Press - Interviews

Tales from the Grave

Interview March 2011

Jamie Greetings from Spain, we are delighted to have with us. How's everything Ulcerate these days?

Things are good man with us man, we’re in the best shape the band has ever been in.

Awesome work you have done with your new album "Destroyer For All" really very impressed. After your previous work "Everything Is Fire" How have you raised this new job? Tell us how was the planning.

We wrote the album over a period of about 6-7months beginning at the start of 2010, and we approached the writing process in much more concentrated effort than ever before. We more or less wrote on a daily basis, we did a lot of pre-production recordings/demos and a lot of reviewing and discarding of worthless material. So for us, everything came together a lot smoother than ever before, as we maintained the same head-space for that period of time, that included shutting down all live shows etc. As for the recording process, we set up a mini-site that documents that process here: http://www.ulcerate-official.com/The-Destroyers-Of-All/

If it is true that above all you are a band that is unlike any other band's style. How did you come to this point?

Just a really natural process of evolution. I think if you look over our progress right through from our demos to present day, it’s kind of evident that even from the beginning we had a vision in mind for how we wanted to sound and what we wanted to bring to this genre of music, so it’s been a slow process, but I think we’re finally comfortable in our own skin, and creating the exact kind of music that excites us. We’ve been active for just on a decade now, and we’ve always been very active in terms of writing and live shows, so that’s a long period of time to hone your craft so to speak.

What kind of bands have been big influences for you?

Our biggest influences in terms of direction were Immolation, Gorguts, Today is the Day when we were teenagers. Early Cryptopsy introduced us to the linear style of song-writing. From a non-metal standpoint, Bohren und der Club of Gore, Neurosis, early Isis, Jakob, even Sigur Ros had an effect on us in terms of straddling the divide between subtlety and harshness, that for the most part, you just don’t usually get in metal, death metal especially.

In the criticism I've done personally, I give a score of 9.5 out of 10. How has the reception of your album by the media?

Really fucking good man, we’re always humbled by how people receive our music. There have been the inevitable comparisons to the last album for sure, but the more albums we write, the more that’s going to happen. But on the whole, it’s great to see something you work so hard on be really appreciated by people, its a good feeling!

Compared with "Everithing is Fire", maybe your atmospheres and sounds have become more violent. How do you think your work has evolved with respect to "Everithing is Fire?

Yeah it’s definitely been a goal of ours to go darker and bleaker, and try and strip away the dryer, more clinical parts. We have no intentions of not following this path in the future. When it comes to metal these days, most of our listening tastes reside in the black metal side of things, so it’s only natural that that stylistic approach is creeping in, particularly in terms of song structuring and maintaining an overall vibe above everything else. I really think that death metal has a huge potential to create very eerie caustic music, yet still maintain it’s identity, without ever crossing over into black metal’s territory. So we’d like to exploit that potential to its fullest.

You also see a great production work on the album. Your music is quite technical, so the production work should be pretty good. "I personally encargáis producing the album? What conditions do you have when you had to produce this album?

Our recording conditions are pretty minimal, and we like to keep things simple and as honest as possible. So we don’t employ a lot of post-production mix techniques, basically what goes in is what comes out. We’re quite strict in trying to keep things as flat as possible EQ-wise, and very subtle touches of compression here and there. A little delay on the vox, and asides from that, every tone you hear is created in the room at the time. As I said earlier, it’s worth checking out the mini-site we set up, as it runs through what gear we were using to track through and what mics etc were used.

Speaking of the reception by the media, do you have great success in your country or city?

Not so much, in the sense that NZ is a small country (population 4 million), and the underground over here literally gets no mainstream attention. But we shy away from that as much as we can anyway, it really has nothing at all to offer us. There’s really no underground media here either, and we keep a fairly low live profile, as we don’t want to over-saturate things (there’s really only 3 cities a band of our style can play successfully without alienating people).

We could say that your main style eradicated in death metal, but fusionáis perfect atmosphere and incredible technical moments with actual death. How would you define your current style?

I would define our style as very very bleak, unorthodox death metal. I don’t think there can really be any argument that we don’t inhabit the death metal context, but we’re certainly not limited to the traditional confines of the style. Anything goes with us dynamically so long as it adheres to our own stylistic boundaries. If we ever feel the need to write music that doesn’t fit the desolate atmosphere, we will find another outlet for it or put the band to rest and move on to other things.

The Destroyers of All is the title of your new album, a very suggestive title. What kinds of lyrics make this album? What do you want to convey to them?

The lyrics are a commentary of where we are currently, that as a species we’re fairly blindly arrogant, and it’s lead to some fucking catastrophic events and actions that in hindsight could easily have been prevented. We exist outside of nature due to our heightened consciousness and awareness - we’re the first species in the history of the planet to really disrupt the flow of the food-chain, and we’re obviously all starting to feel the impact of that now. So the destroyers of all are ourselves, for better or worse.

Musically Jamie, you are one of the best drummers I've seen in my life. Your level is exceptional, comparable to that of the best drummers of the moment. How did you come to have that level? Tell me how you started playing drums.

Thanks man, I appreciate that! Well, it’s a little different for myself personally, as I don’t really see myself at an ‘exceptional’ level, I think anyone who is really passionate about anything only really sees the areas that you need to work on further and develop you know? More or less, drumming is something that I find to be the best use of time I could ever think of, it combines physicality, expression and intelligence, and I just fucking love doing it, so I play and practice everyday. When I can’t do things on the kit, I force myself to practice them, and I really think that’s the only secret anyone ever needs to be good/great at something, and get a lot of satisfaction from it!

I started playing drums when I was 13 and within a couple of years I had decided that I wanted to learn and play the style of the death metal bands I was listening to at the time. Around 18 we formed the shell of Ulcerate, and I’ve just continued to play and learn as much as I can.

Currently in my point of view, death metal has entered a phase of stagnation and boredom quite heavy. Originality is scarce and we need good bands to bet on more innovative things. What do you think of the current death metal scene? Do you think the current schemes Ulcerate breaks? (I think that if complete)

I agree with this wholeheartedly man. Very little new death metal excites me, and I think that stylistically it’s just completely run itself dry, with a handful of exceptions of course. The early death metal had a ton of atmosphere and darkness, and asides from a couple of bands these days, that seems to all be lost. I don’t really know what or where people think we fit into the scheme of things, we certainly don’t have an old-school vibe or anything like that. But at the same time I really think that the sinister, oppressive sound can be evolved, and I think we’re certainly managing that (only my opinion of course). I have to mention bands like Mitochondrian, Svart Crown, Dead Congregation, Ingurgitating Obliveon, Portal - these are all bands/allies of ours that sit outside of the old-school vs clean modern paradigm, who all bring something deadly and fresh to the table... and I truly think that bands like these are making death metal interesting again, much in the same way that bands like Antaeus, Drastus, Deathspell Omega, Arkhon Infaustus have done with black metal (for my tastes at least). Bands that aren’t concerned with either adhering to tradition, or fitting in with some trite clique.

At this new job, I think you made a big evolutionary step in your discography. What's next? "Post-Doom-Death Metal (hehe)?

As I said before, we want to keep pushing the envelope of atmosphere and mood, and really develop the crushing, end-of-the-world sound. We have no intention of softening the sound. I think these extraneous genre tags like that are kinda ridiculous - it seems if you have down-tempo parts it’s instantly ‘doom’, or clean sections are ‘post’ haha. But I do understand the need for listeners to categorise bands, it just never enters our consciousness when we’re writing material.

I do not suppose you have the good fortune to live music. Do you dedicate that in real life?

No we make no money from Ulcerate whatsoever asides from merch sales, which are modest. We are slowly getting to the stage that we can comfortably break even with touring, which is more or less exactly where we want to be. But the financial side of things is no issue for us, we all have outside careers and work 9-5 like everyone else, and for the most part have sympathetic employers who understand our need to tour etc.

More or less the band formed on 2002 and released your first demo "'The Coming Of Genocide' in 2004. How the band formed? Have you had many lineup changes?

Yeah we’ve had a lot of issues maintaining a solid line-up, although asides from the vocalist changes, every album’s instruments have always been recorded by the core musicians (Paul, Michael and myself). It’s just been a real issue with the second live guitarist slot (we’ve been through 3 of them), but I think finally for the first time we’re working with someone (William Cleverdon) who has exactly what we need and what we’ve been looking for for a long time.

How do you do with your current record label? "You carry a lot of editing to them?

Willowtip is great to work with, completely up-front and honest. As for editing - not 100% sure I know what you mean? If you mean do they have any influence over material / art decisions etc, then no, they leave that all completely in our hands, which is highly appreciated.

Two or three years ago I saw you on tour in Spain with Nile, specifically in my city Sevilla. I accompanied them if I remember Grave, Krisiun and Corpus Mortale. How was the tour and dealing with the other bands? What did you think the Spanish public?

The tour was fucking great man, everyone, both bands and crew were a pleasure to tour with. I remember the Spain shows being excellent, we’re very interested to come back for sure!

And now I want to get in trouble, but you can give some details of upcoming concerts and festivals? You will come to Spain again? (Please)

For sure, that’s the plan, hopefully this year. In terms of cities we visit, at this stage it’s a matter of what our tour agency sorts out for us, but we’re certainly keen as fuck.

Well, like all musicians I guess you can not stop writing, you have made things for a new album very future?

No not as yet, we always give ourselves a grace period after completing an album, we never rush things, and we want to gain some objectivity on the last album before we sit down to write again.

Jamie has been a pleasure to have with us and thanks for the interview. From Tales From the Grave and Spain wish you luck in your way. I leave a few lines to tell them something to our readers. A hug.

Cheers for the support!! It really motivates us to push as far as we can with the music.
// J

Teeth of the Divine

Interview March 2011 - www.teethofthedivine.com

If you would please indulge me, I’m curious about how your relationship with Willowtip first began. In 2007, you released Of Fracture and Failure on Neurotic, which if I recall ended up partnering with Willowtip in some capacity later anyway, and then you released Everything is Fire on Willowtip in North America. The pairing of Ulcerate and Willowtip just seems, for lack of a better term, right. Of course, most of us would expect no less from a label that continually releases quality albums.

It’s a pretty simple chain of events really - more or less exactly as you described - Neurotic at some pointed licensed all their releases to Willowtip, so Of Fracture came out in the US on Willowtip. When were preparing to record Everything is Fire, we just couldn’t get a word out of Neurotic as to where we stood with the record. Basically a lack of communication for a solid few months. A ton of bands were bailing from the label, so something was clearly up. I just got in touch with Jason at Willowtip and said we were interested in jumping ship, as they would be releasing the album anyway. Upon catching wind of this, all of a sudden Neurotic pipes up and tries to illegally demand cash off us for a ‘breach’ of a one-album contract. We sought legal aid, and told Neurotic owner Ruud Lemmen, that we weren’t interested in fucking anyone over, and we’d like the courtesy extended our way as well. That was the last we heard from him. Perhaps he should spend less time trying to rape bands, and more time focusing on not failing at being a label.

Though this is the first Ulcerate album with which I’ve spent a considerable amount of time, your style of death doesn’t necessarily lend itself to immediate gratification. It has more of a growing quality and it is after the first couple of spins where the songs really to resonate and the song dynamics seem to surface more with repeat listens. I’m guessing you’ve heard this before. Please discuss in relation to the new album and in comparison to the previous releases.

Yeah of course, we understand that for sure. All of our favourite music is exactly the same - often my favourite albums I really don’t even like at first, then something just clicks. So that’s obviously subconsciously filtered through into how we approach our own music - although it’s not intentional to write obtuse music, it’s just what naturally comes out of us. I don’t know if this album is any more or less tougher to break into, I really have zero objectivity, obviously to me everything seems really logical and ‘easy’ for lack of a better word.

On The Destroyers of All, the album title seems to work on a multiple levels, including something as simple as equating it to the sheer death metal heaviness of this band. But the lyrics tell a much bleaker tale as indicated in one of the more penetrating lines, “our extinction, seeded in blind avarice.” Please discuss.

Yeah we were a little worried at first that people might take the literal meaning of the title at face value, certainly not what we were aiming for - it’s just the perfect overall summation of the album themes, delivered in a really forceful, fuck-off tone. The Destroyers of All as a general theme is how human beings as a species have a propensity to destroy. The album progresses to elaborate our destructive habits and the lack of respect we hold for the planet, its inhabitants, and each other.

In fact, there is a line in the title track that for whatever reason when I first read it made me think that it could actually summarize the Ulcerate attack in general: “Cold blooded and callous, it does not grieve.” Your Thoughts?

Well yeah, I guess that could fit haha - we certainly try to convey a sense of hopelessness with the music for sure.

Paul takes a rather sparing approach to lyric writing, which equates to saying more with less rather than any kind of simplicity in meaning. Is this approach a typical one for the band? Can you offer some insight into his lyrics?

Yeah for sure, this has been something that we’ve all talked about - kinda distilling the essence of what you’re trying to get across in the least verbiage possible. Before Paul, our two previous vocalists were at the other end of the spectrum, very very metaphoric, and certainly a little too verbose for our current tastes. Suited at the time, but once we decided with ‘Fire’ that the vocal was going to go a lot more forth-right and commanding, that meant a trimming of the fat so to speak. But for my tastes, in terms of imagery and the underlying themes, Paul’s lyrics are fucking perfect for what we’re going for, in my opinion.

On “The Hollow Idols” there is a line that seems to speak directly to notions of mass control (e.g. religion) and humanity’s need to worship something larger than itself, often not realizing the control given over to the oppressors disguised as saviors/leaders. That line is: “The marred hands of our leper idols wring us of all hope.” Am I even in the ballpark of the message being conveyed here? Please discuss.

Yeah that’s pretty much bang-on … here’s a liner note from a previous interview, where Paul outlines the theme of that particular track: “The Hollow Idols are our imagined personification of intention in the universe. They embody all our desires, strip us of reality, and empower a decrepit morality. They instill blind and hollow hope and fracture our posterity.”

In consideration of your three full-lengths how would describe the sound of The Destroyers of All in comparison to Of Fracture and Failure and Everything is Fire? Would you say you’ve progressed as a band?

Of course, I think the progression is fairly evident in terms of how convincing the material is, and how the song-writing has become a lot more fluid. Not too mention our ability to perform the material. ‘Destroyers’ for me is a lot more all-encompassing and a lot more visceral, I think there’s a far wider dynamic range, and it really feels like stylistically we’ve definitely solidified our place in the scheme of things. ‘Everything is Fire’ is I guess a mix of the dryer, more sporadic tone of ‘Of Fracture’, but obviously with a lot more atmosphere and a more realised sense of foreboding.

Because of the sheer creativity involved in Michael Hoggard’s playing you get a lot out of one guitar in the trio format. Your thoughts? Do you tour as a trio too and would a second guitar be beneficial? Have you even considered it?

No definitely not, we’ve never been a one-guitar band - we always have a second live guitarist, and the albums all utilise 2 very distinct rhythm channels, regardless of the fact that only one guitarist records them. It’s just really not an option at all.

Assuming here again, but it seems that interpersonal chemistry is everything when it comes to a band like Ulcerate. True? Please discuss.

Not quite sure I get the angle here - but for us, there’s always been the solid foundation of writing members, and then we tend to have commitment and ability issues with the live guitarist spot. For the first time ever we’re now actually working with someone (William Cleverdon) who is easily on our level in both those regards.

You and Michael Hoggard are credited with engineering the album and Merat additionally with mixing and mastering. Even the art and layout are credited to you! Is there anything for which the three of you aren’t responsible in this band!? It really does seem as though Ulcerate is a self-contained unit on many fronts. Please discuss.

Tour booking and organisation is the only facet of the band where we have to relinquish control over everything - but asides from that, no!

Incidentally, that album cover makes my eyes cross when I stare at it too deeply and for too long. It seems fairly basic, though dark, upon passing first glances until you really begin examining it and then things get a little bewildering, if not frightening. Please discuss the album art.

Yeah the older I get the more minimal things excite me, particularly in design - they’re also the hardest to pull off convincingly. The album art is just an exploration and an illustration of the overall them of the album, as mentioned earlier. The main figurative piece of the elk being attacked is from a photo I took while visiting the Sistine Chapel in Rome - at the time I took it I knew I had to use it for something! Throughout the entire layout, everything is referring to animals, be it the sculptures or the skull tissue, which I photographed from a deer skull a friend had lying around. Thematically the art deals with conflict at all levels of nature, that we as a species no matter how much we try and dissociate ourselves from the lower animal, are still very carnal, survival-based in our actions - even though this gets filtered through political and ideological lenses. I guess there’s hints at the ‘might is right’ school of thought, even though nothing is ever as black and white as that, and the reference is aimed more at nature in general.

Based on the reviews you’ve read of Ulcerate albums what bands do you see mentioned most frequently when trying to make points of comparison to your style? I’m willing to bet that Immolation is in there somewhere, if only in a general sense. Have you read any that just had you scratching your head in puzzlement? This, of course, assumes you’re someone who pays attention to reviews and what is written in them.

The usual suspects - Immolation, Gorguts, Deathspell Omega. Which certainly all makes sense to me. I’ve seen a Tool reference, and a Meshuggah reference, which seems really foreign to me, particularly the Meshuggah one.

One could assume that it is much easier for a band in New Zealand to get international press coverage in 2011 than, say, 1991, because of the Internet. Would this assumption be correct and do the positives of mass Internet exposure for metal bands outweigh the negatives in your opinion?

Of course, there’s really no obstacles these days, which is great for us - every bit of correspondence we do is via the internet. As for positives outweighing the negatives - not really sure on that one. Because of the ease of everything, there’s a huge glut of worthless music that never existed before. And trends have now become now micro-trends that twist and morph all over the place, rather than building over a number of years - and you see that everywhere in music with the amount of gimmicks bands need to employ to differentiate themselves from everything else. Everything is a lot more fickle and worthless, no doubt it’s only going to get worse. Not saying amazing work isn’t being created, you’ve just got to dig a little deeper to find it amongst the mountains of shit haha.

What are the members of Ulcerate doing when they are not writing, recording, or playing with the band (jobs, hobbies, passions, etc)?

We all work full-time jobs outside of the band - I’m lead designer at a web studio, Paul works for a bank, William runs his father’s gun shop, and Mike is currently studying. All of our interests outside the band still pertain to music at some level, whether it’s other projects, recording etc.

Any worldwide touring plans in Ulcerate’s future?

We’re in the planning stages of international touring for the album.

Closing comments?.Thanks for taking the time. Good luck!

