Abated Mass Of Flesh, a brutal death band out of Tennessee, have been around for almost 15 years! I was not familiar with them before now, but I am definitely a fan!
Get in the know, read below:
Who is all in Abated Mass Of Flesh and how old are you guys?
We have been around since 2011. It started as a solo project, then eventually turned into a full band a couple years later. It was formed by myself (Zack), then my brother joined on vocals and we eventually found members to make it a live act.
How did the band start? and when?
The band officially started in the summer of 2011 with the idea of making a brutal death metal
project with lyrics that related to my faith at the time. I was programming drums, recording guitar riffs and doing vocals myself on the first EP "Moth and Rust in the Temple of Putridity". My brother and I already had a short history of doing music together, so it felt natural to have him be a part of it, so he took over on lead vocals on the second EP "Brutal Death". We released some more EPs before finding some local members to join, creating a four piece lineup. From there, we were able to do local shows and occasionally do some touring.
project with lyrics that related to my faith at the time. I was programming drums, recording guitar riffs and doing vocals myself on the first EP "Moth and Rust in the Temple of Putridity". My brother and I already had a short history of doing music together, so it felt natural to have him be a part of it, so he took over on lead vocals on the second EP "Brutal Death". We released some more EPs before finding some local members to join, creating a four piece lineup. From there, we were able to do local shows and occasionally do some touring.
Can you name some of your influences?
We were and are still heavily influenced by bands like Human Mastication, Devourment, Dying Fetus, Epicardiectomy, Mortification, Cephalotripsy, The Empty Tomb, Cerebral Incubation, Crimson Thorn, Pathology, etc.
Your catalog of releases is long, and I have not heard it all. In fact, I stumbled upon the new EP, "Rebirthing The Vile" as a new fan, and fucking love it. Has your sound changed drastically over the years? How so?
We appreciate it and we are glad that you stumbled upon our new release. We have always tried to make each release sound different. Some releases are more produced than others, while some are more primitive. Some albums focus more on atmosphere and some are more focused on the brutality. With this latest release "Rebirthing the Vile", we decided to strip back our sound and go for an approach that is more raw and gritty, showcasing our influences from bands from the early 2000s era (Devourment, Circle of Dead Children, Eternal Suffering, Digested Flesh etc.) We recorded and mixed everything ourselves and had it mastered by Josh Welshman from Defeated Sanity.
We wanted to simplify things a bit and write more groove and slam orientated songs. As far as the production goes, we are all drawn to more raw/primitive sounding bands. Those kinds of bands feel more relatable to us because we typically handle everything ourselves and have always preferred a more natural sound. Things increasingly sound more synthetic in this genre and it felt like a breath of fresh air to tone things back a bit and go for a more natural approach without all of the polishing.
Researching the band's history, it seems like you guys have been featured on countless "Christian Deathcore" compilations. I guess I was surprised just because of the usual theme and subject matter of this sort of music. But, I should open my ears and eyes a bit more! Can you tell us if the band is christian or follows certain beliefs and how that may have affected the band in the past?
So, like I mentioned earlier we started out as a Christian band. We were for about the first six years before things started to change for us. Each member, past and present, had their own experiences that led to some doubt and challenges regarding personal beliefs. Around that time, we were playing several shows and occasionally touring to where things became less focused on the faith aspect of the band. As the main lyricist, I began to dive deeper into the harder questions surrounding me at the time and I started to write about my experiences through that process. The result was nearly a 6-year deconstruction of my beliefs, which led me to some different conclusions. Though Christianity is still a topic we explore in our music, we no longer consider ourselves a Christian band for those reasons. It is a touchy topic for some and it has caused a lot of negative feedback within the Christian metal community. Many long time fans have turned away or written us off. In fact, we write about some of those experiences on our latest release. We aren't out trying to create division among people, we are just trying to be honest with ourselves. Many people have been curious about it and we try to get back with everyone and be as thorough as possible, but some people are just looking to get and answer and screenshot our responses to share them around. That's not to say every believer has acted that way. We have been fortunate to have friends and believers that continue to encourage and support us in what we do. We always saw the band as an outlet for us to express ourselves and touch on some deeper topics. It has certainly been a journey and we look forward to exploring new ground in the future within ourselves and as a band.
What a thoughtful and honest response. Thank you for that!
How have your fans received "Rebirthing The Vile" thus far?
You're welcome! The reception has been really good so far. At this time, we are not even a week into the release and have seen massive progress and a lot of good feedback. You never really know how an album is going to do once it is released, so we were pleasantly surprised to see this one being received well.
The artwork was done by Pradana Graphics with some editing and additions from myself. We saw the piece online and thought it would make a great album cover and compliment the direction we were going for with our sound. So we messaged him and ended up buying it from him.
We ended up going with a green color scheme, the piece was originally red. We have never used the color green in our discography, so we thought it would look cool to change the colors up. We also ended up bringing back an older version of our logo. We felt it would match the aesthetic we were going for and we all think it turned out great.
What is your favorite track on Rebirthing The Vile?
My favorite track to play live is probably "Futility of Awaited Disencumbrance". It has a really smooth and groovy feel to it when we kick it off. We all just click together on that one and it feels great to play, but my favorite song on the release would probably have to be "The Cross is Lost". I really like the lyrics on that one and the overall style of the song. We tried some different things on it by incorporating more traditional death metal riffing over blast beats. I think it is a good mix of slam, grind and traditional death metal.
After starting pretty much all alone, to where you are now, all these years later, how has the writing process evolved over that time?
I always write from personal experiences. Some of the lyrics are internal, but I also write to reflect my views on society. In the beginning, the lyrics were heavily rooted in my faith at the time. We still explore Christianity in our music, but it is from a different perspective now. A lot of it is more introspective and reflective based on our personal experiences. It is a topic that I still find fascinating and I love to write about it.
As far as the music goes, we have had some lineup changes over the years and that comes with a series of different influences. I think the current lineup that we have aligns with our original vision for the band. That's why we titled this new release "Rebirthing the Vile" because it felt like we were getting back to our roots. We share a lot of similar influences, so it is easier to write music together. We are always sharing bands with each other and pulling influences from a variety of bands in the slam, brutal death and grind genres.
Do you guys plan on touring this summer?
As of now, we do not have any tours planned, but we have a variety of shows ahead of us. We have been fortunate to get put on more shows this year. Our plan was to finish the release, then focus on fulfilling shows. We will probably start writing again towards the end of the year. We are all pretty busy and work full-time jobs, so we do not get to tour very often. If we do, it is usually for some weekend runs or week-long travel dates.
We just wanted to thank everybody for supporting us over the years. We are very grateful to continue doing this. The support encourages us to keep going and we don't plan on slowing down any time soon. And thanks to you Cerebral Reviewment! We appreciate you giving us some time to share a little about ourselves and the band. Cheers!
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