Interview with Finnish Death Metal CATABOLIC

Curated By Loredana Garra

CATABOLIC are: 

Il Mostro - vocals 

Lenn Root - guitar 

Alathfar - bass 

Toivonen – drums 

Hello Guys! Nice to meet you.

1)      Let's start by talking about your debut full length album 'Besiege The Uncivil', which will be released on February 25th, 2022 via Wormholedeath worldwide. What is the concept behind it?

LR: The concept is based in the psychological term “othering” or in this particular case the act of dehumanizing the opposition and warming the public to a conflict ready-state, tactic usually used against enemies across the border or suitable ones from within. Hence what the cover depicts, a soldier encountering undead himself on the battlefield with the looming spiral depicting the ever present cycle of violence overhead.

 

2)      What can you tell us about the music creation process?
How did the production technically take place and which professionals were involved?

LR: I do most of the songwriting, the music comes first and the lyrics are added later. Piecing together parts and motives, trying to keep the material from sounding too much like a riff salad but at the same time being aware of not dumbing it down too much with excessive repetition or non changing tempo. It’s not enough if a riff is fun to play, it has to work in context. Or better yet, incite vivid mental images, those usually make the cut! The other guys sometimes come up with parts also and the songs eventually get their final Catabolic-form in rehearsal (if they pass the high standard). 

 As for the production, it was decided to do the recording part ourselves as some members had a history of bad experiences at local “real” studios. One gruesome evelong process but we pulled through. We’re eternally grateful to all our friends who borrowed gear or had makeshift-studios at rehearsal places we could use. Although not enough praise can be given to Damian Herring who in the end mixed and mastered it. When we heard the first mix it was like a stone was being lifted and the release of all the hard work actually paid off.

Toivonen: Drums were recorded in the nighttime in the right mood by myself and played by myself. Tuning, microphoning, click-tracks etc. were done to be exactly correct. It was a painful process, but in the end it paid off. Guitars and the rest of the material were recorded in different locations, like mentioned before.      

 

3)      And what about the lyrical side? Who deals with the drafting of the texts?

LR: Our former frontman EHK writes them, he’s the unseen fifth member. Usually I’ll send him ideas and phrases and he’ll work on them to fit our needs. Lyrics are important to us, gore flicks and fist-bump cliches won’t do.

 

4)      You define yourself “Militant Death Metal”.
What meaning does this expression have for you?

LR: I always felt that bands like Slayer or Deicide had this almost militant precision and spirit to them. Even though we don’t really sound like them overall, the concrete elements of rapid riff-changes, heavy drum-bombardment, autocannon vocals and molten basstortion are all there. Another thing is that it differentiates us from all the newer bands playing under the tag ‘Finnish Death Metal’ the way it was done in the early nineties by Abhorrence, Demigod, Purtenance etc.

 

5)      Your symbol, the wheel with scythe in the epicenter, is very powerful. How did you manage to transfer your sense into an image?

LR: Well, I saw this movie called The Eagle (2011) and there’s a scene where a chariot forages unto running soldiers and limbs fly in the air! I thought the scene would make a great shirt design (which didn’t happen) but the image stuck. It’s simple, multi-meaning and works on banners.    

 

6)      You’re veterans of the scene! You played your very first show in 2011 and, after eleven years, what has changed and what is left?

LR: Thanks for the compliment, but I really don’t consider us as such, there’s bands here in our median age group who’ve been around much longer and accomplished way more. But what’s changed is we’ve now had a stable lineup going on for quite some time (since 2016), the band of old was always ridden with people leaving or outside things causing problems. What’s left is the constant thrive to always get better and stay true to our metallic vision.  

Toivonen: Perhaps now it’s the time. Let’s see...

7)      “The Onager” Lyric Vide is about the once invincible Roman war machine but could you explain if there are also some hidden references to your personal struggles?

LR: The subject matter of our songs do cover a lot of ground; there’s tragedy, revelations, strife, victimhood, poor choices, idealism, pessimism, aggression, fatalism, distrust and more. If there are hidden references they’re so well camouflaged I just haven’t found them! Joking aside, there might be a few of them, but I won’t be going into detail.

Toivonen: Sometimes you need to plan everything carefully in order to make it happen. Could it be interpreted like that? Maybe, I don’t know... 

Thanks for dedicating your time to us from all the editorial staff and readers of “Spread The Darkness”. 

We greet you and hope to see you playing in Italy soon!

LR: Cheers and good luck to your Zine!

"Once the warwagon's rolling, get out of the way or get run over!". (Catabolic)