Cheers for the interview!
// J

Witching Hour magazine

Interview August 2011 - www.witchinghour.pl

1. Hi there! This is Wojciech "Diovis" Szymanski speaking from Poland. At first, I must say that I am really impressed by your creations. Amazing music, amazing work!

Cheers man!

2. I just want to know what is ULCERATE to you? What does the band really mean to you all?

For me personally this band is the culmination of 10 years of work, and has slowly evolved into an outlet for us being more or less totally free to do whatever we want musically (within our own tastes), and that’s pretty fucking liberating. Being afforded the opportunity to then perform live all around the world still blows my mind. And I think I can certainly speak for the others when I say this as well.

3. You hail from New Zealand which is a kind of exotic place for many people from Poland, Europe and other countries and the continents as well. Do you feel that it's much harder for you to reach a bigger attention outside of your native country and Australia than in a case of European or US bands? It is really a challenge to go to a trip to New Zealand from Poland and back for instance...

Yeah that’s always been the biggest issue for us, because outside of the geographical isolation we don’t really have any barriers whatsoever with the internet etc. But yeah in terms of people being able to see us live, that’s just not an option most of the time. But we’re slowly working on that, and the more we progress the more opportunities are being made available to us that allow us to get over and tour. There’s also the upside of our location, meaning that we do have that sort of ‘exotic’ appeal by default, so it goes either way.

4. We will talk about New Zealand metal scene a little bit later, but now let's focus on ULCERATE itself. To be honest, my first meeting with your music was only a few months ago when I had to opportunity to hear your latest item titled "Destroyers of All". And as I said earlier, I was crushed and thrashed by your music which is a kind of very original death metal with some more influences. Due to that I didn't have to listen to your earliest works yet, please tell me when and where an idea to play such music was born? What influenced you back then to take instruments and start to play metal?

Where we’re at now is certainly where we’ve been wanting to be since we started the band. By the time we did our second demo, we had already started to introduce dissonant and atmospheric elements and we were slowly starting to think of ways to introduce more dynamics, but still keep it in the death metal framework. So it’s been a constant progression, with a lot of experimentation, both good and bad. But I really feel that we have managed to hit our mark with the last 2 albums, so from here things look very good for us.

5. Both early demos were gathered by The Flood Records on one piece of silver platter under a title "The Coming Genocide". Was it like a simple story: they offer you a deal to release it on CD and you just agreed? Did you or the label remastered that stuff, or it sounds like on original demos? And who created a front cover? To me it looks like a real beginning of your artwork conception... I mean that every another picture on a front cover is similarly twisted, symbolic, metaphoric, mysterious, a bit surreal and has a double (or more) meaning. Am I right?

Yeah Dario the owner of The Flood just got in touch with us with the idea to release both demos as one package - which we certainly had no objections to as we had no label affiliations whatsoever at that point. Nothing was re-mastered or anything like that. As for the art, I’ve always handled all our artwork and layouts, so yeah, it’s just been a matter of developing my style. I guess The Coming of Genocide art is fairly literal, but everything since then is certainly metaphoric, or a visual depiction of how I hear and see the music and lyrical content - rather than a figurative scene.

6. Was "The Coming Genocide" anything like a key to a brighter future for you at ULCERATE? Did you open any door by that compilation-CD? And tell me what is hidden under a CD-Rom presentation which is included on the CD?

Yeah that demo opened many doors for us, it was the first recording we had done that actually got good reviews and seemed like we had struck a chord of sorts with a wider international audience. We were all really young and I remember it being really fucking exciting receiving orders for it from all over the world, and getting really positive feedback from people. For a bunch of dudes from NZ that’s a pretty humbling feeling (and still is).

The CD-ROM was just a bonus thing that I put together, contained some photography, and a couple of old live videos.

7. 2007 is a year of your official CD debut that was an album entitled "Of Fracture And Failure". It's pretty clear that I will mention some particular name of the band here, because that title leads my thoughts to "Failure From Gods" of the mighty IMMOLATION. Is it an accidental that you chose such title for your debut CD?

That’s actually the first time I’ve ever heard anyone make that connection - none of us have even thought of that haha. So no, certainly nothing intentional about that, and especially theme-wise, nothing really remotely similar.

8. One more time I am going to ask you a question about graphical vision and this time I mean that what was put on "Of Fracture And Failure" CD. We can see there a kind of human-ghostly octopussy. Is it a right path to find an explanation of the aforementioned front cover?

That album was loosely conceptual lyric-wise, so the art was again just a representation of that - the overriding concept was that of humanity managing to completely destroy itself, and then having a rebirth of sorts. Now when I look at that cover I’m really not so into the idea... I don’t mind the graphic execution, its just a little too sci-fi feeling for me. But it does suit the music, and that was definitely a transitional album for us.

9. The debut album was performed by five guys and lately you have become only a trio, so what made that those two guys left the band in-between?

No that’s not 100% correct - even though there has been 5 members in the past, the second guitar slot up until now has only ever been a live guitar role. Meaning all the music has only ever been written by 2 of us (guitarist Mike and myself), with lyrical contributions from bassist/vocalist Paul (or in that case, lyrics were written by our vocalist at the time Ben). Guitar tracks have always been solely tracked by Mike Hoggard. So the core of the band has been the same since the inception, it’s always just been a matter of finding a second guitarist that fits, and that’s always proved to be very difficult for us.

10. Neurotic Records - which released the album - always was that kind of label which gave to the world quite original extreme metal albums like those ones from PSYCROPTIC, RUINS, SAURON and VISCERAL BLEEDING to name only a few bands on their roster, but something always failed and the albums haven't a proper promotion or I don't know what else. Do you have a feeling that you lost your first chance to conquer the world metal scene back then?

Not really, I think we made our mark as best we could. I’m really not a believer in having all sorts of gratuitous label promo to try and ‘make’ a band, just let the music speak for itself, and people will seek it out eventually. In saying that, Neurotic Records is and was a fairly embarrassing ordeal for a lot of the bands on that roster, hence all of them moving on to much greener pastures.

11. A next step and without a doubt a really big step ahead was a second album of ULCERATE called "Everything Is Fire". Not so long ago I finally had to chance to buy it and hear it on my stereo and this is it! Very dark, twisted, ambitious, really heavy and pretty confusing music that blends death metal basis with some elements of other genres. It's like IMMOLATION collides with NEUROSIS, ISIS and DEATHSPELL OMEGA. That description is, of course, only a try to classify that piece of colossal and dark metal music, but if you would to compare "Everything Is Fire" to the previous works, what you want to add?

Yeah I think that’s a very apt description, and even with the other band comparisons I understand those references. That album for us is where all facets of the sound finally came together really well, we returned to the lower pitched vocal we’d always wanted, and we really put a lot of effort into making it as oppressive as we could. It really is the first time that we managed to fully realise the more dynamic elements, and I really think it makes for an extremely interesting listen. Even when I listen back to it, I don’t really cringe at things like I do with the releases before that haha.

12. The second album was recorded by three musicians and as far as I know, a fourth guy who is a guitarist Oliver Goater joined the band only after a recording session, so why you decided to put his name in a booklet?

Yeah that’s correct. At that point it felt like Oli might have ended up being a permanent fixture, so it felt like it was okay to put him in there and present the band as a four-piece. The only reason for not doing it this time around is we were literally a 3-piece when we were finishing up the album, we’d just parted ways with Oli so it didn’t feel right to add either him or our new guitarist WIlliam to the photos.

13. I didn't find any proper information how many albums Candlelight Records sell, but I suppose that they must be proud right now when you are more recognized by metal fans over the world. You probably wasn't happy with their promotion, deciding to not prepare another album for that British label and leave them to find somebody new?

The Candlelight connection was purely a licensing relationship between them and Willowtip, it has nothing to do with us, and we had no communication with Candlelight whatsoever. I have no idea of album sales either oddly enough, no surprises there though of course. I believe this time around, Willowtip just decided to go with Hammerheart for the European licensing, we didn’t have any say in that decision or anything like that.

14. Well, it's time to pass over to your latest opus titled "Destroyers of All". Like you wrote on your website "The new material is an expansion on the Everything is Fire sound with a far greater dynamic range. There's really no surprises or annoying experimentations, just the next step forward in evolving what we've established so far. There will however be a lot more of the bleak and blackened atmosphere and mood, perhaps a little less pace overall - with an emphasis on a very very large sound. We're certainly not a band that wants to repeat itself, but at the same time, we're extremely driven to create the sonic assault that we've had in our heads for a number of years." It is really a right review of the album, so what can I add more? Maybe I just ask you a question: do you see any chances that the album finally will make you more significant band on the metal scene?

I’m not sure to be honest, and I’m not sure that any of us really care about that per se - the only thing that matters to us is that we can make albums and be able to perform for people that really dig what we’re doing. Above and beyond that, everything else is just icing on the cake.

15. A production of the album was made by yourself. Didn't you think about any other persons who would be able to do anything more with that stuff?

Yeah for sure we always run these ideas over when we’re preparing to record, but we’re really picky when it comes to how we want our individual instruments presented - and we actually get a lot of compliments on how our albums sound, so it’s really not too concerning. We’re certainly not ruling out working with 3rd parties in the future, but there’s also a sense of pride being able to do everything DIY you know.

16. The songs on the album are a quite long, complex and twisted. How looks a composing process in the band? Do you have any special keys or methods for that? Which tracks from "Destroyers of All" are the best and remarkable ones in your opinion?

Writing-wise we just write all the tracks from the ground-up with practice amps / practice pads and flesh out all the main riffs and melodic sections. We’ll then take that very basic framework into the rehearsal room and jam at full volume and get a feel for how things sound. This stage is where I improvise a lot of drumming and try to arrive at something that really fits whatever section we’re working on. So we continue in this manner, and once we’ve more or less got the basis of a song happening, we’ll track the drums and from here we’ll work out all the counterpoint melodies across the other guitar and bass channels. Lyrics and vocal formats are usually completed at the latter stages of songs coming together.

In terms of standout tracks for me personally - Cold Becoming, Omens and Dead Oceans I find the most enjoyable to listen to and play.

17. Again, you were able to mix death metal heaviness with some avantgarde black metal elements, post-metal flow (like in "Beneath" song), MESHUGGAH's rhytmic hooks and sludge metal rawness. As it was posted in an interview earlier, you don’t want to repeat itself, but it looks that you have found your own niche and you improvise a lot, so a whole album is like a monolith, not just a collection of songs. Did you work that way making the new album?

Yeah for sure we approached Destroyers as an album more-so than a collection of songs, even to the point of writing the entire thing top to bottom, so the ebb and flow between tracks is all very intentional.

18. The CD was released by Willowtip Records with an European distribution handled by Hammerheart Records. Do you think they are able to do everything in promotional matters? Like the US and European tour for instance...? By the way, next year you will play on Maryland Deathfest in the USA. What expectations you have thinking about that a very first gig beyond the Downunder area?

We’ve never been on labels that offer tour support per se, which is totally fine with us as we’re more than capable of doing international shows either DIY or working with our tour agency Massive in Europe for example. In terms of playing outside of NZ/Aus - we toured Europe for 5 weeks with Nile/Krisiun/Grave at the end of 2009, even played 2 shows in your country (Warsaw and Wroclaw) so we certainly know what to expect from international crowds. Maryland will be one of 6 shows in the States, with the other 5 being our own headlining shows, so that’s something we’re really looking forward to. And we’ll be back in Europe in a couple of months actually, just waiting for the announcement to be made public with the tour we’ll be apart of.

19. Now let's talk about some other topics. Like I said earlier, ULCERATE is from New Zealand that doesn't lead our thoughts to some significant names on metal scene. It's probably SHIHAD that was popular some years ago thanks to their video clips presented on MTV, but if we try to remind other names it is very hard... Maybe DAWN OF AZAZEL which has an album released by Polish label Agonia Records... What's wrong with that picture? Can you recommend us any names you think has to be known in the future?

There really aren’t any other metal bands over here that have made a significant impact on the broader metal scenes internationally - but bands like Diocletian, Witchrist, Creeping, Heresiarch all have releases on international labels and are well worth checking out.

20. You played in some other bands before ULCERATE, like for example ASPHYXIATE or 8 FOOT SATIVA. Were those experiences significant for further progression of you as musicians in ULCERATE?

I’ve never played in Asphyxiate, that was Paul’s project prior to Ulcerate - and with 8 Foot Sativa, I was only involved as a live drummer for a couple of tours, and one of our guitarist contributed material to one of their albums. So no, neither had any impact whatsoever in terms of this band.

21. As far as I know, New Zealand is a very friendly place for people who live or want to live there. One of my friends wanted to go there to live, because he heard that there is no problem to find a job and everybody has a chance to get a basement. Is it a truth that your country is so pro-social?

Yeah NZ is a great place to live in that respect, very secular, pro-environment, relatively liberal, great food and produce, fairly incredible outdoors. The only downside to living here really is the geographic isolation.

22. If even somebody doesn't want to go to New Zealand to stay for longer, it's more than sure that your country is very beautiful and attractive place to see. We have a knowledge from some documentaries on TV, but a most advertising thing that made that New Zealand is known to many people was "Lord of the Rings" movie. How you like that masterpiece of movie art and are really such places like those from the movie there?

Yeah for sure, I think for most of us those movies are kinda weird to watch as they just look like postcards for NZ!.

23. That's all from myself. Thank you for the interview and I hope that one day you will visit to Poland to crush our fans with your massive music!

For sure, as I said before, we’ll most likely be in Poland again in a few months time.
Cheers!
// Jamie

Nie znasz tego zine

Interview February 2011

How are you guys and what are you doing at the moment - are you on tour or at home?

We’re doing good thanks - in the middle of a small homeland tour, then we’re heading out to Australia for 3 show in March.

What's the response on "The Destroyers of All" so far? I had a pleasure to listen to it and I must say that it's piece of pretty challenging but yet very solid music.

So far so good - the response we’ve gotten on all fronts seems to really pick up on our intentions with the release, which is great. And we’ve had a lot of humbling feedback from people we really respect, so we’re grateful for sure. We’re really feeling that the fan-base is slowly expanding and we seem to be able to reach more people just by virtue of continuing to release work, which is great. Hopefully challenging and, most importantly, interesting music is something we hope we’ll always be able to produce, in whatever capacity.

Your lyrics on "The Destroyers of All" seems to be very dark and pessimistic. Tell me, what did you want to express via those lyrics and what were your main inspirations when writing them?

I think mostly they’re just very honest, they’re ideas that reflect the music and really get a level of frustration and anger across. In Paul’s words:

"The Destroyers of All lyrics attempt to portray a species who are obsessed with the other-worldly and spiritual, in the process neglecting all that is wondrous about the earth, its history, and its inhabitants. The bleak and pessimistic attitude you speak of reflects the cost of this obsession. Inspiration for subject matter generally stems from my own thoughts and ideas of the world. But I was reading, and influenced by, Sam Harris' The Moral Landscape at the time, along with Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zaruthustra for a more poetic writing style."

In terms of recording process are you in fond of hi-tech laboratory approach to working in studio or do you rather prefer pure and natural sound, without to many digital enhancements?

The latter most definitely. We record and mix everything ourselves, and we like to keep bullshit trickery out of the sound altogether to try and preserve at least an ounce of integrity. We have a humble recording setup that captures what we need fairly accurately, and the rest we just use our ear and taste to work out the direction of things. We’re happy with how we sound playing in a room together, there’s no reason to fabricate things that we don’t and/or can’t play well. We’ve always striven to find all the tones as directly from the instruments themselves as much as possible, and keep the need for post equalising and treatment down. It’s also just a lot more satisfying to not have to say ‘we’ll fix it in the mix’.

Incidentally we’ve had a page up ever since the album tracking that documents the actual recording process here: http://www.ulcerate-official.com/The-Destroyers-Of-All/

Tell me, why death metal and not, let's say, dance music? What caused you to choose such aesthetic and form for your music?

I think there’s a million reasons why not dance music haha! Honestly there’s just something that resonates with us with this style - and we’ve slowly worked at being able to incorporate a really wide dynamic sensibility, so writing for Ulcerate combines a lot of my favourite things about playing music - I don’t really feel like something is missing from the sonic palette so to speak. I don’t really have another answer for it, asides from the fact that it just feels like we’re writing the exact kind of music I’d really enjoy listening to.

Death metal is quite often considered to be one of the most stagnant genres, crowded by thousands of copycats without any need to progress with their sound. As death metallers, what do you think about that? Are such opinions true?

Yeah totally, modern day death metal is a very boring stagnant genre. As a music lover, I’m growing very tired of the same thing being reworked again and again. There’s also a really fucked up commercialisation happening at the moment which is really watering things down even further, the ‘core’ movement is the epitome of this, horrid stuff.

Nowadays many, if not most of the aggressive music like metal or hardcore deals with nihilistic, decadent and pessimistic vision of the world and humanity. What is the source of such inspiration in your opinion - rebellious nature of such music or rather the zeitgeist of our time where all the ideologies seem to have failed?

Probably a little of both you know? None of us would represent pessimistic lyric matter if we were to ever (god forbid) play in ‘happy’ sounding bands haha. The lyric fits the sound and pushes the feeling of the music over the top, gives it a level of personification that you really can’t achieve with instruments alone. Even if the vocal is very minimal, it still provides a humanity to the sound. But you know, I don’t think in our position, living in a very secular first world country that we have a lot to be angry/nihilistic about per se - but there is a lot to be frustrated about, and I think the distinction between those two things is pretty crucial. The more open and free our societies are becoming, the more that archaic and irrational ideas that have held us all hostage are evaporating. So it’s a total annoyance to see ignoramuses the world over (particularly practitioners of religion) blindly holding onto ideals that are unintelligent, misogynistic, racist, homophobic and just plain deluded.

By the way, if we are talking about such serious matters I would like to ask what's your take on the state of the western world and culture? Would you agree that's it has lost it's momentum and becomes to be stagnant?

I think less and less is becoming of worth, everything is disposable, and this cascades through all art - the homogenisation and commercialisation of underground music is the prime example of this. A culture where bands and individuals can become ‘famous’ off releasing a few songs/videos of gimmick-filled horseshit, that is more revered for its irony than its content is fairly fucked. Attention spans are decreasing at a massive rate, and this is totally reflected in music and entrainment - so when you find music or film that actually requires some time to really get to grips with, it’s worth holding on to. So this era of convenience, it’s both good and bad for sure.

What do you think about all this fuzz concerning illegall downloading of music, movies etc.? Is it helping less recognisable artists or rather destroying modern culture?

