Devourment is an American death metal band from Dallas, Texas. Formed in 1995, the
band has split up and reformed three times and only one of the original members
remain. The current lineup is Mike Majewski, Ruben Rosas, Chris Andrews and
Eric Park. The band is currently signed to Relapse
Records, and were previously signed to Brutal Bands, United Guttural
and Corpse Gristle Records. Devourment has also had albums re-released by other
labels.
Since their foundation, the band released
a demo, Impaled, and an album, Molesting the
Decapitated, before disbanding due to the jailing of vocalist
Ruben Rosas. There was a brief reformation of the band during his
incarceration, which saw the initial release of compilation album 1.3.8., and a brief
reformation upon his release in 2002. The third reformation years later has
seen two re-releases of1.3.8,
two DVDs and two full length albums, Butcher the
Weak and Unleash the
Carnivore. Devourment is currently writing material for their
fourth album 'Conceive in Sewage' and will be released by Relapse Records.
Here i just get answer from Mike Majewski and i am very glad to find it. We talked some other topic and also about Devourment new album 'Conceive In Sewage'. I think all death freaks knows this band and can't wait to get their new album because the New album is very different like previously album....its mean they give fresh sound and mixing old school style too. Well.....i think you better read our new interview here now and don't forget to get their new Cd by Relapse Records.
John
Yoedi : Hi Mike, how are you there ? Pleased talking to you again and thanks
for your kind support for Busuk Webzine. This is twice, we did an interview but
first time it has been long time ago and I still used for Busuk Magazine not
Webzine like this time. And my friend Kieran James (Australia) and I share for
this blog. Well, what’s happening in the DEVOURMENT camp at the moment ?
Mike Majewski -
A lot at the moment, our new album is just days away from release now, we just
shot our first music video, and getting ready for some shows in the next few
months. Its been pretty hectic here.
JY
: First off, Many congrats for Devourment and will be releasing soon for new
full length album ‘Conceived In Sewage’ in February 19th,
2013 by Relapse Records. I bet lots of
death freaks can’t wait to get it. Also you guys must be really pleased and
although I know you have been working hard to have the album available all over
the world and it will be gonna sick album. How does it feel to finally
have this album done and released ?
MM-
It’s a big relief for it to finally be coming out. We put a lot of time and
work into making this album. We recorded it in June of 2012, and it doesn’t get
released until February 19th, so that’s over half a year we have to
wait, which was not easy. But its all coming together now, a lot of people are
excited about it, and its getting killer reviews from online magazines.
JY : Well, would you like to tell me a bit about recording for the new album ? And did everything go to plan ? I heard, You working together with Erik Rutan to recording this album…is it right or ?
MM- Yes, we flew to florida to record with Erik Rutan, and it was
a great experience for the band. All of the major stuff went to plan, but there
was some issues with getting the guitar and vocals sounding right. But Rutan is
a master so he figured out the issues and everything turned out great. Rutan
knows how to bring out the best in you and makes you give your best
performance, he is tough but fair!
JY
: Any new and different techniques you have approached this time ? And do you
think the new one is more ‘old school’ or ?
MM-
Yes for sure, we definitely thought mixing old school style with Devourment
would give it a fresh sound. We don’t want to repeat ourselves so it was important
for us to try some new things, change it up a little bit. To me, it has the
angry vibe of early 90’s death metal, which is still my favorite era for death
metal. I wanted the vocal arrangements and lyrics to be a throwback so to
speak, where you can actually understand a lot of the vocals and make it catchy
and fun to sing along with.
JY
: And how do you feel ‘Conceived In Sewage’ compares to your previous album
‘Unleash The Carnivore’ ?
MM-
The obvious difference is the production. We took some different approaches to
song writing, as far as expanding our style a bit, but I think the thing people
will notice right away is the vocal approach. I threw it back to more of the
approach that was on Butcher the Weak, as far as more varied vocals, some mid
range and even a few higher vocals. If I sang the same way I did on Unleash the
Carnivore, meaning all lo gurgles, it would have been very boring in my
opinion, it was important for me to show some range I think.
