result of the layout and formats. We played our first gig in 6 years at Destroying Santiago Fest along with Sextrash, Force of Darkness, Sacrocurse and many other bands. It was good, we don’t play regularly, but that festival was something special for us.
Thank you so much for the interview. I'm going to play the new „Nebulas Of Self-Desecration“ again. It's great! Good luck and I hope that we will meet somewhere at the concert and have a beer together!
SS: Thanks for the interest and questions. I’ll be waiting for that beer for sure!
Recenze/review - UTTERTOMB - Nebulas Of Self-Desecration (2024):
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