FUMIGATION
Canadian death metal outfit “Fumigation” recently dropped their debut fulllength album "Integrated Pest Management" on “CDN Records”. The blend of death and blasting heaviness that forms "Integrated Pest M a n a g e m e n t " i s o u t n o w, a n d i n s u p p o r t o f t h e re l e a s e bassist Chris Humeniuk got in touch with me to dissect the album. See also what Chris had to say about the artwork and lyrics of the album, and about his daily obsession with insects and rodents in the full interview b e l o w. Your debut album “Integrated Pest Management” has just been released, how long had you been working on it? Hey Ross thanks for getting in touch! The process for “Integrated Pest Management” started when the band formed back in early 2008 as we slowly wrote songs. Along the way multiple member changes happened which always pushed back us being able to do a full length CD. Eventually we were able to land a stable set of 10
Exterminators and did IPM in a few months with our good friend Dan of “From the Frost Audio”.
What challenges did you face when you were conceiving and recording the album? Finding the time to do it was the hardest part really. Everyone in Fume has either a full time job, or full time school with a part time job. Add a girlfriend to the mix plus another band on top of that, and sadly recording becomes tough to fit in. That said, February 2014 I Milfits 'zine
pretty much every metal musician in Ottawa has 2 bands on the go, so we can't really use that as an excuse. The actual recording of the album went really smooth, took maybe a week total for all parts, then it was just waiting for Dan to mix/master the thing. How do you accomplish to make “Fumigation” sound so brutal and sick? Ha! well thanks for the compliment! I guess that's a combination of my superior writing skillz and Dan's production. I do 95% of the writing in “Fumigation” , and I listen to a lot of stuff like “Cephalic Carnage”, “Immolation”, “Severed Savior”, “Odious Mortem” (who apparently are writing new material as we speak!!) so that’s where the more brutal aspects of the band come from. We're not quite as brutal or techy as those bands, we tend to groove it up much more, but we do keep the more old school flavour in our music. Why the lyric obsession with insects, rodents and chemicals? Are there any particular situations that’s influenced the use of these topics? Well I'm actually a licenced Exterminator...so there you go. I kill bugs and rodents each and every working day of my life. They say to write about what you know, and small pests is what I know. We take the
February 2014 I Milfits 'zine
FUMIGATION
theme of pest control pretty far, from stage props to album art and lyrics. The music sells itself I think, but there's so many death metal bands out there its really tough to stand out...our theme should help in that regard. Who handled the artwork of “Integrated Pest Management”? I think it captures the feel of the music perfectly. Our drummer Mat did the artwork and I agree its great! Every couple days he'd send me a bunch of drawings, and I would give him a bit of direction as to what I thought was working and what wasn't, and eventually it turned into what you see now. The original idea was to make it look similar to the Spawn comics...personally I’m not a comic book guy, but Mat has a bunch and I think he captured the feeling of it pretty well. Does the band have any upcoming shows in support of “Integrated Pest Management” ? We're laying low right now, but will be back in business in 2014 for sure. What should people who haven’t seen you live before expect from your live shows? Entertainment. That’s what people want after all right? “Fumigation” brings you a really heavy show, with
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some pest control themed antics and an overall feeling that we actually care about what we do. What’s the strangest place you’ve ever played a “Fumigation” song? Well our first ever show was in a really really small bar in Quebec that holds maybe 40 or 50 people total, and the stage was right beside the washroom. I had to literally get out of the way of people going to the washroom while playing on stage. It was strange for sure. What bands would you love to share a lineup with? Feel free to be completely unrealistic. Unrealistic you say? In that case opening for the Gods of Metal Black Sabbath would be amazing. Original lineup, of course.
Underground. There are no delusions of grandeur in this band. Are there any final thoughts you’d like to add? Winter brings hordes of mice. Winter is not just the holiday season, but mouse season as well. Make sure you seal any and all possible entry points into your home by caulking or using spray foam around pipes, vents, and any holes or big cracks you find around the home. The last thing you need is to get up in the middle of the night for a midnight snack and find mice running around your kitchen getting into your food!!! Join the fight against small pests by heading the advice of “Fumigation” and buying our shit!!! OFFICIAL http://www.fumigationmetal.com
What’s the status of the next “Fumigation” release? The next release is a couple years away. There's a few songs written for it, maybe half a dozen actually, but we haven't really started working on them yet. Don't worry about whats next though, live in the present and listen to “Integrated Pest Management”!
FUMEBOOK http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fumig ation/137024276331132
What are your aspirations for “Fumigation”? Where would you like to see the band go from here? In the end, we'd like to leave a mark on the Canadian scene. At the very least, we'd like to be remembered in the Ontario scene and locally. We don't have the means for World Wide Tours, let alone North American tours, so unless the internet warms to us and we go viral, we're not getting our hopes up to becoming a major player in the
FUMECARTEL http://fumigation.bigcartel.com/
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FUMECLOUD http://soundcloud.com/fumigation FUMECAMP http://fumigationmetal.bandcamp.com/
CDN RECORDS http://cdnrecords.com/store/product details.php?productID=4182
February 2014 I Milfits 'zine