1. hey dennis thanks for granting me this interview, waking the cadaver was formed by ex-members of death to honor and had this day not been? which were both more along the lines of "metal-core" however they had some death metal influence right? so how did the band start and why did you decide to start this brutal guttural slamming band?
hey seiji! Thanks for doing this interview with us, we take this interview as a pay of respect to the TRUE death metal community that has inspired us. Waking The Cadaver has had a very brief history, we just became a band in late January 2006. I wasn't involved in bands for quite sometime until death to honor was having drummer problems. I met these awesome dudes through working with Don (vocalist) a while back. Don confronted me with his bands drummer problems so I went to a practice with them one day. We played together very well and within the first practice we wrote a complete song. To make a long story short, we created a new band to write brutal slamming death metal with our own style. Our line up is Nick and Jerry on guitars, Don on vocals, Steve on bass, and me on drums.
2. describe the bands sound in detail and tell us what bands influence you the most, and i know you call your sound "Slamming Gore Groove" so explain the meaning behind that
We are a brutal, sick, slamming death metal band, plain and simple. Influences to us are: Disgorge, Cinerary, Gutrot, Sarcolytic, Dysentery, Digested Flesh, Dripping, Artery Eruption, Guttural Secrete, Vomit Remnants....and of course Devourment. We are not your typical devourment rip off band though, we bring the slam the way the people want it, and we do it with our own style. I believe that the bands I mentioned are all bands that have had their own style, which is why they've been noticed as some of the greatest. This is why we stress our own style, "Slamming Gore Groove" It defines the way we sound. Complete Brutality, no bullshit. Heavy riffs, brutal drumming, and inhuman gutturals.
3. you're from new jersey which has a lot of cool death metal bands like dripping and digested flesh but the scene also has a lot of beat down hardcore bands and i know you are influenced by both sides and come to think of it both styles use slams and breakdowns so why do you think NJ loves slams and breakdowns so much?
Fuck yes we are from New Jersey!! Our sound is the product of New Jersey. we are very proud of where were from, not alot of people know how awesome NJ really is. Dripping and Digested Flesh are two of the sickest bands ever, they are recognized world wide in the death metal scene..so you know NJ isn't a joke. Our state is also flooded with shit music and emo pussies..so we get a bad rap sometimes. It is true, our state loves breakdowns and slams, its just the NJ style...kids just wanna hear the heavy parts, so we gotta bring it.
4. what releases will you have for the near future? you guys should sign with macabre mementos just like dripping and digested flesh did haha keep it in the family i guess you can say
We are planning on releasing a full length as soon as we sign a deal with a label. Its funny you mentioned Macabre Mementos Records because we have been talking to Tadashi the owner. Chances are you will be seeing us release our full length with them. Tadashi seems like a fucking awesome guy. We are ready to blow up in the death metal scene! We can't fucking wait to show the world what else we have planned! Until we release a full length, our demo is available on our myspace. Its 2 songs and everyone should check them out if they haven't already.
5. what bands influence you as a drummer and what's your main goal as a drummer?
Drummers that influence me are from all the bands I mentioned before. I'd have to say that Ricky Myers is the man and his drumming speaks for how good he is. Hes a fucking machine. Also Zach from gutrot....that dude hits so many things at once i don't even know how he does it. Hes all over the kit with so much control. I guess learned blasting from practicing old cannibal corpse songs when i was younger, but its mostly just practice. My main goal as a drummer is to get as good as possible, I'm only 18 years old so I have much experience to gain, but I plan on getting as sick as possible.
6. how does writing songs work generally? do you all come up with ideas for the slams and breakdowns or is it one main person?
Our song writing varies, it usually starts with a riff Nick or Jerry thinks of on guitar. Once we get an intro going, we usually start flowing from there. We usually smoke a good amount of weed while practicing, just having a good time and experimenting with what sounds good to us. Everything is a band effort. The fast parts are usually written by the guitists, and the slams and breakdowns are usually written by me to a drum pattern I create. It switches up though and Nick and Jerry will write a sick slam and i'll write a good fast part. To be honest, we basically smoke weed and see what happens.
