Let's start with who we are talking to and your role in the band?
- This is Joaquin, I play guitar and do backing vocals and I'm a founding member of Embodied Torment.
Who all makes up Embodied Torment?
- We have Andy Smith on vocals, Mark Chandler on bass, Alex Lopez on drums, and myself. Our founding bassist David Ko also helps us out with a lot of our live appearances since Mark lives so far away from the rest of us.
How long have you been a band?
- We first came together in 2011.
Embodied Torment had a long hiatus, correct? What were some of the biggest obstacles to make it back to where we are now, with an album on the horizon?
- It was a perfect storm that put the band on ice for several years: everyone was having kids, I was in a new position at work and in my union that left me no time to write, personal changes happened... we had all intended to continue with new material right away after our first album came out but life had other plans. The biggest obstacles to getting things going again in 2022 were just the way that life had spread us out all over the country and made it impossible to get together the way that we used to. Fortunately we were able to re-form with a complete lineup, welcoming Andy and Alex into the fold, and things have been going great.
I think I saw on your latest single you guys worked with Josh Welshman? How did that connection come about? What was it like?
- We've known Josh from playing shows together over the years and seeing each other at the same fests.
- This is Joaquin, I play guitar and do backing vocals and I'm a founding member of Embodied Torment.
Who all makes up Embodied Torment?
- We have Andy Smith on vocals, Mark Chandler on bass, Alex Lopez on drums, and myself. Our founding bassist David Ko also helps us out with a lot of our live appearances since Mark lives so far away from the rest of us.
How long have you been a band?
- We first came together in 2011.
Embodied Torment had a long hiatus, correct? What were some of the biggest obstacles to make it back to where we are now, with an album on the horizon?
- It was a perfect storm that put the band on ice for several years: everyone was having kids, I was in a new position at work and in my union that left me no time to write, personal changes happened... we had all intended to continue with new material right away after our first album came out but life had other plans. The biggest obstacles to getting things going again in 2022 were just the way that life had spread us out all over the country and made it impossible to get together the way that we used to. Fortunately we were able to re-form with a complete lineup, welcoming Andy and Alex into the fold, and things have been going great.
I think I saw on your latest single you guys worked with Josh Welshman? How did that connection come about? What was it like?
- We've known Josh from playing shows together over the years and seeing each other at the same fests.
He also engineered for Brodequin, so with the connection there it was an easy choice to reach out for our song Tongue of Iron. Josh was great to work with and we were very pleased with the mix, so I can't recommend him highly enough!
I've always appreciated your attention to detail in the artwork and lyrics of Liturgy of Ritual Execution. Would you say the band's "theme" or general subject matter has changed over the hiatus? Will we get to see more beautiful lyrics?!
I've always appreciated your attention to detail in the artwork and lyrics of Liturgy of Ritual Execution. Would you say the band's "theme" or general subject matter has changed over the hiatus? Will we get to see more beautiful lyrics?!
"Pustules of an indiscernible mass
Writhing spasmodically
Watch it roil
Adhered by bilious fluid
The corpse becomes entrenched
In the virus of subjugation
Externally digested
Fermented in existential terror
Providing sustenance to the parasite
Whose corpulence now dominates it
The vile womb ruptures desiccated waste
No longer fit to feast upon
Despoiled and evacuated
The cryptic earth razed under
Beating morbid wings,
And carpeted with remains
Like an inconceivable ossuary
Relics of a beleaguered past
The host remains adjunct to its history
Unknowingly harboring fallacies of its freedom
Abandoned, only the human husk persists
Its forlorn destruction"
Thank you! The aesthetics and the lore in our songs are a real source of pride. I studied medieval and ancient history and have leaned on a lot of primary source documents to underpin our lyrics, such as in the account in Rädern of a man being broken on the wheel.
We've definitely evolved in a way that builds on where we were going by the end of the writing for "Liturgy of Ritual Execution" (LoRE). The final song we completed for the album was "Thrones of the Slain," which is about the Battle of Agincourt, and we were interested in talking more about the horrors of warfare and the cultural phenomena that intertwine with it.
