Interviews

Abnormality – Interview

Published

8 years ago

May 27, 2016

Ron

Abnormality – Interview by EmpireExtreme.com

Interview & Photos by: Ron Senyo

Abnormality is an extreme attack of brutal metal aimed right at your cranium. Fronted by the extraordinary Mallika Sundaramurthy. The Massachusetts based band burst onto the metal scene in 2005 with former members of Goratory, Ascendancy, Sexcrement, Revengeance, and Iranach. In 2010 they released their debut EP The Collective Calm In Mortal Oblivion that laid the foundation for their high quality and technical brand of metal. They followed up in 2012 with the critically acclaimed full-length Contaminating The Hive Mind.

April of 2016 saw the release of the band’s greatest effort thus far Mechanisms Of Omniscience. This album is explosive and dynamic and is destine to thrust Abnormality to the forefront of their genera. In support of Mechanisms Of Omniscience, Abnormality are touring the US with Soulfly. Suffocation, and Battlecross. Empire Extreme caught up with them in Baltimore, MD.

Empire: Are you excited about the tour with Soulfly and Suffocation?

Sam: We are very excited about the tour with Soulfly and Suffocation
Mallika: Yeah, we’re having a blast
Josh: Living the dream

You are from the New England area. How does the metal scene there compare to the rest of the country?
M: Every city is different, Baltimore seems to have a good death metal scene with the Maryland Death Fest.
J: Yes, our area, Worcester especially one of the best around the area coming a lot of friendly competition.
M: A lot of good bands coming out of Boston.

Abnormality has a new CD, Mechanisms of Omniscience coming out in a few days (April 29 – Metal Blade Records). What can you tell us about that and the process of making it?
S: It’s got a good pacing to it. It’s a heavy album, but at the same time it has room to breathe a little bit. You get that hyper blast, grindy kinda, in your face stuff. It also gets dark.
M: I’d say it’s more atmospheric in parts, and slower. It’s really a good balance of fast, slow, and heavy in your face.
J: Best shit we’ve ever done!
M: We are really proud of it.

Are there any particular bands that have inspired you to do this type of metal?
S: Aggressive death metal and some progressive metal something that stands out. A lot of newer bands. I like Artificial Brain.
M: Origin and Hate Eternal. Careful song crafting thought went into it.
J: Suffocation and Cryptopsy.

What has been the reaction you’ve gotten from people not knowing about you and seeing a female singer and hearing her growls?
S: A lot of people sitting there jerking off not dancing.
M: It’s different reactions. Some people aren’t that surprise and others just can’t wrap their heads around it or can’t get passed it. Our hope is when there hear our music there not thinking about that. When they hear it on the radio the probably have no idea who’s fronting the band and we hope they like the music for the music sake. I was born with a vagina and I can’t change that . I love death metal and I’m making the music.

If you guys had the opportunity to play any festival in the world which would you choose?
S: Hammersonic
M: Brutal Assault
J: Coachella. I’d love to play Coachella.

Carebears or My Little Pony?
M: I’m gonna go with last unicorn. I’m a rule breaker. Plus I want to add Bronies are frightening.
S: Carebears, deff’ go with Care Bears.
J: CareBears of course! Carebears movies were fucked up. That dragon that was blowing balloons?

Anything you would like to say to your fans?
S: Come see our band play. We really love to see people come out when we travel around to play music. Come check out the other bands on the tour, they can use your support too! Soulfly, Suffocation, Lody Kong all of them.
M: We are on tour for the next month! Check out the new album coming out on Metal Blade Records. We’re proud of the music we think you’ll dig it.
J: Free Tom Brady… Keep buying analog that’s the important thing. Analog!

If you had the opportunity to be AC/DC lead singer would you take it?
S: Nope…. Wait what am i saying, yes I would.
M: Who wouldn’t, you would be crazy not to take that opportunity.
J: Of course we would. They should get the guy from Accept to sing.

If you could be in a time machine and go back to see any band, what band would you see and when?
S: Metallica 86.
M: Mythic play when they were active in 91-92. That’s a cult pick..
J: I would just go to England 76, for the whole British metal scene.

If you had the opportunity to bring back a musician that has died more recently and one who has died years ago who would you bring back?
S: Dimebag, Period.
M: Jimmy Hendrix and Peter Steele. Jimmy Hendrix died way to young he just had a studio built from him and didn’t get to create his full vision.
J: Roger from Atheist and Randy Rhodes.

Stream & Buy the entire album!

<a href="http://abnormality.bandcamp.com/album/mechanisms-of-omniscience">Mechanisms of Omniscience by Abnormality</a>

About Author

Ron

Ron has keen eye for new talent, a love for the underground, and a tremendous passion for music of any genera. You’ll probably bump into him at a horror convention or some seedy club checking out the next need-to-know band.

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Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH MERCURY OF PRIEST

Published

4 hours ago

April 23, 2024

Ron

Empire Extreme got to sit down and talk to Mercury of Priest when the band came into PA at LoveDrafts.

The show was amazing all the bands that we seen put on a great show for the fans. Vampires Everywhere killed it once again. Last time we seen Priest we only got to see them open for Powerman5000 and got like 6 songs, this time Priest was headlining and we got to see much more which I was excited to see.

