LMZ-At the start of the band, did you have a good idea of what you would play, or how you would play your music?
We didn’t have anything in mind the first time we played together - we just wanted to see what happened. We were all fans of metal and Damian particularly liked death metal. During our first jam session, Damian made up the main riff in our song The Mystic and the rest was pretty much history. We wrote the entire demo within the next month and recorded it a few months after that. So I would say we didn’t exactly set out to start a death metal band but that is what happened.
LMZ-What bands infleunces you the most while developing you sound?
We are clearly big fans of early Swedish and American death metal bands like Dismember, Gorement, Death, Autopsy, etc. In the demo I think we focused a lot more on just playing death metal in this vein. During our writing for The Chills, we were much more open-minded in terms of incorporating influences and exploring less traditional territory. Matt in particular is a huge fan of thrash metal and I think that really comes through in our music. We also take influence from things like traditional metal, black metal, and punk. Basically, we write music that we like to hear and don’t worry about traditional death metal restraints. As we progress as a band over time, I think this will become even more evident.
LMZ-Your debut album, ''The Chills'' has been much praised. What are your thoughts on this?
We are very happy with the responses we have received from The Chills. People seem to really like it, which is an awesome feeling. Hopefully as more and more people hear the album we will continue to get a lot of positive feedback.
LMZ-Were you pleased by the results of the album? Did you think it needed some improvements?
We are incredibly proud of the product because we spent a shitload of time writing, perfecting, and recording it. So long that we drove Dark Descent a bit crazy I think haha. But the album turned out just the way we wanted it to. I don’t think any of us would change anything about the album. We are really happy with it.
LMZ-What do you pay importance to while writing a song?
When writing a song, we do our best to analyze every aspect of it. This is particularly true of songs on The Chills. We pay attention to structure, placement of leads and vocals, interplay between the two guitars and bass, the overall atmosphere of the song and the feelings it induces, the way each song fits in with the others, etc. We want to be proud of all of our songs and don’t want to release anything that we feel is of a lower quality.
LMZ-What do you think describes your style the best?
Our style could be described as thrashy, rotten death metal peppered with hints of melody and doom. Its funny to read different reviews and hear the various ways in which people describe our sound. If you put the different descriptions next to each other it will often sound like two drastically different bands are being described haha.
LMZ-What are your thought on the current death metal scene?
The current scene is interesting. There is clearly a resurgence of old-school type stuff, some of which is cool as hell and some of which is boring as shit. It has become a bit of a trend, but as long as the bands doing it are writing good songs, we support them. We are all fans of old metal and think the feeling one gets when listening to old school metal is something really special. Many death metal bands from the 90s and early 2000's are still going strong. And clearly there are still a ton of technical/brutal bands as well and so the scene is incredibly varied.
LMZ-Are you planning to enter the studio anytime soon?
I imagine we will probably start recording at some point later this year. But since we are spread out along the East Coast, the amount of time between beginning and finishing recording can be huge. As of now, we have been writing some material but it has been each person on his own. We have not gotten together to write as a band and have not yet planned when that will happen. It will likely be soon though.
LMZ-You have been quite busy with tours and shows. How does this feel?
Haha, well that isn’t true, we played a show a few months ago in Columbia, SC and we recently opened the Decibel Tour Charlotte date but these are the only shows we have had since 2010. We hope to tour more in the near future since we will likely live in much closer proximity to one another. We would also like to make it to Europe for a tour at some point. We were offered a spot on a European tour this summer which we will not be able to play, but hopefully we will get another opportunity soon.
LMZ-Any last words for your fans before we finish this interview?
Thanks so much for all the support!!! It means the world to us and keeps us going. Keep death alive.
For those who're interested (and how could you be not) in purchasing ''The Chills'', the album is available via Dark Descent Records.
Follow Horrendous on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/HorrendousDeathMetal
Dark Descent Records Official Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/DarkDescentRecords
Review of ''The Chills'': http://laceratedthrashmetal.blogspot.com/2012/03/horrendous-chills.html
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