There are musicians whose bands need no introduction. Duane Morris
playing for EMBALMER, DECREPIT, FROM THE DEPTHS, INCANTATION, NUN SLAUGHTER,
DEAD OF NIGHT, FUNERAL PYRE & SANCTORUM was involved in most of best Ohio’s
projects. This interview is a rare occasion to know a big part of death metal
history but also a chance to prepare for the coming of next heavy materials
that will be recorded with Duane’s part.
METAL SIDE: Do you remember the first brutal album you heard? How did you know death metal as a kind of music, in radio, hearing it at friend’s home or in another way?
DUANE : I suppose my answer would have to be Possessed’s
"Seven Churches". It was the most ‘brutal’ record of it’s time
anyway… Of course I was already listening to extreme music like Slayer,
Metallica, and Megadeth… but I’m not sure where you want to draw the line when
you say ‘brutal music’??? You mean like Cannibal Corpse ‘brutal’ or what?
Perhaps Death’s “Scream Bloody Gore” was it then, if you mean in a Death Metal sense… But looking back, “Seven Churches” was the
first album to completely blow my mind and leave me speechless! I’ll never forget the day I bought it… I purchased two classic records that day
(sometime in late ’85 or ’86). “Seven Churches” by Possessed and “Morbid Tales”
by Celtic Frost. I was drawn to the
upside down cross on the Possessed cover, and the obviously ‘evil’ symbol on
the cover of “Morbid Tales”. I’ll never
forget reading along with the Possessed lyrics and finding the line
"Devil's water starts to flood, God is slaughtered drink his blood".
That line really blew me away, as I’d never heard blasphemy taken to that
extreme! I remember thinking “How the fuck am I going to hide this record from
my mother?”. I was about 13 or 14 years old at the time, and my parents had
recently become born-again Christians! They wouldn’t even allow me to listen to
Motley Crue or Ozzy Osbourne let alone Possessed or Celtic Frost! I didn’t
really know anyone who was into brutal music back then, it was just me and a
few friends of mine… we would just buy whatever records had evil album covers!
Plus there were some college radio shows playing some thrash and early death
metal. That’s how I first heard about a lot of bands like Sodom for example.
METAL SIDE: If you had to choose few artists whose music was most
important for your development as a musician, whom would you mention? Does the
list of your favourite bands from the beginning of the 90’s differ very much
comparing to your current playlist?
DUANE: I'd have to say
that KREATOR had the biggest influence on me ever... Actually, It was my desire
to be like Mille Petrozza that inspired becoming a guitarist in the first
place! Before that I only played ‘air guitar’ to my Slayer, Megadeth, &
Metallica records, haha! I got my first
guitar in 1987, and that was a really significant year for thrash & the evolution death metal. Around that time I found out about the
underground trading scene and began to acquire even more influence from bands
such as Death, Necrophagia, Sodom, Celtic Frost, Sacrifice, Slaughter,
etc. Naturally, my interests kept
progressing with the evolution of the death metal movement, as I was a fiend
for anything extreme! By the beginning of the 90's my favorites became bands
like Entombed, Morbid Angel, Autopsy, Carcass, Grave, Immolation, Goreaphobia,
and Incantation to name a few.
Personally I think 1987-1992 were the best years for death metal!!!
After 1992 most of the death metal
bands started sounding the same (in my opinion). Throughout the 90’s a good
majority of death metal bands in the U.S. were clones of either Cannibal Corpse
or Suffocation. That stuff got old to
me really fast. It seems I was always more into European bands – My favorite eras
were always German thrash, and the late ‘80’s early ‘90s Swedish & Finnish
death metal. But after a while that even became rather boring with most bands
sounding like Entombed (although I prefer this much more than the Cannibal
Corpse/Suffocation wanna-be’s in the U.S.). Gradually, through the early 90’s
my.interests moved more towards the black metal movement. Bands like At The
Gates, Dissection, Darkthrone, Mayhem, and Emperor were most interesting to me.
