*What's up Paolo?! You feelin' good today?
Very sorry for taking this long to get back to you, I've attempted to do this interview multiple times since you sent it over, but I've had such a long couple of weeks and during my free time, I'm packing orders and dropping them off the next day after work. I just came back from the post office this Saturday morning and promised myself to carve out time to do this.
I am tired, exhausted and all I want to do is sit in my chair quietly and stare into the wall…but besides that, things are good!
*OK, on to it. Miasmatic Necrosis quickly became a household name in goregrind, and rightfully so. That record is basically the ideal mix of Hemdale, Regurgitate and early 2000s Last Days of Humanity that I'd always wanted. For my money, it's the best goregrind full length since Dead Infection's "Brain Corrosion". How did the band start and what was the process leading up to the debut album? Why'd you go for a full length right off the bat instead of the usual string of mostly shitty tape demos and throwaway splits?
I understand the appeal of demos, promos, eps, splits and other non-full-length releases, it’s less commitment and bands are still ironing out the kinks. Having a full-length album as the first release is not a huge commitment but it is a promulgation. We don’t have the energy to be coy and beat around the bushes – we want to send a statement that we have arrived, we want to fuck everyone up then go to sleep before 10pm because having a full 8 hours of sleep is the greatest thing.
*"Apex Profane"'s cover art is a cut well above the incredibly lazy and lame "haha dead bodies are sikk bro *Googles "dead bodies"*" pieces used for the majority of goregrind releases over the last however many years. That kind of cover art was shocking and subversive once, but that was a long time ago, and the effort involved in cover designs for most bands now is an at all-time low. How did M.N.'s come together?
This was a collaborative effort, there were multiple drafts and photo sessions before arriving at this conclusion. With the advent of the internet, images of gore are readily available on the palm of your hands, even multiple bands have used the same image. We wanted undeniably our own and we approached aesthetics the same way as our music.
The initial idea of blending pathological gore with the esoteric Roman Catholic motifs came from a very personal place. As the world becomes more desensitized to violence, somehow people still hold on to the spiritual and religious aspects with reverence. When I felt sick to my stomach, that’s when I knew there was something special about this.
This is not just for the shock value
but also the underlying theme is the reverence and worship of Death.
Both Forensic Science and Religion deals with understanding the cause
of Death and to give solace in explanation of what comes after our
passing.
*Its now been nearly four years since the release of "Apex Profane". Please tell me we'll get a new record soon, what it's sounding like so far and what has been influencing the writing for it.
This genre has been drowning in mediocrity because so many refuse to be honest with themselves. We firmly believe in quality over quantity. It’s why we have caught the attention of people outside Goregrind. The purists out there are suspicious of us because we seemed to have come out of nowhere. What they don’t understand is that we’re the fucking malignant tumour that have been festering inside this shit scene and now have become cancerous. We’ve been into this before they were born. We’ve been representing Goregrind since we were teenagers, now we’re old embittered middle-aged men. We were ridiculed when we were spreading the gospel of VOMITORIAL CORPULENCE. They say our production is “Too Clean,” motherfucker, we’re not cowards hiding our music behind “Raw” or “Unpolished” production. D.I.Y. doesn’t mean “lo-fi,” that is a poor excuse for terrible performance and shit ideas.
Apex Profane is our gauntlet; this upcoming work is our boot stomping all those who stand before us. It far exceeds belligerence, and drips of tenebrous rage. Stand with us or fall before us.
It's unreal to me that this band has taken me to places that I would have never thought of, from Denmark, Poland, Germany, Czech Rep, to Mexico and to the West Coast to see the sunset in the beaches of California for my 40th year on this floating rock then spending it with the people whom I love and love me back. I will fucking STAB people who do not take Goregrind seriously because it helped me so achieve so much of my lifelong dreams, it gave me the chance to meet my heroes: ANTIMO BUONANNO, MADS HAARLOV, DAVE WITTE. And as the older you get, it’s harder to have new friends but the chance to create new amazing bonds with DAVID MIKKELSEN, the NECROPSY ODOR/MEPHITIC CORPSE homies, SEPTAGE (RIP), IVO, and CASEY. Then this OCT/NOV, you’re telling me I’m going to JAPAN and AUS with the chance to witness 324 and INTESTINE BAALISM perform in their homeland then see YOU, MAX, CHRISTOPH and all the AUSSIE CUNTS all because of this fucking Goregrind band? I’m literally welling up as I type this. I believe I’m going to die soon because when you have been beaten by life over and over and over then something wonderful like this happens, it’s very hard to believe. I am living THE dream. THIS IS IT. And Goregrind made it happen for me.
