Press - Interviews

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