Interview by Jason Williams
Maryland death metal mainstays Dying Fetus have been slaying masses across North America for the past four weeks and are now nearing the last rites of this headline tour of theirs, with support from Exhumed, Abiotic and Rivers Of Nihil. This is still a continuation of the touring cycle to promote their latest album ‘Reign Supreme’ which came out via Relapse Records in mid-2012. Dying Fetus played a crushing show at the Constellation Room in Santa Ana on October 15, and our writer Jason Williams not only attended and reviewed the show but also caught up with drummer Trey Williams at the start of the evening. Read the conversation below along with a taste of some latest Dying Fetus music, and use the links at the bottom to check out Dying Fetus on the web or to read a review of the Santa Ana show.
Jason Williams of Metalassault.com here, alongside Trey Williams of Dying Fetus, gearing up for the North American Dying Fetus headlining tour. First of all, how are you doing man?
Doing alright, how about you?
I’m doing alright, pretty happy for this tour and a really great tour package. Unfortunately, Devourment dropped off the bill and I was kind of surprised, no really knows what happened. Is everyone okay in the band?
I don’t know. They never gave us a reason.
Interesting. They’ve been around for a long time, and it would have been really cool to have people see them and to know how much they contributed back in the day.
Yeah, we wanted to have them on the tour really badly. And unfortunately, things fell through for them, and they’re not here now. But we kept going because that’s what we do!
So how’s the tour been going so far? This is your first day in California.
It’s cool, man. It’s good times. So far, all of the bands have been really cool. Everybody’s helped each other out. And attendance has been good. So far, so good!
I was talking to your tour manager Dave, and he said that you guys will be playing in the Constellation Room. For people who don’t know, at the Observatory (venue for the show), there’s two rooms. The Observatory, the larger room, and the Constellation Room, which is the smaller room. There’s a load of people outside, I’m wondering if they’ll be able to fit everyone in. Would have made more sense to play the larger room. But tonight there’s a non-metal band playing it.
I think they’re called Sleigh Bells?
Yes, Sleigh Bells.
I’ve never heard of them. But, I guess they’re bigger than us (laughs). You know, I love small rooms, jammed packed like a can of sardines, where no one can escape the madness (laughs).
It’s intimate. You guys play festivals all the time, then you play a 200-300 people venue, just the sweat, the music, the vibe, it’s beautiful.
I dig it too. (laughs)
So it’s been about a year since Reign Supreme came out. Are you guys still touring for that exactly?
Yeah, we’re still touring for Reign Surpreme. We’re still trying to bring that music to the masses in a live setting. We have one more tour that we’re doing in Europe, with Hypocrisy and we’ll be supporting Heaven Shall Burn.
It’s a pretty good opportunity for you guys. I’ve noticed a lot lately that bands who have been around for a long time are taking direct supporting roles to get their name out to fans who probably haven’t heard Dying Fetus. It’s a great and new audience, more for the band and even more opportunites.
Pretty much nailed it right there, man (laughs). You’ve gotta branch out, break away from the scene you’re always in. You know, this tour, we’re pretty much just pandering to our audience. Doing that with bringing in Exhumed, Devourment unfortunately couldn’t make it. We really wanted to pander, make the hardcore death metal fan excited about the show.
People don’t know Waking the Cadaver, they’ve been around for a long time. The only footage I’ve seen of them was when they played the Fuck the Commerce festival, in Germany 2001. I guarantee a lot of people will know who they are afterwards.
They’ve had a really good response. I’ve talked to the band and they said their merch sales have been good. People are enjoying their New York or New Jersey slam (laughs).
That’s awesome. Speaking of the Heaven Shall Burn tour, how did that occur? Did they ask the band?
Our European booking agent said, “We got an offer for you guys to support Heaven Shall Burn and with Hypocrisy.” And we said, well, seems like a good chance to infect some more brains (laughs).
Definitely. Especially with Hypocrisy, who have been around for a very long time, great guys. Again, a really big opportunity for the band. How long will the tour be for?
It’s actually pretty short. I think it’s two and a half weeks, three weeks long. Not like this tour, which is about a solid month.
What parts of Europe will that be taking place in?