*It's remarkable that "Apex Profane" has sold as well as it has given that anything tagged as goregrind usually gets ignored by metalheads. The nerd in me wants to know how many copies of it across various formats have moved now.
Goregrind will forever be seen as inferior to the other genres. The irony is that we see Goregrind as the distillation of Death Metal and Grindcore. Remove all the pageantry, cut open through the epidermis and in its absolute purity: Goregrind.
The first pressing of the vinyl was 300
copies, GRACELESS RECORDINGS pressed 100 Cassettes and for the CDs, I
don’t remember the original quantity as they were pressed by
GOATGRIND, and that label has submerged into the shadows. Since then,
ME SACO UN OJO repressed the LPs and EXTREMELY ROTTEN PRODUCTIONS
have repressed the CDs and Cassettes. We knew that Apex Profane was
up to our caliber of standards but the cynics within us did not
foresee this reaction. It has been a wonderful surprise that we DO
NOT take for granted. This obnoxious and awful collection of sounds
is a whisper in the shadows and somehow resonated with those who
understood the language and more importantly appreciate it. And for
that, we’re very THANKFUL for.
*No-one in the band is a lil' fresh-faced kid new to the scene. Tell us what else you're all up to.
Listing every bands we’ve been in last 20 years would be take too long and self-fellating, I’ll only mention the current active bands each of us are involved in: Evan is in Neolithic, Dan is in Uniform, Ian is in Aeviterne and I am currently in Encenathrakh.
*We can’t forget that you run the cult label P2 – what’s new on it right now and what’s up next? I'm no doubt missing something here, but can you tell me what "P2" means?!
We just released KRALLICE’s “Inorganic Rites” on CD and Cassette the vinyl along and “Porous Resonance Abyss” are currently in production. We also have other titles that will be announced hopefully in September.
I feel bad that we have friends that have asked us to release their material, unfortunately we only have a very small finite amount of finance and have been backed up with multiple releases for the next 2 years.
We took inspiration from Hip-Hop artists like Noreaga, 50 Cent, Scar Face and named ourselves after Propaganda Due, which is an organized crime syndicate.
*How busy does P2 keep you? Do you hate packing fucking orders and going to the post office as much as I do?
P2 is a two-man operation, my label partner and I share a lot of responsibilities and as we get older, we grow and have new personal obligations. I’m very grateful to have him in my life who can translate the legalities and finances to a dumbass, we both share the logistic processes, and even some of the layouts. In the duration of the label being active, my partner has achieved several personal milestones in his life.
I sincerely enjoy packing orders; it keeps my mind occupied and find it very rewarding when the package arrives to our customer safely and quickly. It’s practically a 2nd job that doesn’t pay the bills and perpetually keeps us in the red. I barely even touch my guitar these days. If I didn’t have a regular 9-to-6 office job and were able to live off the record label, it would be the ideal work life. Unfortunately, it’s unsustainable, especially living here in NYC. Nothing lasts forever and this will eventually end.
It’s honestly taxing to both of us. We both have personal lives and when something doesn’t do well, we take it to heart. Thoughts of “Am I doing enough?” “Did I let my friends down?” “What could’ve I have done better?” “What is the purpose of this label?” start to weigh down and burden me. I’m sure I am currently developing some ulcer from all the stress.
You already know these cats, but I want to honorably echo their names: SEQUESTRUM, HUMAN EFFLUENCE, NECROPSY ODOR, MEPHITIC CORPSE, and MORGUE BREATH. Also, even though they’ve been around, I just saw the new lineup of SULFURIC CAUTERY, they floored me – they’re about to ruin it for everyone.
*I know you dig twisted outsider shit like that of Marco Corbelli (Atrax Morgue, Kranivm, Mörder Machine etc.). How wide is your musical taste, ranging from perfectly acceptable to totally heinous? Describe where on the, uh, spectrum your listening habits sit - bouncing around all over the place on the daily or hyper-fixating on particular things for months at a time until you burn out on them?
*You've been around the block a few times now and must have some stories. Tell me something interesting, and no holding back.
During the last days of COPREMESIS, we performed a show hosted by the artist MATTHEW BARNEY, during the song where we covered LAST DAYS of HUMANITY’s “Intoxicated” with ERWIN, there was a performance that involved a person with a gigantic enema bottle, a portable potty on hydraulics, a long pipe with a contact mic and a whole lot of bodily fluids all over the floor. Telling the story doesn’t do it justice, and there are pictures, but even so, it’s quite unbelievable unless you were there. It was an experience, and I still think about it to this day.
*Alright mate, that'll do and thanks again for putting up with my bullshit. See you in Melbourne!
LACHY. Thank you. I am so excited to see you again and everyone else, I cannot wait! Let’s all grab a cup of coffee together!