I was really pleased to see bands going back to the old-school roots, and
bringing back the imagery! I was tired of everyone looking like the ‘kid next
door’. I was always intrigued by the evil imagery of my early influences like
Bathory, Celtic Frost, Possessed, and
Mercyful Fate for example, which is exactly why we chose to wear spikes and
paint in Decrepit. (We weren’t attempting to be a ‘black metal’ band, we did it
entirely because of our old school influences.
Our philosophy was that if we’re going to play dark, extreme, and ‘evil’
music, then it only makes sense try to present ourselves in a dark, extreme,
and evil manner!). Currently, my favorite bands include Dimmu Borgir, Sigh,
Dodheimsgard, Arcturus, Arch Enemy, The Haunted, and Sadistic Intent to name a
few... I still like a lot of different kinds of music, from classic/hard rock,
to thrash, and of course death and black metal. I’m just a bit more selective
with bands these days. I prefer bands that aren’t afraid to try something new
(without losing the extreme edge of course).
METAL SIDE: The first serious project you were involved in was
Embalmer. It was in 1991. Tell us something about the scene in those days. Do
you think that it was stronger than nowadays?
DUANE: I was in Embalmer from 1991-1992, and it was certainly the
first ‘serious project’ I was in. The only band I had before that was
“Mutilation” (inspired by the Death song of course!) who existed from 1988 to
1991. Mutilation never released anything officially, we just played a few shows
and made some rehearsal tapes (two guys
from Mutilation actually went on to form Decrepit while I was in Embalmer). The
first Embalmer demo came out in 1991, entitled “Into The Oven”. I played guitar for them, and we had a
killer bassist / vocalist named Toby Wulff. We were the first grind-core band
from our area, and by far the fastest band around, so we managed to gain a
following rather quickly. I was in
contact with Relapse Records, who was a rather new label at the time, and they
expressed interest in us early on. For one reason or another the band didn’t
actually get signed by Relapse until like 1993 or 1994, and by then Toby and I
had left the band. So most people in the death metal underground today are
probably unaware of the original line up, because a majority of them have only
heard the material that Relapse released. It’s a shame because I personally
favor the early stuff, mainly because of the unique and over the top vocals of
the original singer, Toby. The guy who sings on the later Embalmer stuff tried
to copy his style, but in my opinion he was not as good.
I definitely think the scene was much better back then, in more
ways than one. There were more people attending metal shows for one thing…
Attendance at an Embalmer show was always 200-300 people, and one particular
over 400 people showed up! Pretty good turn out for a local band with one
demo! There were also lot of good bands
coming out back then (as I said before 1987-1992 were the best years for death
metal). Another thing, back then there was a lot more people writing to one
another as penpals, trading dubbed tapes, etc. Now I think there’s a lot of
trendy crap out there and anyone can start a ‘distro’ or record label now, you
know? I guess it’s a good thing that people are active in the ‘underground’ but
it just doesn’t have the same vibe it did years ago. Too many crappy bands out
there flooding the market, in my opinion.
METAL SIDE: After Embalmer, there was Decrepit. You played in this
band over 5 years. Decrepit released two CDs (one with both demos and MCD
“Acrimonium”). You were pretty popular in the underground, but in my opinion
you could have done much more to promote your releases, so Decrepit could have
become much more influential band. Don’t you think that you lost the chance you
had to play more important role in the scene?
DUANE: Hmmm… Well I think DECREPIT is definately my absolute
favorite out of all the bands I’ve been in. I’m glad to hear you believe we had
that much potential! A surprising
number of people have referred to our 1993 demo, “Hymns of Grief and Pain”, as
a “classic” and perhaps “influential” release… I personally don’t think we were
doing anything overly original… We just combined the elements of our favorite
bands such as – Grave, Autopsy, Immolation…I think we actually realized our own
‘sound’ when we did “The Wake” 7”ep in 1994, and we were at our height shortly
afterwards with the “Acrimonium” material.
We do appreciate the comments we get from ‘die-hard’ fans of the first
demo none the less. The demo seemed to go over quite well (from ’93 to ’94 we spread 1500 copies). We
had great feedback from around the world, but sadly no label offered us a
decent record deal… So in 1995 a friend and I decided to release the demo along
with our 7”ep on CD format. At that
time I was really interested in starting my own record label, and since no
other labels offered Decrepit a deal, I decided to make it my first CD release.