7. how's your scene recently? where do you hope new jerseys scene goes from here?
Our scene is awesome in NJ. We haven't really played with too many death metal bands though, we mostly play with the other local hardcore and grindcore bands. Which is great, our brothers from An Aborted memory, Years spent cold, Nag hamadi, Abacinate...these are all some fucking awesome guys. We haven't had the chance to play with digested flesh yet, but we hope we do soon! They are fuckin sick it would be a great show. We hope the NJ scene just stays brutal, as long as kids love brutal music we will be supplying it.
8. what's your live performance like and how are the peoples response to it?
Our live shows are filled with energy, non stop. When we drop our breakdowns...the crowd gets pretty dangerous. Throwing down is a pretty big deal in NJ, a lot of kids don't fuck around and this is just how it is.
9. what kind of gear do you guys use?
I use Tama Drums, an Zildjian Cymbols, a Pearl piccolo snare, Taye double pedals, along with Evans and Remo drumheads. For recording I use a Ddrum trigger on my bass drum only. Nick uses a Marshall jcm2000 tsl amp, marshall jcm800 cabinet 1960lead. He uses either 2 guitars: ibanez js100 with emg 81 & 85 active pickups & gibson lespaul standard. Jerry uses a peavy 5150 amp.along with a peavy cabinet. His guitar is a ESP horizon w passive emg pickups. Steve uses a 5 string Ibanez Bass with a Hartke 400 watt head and 2 VX 4 by 10 Hartke cabs. Don uses a Shure Beta 58A Microphone.
10. what bands have you been into recently?
Collectively we've been listening to alot of devourment (138 never gets old). As far as new stuff....orchidectomy is killing it. same with cephalotripsy and Disconformity. Big respect and shout out to our fellow new school death metal bands.
11. what does waking the cadaver have that most other bands of this sound and style don't?
Thanks for the complements bro. The thing about us is that we aren't your typical slamming death metal band, were doing it different. The big point about us is that we are bringing constant brutality in our songs, we don't have any dull parts..so if your looking for something constantly heavy, and fresh, we aren't going to let you down.
12. what do you know about our japanese scene? do you like any of the newer bands like disconformity, rest in gore, and infected malignity? recently infernal revulsion released there single cd. you should definitely check that out.
The japanese scene seems to be kicking ass! All those bands that you mentioned are SICK...as well as woundeep. We have the utmost respect for what Japan is doing for death metal. The japanese know whats good with the death, keep up the good work. We hope to play with all those bands in the future.
13. one final question before we finish up, what's the bands future plans?
Our main goal is to release a ground-breaking full length. When we drop a full-length, the world will see how serious we are, and how many tricks we have up our sleeve. We also wanna play at awesome festivals in the world. Tokyo death fest would be a dream come true, year after year the sickest bands play. All the sick fests, Maryland death fest....we want to play shows with the sickest bands and have a great time.
thanks bro!!!! anything you would like to add?
Thank you guys for doing this interview first and foremost. Expect nothing but the sickest from us in the future. Were here now, this is what were bringing to the scene. Shore Points Slamming Gore Groove...Jersey style brutality is gonna be recognized. We like to shout out everyone who has helped us along our way, especially our closest friends and bands we play with. Big shouts to all our boys that come chill at our practice's and party, you know who you are. Kevin for doing our video! Everyone needs to check out our fucking video on our myspace, Kevin is the man, he loves gore and did a killer job on it! Also the dudes at The Guttural Syndicate in NY.. they have helped us out so much. We'd like to thank Miguel at Cape Studios for doing an awesome job with our demo, he truely understands what type of sound we are going for, thanks bro! Also to all our fans....we appreciate so much good response. We are so happy to be doing what we are doing...death metal is where we belong. www.myspace.com/wakingthecadaver for our 2 song demo and video ...thanks for the interview!