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Interviews
Decaying Purity - Mustafa
16/11/12 || The Duff
Decaying Purity are a Turkish brutal death metal band. 2011 saw them releasing their second full-length, “The Existence of Infinite Agony”; heralded a masterpiece by the band’s label Sevared Records, I dismissed such. Since its release, however, time has been very good to the record and my making of the sweet love to it, and I’ve found Decaying Purity to be an up-and-coming outfit of very promising proportions. They are the future of BDM alongside Putridity, Defeated Sanity and Terrordrome among others as far as I’m concerned, so welcome Mustafa, guitarist of the band.
Global Domination: Tell us about who you are, your influences, how long you’ve been going as a band.
Decaying Purity: Hi! First of all thanks for the interview. We came together in 2005 and produced one demo and 2 full length albums until this time. We are a band called Decaying Purity, that get a big kick out of making death metal and we want to go on as much as we can. Our influences can be summarized as everything that happens to us during our lives and death metal itself.
Your last album was “The Existence of Infinite Agony” on Sevared records. How has the response been?
Yeah it’s been almost a year since we released our second full length. The album was very well received. We got a lot of good feedback from people around the world, be them brutal death metal fanatics or not. Sales are also pretty good as far as we heard. Shortly, we were very satisfied about the recording since the beginning and seeing the listeners enjoying it added to that satisfaction.
I’ve been through a couple of bands on the Sevared roster, and you are by a long shot one of the more interesting bands going. What do you think of the label and how do they treat you?
Thanks. Frankly we choose labels we worked or will work with not based on the other bands they work with but how assuring they are about things they promise and their previous releases. Sevared Records was pretty good on those matters and distributed our album everywhere. I can’t say I enjoy everything they release, they have a lot of bands in their roster that does not interest me slightly. I’m more interested in their relationship with us.
Any bands in the BDM scene you like to keep your eye on, whether on Sevared or elsewhere?
There aren’t many new bands I enjoy in the current brutal death metal scene, actually. I prefer the mid-era brutal death metal instead.
There were a huge bunch of sick, well performed and quality releases between 1998-2005 in the brutal death metal scene. I’m not gonna count names as everyone probably knows about all those.
What’s your take on the current brutal death metal scene? Not the most accessible, do you still think it’s getting close to The Gothenburg Syndrome?
There are hardly any groups that I like to hear in the current brutal death metal scene. There’s a lot of dull and boring releases sounding exactly the same lately.
Obviously there are bands demonstrating they’re doing good stuff but in general it looks like the genre became bastardized at some point.
What do you think of how slam has almost taken off into the mainstream? It’s become very popular all of a sudden by young kids who haven’t got a clue about its origins in death metal.
I have always compared slam to nu-metal. It’s hilarious that bands name and tag themselves as that kind of bullshit, “brutal slamming death metal etc etc” I look at it as simple brutal death metal instead of slam. If I really need to comment on it the slam scene consists of a shitload of crappy bands that sound exactly the same.
Would you consider yourselves a slam band or more of a death metal band in the Disgorge/Suffo vein?
Certainly we don’t tag ourselves with useless stuff like slam or technical death metal etc… We perform brutal death metal. This genre has technical elements as necessary, also elements that people tag as “slam” but we’d like to consider those as groove. Those things consist of brutal death metal as a whole. We don’t need any more tags and explanations. We just refer to it as brutal death metal.
Terrance Hobbs recently said the new Suffocation album due this year is filled with slams. Do you not find it depressing that the pioneers have to degrade the standard of their music to shift more units when they’ve probably done more for death metal than all save Death, Morbid Angel and Cannibal Corpse?
If it’s a serious statement it’s unfortunate. But I don’t really think it’s serious. I guess it’ll be a groove oriented release. If they’re gonna mix it with their experience and put something out that is still within the classic Suffocation sound it could be actually nice. We’ll have to hear it before commenting on it.
Your new record had three re-recorded tracks on it from your debut/MCD. Was there a reason for this?
Essentially it wasn’t really necessary. When Sevared was re-releasing the first album they asked if we happened to have any recordings to be added as bonus and we just decided to record the 3 songs we were working on at that time.
What made you select these three tracks over everything else?
Not really. They differ from the other songs in the album, but they’re not different. Just songs we like to play.
Would you say you’re finally starting to find your sound?
We don’t think about stuff like that. We can always add new elements to our music in ever release so there’s no need to make conclusions like that.
You changed the production quite drastically from one album to the other, the more new-age style of the latest far more complementary than the bludgeoning, “Tomb of the Mutilated” murk of “Phases of Dimensional Torture”. Do you think this was a result of the more technical material you wrote for the new record needing more cut-through, or simply because you’ve grown out of the Cannibal Corpse worship of your early days?