Well, again, probably a bit of both... But I really only see it as a positive movement for anything that is actually artistic-driven. You have to remember the biggest complainers about this are the film execs, major record labels and Metallica - people that are rolling in green to begin with, and are scared the profits are going to eventually dry up and disappear. For those of us that do this thing for pure drive and passion, and with very little concern of monetary income, leaking albums etc just mean that your material is more widely accessible to people. And I truly think that music lovers who actually really enjoy your music, will support by buying the album, and as for the others - who cares! They wouldn’t buy your material to begin with, no harm in them downloading an album for free and deciding they don’t like it.

What are your most favourite books that you could recommend your listeners as must-read?

Do you enjoy any kind of music that can be perceived as atypical choice for a person that is seriously into heavy music? I don’t read books as much as I would like to in all honesty - most of my reading time is spent on design theory / web standards articles (it’s my profession outside of music), all of which reside online. The last few books I’ve read have been by Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Chuck Palahniuk and a little Stephen Fry.

As for music, yeah for sure - my listening gets divided into two categories - music which I love as a whole, and music that I listen to purely for ridiculously good drumming. Stuff I love would be Jakob, Sigur Ros, Bohren und der Club of Gore, Clutch, Katatonia... As for the drumming side of things - Benny Greb’s Big Band, The Dave Weckl Band, Porcupine Tree, and any projects that guys like Marco Minneman, Dennis Chambers, Thomas Lang, Chris Coleman, Vinny C, Jojo Mayer are involved in.

Do you have any other passions besides creating music?

Yeah design is my other main area of interest - it’s what I have a degree in and what I spend 8 hours of my life everyday working on. I work in web design providing the front-end work for a web studio here in Auckland, and look after all the visual material for Ulcerate.

For us in Poland New Zealand is quite exotic place. As NZ natives could you tell us something about your homeland - some pros, cons of it and memorable places to see while being there?

Well likewise for sure, but once you visit you figure it’s really not all that different! NZ is in almost every aspect one of the best places to live in the world - very secular society, we have a big emphasis on the environment and being ‘clean and green’, incredibly easy to get out to amazing coastal locations due to the small size, culturally we’re pretty well-integrated, great balanced weather etc. Cons are extremely geographically isolated and the majority of music here is for the most part very fucking beige, only in my opinion of course. Memorable places - Fox Glacier, Cathedral Cove, Queenstown, Kaiawa, and pretty much anywhere ‘up north’ - very remote beaches and bush areas.

Ok, last one's for you - do you want to tell anything to our readers?

Cheers for reading and supporting what we do, and we hope to see Poland again this year! - Jamie

Metalnews.de

Interview February 2011

Hey there Jamie! It’s been almost two years since our last interview: "The Destroyers Of All" will be released shortly. Please tell us how long it took you to work on the songs and how you go about working as a three-piece.

Well for one thing, when it comes to writing we’ve been essentially a 3-piece since the very beginning - guitarist Michael and myself handling the music and our vocalist at the time handling vocal patterns and lyrical content. So nothing at all different this time around.

We wrote solidly from January through July 2010, and this time around we worked on the album in a full-time capacity, every day with only a few exceptions.

To which extent do you see changes on "The Destroyers Of All" compared with its predecessor? To me, the album seemed a bit less accessible and more ‘abstract’/demanding at the first glance/listen.

For us this was just a logical step forward - obviously like any band there’s things that we really like about Fire and things we really don’t, so we have honed the sound to our own tastes. We wanted to make an album that felt larger and more expansive, and in a lot of parts that meant we’ve dropped a little of the claustrophobic feeling we’ve had in the past, and really opened things up. We also haven’t been afraid to hold back the tempos even more-so, as I don’t think we have anything to prove in terms of how fast we play. I really have no judge as to the accessibility of our music, we have no objectivity whatsoever. But I can understand if someone is coming in with fresh ears and if they have no history with our back catalogue how it’s a little tough to find reference points etc.

What do you relate to the title of the album, "The Destroyers Of All"? Who is this destroyer, this ‘vermin’? Sounds a bit like "Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds" uttered by Oppenheimer…

In Paul's words - the vermin, the ingrates, and the destroyers of all, are all the same collective - human beings. We have a tendency to infect and corrupt a lot of what we touch. Many live extremely negative lives, with disregard to our history, the planet's history, and the planet itself. Due to this disregard, we have a tendency to destroy.

You were again responsible for the artwork. Did the other band members contribute any ideas or do you have free reign, artistically? Could you explain the bleak imagery and the scene of hunter and prey in relation to the overall album concept, please?

No, I handle the visual aesthetic entirely myself, but the overall angle is of course based off and influenced by the themes in Paul’s lyrics. I would never make anything public if anyone in the band had a problem with it!

Thematically the art deals with conflict at all levels of nature, that we as a species no matter how much we try and dissociate ourselves from the lower animal, are still very carnal, survival-based in our actions - even though this gets filtered through political and ideological lenses. I guess there’s hints at the ‘might is right’ school of thought, even though nothing is ever as black and white as that, and the reference is aimed more at nature in general.

A couple of weeks ago, you uploaded "Dead Oceans" as a preview – how was the feedback and why did you pick this specific song? Does it embody all the elements of ULCERATE in 2010 the best?

The feedback has been great, it really falls into two camps - those that understand and like where we’re heading, and those that were expecting the more ‘riffy’ nature of previous efforts. We picked that song as it’s got a good blend of elements off the album, whereas some of the other tracks favour the doomy/dirge vibe a little more for example, or make more sense in the flow of the album, rather than in isolation.

The title track is probably the longest song ever written by ULCERATE: How long did it take to fine-tune and rework such a beast of a song, clocking in at ten minutes? Will you perform this song live, too?

Yeah we’ll play it live for sure. We didn’t set out to write such a lengthy number, there’s just a lot of really drawn out sections towards the end of the track, and we just jammed them until they felt good to us - we don’t like stuff to overstay it’s welcome, but some parts just call for that drone-like repetition. All the writing for this album has been really natural, so it wasn’t torturous or anything like that. Just chipped away at it every day, and eventually you end up with a fairly weighty body of work.

What do the individual songs and their lyrics deal with specifically?

1. Burning Skies
   The album opener focuses on a theme consistent throughout The Destroyers of All, and also continued from Everything is Fire - the desire of many for the sanctuary of being a part of something; generally an ethereal purpose or afterlife. This delusion degrades the value of all that is natural and, by virtue of its enormous scale, assigns a certain servitude. Burning Skies refers to the adversity in the face of obviousness.
2. Dead Oceans
   Following this, the Dead Oceans are the incredibly vast and rich history of life many fail to acknowledge on their quest for the supernatural. In striving to further divorce human and animal, they have descended to a level of morality more barbaric, and less worthy, than the inherently uncultured animal.
3. Cold Becoming
   A viral cycle of indoctrination reinforces this denial and devaluation of life. All variants of interpretation – from moderate to fundamental – contribute to the depreciation of reason. And it seems the more removed from reason one adherent becomes, the more they are revered and encouraged by their peers. This is the Cold Becoming.
4. Beneath
   With or without their concession, the earth will continue rotating and the universe expanding. And in irony, a life without intention has evolved a species who demand it. They will never be above this.
5. The Hollow Idols
   The Hollow Idols are our imagined personification of intention in the universe. They embody all our desires, strip us of reality, and empower a decrepit morality. They instill blind and hollow hope and fracture our posterity.
6. Omens
   We are indebted to the land – and the continued denial of its true value will, and does, contribute to its degradation. Our ability to foresee this provides an opportunity to rectify it, although this is too often ignored for the sake of convenience and in the name of pseudo-reason.
7. The Destroyers Of All
   The collective of Human-beings are The Destroyers of All. Not everyone is necessarily a destructive individual, but as a species we have the ability, potential, and propensity to destroy. The album closer summarises its preceding songs – describing our shame and resignation, and accepting that in many years, we will be anonymous and forgotten.

Recently there has been a line-up change in terms of your second guitarist, i.e. William Cleverdon took the place of Oliver Goater, who also played the European tour. Any thoughts and reasons? How is William doing and fitting in?

We parted ways with Oli on a mutual basis, no hard feelings of course. William is working out fucking great, he has the best theory of any of us by a long shot, so it hasn’t been difficult at all for him to get his mind and fingers around the parts.

How difficult is it producing/engineering and mastering your own music? Is it the best possible way for you because you know exactly how it’s supposed to sound, or can it be stressful, too? Which producer would you like to work with if you had the choice?

It’s fun as hell once you’re in amongst the process - it’s the endless mix decisions and subsequent inability to listen back to the material objectively that’s hard. There’s really no stress though, because we don’t feel pressure from outside at all. We’ve always said from the very beginning that we won’t compromise on our sound, that we could care less about how albums ‘should’ sound, or trends in production. We just literally mic our instruments and play, with minimal fuss.

It would be awesome to work with someone like Steve Albini, but it’s hard to say if we’d be satisfied with the final product, who knows?

In the autumn/winter of 2009 you embarked on your first European tour [with NILE]. How do you view this tour in retrospect? Which places/crowds/countries did you like specifically?

Tour was fucking awesome, not a single complaint. Can’t wait to get back actually! We had great shows in every country - highlights would be Italy, France - just seemed we had a slightly stronger pre-existing fan-base in these countries - not as many people with confused looks on there faces haha.

Are there any plans on the horizon for a second European tour and maybe even festivals, apart from a small tour you are going to do Down Under and in NZ?

Not sure about festivals at this stage, particularly outdoor, as it doesn’t really suit what we’re doing. But we’re working on getting back to Europe, for sure, hopefully sooner than later.

How often do you actually rehearse as a band as well as individually? How much time do you invest in drumming and practising? Which drummers have mainly influenced you to make you want to pick up the drums?

We rehearse 4 nights a week - 3 hours per rehearsal. I drum every day, as much as I can, I think like every serious drummer it just consumes your every thought haha. Early influences were guys like Jimmy Chamberlain, Vinnie Paul, Igor Cavalera, which then moved on to Flo Mounier, Tony Laureano, Pete Hammoura, Derek Roddy. It wasn’t until a little later I actually started paying attention to drummers outside of metal, kinda had my mind blown by the jazz and fusion guys, all the usual big-name suspects - Weckl, Chambers, Colaiuta etc.

Which albums of 2011 are you looking forward to? Which albums [not necessarily Metal music] are currently blowing your socks off? Is there anything you could recommend?

Well I gotta say I’m looking forward to the new Gorguts, I’m sure people are expecting us to say that haha. And the Mitochondrian guys have a disc on the way for me, so keen to give the whole album a listen. Deathspell Omega’s ‘Paracletus’ is great, the Jakob guys should be turning in something this year with any luck, ‘Orthodoxyn’ by Arkhon Infaustus is immaculate, ‘Ausserwelt’ by Year of No Light is great, and have been kinda thrashing Vomitory’s back catalogue, something about that band!

What if the music of ULCERATE were turned into a movie – which particular film or which genre would that have to be? Who should be its director? David Lynch comes to mind, for example; probably something dark and twisted?

I don’t know, maybe something along the lines of The Road or 21 Grams? Anything where all hope is lost. And yeah could see the David Lynch reference, but he’s taken by Bohren und der Club of Gore haha.

Thanks a lot for the interview, Jamie, and all the best. If there are any ‘famous last words’ you’d like to direct at our readers, please feel free to do so now. Cheers, Alex | Metalnews.de

Thanks for the interview, and to anyone who takes the time to take an interest in what we’re about. And we hope to see Germany this year!

Cheers / Jamie

Pitchline Webzine

Interview May 2010

1. What's up Jamie? How is going on in kiwi land these days?

Hey there, things are going very well for us, writing the follow-up to the last album and we seem to be making very good progress. No complaints!

2. Before going into the interview I would like to congratulate you for this awesome last album you offer us, in fact most of specialized media rated it like outstanding, did you expect a reaction like this from the media when you sent the master to your record label for pressing?

Yeah, reactions across the board were humbling to say the least. But you know, we're very pessimistic with this kind of thing, and we never get our hopes up regarding what people think of or expect from us. So no, I mean, I knew that we had made an album that had strong songs that we were proud of, but that doesn't mean anyone else thinks the same. Which would have been fine as well, we're mostly at the point now where we're just content to write and perform the music we'd like to hear. I can't imagine playing in a band that only feeds off validation from outsiders.

3. Ok, go ahead with the first question exactly. "Everything is fire" differs pretty much musically for its predecessor "Of Fracture and Failure", when did you decide you needed a new musical direction? There was some kind of revulsive fact that will precipitate the change?

It's just a very logical next step, or at least it was for us. We've always dabbled with an overall dynamic and atmosphere since our demos, and it's literally taken 5-10 years to be able to pull off the stuff that we've kind of had in our heads. For us, 'Of Fracture...' was an exercise in excess, we were trying to write the most suffocating material we could, and a year or so later, looking back on that, we just reflected and knew which direction we wanted to take from that. So, a lot more streamlined, less short phrases and more repetition and emphasis on mood. There's a lot about 'Of Fracture' that I like, but probably more I really dislike. But fuck it, we needed to get that out of our system, that level of over-the-top arranging and playing.

4. ULCERATE is Death Metal, that's obvious, also is true I can't say you're the most original band from the planet but I would say you're some kind of one-of-a-kind band as for the ingredients you use and above all the way you mix them. The use of dissonant harmonies, counterpoints, etc… it's not something very usual within the genre. Which would be the main elements you use in your music, how do you manage them and what's the aim?

Yeah of course, I agree with you here. It's very hard to be completely original, you're always going to be referencing your influences even subconsciously. But I think with the next material we're working on, hopefully we'll be stepping in the right direction in terms of uniqueness.

I think the biggest thing that really sets us apart from other bands is we have a very strong impetus to orchestrate all our parts across the 5 instruments. We're very rhythmically aware of each instrument feeding off the others, and most importantly as you mentioned, the melodic counterpoint we use gives us a very large sound and really utilises the fact that we have 4 individuals in the band. I think our writing process is a lot different than how most bands work - all the melody, harmony, counterpoint and rhythm sections are written between guitarist Mike and myself, which more or less evolve out of us jamming, recording, improvising ideas back and forth. And we critique frequently and very early in the process, down to each note of a section. We view the songs as one whole, so often you hear melody parts referenced in different sections, which is something I hear very rarely in metal (or really a lot of music outside of classical). Mostly, we're just very fucking thorough, and we spend serious amounts of time in the initial writing, then subsequent revisions right up to the recording process.

5. Insisting again in these elements, they come up to my head when I listen bands not from DM such as Tool, Cult of Luna even Isis too. Could we say you have a similar way to develop your songs like the mentioned bands before?

Yeah I mean possibly, in the sense of a more 'jam' orientated writing approach for sure. Ever since we started the band we've always written in collaboration, it's never been 'here's a riff, put some drumming over it'. I guess the Tool comparison makes sense in terms of wandering song structures, although that reference always catches me a little off-guard...

6. Under my point of view one of the crucial elements of "Everything is fire" is your drumming. The songs from "OFAF" aren't easy to play indeed, not even… but we could classify them like "standard" within the usual Death Metal drumming, anyway you develop an style in "Everything is Fire" pretty much far away to be classified like "standard" as for suddenly you dazzle us with trincate and fast parts to go ahead slow, dark, dense and deep as I've never listened before, besides everything seasoned with an apparently chaotic cymbal storm perfectly fitted to the guitar melodies and counterpoints. What have been your guidelines in order to build the drums for "Everything is Fire" and above all, how can you memorize them?!

Thanks man, I really appreciate the words. My arc of drumming has kinda developed from when i first started playing extreme metal, in that my goals were to develop that 'death metal' sound, and in recent years I've really taken a step back and tried to bring something a little different to the sound. So the way I'm approaching the drum parts now, is a lot more holistically, placing notes in better places, and playing a lot more ghosting and (for lack of a better word) delicate or subtle accents to give the overall a lot more texture. I love death metal drumming, but 99% of it consists of 2 drums beats at full velocity all of the time. Your ears fatigue very early and the speed/intensity loses it's impact. So I'm a lot more wary of these things now.

I also think that because I've never been just 'the drummer' in Ulcerate, it has a huge effect on our I approach the drum parts. I really approach the drumming for this band as the 4th counterpoint instrument, and it's incredibly crucial just how much atmosphere percussion can lend to a song, so I have to stay on my toes in that regard! I try to stay very true to the melody lines as well, and playing to that feel rather than just the subdivisions of time. And although we use a lot of odd time signatures, I'm really strict on myself in making sure that there's still a very coherent pulse, I can't stand drumming that uses odd groupings for the sake of it, comes off sounding like a rudiment exercise.

7. Drum – wise, I remember an interview with Chuck Schuldiner where he remarked that "Human" could never have been what it was without Sean Reinert's contribution. How important is the drum work in an extreme metal record under your point of view?

Drumming in this style of music can make or ruin a band for sure. Great drummers play with an energy and power that you feel straight away, and they always are right on top of the pulse. Without that, bands feel very flat and beige. I could list numerous examples of bands particularly recently that have lost drummers and produced material subsequently that just sounds like it's had the guts ripped out of it. But of course, this is purely contextual - there are a lot of styles which benefit from very primitive, brutal drumming that would be ruined by a more 'accomplished' player, so it's definitely not a hard and fast rule per-se. There seems to be this idea that drummers in metal are purely timekeepers, and that so long as they can hit the required BPMs, they're considered adequate. Makes for a climate of very fast, very boring albums.

8. By the way, the first time I listened "Everything is Fire" I was powerfully attracted for your high musical skills. I won't ask you about how many years do you take playing because I consider musical skill can't reach through natural years but years of effort and rehearsal, so how many time do you rehearse all together and how much each one of you work separately with your respective instrument?

We rehearse as a band 4 times a week, that switches up to 5 or 6 when a tour looms. As for individual practise, every day for myself for at least an hour or 2. None of us treat this as a chore though - it's cliched, but it's fucking enjoyable, I can't think anything that I'd rather do than jam / play live.

9. It turn out paradoxical that vocals for this record has been a task of your bassist Paul which is a founder member of the band, anyway he never made this work before; the fact that his hands are over this task it has been something that came out in a natural way and was something suggested by himself or just you preferred to proof with someone within the band instead of a new guy?

Yeah it's really strange the way it's worked out for sure. It had never even really been discussed before, the idea of a string player handling the vox as well. As we were writing Everything is Fire we came to the decision that for various reasons we didn't want to work with our vocalist from 'Of Fracture' any more, so out of almost panic we actually tried out a couple of options before giving Paul an audition of sorts. Now in hindsight it's the most natural thing we could have done, he's developed into easily the best front-man we've ever had due to sheer commitment and effort, which suits us fine.

