Interview with Gabriel & PESTILENT DEATH
1. In 2010, another grave was opened on the American West Coast to set free a new band that was instantly following the rotten path of Old School Death Metal: PESTILENT DEATH. Tell me a bit about the first crucial steps you made in order to form this entity.
Gabriel: In the beginning, Pestilent Death started out as just a side project, between myself and other former co/founding member Cesar “Vermin” Chavez. It started out as a two piece, with myself on guitar and Cesar on drums. The first initial idea when we started the band, was to bring something different to the Los Angeles metal scene. We experimented with a lot of different styles of metal in the beginning, but the overall influence behind the all the music that would write, was always death metal. Then , eventually over the years, Pestilent Death would bring in new members into the line up, and the sound would essential change, but the general idea of the music has always stayed the same.
2. The band name speaks for itself – how did you come up with it in the first place?
Gabriel: In all honesty, the name just came up by itself one day. Before then, we had no name for the band. We had songs and everything all done and completed, but still no official name. We had went through plenty of ideas, but nothing seem to click with us. The after a while, I just started putting words together. I came across the word “Pestilent”, and the next initial word that automatically came to mind was “Death”. The two words just fitted perfect together. I then, ran the idea by the other co/founding member Cesar and got his thoughts on it, and we bother agreed, that that name just seemed to fit the best.
3. When listening to your music, associations to bands such as AUTOPSY or FUNEBRARUM come to mind; how come you decided to play this kind of Death Metal and what would you consider your most influential sources?
Gabriel: Musically, the two biggest main influences of Pestilent Death’s music, all comes from Mortician and Disma. Stylistically, we don’t really limit or label ourselves as a pure “old school” death metal band, because we don’t just revolve our music to ONLY old school death metal. We actually listen to a lot of Brutal Death Metal, as well as other sub - genres of death metal. So we try and incorporate a lot those influences as well into our music, which helps us give us our own unique sound and identity. We appreciate the death metal genre as a whole. We don’t bash any other sub - genre like most people, or criticize any other band as not being “true” death metal. So the way we look at our music is basically, bringing a modern approach to the traditional sound. Just being heavy, aggressive, and having an overall darkness to it. Just a feeling of pure dread.
4. Over the course of your history you have been able to come up with two Demos, two EPs, a Single and a full-length album. Interestingly, pretty much all of your releases are only available as downloads; are you just fully adapted to the digital cause or have you not found a suitable label yet?
Gabriel: Up to this point, all of our releases have all been self released, so physical copies are usually limited. So we give people the option, if we run out of physical copies, we make the releases available for digital download. At this day in age, downloads are a must in all honesty. A lot of people seem to be more interested in buying digital albums, rather than physical CDs, so we do our best to just keep up with the times. And as for labels, over the years, we haven’t had much luck with labels. It’s either none are interested, because our style is so different, that they don’t really know what to do with it. Or we could not come to a final decision, that would work out for both parties. So we just release everything on our own at this moment. We are always open for any offer to come, but until then we just continue keep moving forward.
5. How have people been responding to your outputs so far?
Gabriel: Over the years, Pestilent Death has always had mixed reactions. This is all due to the fact, that we have always done things differently, and whenever you do things different than from people are used to, they initially do not how to perceive it. Ironically, a lot of people always have had a problem distinguishing the kind of band that we are. For example, to the old school crowd, we’re labeled as “Brutal Death Metal”, and to the Brutal Death crowd, we’re seen as “Old School Death Metal”. We don’t concern ourselves with what style people want to view as, we just do what we want to do, and it’s always seems to work. People have come to really appreciate everything that we have put out. All the response has been positive, everyone seems to really like what we are doing.
6. Your latest output is an EP named “Upheaval of the Undead“ which features three new tracks. What can you tell me about those songs, especially since the first one is just an instrumental? Is there a specific lyrical concept?