Of course the distribution could have been better, but I’ve always had a one
man operation. I think I did a fairly good job distributing it through word of
mouth, but I should advertise in a bit more in magazines and stuff like that.
My main method of distribution has always been trading with other small labels
around the world. I suppose some more money invested in promotion could have
made us more well known or ‘influential’, but there’s no point in worrying
about that now…
METAL SIDE: As I said earlier, Decrepit released only two CDs. Not
too much. Why only two? Did you write more tracks that were never recorded?
DUANE: Well the first CD was just a our ’93 demo & our ’94 7”
pressed onto CD format. It was meant to be a limited edition demo CD, limited
to 1000 copies (we later pressed another 1000). During 1994 & 1995 I had
joined Incantation as their guitarist/vocalist (read more about that later) and
no new recordings were made in my absence. However, I continued to spread
Decrepit’s music like the plague - giving away demos & selling CDs while I
was on tour. When I returned to
Decrepit full time in 1995, we began to plan for a new recording. We only had
five new songs, and it took us a while to come up with some money to record
them. Another unexpected set-back was the departure of our guitarist Gene
Lambert. He decided to quit the band for reasons really unknown… He seemed to be going through a hard time in
his life, and wasn’t that happy in the band anymore. After he quit, I quickly
learned the songs on guitar, and we called Matt Sorg to fill the bass position
again. At that time he had started a new band of his own called From The
Depths, but he still agreed to play with us since he already knew most of the
songs (he filled my position while I was on tour with Incantation). Finally, in
1996 we went into the studio and recorded our five new songs and two cover
songs “Face fate” by Bloodfeast, and “Christ Passion” by Sodom (some of our
old-school favorites). We then began shopping around an ‘unofficial’ demo
mainly to record labels and close friends. We hoped this would gain label
interest, as we were very proud of the new material. Again we received much praise, but sadly no serious offers for a
record deal. Unfortunately, the band didn’t last much longer after this, we
began having many personal and musical differences. Some of our members were
getting more and more into black metal, and began writing more ‘melodic’ songs
- while others were more devoted to thee down-tuned ‘brutal’ death metal sound.
After the break up, Rob Molzan (vocals) and I both joined Sorg’s band From The
Depths, who were taking a more melodic approach. Chris Dora (drums) started a
new band called Bloodsick (who later transformed into the band we now know as
Soulless). Lead guitarist Tom Rojack was planning to start a new band of his
own, but he was having a lot of problems with drugs and alcohol… Less than a
year after we parted ways, he had an unfortunate accident that took his life.
He was drinking heavily, and fell down a flight of stairs at a friend’s
house. He split his head open at the
bottom of the stairs and pretty much bled to death. No one found him there
until the next day. He went into a coma, and died within 24 hours from
hemorrhaging of the brain. We were all pretty shook up about his death. After
the initial shock, we all decided to release the last demo officially, and
dedicate it to Rojack’s Memory. So
that’s the story with the “Acrimonium”
MCD, released in 1997. I think a lot of people weren’t aware that the band had
already been split up for over a year by the time this release came out.
You asked if Decrepit had written any tracks that were never
recorded…. Yes, there was one. I believe it is called “Last Dawn” and the music
was written entirely by Rojack. In 1998
the remaining four of us went to the studio and recorded the song. We had plans
to release a 7” in Tom’s memory, with his unreleased song on one side, and the
unreleased Sodom cover (from the
‘Acrimonium’ session) on the B side. To this day that release has yet to
happen, and I’ve recently come up with some new plans for it. The unreleased
Decrepit track will now be released as a split 7” with From The Depths. Matt Sorg (guitar) and Rob Newlin (drums)
were in a band with Rojack called Blood of Christ (before he joined Decrepit,
1992-1993). Coincidentally, there was one Blood of Christ song entitled
“Innermost Sanctuary” which was never recorded or released. From The Depths
decided to record that one also in honor of him. I’m finally releasing the two
songs on a split 7”ep, and it should be out sometime near the end of 2003.