10. With regard to "Everything is Fire" production I must recognize it's one of the best I've listened for a long time. It's so organic and warm yet powerful which is not usual these days… you know… dynamic range pay tax in benefit of compression and volume. Why have you choose for this kind of production? And above all how have you gotten this equilibrium so hard to get?

Well thanks, I'm glad you hear that in it, as those are certainly the qualities we strive for tonally. The production is by no means ultra professional, none of us are sound engineers by trade or training, so I would never claim that it's a masterpiece. But it conveys what we're after, and it's a very honest sound, for better or worse.

There's really no studio trickery at all, I think people would be quite surprised at just how little processing is going on. EQ and small amounts of compression to colour the sound are all that's really used. I've always just been focused on getting some great sounds in the room, particularly with drums and hoping that i don't have to treat things too harshly. And I can't be bothered with editing and fixing takes, a very lame approach to music.

As for the loudness wars, yeah that shit is a joke. We actually had the album mastered by a very reputable name and went through several iterations with him, but we ended up using the test master I had roughly thrown together. So we may have sacrificed quality, but we just weighed up what we preferred and that was our own.

11. Taking this opportunity speaking about production, I think it's just to stress that on "Everything is Fire" album both record and mix-master work it has been something in charge of you. Bearing this in mind probably you have listened each song of the record countless times, have not you thought that due to this you can't listen Ulcerate like would do someone unrelated to the band who listen the band from the very first time? Don't you think you should sacrifice not to be involved with any of these aspects with the goal of being able to rediscover Ulcerate such as anyone?

No not really! I like the notion of sitting back and let someone else produce something for us, but the sound we have in mind is very very specific, and I don't want other people interfering, regardless of their stature or accomplishments. We're very picky bastards, and we'd likely drive a mix engineer insane. Besides the production is an extension of the music, we're not a pop band that needs to sell records etc so we don't need a particular 'sound' to market what we're doing. We have the means and the freedom to do whatever we want. And on top of all that, it's just really enjoyable to make recordings that are 100% DIY, we don't answer to anyone and there's never the fear that our recordings will sound like someone else's.

12. It goes without saying that having carried out all this work yourself is necessary a lot of time. Besides, you're the person in charge of the artistic facet of the band… cover art work and designs, myspace, web design, etc… Tell us, are you doing a regular job for a living like most of people or are you doing Ulcerate exclusively? By the way, what are the other guys doing for a living?

I'm a web designer by trade, I work for a web company usual 9-5 hours during the day, and I work on music and other art projects at night. Everyone else has day jobs as per usual, Paul works at a bank, Mike has just re-enrolled for 2 science degrees at university and Oli's trade lies in video post production.

13. Finally, with regard to the production, have you received some offer from bands to make this work for them or are you available for your band only? I say this because bearing in mind your outstanding work here captured it would be weird not to get offers from overseas even.

I've recorded a number of local acts, mostly helping out friends bands. I really don't have the will to take on any project I come across, likewise with art. I have to really be a fan of the music or really interested in it to get an ounce of inspiration. It's hard trying to find time for a lot of extra curricular projects anyways, I prefer to keep a very low profile.

14. Promotion-wise, it seems you're showing like avery active live band. In fact, not a long time ago you were touring in Europe together Nile, what can you tell us about this experience?

Actually things have only just started happening for us on the live front internationally, and we try and keep a low profile here in New Zealand (a very small country where over-saturation for any band is a bad idea).

The Nile tour was seriously fucking amazing. It was the perfect package for us to be a part of. We made a lot of great friends and finally getting to play to people from the other side of the world is humbling as hell. Asides from that getting to travel and play music on a daily basis is ridiculously good fun. We can't wait to get back to Europe.

15. There are plans for another extensive tour through Europe or USA?

That's the plan, hopefully we can manage both, but at the same time we're very cautious in choosing a package that will be worth our while, as we end up paying twice as much due to our geography than a lot of other bands.

16. Specifically, with regard to these extensive tours, I would like to know two things mainly, one's: how do you prepare for play every day throughout a month a set list so physically demanding? And the second one: how do you deal cohabiting with so many people in a bus, during so much time, thousands of kilometres far away from home, loading and unloading the back-line, probably without payment and without the comfort of home?

Rehearsing every day beforehand for a couple of months makes the playing side of things not an issue at all. A half hour set for us is really no big deal at all physically.

As for tour life, honestly man, it's fucking great. A couple of days in you acclimatise and asides from missing girlfriends, there's really nothing at all that made us miss the comforts of home. Maybe I'm biased as traveling for me is one of the best things you cam ever hope to do. I know the other guys agree with this too. As for loading, no problems there, and the financial side of things we planned for extensively, so there were certainly no nasty surprises.

17. When I saw you playing live, one of the things that attracted my attention of your show it was that in some moments the guys were playing turning around the public, creating an unique atmosphere of intimate interaction among the guys, even Michael's movements has nothing to do with the typical extreme metal mosh. Is this a prepared show or just is the natural way of how your emotions flow on stage?

Not rehearsed or choreographed at all, think that shit just happens you know. We obviously have a lot of very confrontational parts that require a fully fledged aggressive stage presence, but we also have a lot of dynamic atmospheric material that just makes you move a certain way I guess.

18. I'm thinking just right now…knowing your sound is pretty far away from cold and digitalized productions, I think it would be a good idea to release "Everything is Fire" – LP, do you know if Willowtip will release this album in vinyl? Specifically I think this album with its excellent art work becomes sublime in vinyl format.

We were asking about getting vinyl done for sure, but the word from Willowtip is it's very expensive to produce, and there's not always the security of making the money back. But we've put a request in for the next album, and I think based on the success of other vinyl releases they're trialling, hopefully we can manage that. Perhaps we might look into that ourselves and do very limited runs for interested people...

19. About Willowtip, I think they're beginning to fill a gap in the market, they've signed some bands from Neurotic Records (like you i.e.), and there are in their roster high caliber bands too. How is the relationship with them and how priority is Ulcerate for them? By the way, also you deal with Deepsend Records, could you explain us the agreement with them?

Yeah man, Willowtip are a great label. Very loyal, honest and transparent with the business side of things, and they really seem to care about the releases they do and the people that buy them. It seems to be a bit of a rarity in today's music industry climate, which is great. As for Deepsend they purely have the license to press our demos.

20. I imagine, maybe you’ve begun to work with new songs and so on… do you have clear what do you want to get with the upcoming album and could you outline how the new songs in comparison with "Everything is Fire" will be?

Yeah we're actually five songs in with the writing. And yeah the direction is making itself very apparent. It's a definitely step forward and an expansion on that sound. A little more atmospheric and open sounding, with a lot more melody overall. Still very linear and very percussive and most importantly dense.

21. "Everything is Fire" is a very enigmatic title, what there are behind of it?

The title itself is a quote from Greek philosopher Heraclitus - his reference was implying that everything is in a perpetual state of change and evolution, nothing is 'concrete' - we've applied that idea to the fact that there's an inherent flaw in the way that mankind tends to take everything that is in the 'now' as being the absolute truth. The album theme deals with the grey in between the black and white, that everything is in a constant state of change and motion, there are no hard and fast 'truths'. The idea that each successive generation will look back on the previous and wonder why mistakes were made etc. We're all huge believers in human insignificance and humility, and that we should never take our place on this earth for granted. Not entirely nihilistic, but definitely strong leanings toward that ideal, within reason.

22. Well Jamie, that's all for now. I hope you have not gotten bored with my questions… anything else you would like to add?

Cheers for the interview, we appreciate the efforts for sure. I guess keep an eye out throughout this year and early 2011 as we hit the album cycle yet again!

Black Astrial magazine, Poland

Interview April 2010

1.Hello! How are you doing? First of all, I want to tell you that "Everything is Fire" is one of last years most impressive records in my opinion, and Ulcerate (along with bands like Portal and Ehnahre) certainly is one of those few bands that are able to create something new within the field of death metal. However, I'd like to ask you if you feel that you have already reached a point when you achieved something that can be called your own style, a formula that is entirely yours? Do you think you will continue writing music in a similar way to what can be found on "Everything is Fire", only trying to write better songs, or is it rather just a step in your evolution and you are not entirely sure what your future albums are going to sound like?

Thanks a lot, appreciate the words. In terms of reaching 'that' point, no not really, as there's still a lot of things on the album we'd approach differently now, but it's getting there. It's really difficult as we have no objectivity whatsoever, but the 'Fire' material certainly feels the most rounded in what we were trying to achieve.

The new material is a forward progression, we have no intent of repeating ourselves. It's going to be very important to us that we create an album that is very individual but at the same time something that people will recognise as markedly 'Ulcerate'.

2.I assume you are working on your next album right now. How much of it is already written? Can you tell if there are any differences between the new songs and your last album? Is the writing method in any way different than before?

Yeah, as of February we've begun writing full-time with an intent to have everything wrapped up by the end of the year. So far we've got one completed (for now) track, and 3 others that are in development. But we're doing a lot of self-critique and amendments as we go, so nothing is set in concrete. The music so far is a lot more 'open' tonally, particularly guitar-wise. We've always taken an unorthodox approach, and the new material is certainly representing that. Mood-wise, no strong departures here, possibly a little blacker overall if that makes sense. We're following with the linear structuring and drawn-out passages, so again, expect very long tracks.

3.You just came back from Australia, where you had a short tour with Beyond Terror Beyond Grace, how did it go? Why did you choose this particular band as your support act? Would you say that you have a large fan base in Australia?

The tour was great for the most part - the main centres (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane) were great shows, and more or less exceeded our (admittedly pessimistic) expectations. Getting to perform with Portal was a treat for us, that's a band that we've always held a strong curiosity in.

We didn't actually choose any of the supports - Beyond Terror guys contacted us about doing the tour, and they promoted and managed the whole thing for us (couple of the guys moonlight as a promotions company). Stylistically, we're not really in the same ballpark - but in terms of dealing with on a personal and business level, these guys were fucking great to work with.

We really had no idea of our status over there, and it varied from city to city, but we were very surprised with the turnouts, sold all the merch we took and got some very good feedback. So it was an eye-opener for us - we keep a very low profile, and never push our shit down people's throats.

4.What are your memories from the tour with Nile, Krisiun, Grave, Corpus Mortale and Hackneyed? Was that your first time in Europe? Did anything surprise you, or was it more or less like you expected?

Europe was a fucking great experience, very professionally organised and almost every show blew us away in terms of crowd reaction. It was our first time in Europe, and our first extended tour, and it's really given us the urge to get out and tour again. We were definitely surprised at how easy everything was - playing wise and lifestyle wise. The entire tour crew and bands were awesome people to be working with everyday, and we were continually discussing just how much fucking fun were having.

5.I know that you try to avoid musical ideas that sound similar to other bands. Does it ever happen you come up with a riff or pattern that sounds great and works very well within a song, but you have a feeling that you have already heard it on some other band's album? It's not always easy to determine whether you invented something or you are unconsciously repeating it after someone else. If you were not 100% sure that it is not your idea, would you still decide to leave it out?

For sure. Anything that remotely reminds us of other bands parts will be culled. There's no point having that shit on our conscience. Too many bands work off that plagiarism ideal as a platform for their whole existence, and it's just not something we're comfortable with.

6.It seems to be very important for you to control your art to the very last detail. From the writing process through producing the record to designing the artwork, layout and even the website and Myspace profile. It all works very well in my opinion, as through the union of all elements Ulcerate becomes a large, multidimensional being (excuse me for being a bit pretentious). A lot of bands fail when it comes to something more than just music, and it is sad to see a great record with terrible artwork (like for example Morbid Angel's "Domination" – what the hell is that?). However, don't you feel that there is a certain risk in doing everything by yourself, and not allowing people from outside of the band to have any input? Or do you see a greater risk in loosing control over some of the things associated with the band?

No there's no risk at all, even if people think that what we produce is worthless, at least they can say it's 'unique' haha. But seriously, I'm still of the opinion that the underground should remain as DIY as possible if you have the means and ability. I'm not really even sure that the term DIY exists for most bands these days - a lot of carbon copies with production from the same production houses and sporting album art and merch designs from the same 3 or 4 cliche'd artists. It's so fucking homogenised, and it just bores me to tears.

When I think of other people handling our art for example, I can't imagine staying passive for long without having strong direction ideas. I've said it before, that I don't think any of us in the band are the best players / sound engineers / artists / writers etc, it's not about technical proficiency at all. It's about conveying the vision, the ideas and themes that we've worked hard to establish.

7.Speaking of artwork, you did all the cover art for your releases. I know that your job is related to graphic design, but I'm curious if, as an artist (let's not be afraid to use this word) you feel more like a musician or a painter/designer? What came first, your interest in music or visual arts, drawing etc? What techniques do you use? Is it only digital, or do you do some traditional painting as well? What are your influences?

Well, I am afraid to use the term 'artist' as I don't create works on a regular basis, and whenever I do they're in a design context (ie they problem solve in a graphical way). I'd say it's an even split between music and design, but I get more excited by music, whereas design I'm almost never satisfied. As a kid I used to be able to draw like hell, so I guess that came first. Have lost that ability out of lack of practise these days though.

In terms of the album layouts etc, all digital compositing work. I photograph and scan things and manipulate them as best I can. I get asked a lot if the works are painted or not, which is totally what I'm aiming for. I hate the 'Photoshop' look, and do my best to stay away from it, even if I use it as my tool. I can't paint, so I use various techniques to still try and get an organic feel.

8.Why did you choose drums as your main instrument? Was there any particular recording that influenced this choice, or was it more because you tried playing different instruments and playing drums simply seemed the best choice?

Not sure, they're just fucking cool! When I was 11 and 12 I started buying tapes, and found I could separate out what the drummers were doing for some reason, go figure. I play (or can play) guitar as well, but haven't the time to actually play on a daily basis, which sucks.

9.When it comes to recording, I know that you are in favor of a natural, organic sound rather than the processed/fixed drums that are so popular nowadays. As I understand, for "Everything is Fire' only the kick drums were replaced with a sample of the same drum kit. Why wasn't it possible to record actual sounds in this case? Was it because they would be "buried" in the mix?

That's the one, just the kicks. We did record the acoustic kicks, all the cleaner sections use mic-only. But by using that same sample throughout the heavy parts, you can always feel and hear them without having to resort to boosting higher frequencies and getting that fucking typewriter sound. I've only heard a few albums I really like with natural kick drums in an extreme metal context. At the end of the day, my answer is I just enjoy the sound of it more versus a mic'd kick, in this context.

10.Are you a drum fetishist? Do you have a favorite album that you particularly like because of the sound of the drums?

Yeah unfortunately. Don't think many drummers aren't! I like a lot of music that I really can't stand melodically because the drummers are ridiculous (funk/jazz mostly). Likewise with a lot of the really well produced pop albums, only for the drum tones. With metal though, it's the music I've always actually enjoyed the most, so I don't really critique albums on drum sound alone, particularly when a lot of metal is roughly produced.

11.In one of the interviews you mentioned Alex Hernandez as one of your main influences, and called him "possibly the best drummer to come out of death metal". It's not that I'm going to disagree, because his style of playing is fantastic, but I've always felt that more credit should be given to Craig Smilowski, who laid foundations for that style on "Here in After". Alex took it even further, buy I think Craig's contribution was very important. However, since I'm not a drummer, I'd like to know your opinion on the subject. And speaking of Alex, do you know his previous band, Fallen Christ? Their only album, "Abduction Ritual" is amazing.

Yeah for sure man, Craig is a fucking beast - I really really like his playing on 'Here in After' particularly. But I just think there's a little more fluidity to Alex's approach, or at least that's just my opinion. But yeah, Smilowski's style came out of nowhere!! But then again, so did Vigna's writing, and how do you not come up with great drum parts for those riffs!?

12.I know that although you are sometimes labeled as technical/brutal death metal, you are not really comfortable with such description. I guess it is because of all these "technical for the sake of being technical" bands that you really don't have much in common with. To be honest, it is not easy to put a label on Ulcerate. Thankfully you do not follow any recipe, like all those bands that adopt certain style along with an image and lyrical themes, and end up as meaningless clones. Does it irritate you that so many bands, even those playing the most extreme and underground forms of this music, are acting like sheep and claiming it is a virtue?

Metal is the only style of music that needs to slap pathetic titles like 'technical' on the music to give it some redeeming quality (because let's face it, most 'technical' music is like listening to children with ADHD). It's turned it into a big competition, who can play the most notes in any given time. I'm more than happy with developing facility and chops etc, but in most cases, these 'technical' bands really have neither, they just exploit high tempos, often poorly.

And yeah, the adopting label and aesthetic thing is just something we have zero interest in. And I don't care if people can't label us, just call us death metal, that will suffice.

13.Do you see Ulcerate as an underground band? What does the term underground mean to you? In one of the previous issues of our magazine we published a controversial essay about the metal underground, in which the author argued that for most people "being underground" is an excuse for lacking the ability to make your band successful. What do you think of such opinion?

Yeah, I mentioned this earlier. To me underground doesn't necessarily have anything to do with sound or extremity, it's ethos and and a subversive approach. It's about maintaining a sense of integrity in the face of acclaim. And it's about not bending to fucking trends, and selling out on yourself. I don't think money even has to factor into it, a lot of the time monetary 'success' will come to those who have stayed true to themselves. You can split music into two categories - pop and everything else. Pop music is entertainment, written purely to satisfy the listener, whilst any form of honest music written, for lack of a better word, from the heart. And there are a lot of 'metal' bands that fall in that first pop category, so I don't think you can quantify 'underground' on sound alone.

14.The last question may seem as some kind of market research, but its just me being curious. Do you reed any magazines covering extreme music? If so, what interests you most –reviews or interviews? What kind of questions do you find most interesting as a reader? Do you think there is still point in making a printed magazine in times of the Internet?

Not really man, we only get Terrorizer and occasionally Decibel over here, and as much as I appreciate the effort and professionalism of these magazines, I don't really enjoy reading about bands I don't like, then getting punished with ads trying to sell me that shit. And invariably the bands I'm most interested in shy away from mainstream press anyway. I think this is where you get the conflict of interests in terms of that word 'underground'. A commodity like a magazine has to sell units to survive, and we all know, the more ads and pseudo-popular bands you feature, the more you're gonna sell. So the business model is fucked from day one.

I liked them as a kid as they can provide a great introduction to a style, but I never learn anything new from them. Their reviews are usually god-awful too, 4 sentences often cynically/ironically delivered. Web-zines play their part a lot better in terms of content.