JY
: Would you like to describe your vocals style. If I am not wrong (or maybe I
am wrong because I only hear one song from youtube teaser lol) , your vocal
style a bit different for the new album not same like previous album....can’t
heard like pig snooring and deep guttural. What kind of vocals does you use ?
MM- Yeah for sure, If I burped out low gurgles and grunts every
second, it would have sounded just like Unleash the Carnivore and hundreds of
other slammy Brutal bands out there, so I tried to mix things up a bit, with
some more traditional death growls, and even some high screams in the right
places.
JY
: There are a host of special guest/session musician on the new album
‘Conceived In Sewage’. He is Travis Ryan from ‘Cattle Decapitation’. How did
this come about ?
MM-
We toured with Cattle Decapitation in 2010 and became good friends with those
guys. Also seeing Travis sing every night, I gained a massive amount of respect
for his vocal skill, he is one of the best in death metal in my opinion. When
they were recording their new album, Travis asked me to do some backups for one
of their songs, so right then I asked if he would do the same for us because we
would be recording soon and he agreed. He turned out some ultra sludgy guttural
lows for the song Fucked with Rats.
JY
: There was a four year gap between the release of ‘Unleash The
Carnivore’ to the release of the album ‘Conceived In Sewage’. How come it took
that long ? What did you do during this time ?
MM-
We don’t rush getting into a new album. We usually take a break after an album,
just live our lives and such, but eventually we get the itch and know its time
to start writing. We tweak the songs a lot and don’t try to rush to get them
done. We wont take that long for the next one I think though, we are already
talking about writing new songs.
JY
: I want to talking a bit about the lyrics, the lyrical themes of death metal
usually talking about mutilation,torture, rape and etc. Are there some sort of
concept story in the lyrics for Devourment new album ?
MM- Not really, its more of the same. Maybe a few new topics like
end of the world and apocalypse type stuff, but the themes are the same really.
I did try a different approach as far as writing lyrics though on this album.
Previous albums, its really tons of words all jumbled together. On Conceived in
Sewage, I wanted to let the vocals breathe more. Less is more kind of thing,
and make the lines more memorable, like old school death metal.
JY : And when you worked on the new material, were there any basics from ‘Conceived In Sewage’ that you wanted to retain or things you were looking to improve ?
MM- Yeah we just wanted to improve the overall songwriting and
make more death metal songs, instead of blast, slam, blast, slam over and over.
Its been done to death and its not interesting to us any more, we are trying to
write better quality music.
JY
: Toshihiro Egawa did the artwork. Was it painted out from specific ideas you
had or did you just leave it up to Toshihiro to come up with something ?
MM-
I gave him the concept and he just ran with it. I told him he had all the time
he needed to work on it so make it super detailed, and he sure did. The detail
is astounding on that art, I just love it.
JY
: You release fourth album to Relapse Records. As we know Relapse Records is
big Label with some sick roster such as : Abysmal Dawn, Brutal Truth, Dying
Fetus, Haemorrhage, Nekrophagist, Suffocation, and etc. Are you happy with that
label ? And how far are you into the contract your signed to Relapse Records ?
Is it only for one album release, as like what you did before to another
labels/records ?
MM-
Its great really, they are great as far as promoting an album and building
hype, so I’m excited that more people will know about our new album than
before, and hopefully build us a bigger fan base. To be a part of Relapse’
roster is definitely great for us, and should take us to a higher level for
sure. We signed for 1 album, with an option for a second, which essentially
means if they are happy with us and sales and shit, they would want to put out
another one. So far so good I think, I believe pre sales have been very good.
JY : Well, I want to talking a bit about your personally now. When do you started or choose to play metal music ? Which bands inspired you back in the day to start ?