Priest played a good mix of old and new and even a few songs off the album “Dark Pulse” which is out in May. We got to see 13 songs played and even Mercury come out into the crowd a few times and when they played “Obey” even blessed some of the crowd. It was great hearing songs like “BlackListed”, “Signal in the Noise”, “History in Black” and “Vaudeville”. It was such a great night of music and a great conversation with Mercury. If you get a chance to see this band play in ur town, it’s a must

About Author

Ron

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Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH OF VIRTUE

Published

2 months ago

March 4, 2024

Ron

Where does the band name come from? Wanting to be the best version of yourself at all times. The name is a reminder to hold ourselves accountable.

How is the music scene in Michigan? The Michigan music scene has always been vibrant and in my opinion, important. Do we get the credit we deserve? Absolutely not. But for the state that brought you Motown, Eminem, Lizzo, The White Stripes, I Prevail and so many other incredible artists – it’s kind of hard to believe that Michigan remains a hidden gem.

How’s the reception from the fans of the latest album “Omen”? It’s been incredible. From seeing people singing along at shows to us seeing new supporters of all different ages, colors, and creeds joining the journey. Omen has been a pivotal album in our career and we’re proud of it!

If you could tour with 2 bands, which bands would you want to tour with? Spiritbox and Bad Omens. They’re both making waves, changing who the metal audience is, and surely they’d be fun to hang around with.

Where do you draw inspiration for the lyrics? Honestly, the lyrics are our stories. The stories of our struggles, our trials and our tribulations.

What’s been your favorite tour or show? We just got off of a tour with our labelmates, Any Given Day. They treated us to a handful of sold out shows over in Europe, which at this point we call our second home. Those were great shows, but any show we’ve done in Europe is typically one for the books!

If you could bring back a dead musician, who would it be? Prince for sure. An incredible musician I would love an opportunity to chat or make music with!

About Author

Ron

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Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH TWIN TEMPLE

Published

2 months ago

February 16, 2024

Ron

Being Married and being in a band together. Do you feel that makes it easier or harder?

We love to do the Devil’s work together so for us its a match made in hell.

What’s your favorite horror movie?

That’s hard to narrow down but the first few that come to mind are Rosemary’s Baby, The Devil Rides Out, Wickerman, The Devils Reign featuring Anton Lavey, Mario Bava’s Black Sunday, anything starring Vincent Price. We also got to see an advance screen of “Late Night with the Devil” featuring a very evil performance from our friend Dave Dastmalchian. We’re also looking forward to Bryan Fuller’s “Dust Bunny” and are positive it will be a new favorite. The list goes on…..we are huge horror fans.

Favorite Non Horror Movie?

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (which is horror/noir adjacent) and The Burbs (also horror adjacent…haha.)

All of Quentin Tarantino’s films- our latest favorite is Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, because 1960’s LA…

What misconception of Satanists would you like to educate people on?

We’re not here to proselytize, force our beliefs on people, or educate people on them Selves, Satanism or anything else. If people are interested in exploring Satanism, we encourage them to do their research and question everything.

If you could bring back any dead musician, who would you pick and why?

We would have loved to do a song with Ronnie Spector who recently passed. Also would have been amazing to collaborate with Jack Nitzsche who arranged so many amazing songs.

If you could tour with any 2 bands, who would you want to tour with?

The Ronnettes & The Shangri-Las.

What has been your Favorite Tour so far?

The God is Dead Tour that we’re currently on is definitely the most evil and blasphemous tour yet. We find it very pleasurable to be able to continue expanding the rituals and seeing our nightmares come true on stage.

You were on “Dragula” with the Boulet Brothers, how was that experience?

It was a fiendish delight to collaborate with some of our fav monsters.

What was it like Touring with Danzig?

Another nightmare come true! We’ve both been fans for a long time and we’re obviously inspired by the wicked world Glenn has conjured. So to get to spend time with him and watch him live every night and to now call him a friend is completely surreal. He’s a legend— but was also one of the coolest, kindest, most unholy people we’ve had the carnal pleasure of touring with.

How’s the reception of the last album “God is Dead”?

Personally, we love the record and are very proud of what we’ve accomplished. As far as other peoples’ reactions…. we don’t know and don’t care! We pleasured ourselves and that’s what matters most.

What got you interested in the style of music you play? And how would describe your music?

We’ve always loved classic American music from jazz to blues to country to rock and roll and so on. We also love the pageantry of heavy metal and theatre. So for us it was a very organic culmination of our obsessions. Rock and roll has always been the devils music.

Have you visited the Satanic Temple in Massachusetts?

No we have not but Lucien did attend one of our rituals so we had a chance to share where we get our babies blood and all things Satan.

Have you had any bad encounters at shows because of the misconception of satanism?

No! We purposefully foster a live show environment where all are welcome, all should come being the most important person in the world which is themselves, whatever that may be. Even Christians! We believe music is meant to bring joy, transcendence… We just want to share the things we love; pink, rhinestones, big hair, great rock ’n’ roll, Satanic ritual, you know… but we have had churches assemble outside our shows, screaming through distorted PA speakers that God is not dead & wishing us all a “terrible time”. Why would their God not want us to have fun? This kind of behavior is only makes us more proud to be who we are and do what we love.