NECROPHAGIST
...Only Ash Remains
By: Jason Sidote
Many underground metallers have been drooling for a new Necrophagist release since the jaw-dropping 'Onset Of Putrefaction.' RESOUND had a chance to talk to maniacal mastermind Muhammed Suicmez, who has raised the bar for technical death metal brilliance into the necrosphere, about the band's Relapse debut 'Epitaph.' Only ash remains!
RESOUND: 'Onset Of Putrefaction' was a spectacular album and many people were wondering how you could possibly top that, with 'Epitaph' you upped technical death metal to an unimaginable level, melding technical brilliance with catchy rhythm sections effortlessly. How is the writing process different than 'Onset...?' Is it more or less difficult dealing with a full band now?
Muhammed Suicmez: Thanks man, of course we think the same, there's been a huge step up from 'Onset Of Putrefaction' although the first album is considered a classic in newer death metal by the majority of people. The writing process has been a lot shorter than on 'Onset...' but that's the same with every band I guess. On the first album you record songs that have grown for a relatively big span of time... I composed for two years and the result is 'Epitaph.' It's not more difficult to deal with a full band; with 'Epitaph' it was like the members entering the band shortly before the recording process. The songs were 90 percent ready when Christian, Hannes and Stefan decided to follow the paths I was going to walk with Relapse, hail to them!!! The very last song on the album was composed in cooperation with Christian, our second guitarist though, it worked perfectly. I'm sure we'll do more songs together for the coming albums to have this diversity in it. But nobody needs to worry, Necrophagist will always uphold what they are known for. No wimp-out is to be expected.
The lyrics on your first album are pretty brutal and to the point, which are very reminiscent of Carcass, but the lyrics on 'Epitaph' seem to have more of a philosophical edge. Do you agree, and why the change?
I agree. See the lyrics on the first album have been very old, most of them even before the corresponding songs have been composed, so they are from a time when I thought they aren't that important, since I was convinced of Necrophagist is purely music and the lyrics are just an instrument to bring the vocals out there. Back then I was a huge Carcass fan and was looking any lyrical style at all. Again, it wasn't really important about what I was talking there. On the other hand I loved the anti-commercial vibe of it. See, people who saw the first artwork, read the titles and saw the logo never expected to get the quality of music inside. Maybe from a business point of view that's not smart but it was exciting and overall: can there be anything more underground? That all happened without real intention, it just happened. I was doing my own stuff and didn't care for the opinion of anyone.
Your first opus 'Onset Of Putrefaction' is going to be reissued soon, will there be anything different or bonus features that we can look forward to?
Oh definitely. You won't believe how much work was put in remixing the whole thing. We spent weeks to nail down the drums. We had our drummer record his whole drum kit in the studio piece by piece. And all the rest in the mix has been improved a lot. You definitely can make out more of the tracks from 1999, the crispness and clarity definitely adds to the whole thing. We once again trusted in the Iguana-Studios and Christoph Brandes to make it perfect as we did with 'Epitaph.' We're very happy with the result as you may have realized already. Furthermore we got a whole new artwork done by the same artist that did the front cover of 'Epitaph,' which turned out killer I'd say. And of course we have two bonus tracks from the 1995 demo, which most of the people do not know at all.
It may surprise many people that you are self-taught and not professionally trained, how long have you been playing guitar and composing music? Did you have any previous bands that you honed your shredding skills with?
I've been playing guitar since I started Necrophagist, that's been 12 years now. I never felt I had to play in another band than in Necrophagist. This is our vision and I'll do anything to get it out there. Will people understand and/or like it? Well that's another story...we hope it at least.
How was your time in America during your mini-tour and what did you think about Maryland Deathfest?
It was great. We've been welcomed by nice people, our friends that helped to put up the short tour. Had a great time altogether and finally I met people that I was talking to by e-mail and phone for a long time. The response was killer, I guess with having the false image back then of being a one-man project, people just went nuts to be able to watch us play. I think most of the people that showed up didn't ever believe they would see Necrophagist live...Maryland Deathfest was killer and one of our very best performances. Great time all around!
Seeing Necrophagist live was amazing, watching you play your guitar riffs / solos and doing vocals at the same time was unbelievable. Is it difficult for you to do this? How did you learn to do this considering you used to be a one-man project? Do you have any upcoming shows, festivals or tours planned?
I get asked that very often, but fortunately it's not hard for me at all. I guess some people are just better in multi-tasking then others, there's no big deal in it I'd say. You can always close up to somebody through practicing and hard work. We have been a full band almost throughout the history of the band, it's been just a coincidence that when I had to record 'Onset of Putrefaction' in 1999, I had no band mates around or people good enough and available in my area that I knew of. We definitely will play as many shows and tours as we can from early 2005 on.
NECROPHAGIST's website: www.necrophagist.de
|
|
|