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Hey John! A lot of bands
back in the early days had problems with a seven inch label by the name of
Seraphic Decay, since your “Entrantment Of Evil” ep originally came out on
Seraphic could you tell us the problems, if any you experienced with them?
You want to know what
problems I had…it was a long time ago!. The problems were, he (label head)
didn’t organize things too well when pressing it, because he pressed our
stuff he also pressed Goreaphobia, Mortician, Derketa and whole bunch of
different releases. He bit off more than he could chew and he got all seven
inches out and he didn’t have the covers for them. He was selling the 7”s
without the covers just to get the orders out cause it went past the date
they were supposed to be out. Some people never got the covers for those 7”s
and I guess he wasn’t too organized as other people ordered stuff and never
got anything from him. Things were really confusing with the whole thing and
he basically he started ripping off the bands not giving them their copies
of the 7”s, I got a bunch of the copies without covers and stuff like that
you know. He didn’t send Derketa copies and Goreaphobia didn’t get many
copies and he was pressing up more copies than he was saying and it was all
and it was all fucked up…
How many do you think he
pressed up of yours?
It’s about a good 2000
maybe even 3000 he pressed, I don’t know it’s all up in the air. I know that
Relapse was distributing his stuff for awhile and I know they sold a
shitload of it, the first pressing was 1000 and I know there was a second
pressing because he had different colored vinyls and different colored
covers and stuff like…
Yeah my copy (of the vinyl)
had a pink w/ white swirl on it.
Yeah the Seraphic Decay
thing started off as a good idea but it worked out disastrous. So we decided
to go with Relapse for the (same) ep and have something reliable that people
are able to obtain you know.
Your first demo featured
members of Profanatica(R.I.P.), a fave band of mine what caused the split
and how were things with them in the band?
Okay first of all the only
thing we recorded with them was a promo/demo with 3 songs, it had
“Profanation”, “Holy Massacre” & “Third Of The Storms” by Hellhammer. It w as
cool I liked jamming with Paul and Bret and basically it just came down to
they wanted to be more black metal and use the face paint and use the
imagery thing instead of worrying more about the music. My concern was more
about the music and I wanted to play more brutal and aggressive and more
death metal with darker lyrics than just black metal so I basically pretty
much just split ways. I haven’t seen Paul Ledney for years but I seen Brett
a few years ago, the blonde guitar player he cool ya know, I haven’t seen
Aragon I guess he died about 2 years ago and I didn’t find out about that
until way afterwards.
Were things simpler in those days before you put an
album out or did things pick up and are better since then?
Well I mean it’s easier
maybe if you don’t have a record company business wise I mean. But I
wouldn’t say it’s more fun. I like what I’m doing now but even with the
problems we’ve had with record companies, it’s still the bottom line is I
like doing this music. It’s easier if you’re just playing local, but I like
to go out and playing shows other places and I don’t mind the difficulty or
extra effort.
You once were the co-runner of Elegy Distribution, why
did you stop it, lack of time?
The main reason why was
because I moved from New Jersey to Cleveland and we tried to work it with a
office out of New Jersey and a office out of Cleveland but it just wasn’t
gonna work out, we weren’t organized enough and I was too busy with the
band. I couldn’t find someone in Cleveland I felt confident enough to run it
with me cause I just moved out there, so I decided it was just best to let
Rob take care of the whole thing. It kinda sucks I like doing it and
everything but the main thing for me is playing music and writing music not
selling it. It was cool, it was basically just a way for me to get stuff for
cheaper, if I am buying a bunch of copies of stuff I can get it cheaper than
if I just buy one.
You and Rob obviously have
a close relationship he just released your live CD tell us about that?
Yeah well, the CD itself is
semi-live in the studio, I say semi-live cause we had to do overdubs and we
had a bass player at the time didn’t know all of the songs so I had to do
overdubs on that. We were supposed to do a live show but the guy who was
supposed to do sound for it screwed it all up so we decided to do it in the
studio…(laughter…somebody was playing some gay horns like Dukes Of Hazard
over the P.A. so hence our laughter))…yeah we basically did it on Elegy one
because the dude is a good friend of mine and second I owed him money from
doing the whole Elegy thing and he said he would just do the CD thing with
us instead of just paying him back which is fine with me.
Why do they call from Elegy
the “Troll” and (they wiped real goats blood on a number of the CD’s) do you
think he will shed any tears over the loss of his pet goat?
