Gortuary are a brutal death metal act from San Diego, Ca. Started in early 2006, San Diego brutal death metal band Gortuary have always had and maintained one goal since their inception, which was to play original music that mixed every element each member looked for in a death metal band. Playing in a garage doing cover songs of their earliest influences the band was formed by Andres Guzman (guitar), Josh Mauney (drums), and Jae Vizcaya (bass). Soon the three were quickly able to get a full line up with Glenn Davis (guitar), and Oscar Padilla (vocals). Since then all five quickly started writing music for the intention of being able to play as many shows as possible and getting their name out. Combining elements such as groove, technicality, and catchy lead work, these Californian natives have since found their sound after recording their debut album in late 2007 entitled “Manic Thoughts of Perverse Mutilation” (Sevared Records).
Having played many successful shows and festivals around the U.S., they garnished themselves the attention from fans and bands worldwide. In 2008, Gortuary have since shed their first singer and opted for a more brutal approach with deep guttural vocals. With that being said, the open position for a new singer was fulfilled by Nate Twyman. Finally having the vocal range desired by the rest of the group, the writing process began for their second album entitled “Awakening Pestilent Beings” (Sevared Records). The writing was now more mature and therefore had more elements of technical prowess as well as structure.
Having played many successful shows and festivals around the U.S., they garnished themselves the attention from fans and bands worldwide. In 2008, Gortuary have since shed their first singer and opted for a more brutal approach with deep guttural vocals. With that being said, the open position for a new singer was fulfilled by Nate Twyman. Finally having the vocal range desired by the rest of the group, the writing process began for their second album entitled “Awakening Pestilent Beings” (Sevared Records). The writing was now more mature and therefore had more elements of technical prowess as well as structure.
Andres ‘Lead Guitaris’ of Gortuary give us chance to do an interview and lets read our interview now …..check it out \m/
Hi There. Thanks first of all for agreeing to this interview. And I Hope you are well there. Kieran James (Australia) and I share for this blog. Anyway, How are things going at the moment for Gortuary ? And who will be answer for this interview ?
Andres: Hey no problem, thanks for showing interest in us. This is Andres (lead guitar), things are going very well here with Gortuary. The writing process for the third album is finished so now we are just rehearsing the songs in order to enter the studio this year..which is fucking frustrating because we love being in the recording studio with our good friend Jeff Forest so the earlier we finish rehearsing all the songs, the earlier we can record them. So it's a matter of patience.
JY : Can you give us a very brief history of the band so far? What is the current line up of the band?
Andres: Well, we started getting serious about playing music in 2006 but the majority of us have been playing music together since 2003. After solidifying the line up in 2006 we released our debut album in 2008. Then recruited a new singer and released our second album in 2010 where we now still have that same line up and will keep it that way.
Andres: We amicably parted ways with Oscar due to musical differences, thankfully we have known about Nate for a couple of years prior so when we found out he could do the type of vocal approach we wanted, it was obvious he would join in on vocals. Plus we always have been very adamant that if we for what ever reason had a line up change, the replacement would have to be a friend or some one we knew and not a stranger because of the certain brotherhood we all share. That is why Nate was an immediate choice and has also been very helpful with the direction of the band.
JY : How did the band name come about and does it have any particular meaning?
Andres: The name really is a combination of "gore" and "mortuary"..not much rocket science behind it. We were all very into the gore thing at the time and it just stuck. It actually was going to be a title song but since we dropped our old name "Masochist", we adopted Gortuary to be a band name instead of a song
JY : Lets talking about your albums. How would you compare ‘Awakening Pestilent Beings’ to ‘‘Manic Thoughts of Perverse Mutilation’ ?
Andres: The difference of both albums are night and day. We really rushed our debut since we were much younger and came in with a very unprofessional mentality and if we had just waited a little longer, it would have been five times as heavier than it is. With "Awakening Pestilent Beings" we found our sound that we have been crafting since many people complimented us on being one of the few bands these days that still play guitar solos, so with this album we were very happy with the outcome as it is also the first time we collaborated with producer/engineer Jeff Forest who really pushed us to do our best and in turn ended up being a dear friend to the band.
JY : The material on ‘Awakening Pestilent Beings’ sound really strong. How long have you been working on it ?
Andres: Lets see, I started writing material for "Awakening.." within months after "Manic.." came out. So i'd say the writing process started almost immediately but by this time we already had visioned what we needed to do in order to stand out more from the first album as well as the direction we were going to take.
JY : Both the cover artwork from Gortuary album was very amazing and very sick…I like it very much. Who was artist or came up with the concept, how many design did you have to wade through until you came to this one ?
Andres: The cover for "Manic.." had been done by GrinPiece from Greece. After seeing Inveracity's artwork for "Extermination.." i knew i wanted this dude to do our debut. As for "Awakening..", I had kept my eye on Tony Koehl's work for a few years and i knew immediately he was going to be able to catch the concept we were writing about with ease. Tony has also become a dear friend of the band so we will be working with him to work on our third album cover/designs. Both artists basically nailed our ideas in one take.
Andres: As funny as this may sound, Josh, Jae and myself actually started playing music together doing Metallica and Iron Maiden covers for many years until we decided to do our own shit and branch off from there. As far as death metal influences go, we all get influenced heavily by bands like Disgorge, Dying Fetus and Necrophagist, etc. If we didn't play brutal death metal, I'm sure we would be playing a Pantera-esque sounding band in front of bikers and toothless hippies.
