Tag Archives: Death Metal

Music

Exinfernum: The Band From Hell

exfernium

New Jersey has never been a stranger to metal.

Classic bands such as Danzig, Overkill, Ripping Corpse, Whiplash and Symphony X have all come from there. The state still has its fair share of greats today including newcomers Exinfernum. In this interview, members James and Vinny talk about the band as well as some other fun topics.

How would you describe your band’s sound?

Vinny: The way I see it, we take inspiration from different forms of dark music. This includes black metal, darker death metal bands and old goth music – it all inspires us. The only term I think can describe our band is dark metal.

James: Essentially we just play really dark metal music and some of it verges on death or black metal. Metal-Archives.com even calls us blackened death metal. The sub-genre of metal we play isn’t as important to us as it would be for other bands. Really, we are just looking to make some dark, heavy music

Why did you choose the name Exinfernum and what does it mean?

Vinny: The name means “from Hell” in Latin. I was sitting in the dark one day, writing riffs and the name just hit me out of nowhere. It seemed to be a perfect fit for the music I was writing. It was also one of the few cool sounding names that wasn’t really taken.

I understand you used to be the old-school death metal band Gorematory. What made you decide to change to this new style and was it hard at first?

Vinny: Originally, Gorematory split up in November 2011 after opening for Entombed. We tried to bring the band back a few times but it didn’t work out. We decided to change the bands style. Since we went in such a new direction, the name (Gorematory) didn’t fit anymore. Our lyrics went from being gore and horror themed to more dark and spiritual. Due to these changes we put Gorematory to bed and Exinfernum was born.

James: We had alot of bad luck with the band. We started to feel the name Gorematory was cursed. This was around late 2014. We decided we were going to start 2015 with a clean slate. I also felt our style grew a little.

Vinny: To this day I am still a very big horror fan, but I needed to write about more things that are personal to me. At that point I started getting more into the left hand path.I started reading a lot more books and looking into different things. What I wanted to do was say these things but in a form of music. I guess you can say it’s something that feels more natural and personal to us. It’s more real then what Gorematory was.

Any new releases on the horizon? If so can you tell us about them.

Vinny: For the rest of this year we will continue to promote our album “The Gutting of God.” In the middle of next year we are going to start working on our second full length.

James: We have some rough song ideas (maybe around four). Cereberus, our drummer is also working on a few. Some might not make it to the next album but whenever we feel like writing we write stuff. Nothing we wrote is really concrete at the moment.

How do you feel about the state of black metal today? Do you feel the original idea of black metal is gone or do you think it just took other forms?

Vinny: I personally feel metal needs to evolve to survive, this includes black metal. As much as I like the classic bands such as Darkthrone, Carpathian Forest, Gorgoroth and Dissection; in order for the music to continue it needs to evolve. Don’t get me wrong, I love bands that are throwbacks to the old style but it still needs to evolve.

James: My opinion is a little similar to his. I feel black metal fans today take themselves and the music way too fucking seriously. I think a lot of black metal bands get too into the ideology and the image and forget it’s fucking music.

Vinny: To me, ideology and music go hand in hand.

Music

Cannibal Corpse and Cattle Decapitation at The Chance Theater – 10/16/2015

Cannibal Corpse and Cattle Decapitation are two bands I always make the effort to see when they come around. When a show was announced featuring both bands at a venue near me,  I had no excuse not to go.

I went to pick up my buddy Jay (aka Keyboards) and we were off. After a ride that consisted of getting stuck in traffic and blasting Vomitory and early Samael, we arrived at “The Chance Theater” in Poughkeepsie, NY and bought our tickets from Will of Necroptic Engorgement. Many friends were at the show (including people I had no idea liked death metal) and Jason Keyser from Origin.

Necroptic Engorgement

First up were local favorites Necroptic Engorgment. I’ve seen these guys open for many bands including Macabre, Dying Fetus, the previous time seeing Cannibal Corpse as well as previous times seeing Cattle Decapitation. They’re always fun and this time was no exception. They played greats such as “Born in the Morgue” and “Blow Torch Castration” as well as a new song called “Sandpaper Masturbation” (which is now one of my new favorites).

