Cephalic carnage

Thrasher Magazine, June, 2003

THERE ARE FEW death/grind bands out there that think outside their musical boundaries. That's why it's hard to call Cephalic Carnage a death/grind band. They defy the genre musically and ideologically, touching on topics such as the Roman Empire, the 9/11 tragedy, aliens and weed, while musically challenging your ears with sub-bass drops that rattle your stomach and a grind speed that is nano-second sensitive on the timing scale. With their newest offering, Lucid Interval, Cephalic Carnage try to ignite the spark of creativity within extreme music's nether regions.

Stacy Buchanan

You guys have a little reputation with marijuana, but one thing I'd like to make clear is that there is obviously so much more going on in Cephalic Carnage than just some stoners and weed.

Zach (guitar): We wanted to cut back on that a little bit because we didn't want it to seem gimmicky; but still, when we were reaching for our identity we latched onto that because that was the common practice that we were all into, smoking a lot of herb. At first it was kind of a fun, laid back, Cypress Hill kind of thing, then we got more serious and it developed into something else. At this point we want to separate it from being gimmicky. It was just our attempt to find our own identity. We wanted to play brutal death metal and extreme music but we didn't want to tread the same water that bands like Cannibal Corpse and Carcass started, and now there's legions and thousands of bands in the underground that have nothing but what they've taken from those bands. That's the point, for us to stand on our own two feet.

John (drums): Getting out and doing this stuff is what really brings out the inspiration, playing with a bunch of different bands, seeing a bunch of people hanging out and seeing friends that we never get to see.

Tell me about all these new releases.

Zach: It all started with trying to do our CDs in a certain succession, and having ideas and experimentation. The Anal Blast split came together around three- or four-years-ago as kind of a drunken bet with Don to see who could do a Cryptopsy cover faster. The guys from Cryptopsy actually got along and suggested which songs we should both do.

Which songs did they suggest?

Zach: At this point I don't even remember because it never reached fruition, so we just decided to do a split. We recorded it and it took quite awhile because we were busy with Exploiting Dysfunction at the time, so it got sat on for pretty much a year and a half before they got a chance to do their side of it. They were going through line-up changes and their sound guy was out with Soil, yadda-yadda-yadda... So we decided to do this doom thing (Halls of Amenti) where we wanted it to be epic; there would be three parts released in three separate intervals. Everything kept getting delayed--layouts and recordings, and the fact that we're from Colorado and we're working with labels from different sections of the country other than Relapse, because they've been at it so long. We recorded Lucid Interval long after that other stuff and then it came out before all of that stuff. It was supposed to come out in staggering elements but that didn't happen. So Lucid Interval is the newest; it's the most concentrated and the most professional for us.

What exactly is the title "Lucid Interval" all about?

Zach: Leonard came up with the title but it fits in with the scheme of our music too, because it's the most straightforward, focused record we've done. It had a lot to do with the lyrics and the cover and everything ties together--that one moment of Zen clarity before all fucking hell breaks loose.

Leonard (vocals) It's that peacefulness surrounding insanity.

John: The "interval" part of that goes with the songs--mankind's evolution through history, mistakes we've made...and continue to make.

The music and recording is all over the place, with huge sub-bass drops and high frequencies. What's your modus operandi here?

Zach: There's frequency in all directions. There are frequencies as high up as dog tones. We get off on that. We get off on experimenting. We'll spend a whole day in rehearsal. Half of the record is really well-maintained and practiced and chopped up. And another half, or a little less than half, is improv stuff; on the spot.

Jawsh (bass): We even used a Doritos bag, a piece of paper, and a watch... Zach: ... We just have a wide variety of influences per member and we had enough time to do it--so why not? A lot of stuff was canned because we went overboard, and a lot of the stuff was also a e more subtle because it took away from the actual music itself. So if you have a good stereo there's not many death metal or grind CDs that take that element full-on.