Hahahaha…I don’t know why
they call the dude “Troll” I guess cause he is pretty short and looks funny
but um you know the name I know by is “Scrotum” because when he had his
Cheese Factory mag he was a total dick to most bands, the dude’s totally
cool and total metal. As far as his pet goat it sucks he’s gone but we had
to get the blood from somewhere.
Yeah I hear ya…What
originally caused your departure from Relapse?
Just that they were being
dicks to us pretty much they didn’t believe in the band after Craig Pillard
left and pretty much they didn’t want to believe in the band. Until we did
the “Unforsaken…” ep on Repulse than they realized were not over with or we
don’t suck anymore or whatever and they decided to work with us again. We
didn’t want to work with them at first but we worked with them because we
were still contractually bond to it. Repulse there was a mix up between them
and us and so Relapse ended up getting the rights to release the third and
final (in the contract) album, it sucked at the time the time because we
thought we were screwed ending up back on Relapse again but they ended up
getting their heads straight and ended up realizing things could work out
good for them and us.
How many LP’s did you
originally sign for?
We signed for 3 originally
so “Diabolical Conquest” is the last one.
So your free from the
contract now and look elsewhere?
Yeah but they are supposed
to give us another contract and it is supposed to be a good contract. The
way I look at it if they want to sign and keep us they will give us a good
contract and not try to pull one over on us. If they give us a contract and
it is crap there is no use in going with them again, but from what they say
they are going to give us a good contract. So we just hope it works out that
way cause if not we will just sign with someone else.
Have you had other labels
showing interest?
 There is interest from
other labels but nothing serious because I am not looking right now, because
for myself I would kind of like to continue working with Relapse cause
things are going good with this album and with another label we would be
going from the beginning and Relapse knows what we are going for and knows
what we are all about and working with a new label we would have to go
through all of the bullshit again trying to get everything under control it
is a big pain in the ass.
What was the reason for Craig Pillard leaving the
band?
Well it was just two egos,
me and him just clashed. The bottom line both of us are pretty stubborn I
wanted to keep the band brutal, fast and aggressive but slow stuff too. He
wanted to go totally doomy and we were just stubborn on both sides and
things ended up getting fucked up and he just ended up leaving.
You had a pretty cool
line-up for your promo ’96 tape, did you ask any of those people to join?
I didn’t ask any of them to
join for awhile the guitar player the dude from Deathrune Mike Saez he was
thinking about but it didn’t work out and as far as Mary from Prime Evil it
was just totally a help out thing, with her it she totally into doing
something cause she hadn’t done Prime Evil for so long so I thought it was a
good opportunity since she was so hungry to play. Then Will has Mortician
and stuff like that and he just wanted to help out cause we are friends and
we have done that in the past on our earlier demos and stuff in the past so
he just stepped up and did what he had to do.
Can you tell us about how things went in the studio
and so far on tour with Incantation’s new throat Daniel?
He did good in the studio
but as far as now in the band in the last couple months we have been having
some problems with him, unfortunately. The main problem is trying to get him
a green card cause he is a Mexican citizen and yeah that’s a real problem it
is really expensive.
Did he make here into
Canada with you?
No he couldn’t get into
Canada
no.
What! Whose doing the
vocals tonight then!?
It’s Tom Stevens he’s from
the band Nokturnel and Morpheus Descends (fine replacement and he did a
great job that night! -Dale) he’s definitely really good he is basically
finishing the tour up here (in Canada) because Daniel’s doing the
(Milwaukee) Metalfest. At this point I don’t know what Daniel’s definite
status is in the band because before we left on the tour for Canada we did
half the tour with him in the states but he wasn’t happy with certain
aspects with the band, so it’s really difficult for me to say. You’re really
going to have to talk to him about the situation so I don’t know what’s
going to happen. We don’t jam with him, and it’s hard dealing with somebody
form another country and immigration stuff…
Dude I am going through
that right now so I can be in the states with my fiancee!
You know what I’m talkin’
about!
I have to ask you this I
always see you in pics with Venom t-shirts on, they are my all-time fave
band so please give your opinions on them especially the early stuff!
Yeah Venom rules!! I don’t
it was great to see them at the Metalfest last year!. Incredible to see them
live, christ! It was so fun to see them play live. Yeah I love the old stuff
“Black Metal” and even up to “Possessed”. The new one is good, yeah really
good like good production Venom but it’s still really sick you know, it’s
still Venom I am really happy with it, Cronos didn’t let me down!. It’s good
to see they really got their shit together and put out some good stuff cause
for a while they weren’t doing too good unfortunately.
