Hello Beau, how are things going for your band after the demo?
Hailz Mortuary! So far, so good. The first batch of 200 demos have all gone out and another lot are currently being pressed to continue with the madness. We've played a couple of shows so far with the likes of Vomitor, Misery, Shackles and Mournful Congregation and both have gone pretty damn well. The label (Abysmal Sounds) who put out the demo have been promoting it hard and the feedback I have gotten so far has been very positive. So overall we're quite content with things to date. New material is coming along well too.
Your band is still relatively new on the underground scene, so as exactly happened that you formed INNSMOUTH?
We've all been active in various bands for years but after the two bands I was currently involved with folded a few years back I started to write riffs with the intention of forming something of my own creation. My brother and a great friend of ours were keen on the music I had been writing and so we started to jam the stuff and thus Innsmouth was born. That’s about the sum of it really.
Your first "Departure of Shub - Niggurath" release appeared in the form of demo tape, why have you chosen such format? Are you supporters of the deepest underground only? Don’t you like CDs?
The choice for a demo tape was a simple one. Not so many years back demos were always in a Tape format and a demo on CD just doesn't have the same appeal to me. The greatest problem I have encountered so far is that a few people who were interested in the demo didn't even have tape players anymore and when I asked what they did with all their old demos they said "they are collecting dust". Collecting dust.... collecting fucking dust? I don't know; Times change I guess. They can give me their demo tapes. I'll knock the dust of them.
The deepest underground? I don't really think it exists anymore. It was pretty much strangled to death by the advent of the internet and such horrors as myspace. As for cd's ; they serve a purpose. But they just aren't the same as vinyl are they?
Where the demo was recorded? According to me, it has very good sound, muddy, killing, unclean and natural; are you satisfied with the result? If you have something to change the sound, what would it be?
Yeah I'm very happy with how it turned out. It came out sounding better than I imagined it would so that’s always a good thing.
The demo was recorded at a friend’s studio in very few takes so there a few mistakes in there but it's a demo and can and will be improved upon. We wanted an earthy, dirty sort of sound without drum triggers and ridiculous amounts of effects on the guitars so I think we captured that quite well. I think we'll make some minimal changes to the sound for the next recording but we won't fuck with the sound too much at this stage.
Is this your sound direction that will move into the future? Do you prove to imagine this kind of sound on the following debut CD?
Pretty much. As i said before I'm sure our sound will change a bit but we won't be moving away from the natural, murky sort of sound on the demo. Our next release is a 7" followed by a MLP so there are no cd's on the horizon for now although I'm sure we may have to submit at sometime. If I have my way we'll never release a cd haha. As it is cd's seem to be hard to move these days anyway since so many people are content to just download their music. I hate this shit!
Yeah, you play an old blackened Death Metal that is not typical, even for Europe nor for the U.S. bands. Have you had such style just at your first rehearsals? How would you define your style?
I grew up listening to the old gods like Grave, Asphyx, Unleashed, Bolt thrower, Autopsy, Celtic Frost, Bathory and the like as well as a lot of speed/thrash bands, doom and traditional metal and never really got into this modern breed of what is now considered death metal so I guess that’s primarily where our sound comes from. I like catchy riffs and one cannot headbang to a blast beat so thus you probably won't find that sort of thing in an Innsmouth tune. We started off sounding like this and I imagine we'll go out the same way. I'd define our style as real death metal, nothing more, nothing less. Some people seem to hear a lot of doom in our sound but as far as I'm concerned doom and slow death metal ain't really the same thing. At the end of the day I'm not a big one for labels; people can listen to our stuff and make up their own minds what style we play. Enough said.
Seems you are very careful in the music to spirituality, depth, and the atmosphere ... what is most important to you at writing process?
I think the most important thing to me is writing good riffs; I throw away a hell of a lot of them that’s for sure. I don't really understand what you mean by spirituality in regards to the music but depth and atmosphere are important to me. I hate tinny sounding recordings that sound like they were recorded inside an empty can of baked -beans so I'll do much to avoid this type of sound for Innsmouth. Death metal to me should sound heavy, deep and dark so I shall endeavor to keep our music that way.
Who is the main author of music? How long did take to create the demo?
I wrote all the music and lyrics for the demo but the other two members helped much with arrangements for the songs.
Brown Jenkin, our bass player, has contributed to some of our newer material and so hopefully this will continue into the future.
The demo was recorded in one afternoon and evening and mixed the next day so it was quite a quick process. It took considerably longer to write and rehearse the songs beforehand.