I don’t know on the top of my head. I’m sure quite a bit of Germany, parts around there.
Speaking of touring, I just heard about the Denver Black Sky festival that’ll be having Ghoul, and Skinless reforming. That’s pretty solid.
Oh yeah, we’re stoked for that.
Is this the first time that festival has ever been made?
That’s the first time I ever heard of it. But we’re very happy to be a part of it. We’ll be there, ready to throw some slam down!
Pretty awesome. Speaking of the last record, Reign Surpreme, I’ve heard talks that you’ll slowly be recording a new record. Are there any updates on that?
We haven’t booked any studio time yet. We’ll probably record it with Steve Wright again, at WrightWay Studios. Had a good experience there. We’re slowly just starting to get the ideas out of the brain, and put it onto the ProTools to start arranging parts and try to make a song. But we don’t have what you would call a song yet.
Gotcha. How does the recording process work for you guys? Do you bring your material in? Does (John) Gallagher (Guitarist/Vocalist/founding member) bring them to you? How does it work?
Well, ‘Reign Surpreme’ kind of came together where John wrote all of the music for it. We do some pre-production with a friend of ours from Misery Index, Darin Morris. And he goes in there with Darin and lays down the ideas in his head and start arranging them. I’ll put some drum tracks to him and we’ll all come in and kind of give our two cents. “Maybe that part needs repeat.” Don’t just tease someone with it. And then John and Sean put the lyrics to them, and I come in with my drum tracks and they bring in the guitars. It’s pretty basic but that’s how that album came together. This time, we’re probably going to do the same thing. Darin Norris is actually my roommate so we’re just go into my basement and starting put stuff together and hopefully it’ll be slam-arific!
Always is. Are there any big touring plans coming along asides the Heaven Shall Burn tour?
We don’t have any other plans, outside of the Heaven Shall Burn tour. We’re going to focus on putting an album together. Of course, there’s the Denver Black Sky festival as well. They’ll be some one-offs here and there, but you can be sure that once the album’s done, we’re going to be touring a lot. So we’ll be hitting, the world (smiles).
Of course. With the name Dying Fetus, some people may not know that you have a political edge with your lyrics, and speaking of political, with the government shutting down. Which I believe some people aren’t really surprised about it. What do you think about it all and are you surprised at all? That we’re supposedly the best country in the world and here we are, with our own government shutting down on us for most probably, miniscule bullshit reasons?
Well, I would just like some politicians to actually work for people, again. That would be cool. I don’t care what side of the aisle they’re on, just start working for us, Americans. You know, that’s what I would like to see.
It’s something so unfortunate. That we’re supposed to live in this patriotic country of freedom, and here we are waiting to see what the next thing is. People are being affected already, and with jobs and healthcare, it’s a drag.
It’s kind of funny. You know, Obama goes to the U.N. and goes and gives this speech that says we’re “exceptional”, and then this happens. And I don’t think that makes the world really confident about us, but, that’s a tricky subject. I don’t like to get into…(pause) We’re a political band, but lately, we’ve been trying to be more politically ambigious, and let the listener kind of read the lyrics, get into the lyrics, how they want to. If you’re a right-wing person I’m sure you can see things in our lyrics that appeal to you and if you’re a left-wing person, I’m sure you can find something in our lyrics that can appeal to you too. And if you’re in the middle, which I think most of us are, we just appeal to everybody.
Okay, are there any last statements or last words you like to reach out to any of the metalheads who will be reading this interview?
If you’re Dying Fetus fan, or not, come check us out. If you are a fan, come see us again. Check out our new album whenever it comes out. Should be coming out in 2014, sometime. And thanks for the support, because without you guys the fans, we couldn’t be out here doing this, like we do it. Thanks a lot guys.
Related – Gig Review: Dying Fetus Bring Havoc To The Constellation Room
Visit Dying Fetus on the web at:
DyingFetus.com
facebook.com/DyingFetus
twitter.com/DyingFetusBand
Remaining Tour Dates:
11/1: New York, NY @ Gramercy Theater
11/2: Springfield, VA @ Empire
12/14: Denver, CO @ Denver Black Sky