METAL SIDE: Have you ever thought to reform Decrepit?
DUANE: I’ve thought about it on several occasions… I think we all
have. But realistically I don’t think it we could recapture what we once had.
We all have different musical ideas these days, plus we are each too dedicated
to the bands that we’ve established more recently. We have actually done a few
‘reunion’ shows… one in 1998 for Tom Rojack’s memorial show, and we also did a
few more ‘reunion’ shows just last year (for the fun of it). I really don’t
think we could ever reform on a permanent basis.
METAL SIDE: In 1994 you played in Funeral Pyre. Frankly, I have
never heard Funeral Pyre’s music. Tell us something about this project, who
created this band and what you played.
DUANE: Funeral Pyre was conjured in 1994 as a purely black metal
side project consisting of 3 Decrepit members. Tom, Gene, and I were getting
more and more into the black metal movement, so we decided to have a black
metal project of our own. I think it was kind of a joke at first, but gene and
Tom started to take it more seriously as time went on. We pretty much threw
together some simple riffs in a few days and then started playing some shows.
Tom (guitar) had recently started playing drums and he wanted a project he
could play drums for. I was getting bored of only playing bass in Decrepit, and
it gave me a chance to play guitar. So this not only gave us a chance to play
different instruments, but also a different style of music from what we were
playing in Decrepit. There were two Funeral Pyre demos recorded in 1994, and
distributed in only a few hundred copies. When Gene left Decrepit he re-formed
Funeral Pyre with a whole new line up. They recorded a third demo in 1996,
which was a lot more professionally recorded, and taken more seriously. It
was to be released as a MCD on Angel Dust Records (run by Rob Yench of Incantation)
but for one reason or another it never happened. I might decide to put it out
on Dismal Records in the future. I’m also planning on pressing the first two
demos on vinyl, in a very limited quantity, like 300 or so.
METAL SIDE: In the mid90-thies you played not only in Decrepit,
but in Incantation as well. It is definitely one of the best known and most
popular death metal bands of all times. How did you start cooperating with John
McEntee and why did this cooperation last only two years?
DUANE: Yes, Incantation is definitely the most popular of the
bands I have been in. I first met them when I was in EMBALMER, we did a few
shows together (when they were just a demo band). Then after the release of
“Onward to Golgotha” a good friend of mine named Brian Sekula started working
as their live soundman. At that time I was in Decrepit, and Brian was also our
sound guy. So because of this I got to know the Incantation guys a lot better.
Eventually they asked me if I wanted to come on tour with them to sell t-shirts
and help out as a roadie. Since they were one of my favorite bands of course I
agreed… plus it would be a good opportunity for me to promote my own band
(Decrepit). But just two short weeks before that tour began John called me and
asked if I could play guitar & sing for them because Craig Pillard had quit
the band! I was pretty shocked when I got the news, but of course I couldn’t
say “no”! So I figured out the songs
the best I could at home in Ohio for about a week, and then I went to New Jersey
to practice with the band for a few days. Surprisingly I learned all the
material in that very short time (it must have been because I was such a big
fan in the first place!) My time in the
band lasted only one year, and I spent most of the year touring in support of
the “Mortal Throne Of Nazarene” album. In the summer of ’94 we did a US tour
with Anal Cunt, Morpheus Descends, Afterlife, and Gutted. In the winter of ’94
we toured the states with Grave and Fear Of God. In January of ’95 we toured Mexico
with Immolation & Acid Bath. And in the summer of ’95 we toured the US
again, with Enslaved, Absu, and Kataklysm (along with some Mexican dates with
the mighty Rottrevore). It was a great experience touring with all these
excellent bands! I quit the band almost exactly one year after I joined. I will
keep my explanation brief… Basically I couldn’t get along with John McEntee. It
was HIS band & he made ALL of the decisions, which I didn’t always agree
with. After a while I became sick of the dictatorship, plus I was beginning to
miss playing with the guys in Decrepit. We got along much better… So I rejoined
Decrepit immediately after my last Incantation tour.