It is interesting there is a band INNSMOUTH from Dominican Republic, who plays Black Metal, do you know this band? Don’t you mind that you are two bands with the same name?
Yeah I became aware of the other Innsmouth after we had named our band. They have been around considerably longer than us but being from a different part of the world and sounding nothing like us then hopefully there won't be too many mistakes made about which is which. Obviously I'd prefer there not to be another one but considering there's probably about 50 bands called Goatcorpse then I guess two bands sharing the same name isn't so bad. If they feel differently then I guess they can contact us and share their grievances. Maybe we could do a split with them haha.
You come from Australia… Bands from your continent are unconventional and original, when it says Australia, I remember names as dISEMBOWELMENT, CORPSE MOLESTATION or BESTIAL WARLUST, ABOMINATOR ... how would you describe your scene?
I agree that a lot of bands from Australia have been somewhat unique although these days 90% of the bands coming out of this country are just like anywhere else playing shithouse, boring, spiritless rubbish and seem more interested in being the flavour of the week than writing anything memorable. Obviously there are exceptions but they are few and far between to my ears. All the bands you mentioned fit into the category of what I'd call "classic" Aussie bands but as the years go by uniqueness seems to be becoming a thing of the past.
Our Scene? I don't know really but to my way of thinking compared to the glory days of the late eighties and early nineties it's pretty fucking dead although with the vast amounts of "metal" bands popping up around the place all the time others might say it's thriving. I guess it depends on what you mean by a scene and what sort of bands we're talking about. Whichever way you look at it I don't have much to do with it anyway as I don't get out to many gigs nowadays.
Are you satisfied with life in Australia? Is not there as if cut off from the rest of the world? What is the general mentality of Australians?
Living in Australia seems alright to me, although as it's the only place I've lived I have nothing to compare it to. It's definitely not as cut off from the world as it once was as the world's a much smaller place these days. As to the mentality of Australians I really don't know these days although I guess, like anywhere, most people suffer from a herd mentality and think whatever the popular media tells them to think. Weird question.
When you first came into contact with metal? Which bands influenced you most and what are you listening today? How much does the music you listen impact to INNSMOUTH? Do you listen also to non metal bands?
I got into metal when I was about 12 years old (twenty odd years ago). I think I pretty much answered this with question 6. My tastes have changed little over the course of the years and the music I listen to definitely influences Innsmouth to some extent although obviously some bands a lot more than others. Yeah we all listen to some other stuff apart from metal but metal more than anything else.
What is your view at current metal scene? I think today is global Metal understood otherwise than once, many people consider as metal some bands which have this style nothing to do with...
I think the current metal "scene" is largely shithouse but then again I am quite narrow minded when it comes to metal. I do agree that metal is a lot more acceptable these days and has largely become a mainstream form of music which is contributing to its death.
What about your live activities? Do you play often? What is the atmosphere during your live gigs? It is difficult to get to play outside your continent?
As I said earlier we've played two shows to date and we have some more planned for later in the year. We have no wish to play live too often particularly locally as so many bands seem to fall into the trap of playing every other weekend and no matter how good they are it always ends up being overkill and people don't bother going to all their shows as they'll be able to see them the next week or whatever. Also the fact that we don't really get into live shows so much these days and the because we are a fair distance away from Sydney (were most of the shows are) influences this. Our live show is straight up with no bullshit - turn everything to 10 and hammer our songs hard. It's definitely of some degree of difficulty to play outside of Australia due to the expenses involved, but not impossible and once we get the name out a bit more we'd love to get over to Europe and play some shows.
Simple question, what is the philosophy of INNSMOUTH?
Innsmouth do not have a philosophy as such. I mean we all have our own personal philosophies but at the end of the day Innsmouth is just a band and not an instrument to influence people’s opinions or offer any insight into some greater meaning to life. Brown Jenkins own personal philosophy is so bizarre and foul that anyone who knew it would instantly go insane and try to eat their own face and as for the drummers........ We won't go there haaaaa!
Your lyrical concept is based on the themes of H. P. Lovecraft. Are you all related to this writer or author of lyrics only?
Myself and the bass player have both been fans of H.P.L for many years now. Neilanderthal, who beats the shoggoth out of the drums, appreciates his works too but not to the same extent I guess. Our themes are largely inspired by Lovecraft but he is not our only lyrical source. The demo cover features Shub Niggurath ascending a hill towards Pan and likewise sections of Greek mythology also plays a part in the lyrical approach. The concept of the cover alludes to the fact that I see Shub-Niggurath as a fertility symbol and Pan as a symbol of virility - who better to impregnate her with one thousand young. The new lyrics I'm writing are largely influenced by the work of Clark Ashton Smith so the scope isn't quite as one dimensional as it may at first appear.