JY : Would you say that it is important to you that you develop your own original sound rather than simply jumping on what other bands are doing and following the trends?
Andres: It is very important to try and stand out, after all you are your influences but it is important to add in your own touch and feel in order to add more characteristics and not be a total clone band.
JY : What about the lyrics, is there’s any significant concept this time around ?
Andres: We never really took the lyrics seriously at first (it is made obvious on our first album writing about retards at a Boston Market and shitting everywhere) but with our newest record we actually have a brand new concept completely different than we have ever done and will be taking the lyric writing very seriously. I took the chance of writing for one track ("Deities of Disease") since I have never done that before but it took so much out of me I said "fuck this" and will put this burden on the rest of the guys to write the rest of the albums lyrics.
JY : How big a role do the lyrics play for the band, and music ?
Andres: Now they will have a bigger role that is for sure. Time to put on our big boy pants in the lyric department..
Andres: The title of the song was chosen to also be the title of the record since it summed up the over all idea of the album. I'm sure we all have different tracks that we favor but I would say mine would be "Disembowelment By Regurgitation". Although my favorite that we had recorded was "Interlude" since it was our first time recording an instrumental with acoustic guitars and added improvisation.
JY : You signed with Sevared Records for both album, how did that deal come around ?
Andres: Barrett really liked our demo and was very enthusiastic in signing us so we went with him as he also has a very respectable distro.
JY : I believe Sevared Records is great Label and many killer band signed with this label. And they seem to have an excellent distribution system. Did you have many labels interested in you and what made choose to enter a contract with Sevared Records ? What kind of label would you consider signing with ?
Andres: Like I said before I knew Sevared has an excellent distro so it was a no brainer. I would like to consider signing with the label who signed Clay Aiken or Kenny G.
JY : And will you keep going to Sevared Records for releasing Gortuary next album ? Or you guys thinking about looking for another Records/Labels
Andres: We already have a deal set up with Fernando from Pathologically Explicit Recordings from Spain to release our third record. I really like Fern's label and I know he will work hard in getting our material spread around the globe.
Andres: Well San Diego has very limited brutal death metal bands in this so called "scene". We are all very good friends with the guys in Disgorge/To Violently Vomit. We rehearse in the same building as they do so sometimes we take turns seeing each other practice.
JY : What kits / equipment do you use to record and do you use the same amp/guitars, drums and etc for live shows ?
Andres: We all proudly finger the shit out of our Ibanez guitars and basses and we would not want it any other way. When it comes to recording, we use a combination of our equipment and Jeff Forest's equipment to make it sound a little more diverse than in a live setting.
JY : What are your thoughts on piracy ? Do download hurt the band or just the corporations ?
Andres: I personally don't give a shit about piracy, you cannot fight what is inevitable so I just tell myself that it is another weird way of supporting your music as people will go out of their way to use up space on their computers for your music.
JY : I was read from one blog about comment from NikFuck and he said like this : ‘Hey man this is Nik from Sikfuk. Just was informed that you have my new cd up for download on your blogspot site. I would appreciate it if you took it down asap ! I know almost all cds can be found for free download but myself and steve green of comatose music have invested a lot of time and money into releasing this cd and for you to posting it up for free not too fuckin cool with me. If you support the underground brutal death metal scene as your site looks like you do why the fuck are you giving away bands and labels music that they have invested much time and money on for free. Do me a favor and take shit down and support your fucking scene and buy a cd’. Well, I think what his said it’s correct and maybe if someone to post a few songs up to help promote, it that would be cool. So what do you think about this ?
JY : And also about pirated merchandise ? because I seen lots of fake t-shirt.
Andres: This...annoys the shit out of me and a lot of my peers will agree that not only does it tarnish your original designs, but it also have people profiting on something they have absolutely no rights to. It is one thing to ask permission from the band, but to try and make money on shitty design copies for more money than the original band is selling is just ridiculous.
JY : Did you know about brutal death metal bands from Indonesia ? It would be fuckin great to see you play live in Indonesia one day. Are there any plans to come over here ?
Andres: I absolutely love Jasad. Ferly and I correspond often and I would love to go destroy Indonesia in the near future. More or less after our third record is released.
JY :Do you listen to other genres of metal at all? If so, what artists/bands? And give us top ten brutal death metal albums in your favourite list ?
Andres: I have affinity for flamenco and spanish guitar music. If I'm not writing death metal material I am often writing my own music in that style.
My personal top 10 list would include:
1) Disgorge- Consume the Forsaken
2) Decrepit Birth- ...And time begins
3) Despondency- Revelation IV
4) Dying Fetus- Stop At Nothing
5) Necrophagist- Epitaph
6) Gorgasm- Masticate To Dominate
7) Defeated Sanity- Chapters of Repugnance
8) Insidious Decrepancy- The Inerrancy of Profanation
9) Inveracity- Extermination of Millions
10) Origin- Echoes of Decimation
Andres: After the third record gets released we have planned in going over seas to tour and support it.
JY : Well many thanks for taking the time to answer these questions . Do you have any last thoughts or message for Busuk webzine and also for our readers here ?
Andres: If you see us live don't be shy to buy us drinks during our show
Check their site by :
(Interviewed by : John Yoedi, January 21, 2012)
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