What kind of kid were you,
did you like school?
No! I thought school
sucked!. I don’t know school was like I was kinda on my own I was into metal
for a really long time, kinda young and into metal. There wasn’t many people
in my school into metal so it was just mostly chilling out with a couple of
my friends talking metal and playing metal (dude I feel your pain, I grew up
in a tiny isolated little town! -Dale). I started playing guitar around 15
yrs. old.
Did you ever get any
training?
I had some schooling I took
like a college course for some classical guitar thing. I don’t know if you
ever remember that band from New Jersey Hades and “Resisting Success”(I sure
do and don’t you love little nuggets of info. like this that pop up! -Dale)
while the guitar player from that band gave me lessons for about a half
year. It’s all basic stuff I didn’t really learn too much I mean the college
course I learned sight reading which was pretty cool you know I was doing
that while I was playing in a band called Revenant but I stopped doing that
cause I wanted to spend more time on the band instead of sight reading
classical songs that I really didn’t care about.
When did you first get into
metal and what were some of the first bands/zines that you were into?
Well I first got into metal
I guess I would say like ’75 with Kiss or something like that you know. I
guess that’s considered metal I mean it’s poser metal but it’s metal for
that time is was brutal. I was like 5 yrs. old or something like that. As
far as getting into the underground stuff like really early Metallica,
Mercyful Fate & Slayer stuff like that, Venom. Somewhere like ’82 or ‘83-ish
I don’t remember it was a long time ago so I don’t really remember. You know
as far as zines go I didn’t get into that part of it as far as getting
demos, tape trading and getting ‘zines I guess that was about ’86 and the
first mags I picked up were Total Thrash from Philly, Pennsylvania, there
was one from Japan called Deathrash Mayhem and there was one from Europe
called Morbid mag. Those were the first ones and there was one from Steve of
Impetigo called Splatter ‘zine and I just went and picked those were some of
the first ones I picked up. Then I just went sick and started writing to
everybody and every band, I just wanted to learn more. I knew all the bands
with albums out but there were all of these killer demo bands I just wanted
to get more knowledge you know.
That’s part of the reason I
put out my mag so I could trade for everybody else’s mag and read ‘em!. I
heard you had some fun touring through Mexico with their gov’t officials and
what not?
Yeah there’s a couple
things, you definitely did your homework. In Guadalajara they first wanted
to close down the show cause they had flyers all around town saying ‘Unholy
Satanic Death Metal’ and the cops came to the show and they were going to
shut it down but they worked it out that only people over 21 could go with
Id. and no one knew you had to have Id. to get into the club. So 6 or 7
hundred people outside the club literally and only 200 or so were allowed to
get into the club so the club promoter lost shitlaods of money and
everything and we were really bummin’ cause all of these people were there
and couldn’t get in.
Now I heard they were
claiming that you were having orgies and sacrifices at the show!?
Oh yeah what it was they
wanted 21 and over at the show because they said there was going to be
satanic orgies and goat sacrifices and something like and I am like that is
cool and everything but that’s too bad cause it’s not the case you know it
would be pretty fun!. There’s one other show there (in Mexico) that the day
of the show they decided to tax the club promoter after he had all the money
from the night they taxed him like six hundred dollars!. So when it came
time to pay us he had no money left, people were lined up out in the street
and they made up this new tax the out in the street tax. Unfortunately
Mexico is corrupt I mean I like playing down there and I like the people but
their government kinda sucks.
The scene is good there I
hear!?
Oh yeah they are totally
sick, they’re totally into it and hungry for it, they totally appreciate the
bands that come down. It’s a good thing to play in front of those totally
die hard fans you know.
Getting back to tour
stories I heard you had a bit of fun in Columbia as well?
Columbia
was interesting, Columbia was a good scene. One thing was we were traveling
through the windy mountain roads there and the roads there are really thin.
When you are climbing the mountain it drops off at the end of the road so if
you go off the road you fall off of the mountain. It’s crazy when there is a
bus and truck come side by side it’s like wholly shit were going to fly off
the edge and shit. We had some fucked up shit like this one truck was coming
up the other side of the road and there was a thing of Coke bottles, they
were carrying coke bottles and one flew out and shattered right in front of
us and it almost hit the window it would have shattered and hit us so it was
kinda fucked up. Yeah it’s kinda weird cause they have all of the Guerilla
warfare up in the mountains and they had these checks with guys with guns
looking for weapons.