Are you interested in HPL topics more in depth? What do you think of the book of Necronomicon? Do you know Simon’s version and what you think about it? Do you believe in original Necronomicon described by Lovecraft?
I guess by this maybe you mean do I believe that Cthulhu is lurking on his seat in Rl'yeh beneath the sea? Or that Yog-Sothoth dwells beyond some astronomical gate in another dimension? Well I don't really believe that hypothesis but then again - maybe they are out there. Nothing is for certain and everything is permitted. Enough people still believe in Jesus and the devil though so it's not such a ridiculous thing to believe maybe. I've read a couple of "necronomicons" and they were entertaining to a degree. I have the Simon edition and although I know it has some occult significance I can only really see it as something written to fill a hole in the market: Lovecraft always alluded to this mystical Necronomicon and so this Simon fellow thought he'd make one up and make a few bucks the way I see it. As far as Lovecrafts' book goes well I'm aware that its author Abdul Alhazred was a name Lovecraft called himself as a child while playing at being an Arab and therefore he's just one of H.P.L's inventions as is the mystical tome - The Necronomicon.
Will you be given to this subject in the future?
See my answer to question sixteen. It should pretty much answer this question also. But to reiterate - yes most likely!
Now such a fantastic theoretical question, what would you say if you were invited to European tour named Lovecraft Tribute Tour, together with PHILOSOPHER (ger), YOGTH SOTHOTH (col), UNAUSSPRECHLICHEN KULTEN (chl)? :D
Well if someone were to pay for our airfares then I imagine the answer would be yes.
Ok, it would be all from me, if I forget something, you have the space. Still I’d like to ask about your future plans and wish you good luck with your band, all the best!
Thanks for the interview mate. Anyone wishing to contact Innsmouth can do so by emailing - nightgaunt7@hotmail.com or writing to Innsmouth, P.o.Box 81, Woodford 2778, NSW Australia. Demo's are available from us for US$5 or 5 euro postage paid/world. Alternatively they can be purchased from www.abysmalsounds.com
Trades welcome /write first. Over and Out.
Mortuary
www.abysmalsounds.com
Hailz Mortuary! So far, so good. The first batch of 200 demos have all gone out and another lot are currently being pressed to continue with the madness. We've played a couple of shows so far with the likes of Vomitor, Misery, Shackles and Mournful Congregation and both have gone pretty damn well. The label (Abysmal Sounds) who put out the demo have been promoting it hard and the feedback I have gotten so far has been very positive. So overall we're quite content with things to date. New material is coming along well too.
Your band is still relatively new on the underground scene, so as exactly happened that you formed INNSMOUTH?
We've all been active in various bands for years but after the two bands I was currently involved with folded a few years back I started to write riffs with the intention of forming something of my own creation. My brother and a great friend of ours were keen on the music I had been writing and so we started to jam the stuff and thus Innsmouth was born. That’s about the sum of it really.
Your first "Departure of Shub - Niggurath" release appeared in the form of demo tape, why have you chosen such format? Are you supporters of the deepest underground only? Don’t you like CDs?
The choice for a demo tape was a simple one. Not so many years back demos were always in a Tape format and a demo on CD just doesn't have the same appeal to me. The greatest problem I have encountered so far is that a few people who were interested in the demo didn't even have tape players anymore and when I asked what they did with all their old demos they said "they are collecting dust". Collecting dust.... collecting fucking dust? I don't know; Times change I guess. They can give me their demo tapes. I'll knock the dust of them.
The deepest underground? I don't really think it exists anymore. It was pretty much strangled to death by the advent of the internet and such horrors as myspace. As for cd's ; they serve a purpose. But they just aren't the same as vinyl are they?
Where the demo was recorded? According to me, it has very good sound, muddy, killing, unclean and natural; are you satisfied with the result? If you have something to change the sound, what would it be?
Yeah I'm very happy with how it turned out. It came out sounding better than I imagined it would so that’s always a good thing.
The demo was recorded at a friend’s studio in very few takes so there a few mistakes in there but it's a demo and can and will be improved upon. We wanted an earthy, dirty sort of sound without drum triggers and ridiculous amounts of effects on the guitars so I think we captured that quite well. I think we'll make some minimal changes to the sound for the next recording but we won't fuck with the sound too much at this stage.
Is this your sound direction that will move into the future? Do you prove to imagine this kind of sound on the following debut CD?
