1. hey jake! what's up bro? ok first of all give us a brief history of the band and why did you guys start cumbeast?- Doing good! Ok, I was asked to play bass for Maggottholamia and I did rehearse some new songs with them but pretty soon the song writer/guitarist Pete went to army so we decided to form a band because we didnt want to pay rent for our rehearsal place with not even rehearsing there. Sami and Vesa came up with the name Cumbeast and I had already written a lyrics titled the ancient cumbeast. so thats basically where they took the name. We just wanted to play some simple and brutal shit that will get the pit moving and I personally think theres enough those technical bands in the death metal scene already
2. when i first talked to you i asked you about cumbeast's sound and you said it's like devourment meets hatebreed and now that i heard it for myself i have to agree with you. cumbeast has a lot of cool slam parts so i'm guessing you guys dig groovy nydm type stuff like dehumanized, entorturement, internal bleeding and even devourment, so describe the bands sound in your own words and what bands influence you a lot?
- Yeah, we are all big fans of slamming and grooving shit and Im big fan of hardcore too so thats where the influences come from. If you want some bands to be mentioned as musical influence I guess I could say Internal Bleeding, Entorturement, Pyrexia, Dehumanized, Hatebreed and so on. As far the lyrics go my biggest influences are Broken Hope and Goratory. We kinda try to make sick but same time humorous. Musically we just try to keep it simple, catchy and heavy the way you just want to slam the house down ;)
3. vesa the vocalist is also in maggottholania so tell us about that band's sound! i cant wait for that band's split cd with my bro's in rest in gore! so do you and sami the drummer have any bands besides cumbeast or is it just vesa who has another band?
- The new Maggottholamia shit is definitely much more insane than the material which is coming out as split with Rest In Gore, they dont actually even play those old songs anymore. Pete the guitar player is one badass axeman and the new shit is technical and brutal as fuck, I guess they will have demo out soon. Sami is also the drummer of Maggottholamia and Vesa and Sami both are in Virulent Blessing too, so its a small and brutal circle we have with guys ;). Every band is different sounding so it doesnt actually matter if the same guys are around. Along with Cumbeast Im doing vocals and rhythm guitar in a death/thrash band called Devilish, been in that band since late 90,s and we have released bunch of demos, you can check the latest info about that at www.devilishmetal.com
4. when creating slam riffs what bands do you learn from? and how do you guys write your songs?
- Sometimes we just jam at the rehearsal and if I come up with a riff idea, I take it home, put it up to computer and make up the rest of the song. Usually I make songs at home and when its finished I send it to Sami, so he can hear the idea of the song and then we just wrap it up at the band rehearsals. Lyrics I write if I get some sick or hilarious idea and sometimes I ask Vesa to take part in writing, usually its me doing them but Vesa is involved sometimes too and he is doing majority of the arrangement work.
5. what releases will you have for the near future?
- Our full length album should be out early 2006 on Inherited Suffering records and Sami and Vesa surely are busy with their other bands too so its a lot of sick shit coming out from these guys ;)
6. are you interested in our scene? we got killer breakdown style bands like disconformity, vomit remnants, rest in gore and etc. have you heard of them at all or any other bands in our scene?
- I keep hearing my bros talking about those crazy-ass Japanese slam bands so I have checked some of them out and I kinda liked Disconformity, good shit. Ive heard Vomit Remnants too but Im not going too nuts over them. Overall it seems Japan has pretty good death metal scene going on.
7. how's the scene in Finland? any cool bands that sound like cumbeast? your country is near Sweden so do you have good connection's with bands from there?
- What scene? Heh, we got bunch of those lame ass old-school death metal bands and thats why we sometimes joke that three the most brutal bands all come from same rehearsal place. So basically we dont have many guttural death metal bands here. Well, some bands from Sweden have been like once here but we almost never see brutal shit in Finland. I guess people here are not so much into brutal death metal so its not cool to bring bands here to play and then they have to play for like 3 or 10 people audiences.
8. what kind of gear do you use? are you satisfied with the equipment you have now? and what things do you try to do to make the band more brutal and sick as the guitarist?
- I use bc.rich guitars and Im just going to buy my first amp head and cabinet as soon as I get the money together. Im never satisfied with my gear, you could always have more guitars ;). More rehearsing is the key to get the band more tight and of course you always develop as a player too when rehearsing with a band, Im not into training scales at home. So basically more we play, more brutal we get ;)
9. what bands have you been into recently? give us your recent play list.
- Oh shit, I listen to plenty of shit and it changes daily so its hard to put up a list. Some bands Im into right now are: Homo Iratus, just got into them recently, fucking awesome hardcore influenced death metal band from Greece. Downset, they are heavy rapping hardcore band from US, catchy stuff. Reprobation, fucking brutal US dm, sick vocals. List goes on: Decrypt, Serial Butcher, Biohazard, Full Blown Chaos, Soilent Green, Pustulated, Dripping, Withered Earth and so on, all kinda shit.
10. do guttural's and breakdown's mean a lot for you when it comes to the band? and what motivated you to start this kind of music?
- We just wanted to a band that will get the pit going on and I really like the energy and breakdowns of hardcore combined with the brutal vocal delivery of guttural death metal. Our goal is to make our music easy to get into and keep it simple and heavy. Most of all its important to have fun while playing, I think thats the true essence of music, if you are not having fun with the band you might as well quit.
11. you get a chance to play any gigs yet? if so how was the response to cumbeast? did people go crazy in the mosh pit or what?
- No we havent played any gigs yet but we are planning to do some as soon as the album is out, right now we are just rehearsing to get the songs tight and next month we will start the album recording so its gonna be pretty busy end of the year.
12. last question jake, what's the main goal for cumbeast?
- For me its to have fun, get to play some gigs and if somebody likes our music its already a battle won.
well thanks again for the interview dude i appreciate it! any comments or shout out's you want to add?
- seiji,Thanks for this interview, support the underground and stay brutal (what a clich!)