METAL SIDE: If McEntee asked you now to play with him again, would
you agree?
DUANE: I would probably agree to play with them on a temporary
basis… I’m not one to turn down the opportunity to tour or anything like that…
and I know they are always touring!
However, I would not agree to be a permanent member of the band, because
I already know that it wouldn’t work out!
METAL SIDE: In Europe, the mid-90thies weren’t a good time for
brutal death metal. Of course, die-hard fans were still listening to such form
of metal, but most people wanted to hear only black and doom metal. In the
United States death metal has always been stronger than black and doom, at
least this is my point of view. How can it be explained in your opinion?
DUANE: I think you are right about that… It seems that Death Metal
has always had a stronger following here than black and doom metal bands. It
seems the black metal bands were a lot bigger in Europe. But I must confess
that in the mid 90’s I was more interested in Black Metal bands from
Scandinavia rather than U.S. death metal bands. I just got tired of the death
metal scene personally – there were too many bands coming out that weren’t
doing anything original. Too many ‘new york death metal’ bands coming out,
cloning bands such as Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, and Incantation. That stuff
has always been big here, but I myself preferred more European interests. Of
course there were still great death metal bands coming from the U.S. that I
really liked, such as: Immolation, Sadistic Intent, Morbid Angel, and Autopsy
to name a few…
METAL SIDE: Your next project, after Decrepit, was From The
Depths. This time you played the music which had much more in common with black
metal. Why did you decide to play such stuff? Someone could accuse you that you
wanted to follow the trend. It wouldn’t be a fair accusation, but the question
remains.
DUANE: Well, I must admit that we were listening to a lot more
black metal type stuff at that time… But I think most of From The Depths’
influences came from thrash metal and Swedish death metal acts such as Entombed
and Dismember, as well as some more melodic stuff like At The Gates and
Dissection. We were progressing as musicians, and we wanted to do something
different and challenging, and obviously more in common with European bands. I
don’t think we were being ‘trendy’ at all, because that sort of thing was not
popular here in the states. We were one of the first U.S bands to begin playing
this style of music, and it wasn’t until a few years later that I would say the
melodic type stuff started to become a trend. We didn’t do it to gain any type of
popularity, we did it because we loved that style of music! Of course this is
my own opinion, call us trendy if you want but we were just playing the type of
music that we like!
METAL SIDE: From The Depths didn’t survive so long as Decrepit
did. Do you regret now that you didn’t decide to play longer?
DUANE : Yes, I wish From The Depths would have existed longer.
Between 1999-2000 we went though many line-up problems. Brian Boston
(keyboards) quit because he didn’t want to play in a metal band anymore (I
think he went into doing soundtrack recordings for horror movies or
something). His leaving the band was a
major turning point for us because he wrote 50% of the music. After his
departure we only had one primary song writer, Matt Sorg (guitar). So the newer
tracks started to become more guitar orientated (we never replaced Brian with a
new keyboardist). Some months later we lost one of our guitarists, and our
vocalist… I took over the guitar & vocal duties, and we hired a new bassist
to take my place (Wayne Richards of Soulless & NunSlaughter). The band was just starting to get noticed
with our third release entitled “Elysium”, and were starting to get a lot of
out of town shows and offers to do some tours. But unfortunately this line-up
didn’t last long because Rob Newlin (drums) also decided to quit the band to
become more of a ‘family man’. I guess he wasn’t interested in touring and
committing himself 100% to the
band. After Rob quit, Matt and I were
the only remaining members and we had some different opinions the music, and
about finding new members. So eventually we just decided to part ways. I think it’s really unfortunate because the
band could have done so much more!
METAL SIDE: You were a member of Sanctorum. What did you play and
who were the members of this project?
