Abhorrent Decimation Interview

The other day, I grabbed the lads in Abhorrent Decimation for a chat! We talked some details on their newest release, signing a new record deal, and Bernie Clifton.

All About The Rock: Hey guys, thanks for taking the time to chat today! I hope everyone is well in the Abhorrent camp?

Abhorrent Decimation: No problem at all! We are all dandy, thanks.

AATR: For anyone reading that’s not familiar with you and your music, can you take a minute to introduce yourselves?

Abhorrent Decimation: We’re Abhorrent Decimation, a Death Metal band from the South of the UK. We’ve been going for just over 3 years and have released one EP, Infected Celestial Utopia (2013) and one full length album, Miasmic Mutation (2015). Our sound is reasonably straight forward and synonymous with what one would assume of the genre in this day and age. I guess the one thing that separates us from our peers at this stage is the hooky nature of our tracks, clear structures, verse, chorus etc.

AATR: So, Bernie Clifton. What the fuck happened there?

Abhorrent Decimation: Haha, Christ! OK, so in summary Bernie Clifton is somewhat of a veteran in the British Entertainment world. Back in the day, he was infamous for delivering a comedy act mounted on a huge yellow puppet, Oswald the Ostrich. In recent years he appeared on the ITV show, The Voice. This time without the Ostrich, just straight up singing. He did reasonably well on the show and off the back of that, he decided to put a record out. When he received his albums back from print (owing to an error) he found the back cover for Miasmic Mutation had been printed onto all of his CD’s.

AATR: It has been about nine months since the release of Miasmic Mutation – how have you found the response?

Abhorrent Decimation: It’s been great, it really has. Press and fans alike received it well, so that was a great bonus for us. The recording process took it out of us a little, so by the time we got round to releasing it, our passion had slightly diminished somewhat. Don’t get me wrong, we was happy enough with it all but the reaction from the press in build-up and then from the market when we released it gave us a real boost. Things really started to grow from there so we have everyone out there to thank for our growth over these last 9 months.

AATR: How did you progress your song-writing from Infected Celestial Utopia?

Abhorrent Decimation: Well Infected was much more of punt from Dave and I to be honest, it was executed without much control or consideration. We didn’t know what sort of sound we wanted to create, so the EP was more of a sounding board for all the ideas we had. So when it came to doing Miasmic, Dave and I was able to focus on a specific set of ideas and an overall feel and context to our music, the main thing we progressed with from EP to full length was signwriting, planting those hooks and making music that sticks.

AATR: What were your biggest inspirations for Miasmic Mutation?

Abhorrent Decimation: We didn’t really have much inspiration, of course the album was written over a fairly long period of time too, so I can’t recall anything specific. Most inspiration came from tunes being played in cars on road trips or long hauls to shows at the time of writing, perhaps inspiring the odd idea here and there but other than that, we tried to pitch the album from a relatively natural place.  

AATR: Lyrically speaking, what are the concepts and themes you enjoy exploring – and what would you like to explore in the future?

Abhorrent Decimation: I guess concept wise I have always been drawn towards Sci-Fi/Fantasy but then each song will typically explore some personal narrative. I mainly talk from a personal place. A place of experience, emotion, reflectiveness etc.  Theme wise, I will always make sure what I am writing about is from a personal place, I want connectivity and I try to present it in a way with which others can relate. Of course, I have to write about the odd nonsensical, apocalyptic, religiously irreverent culling for good measure but I’ve tried to get as “real” with what I am talking about as possible. I enjoy the challenge that writing “real” can create. It’s finding the balance of not seeming too contrived whilst keeping it interesting and colourful enough with your language. As far as future writing is concerned, I want to focus on specific narratives, dilute the concept as little as possible. Create a plot and a more explored experience for the listener. I want it to be coherent and fluid as the record plays out. Really try to create a beginning, middle and end feel to the record. Which is something we failed with sonically on Miasmic. So on the next record (which I have already started penning titles, lyrics and ideas on) I have used a basic narrative from English literature and I am building from there. It’s all very dark.

AATR: A few months ago, The Black Dahlia Murder shared Abhorrent Decimation on Facebook – I can imagine you got more than a few new fans out of that. What was your initial reaction to seeing that?