15.Thank you very much for this interview. I can't wait to hear the next Ulcerate album! Tell us about your plans for the nearest future and anything else that should be mentioned in your opinion.

Hey thanks man, likewise. For the rest of the year we're writing, with an aim to get the album released early 2011. Then we're looking to get out and touring. Rinse and repeat I guess.

Cheers!
- Jamie

Zann's Music

Interview December 09

Zann: Hi Jamie, how are you doing? I want to say that Ulcerate´s album "Everything Is Fire" was one of the surprises of the year. You are just not a copy of traditional Death Metal bands, you managed to build your own sound. How have the responses of the new album been ?

Thanks man appreciate it! Response has been great so far, think I've only seen one or 2 luke-warm reviews. So it's cool that people are connecting with our music, especially since we really only write to satisfy ourselves, its a fairly self-indulgent album! But then again, all my favourite albums are like that anyway.

Zann: You guys have been compared to Immolation or Gorguts but Ulcerate´s sound incorporates other darker elements and killer atmospheric passages. I imagine it must be difficult for the band not to repeat yourselves so that the songwriting is a very important step. Tell us something about the songwriting process for "Everything Is Fire".

Yeah we certainly fit in that bracket of sound, but we're not trying to merely emulate either of those bands, they're masters of their own sounds. I guess what we've mostly been trying to do is literally come up with parts we've never heard before. We certainly dump anything that remotely reminds us of other band's parts, that shit is unacceptable.

Our process is fairly simple but very thorough, myself and guitarist Mike iron out the rough guitar and drum parts with practice amps and drum pads to work out the overall arrangements. We then take this into the rehearsal room to flesh out the drum lines and work out embellishments for all instrumental sections. Eventually we'll track the song roughly into Protools which we'll use for writing counterpoint bass and guitar lines, so we can begin to hear everything as a whole. Tracking so early in the process really helps with getting a sense of the song, rather than just focusing on your individual parts.

Zann: I`ve noticed "Everything Is Fire" production is much better than past albums. The guitar sound is shocking and the mix is just perfect. I imagine that the experience of your previous albums has helped to find that sound. Jamie, how was the recording process?

Yeah I mean we were certainly going for something a lot warmer, something which smoothes out the edges of the 'Of Fracture' sound. The process was very simple, as we'd been doing the aforementioned pre-production trackings for each song, so it was just a matter of finding the right tones and putting down a satisfactory performance, without worrying about any song structuring. Drum tracking was a couple of days, guitars were 4 or so, bass and vocals were probably a day or 2 all up each. We mixed and mastered this one ourselves, and we really don't do to much in fhe way of 'studio magic', just try and find space for each instrument and balance everything out. The mix is definetly not perfect per se, but it's balanced enough that the instruments don't fight for sure.

Zann: Let´s talk a little about the past. Tell me about the band history, how has it begun? Was it hard to find skilled musicians to play such extreme music?

Myself and guitarist Mike Hoggard started the band in high school, and we went through various line-ups until the first album. We worked with vocalist Ben Read and guitarist Mike Rothwell for a number of years before the decision was made to part ways for various reasons. We released 'EIF' as a 3 piece, then shortly thereafter recruited Oliver Goater as second guitar. It's always been difficult to maintain a consistant lineup with this band, both in terms of playing ability and dedication, but the core song writers are always consistant, so there's no issues with quality control or direction.

Zann: So you are from New Zealand, tell me which bands from your country do you think you can recommend us?

Jakob, Creeping, Diocletian, Vassafor, Witchrist...

Zann: Jamie I´m curious about your musical tastes. What bands are you into these days?

Craft, Jakob, Exmortem, Antaeus, Arkhon Infaustus, Deathspell Omega, Immolation, Sigur Ros, Katatonia, Gorguts, Today is the Day, Bohren und der Club of Gore, Creeping, Isis, Rotten Sound, Cult of Luna, Disavowed, Hate Eternal to name a few...

Zann: Your drumming style is amazing, the tempos change and the slow parts you build guys are awesome. Which drummers have influenced you? Which is your equipment?

Thanks man, appreciate it. I think a mixture of great metal drummers and the higher profile clinic / pro drummers is more or less where my style comes from: Benny Greb, Marco Minneman, Aaron Spears, Jojo Mayer, Gavin Harrison, Dave Weckl, John Longstreth, Kai Hahto, Romain Goulon, Derek Roddy.

Equipment wise, at the moment I'm using PDP drums and mostly Sabian cymbals. Fairly straight-forward setup, two kick drums, two rack toms, two floor toms. I use a pretty symmetrical cymbal setup, 2 of each syle of cymbal either side of the kit, and just try to have a mix between dense/loud and delicate sounds, for example AA rock hats with HHX groove hats, Raw ride and an HH Duo ride. Just to cover all bases for what we're doing dynamically.

Zann: Have you noticed a creativity stagnation in Death Metal and a revival of old school style? What's your take on the scene at the moment?

Yeah for sure, it's been like that for years. This whole decade has only really produced a couple of metal releases I'm really sold on, most of which are black metal. A lot of death metal seems to be heading into more sterile clinical sound which just does nothing for me. The old school thing is kinda cool, but it's just re-hashing ideas done 20 years ago

Zann: Let`s go on with the previous question, in your opinion, in what does Ulcerate differ from other technical Death Metal bands?

Well for starters I really hate that term as it implies we write music for the sake of being hard to play and to show off our chops, which couldn't be farther from the truth. I think where we differ is we're very focused on atmosphere, regardless of how difficult a part is to play. We also have a very strong emphasis on capturing a sound for us that is very organic, we're not at all interested in sounding cold and clinical.

Zann: Jamie, have you made all Ulcerate covers? Please let us know the idea behind the cover artwork of "Everything...'?

Yeah I handle all our visual design and artwork. The cover piece is purely a visual represention of the music and lyrical themes. The album's overall context is that everything is in a consistant state of change and evolution, how this relates to the human condition, and how it affects our daily interactions. So the cover is a metaphorcial depiction of this, asides from the torso imagery, there's nothing figurative abut the art, it's just an illustration of an overall idea.

Zann: Are you guys involved into other bands or projects besides Ulcerate?

Not a this point, no.

Zann: Jamie, thanks for this interview. If you want to give a message to your listeners and fans here in Argentina this is the moment.

Cheers for the interview and support man. Cheers to anyone who listens and appreciates what we do!

Jamie / Ulcerate

Metalist webzine

Interview December 09

1. Hi Jamie, and thanks for doing this interview! I'd like to start with your new album – Everything Is Fire, first – what does the title relate to?

The title is a quote from the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, referring to all things being in a constant state of change, evolving at every moment, rather than any chaos notion. So, a huge theme for the album was how humanity and culture kind of ignores this ideal and separates a lot of things into strict black and white, us vs them thinking, which inevitably leads to conflict and intolerance.

2. Musically you're mostly defined as Brutal death metal, but I have to say there's plenty more in the music, what elements do you try and incorporate into your music?

Yeah we've never given ourselves that tag, I think it's enough to say we fit under the death metal envelope and leave it at that. I certainly don't think we play orthodox death metal by any stretch of the imagination, but I hate sub-labelling bands to try and fit them into a pocket.

I don't think we actively set out to incorporate specific sounds into our music, it's just kind of evolved this way. We've always had it on our minds that we wanted to get more and more dynamic as our albums progressed, more atmospheric and ambient whilst still maintaining a very bleak and crushing backbone. So this album utilises a lot of different elements to paint the picture we're after. First and foremost we use a lot of counterpoint melodies across the 4 instruments. Orchestration is a hugely untapped resource with rock bands, and I think it really can make your sound huge and forceful having the instruments work off each other and not always adhere to unison or harmonization. We also use a lot of melody layering to build very heavy sections and put them through the roof almost into the sphere of white noise. The other side of this is our very minimalist approach in some sections giving breathing room and space, as well as setups for climax points.

3. One thing about the album's tracks, is that they're longer, and seemingly more complex than the ones in your last album – Of Fracture and Failure, how would you compare the two albums?

I think that this album is a more involved listen, and is certainly more mature for us in terms of structure. It's more and less complex at the same time - with 'Of Fracture' we were experimenting with some very linear song writing, the songs took a long time to put together, and sometimes when I listen back it feels like some of it is convoluted for the sake of it. We were very intent on creating a mindfuck of a listen, something that steamrolls you first time round. But with the second album, we've learnt what things work and don't work for us, so there's a lot more rhythmic and phrasing restraints, but I think within this the string and drum melodies are a lot more complex and individualistic. But I think that mostly comes from improving as players over 2 years and getting a feel for what we want to play and listen to.

4. You changed labels with the new one, why did you decide to move from Neurotic to Willowtip records?

We had communication issues with Neurotic at a crucial time and it was hard to know what they were thinking as there were no replies to emails etc. The album would have come out on Willowtip anyway due to them licensing Neurotic's albums for the States, so it was a natural choice.

5. I just read that Metalreviews chose your album as one of the essential metal albums of the decade, what did you feel about that and their review of the album?

Well that's flattering that people think highly of the album for sure, both with the review and the nomination. Its certainly a cool thing for us that so many people seem to respect what we're doing, as we really have no intention of compromising or pandering to what people would like to hear or what's in vogue. I would be very happy if we can continue in this tradition for sure, a huge fear of mine is being a part of a project that caters to what sells / is popular.

6, with music as complex and extreme as yours, the writing process is always something I'm interested in, how do you write your songs? Who writes what and how long does it take to get the complete piece together?

Guitarist Mike Hoggard and myself write and have always written every Ulcerate song as a collaboration. We flesh each part out 'acoustically' with practice amps and drum pads. This lets the initial ideas come out a lot faster as we can talk as we play around with ideas. We'll record these initial ideas then take them into the rehearsal room and start actually playing them, orchestrating drum parts etc. After a few weeks of this we usually have the shell of a song, so we'll very roughly record this for an objective listen. The final stages involve semi-decently recording scratch tracks of a rhythm guitar and drums, which we'll use to then write the second rhythm guitar and bass parts, as well as embellished guitar overlays. Lyrics are written (handled by vocalist/bassist Paul) to the final product and constructed in such a way that the tone of the lyrics reflect where the song is going musically.

7, your drumming is definitely one of the standouts in the band, and as with most bands as technically proficient as yours, the drums are a major instruments in the music. First – who are your idols as far as your style of drumming is involved?

Cheers man, appreciate it. As a teenager I was more or less exclusively listening to extreme metal, so that's where I got my introduction to guys like Derek Roddy, Tony Laureano, John Longstreth, Kai Hahto, Dave Culross, Alex Hernandez. So from a metal perspective those were the guys who I thought were doing really stand-out work within the style. The older I get the more I'm into drummers like Gavin Harrison, Benny Greb, Mike Mangini, Marco Minneman, Virgil Donati, Jojo Mayer, Aaron Spears from a purely drumming perspective. Musically speaking a lot of the styles that these guys are involved with I don't find myself listening to too often, but their ideas behind the kit are fucking ridiculous.

8. Looking at extreme metal as a fan, not as a musician, what would you say are the most important albums in the genre? Which ones influenced you the most?

I think something to bear in mind here is my first listening experience with metal is around '98, so I'm going to be bias towards albums of that era

Immolation - Failures... and Close to a World Below
Cryptopsy - Whisper Supremacy
Deathspell Omega - All latter albums
Angelcorpse - The Inexorable
Gorguts - From Wisdom to Hate / Obscura
Rotten Sound - Murderworks
Eucharist - Mirrorworlds
At the Gates - Terminal Spirit Disease
Nasum - Human 2.0

9. What's the idea behind your kind of drumming? What's the main thing that your consider when deciding on a certain drum line in a song?

I think the biggest things I focus on is diversity and dynamics, making sure that no 2 parts across individual songs are too reminiscent of each other, and that everything is not just full blasting or double kick for an entire song. Obviously we have a lot of cleaner sections where that kind of approach wouldn't even remotely work. But overall I try to write in a more ostinato fashion, to give the parts breathing room and hopefully be a lot more melodic than just keeping time for a riff. I've gotten to a point with my drumming that I'm no longer trying to prove anything with speed or anything like that, I just want to create drum parts that are unique and hopefully something that are distinctly Ulcerate.

10. There's a school of thought, certainly with old-school and more traditionally oriented metal-heads, that technical and extreme metal such as the one you guys play – lack soul, and is overly technical and cold, what is your approach to that?

I agree, because 90% of extreme metal is very sterile and clinical, and we're guilty of this in the past too. But what we're into as of late is steering away from that school of thought, the complexity for complexity's sake and trying to out-do other bands with playing abilities. That's sporting bullshit that needs to be avoided.

11. You guys are from New Zealand, what kind of a metal scene is there right now?

It's pretty dead at the moment, or at least in terms of quality bands that have drive and an ounce of ambition. There's a handful of bands doing great things though - Diocletian, Witchrist, Creeping, Vassafor

12. Did the fact you guys leave there hinder you in any way, mainly with gigging in Europe, the US Etc.?

Leave NZ? We haven't left NZ...

13. I noticed you have a tour with Nile coming on, what countries will it include, and how do you feel about touring with them?

Well as I'm writing this we're two thirds of the way through the tour, and things have been really fucking awesome. Nile and the other 4 bands are killer to tour with, couldn't have asked for better personalities on a tour. The countries we're visiting include Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, The Netherlands, UK...

14. I noticed that both you and Paul are active in a band called Abystic Ritual, what's the story behind that?

A black death side project that we worked on in this past with Ulcerate's old vocalist James Wallace. We released a demo ep just for laughs, nothing serious, and the project is defunct now.

15. Finally, what's next for you guys? What does 2010 hold in store for you?

We'll be working on album no. 3 this year, so that's certainly the main priority. Asides from that we're doing a small run of headline shows in Australia early February.

Transcend zine

Interview July 09

1) Hi Jamie there again! The new album is something what the Death Metal needed and all I could have hoped for after OFAF. In regard of the album title Everything Is Fire - representing "everything is in a constant state of change and progression" - there can be found some conjunction with the fact that you live on the Northern Island of NZ which is in fact a volcanic paradise, lake Taupo hides a super-volcano - a major devastating force, Auckland area is a Volcanic field, there's something still going on beneath the surface definitely, seismic movements, earth-shaking, with Ulcerate you seem to bring the volcanoes alive. I wouldn't wonder if all this had some subconscious influence on you. To say the least, volcanoes represent Everything Is Fire in a way too, they are are shaping the face of the earth since the very beginning, it's a continual, changes causing force. Have you ever dealt with this dimension of the album title and the conjunction with the things down there? An yway how much awareness about the volcanic nature under your feet you have, experiences and crisis plans have you got down there in NZ regarding the eruptions threats etc.? And don't you plan on leaving the NZ to some more stable piece of continent now, when you started it all, ahah?

Cheers man. Well, simple answer is 'no' really - there's no ecological connotations to the album title at all, it's at much more of an inner, human level, rather than a more clichéd apocalypse theme. We've got inactive volcanoes all around New Zealand, everyone knows the score, no big deal! The odds of catastrophe are pretty low.

2) Michael and you, Jamie, are the masterminds of the band. Last you talked pretty much about the ways you compose. For now, could you talk about lessons that you learned from Of Fracture And Failure in terms of the de-constructing/arranging your music? You know many things you sort of automatize and next pop-up and require you to pay attention to them in order to master'em and can evolve further. Also there should be things that you might avoid completely this time or those aspects you've just continued to incorporate into the music and/or improved them. Does something changed drastically within this process this time? The so called chemistry between you guys has to be really superb from what I read and hear. How have your attitude to linear song-writing evolved as such with the new album? Isn't it a bit bounding (I know it's challenging as well) to be sticking with this formula?

Okay, well with the last album we set out from the beginning of writing to come up with a sound bordering on chaos and very suffocating in terms of breathing space (or lack thereof). So this resulted in a serious amount of parts per song that all needed to be bridged together to work. Initially I guess you could relate the earliest written songs on the album to something like Cryptopsy's 'Whisper Supremacy', whereby it's more-or-less a string of shortish sections that make the whole. It wasn't until something really clicked with us by the time we were writing the later songs on the album (Martyr, Defaeco etc) that we tried to tone that approach down a little bit.

So, with regards to writing this album, these approaches were the first that we worked on - Everything is Fire is a lot denser, but just written a lot more maturely. It's not perfect by any means, but it's much more satisfying for us to play these songs than the older stuff, as it's a lot more natural. We stretch sections out that need to be accented and really pay attention to flow and smoothness, regardless of how chaotic a part may be. So yeah, our writing chemistry is getting easier and easier as time goes by, because we're getting more and more of an idea of where we want to go with this band. We've got the exact same taste in music, and there's really no ego at all involved when we write.

The attitude remains the same in terms of linear writing - it's the most liberating way of writing this kind of music. Bounding would be knowing that there's a format already set out for a song before you sit down and write it. We've evolved how we approach this method of writing in that where possible, we try to write songs from top to bottom, one part after another, rather than a collection of riffs or patterns and arranging those. Not 100% possible all the time of course, but when it works, it seems to really make the songs grow themselves, and we don't get hung up on trying to slot in a really good part into a bunch of riffs.

3) Also on the note of OFAF and EIF albums - it seemed that you literally let your instruments fight on OFAF over the top many times but on EIF everything is so incredibly fitting, compelling and compact, I just can't get enough of this cohesive union.

Yeah, but that comes down to the production and playing abilities. The Of Fracture tunes are certainly not easy songs to play, and obviously 3 years ago we didn't play as well as we do now. Production-wise, as I said earlier with the song-structure, we wanted the production to be smooth, organic, warm. Most metal albums these days are sterile, cold, mechanical with little or no atmosphere, which just doesn't appeal to me at all. So if you take our approach of ironing out the chaotic vibe of Of Fracture and produce it as organically as possible, then we've hopefully gotten close to how we want to sound.

4) The atmosphere of the new album just doesn't get a listener a space to breathe and I think you have silenced all those who were saying OFAF was souless and empty album, which apparently wasn't at all! Hopefully the new one will help them to understand the old album as well, don't you think?

Yeah for sure, everything's just a stepping stone to the next album, so I'm sure you can hear what we we were trying to do with Of Fracture. We didn't always succeed, and a lot of the songs are to over-the-top for my liking these days, but without that experimentation, we would never have known what works and what doesn't - and the same will be said with the next album.

5) Also what's your attitude towards solos, any chances they will be brought to Ulcerate music in the future?

