1. hey Eston, first off tell us how merciless mutilation got started and what's the current line up?
Well, Merciless Mutilation got started back in late 2004 when I just so happened to go to a local guitar store out of boredom and ran into Ira, our current drummer and Jonnathan, our former guitarist. We all recognized each other from going to the same school, Ira approached me and we hit it off perfectly and just decided to start off doing a three piece for a little while. At the time, we were all just starting to get into death metal so it was a learning process for us all but it was great while it lasted. We were heavily influenced by Cannibal Corpse and Pig Destroyer at the beginning of it all...to bad the music didn't show it, hahahaha.
2. describe the bands sound for us and what bands influence you in some ways?
We think our sound is really original, yet still keeping in with our influences. All of our influences are really diverse and out there, yet still death metal in some ways. Johanas' influences are Devourment, Skinless, Cannibal Corpse but at the same time, he gets his influence from hardcore and metalcore also. The same applies for Gil. He's probably the biggest one out of all of us who's into hardcore and metalcore and it sometimes shows in the music. Ira's drumming influences are from so many bands, it's hard to keep track of...hahaha. Ira and myself are always talking about drummers, but his main influences are Hate Eternal, Brodequin, Liturgy, Disgorge, recently he's been digging the fuck out of Disgorge. I can't really blame him. Me, my influences are Corpsegrinder Fisher from Cannibal Corpse, Frank Mullen, Matti Way and Ruben and Mike from Devourment.
3. describe your vocals and what you have to offer that other vocalists don't and what vocal styles do you use, for instance gutturals, gurgles and etc.?
Hmm...my vocal style? I think what I offer that other vocalists don't is speed. I hear a lot of other guys do vocals, and it's not really that fast. Not that speed is everything, but it can sometimes elevate a song. Most of my influence on speed is from Corpsegrinder and Lord Worm. I mostly use an old school guttural technique that you hear in Cannibal Corpse, but then I will switch into a grunting type vocal style that Ruben used on Molesting the Decapitated and then into the tone Frank used on Effigy of the Forgotten. I have a lot of different tones on my growls...and I can also do up to 30 second screaming and black metal shrieks. Can't forget about the occasional hardcore, too. I also forgot to mention that all my vocal styles are exhaled.
4. you've been trying to learn the predator vocal style of Joe Wolfe in Heinous Killings right hehe? so what bands vocalists influence you to construct your own vocal style?
I mentioned this before, but George Fisher of Cannibal Corpse and Monstrosity influences me really big...and always has. At some of our practices, you'll just randomly hear me singing a Cannibal Corpse song or whatever. I love that guy's vocals and how he can sound really brutal but as the same time maintain speed and clarity. I also love his stage presence also. Another is Joe Wolfe from Heinous Killings, but my main problem is maintaining the predator. It's a really difficult thing to do, so he has a lot of my respect for it. That, and the fact that it's inhaled.
5. why did you cover final bloodbath by mortician? i take it your a big fan of mortician?
Ironically, I'm not a huge fan of Mortician. I've liked several songs, I own a CD...but they just never clicked with me. Maybe I should listen to them more, I dont know. Johanas is a huge fan of them, enjoys Will Rahmer's vocal style and wanted to cover them, everyone else agreed and wanted to do it...so I said what the fuck, why not?
6. the new york scene has some legendary bands like suffocation, repudilation, internal bleeding, dehumanized and etc. so do any of those bands influence you a lot?
Definately. This area has a huge death metal scene. Immolation recently has influenced me a lot lyrically, and I'm slowly trying to bring that influence into my vocal style. Suffocation is a huge influence and we enjoy all those bands that come from here like Malignancy, Fecal Corpse, everything really. Actually, we practice at the same studio as Internal Suffering, and hanging out and watching those dudes rehearse those songs is just mind blowing.
7. some of your slam parts and breakdowns remind me of dehumanized so who creates those parts mainly?
As I said before, Gil and Johanas are big fans of death metal and hardcore, so it's mostly them. They bring the riffs to practice, Ira comes up with the best arrangements he can, we jam on it, we bring our ideas together and once everything is structured, we just let it rip.
8. now the new york scene has some newer bands like revenance and i believe that the NY scene is the most diverse scene around now. what do you think?
I totally agree, man. I don't really hear of that many new bands surfacing out of Florida anymore, to be honest. The scenes in California and Texas are really, really awesome and I love those scenes but man, there's nothing like hitting up a local show here and experiencing the energy. If you're into hardcore or metalcore, there's bands and show up here for that, if you enjoy the brutal shit like we do, we got shows up here for that, and if you like emo...then well, I don't know what to tell you. hahaha.
9. any sick new bands from new york like your band?
The first one that comes to mind is Fecal Corpse and Dehumanized. They're playing a show on Friday, so I'm gonna try and hit that one up. I've seen both of them play live and they're explosive. Minus Ed getting drunk. There are also really good bands out of the Jersey area like Dripping and my friend's band Morbid Terror. They put out a demo recently, so go check that out if you can.
10. what kind of gear do you guys use? and how does writing songs work?
Johanas uses a Schecter and Gil uses an Ibanez. The writing process, well...I explained that.
11. what bands have you been into recently?
Recently, I've been into the Here In After album from Immolation, a lot. I'm really enjoying that band after seeing them live three times. Death, Gorgasm, Nunslaughter, Lykathea Aflame and that new Goatwhore, also. Their new CD is really, really great.
12. you guys have any other projects besides merciless mutilation?
As of now, Merciless Mutilation is all our main priority.
13. what's the bands plan for the future and what releases will you have?
Our future is to play a lot of shows and just get our name out there...we already have down at least 4 or 5 songs, so we're going to try and get a demo in the works. We're all shooting for the end of the year for a release, but who knows.
ok any last words for ID zines readers?
Yeah, I really appreciate you taking the time out for this interview. It really means a lot to me, and the band that people are out there listening to our music and supporting this brutal shit. We're also planning to print out shirts soon, so look out for that. Also, we're looking for a really reliable bass player in the NJ/NY area who knows his shit about brutal music. Other than that, you can check us out and show dates and all that jazz over at our myspace over on http://www.myspace.com/mercilessmutilation