Abhorrent Decimation: “WTF! The Black Dahlia Murder just shared our album on their Facebook page”, it was probably something like that. I’ve been a huge fan of The Black Dahlia Murder for years, so to see them (Trevor, I presume) digging it enough to share out was pretty cool and very nice of them. Off the back of that share the album got another 15’000 plays on YouTube and our social media following grew by about 10% across the board, certainly more lucrative than some past media campaigns haha. So it was a really nice thing for them to do. Of course off the back of that too, their manager EJ (owner of Prosthetic Records) got in touch and from there we moved forward to negotiate and pen a 3 album deal. So it was a good day in the office.

AATR: Abhorrent Decimation has gone on no small number of tours, weekenders and one-of shows all over England this year, but nothing north of the wall as of yet – are there any plans to get up to Scotland soon?

Abhorrent Decimation: Yeah, we’ve only been to Scotland once. It was on the Benighted/Cancerous Womb tour last year. Not intentional at all. We would love to come up again, the North has been neglected, we are sorry. Promoters, please get in touch!

AATR: What has the live reaction been to the new tracks?

Abhorrent Decimation: Well, we get the pits going, plenty of chanting and singing along, so I guess people are digging it. Turnouts are growing too, so it all feels very positive at this stage.

AATR: And what can we expect to hear blasting in the Abhorrent tour van?

Abhorrent Decimation: Anything, really anything. I normally commandeer the radio if I’m in the front. I like a lot of the 80’s Funk, Disco, Soul and Rare Groove and some 90’s New Jack Swing and Hip Hop. We don’t normally put on a lot of Metal after the first day to be honest. I always find there is something quite fatiguing about listening to Metal when you’re out playing at these loud shows every night ha, maybe I’m just getting old. On the last run I remember we listened to a lot of Leprous, some Whitesnake, Deep Purple, Toto and Biggie.

AATR: You recently parted ways with original guitarist Dave McKinney – can you shed a bit of light on the split?

Abhorrent Decimation: It’s not really something we have discussed publicly yet, certainly not from our side. So I will keep it brief. Abhorrent Decimation had to let Dave go. We got to a point of disrepair on a professional and personal level. Sadly, despite numerous attempts to help him find one, we could not find a stability or resolve that would allow us to continue with him as a member of the band.   

AATR: What does the future hold for Abhorrent Decimation? What are your plans and ambitions, both short term and long term?

Abhorrent Decimation: The future is a bright. Archer, Cooke, Ryan and I have started working on our Prosthetic Records debut already, we are shooting a music video in August which we will put out later this year as a final push of promo on the Miasmic Mutation era. We have some great shows lined up, UK Tech Fest in July, supporting I Declare War in Brighton later in the year, a few EU shows in October and a nice little UK Halloween run and then we lock down for album 2 recording. We are already working with our new agent on tours for next year too. Looks like we will be in back in EU for Jan/Feb 2017 and we have already started looking at a large UK run for September 2017 too.

Short term, I hope I can achieve the vision I have in my mind for the music video we are shooting later this year. It’s a collaborative effort, I want to blend the arts with performance, sculpture and a real push at creating a generally uncomfortable vibe with this video. I believe it is a unique idea, I certainly haven’t seen anything like it, ever.

Long term, we are really excited for this next record. A slight departure from the sound that most people will associate with us at this stage, I guess is accepted by all. Dave played a big part in riff writing, so naturally as we are not working with Dave anymore the sound will develop. If our demo’s for the new stuff is anything to go by, I think a lot of people will welcome the change as we move into a more developed and artistic phase. When the four of us started demoing new material (sans Dave) last year, some really different ideas came to the surface and we fucking loved the new direction. We just wanted to get working on this new album but alas, we had only just put out Miasmic Mutation, so we had to shelve the demo’s for a bit and push forward with the promo and gigging.

AATR: What other underground bands are you loving at the moment, both in your local scene and worldwide?

Abhorrent Decimation: For the UK, a few of my personal favourites The Infernal Sea, Reprisal, Cancerous Womb, Seprevation and Murder Mile!

AATR: Thanks for your time today – any parting messages for our readers?

Abhorrent Decimation: Not much, just keep an eye on our shows coming up! We will be in a town near you soon! And keep the peepers open for the music video coming later this year!

Follow us on all the social below, thanks!

You can follow Abhorrent Decimation on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Bandcamp! Be sure to check out their newest album Miasmic Mutation, and keep an eye on the horizon for some new material in the near future!