Gabriel: All of the songs featured on the EP, were all written almost immediately after the release of our debut album “Eulogies Of Putrefaction”. We saw that, the album was just getting such a great response from people around the world, that we knew we had to keep the momentum going. So we wrote all those songs, with the mentality that, “This has to be heavier and more constructed than what we just did”. This EP also features, the debut of our current new line up as well. So that helped with the writing process, because we had some new members in the mix, so it was fresh take on everything we had been doing. The idea for the opening song “Chamber Of Wretched Souls" to be an instrumental, happened by accident. We wrote music to the song, but we never really had any lyrics for it, so when we went into the studio to record, we had a decision to make, whether to add lyrics to it right there in the studio, or just to leave it as it is. So, we felt that leaving it as an instrumental, was a good decision, because it gives the song a more evil and dense atmosphere to it. As far as lyrics go, this is not really a concept EP. All of our songs are all based on death, horror films and gore. So the lyrics to the songs, all have that same formula as past releases.
7. Additionally, there´s a cover version of AUTOPSY „Twisted Mass of Burnt Deacy“ to be found as a fourth track. After having covered MORTICIAN on the “Eulogies of Putrefaction“ album (“Necrocannibal”), you made another interpretation of a song that originally appeared on an American Death Metal classic. What were the reasons you picked that specific song?
Gabriel: The decision to cover “Necrocannibal” on the “Eulogies Of Putrefaction” album, came from the fact that, we felt we needed one more song on the album, and to show appreciation and respect to our most biggest influence, Mortician. When it came time for “Upheaval Of The Undead” I wanted to add in another cover as a bonus, but the deciding what song would fit was the hardest part. I have always felt, that Autopsy was an underrated band in death metal, and never really get the credit they deserve, for everything they have done for the genre. So then we made the choice of having “Twisted Mass Of Burnt Decay” as the closing track for the EP.
8. When comparing the covers of your releases it´s quite obvious that all of them are held in simple black and white; is there a pattern you follow or are you just into this old school approach? Do you have a specific “cover guy” or where do you get your illustrations from?
Gabriel: We choose black and white artwork, because we feel it fits the style of the music. Since the majority of our songs are based off horror films, black and white just seems to have that more gritty and disturbing feel to it. Each cover has all been done by a different artists. We usually like to have multiple different artists on each release, adding in their own element of artwork into our music, but there has always been one artist that is always included in all of our recent releases, and that is our good frie
nd and loyal supporter, Cesar Rosas. His art is included on the “Eulogies Of Putrefaction” album, “Upheaval Of The Undead” EP, and the “Cemeterial Befoulment” demo.
9. The California Death Metal scene has always been infamous for legendary bands such as AUTOPSY, TERRORIZER, SADISTIC INTENT or EXHUMED. For the past years, extreme outfits like CREMATORY STENCH, SKELETAL REMAINS or VASTUM have emerged and have started a very own generation of new Old School Death Metal. How do you see nowadays scene and where would you rate your place among these bands?
Gabriel: The current state of death metal is as strong as ever. There are multiple different bands, each with their own style. Some creating their own sound, and some paying direct homage to bands that influenced them. There is still a lot of room for creativity, so that allows other bands to add in different elements into the genre. As far as, where Pestilent Death stands, we stand as one of the main flag bearers for Los Angeles, and are paving to help lead the way, for the next evolution of death metal from California.
10. PESTILENT DEATH is not only a rehearsal room band but you can be seen on stages from time to time. What were the most memorable gigs so far and what can one expect attending one of your rituals?
Gabriel: The most memorable show, that automatically comes to mind, is when we shared the stage with Sadistic Intent, back in 2013. That has been the show, where we had received the best response from the audience, and gained the most recognition from.
11. What can we expect to hear from you guys in the near future?
Gabriel: As far as the future goes, expect further tours in and out of the U.S., and the most important thing to anticipate, is more heavier and darker music to be released. A lot of things are planned as of right now, things I can not disclose just yet, but soon though. The only thing I can really say is, 2017 will be the beginning of the next era of death metal.