You can see the continuity and the change in the lyrics for the songs on Archaic Bloodshed:
In thy name and by thy hand
I laid low the vermin of Suru
I built a pillar over the city gate
I flayed all those chiefs who dared revolt
I covered the pillar with their skin
I walled up some within the pillar
"Deconsecration of the Monolith" is written as a prayer to the god Ashur sacrificing a multitude of defeated rebels from around 880 BC, "Grasping Salvation" is about the massacres of the Sack of Magdeburg in 1631, and then "Tongue of Iron" refers to the mass execution of Saxon pagans by order of Charlemagne in 782. So there's a strong thread uniting our lyrics across time even as some elements have changed, which is that we draw on ancient lore speaking to man's inhumanity to man.
Archaic Bloodshed is 3 brand new songs? Or were those written years before they were recorded and released?
"Deconsecration..." was basically written in 2016 and "Grasping" was largely drafted in the same period, and we even had concepts for "Tongue" before we went on hiatus too. I did substantial updates and refinement but if you just look at them in that order they basically show the conceptual development in the band in the time after LoRE.
The last big fest you guys played was Chicago Domination, (the last one, in fact) now you are on the upcoming NSE fest in November!! Tell us what you know about the fest, how it all came about, and how you feel about it!
Archaic Bloodshed is 3 brand new songs? Or were those written years before they were recorded and released?
"Deconsecration..." was basically written in 2016 and "Grasping" was largely drafted in the same period, and we even had concepts for "Tongue" before we went on hiatus too. I did substantial updates and refinement but if you just look at them in that order they basically show the conceptual development in the band in the time after LoRE.
The last big fest you guys played was Chicago Domination, (the last one, in fact) now you are on the upcoming NSE fest in November!! Tell us what you know about the fest, how it all came about, and how you feel about it!
I remember that Dan Osborn was planning on NSE Fest a few years ago but it unfortunately didn't come together. It's cool that Ryan has revived the idea and it will be sick to be a part of a big label showcase like this. We've also got some additional dates coming together around the fest that we'll be excited to share details about soon!
What can you share about the upcoming album??
I believe it's going to be a decisive step forward for us. "Archaic Bloodshed" was an important way to get back into activity, but I think our songwriting is on another level now, and we'll see if listeners agree.
We're nearly finished with the writing for the next album but I can already tell you that the title will be "Sacraments of Eternal War." It will be blazing fast, darker, and more evil than what we've done before. It will be a statement against all of the casual, laid-back, fun vibes that are dominating death metal and much of so-called Brutal Death Metal today. No fun, no groove, no mercy.
Can you talk a little bit about influences? Favorite bands?
Some of the more obvious collective influences are bands like Disgorge, Brodequin, and Suffocation. We’ve increasingly gone back to some of the traditional, blasting, evil death metal bands like Krisiun, Abhorrence (Brazil), and Imposer, to name just a few; stuff that a lot of people have forgotten - bands with furious, teeth-clenching riffs and a militant feeling. I’ve been listening to extreme metal for almost thirty years now and I draw on elements from that whole history when I write.
How do you feel about the current state of Brutal Death Metal?
I think it’s got its ups and downs at any time. A lot of veteran bands have a bigger audience now than they did ten years ago, in part just because fans have had a lot more time to find out about them, and that’s been positive.
Personally, what got me into BDM in the first place can be hard to find nowadays, since groove is very big right now and the general “vibe” of a lot of the scene now isn’t really focused on darker forms of expression. There are some bright spots we’d point to among newer bands today, like Desecrated Ubiquity.
If you could tour with any 3 bands, active or not, who would make up your dream tour?
We’ve talked about dream tour mates a lot, especially since we plan on doing as much as possible on the road once “Sacraments of Eternal War” is out. There are so many sick choices, but if we had to narrow it down just to three we’re picking Putridity, Sarpanitum, and Suffocation circa 1998 for good measure.
Any newer bands that you guys are really liking?
Too many to name. At the risk of leaving out some of our friends, we’ll start with a few that we’ve been especially impressed by live and some who haven’t gotten much attention: Excrescence, Human Effluence, and Primitive Warfare are some of the sickest that we’ve played with over the past year.
Grave Heresy, Abhorrency, Wyrmvold, and Venomous Agent X are a few of our favorite newer Black/Death bands. Molested Divinity, Putrescent Seepage, and Desecrated Ubiquity are labelmates making some of the best Brutal Death Metal out there. We’ll leave it there for now.
Thanks again for taking some time for this! Any last words for your fans?
First of all thanks for the interview! We intend to make the long wait for our second album worth it and we’re eager to share it with all of you. AVE MORS! ⚔️
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