1. Hello dear friends, pleasure to have you on Rotten Pages ´zine. How are you doing today? Let us set the scene first. Where do we find you right now? Please describe your surroundings.
Mongrel: I'm sitting in a Post Office Distribution center in upstate NY Watching it snow outside!
Dan Bearpig: Right now, I'm at work at an 18 wheeler repair shop.
Zach Manifest: I'm currently at my house taking care of my two nephews, waiting for my wife to get home with our daughter.
2. As a band from Albany, New York. how has your local music scene influenced your development and growth as musicians?
Z: Since I've been actively going to shows the passed few years, watching all these bands has made me want to strive to be a better vocalist, and actually be worthy enough to play with these bands. I'm new to the scene. So not a lot of people are aware of me just yet.
BP: As a native to the area and growing up in the scene, I listen to my peers and friends more often than more well known acts. I really believe that we have some of the best talent that not a lot of people have heard, and its influenced almost everything I've done musically.
M: Going to shows in NY has made the music I write heavier, plain and simple. Adapting to Dan’s style has evolved my style to be more brutal, while still having the progressive harmonic content I've always created for myself. It's just meaner.
3. Tell us about your personal musical background, How much exposure did you have to extreme music growing up?
M: I grew up in Central Florida in the 90’s and early 00’s. When I was like 6 I started out on Black Sabbath, Motley Crue, and Ozzy. By the time I was 13 it was KoRn, Slipknot, and Mudvayne. When I started writing for my earliest bands I was trying to mix Industrial like Static-X, Ministry, and Rammstein with Metalcore like Trivium, All That Remains, and early A7X, but I think my earliest “Extreme Metal” if we're not counting Slipknot in 2000 was probably Children of Bodom, Dimmu Borgir, and early In Flames. Symphonic Black Metal and Melodic Death Metal hooked me in hard in like 2004-2005. Oddly enough, I didn't get into old school Death Metal until like 2016.
BP: I was always a metalhead, borrowing White Zombie and Slayer tapes from older cousins when I was like 9. I wanna say it was around the age of 15 that I started going to local shows and 16 when I started playing them. I'm 40 now and still having a lot of fun doing it.
Z: Well music has been apart of my life since I was in diapers from my uncle playing the drums. I started guitar around 13, I liked hip hop also so I started with lyrics as well at that age. Did hip hop till about 8 years ago, Still play guitar though, and in that time since then I discovered I can do harsh vocals. I always had a spot for metal in my soul cause that's what I was raised on, from Slayer to Pantera and Alice in Chains and Ozzy and much more. Both of my parents were metalheads in the 80s and my dad was an avid concert goer. I remember the stacks of tickets.
4. As an emerging band in the extreme metal scene, what are some challenges you've faced, and how have you overcome them to pave the way for your future?
BP: Definitely finding a drummer! This music is hard already and getting Bryce to play drums on this recording, I was really blown away!! It seems to have all potential drummers, lol!
M: Yeah, finding a Drummer continues to be out biggest hurdle, I ended up becoming friends with Bryce Butler who’s been doing all of our studio work, he's a sweetheart, and Dan, introduced me to John Glassbrenner, who we almost had in the band until he joined Concrete. No love lost there either, John and the boys in Concrete are all cool as hell. But yeah, the drummers either can't play it, or they're too busy unfortunately.
5. You have a debut EP released in December 2024, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical style that you went for on the recording?
Z: Personally, vocally I just wanted to be as brutal as I could be. This was my first time ever recording harsh vocals and I wanted to make an impression.
BP: On the EP, I really just set out to do something different yet heavy as hell in this project and I think the tight collaboration with Cliff here really brought things in a direction I wasn't expecting yet was searching for.
M: The EP is the first 6 songs Dan and I each already were working on before the band started. He brought in 3 songs, I brought in 3, and we each put some sauce on each other's music before I came up with lyrical direction. We just didn't want to be pinned down to any subgenre of Extreme Metal, so while the core is Death Metal, there's elements of Black Metal, Doom, Prog, Melodic Death, and Tech Death blended in.
6. Your music delivers a powerful, massive, and melodic sound. Can you tell us about the inspiration behind these 6 songs and how it felt to release your music to the world?
M: It's really Exciting! The first 3 songs were all unreleased music I had written back in 2010 with a Florida project I started called In The Orange. It never saw the light of day but the music stayed with me. Dan’s stuff was all unused riffs he had when he left his previous Death Metal band Tyranize. There's a concept to the music that will be revealed more when we release our Full Length LP later this year.
Z: To me the inspiration was to be as heavy as I could be. Again I'm very new to the metal scene so I was trying to do my best.
BP: Always influencing my writing are bands like Skinless, Kataklysm and Suffocation but I think the real thing that sets it apart was Cliff's influences. It feels awesome to release this music, especially since it seems well received all around!
7. Can you give us a glimpse into the creative process behind your music? How do you typically approach songwriting and arranging?
BP: Either me or Cliff will get a song idea, track it in our home studios, tab it out and pass it along to the other for rewriting with their input. As for actual song arrangement, I like to see what the lyricist (usually Cliff) wants to do with it.
M: It usually starts with a collection of riffs from myself or Dan Bearpig. I usually do the arrangements, I have a pretty solid ear for what's a chorus, or verse and just flow of a song. Dan does too. His riffs are usually brought forward in an order that flows well but not always in a way where things repeat, so that's where I come in, I generally add melody and harmonies to everything and then hand it back to Dan, and he'll write or rewrite skeletal drum parts and really make things groovy and brutal. Then, in the case of our current music, I wrote the lyrics before we found Zach, so he's had to deal with that lol.