They're not for us unfortunately. They don't fit with the vibe of the material at all, and we just don't need them as compositional devices. We already go pretty overboard with the amount of guitar tracks on the albums! We're about defying tradition, and the guitar lead is just that, a tradition that stems from jazz and blues trading 4's etc. It seems a little ridiculous that only the 'lead' guitarists take solos when none of the other musicians do (certainly not saying that's a good idea haha). I really enjoy certain bands with iconic solos who use them as compositional devices, but the majority of the time it's just ego-stroking.

6) How exactly you work on the guitar layering. The guitar arrangements are just incredible, the tones, dis-harmonies come out just from another space. The dual attacks, the fresh riffs and avancements, man, that's something what wasn't here for quite some time in such an amount & pure creative spirit! How many tracks have you actually used in the studio when laying down the guitars?

We use 4 rhythm tracks (2 per channel) to thicken the sound, and 3 channels for overlaid counterpoint melodies. We spent a long number of hours working out counterpoint parts for the rhythm tracks - it's pretty rare on the album the the L and R channels are playing the same thing, so this adds to the density. And in the really dense parts (end of Soullessness Embraced, Everything is Fire etc), we have the the rhythms playing counterpoint, along with 3 separate overlaid lead channels also playing counterpoint parts. Not to mention the bass lines throughout the album very rarely follow the guitars as well. So, when you add this altogether that's a lot of melody and harmony, and it gives it a very unified, thick and rich tone, that you can only get via this method. It's a lot of work, but it really pays off. We also manage to get 90% of this effect live with our guitarist's' abilities to loop patterns and then play off of them.

7) Also when it comes to drum patterns, that's something to be adored on Ulcerate as well, your style of playing is like painting (you called it layering in our previous interview I think). It's like watching a colorful painting grow and entirely swallowing the listener. Where are all those 'colors' flowing from, man? I've read in another interview with you that you can't play jazz but you definitely seem to understand and being inspired with it, don't you? Would you agree you can use or try to use something from the jazz drumming ways, playfullness in Ulcerate? You know, the metal drummers are in majority of case 90% stamina but you seem to accent your way of playing from an opposite side as well.

It's not so much a matter of being not able to play jazz - I just don't play the style convincingly as I've only ever dabbled in learning it properly. Like any well-established musical form, jazz has a huge history that players draw from and understand - of which I only have an outside understanding. I've never been a huge fan of traditional jazz, I have a lot of respect for it, but the vibe does nothing for me. And besides, the style of drumming that I bring into a death metal context has more to do with guys like Marco Minneman, Benny Greb, Jojo Mayer, Gavin Harrison or Carter Beauford than any jazz drumming. So yeah, I like to colour and add a lot of subtleties (huge fan of closed hi-hat work!), even if most people won't notice it - and this just comes from listening to guys like the aforementioned - drummers with a very deep understanding of music that are able to play around and make their parts sound really alive and improvised. With great drumming, it's the small stuff that sticks out and really grabs my attention. Anyone can do 16th note rolls for minutes on end, I'd rather hear broken patterns and embellishments on top of that foundation that are in a musical context.

8) Let me tell you the use of the deep vocals is something that I can't find words for to say how much I appreciate it. This is not my Death Metal narrow-minded conservatism (eventhough I like it), I loved Ben vocals immensely, but I still have in mind vocals on The Coming Of Genocide and I was dying to hear the low vocals within the current expression of Ulcerate. How much effort needed Paul to invest into his vocal transition, how difficult the process was till his vocals got the right tinge? In the end do you find a musician who is doing vocals more benefiting for the band in terms of phrasing accuracy in comparing with just a vocalist who isn't instrumentally any skilled? Also, can you reveal how do you lay down the vocal patterns into the music?

Yes, we're very pleased to make a return to that sound. It's something we wanted with Ben as well, but we were willing to try out something a little different. But this time around, no, it needed to be done.

Paul put in months of practise coupled with a lot of recording sessions to mark the progress, but he's totally mastered the art now and it really fits like a glove. Ironic given how long he was in the band before we even thought of trying this out... And yeah - a musician who handles an instrument at the same time has vastly superior phrasing and rhythm, it's really tightened up that side of things. The vocals always land where they should live now, which makes the whole band a more powerful outfit.

Paul arranges the lyrics to the music - the order of writing is music first, lyrics second, then arrangement of said lyrics. So it's just a matter of working out amongst us which parts feel right with vocals and which should be left free. The last stage of arranging happens at the tracking stage, where minor changes are made as need-be.

9) Another thing! The eruptive hell & destructive tension of the bass distortion you have played around for the first time on EIF! This is just another thing that makes the new album more Taupo (eruptive and moving). But how come you were not trying to mess with it/using it on your previous releases? Afraid of sounding to Mortician-like? In the end you have to be satisfied. In your own words, where has it moved the Ulcerate expression, how have it altered Ulcerate's sound and the music feeling? Better than you expected I would guess!?

I think between the last album and this album we were exposed to a lot of bands not necessarily from metal that were using distorted bass in a really effective and crushing manner. It can be an absolute force in projecting monster tone, so we were keen to give it a go. Especially with the amount of slower sections on this album, it allowed us to really use the bass as a destructive backbone. We're using quite rhythmically stripped-back bass lines on Everything is Fire against the guitars, and it gives a hugely solid sound - and it treats the instrument more like it should be - a rhythm instrument all of it it's own, rather than a '3rd guitar' scenario.

10) You ended up engineering/mastering/mixing the album. The fact that you know what you want and go for it at 200% is admirable as well as the result you got. How have you managed to master these operations? I think already OFAF had a sound all bands striving for organic/powerful yet clean sound could envy. What are your main concerns you put the main emphasis on when you are at every single stage of these aforementioned duties? There's also this thing, you know, it's couple of times I heard from other bands that they would do these duties on their own but they don't have the necessary distant look at the material recorded (this applies to mastering/mixing) and after spending hours in studio, they seem to think to perceive things differently - not as objectively as few weeks after recording is finished. How do you keep up this distance and how exhausting it can be since you have to record your instrument to it etc.

Well, it's just out of necessity that we handle the production side of things. The art comes naturally and I would never let anyone else touch anything that was trying to represent what we're getting across. That's just way too personal. The intent with this album was the same as the last, track and mix then send overseas to be mastered. Which we did, but the mastering was just never quite right, so we just fell back on some test mastering I was playing around with. Certainly not claiming that this is a highly professional job by any means, but it's as close to what's in our heads as we can get.

In terms of distance from the material etc - yeah, that is a pretty horrible part of it, knowing when to let go etc. Taking a week or 2 away from the recording straight after tracking is pretty crucial, and just trying to stay as objective as possible. Next time around I'm certainly keen to have someone else take a look at the mix side of things, we'll see I guess.

11) I am not a fan of the 5.1 surround sound used for music, not sure how about you. But during few initial listens to EIF that idea suddenly spurt onto my mind, that album in 5.1 could maybe brought another overwhelming dimension to the listening experience...

The way I view music is that it's a stereo artform. 5.1 would probably sound quite weird - although I guess for the more layered parts it could be effective. Would be a bastard to mix though haha

12) What albums productions do you see as real influence, something that you can learn of or just astounding productions worth mentioning for their significant mark on Death Metal? On the contrary what's definitely a no-no production-wise?

The early Morrisound productions are all fucking amazing, even right through to albums like Angelcorpse's 'Inexorable' and Suffocation's 'Despise the Sun' Some of the Mana productions are really nice (not so much the latter outputs though, or at least to my tastes). I really enjoy a lot of the Swedish studio sound - Berno, Bergstrand, Nordstrom etc. Cult of Luna's productions are immense and really great on the ears, although of course not death metal. For me, and for us as a band, it's crucial that bands come across sounding like how they would in the room. Warm, acoustic sounding recordings are something to strive for with this genre, as lately, everything' has become so digital and fixed sounding. That shit is an insult on the ears. Maybe if I wasn't a musician who was so used to the recording process I wouldn't have such a harsh opinion on this matter, but honestly, almost every album these days is just so processed and fake sounding. So I guess for me no-no's with production are drum samples that sound like type-writers, drums that a quantised and aligned to a grid (so transparent, and just sounds like shit), and the ultra 'clean' and sterile mixes. Extreme music needs to sound extreme - or it at the very least needs to sound real.

13) I don't know how intentional and conceptual it might be, but truth is all your three album covers have various contours of man, human body parts interweaving through them and similar colors are used. Jamie! Time to reveal the secrets. Also how much is the lyrics of inspiration here for the art? Will you give it a try few albums later to get some Pantone 'endorsement' deal like renaming one of their brown swatches to Ulcerate?

Yeah, not intentional per se, it just comes from the lyrical subject matter - which has always been the surrounding human condition. The colour thing is also not intentional, just something that I've gravitated towards subconsciously. I guess I have very little objectivity with this kind of thing, so it's always going to be a little self-indulgent. But I think first and foremost, the album art does reflect the mood of the music, so regardless of palette, it's doing it's job! I would like to point out though that the inner panel art for all 3 albums is pretty individual, and something I spend a great deal of time getting right.

Lyrics are the be-all-and-end-all of the art as they provide a context from which to work. Naturally, the lyrics come from the music, and the art comes from the lyrics, so everything is inextricably linked. The words on the page tell the story, and the music informs the delivery and tone - which I then try to illustrate via the art.

14) When we did the first interview, I got a great response about it from a guy named Goaters, he seemed to be great fan of the band. Later on his name ended up being listed as one of Ulcie members. What's the story, how he did fit into the Ulcerate org? Any stories from his participation in the band? I've heard something like he fucked up some of your gigs because he set up some things differently or something. Anyway how much people were able to fill in the shoes for the 2nd guitarist spot? Having someone capable as Oliver, with a real metal name (the Saint one really needed an opposition) and really being a fan fired into the music you create; it couldn't get much better, hm?

We found Oli just through various shows and him always showing an interest in what we were doing. He learnt a track or 2 and recorded him jamming it, and from there the rest is history. Up until this point his task has been solely just learning material, with the occasional live show here and there. Not sure what the rumours you talk of though are? But yeah, everything is working out great, it's really tightened up the second guitar slot, something we've always struggled with other members.

15) This one is really something I would like to know. In almost all of the reviews you are compared to Deathspell Omega. Aside of the fact it's a killer band, I don't see this comparison too valid, what's your opinion?

Sure there can be found similarities, in my opinion maybe even more on OFAF due to the dissonance going on there but I definitely see your background somewhere else, do you? One of my friends have called you Immoguts, although you stand pretty much on your own with EIF, are those bands you would agree on as being the important influence? The Coming Of Genocide had also Hate Eternal traces for me definitely.

Well it's a valid comparison for a few of the parts on the album, but it's not intentional at all. Most of the album was written before either of us started to really pay attention to DsO. There's possibly just an overlap of influence and ideas and intentions between the 2 bands, I'm not sure. But yeah, Immolation and Gorguts have obviously had a large effect on us, given that we inhabit that kind of sound. But we are trying to do our own thing, and the more we write, the more I think we distance ourselves from any band. Hard to say, time will tell I guess. But the earlier material definitely wears its influences on it's sleeve a lot more, but that's unavoidable when your like 21 just starting out.

16) It's quite some time actually, but to me The Coming Of Genocide demo was a big promise for the future then, the potential was evident and already with OFAF I got more than I could've ever imagined and asked for. How do you view this Death Metal onslaught you created back then, what were you striving for with that demo?

We were starting to think along the lines of what we're doing today, but there was a lot more emphasis on being tight and more classically death metal sounding. There's bits and pieces of experimentation with melody and rhythmic ideas, but as I said before, we were just starting out trying to find our footing. The demo itself was purely to serve as a promotional tool, and for us to actually hear what we sound like. Production-wise, it was very minimal - for example the drums are mic'd with a single mic. The idea was tight and clean as possible.

17) What you think of following drummers and would you say they have some particular contribution to the style?

George Kolias
Very tight and very fast, great technique

John Longstreth
Awesome technique player, and a pioneer for introducing different ideas into the standard 3 or 4 beats that death metal drummers use.

Brandon Thomas
Not familiar enough with his output to have a really solid opinion.

Alex Marquez
Kinda same as above, I've only really heard 'Retribution' with him on it - and it's got that really really solid backbone and sense of beat placement that lacks in latter day extreme music.

Derek Roddy, for Derek Roddy I would like to know your opinion on his 'jazzy & improvising' talent, since I think he is first and foremost a Death Metal drummer, when attempting at some improvising stuff it always sounded me miles away from what it should be, it was like hearing him count than just letting the feeling and skill flow out.
Yeah, he has exceptional feel for blast beats that is really unmatched - and it would have been nice to see a couple more Hate Eternal albums with him. The jazz stuff I've heard him play sounds like what it is, a death metal guy playing jazz, not necessarily a bad thing though. It translates awesomely through his DM playing - the bits and pieces on 'I, Monarch' for example where he drops the pace a little makes for some killer sections.

Alex Hernandez
The master, and possibly the best drummer to come out of death metal - not in a conventional technique sense - but in terms of creativity and beat placement. Also, his (or Immolation in general) ability to go for the slower groove rather than just constant hammering should be applauded and emulated more often.

18) Jamie, I must admit the beginning of Drown Within is completely melting actually one of the countless albums peaks right at its opening. Could you describe how have you come up with something so huge? Were you sure this one is going to kick off the album? When it comes to song order could you give an outlook on how have you picked up the songs when choosing their place on the album?

The hugeness just comes from layering - counterpoint and instruments playing off one another. We wanted something slow and lumbering to kick the album off, and hint at the dynamic content of the album (using the clean, haunting section after the first riff).

The rest of the album's ordering sort of flows on from 'Drown' - 'Everything is Fire' was the obvious closer, and we just slotted in everything else by varying the pace and making sure the mood travelled well over each song - that there was no disjointed-ness.

19) What is the old Ulcerate vocalist, James Wallace, up to by the way? Does he recovered and doing some bands? Is he still keeping an eye on Ulcerate? Hope he does like the new album and so does Ben I believe.

He plays drums for a black metal / rock act called Creeping. We're still buds, seem him regularly. I know Ben's into the new stuff, most of it was written when he was still doing shows with us.

20) Jamie, time to close the talk down till your next album. Hopefully next time we will talk here about your shows in Europe and maybe the USA. Just keep on moving the Ulcerate thing, you guys made Death Metal do a step forward once again with EIF and that's how it should be. Thanks for you time and input! A conclusion to this chapter is yours.

That's the plan man - by the time we get back from touring this year we'll be looking at album #3, we have no plans to soften the sound or dumb it down. Hopefully too we can get to the US in the next year or so and really start to get a roll on with touring.

Thanks again for the interview Jan, appreciate your efforts!

Cheers
- Jamie

www.ulcerate-official.com
www.myspace.com/ulcerate
ulcerate@gmail.com

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www.candlelightrecords.co.uk
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Brutal Carnage zine

Interview June 09

1. Jamie, greetings from Brutal Carnage Zine and Russian fans! Tell us a few words about yourself. For how long have you been into death metal? When did you realize you'll play one of the most extreme music styles?

I've been into this style of music since early high school, I'm 25 now, so 12 years. Started to actually think about playing it full-time at around 17/18.

2. Ulcerate is an insane mix of brutal and technical music. Share with us how can you make a madness like Ulcerate? What bands were the inspiration moved you into metal music?

Well, we just sit down and write the music we'd like to hear. I got into death metal because of it's suffocating, unrelenting density, and for lack of a better world 'evilness'. So Ulcerate's always strived to kinda take this essence and do something of our own with it. I was never drawn to this music because of how clinical or tight the musicians could be, or how fast the drummers could make there limbs move. As soon as I heard bands like Obituary (the early material), Bolt Thrower, Suffocation, there was just something so punishing about it. (oddly enough all 3 bands are pretty mid-paced in terms of tempo). Then I guess starting to hear things in black metal I liked in terms of bleakness and morbidity, and the dissonance that bands like Immolation, Gorguts, Today is the Day and even late 90's metalcore bands like early Isis, Dillinger Escape Plan, Bloodlet, Disembodied were experimenting with really peaked my interest at just how different this style of music can be.

3. Some people draw a parallel between Ucerate and Immolation sound. Also multilayer structure of your songs is compared to Gorguts. What do you think about this?

Yeah, we'll take that as a compliment as we love those bands. The thing is, there's so few acts that fall under the more atmospheric, dissonant end of things, and as soon as you do you're going to be compared to one if not both of those bands. But of course, they're huge influences, they redefined the way death metal can be interpreted. Most death metal is pretty par-for-the-course, but both bands have moments of just total sonic terror, its fucking great. But, we're totally trying to find our own sound, and I really don't think you could put any of our material into one of these bands tracks without it sounding wildly out of place.

4. Everything Is Fire bass and drums production is much better than on past album. Reveal us some info about recording process.

Thanks man, always striving to do a little better than last time with each release. The recording process for us is pretty simple, no bells and whistles. We engineer and produce everything ourselves, we have a Pro-Tools rig with a selection of high-end Shure mics that we cart around. We hired out studio space here in Auckland and tracked everything in there, a couple of days for each instrument. This time around, I was working with a brand new kit that really smokes what we were using for previous recordings. We're very meticulous about getting tones and in the case of drums, tunings exactly right for what we want to get across. When it comes to mixing, there's no trickery, we don't edit the drum takes, no beat quantisation or anything hideous like that. Kick drums only are sound-replaced with a kick sample off the actual kit. We just work on balancing the instruments with equalisation and compression, and that's about it.

With regards to the bass, this time around for the first time we've stepped into the territory of full bass distortion, which we're completely sold on. Really thickens up the sound, and glues everything together a lot better. For the tracking we just used a Sans-Amp straight in, and amp emulated the distortion afterwards.

5. AFAIK your new album is conceptual. What's the story behind the lyrics? Any difference between Of Fracture… and Everything Is Fire lyrics?

Well, kinda conceptual, mostly that each song explores an idea in one 'territory'. Not a concept album in a traditional sense, where each song is part of a narrative. The governing idea for the album is that everything is in a constant state of change and evolution, that at any given point there are very little hard truths that we should accept - and when and if we as a species do, we get mass conflict and intolerance. I guess mostly it's commentary on human arrogance and how we perceive our place in our environments, how we deify objects and people out of pure tradition with very little rationalism.

In terms of difference between the 2 albums, Ben's style of lyric on 'Of Fracture' is very metaphorical and perhaps a touch more poetic in terms of language used, whereas Paul's is much more rigid and to-the-point - which is totally what we wanted this time around.