DUANE: Sanctorum was a band that one of my best friends played
drums for. They were the only band from our area do play melodic black/death
metal next to From The Depths. I played for them off and on, through out
1998-2000 (while I was still in From The Depths). First I played bass for them
for a while, just to help out, until they found a permanent bass player. Later
on down the road they fired their guitarist/vocalist and asked for my services
once again… I pretty much helped them out off and on, until the band decided to
split up in 2000. Two of the guys went on to join a death/doom band called
Somnus (perhaps you’ve heard of them - they have two albums out on Root Of All
Evil Records). The drummer went on to form a 100% black metal project called
Black Trinity, in the vein of Darkthrone, etc. I’ve recently talked the guys
into letting me release the Sanctorum CD “Gods Of Forever” on my label Dismal
Records. It was recorded in 1998, and never had a proper release. I plan to have
it out before the summer of 2003. It’s a great album in my opinion and will
appeal to fans of At The Gates, Dissection, In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, &
early Katatonia. It’s catchy, melodic,
and a little bit doomy at times. What did you think of the adv. CD-R that I
sent you?
METAL SIDE: It’s really good, one of the best US bands that play
in such style. I think that it is good decision to release this material now.
However, there is a band you play for that is much closer to me. Nun Slaughter
is a band that doesn’t need any additional descriptions. You became Nun
Slaughter’s member in 2001. Had you earlier an opportunity to play with them?
DUANE: Yes I joined NunSlaughter in January 2001. I had heard that
their guitarist Wayne Richards quit the band just after their European tour. I
ran into Jim Sadist at a local gig, and he asked me if I’d play for them. He
was convinced that I would be the perfect guy for the job. Jim and I have known
each other the late 80’s, so he of course knew that I was into the old-school
stuff, and I could relate NunSlaughter.
I’ve actually been a fan of the band since their beginning, in
1987. I never had any offers to join
them at an earlier date, probably because they knew I was already occupied with
other bands (through out most of the 90’s I was in at least one or often times
two bands at a time). NunSlaughter approached me at a good time - I was
completely available. It had been 8 months since the split up of From The
Depths and I was doing nothing at all.
METAL SIDE: Nun Slaughter is a very special band for many fans of
brutal and dark music in Poland. What is Nun Slaughter's position in US
underground? Most American young bands want to play the music inspired by
Floridian style from the early 90thies or gore/death metal. Such kind of brutal
music as Nun Slaughter plays is rather a rare thing. Does it mean that although
Nun Slaughter is a cult for many fans, it is not very influential band taking
into consideration that not too many musicians want to follow your path of death
metal?
DUANE: It’s great to hear we have some fans in Poland! Lately it
seems that we have a really good following here. Our music seems to appeal to
all different kinds of people into extreme music. When we play shows we always
have a really good attendance, and the fans really go crazy! Of course the
old-school death metal and thrash fanatics get into it, but we also seem to go
over well with certain hardcore punk, crust,
& grindcore kids as well. A lot of people in the black metal scene
also seem to be into NunSlaughter pretty heavily – must be because we are
Satanic! So our crowd is pretty diversified… You are right, not too many
musicians seem to follow our path of death metal… I guess most musicians
playing music now are much younger, with more modern influences…
METAL SIDE: When can we expect new Nun Slaughter’s recordings? Nun
Slaughter has always been one of the most uncompromising acts, I don’t think
that it will ever change, but I wonder whether you think about some small
changes, the evolution of your music?
DUANE: We have a new album recorded, simply entitled “Goat”. It
will be released hopefully this spring, if all goes well. Revenge Productions
will be doing the European release, and Metal War Productions will be releasing
it in the States. The album contains 10 brand new songs, as well as five songs
from the “Guts of Christ” demo (re-recorded). In my opinion it is the best
NunSlaughter release to date, and it definitely has the best sound quality. I
personally think this is a good thing, because our last couple of releases have
had considerably poor sound quality. Lately there’s been a lot of live albums
released and even a rehearsal double lp… so it’s about time we gave the fans
some music with a decent studio quality! The new songs may have evolved just a
tiny bit… Some of them are not quite as simple as the early NunSlaughter
material, but none of them are overly complex either. I think we’ve kept the
same NunSlaughter sound while adding a few subtle elements… I guess that’s for
the listener to decide! We’ve been doing our best to keep it true to the roots,
so hopefully no one will be disappointed!
