1. Hey Andrew, I'm so glad to interview you for disfigured, they are my fav NYDM band. Also thanks to Roc P. from Hatred For All for hooking up this interview with you!! First off, tell us the bands history and tell us what bands each of you were in before disfigured.
Whats up man. Disfigured was started in 96. Jon, ryan and jean-paul grew up in the same town and went to school together. They decided to start collabarating and recorded the paroxysm demo. Jon and Jean-paul were in a band called master, which was more of a thrash style band before joining with Ryan to start disfigured. That demos line-up was Ryan on bass and vocals, jon luyster on guitar, and Jean-paul on drums. I was in a black death metal band called Amasarak at the time the paroxysm demo was released. I joined Disfigured in the summer of 97, at that time Ryan was also singing for Internal Bleeding on a temporary basis because Frank Rini had had just left the band. We started working together to write "Prelude to Dementia" right away. We had very good chemistry from the begining. Shortly after we had written a the music for prelude, Repudilation broke up. We knew Joe Rielly would be a perfect singer for us, he had a brutal voice and an insane stage presence, also the music had gotten more technical for Disfigured at that time and it left Ryan a more comfortable role of back-up vocals and more focus on bass.
2. Describe Disfigured's sound. To me the band sounds like internal bleeding but the band has more fast parts than IB. so how did you guys come up with Disfigured's sound and what bands influenced disfigured?
Well, we all grew up in the long island death metal scene so the obvious influences were Internal Bleeding, and Suffocation. Other DM bands like Dying Fetus, Mortal Decay, Torture Crypt, Pyrexia were all influences, but we took influence from all music. Every member of that band had their own influences which is why i feel we were able to collaborate nicely together and create strong songs. I will say this though, Prelude to Dementia was released before Intrnal Bleedings album "Driven to Conquer". Working with Brian Griffen on the recording definitly helped us structure a tight sound for the recording.
3. Disfigured has tons of slams and beatdown parts, so how did you create them and what bands influenced you for those parts?
I would say IB, Suffocation, Pyrexia, Dying Fetus were big slam style influences. We created intensity to our slams by writing super fast riffs that all of a sudden crashed into a slow brutal slam. I would never say that we were the first to do that but I definitly feel we were ahead of our time with the Prelude EP. That seems to be a recipe that nearly every technical death metal band uses now.
4. Describe the vocals, what kind of vocal sound did Joe try to do? What bands did he learn a lot from?
Hmm. Well he was in Repud, which obviously focused on gutteral sounds for vocals. I would say he just wanted to sound really fuckin pissed, and I think he pulled that off pretty well.
5. The guitar sound is diverse and has some varied riffs like slow and melodic riffs to fast ones. So whos idea was it to use melodic and fast riffs? And as for guitar sound, what bands influenced you?
Like I said before, every one of us played a big part in creating our sound. We just wanted our album to be as intense and extreme as we could make it. Also Brian Griffen had a lot to do with creating our guitar tone in general, he is an amazing engineer.
6. In the era disfigured was around , I guess some NYDM bands like repudilation, dehumanized, internal bleeding shared the stage right? Any more bands which were around in that era worth mentioning? How's the current scene there, any good bands you like?
Well at that time in NY those were pretty much the only bands playing. Irate which is more of a hardcore band started coming up at that time, and Dying Fetus, Mortal Decay, and Immortal Suffering used to play shows with us in NY. As for now there are some pretty sick bands coming up, Hatred for All {HFA}, and Revenence come to mind, but the scene is not the same now. Extreme music has evolved big time, hardcore and death metal have totally mended together.
7. What releases did you record on for disfigured?
I recorded the guitar tracks on "Prelude to Dimentia".
8. New York has influenced the world scene and for sure NYDM slam style and NYDM grooves have influenced tons of bands coming up. So, for you, what's the biggest aspects of the NYDM sound that you think are fascinating to people from all over the world?
Definitly the slams, there is a certain toughness to a NY slam riff. Whether it is Suffocation or Madball, there is just something about a NY slam that is tough. Its hard to describe but you just feel it.
9. Dehumanized is now back to the scene. Any plans to reform Disfigured?
Never gonna happen.
10. Tell us what bands you and the other members from Disfigured are in now? Tell me about each bands style.
Well, Ryan and Jean-Paul have a band called Gilgongo which is kind of a jammy, mellow style band. I started a band called 13 Bloodlines. You can check them out on myspace, ( myspace.com/13bloodlines) or at 13bloodlines.com. Joe started a band with Brian Wishen of Repud called Korlokt but they have since disbanded. Jon Luyster i think lives in Arizona now, dont know what he is up to, probably doing a punk band.
11. Have you taken anything from the experience of being in Disfigured to your current band? Do you see some essences of Disfigured's sound there?
Yes, Disfigured was a learning experience for me, I was only 17 when we recorded Prelude, played the Millwaukee Metalfest and recorded with a death metal legend in Brian Griffen of Broken Hope. Some riffs i write now still have that Disfigured feel to them I suppose.
12. what bands have you been into recently?
I am big into The Red Chord, HFA is sick too, lovin the frank zappa still, I listen to loads of different styles of music. One day I pop in a Vital Remains cd, next day Faith no more or Al Demiola, gotta keep it mixed up.
13. Hows your view on NYDM's future?
It will always be around, I am not as involved in the NYDM scene as I used to be, but I know it aint goin nowhere, you will always have guys like Will Rahmer and Brain Smasher(matty death) spreading the word about NYDM.
14. Tell us your plan and add any last words please.
I plan to build a recording studio and pump out music for the rest of my life. Thanks for your time and your interest in Disfigured, People like you keep the scene strong and make us all who were involved in the scene in the past feel like it was all worth it and not just a big waste of time, thanks. Hopefully we can meet up and have a sapporo together, cheers,
Andrew