Mortician

September, 1999 via e-mail

As you started about 10 years ago, do you consider yourselves as pioneers of the Death / Grind movement?
I guess you could say that we've influenced our share of individuals. When you've been around as long as us you're bound to make an impact. We've recieved 100s of emails from fans telling us how they've never heard of anything so heavy and that it inspired them to form bands in that brutal style. I think it's great.

It's quite unusual for a Death / Grind band to work with a drum machine. Didn't you look for a new member after you had to fire the founding member Matt Sicher?
We looked around for a while but I had already been working with a drum machine with my solo project Primitive Brutality and Will liked the sound so much that we decided to use it. Now it seems to be an integral part of what makes us Morticain.

What impact did the drum machine have on your music?
I think the drum machine brought a sort of inhuman mechanical atmosphere to the band. We do however try to program beats how a real drummer would play them.

Do you use a drummer for your live gigs?
We always play with a live drummer and have been through several of them. Right now we're working with George Torres (ex-Dehumanized) who will be on this coming October's tour and possibly on the next EP.

You played at some big festivals this year (Milwaukee Metalfest, Metal Meltdown). What interesting experience can you gain there?
Jack's metalfest are always the best and a truely great time. We try to do all the fests and think that they are the best way to jam in front of people who normally wouldn;t get to see us. Plus the parties after are always killler!!!!

When you play in clubs, what and how many people come to your gigs?
We've played for all sorts of crowds from 50 people and up. It all depends on the ciy and the promoter and sometimes when the last big show was in that town. Some of the strangest places will surprise you and have great turn outs.

Are there some bands serving as Mortician's musical inspirations?
I'm personally into allot of older shit like Possessed, Terrorizer, Repulsion, etc. as well as newer shit like Disfigured, Mortal Decay, 420 and Skinless.

You recorded your last CD 'Chainsaw Dismemberment' in Roger's home studio. What are the advantages of an own studio?
I've always done my own recording, even for Malignancy. I love being able to relax and take our time. The ability to do so is priceless. We never have to watch a clock or worry about a budget. I've been upgrading the studio with every release and we are going to be switching to a completely digital 16 track PC hard disk recording set up.

Where did you take the samples you put between the different songs on the last CD?
All of the samples are from Will's personal collection of horror movies. He has over 500 originals and is a true fan of everything horror.

Your lyrics are full of horror and brutality and show big disrespect towards good taste. Do you read horror novels or watch gore movies? If yes, please name your favourite authors and movies?
I personally am into more science fiction than horror, but if I had to name a few favorite horror movies they would be Night of the Living Dead, The Shinning, Henry, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, etc.

For your last three CDs, adult artist Wes Benscoter was responsible for the artwork? (The cover of Chainsaw Dismemberment really looks awesome!!!)
a) What exactly do you like about his painting style?
b) Will he also be responsible for your next covers?
c) Did you ever get trouble because of his explicit paintings?
I think that Wes is one of the world's greatest artists and really admire his work. He captueres the atmosphere of our music perfectly everytime and I appreciate his dark and gloomy feel. I will always request Wes' work on all our releases and I hope that he will always work with us. We've had a few problems with some major chain stores not carrying the CD but they are pressing up a special one that has a blank cover for those stores. Wes' work can also be checked out at his web site http://www.wesbenscoter.com .

Your albums lasts 50 minutes with 28 songs. Don't you think that this is too long for a Death / Grind CD? Very often, extreme CDs are much shorter (Brutal Truth, Slayer,...)
We always like to pack our releases with as much music as possible. We are death metal fans and think that our fans deserve as much music as we can cram in for their buck.

Do you have a good relationship with Incantation as their guitarist John McEntee played on your first 7" in 1990 and you toured together in 1996.
John has been around the scene forever and is still good friends with Will and I. We always hang and talk at the fests.

Roger has a side project called Malignancy. In which way does it differ from Mortician?
Malignancy has been becoming something more than just a side project now with the release of Intrauterine Cannibalism on United Guttural records. Malignancy is my first project where I'm playing drums and I dig it very much. We are brutal how Mortician is brutal but we are a way more grindcore technical band. From the response we've been getting people apparently like it alot and think that it is right up there with Mortician.

You recorded 'Piece By Piece' for a Slayer tribute CD. Got it already released? Do you have other cover versions in your repertoire?
That CD is out I believe and we've done a few covers in the past namely Fuck of Death, Scum, Horrified, Procreation Of The Wicked, etc. We always like to do a few covers on our EPs. Covers are fun to do and I think that the fans really dig them.

Your first tapes and 7"s are already sold out for years. Did you ever consider to re-release them on an entire CD?
We've actually been talking with relapse about re-releaseing the original Brutaly Mutilated 7" with a new remastered sound off of the original reels. Hopefully this will be out by next year.

What can we expect from Mortician in the future?
More of the same! We are definitely a band that will always produce horror-glorifying brutal death metal and we will never change!

Interview published on March 4^th 2000