METAL SIDE: The list of your projects doesn’t end when we speak
about Nun Slaughter. There is one more band – Dead Of Night – I should ask you
about. Tell us please who are other members and – that’s another traditional
question – what you play?
DUANE: Dead Of Night is basically a continuation of where we left
off with From The Depths. It’s melodic death thrash, but this time with no
keyboards. It’s a little more straight forward and thrashy. The members are
Matt Sorg -Guitar (ex-Blood Of Chirst, Decrepit, From the Depths), Wayne
Richards - Guitar (ex-NunSlaughter, From The Depths, & currently with
Soulless & All That Is Evil), Randy Scott – Bass (ex-Blood Of Christ,
Terror, Mutilation), Chris Dora – Drums (ex-Decrepit, and currently with
Soulless & All That Is Evil), and myself -
I do vocals only Dead Of Night.
We released a four song promo CD-R in 2001 and it seemed to impress a
lot of people. We were supposed to sign with Renegade Records/Season Of Mist…
but they fucked us over (long story). Some other labels have expressed
interest, but we haven’t received any serious offers (history seems to repeat
itself, doesn’t it?). We have an album’s worth of material (12 songs) and we
hope to record them all some day. I’ll probably put out an album on Dismal Rec.
if we do not get any reasonable offers from anyone else. Right now the band is
actually inactive, as everyone is concentrating more on their other projects.
Chris and Wayne have been really busy with Soulless, Matt has priorities
playing with Ringworm, and I’ve had my hands full with NunSlaughter. Hopefully one day we’ll pull it together and
record the album… In the mean time, I’m still circulating copies of the 2001
promo cd, so if anyone is interested please contact me…
METAL SIDE: Dead Of Night released one promo material. I heard
only positive things about this release. When do you want to record a
full-length? Do you think that it is better to wait for a good proposal from a
label which could promote your music very strongly or to release self-financed
CD and to work alone for better future of the band?
DUANE: I’m hoping we can get the album recorded before the end of
2003, but it’s hard to say. We have to
come up with some money for the studio (which is a problem right now), and
start rehearsing again. Like I said, I’ll probably just release it on Dismal,
since other labels haven’t come through with their promises. It’s probably
better that I release it anyways, since the band had been reduced to only a
‘project’ more recently. We probably wouldn’t be able to meet the demands of a
bigger record label, with all of our other priorities & commitments to our
other bands at this point.
METAL SIDE: I wonder whether there are other projects you are
going to form in the near future. If you have such plans, tell us something
about them. Is any kind of metal which you haven’t played yet although you
would like to do it?
DUANE: Believe it or not, I’d like to start a cover band! I love
playing cover songs, and I’m becoming less and less interested in playing in
‘original’ bands. I’ve been doing it for too long. I have a lot more fun
playing covers, and I’m tired of all the hassles and politics of being in a
‘serious’ band. I’d like to get some
guys together and play stuff like Kreator, Sodom, Destruction, (old) Metallica,
Exodus, Slayer, etc. That would be fucking great!
METAL SIDE: The bands you played in differ a lot. Could you choose
one of your acts whose music was most important for you, closest to your vision
how dark and brutal music should sound?
DUANE: I would definitely say Decrepit is the one. Although I like
all of my previous bands for different reasons, I think Decrepit was most fulfilling. From the Depths was the most challenging
(musically), but lacked the stage show and additude that Decrepit had.
Incantation on the other hand was
surely as brutal as Decrepit, but I think Incantation is perhaps more
monotonous. A lot of the songs sound the same. Decrepit had more diversity in
my opinion… I do like playing in NunSlaughter a lot, but it’s hard to compare a
band I’m currently playing with to one that is in the past…
METAL SIDE: You worked with few producers. Is it easy to find a good
studio and a man who could record brutal music professionally without the need
of paying the huge bills?
DUANE: I think we are very fortunate to have a few different
places to record locally, with engineers who know metal! Of course some studios
are more expensive than others… On the
more expensive side we have Mars Recording - The engineer (Bill Korecky) has quite a lot of experience with Metal
bands, as he’s recorded bands such as Integrity, Ringworm, Incantation,
Decrepit, and From The Depths to name a few.