6. What is the meaning of Everything Is Fire cover? Art design is a hobby or a job?

The cover is an illustrative metaphor for the overall theme of the album. It's not meant to be figurative in any way per se, it's just how I interpret a visual for the lyric and musical content. So I guess take what I explained before and try and think of a visual representation, that's more or less what I've done... Art and design are my career, I have a degree in visual arts, and I'm currently working in web design.

7. Do you have music education? What about other band members? Is it possible to play such an ultra-technical music without music education?

Oh totally, we've all taken music classes at school, and lessons on our instruments when we younger. We can all read notation (as far as I know), but in terms of melodic theory, we've only really had theory up to a last-year of high school level. I'm fine with percussive notation and theory, mostly through reading and instructional DVDs etc. In terms of labelling it 'ultra-technical', I definitely wouldn't go that far. It's pretty linear, but it's not really what I would call 'complex' rhythmically or harmonically. Unorthodox, for sure. We do use a lot of odd-time signatures, but that's a by-product of working out sections by jamming, more-so than wanting to make things 'harder' to play. But then again, we're not trying to be a 'technical' band. We spend a lot of time on getting things to feel good even if they're a little challenging to play.

8. Can you tell about last line-up changes? What do you attribute this to?

We parted way with our guitarist Mike Rothwell purely because we were starting to be on a different wavelength in terms of priorities - at the time, he had various other projects on that were detracting from him putting his efforts towards Ulcerate - especially lately as we've been rehearsing most nights of the week and this material needs a pretty solid personal-practise regime to keep things tight. We dropped our old vocalist Ben for two reasons - we were after a return to a much lower, 'classic' vocal, which he just couldn't deliver, and in the long-term he wasn't going to be able to commit to the band on a touring basis. But we're still good friends with these chaps!

9. You and Paul have side projects (e.g. Abystic Ritual). Are they important for you? Any difference between side projects and Ulcerate music?

Side-projects just come and go for various members of the band, nothing that I'd consider important, just either helping out friends, or just doing something a little different here and there. Abystic Ritual is on ice once again for various reasons, but it might rear it's dirty little head at some point haha.

Sonically, yeah, none of the bands are in the same ballpark as Ulcerate.

10. Are there any death metal bands in New Zealand besides Ulcerate? Can you suggest to listen one of them?

Sure, Dawn of Azazel, Diocletian, Witchrist. Creeping, although not death metal, are awesome.

11. Nowadays slam death metal has got much popularity among death metal listeners. Devourment is considered to be the forerunner of slam death metal. What do you think of this style and bands like Devourment, Abominable Putridity, Cephalotripsy and similar to them? Have you ever wanted to play this kind of death metal?

Slam is not really my thing at all, and no, have never wanted to dabble in the style. The closest thing to slam I enjoy would be bands like Disgorge, Defeated Sanity - but even then, never really find myself listening to this stuff too often.

12. How often does Ulcerate play at local gigs? What's your largest audience count?

Lately pretty sparsely, NZ is a very small country and overplaying the same 4 or 5 venues really detracts from killer shows. In the last couple of years most of our shows have been as support for larger acts, so in terms of audience count I guess the 600 or so at a couple of Cannibal Corpse shows, or 500 at the Nile/Decapitated tour would be up there Of course, we can't lay claim to those audience numbers... For local-only shows, 100 is a good turnout, and if you get anywhere near 200, you've pretty much got a New Zealand city's entire scene out for the night!

13. Whom of your stage mates can you mark out in the first place?

You mean best band to share the stage with? The Nile/Decapitated show was great, we actually played with them a few month before Decapitated they had their accident, which was pretty sombre to find out about. Playing with our buds in The Amenta is always killer. Suffocation were really awesome down-to-earth guys, as were the Deeds of Flesh and Disgorge boys.

14. Your last label Neurotic Records has got a bad reputation among death metal listeners. What's your opinion about it? It was bad move to sign on Neurotic or not?

It was a great move for us to sign to Neurotic in the first place - we signed just before things went downhill. The label did a lot of great things for us in terms of promoting our first album, which we'd never complain about. However, I have no idea how that label is being run, and I just don't understand what happened with the whole customer orders debacle etc. We split from the label on a very sour note that I'm not happy about at all, and I know the other bands that bailed from the label were treated the same way.

15. Otherwise, Willowtip - your current label is very respectable and helded on a high esteem. Are you satisfied the way Jason treats Ulcerate?

So-far-so-good for us man. We're not a band whose intent it is to launch some fucking mainstream attack, with more merch than songs and watered-down music for adolescents, we're not looking to be on the biggest 'coolest' label. What we're looking for in a label is honesty, credibility and great customer-relationship, all of which Willowtip has.

17. Is it going to be Everything Is Fire tour? Good idea to hit USA, Europe (maybe even Russia). Is it possible at all?

Yeah man, Europe is on the cards for 2009, that's all I can say about that at the moment...

18. What can you tell about Russian metal scene? Have you ever heard any Russian/CIS (ex-USSR states) metal bands?

I know very little, the only bands that come to mind are Hate Forest, Drudkh? I get the feeling you guys have the same kind of international profile that a country like New Zealand does, in that the rest of the world seems to know very little about what happens here.

19. Today almost everyone can download mp3 and listen to music without buying cd/vinyl/tape. What's your view on this point? Does it hit the interests of labels specializing in extreme music?

I have no problem with it at all - I think its great that you can find an album the moment it drops (most of the time beforehand) and listen to it in it's entirety. It comes down to this, people who I think actually respect our music and what we do will support by buying the albums. I honestly think that if you have a conscience and a respect for the bands who you're supporting by listening, it only makes sense that you'd shell out some $$ for it. And regardless of where you think the money might be going, at the end of the day, the artist benefits - more revenue obviously makes labels happy to put more into their releases and bands (particularly in good relationships with honest labels).

20. Thanks to Wikipedia, I learned that Auckland is the largest urban area in New Zealand and pleasant to look at. What is life in this beautiful place like? Are there still any unsolved problems in the city?

Auckland's a cool city to live in - as is NZ as a country. If we weren't to geographically isolated, this would be easily one of the most sought-after places to live (it kinda is already). The older I get the more I appreciate this country for it's landscape, climate, social structures etc.

21. Can you describe New Zealand by several words? (Is it warm, green, steady or maybe socially-oriented country).

Secular, green, stable, culturally integrated (for the most part).

22. Share your TOP-5 (or more if you want) metal albums.

Eucharist - Mirrorworlds
Deathspell Omega - Fas - Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum
Immolation - Close to a World Below
Hate Eternal - Conquering the Throne
Angelcorpse - The Inexorable

23. Your message to the Russian fans of Ulcerate.

Thanks for listening! Hopefully we can make it out your ways sooner than later...

24. Jamie, thank you very much! Good luck to you and Ulcerate.

Cheers!
Jamie / Ulcerate

www.ulcerate-official.com
www.myspace.com/ulcerate
ulcerate@gmail.com

www.willowtip.com
www.candlelightrecords.co.uk
www.deepsend.com

Metalitalia.com

Interview May 09

First of all, could you please introduce the band to the italian audience?

Sure thing - Ulcerate is a New Zealand death metal outfit, we've been around for nearly a decade now, and we've just released our latest album 'Everything is Fire' through Willowtip Records in the States, and Candlelight in Europe. For any further info, check out our website www.ulcerate-official.com

What have you done from the release of "Of Fracture And Failure", apart from writing the material for the new album?

We've done a slew of international supports here in NZ for bands such as Nile, Decapitated, Behemoth, Psycroptic, The Amenta. Asides from that, our albums take a pretty long time to write, 18 months or thereabouts, so during that period we get very consumed with the task at hand. We've also made some fairly drastic line-up changes - we dropped our vocalist and second guitarist, so we've been in the process of getting everyone up to speed live-wise.

Let's talk about the abum: tell us something about the songwriting process… the material sounds way different from the old stuff.

Well, I don't really find the material to be that different from the last songs we wrote for Of Fracture (Defaeco, Martyr of the Soil, Mask of the Satyr etc) - it's just the next logical step forward in our approach. The process for this album took around 18 months from when we first started looking at bits and pieces for songs. We wrote in chunks of 2-3 songs at a time, then we'd hire some studio space and track those songs as pre-production, rather than doing it as one big chunk. This way we were able to sit on the songs and refine them for a lengthy period to get all the parts as smooth as possible. We also where-possible tried to approach the actual process of songwriting as linear as possible - so we'd work from top-to-bottom, rather than the 'collection of riffs' approach most people take. The track Tyranny was entirely written in this manner, and it's going to be the way we approach things in the future, as I truly believe you get the most organic results.

Stylistically, again, I don't think we've departed from anything we've done in the past, just refined things. There's still a lot of busy chaotic stuff, but I think we've managed to pick apart what works and doesn't after a couple of years of playing the 'Of Fracture' stuff live, and we've finally found a solid way to incorporate a lot of atmosphere and feeling into the framework of our material, without it sounding just strung together (which is why we've only ever touched on it in the past).

Who did come up with the idea of this new Ulcerate style, mixing together death metal and post core?

I find this a really odd way of describing what we're doing, that we're just mixing 2 genres together. It's not our intention, and it's certainly not a singular idea that just popped up. We've been together for almost a decade now, and if you listen through from our very first material through to now, you'll understand how we've arrived at where we have. I hate the notion that extreme metal can only involve one dynamic or sound, and if you add anything else it becomes 'death metal with jazz' or some other equally trite label. I don't think that what we're doing is any more avant-garde than bands like Gorguts / Immolation?

Is there a band Ulcerate feel to have much in common with nowadays? Which one?

We fit right alongside bands like Immolation, Exmortem, Gorguts, Deathspell Omega, Blut Aus Nord, Antaeus, Portal, The Amenta and possibly Hate Eternal to an extent - only in the sense that when I think extreme metal, these are the first kind of bands that actually have that very dark, moody sound to them, and that have never bowed to convention or trend. We're a bunch of guys that just really love music, and couldn't give two flying fucks about what scene or sound we should align ourselves with.

And what about the recording sessions? Is there some particular event that deserves to be told?

The sessions were pretty low-key, we just went in and did our thing methodically, with no real hitches. The drums were tracked over 2 days late August 08, and we finished the other instruments a month or so later, more-or-less a couple of days per instrument. We look after everything ourselves, so it's common territory and we know what we're after tone-wise, so there's not really a lot of experimentation when it comes to the actual album sessions. As I said earlier, we did a lot of pre-production throughout the months leading up to the actual tracking, where we experimented with a lot of different tones, speaker cabs, drum tunings and mic positionings. This is the first album we've done with distorted bass, which gives it a very thick and full sound, and blends with the guitars immaculately.

What are the lyrics dealing with this time?

The lyrics for this album deal with the idea of no absolutes, that everything is in a constant evolving state of change. The angle that we take with this is from our experience as a human being, and exploring the wealth of arrogance and self-importance as a species, and how this affects everything from ethics, politics, religion, ecology etc right through to our daily interactions. It's very atheistic and bordering on nihilistic, just trying to strip back the layers of traditionalism and look at things for what they really are.

What inspires you when you're writing lyrics and music?

Music - anything that has a lot of feeling and an at least an ounce of integrity - certainly doesn't have to be extreme metal. We're not big fans of bands that pander to audiences and mould their sound to fit scene trends, and we try to avoid genre cliches like the plague. Lyrically, again, our lyrics over the past 2 albums represent our collective outlooks on life, we don't write about fantasy or tell stories.

What's the meaning of the title of the album?

The album title is a quote from the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, which as I said earlier, is a way of saying that everything is in a constant flow of change, and so to accept 'truths' and then go to war (either figuratively or literally) over these truths is unbelievably short-sighted. Every hundred years or so grand paradigms of thought, be it social, politic, scientific etc - radically change and we look back as though everything was so archaic - as a species still haven't managed to grasp the idea that maybe the present isn't the be-all-and-end-all. Yet we still have fascist religious zealots, racists/culturists running rampant. Idiots.

How did you get in touch with the guys of Willowtip/Candlelight Records? Weren't you satisfied with your previous label?

We ran into a roadblock with Neurotic Records that a few other bands on the roster also hit, where the lines of communication were basically null and void for a couple of crucial months, so we made the decision to look elsewhere for this album. This resulted in us needing to seeking legal advice to deal with some issues with Neurotic, and we decided that we needed to get our music very far away from that situation. We were licensed through Willowtip for the US anyway, and the label's reputation precedes it, so it was an obvious choice, and the Candlelight deal is a total bonus that suits us just fine!

Have you already planned something to support "Everything Is Fire" live?

We've got a couple of things in very early stages internationally that I won't mention just yet, a small tour of New Zealand, and we're aiming to hit Australia for a good number of dates early next year.

What about the metal scene in New Zealand? Is it difficult to play live?

Yes and no. We keep it very DIY and organise all our own shows down to the very last detail, and it's certainly not a problem for us. In saying that, the metal scene over here has taken a bit of a beating due to some local promoters stepping in and essentially monopolising international shows, which is a pity. But if bands are willing to do things for themselves and not rely on hand-outs, we get some really successful live shows going down.

Which goals do you want to reach with your music?

I don't know if we've ever thought of 'goals' for our music as such. We're pretty content with writing and performing and keeping shit as true to ourselves as possible. We don't have the kind of personalities that would go off the deep-end and start writing music to entertain monkeys, we like what we like, and I really don't see that vision changing. In terms of our activities as a band, we've always just wanted to be an active writing and touring outfit.

Just a curiosity: do you play jazz music when you're not busy with Ulcerate?

None of us can claim to know anything about playing jazz! We all take an interest in facets of the art-form, but I would never claim that I can play jazz.

Thanks so much for the interview! Any final words?

Cheers for the write-up man, appreciate it!

Jamie / Ulcerate

www.ulcerate-official.com
www.myspace.com/ulcerate
ulcerate@gmail.com

www.willowtip.com
www.candlelightrecords.co.uk
www.deepsend.com

Metalnews.de

Interview April 09

Hi there at ULCERATE! With "Everything Is Fire" you've got your second full length lined up for release. Congrats first of all! How long did it take you to get the material written and recorded and, first of all, since a lot of our readers might not have come across your name, could you please give us a short introduction to the realm of ULCERATE?

Hey man, cheers, it's good to finally see this coming to fruition. The writing process was 18 months or thereabouts, and we tracked everything in probably a week or so of actual time, but this was spread out over a couple of months as time permitted.

As for an introduction, check out our website ulcerate-official.com for any further info...

"Everything Is Fire" marks the return of the deep growls/grunts which remind me a bit of IMMOLATION, handled by bassist Paul Kelland. Those were also prominent when the band started, so did things simply turn out this way or were you deliberately not looking for a new vocalist sounding like Ben?

We wanted a return to the darker vocal approach that we originally started the band with. Prior to 'Of Fracture and Failure' we were keen to try a more varied vocal assault, and Ben certainly fitted that mould perfectly. But as we were writing 'Everything...' it became apparent that we really wanted the vocal to provide more of a solid backbone, and really support the music than sitting out front. So, we worked with Ben on this for a little bit to see if we could reach a point where everyone was happy, but it just never really worked out - it felt like we were forcing something out of him that just wasn't natural. So we made the very tough decision to not work with him. So, out of pure necessity, Paul gave it a shot, practised a great deal, and now a year later we've reached the point we're very very happy. All aspects of this decision are working out perfectly, we're a tighter unit all around, both musically and visually.

Since we are talking of Ben Read and other changes in the lineup: Why did he leave the band, are you still in contact (he's been doing a couple of shows with you even after his announcement to call it quits) and what else happened since "Of Fracture Of Failure"? Who are the main songwriters, or is songwriting an entire band effort in ULCERATE?

As I said above, the ultimate decision to not work with Ben anymore was based on the sound we had in mind. Before then, it was also mutually decided that his time with us in a long-term sense would be ending - we just have differing priorities in life. Since 'Of Fracture..' we've done a slew of local support slots for Behemoth, Nile, Decapitated, Psycroptic, The Amenta, and others. We've also recruited a new second guitarist Oliver Goater, who's working out excellently.

Song-writing has and will always be handled by guitarist Mike H and myself, but we leave the lyrical output to our vocalists - although everyone has a hand in what does and doesn't make the cut. Musically we have a very specific way of working that is 100% collaboration between the 2 of us, to bring in a third party just wouldn't really gel (and hasn't in the past).

Can "Everything Is Fire" be considered as a concept album, with different chapters under the heading of the album title? What are you implying with this rather apocalyptic title/statement [which fits the record nicely]?

Loosely, yes. It's not a concept album in the traditional sense, but there is an obvious outlining theme. Basically, 'Everything is Fire' is a quote from Greek philosopher Heraclitus meaning everything is in a constant state of change and progression, more-so than chaos. One thing I have to point out is that it's not apocalyptic in any way, it's just a statement and an observation of how things are, or at least how they can be perceived.

As to the musical and lyrical content of the album: What inspires you regarding the lyrics, and could you please provide us with statements regarding each song on the album, referring to both music and lyrics as well as the ideas behind the individual songs, if possible?

I've let our vocalist Paul answer these as he's the best man for the job:

• Drown Within: The natural human desire of searching for solace amongst a proposed afterlife is the central focus here. Related to this - the control and exploitation of others through various parasitic means, to build a larger belief base to which more comfort over the fear of death can be derived for the preacher.
• We Are Nil: Amongst the unquantifiable vastness of the universe, human life and the scope of our knowledge is merely an insignificant grain of sand. 'We are Nil' expresses the realisation of this insignificance, also our ability to comprehend it and make the decision whether or not to delude ourselves in order to hide from it.
• Withered And Obsolete: 'Withered and Obsolete' as a title, as well as within the lyrics, is a description of all religion in current times. Notably, the arrogance of religion in demanding an unjustified respect; religion being protected by taboo from scientific scrutiny, and reason more generally. 'Withered...' also touches on the fallacy of human morality being derived from scripture (or any other spiritual source).
• Caecus: Human beings have evolved the ability to reason. This process is an essential and critical part of our ability to, not only survive in the purest sense of the word, but to lead a respectable life on 21st century Earth. Unfortunately, a portion of society seem to choose not to use this ability to its full effect, resulting in a baseless reliance on others. 'Caecus' is about an absolute lack of sympathy and pity for these people.
• Tyranny: The thirst for power among us is not all encompassing, and certainly not the sole human function in respect to social behaviour. I despise the use of 'Social Darwinism' as an excuse for a lack of empathy or compassion for others. We have developed altruistic traits through our ancestry for the betterment of the species, and ignoring these instincts is plain bigotry.
• The Earth At Its Knees: Humanity and the Earth have been crippled as a result of the sentiments outlined in 'Caecus' and 'Tyranny'. 'The Earth at its Knees' depicts this decay and touches on self-reliance in a bid to better ourselves. Self-reliance from a political perspective is not automatically intertwined with totalitarianism.
• Soullessness Embraced: As an extension of the first two songs, 'Soullessness...' outlines the acceptance of our insignificance in combination with the absence of an afterlife. Embracing the void and accepting ourselves as mortal.
• Everything Is Fire: The cornerstone of the album theme. Everything is in a constant state of change. We cannot accept anything as face value. Question and rationalise everything, and always continue to.