MM-
Haha this will make me feel old. I was always drawn to rock and metal. My first
exposure to anything guitar driven was Van Halen. When I was a little kid, my
oldest sister had Van Halen 1 on cassette, and I was obsessed with it. Back
then it was pretty edgy, and I love the guitar work and screaming vocals. From
there it evolved into stuff like Twisted Sister, and other popular metal bands
of the day. When I got into high school I discovered Metallica and Megadeth,
and from there my tastes just got heavier and heavier. The first death metal
album I heard was Obituary’s Cause of Death. When I heard it at first, it was
kind of silly to me, the vocals didn’t make any sense to me, but one the music
clicked for me, so did the vocals, and I became obsessed with that album. So
much so I went and bought every death metal album I could find. The stuff like
Internal Bleeding, Cryptopsy and Mortal Decay got me into brutal death metal.
See Im an old fucken piece of shit haha.
JY
: You are the one of the founding members of Devourment and only original
member left. Started off playing bass, later did vocals for the original
recording of ‘Butcher The Weak’. What made you decide to do vocals until now ?
MM-
I wouldn’t say I am a founding member, but the original bassist for sure. Well
its pretty well known that we broke up shortly after Molesting came out. Then,
the band members mostly went their separate ways. Ruben and I always remained
close friends and always stayed in touch. He and I didn’t want the band to end
so we kept it going. When we started it back up, I was going to be on bass and
our original vocalist, Wayne Knupp was going to come back on vocals, but he
chose to back out due to some stuff in his personal life. At that point, I
decided to give the vocals a try because I understood how it needed to be done,
and after a lot of practice it ended up working out pretty good.
JY : All death freaks known, beside as vocalist of Devourment….you are also as artist for many underground album art covers and others merchandise. What do you enjoy the most – making the music or artworks ?
MM- That’s a tough question, really both. I have been into drawing
and music since I was very young, so to be able to be in a band that I love and
do artwork for other killer bands is pretty much a dream come true.
JY
: Would you like to tell us about what is gears do you use to records and do
you used the same amp/guitars and etc for live shows ?
MM-
Im probably the last person in the band to ask that question, I know I should
know but Im lazy when it comes to that shit, I have no idea. Ruben changes his
shit often enough to where I cant keep track. All I know if Eric has a Trick
drum kit.
JY
: And do you have any endorsement ? If so, please tell us ?
MM-
Eric is the only member of the band with endorsements, which I believe are
Trick Drums, Vic Firth sticks, and DB drum shoes. We all endorse beer though
haha
JY : Just a side question, What do you think about BUSUK WEBZINE (www.busukwebzine666.blogspot.com) ? In Busuk Webzine we are try to use two language ‘English language’ and ‘Indonesian Language’ and also try to update news everyday.
MM-
Looks killer man, any support for bands like this is essential!
JY
: How has the crowd creation been towards you so far, both on disc and live ?
How do you find the reaction from audience when you are playing live ? And
where was your best overall gigs so far ?
MM- Its pretty much always killer and violent haha. Our music is
just perfect for a live setting, its goovy and heavy, perfect mix for mosh
pits.
JY
: On a final note, Indonesian has a reputation as a country with a strong death
metal fan base. Lots of great bands have toured to Indonesia such as Disgorge,
Napalm Death, Suffocation, Dying Fetus, Misery Index, Kataklysm, Nile,
Psycroptic, Putrid Pile and etc. It would be great to see your band play in
Indonesia one day. Did you have ambitions to come here ?
MM- Yeah I am well aware of that and it is indeed on our list of
places to play, we want to very badly and have had a few offers, but the time
wasn’t right. Some day it will work, and we will definitely come and crush it
there!
JY
: Well, many thanks for your time and support. Best of luck with the new album
and also for Devourment. Is there anything else you’d like to add ?
MM-
Thanks again John! Conceived in Sewage comes out February 19th on
Relapse Records, order it you brutal fuckers!
(Interviewed
by John Yoedi, February 11, 2013)
Check their link here :
No comments:
Post a Comment