There are cheaper options around though, smaller studios such as ‘spider
studio’ where the first Soulless CD and the Sanctorum CD were recorded.
NunSlaughter on the other hand, has been recording with a good friend of ours
named Brian. He does a great job for us at very little cost. We’ve recorded
some of our 7”s at a small studio in his house, but did the new album at a much
bigger studio called Beachwood (Brian works there, and it’s a lot bigger &
better than recording at his house).
METAL SIDE: You have been playing brutal music over 10 years, you
were a member of few projects so you know the scene very well. Does the
underground mean the same now what it meant in the early 90thies? Do you think
that people who are some how involved in the underground nowadays (being the
musicians, reviewers, label’s owners or simply fans) care of the scene as they
should?
DUANE: Yeah I don’t think it’s changed too much. There’s a lot of
new faces, and a lot of people who were in the scene 10 years ago are gone now…
Only other difference is that everything seems to be done via the internet now!
Remember when all we had to advertise were leaflets and ads in fanzines? Those
were the days… I think the ‘underground’ music scene still serves the same
purpose… I don’t think people involved now care any less than other people did
in the past… Everyone is different you know.
METAL SIDE: Ohio seems to be a state where traditional, old-school
death metal is strong as nowhere. Such bands like All That Is Evil, Spawn Of Satan,
Soulless, Nun Slaughter and your other projects are very close to the
traditions of the scene from the 80thies. What motivates the musicians from
Ohio to play such music?
DUANE: Well there are about a dozen individuals involved in all
the bands you mentioned above (a lot of the same members are shared between the
bands, as mentioned earlier in this interview). Most of us have been brought up listening first to thrash metal,
and then we’ve evolved with the death metal scene, so it’s only natural for our
influences to show through… We all still love the old-school shit and want to
keep it alive!
METAL SIDE: Do you know young, talented, brutal bands you could
recommend us, from Ohio and other states?
DUANE: I’d definitely recommend MANTICORE. They are a fairly new
black/death metal band from our area.
They play really fast and brutal music, perhaps in the vein of
Blasphemy, Beherit, etc. Their demo has
been released on LP/ CD (I believe Merciless / Breath of Night has released
it….) They have a full length album coming out
(I believe on War Hammer Records) watch out for it! Soulless has a new
album out now, and it’s a truly amazing thrash metal masterpiece! I highly recommend it! It is entitled
“Agony’s Lament” and is available on World Chaos Productions in Japan. I can’t
think of any other new bands to mention at the moment… Actually, most of the
bands around here seem to be breaking up these days… One “new” band that I
really like is Funebrarum from New Jersey. They sound exactly like the bands coming
from Sweden & Finland around 1989-1990 (i.e. Grave, Demigod, Disgrace,
Funebre, etc). Although they aren’t doing anything original or new, I fucking
love what they are doing! This is what I consider BRUTAL music!
METAL SIDE: Listening to the young bands, do you think that the
scene will survive and will never have the problems with the originality? What
do you think of their level?
DUANE: Well, as I said before I think there’s not too much
original music coming out anymore. Some bands, though they may not be original,
still grab my attention if they are doing something reminiscent of bands I
enjoy (Funebrarum - a perfect example).
Whether the underground is full of bands who are doing nothing new at all, the
scene still seems to go on no matter what! It seems there’s always people there
to support it…
METAL SIDE: Thanks for the answers. I hope that we will hear your
new recordings very soon!
DUANE: Thank you very much Damian for the interview! It’s been a
pleasure talking with you about so much of my past… If any readers are interested in obtaining merchandise from any
of my bands (past or present), please contact me at the address below! Thanks
to everyone who has supported any of my projects so far, you rule! Keep
underground death metal alive!
Contact:
Duaniac – [email protected] or [email protected]
P.O. Box 34314 Cleveland, OH 44134 (USA)
NunSlaughter website : www.nunslaughter.com
February 2003