Gelap Pekat

Prior to the Death By Decibels show at the House of Blues in West Hollywood, I had the opportunity to interview Phil Fasciana of Malevolent Creation

“Doomsday X” was released earlier this year and has been out for awhile. Overall, are you pleased with the album, and how have you reacted to the metal community’s response to the album?
Well, we’re completely happy with it, I mean, it took us some time because it was weird writing songs on our own instead of doing it all together. We were sending CDs back and forth to each other and we rehearsed before we went into the studio together. Everything surprisingly went smoothly. The recording of the album went well, and we banged it out really fast. We’re totally happy with the result of the album and from all of the reviews that I’ve read; we really haven’t had any shitty ones. People are happy, it sounds like a Malevolent album.

The writing and recording process was different than from albums in the past?
Yeah, because all five of us don’t live together in the same state. There are three of us in Florida and a couple of us in New York. Our singer, Brett, is in New York.

You still have connections to Buffalo?
Yeah, Brett moved back up there, but, we made it happen. It took a little longer than normal and it was a bit of a headache, but we’ve been playing together long enough that everyone knew what was right, and it all worked out.

Have the crowds responded positively to the new songs?
Oh, yeah. We’ve been playing three songs off the new album, even opening up with them, and so far, so good. Lots of positive responses.

You guys have been with Nuclear Blast since “The Will To Kill”. Given that their roster is huge, are you satisfied with their support?
Yeah, actually, they contacted us when we were in Europe touring for “Envenomed”. We were able to eventually work out a deal as the German guys over there are old school death metal fans. We knew that we weren’t going to be at the top of their priority list as they have shitloads of commercial bands that sell shitloads of records. As long as we knew that our records would be in stores, and the distribution issue was over with and there was some good promotion from magazines and whatnot. Then, it’s up to us to produce a good record and tour to support it. It’s worked out fine, especially since Gerardo Martinez runs the (Nuclear Blast) U.S. office. Without him, a lot of shit wouldn’t be happening. He is a huge factor of us still being a band.

Has this worked out better than Arctic?
Well, actually, Arctic is us and Arctic actually still owns these albums. We’re on Nuclear Blast, but the albums are licensed to them. They take full control over that, but, in reality, we still own these records.

You retain the rights to your own art.
That’s right, especially after getting screwed over by Pavement. Our attorney said that we could do this and not get gypped like we did. Being with Nuclear Blast, however, we knew would work out very well for Malevolent Creation.



How was the Death By Decibels tour put together and when were you asked to join?
A couple of months ago. Our booking agent, Ash Avildsen from TKO, who’s put together tours for us in the past, put this one together and we’ve never had a problem. In the past, we had problems with various booking agents that would lie to us, issues with money, this and that. But, with Avildsen, we’ve never had a problem. He’s put together some good tours for us. He also did Summer Slaughter and basically told Nuclear Blast, “This is what I want to do” and have us with Vader. Of course, we’ve been touring with Vader since 1995. It’s great to tour with our friends, but the four other bands, I had never even heard of them. It turns out, though, that they’re all killer bands! I guess I’m not in the loop with the new school stuff, you know, ha ha! I’m not a MySpace fanatic or anything, but, it’s cool. A lot of these younger bands with us are really good.

It’s good to see the headliners giving the support to the younger bands.
Oh, yeah, sure, they’re all really good guys and girls

You guys have been to L.A. twice in the last few months. Tell us a little bit about your inclusion on the Gathering of Bestial Legion III show. Also, no offence to Sadistic Intent/Possessed, but did you guys feel slighted by playing underneath them?
I love Sadistic Intent and I’m still waiting for that damn album to ever come out. We didn’t feel undermined or anything like that. We knew that it was going to be a good show regardless. Simply, we flew out, we played, and we flew back. It was great.

Are there any plans to resurrect Hate Plow?
Yes. I’m finally going to have some free time and we’re going to put together this third album with Kam Lee as the vocalist. The drummer is either going to be Derek Roddy, or maybe the drummer for Abigail Williams. It’s going to be nothing but speed, everything that we could possibly do. I’m going to get the best people I know and friends to make it easy on me. I played guitar and bass on both of the previous albums, Rob Barrett didn’t even play on the albums.

I don’t recall, but is Barrett credited on the albums?
Yeah, he’s credited with being in the band, but he never wrote anything or anything like that. I put all of the music down and he wasn’t even there. He did the tours and stuff like that. He wanted to be involved, but he’s a lazy bastard, ha ha! So, it’s going to me on guitar along with J.P. Soars, who played in Divine Empire. He’s been out of the metal loop for a little while, playing in jazz and blues bands around Florida, but he’s got the itch to grind. Just before this tour, I was talking to him and I said, “Do you want to do the Hate Plow?” As far as I know, Derek’s down for doing it, Kam, me, J.P., and Danny Lilker on bass. We’ll record our tracks, send them to Danny, and we’ll make it work. We’re going to try to make the fastest fucking grind album that we possibly can. That’s what the whole goal is, you know? It’s a band for fun, but when we do it, I want to do it full force.

Lastly, do you think that the overall state of death metal as a genre is good, and what are you currently listening to?
Well, you know, with death metal there was that dead period from the mid ‘90s to ’00, ‘01 or so, but, I have to admit, everything’s gotten a lot better. As far as us touring and other tour packages and stuff, metal’s certainly a lot more popular now than it was back then. There’s a lot of good bands that have put out good records, so it’s cool. As for what I’m currently listening to, I would have to say that we’ve been listening to a lot of Saxon on the bus! We’re getting the old school, real big time! After playing death metal all night, we don’t go on the bus and put on more, ha ha! We’ve been listening to a lot of old metal, lots of classics. The stuff we were listening to when we were 12 or 13. Saxon, old Priest, and old Maiden. That’s what I’m currently chilling with, ha ha!

Phil, thank you very much for your time.
Thank you, hope you enjoy the show.
Believe me, I will. And I did.

www.malevolent-creation.com