"You cannot step into the same river twice, for fresh waters are ever flowing in upon you."

The cover artwork of "Everything Is Fire" is abstract yet stunning and seems to be in a similar vein as "Of Fracture And Failure", with the colours befitting the album title excellently. Was Jamie again responsible for the design, by any chance?

Thanks man, glad you like it. Yeah, I'll always look after everything visual for us, I really couldn't imagine handing this kind of thing over to someone else to interpret when I have pretty strong ideas how things need to look.

What struck me as odd was that you were labelled as black metal – instead of possibly technical/progressive death metal – in the promo sheet? Where do you see such influences in your sound? I rather detect Post Hardcore influences in the vein of ISIS and NEUROSIS? Which types of music are you listening to as individuals and what inspires/influences you musically?

As much as we aren't black metal by a long shot, I'd prefer that description to 'technical' or 'progressive' haha. Both those labels imply that music's a competition to see who can out-play other bands, which is a huge problem within this genre, and something we really want to stay away from. I think that we certainly take cues from that 'post' kind of sound, but it's never been intentional. As soon as we started thinking about adding dynamics, because of the nature of this style of music, you just kind of end up in that area. Because you want your slower, drawn out passages to have as much power as the more ruthless up-tempo stuff, the idea of counterpoint overlay, delayed guitars etc just evolves naturally.

We all listen to a lot of differing styles of music, but we're all attracted to the bleak / sad / dark end of the spectrum with regards to metal / alternative. There's nothing worse than happy, party metal! I think anything with credibility and heart is mostly in the playlists, so that vetoes 99% of modern music haha

Since we are talking of promo sheets by record labels: "Of Fracture And Failure" was released by Neurotic Records, though with quite a delay. Now, "Everything Is Fire" was, to my knowledge, scheduled to be on Neurotic as well, however, now it's coming out on Willowtip Records, licensed by Candlelight Records in Europe. What happened and why?

We ran into some complications with Neurotic regarding the release of our second album. Basically, we lost communication with them for a couple of months which was not a good place for us to be on the eve of completing the recording. So we were forced to seek a home elsewhere for the album, and Willowtip was the obvious choice due to the Neurotic /Willowtip partnership. I'm really not sure what the deal with Neurotic is these days, but I know a handful of their bands that left are certainly not so happy with how things have worked out.

Are there any touring plans on the horizon at the moment? I've seen that you're part of the Summer Slaughter Tour NZ? Are there any plans to tour in Europe, by any chance? In this context, the guys from PSYCROPTIC recently pointed out the massive costs and the time/travelling needed for pulling this through for a band from either Australia or New Zealand? What is your opinion on that?

Well I can't help but agree with that! Bands from this neck of the woods basically have to pay twice as much to tour on the other side of the world. We're working on getting support slots for Europe, as we're certainly not in a headlining position. So therefore, it's not up to us in terms of when and where's etc.

What does the situation for extreme metal/death metal in New Zealand look like? Are there any bands you'd like to recommend to our readers and how difficult is it to make your name known worldwide as a band from New Zealand, even though MySpace surely helps?

At the moment the scene is very dead. There's a handful of mentionable bands, but there's been a real air of complacency here for the past few years. The local show scene has been more-or-less crushed by the recent influx of international touring acts, people seem to have lost the urge to setup shows and even play this style of music. In terms of making your name known - no, I definitely don't think so. It just involves effort and some foresight, and for the handful of people that actually possess this, they've all gone on to make movements internationally within their particular niches. I recommend Creeping, Diocletian, Witchrist, Dawn of Azazel, Akaname (technically an Aussie band now). All dedicated, hard-working individuals, all of whom have releases on reputable international labels.

What is your opinion on technical death metal and the production techniques [triggers etc.] in particular nowadays, where there is a thin red line between sheer technique and well-structured songs, with bands such as ORIGIN, BRAIN DRILL, BENEATH THE MASSACRE or THE FACELESS? In this context, "Everything Is Fire" to me sounds very organic and not clinical/sterile at all [as a lot of other current releases do…]. Any thoughts?

I'm really not a fan of 'technical death metal', and I can't stand the productions. There's a lot of albums that I bought as a teenager that I just can't listen to because they sound so fucking ridiculous. And bear in mind, I'm only 25 - and the bullshit factor of certain productions in the last 5 years is making a bit of a mockery out of this style. As for the trigger thing, I don't think that's where the problem lies. This style of music has been using sampled kick drums since the early 90's, it's only been the last 10 years where people seem to think the faster and faker you sound, the better you are. I use triggers live and we sound-replace the kick drums on our albums, but it's a matter of having it actually sound like a drum. Show an older person most modern albums and they'll say 'what the fuck is that constant clicking'. I'm really against using Pro Tools to manufacture and fix parts, but, similar to the loudness wars with mastering, these bands have reached the point where every CD is coming out faster and faker than the one before, and it's getting pretty close to the point of no return. You know you're in trouble when press releases start including the BPM tempos of songs as a selling point.

Do you pursue any further musical projects apart from ULCERATE, maybe heading in entirely different musical directions as the NEUROSIS and ISIS shirts on the promo pics might suggest? Additionally, Jamie has got a homepage for graphic design stuff/art online [Prehensile], for example?

We all dabble in other projects, but nothing serious. Paul and myself have a blackened death metal project Abystic Ritual that we sometimes work on, but Ulcerate rehearses a lot at the moment, so free time is sparse - and I end up putting that into personal practise and design work for example. I think we're all keen at some point to get some non-metal stuff up and running, but as I mentioned before, to really put in some honest effort, there needs to be more days in the week at the moment!

Okay, that's us done! Thanks a lot for your time and for the interview! And all the best regarding "Everything Is Fire" and for ULCERATE! Are there any famous last words you'd like to address at our readers?
Cheers, Alex / Metalnews.de

Thanks a lot for the interview and support Alex - hopefully sooner than later we can make it to Europe to finally air this material we work so hard at!

Jamie / Ulcerate

ulcerate-official.com
myspace.com/ulcerate
willowtip.com
candlelightrecords.co.uk

Global Domination

Interview April 09 - James Boulstridge

So how are things with you since we last spoke? Can you believe Nile and Devin Townsend didn't even give me an answer? Thanks for your devotion to the fans; being one of them, I can't tell you how giddy I am right now.

Things are good man, the last year has seen us completely rework our line-up in preparation for this second album, so we've been busy as hell getting back to a 'playing live' status.

Listened to the new tracks, and they sound killer; even darker than what I've heard from you guys in the past. Somehow you seem to have become a tighter band too – I thought the last one was cut down about as much as necessary, but with these new tracks, your twisting and turning more but at the same time having trimmed away more of "the unnecessary", if you could call anything from "Of Fracture and Failure" such. Was this a conscious decision, or simply the result of touring and maturing as a band?

Totally. Of Fracture was written over a period of a couple of years, we were never really writing with a specific outcome in mind, so there's a little disparity between the older tracks and those that were written towards the end of the process (Martyr of the Soil, Defaeco etc). With this album, from the outset we wanted to tone down the more chaotic elements, the thing that seems to really work best for us is the more moody, atmospheric sections. Not that this album isn't ruthless, there certainly no weakening of the sound.

Of Fracture was an experiment in song structure in a lot of respects - and after 2 years we've learned what works and what doesn't. The key element we wanted to exploit was the overall feeling and mood as for the most part, Of Fracture only hints at some of this stuff - whereas this time we had a clean slate to really push this through - every track utilises a lot of dynamic interplay, and hopefully a lot smoother and more organic transitions. Something that I think I need to point out here is that where possible, each song has more-or-less been written from start to finish, as opposed to just coming up with sections and slotting them in. We re-work things a lot, but the basic template and aim has been to write as organically and linearly as possible. It's a lot harder to do, but it just seems a lot smarter to ask 'what should come next' as opposed to 'where should this go'.

What did you think of the news' coverage of the Gaza conflict? Did you not think they were being irresponsible reporting the people as "them Jews", as opposed to "Israelis"? Fuelling the fire, or just lazy, racist journalism? There will be a question on bugs and grass later; be prepared for it.

To be honest, haven't seen any news coverage of this, read bits and pieces on the web, but I haven't watched television in years. One would assume that 'them Jews' is an embellishment on your part? haha

Okay, what's the deal with Neurotic records? A lot of people are still awaiting their Visceral Bleeding packages a couple of years on, and some bands seem to be moving on completely, Psycroptic for example having signed with Nuclear Blast. Willowtip do a fine job, even getting shit to Europe, and they're you're US distribution. Are you sticking with the Neurotic label for your next album, and do you think things will change once your contract is up? Why has nobody heard from Ruud?

We split with Neurotic Records mid-way through last year. At a crucial time the label decided to cease communication with us - we were forced to find another label, as it seemed our second album would be up in the air. Things then got very sour that almost resulted in us being very very fucked over. But we talked with a lawyer, and talked to the other ex-Neurotic bands (you'll be able to work out who) and it seemed everyone was getting the same outlandish treatment. So we put the nail in the coffin and moved on. No hard feelings, I'm not sure what is up with Ruud, and I know nothing of his personal life. But he has a responsibility to his customers and bands, and it totally seems like he's just given up. It's a shame, Neurotic was turning into a killer label.

On the other hand, Willowtip is great. Great reputation / service, and might be one of the few labels around that doesn't cave to sales trends. Coupled with Candlelight who by default handle the release in Europe, we're in a really fucking great position right now.

What do you think complements the taste of the common beetle the most? ^Festucca sativa^, ^Festuca rubra^ or ^Festuca subulata^?

Heinz ketchup man. Could give you a Latin term for that, but I'd just be making it up.

What happened with your old vocalist Ben? The new guy doesn't sound very different, just less versatile – how do you reckon he's filled Ben's shoes? Was it ever a thought to go with something completely different for this new album, like Decapitated on "Organic Hallucinosis"? Tell us more about the new guy – how was the recruitment phase managed?

Around the time of the writing for this album, we were dead-set that this time around we wanted to return the more classic vocal approach we had with our first vocalist James Wallace. It seemed evident that Ben was a little uncomfortable with this approach, as it's just not the natural tone of his voice. We also had been toying with the idea of getting rid of the 'frontman' idea, and having one of the instrumentalists handle both duties. It was a really hard decision to split with him, but we're still buds, no bullshit between us there.

So, bassist Paul stepped up and practised his ass off, and in a very short space of time mastered the sound we were after, very commanding and powerful, and most importantly he fits the vibe of this material a lot better. For us, we view the vocal as a supplement to the music, so when you say 'less versatile' bear in mind that in this case, a more monotone approach is exactly what we're after. We've had a lot of people welcoming back the classic death metal sound, so it really feels like we've made the right move. Visually, as a 4-piece, we're a lot tighter on stage with less distractions between vocal parts, which is perfect.

How do you think each of you have improved as musicians since the last album? I hear you haven't even begun considering toning it down on your parts. What the fuck do you eat for breakfast, man? Would you say you've incorporated any new sounds into the Ulcerate formula? Any change of gear?

Well the usual, we're more comfortable with playing this stuff, and we're more ale to bring outside influences into our playing without it sounding trite. I personally had always had troubles with getting from full-out blast sections into ghost-noted back-beats without sounding really stiff, but I think now it's starting to feel a lot better. We also care a little less than before about the macho trappings of the style - couldn't care less about how fast, brutal, 'technical' our songs are. Not that we ever really did in the past, but we've just disassociated ourselves even more from this train of thought. I've never been impressed with bands who consider bpm's and arpeggios as reference points for 'good' tunes.

In terms of drum parts etc - I mean yes and no to the toning it down - there's a lot more drawn out sections, and it feels a lot cooler to hold back than it did in the past. But every musician gets older and starts to figure out that over-playing is juvenile haha. We haven't really incorporated 'new' sounds - just developed and extended ideas we've always had. So you'll find very sparse, delicate moments that develop into huge crescendos, some of the most 'fucked' moments we've created with 4-way counterpoint, and our sense of what makes an Ulcerate riff unique is much more concrete now.

What do you think of the new Psycroptic? A lot of people seem turned off by that album; any views on this? Discovered any other bands you'd like to talk about since we last crossed paths that fabled day? Howsabout the new Hate Eternal, seeing as you cite them as influences – I definitely pick up on them in a bulk of your sound, which is uncommon these days.

The new Psycro is great. Possibly a little too clean for my liking, and I'm not so into the vocal approach (certainly not bad though), but there's some great, great stuff on there. I'm always in awe of the Haley's abilities. As for the new Hate Eternal, it's a good album, but stylistically, I prefer their first two by a long shot. They lost a pretty big force in Derek Roddy. Other bands? Deathspell Omega, new Isis is great, new Exmortem, Dead Congregation, Bohren und der Club of Gore.

So what's next for Ulcerate? You guys don't get enough exposure, in my mind; is this likely to increase your desire to tour once the new album's out, or can't you afford it so much? How do you find the hosts of these gigs to be anyways?

We've always been very keen and very willing to tour. The cost is fucking monumental for us to go to Europe for example, but we're certainly keen. It's not as easy as just saying 'let's tour'. We have to grab support slots on package tours, which are easier-said-than done to get. We've been in the running for 5 or 6 of the major tours during the past 2 years, but a lot of bands want the slots, and we've missed out so far. It hasn't helped in the past with having 5 members, we've been turned away a lot for having 'one too many members for the tour bus'. Hopefully this will change with our streamlined line-up.

We have tentative plans of relocation following this year to make things easier financially for us, until then, we're going to try our best to land something.

We already know you're all huge Isis fans – have you heard the latest yet? What-d'ya-reckahn? Any other efforts for 2009 you're looking forward to/have already blown you away? This year is insane when it comes to new releases, the past two being a little ho-hum what with even the greats not releasing their best efforts and all.

Yeah man, it's a great album. Their last was a little bit of a let-down, and in retrospect seems like a stepping stone for this release. But yeah, solid fucking effort.

I've pre-ordered the long-sleeve package from Willowtip; are you proud of me? People might track you down expecting Britney Spears (I wear my hair in pigtails), and be pleasantly surprised. What's your view on the current music scene, how's downloading affect a band like yours (I woulda thought being quite obscure, those listening to your music are faithful enough to make a purchase), and is the compact disc already obsolete?

Feels like the CD is on it's way out. I couldn't give a fuck about people downloading illegally, because what are you gonna do? The way I see it, the people who we want listening to us, would support us by purchasing the material. We don't want casual listeners. The current music scene is pretty fucked in terms of returns, we've never made a cent off our last album. But if you're stupid enough to enter this business with the naive notion that you'll make money, you deserve all the disillusionment you're going to receive. We're just stoked that people are finding good things to say about our material - no-one's going to sway how we write, but it's certainly an affirmation that we don't completely suck!

The production on your new album appears denser, but there isn't a radical difference overall. We discussed two years or so back that you seemed to know in your head the sound you wanted for "Of Fracture and Failure" before recording – did you just figure "if it ain't broke…"? Was it a different studio, sound engineer (you've kept this part in-band in the past, no?) or what this time around?

Same studio, same engineers (ourselves). The process was almost identical, we've obviously used different tones and approaches, but we're mostly satisfied with the sound we capture for ourselves. I've said it a lot before, but we're a band that is intent on producing albums that don't sound fake and over-produced, so funnily enough, when you listen to our recordings, that's us. There's no production trickery to try and enhance how we sound. No mix engineer coming in and re-amping all the guitars or sound replacing the drums. I'd hate to have someone producing us, telling us what they think is best for our sound. We're way too hands-on in that respect.

Do you guys record in your hometown (that is, if you're all from the same spot in Kiwi-land)? How are traveling arrangements taken care of, and do you reckon you get overseas as much as you'd like?

Yeah, we track everything in Auckland, which is where we all reside. We've only played Australia in terms of international shows, so the answer to that is a 'no' at the moment.

There are more classic death metal band reunions happening these days – Pestilence, Atheist, Gorguts, Asphyx and Seance to name a few. Are there any you can't wait to hear new material from, and any that haven't occurred yet but you'd encourage doing so by sacrificing a newborn child?

Gorguts is the only one I'm remotely interested in. They have a legitimate reason for getting things running again. I don't understand why all these other bands can't just let sleeping dogs lie.

How's the financial atmosphere in New Zealand at the moment? How has it impacted your dedication to the band? Do you foresee Ulcerate ending any time soon, and if no, is there any leftover material that you didn't use on either one of your full-lengths (discounting the re-issue of "The Coming of Genocide")? Speaking of said album, does it hold any special place in your heart, or do you think you've evolved so much it seems less important to you as a musician? Could you give reasons why someone who knows your two prime full-lengths should purchase it?

None of us feel the recession at all on a day-to-day basis. Nothing's felt like it's changed so far. In terms of ending soon, definitely not - we've only just begun! And no leftover material, we write from clean slates every time.

I like The Coming of Genocide for what it is, and it seems a lot of people really dig the tracks. I certainly don't think the material is weak, just has a lot less identity than we do now. I'd recommend checking it out if you want to see where we started and how we progressed our ideas. We still play a couple of the songs live, so it's certainly not forgotten.

I don't think many bands are aware of Global Domination, maybe too well known for a smaller webzine that dominates all. When setting up the last interview, you said and I quote to the best of my knowledge "You work for Global Domination; that's cool, as the website is mega-sexy-awesome". Have you kept abreast of our progress, and if so, is your love for us still going strong?

I see you're very fond of paraphrasing haha. Think I said 'mega-horny-awesome' but whatever. I'm fond of any group of people that actually put an effort in where reviews/interviews etc are concerned. I think we may have done our last 'when did your band start / what's your 5 favourite albums' bullshit 'interview'. I don't see how these people can expect legitimate responses from bands.

Any shout-outs now, buddy, and thanks once more for the time you've given us. If only Muhammed from Necrophagist could follow your example. I wish you all the best with your band, and hopefully see you three years on down the line when you release another album.

Cheers for the questions James, and for the generous helpings of sarcastic behaviour!
Jamie / Ulcerate

ulcerate-official.com
myspace.com/ulcerate
willowtip.com
candlelightrecords.co.uk