8. What were the main challenges you faced in learning to mix music and how did you overcome them?
BP: Really, everything!! Lol! I also recorded my other band, Crimson Mask’s full length around the same time so it was about a year of pulling my hair out and searching forums for answers and I still have a ton to learn.
M: I paid someone else to do it. Haha. When Bryce completed the drum parts he put me in contact with Mike Low, originally just for drum editing. Mike does drum editing for Dave Otera among other major players in the Extreme Metal scene, and when the original Mixing and Mastering engineer we had talked to became too busy we asked Mike to Mix and Master the record as well, and he did a phenomenal job in my opinion.
9. In a world where metal can often be dismissed as mere aesthetics, your music carries a deeper meaning. What messages or themes do you hope to convey through your artistic expression?
M: I mean, there's a theme of Black Magic and Zombie Apocalypse in our currently released songs but beneath the horror themed veneer they're about perseverance, personal loss, anxiety, and trying to hold together failing relationships, things I think everyone can relate too.
BP: A lot of my music, for me, is highly fueled by negative feelings against people and the things the common person seems to go out of their way to do to inconvenience the lives of everyone around them. I've had a lot happen in life to make me distrust and even dislike the general public. I have always had anger management problems which push my ideas to an extreme, like getting rid of the dude who cut me off on the highway isn't enough because it happens all the time, this species just needs to get wiped off the face of the planet!
Z: I've said this before, this kind of a short but sweet answer; heartache, pain, and world take over. With some post-apocalyptic elements.
10. How has the reception been for your music so far? As a band, what do you hope listeners take away from your music?
Z: We just want the people to enjoy it as much as possible, maybe use it to release some anger or pain or whatever it may be.
BP: The reception from this project so far has been great across the board! It's getting a better internet buzz than anything else I've done, my friends in the local scene are all completely blown away and enthusiastic for something to stir the genre a little, which is what I wanted to do going into this.
M: So far it's been great! The local scene has embraced us, we've gotten contacted by ‘zines like this one, and had thousands of views on our Slam Worldwide exclusives on YouTube, and hundreds of listens on Spotify. It's all way more than any of us expected.
11. You're still at the beginning of your career, how do you see the term "underground" in times of pay-to-play festivals and the like and what significance does it have for you?
M: I don't think we're interested in any pay-to-play situations, we're certainly not a festival band yet by any stretch of the imagination. I think “underground” is good. I like being part of a niche’ scene of music, I think our place in the scene will present itself in time. We're in no hurry, just put out music, play shows, and see what happens.
BP: 25 years into doing this, I'm not at the beginning of my career but I could be at the beginning of my career being more than a labor of love. "Underground" for me is akin to "underappreciated". Go to local shows!! Your favorite national band was once a pissant opener everyone else dismissed! As for pay-to-play, NO!!!!!!!
12. How do you define “underground” and where do you see yourself and your band in it?
BP: I define "underground" as the dismissed musicians that don't write cookie-cutter garbage music for a paycheck. It's like a continuation of the punk movement where they just wanted to write good music, regardless of musicianship. I think this band is really waiting for a good drummer so we can enter that underground arena and cut our teeth on our first shows together.
M: We're deep, way deep in the underground lol we’re not expecting some big blow up/glow up situation, we're here to put in work, put in some time and put out some tunes.
Z: We are just a small foot note in the world of underground metal. But we are gonna make sure people know who we are.
13. The metal world is known for its intense brotherhood and camaraderie. What’s the craziest and most memorable experience you’ve had as a band so far?
BP: I've been doing this in my area for a long time and have known lots of great musicians for years so for me, it's all of us going to shows and introducing my fellow bandmates to everyone I know in the local music scene.
M: So far, it's just us lol we go to show's together here in Albany, we have a great community here. Dan has introduced me to local bands at this local mixer event hosted at Empire Live. They just had an Extreme Music Award show here in Albany hosted by the same venue, but I think shared, as a group the four of us just hanging out presigning CD’s to sell has been the most surreal for me. I had left doing music in a band more than 10 years ago and to even be doing interviews like this has me so grateful that I decided to give the dream another shot.
14. What can fans expect from a Doomsday Manifesto live show? Do you have any particular rituals or routines before hitting the stage?
BP: We haven't played our first show yet but I look at every show like I have something to prove. People forget, if the crowd just wanted to hear you, they have Spotify, everyone came for an experience!! Move around!! Make a show out of it.
M: Yeah, we haven't actually played our first show yet, lol. Most of the guys smoke a bowl before rehearsals, so I can imagine that will happen (It's legal in NY now). We have loose plans for a show in May of this year, still need to lock in the date with the promoter.
Z: We haven't had our first show yet, but pre show ritual will prolly be a joint and a beer. Then get ready to punch that crowd in the face haha.
15. And finally, are there any plans underway for a follow up to Doomsday Manifesto Vol.1?
M: We have a Full Length LP written which expands on the EP, that should be out with 4 more new singles later this year, we're thinking of putting out a cover, and a stand alone single. We've got the next 2-3 years pretty well planned out, so anyone who enjoys what we do can keep their ears and eyes peeled, we will be dropping videos on our YouTube, a couple more exclusives through Slam Worldwide, CD’s will be available online soon for our EP Doomsday Manifesto Vol. 1. We're just getting started.
Z: Yea, we haven't touched the surface for the material we have. You are just gonna have to wait and see.
BP: We have soo much more to let loose on you all…
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