Yeah we heard this a lot. We are aware of the change in our style but it wasn’t intentional. We started working on the new tracks after our first album was done and it just happened that way. We did not come together and made a decision to do it like it is. We just composed the album and noticed only after we were already done that it sounded really different. As I said there’s no reason for it. We just composed and recorded it that way.
You recruited Tohishiro Egawa for the artwork. What made you go to him in the first place? The guy seems to be to BDM what Par Olofsson is to tech death.
Yes, we worked with Toshihiro Egawa this time and we’re satisfied by the outcome 100%. The concept for the drawing is ours. We told him about the ideas and let him do it his own way. He totally understood what we wanted and made this masterpiece which we didn’t hear a single bad thing about. I agree with your observation. Artworks of Par Olofsson feels so synthetic, not really my cup of tea. But as you said, he usually works with tech death metal bands so it actually fits with the soulless synthetic music they make :)
Speaking of which, are you into any of the showier tech variety of death metal? Spawn of Possession? Obscura?
No. We’re not keen on it either. That’s because we want to show brutality to the max on the stage, not personal masturbation.
Do you like where Deeds of Flesh have taken their sound? They’ve gone from straight-up brutal to something a lot more decorative. Do you think this was to stay relevant in some way with the recent tech death explosion, or just a case of having run the BDM thing dry? “Crown of Souls” was hardly a heartfelt record, you know.
Actually I don’t really like comparing an album to another by the same band. I just look at it as different products that makes me listen to it or not. It’s like that with Deeds of Flesh too.
I found stuff I like in each and every one of their releases. There are elements I like even in the Crown of Souls album, which was criticized and found monotonous by most. It’s the same with their latest album in which they changed their direction. There are some stuff I like in it and some stuff I don’t. We couldn’t know what they felt when they were doing it, it’s their own choice and taste. We can just comment on if it appeals to us or not.
What are your hopes for the new Disgorge record? Do you think Lindmark can fill Diego’s shoes?
As far as I know Erik Lindmark isn’t in Disgorge anymore. Guitar players Diego and Ed rejoined the band and they’re moving on with 2 new members.
My expectations are not too big but not too low either. I hope to hear standard Disgorge quality.
What do you most often listen to for inspiration and does it differ to what you listen to in your spare time?
I listen to everything, not necessarily metal. There isn’t anything that I can tell it really influences me. Everything I hear can be an influence.
Who designed the artwork for the re-release of your debut/MCD mix?
Both covers for the first album were made by Jon Zig. When we first formed the band we wanted to work with him and we did it twice. We’re pleased with both of the covers.
Give us a gear rundown – the sound on “The Existence…” is one killer tone.
kullandýðýn aletlerin özetini geç demiþ sanýrým çünkü sound çok taþaklý hangi aletlerle kaydettiniz diyor sanýrým.
I find it weird to formulate these things. Studio videos, Behind-the-scenes stuff or sharing everything related to the album making process etc.
These things really take away from the soul of the music. I believe these stuff should be private. I should be imagining and visualizing the background myself, not have it shoved down my throat.
Is there much of an underground scene in Turkey, or would you say you guys are taking the country’s lead? The people who’ve heard your record generally seem very pleased with it, yet you don’t hear of many bands your neck of the woods.
If I do a quick summarization of the Turkish metal scene I can say it’s full of bullshit.
But there are a few bands that I find sincere and they know what to do.
Obviously we can’t say we’re the forefathers of the scene. Even if we were (and we’re not), it’s not our place to say that. I don’t see anybody in that place either. Everyone’s to his own.
What are your plans for touring?
No planned tours yet. We may do something after summer 2013.
Ideally, which bands would make the best touring package?
Any sincere band that we could have a good time with, sharing the same perception with us and playing nice music. Not necessarily a famous band with a big name.
Favourite albums of 2011? Best of 2012 so far? What are you looking forward to the most?
A huge bunch of good releases in 2011, and 2012 too. I can make a small list like that:
2011: Autopsy – Macabre Eternal, Disma – Towards the Megalith, Miasmal – Miasmal, Vomitory – Opus Mortis VIII, Gorgasm – Orgy of Murder
2012: Chaos Inception – The Abrogation, Absvrdist – Illusory, Resurgency – False Enlightenment, Grave – Endless Procession of Souls, Spawn of Possession – Incurso
Plans for the future? When can we expect a new record?
We’re working on our third full length now. I hope we can release it around the end of the next year.
Thanks for your time: anything else you want to say or represent, here’s the space. We at GD (the few of us into brutal death metal) wish you and your band the very best.
Thanks for the interview. Only support the bands you think are quality.
