FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST/VOCALIST MATT HARVEY BY TOM CRANDLE E xhumed are the undisputed half kids and a house in the submasters of all things horror, urbs. But at the same time, I never death metal, and grind. On really put any effort into doing Oct. 4, they unleashed their newest anything else, and I can't imagine slab of gore, simply titled Horror, on anything I'd rather be doing. I get Relapse Records. It’s the bands ninth burnt out sometimes, mostly from full length, and comes on the heels the non-music side of doing things. of 2017’s Death Revenge. Since 2011, Filling out Excel spreadsheets and Exhumed have been cranking out an making tour budgets is not my idea album every two years. As impressive of a good time, but I recognize that as that is, it really only tells half the doing things the right way enables story. Exhumed founder, guitarist, us to make more records and play vocalist, and songwriter Matt Harvey more shows, which is my idea of a is a really busy guy. good time, so it's a bit of a trade-off.”

He’s in no less than three active bands. In addition to Exhumed, there’s the more traditional metal of Pounder, as well as Gruesome, the band writing new material devoted to continuing the legacy of Chuck Schuldiner and Death. There are usually various other projects happening too, but it all started with Exhumed. Harvey founded the band way back in 1990, when he was only 15.

“I really didn't think it would last this long,” he says. “I assumed that at some point, I'd have two-and-aWhen the time came to make Horror, Harvey looked for musical inspiration in familiar places. “This record is more like the kind of death metal that I get excited to listen to as a fan, and Death Revenge was more the kind of death metal that's exciting to me as a guitar player,” he explains. “This one leans into the Repulsion, Slaughter, Exodus, Sacrifice, Napalm Death, Terrorizer, Extreme Noise Terror kind of vein. Just mean and nasty shit that is really in-your-face. No subtlety and no fucks given.”

The lyrical inspiration was also a return to his roots. “We did a current-events record a few years ago with Necrocracy. The situation is so much worse now, and I honestly considered returning to that kind of stuff, but I feel like so much time and energy is sucked up with the insanity of current events. I didn't want to give Trump and his asshole friends my energy.”

Harvey continues, “I wanted to recapture the fun I used to have watching gory movies and drinking Meister Brau with my buddies in the earlyand mid-’90s, when all I cared about was metal, horror, beer, and maybe someday getting a girlfriend. There's nods to loads of the movies we were into. Even the bad ones! I just wanted to write lyrics and not give a fuck.”

Harvey has a healthy perspective on the relationship between horror and heavy metal. “Horror and metal go together because they tap into a similar set of stimuli,” he opines. “Stuff that's dark and forbidden, and can act as a catharsis for those negative emotions that mainstream society has been denying or suppressing for years - like anger, hatred, rage, sadness, loneliness and misanthropy. Metal and horror let you express those emotions in a constructive way, so you're able to let go of them and go about the rest of your life being a good person. And they both have thriving fan cultures in which you can transmute those negative emotions into positive ones by bonding with others who feel the same about this specific art form and what it offers.”

Despite Exhumed’s success, influence, and cult status in extreme metal, Harvey is far from complacent. “Through whatever combination of skill, luck and determination, we've managed to carve out our own niche in the underground, which is well beyond anything I could have imagined when I was 14 sitting in my bedroom playing along with my Spiritual Healing cassette.” He concludes, “I'm very grateful we get to keep doing this and that people seem to like it, but I don't want to just sit reminiscing about the glory days. I wanna go out and make some more glory days right fucking now.” �� �� ��

In just six years, Gatecreeper have made quite a name for themselves. Their 2016 debut follow it up,” Mason confesses. “What’s the use of doing another record if we can’t top the first stand out as a band and be like, ‘hey, we’re not from any of those places. We’re from Arizona.’” INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST CHASE MASON BY MARIKA ZORZI LP Sonoran Depravation unleashed one? So, we looked back on the a vicious blend of death- and last record and listened and just Despite having signed with Relapse thrash-metal. Now, three years kind of pondered on it. We took Records, Gatecreeper still takes a later, the Arizona death-metthe things that we’ve always been strong DIY approach to things. “I allers are back with a follow-up doing and expanded on them. The still like to do a lot of the stuff album, Deserted. focus was not on doing something myself,” Mason admits. “A lot of completely different but on doing attention to detail needs to be “This album is just a better version things better.” put in to function as a band and of what we’ve already been doing,” to stand out. There’s a whole lot singer Chase Mason explains. “This With the title Sonoran Depravation, more to being in a band than just one is us finally being comfortable the band gave a nod to their playing music. We’re about to go with our sound and making it scorching home state of Arizona. on tour and we have this record our own. I think we’ve just taken This theme continues on Deserted, coming out, so I’ve been making a everything we’ve already been with songs like “Sweltering Madness,” special tape version of the record. doing, gotten better at it, and “Boiled Over,” and the title track, I’m printing and cutting the covers added a little bit in there to make which holds a double-meaning. myself. Putting together merch it more interesting, make it more designs and flyers and everything our sound.” “Deserted can be taken as the in between. Being attentive to desert, but the word can also those kinds of details is something Sonoran Depravation received mean abandoned,” Mason says. that I think that has helped us grow so much good feedback that the “We don’t have a history here like as a band.” biggest challenge for Gatecreeper Florida does with death metal, or was to make an album that was a really good scene for current “When death metal started, it even better. “Not all bands have death metal bands like Denver has was kind of a mutation,” he their first record do so well, so right now. So, for us, it’s another continues. “Around that time what there’s a lot of pressure on us to thing we can do that makes us they were doing was new territory,

PHOTO BY KAREN JERZYK

so it was very exciting. But by now, there’s been so many other different mutations that have happened. We’re not trying to be a progressive band, we would never be completely new. We’re just taking cues from the stuff that we like, mainly old school death metal, but then incorporating other stuff that we like, whether it’s punk or hardcore or other more modern influences that we have. For us, Gatecreeper is kind of like a mixtape of the stuff that we like.”

“I think that what we can do for the genre is just to make good songs. Make songs that are memorable, and that people want to listen to. Pay tribute to the fundamentals of death metal, but still make it entertaining and fresh for people. I think that the style that we play is a little more accessible. Some people might turn their nose up at that or say that’s not cool, but if we’re somebody’s entry-level band into death metal, then I think that’s great.” �� �� ��