Pretty much. As i said before I'm sure our sound will change a bit but we won't be moving away from the natural, murky sort of sound on the demo. Our next release is a 7" followed by a MLP so there are no cd's on the horizon for now although I'm sure we may have to submit at sometime. If I have my way we'll never release a cd haha. As it is cd's seem to be hard to move these days anyway since so many people are content to just download their music. I hate this shit!
Yeah, you play an old blackened Death Metal that is not typical, even for Europe nor for the U.S. bands. Have you had such style just at your first rehearsals? How would you define your style?
I grew up listening to the old gods like Grave, Asphyx, Unleashed, Bolt thrower, Autopsy, Celtic Frost, Bathory and the like as well as a lot of speed/thrash bands, doom and traditional metal and never really got into this modern breed of what is now considered death metal so I guess that’s primarily where our sound comes from. I like catchy riffs and one cannot headbang to a blast beat so thus you probably won't find that sort of thing in an Innsmouth tune. We started off sounding like this and I imagine we'll go out the same way. I'd define our style as real death metal, nothing more, nothing less. Some people seem to hear a lot of doom in our sound but as far as I'm concerned doom and slow death metal ain't really the same thing. At the end of the day I'm not a big one for labels; people can listen to our stuff and make up their own minds what style we play. Enough said.
Seems you are very careful in the music to spirituality, depth, and the atmosphere ... what is most important to you at writing process?
I think the most important thing to me is writing good riffs; I throw away a hell of a lot of them that’s for sure. I don't really understand what you mean by spirituality in regards to the music but depth and atmosphere are important to me. I hate tinny sounding recordings that sound like they were recorded inside an empty can of baked -beans so I'll do much to avoid this type of sound for Innsmouth. Death metal to me should sound heavy, deep and dark so I shall endeavor to keep our music that way.
Who is the main author of music? How long did take to create the demo?
I wrote all the music and lyrics for the demo but the other two members helped much with arrangements for the songs.
Brown Jenkin, our bass player, has contributed to some of our newer material and so hopefully this will continue into the future.
The demo was recorded in one afternoon and evening and mixed the next day so it was quite a quick process. It took considerably longer to write and rehearse the songs beforehand.
It is interesting there is a band INNSMOUTH from Dominican Republic, who plays Black Metal, do you know this band? Don’t you mind that you are two bands with the same name?
Yeah I became aware of the other Innsmouth after we had named our band. They have been around considerably longer than us but being from a different part of the world and sounding nothing like us then hopefully there won't be too many mistakes made about which is which. Obviously I'd prefer there not to be another one but considering there's probably about 50 bands called Goatcorpse then I guess two bands sharing the same name isn't so bad. If they feel differently then I guess they can contact us and share their grievances. Maybe we could do a split with them haha.
You come from Australia… Bands from your continent are unconventional and original, when it says Australia, I remember names as dISEMBOWELMENT, CORPSE MOLESTATION or BESTIAL WARLUST, ABOMINATOR ... how would you describe your scene?
I agree that a lot of bands from Australia have been somewhat unique although these days 90% of the bands coming out of this country are just like anywhere else playing shithouse, boring, spiritless rubbish and seem more interested in being the flavour of the week than writing anything memorable. Obviously there are exceptions but they are few and far between to my ears. All the bands you mentioned fit into the category of what I'd call "classic" Aussie bands but as the years go by uniqueness seems to be becoming a thing of the past.
Our Scene? I don't know really but to my way of thinking compared to the glory days of the late eighties and early nineties it's pretty fucking dead although with the vast amounts of "metal" bands popping up around the place all the time others might say it's thriving. I guess it depends on what you mean by a scene and what sort of bands we're talking about. Whichever way you look at it I don't have much to do with it anyway as I don't get out to many gigs nowadays.
Are you satisfied with life in Australia? Is not there as if cut off from the rest of the world? What is the general mentality of Australians?
Living in Australia seems alright to me, although as it's the only place I've lived I have nothing to compare it to. It's definitely not as cut off from the world as it once was as the world's a much smaller place these days. As to the mentality of Australians I really don't know these days although I guess, like anywhere, most people suffer from a herd mentality and think whatever the popular media tells them to think. Weird question.
When you first came into contact with metal? Which bands influenced you most and what are you listening today? How much does the music you listen impact to INNSMOUTH? Do you listen also to non metal bands?
I got into metal when I was about 12 years old (twenty odd years ago). I think I pretty much answered this with question 6. My tastes have changed little over the course of the years and the music I listen to definitely influences Innsmouth to some extent although obviously some bands a lot more than others. Yeah we all listen to some other stuff apart from metal but metal more than anything else.
