Deathcult Interview

1. Can you update us with what is going on with Deathcult these days?
We released the full length L.P. “The Living, The Dying and the Damned” in march of 2009 and we are currently working on new material for a free digital E.P. We are also giving away free tracks on LastFM.com, I recommend people go here since we plan to load rare and live material soon.

2. How would you describe your musical sound for the younger people that have never heard of your music before?
We are Old School Death Metal, some have described our style as Death/Doom. There are elements of Thrash/Death/Doom but mainly good old fashioned Death Metal.

3. What is the meaning behind the band's name?
The name has 2 meanings, the first being the members of the band who enjoy playing Death Metal therefore making us a “DeathCult”. Secondly, how religions throughout history have used wars/torture/murder in the name of God.
4. What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far, and how would you describe your stage performance?
There have been several shows that we’ve done that stand out in my head, but I would have to say East Los Angeles College ( Los Angeles, CA. USA ) in January 1993. The crowd was in synch with us and the music, we were just doing what we do but the energy of the crowd just amazing. There’s a clip of this performance on youtube of us performing the song Corpus Christi that someone posted. The sound quality is not great but you’ll get the idea of how the show was.

5. Do you have any plans to tour Europe?
There are no tours planned at the moment.

6. Your earlier material came out on Wild Rags Records, how would you describe your time on that label, I have heard some mixed reviews of that label.
We never signed with Wild Rags, we had a distribution thing going on with Richard of Wild Rags. We originally printed 1000 copies of “Sodomy – Repulsive In my Ways” ourselves, when all the copies were sold in a month we were about to print more when Richard approached us. For every 500 prints we would get 100 of them, he decided to put the Wild Rags logo on the CD which we did not mind, but it gave everyone the idea we were signed to them. Wild Rags helped our music reach places we would probably not have back then, Wild Rags was good to us as much as DeathCult was to it and Richard.

7. How would you describe the lyrical content of the music?
On our earlier material dealt with perversion and the occult. On the newer stuff they deal with suicide, dying and emptiness. The content is darker and just falls in place with the mood of the music.

8. The band took a hiatus for a long time, what where you doing during that time period and what made you decide to make a comeback?
Everyone kind of just let too much time pass between jam sessions and next thing you know a year passed and so on. I personally got my life to settle a little and slow down. We don’t consider it a comeback since we never broke up, but we just got together one night at Juan’s studio ( drummer ) and found that we still had some unfinished business. We just get together now and jam, what ever sounds good we record and make a song out of it. Too much time passed between recordings, but we play Death Metal for fun and nothing else.

9. How would you describe your musical progress over the years and what direction do you see the music heading into on future releases?
I think we’ve gotten simpler but heavier than before. If you were to listen to the “Sodomy” cd ( 1st 4 tracks ) that’s where musically “The Living, The Dying” picks up. We like to put a lot of heavy rhythm in our songs and I think our future releases will reflect that.

10. What are some bands or musical styles that have influenced your music and what are you listening to nowadays?
We all grew up listening to Possessed, Kreator, Death, Sepultura, Sodom, Sacrifice, Celtic Frost, Carcass just to name a few. When we first started jamming we were trying to emulate those bands we listened to. Our fist demo “Devoured in Holiness” I think reflected those influences the most. I still listen to a lot of those records so my influence of the Old School is still present. I’ve been listening to Triptykon, Mindrot, Mars Volta, Coffins, and Tool severely, so who knows how they’ll influence me in the future.

11. What role does Satanism or Occultism play in the music?
The Occult I think played a big role in our first demo and kept it going with “Sodomy” mixed in with perverted lyrics. Satanism never played a role in our band but we questioned faith. If anything there is still a little of the occult present in the lyrics, but mostly they deal with the concept of dying, suicide and questioning the afterlife.


12. What are some of your interests outside of music?
I’m a huge hockey fan specially in the playoffs. I enjoy playing Texas hold ‘em and drawing.

13. Any final words or thoughts?
You can get info of DeathCult @ myspace.com/deathcultla and you can listen and download free music from us @ LASTFM.com under DeathCult ( U.S. ). The new E.P. should be out late 2010 and will be a free digital download.