The album marks the best
production for Incantation in my opinion, are you happy with it and how was
the recording process?
It was kick ass!. The dude
who engineered it Bill Korecky and helped produce it he is totally metal and
he knew what we were looking for. He knew we wanted good production but
wanted it raw and heavy at the same time. He was good to work with he wasn’t
a jackass and he wanted something that people were going to like and that
the record company was going to like. Most importantly it came out how we
wanted it, I would say it came like 90% exactly how we wanted it to as far
as production wise goes, so we’re happy with it. We’re not a band that wants
something too polished and clean, we want that rough edge to it it’s just
cause that’s what we are. At same time you can hear the instruments, you can
hear the bass, the guitars, the drums and everything. It’s clearer but
brutal!.
Have you found it difficult taking over the lyrical
reigns since Craig left the band?
It was a pain in the ass at
first, I didn’t wanna do it, but I just focused myself into it. It’s not
impossible to do, it’s just something I never really thought about doing or
cared about doing so you know it w as
cool, it was good.
What do you
do in your spare time away from the band?
I just like to go to shows
and hang out and have as much sex as possible…(pause)…with chicks of course
or goats.
I imagine you do a lot of
reading on the road, what are some ‘zines and novels you have read lately?
I don’t read a lot on the
road, I read some magazines and stuff usually just whatever magazines I get
on the road. I just really don’t. I usually end up driving too much, I
either drive or sleep or play metal that’s pretty much most of time.
Oh I didn’t know you did
the driving on tour!?
Yeah I do most of the
driving, unfortunately. I mean though it gives me a lot of time to listen to
stuff and I get to listen to a lot of metal so that’s cool, too.
Do people you see on tour
hand you a lot of demos to check out?
We get a good amount. It’s
cool. That’s one good thing about being on the road I get hear a lot of new
bands. Either we play with some cool bands, or we get demos. I mean, lots of
times you get really shitty stuff bands that suck. But, a lot of times you
get some really good stuff and find out about a lot of new kick ass bands
like from San Antonio
there is this band called Thornspawn, they’re kinda a more black metallish
type band more in the vein of Mayhem or something like that but they are
really good. A band from Florida called Diabolic which is really good, also
another band Burning Inside which I like a lot. There’s another band from
California called Infamy (this band kills -Dale) but I heard one of
their members died so they are probably not going to continue. Not a new
band but a band that doesn’t get a lot of respect cause of their name that
is really good is Corpse Vomit (Gods! -Dale), they are really good band but
people don’t give them a chance because of their name but I think they are a
great band. They are one of the best underground bands out there excellent
live really brutal and sick.
Do you usually come up with
a basic concept for the cover art and let the artist go from there cause you
have had some of the best covers on your albums!?
Yeah, I basically gave the
idea to the artist who did the artwork for “…Golgotha” & “Mortal Throne…”
and it came out looking really twisted and sick. It’s original looking, you
know. It looks sick and warped and it’s not trendy, you know.
What do you know about
Canada as a country?
I know you have Poutine’s
(a dish of french fries smothered in gravy and thick mozza cheese churds,
fucking awesome stuff! Damn I miss those… -Dale) up here which I like!!.
There’s Bob and Doug McKenzie “It’s cool, eh!”
Yeah haha “You hoser!!”…(laughter
all around)
I don’t know. What do I
know about Canada? I know it snows a lot!. It’s cool we have a lot of good
friends up here and we have a good time when we are up here and everything.
I hope we can come up here again sometime time and play for all of the sick
metal mutants!.
Give me some thoughts on the Canadian scene past and
present?
In the past I’ve been a fan
of the Canadian scene since about 1986 when I started getting into the
underground there was some cool bands from the Montreal area, one of them
was called Cremains and one was called Damnation (cool I hearing remember
t hem! -Dale) then stuff like D.B.C., Voivod
and I was into Infernal Majesty of course. I like Blasphemy,
I mean they’ve always had some sick underground bands and you know the
scene’s good. The
scene everywhere we go here seems to be good. I mean, there is always
at least a reasonable amount
of people. I mean, it is never under a hundred people so that’s
cool, as long as it’s not like 20 or something we’re happy and people here
usually go pretty sick and stuff.
Okay John bro thankx for the interview! Fave food and
final comments?
While one thing I like is
that Poutine up here and also Springfields cashew chicken it’s special to
Springfield
you can’t get cashew chicken anywhere else like that except in Springfield.
Cool, thanks for the interview, dude.
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