What is your view at current metal scene? I think today is global Metal understood otherwise than once, many people consider as metal some bands which have this style nothing to do with...
I think the current metal "scene" is largely shithouse but then again I am quite narrow minded when it comes to metal. I do agree that metal is a lot more acceptable these days and has largely become a mainstream form of music which is contributing to its death.
What about your live activities? Do you play often? What is the atmosphere during your live gigs? It is difficult to get to play outside your continent?
As I said earlier we've played two shows to date and we have some more planned for later in the year. We have no wish to play live too often particularly locally as so many bands seem to fall into the trap of playing every other weekend and no matter how good they are it always ends up being overkill and people don't bother going to all their shows as they'll be able to see them the next week or whatever. Also the fact that we don't really get into live shows so much these days and the because we are a fair distance away from Sydney (were most of the shows are) influences this. Our live show is straight up with no bullshit - turn everything to 10 and hammer our songs hard. It's definitely of some degree of difficulty to play outside of Australia due to the expenses involved, but not impossible and once we get the name out a bit more we'd love to get over to Europe and play some shows.
Simple question, what is the philosophy of INNSMOUTH?
Innsmouth do not have a philosophy as such. I mean we all have our own personal philosophies but at the end of the day Innsmouth is just a band and not an instrument to influence people’s opinions or offer any insight into some greater meaning to life. Brown Jenkins own personal philosophy is so bizarre and foul that anyone who knew it would instantly go insane and try to eat their own face and as for the drummers........ We won't go there haaaaa!
Your lyrical concept is based on the themes of H. P. Lovecraft. Are you all related to this writer or author of lyrics only?
Myself and the bass player have both been fans of H.P.L for many years now. Neilanderthal, who beats the shoggoth out of the drums, appreciates his works too but not to the same extent I guess. Our themes are largely inspired by Lovecraft but he is not our only lyrical source. The demo cover features Shub Niggurath ascending a hill towards Pan and likewise sections of Greek mythology also plays a part in the lyrical approach. The concept of the cover alludes to the fact that I see Shub-Niggurath as a fertility symbol and Pan as a symbol of virility - who better to impregnate her with one thousand young. The new lyrics I'm writing are largely influenced by the work of Clark Ashton Smith so the scope isn't quite as one dimensional as it may at first appear.
Are you interested in HPL topics more in depth? What do you think of the book of Necronomicon? Do you know Simon’s version and what you think about it? Do you believe in original Necronomicon described by Lovecraft?
I guess by this maybe you mean do I believe that Cthulhu is lurking on his seat in Rl'yeh beneath the sea? Or that Yog-Sothoth dwells beyond some astronomical gate in another dimension? Well I don't really believe that hypothesis but then again - maybe they are out there. Nothing is for certain and everything is permitted. Enough people still believe in Jesus and the devil though so it's not such a ridiculous thing to believe maybe. I've read a couple of "necronomicons" and they were entertaining to a degree. I have the Simon edition and although I know it has some occult significance I can only really see it as something written to fill a hole in the market: Lovecraft always alluded to this mystical Necronomicon and so this Simon fellow thought he'd make one up and make a few bucks the way I see it. As far as Lovecrafts' book goes well I'm aware that its author Abdul Alhazred was a name Lovecraft called himself as a child while playing at being an Arab and therefore he's just one of H.P.L's inventions as is the mystical tome - The Necronomicon.
Will you be given to this subject in the future?
See my answer to question sixteen. It should pretty much answer this question also. But to reiterate - yes most likely!
Now such a fantastic theoretical question, what would you say if you were invited to European tour named Lovecraft Tribute Tour, together with PHILOSOPHER (ger), YOGTH SOTHOTH (col), UNAUSSPRECHLICHEN KULTEN (chl)? :D
Well if someone were to pay for our airfares then I imagine the answer would be yes.
Ok, it would be all from me, if I forget something, you have the space. Still I’d like to ask about your future plans and wish you good luck with your band, all the best!
Thanks for the interview mate. Anyone wishing to contact Innsmouth can do so by emailing - nightgaunt7@hotmail.com or writing to Innsmouth, P.o.Box 81, Woodford 2778, NSW Australia. Demo's are available from us for US$5 or 5 euro postage paid/world. Alternatively they can be purchased from www.abysmalsounds.com
Trades welcome /write first. Over and Out.
Mortuary
www.abysmalsounds.com
The Departure of the Three