Soreption
https://youtu.be/6GTV3HwFRTQ

Out of the four bands, this was the only one I hadn’t seen before. I had never heard of this band before this tour was announced, but Jay’s friend Ralph told us they were “brutally good.”

Soreption is a Swedish technical death metal band. They were really heavy and had an awesome performance. Most modern tech-death bands tend to be forgettable song writers but this band was an exception as their songs tended to have more variety and didn’t sound too similar at all.

Cattle Decapitation 

I had seen these death-grind legends at the buildings upper venue “The Loft” two months ago with tech-death greats Beyond Creation. I was worried of their set here not being as good as that one since they weren’t headlining. The band ended up topping that set due to better sound. As always, their set was very energetic mostly due to Travis Ryan’s incredible stage presence.

Cannibal Corpse

https://youtu.be/KN8GUJmgfWY

Cannibal Corpse were the band that got me into death metal. Though I’ve explored the genre since then and found many hidden gems (such as Timeghoul), Cannibal is still a band I love.

What I noticed was their set was mostly later songs (except for “Stripped, Raped and Strangled”). I didn’t mind this as I enjoy all eras of the band, but there’s always the purists that only want the old material. Towards the end of the set they included more Chris Barnes era songs such as “I Cum Blood,” Skull Full of Maggots” and of course, “Hammer Smashed Face.”

The crowd was wild, the band had tons of energy with George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher twirling every chance he got as well as singing in a Broadway-esque voice between songs (not making this up). After the show, Jay and I got pics with his friends Ralph and Candy and we headed home after yet another kick-ass Cannibal Corpse show. This is my third time seeing both Corpse and Cattle but I know it wont be my last.

Music

Throwback Thursday: Digitech’s Death Metal Distortion Pedal

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Death metal front medium

If you ever needed to sound like Slayer on a budget, then DigiTech had exactly what you need with their Death Metal Distortion pedal.

Designed to boost your mids and cut the bass, this stomp box had some nice features as it had two inputs for going directly into a mixer or your amp to give you more control over your recording and live sound. Turn the level knob all the way up, and you not only got the full power of the Death Metal Distortion, you also challenged the windows of the building you were in. This thing was loud. However; the lows were too low at times even with the setting all the way up, making this not ideal for Stoner/Doom metal.

If you were into playing aggressive music like Thrash, Black or Death Metal, you were in luck as an extreme tone was waiting for you. Several settings that came with the manual were designed to help you get the most out of the angry box, but as always, they weren’t necessary for the player to use. The Death Metal Distortion ran on a 9-volt battery or a PS200R power supply.

As great as the smooth bite and overall sound of the pedal were, there were a few issues with the Death Metal Distortion. For one, while DigiTech claimed the battery would last up to 18 hours of continuous use, one would often lose power at around 8-12. A power supply was almost necessary out of fear of your sound going out in the middle of a gig or rehearsal. Also the pedal did not last very long. A little after a year or so, it would eventually not sound as beefy as it used to and if you didn’t have a soldering iron, it was time to take it down to your local music store to sell it for whatever you can get.

While it had its flaws, the Death Metal Distortion was the most extreme effect pedal you could get on a budget. The pedal would sell new (and still does) for around $50. A used one will go for about $20. While the pedal is no longer as popular as it once was, you can download the module on your Istomp if you have one, which may be the best way to go as the physical pedal is pretty hard to come by.

Music

Band of The Week: Kenneth Packard

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Prepare for some of the heaviest music you’ve never heard.

In the fall of 2011, Kenneth Packard walked into Kyle Wodzicki’s SUNY Oswego dorm room and proceeded to record his unique brand of Death Metal. Packard layed down bass and guitar tracks while Wodzicki would later program drums. Packard would record two tracks, “Equivocal” (above) and “Lay Dead” (below). The tracks are instrumental although vocals were originally planned.

“At the time I was playing with my friend Matt at home. I was up at school,” Packard said. “My friend Kyle Wodzicki had recording stuff in his room and I just approached him with recording the stuff that I had.  It was only for demo purposes but it sounded really good.”

The project Packard was working on eventually fell through and the recordings would fail to see the light of day until now.

The Bonesaw is proud to premiere these pieces of Packard’s legacy for your listening pleasure.