Starting as a one-man band back in 2006, Bloodsoaked released two more albums of fast but explosive death metal and now are planning to unleash their fourth album, Devouring Abomination. Much like the earlier albums, this is ripping Morbid Angel/Vader style material with a tendency to use choppy riffs to accent it.
While many death metal bands have pursued a tendency to cluster riffs and detours onto their music, Bloodsoaked is about driving home a point. Fast riffs pick up a theme, which then starts to be clipped and chopped as it rockets home to percussive conclusions. Riffs tend to be cyclic with variations, making each song easy to appreciate but hiding a few surprises in the wings.
Bloodsoaked is streaming their full albums on their Stereokiller website, but the wait for Devouring Abomination has just begun. The band will be on tour in Europe starting in April, but then will return to unleash their latest platter of eviscerating death metal.
We were fortunate to get an audience with Pete Hasselbrack from Bloodsoaked, who gave the following interview in the midst of planning for the upcoming assault known as Devouring Abomination.
You’ve got an upcoming album called Devouring Abomination. How do you think this album is different from your earlier work, The Death of Hope, Sadistic Deeds, and Brutally Butchered?
I would say the new music is similar as the last albums. I’ve gotten better as a song writer over the years and have a new guitarist (Joseph) that is also giving some new inspiration. Bloodsoaked always has and all ways will be pretty straight forward Death Metal with catchy choruses and the new album will be the same. The new album will only be an EP and it’ll be released along with a Bloodsoaked DVD as well with some live footage, interviews, studio, recording, song writing and more.
How did you produce this album, and how much time did you spend in the studio? Do you think production is important for death metal, especially the brutal death metal style?
The songs for the new album are still being worked on and finished so there is no studio time put into the new album as of yet. I have recorded some demo material, one of the demo songs we just released online called “Devouring.” It’s a rough demo version but thought it was good enough to share. Yes, production in Death Metal is just as important as any other style of music if not more. Trying to get everything in extreme music to sound cohesive can be tough sometimes so a killer mix/master really can help. Production in Death Metal keeps getting better and better all the time.
Bloodsoaked will be going on tour to support Devouring Abomination. What are your thoughts going into this tour?
Yeah, we are going on a ten-day tour of Germany, Netherlands and Poland in less than two weeks. We are very excited to be going back overseas, we were overseas this past November for ten days and we’re hoping to have another successful tour. We have 4 great support bands (SHORT FUSE, PSYCHIATRIC REGURGITATION, BLACK MASS and HATE STORM ANNIHILATION) going with us to make this a 100% USA band tour coming to Europe.
How would you describe your music to others? “Brutal Death Metal” doesn’t seem to describe the range of your music, which is also noticeably different from other brutal death metal bands. What made you decide to take this particular approach to creating death metal?
“Brutal” has some many meanings in Death Metal; I have always described Bloodsoaked as “100% pure Death Metal, nothing more, nothing less.” I grew up on the old school Death Metal when bands had choruses that people could sing along too so I am all about the catchy chorus in Bloodsoaked’s music. I try to write songs and not Death Metal music.
You’ve released a demo version of the song “Devouring.” How different do you think the album version will be? Is there often a big difference between your demo material and the album version?
The music itself is pretty close to the final version but the vocals will be much better on the final version. The vocals were recorded with my home studio equipment and not very well. The final version will be more polished and cleaned up a bit with a proper mix/master.
What do you think has changed in your outlook toward death metal, and how you create death metal, over the years?
Death Metal hasn’t changed to much in the past 20 years; while drummers might have gotten faster, the overall music is still the same as it should be. This is Death Metal and meant to be underground; it was never meant to be popular and I hope it never will be.
Who would you identify as the biggest innovators and founding acts of the brutal death metal style?
All the old school bands: Possessed, Death, Obituary, Carcass, Napalm Death, Cannibal Corpse, Pestilence, Deicide, Morbid Angel, Malevolent Creation, Sepultura and so on.
Some people criticize lyrics about death, violence, war and carnage as being without purpose. What do you hope to communicate with your lyrics? How do you contrast that to what (for example) Carcass and Suffocation communicate?
Bloodsoaked lyrics has always been about killing, gore and anti-religion and always will be. Death Metal is extreme so extreme lyrics should go with it. Having lyrics about love or how beautiful the day is in a Death Metal song just wouldn’t fit; if people don’t like the lyrics go listen to something else.
What are your hopes for the future? In five years, where do you want Bloodsoaked to be, and what do you think your music will sound like?
I’m happy where Bloodsoaked is right now. I have accomplished more things than 99% of the Death Metal bands out there so if it was to all end now I would be ok with it. I’m not sure how much further I can take Bloodsoaked and still have a full time job. Five, ten or fifteen years from now Bloodsoaked’s music will still sound the same and that’s a good thing.
Bloodsoaked – Rotting in Europe 2013 Tour
- April 5 – Görlitz (Ger) – Vierradenmühle
- April 6 – Warsaw (Pl) – Klub Progresja
- April 7 – Poznan (Pl) – Klub u Bazyla
- April 8 – Amsterdam (Nl) – The Cave
- April 9 – Winschoten (Nl) – Boelie’s Pub
- April 10 – Arnhem (Nl) – Willemeen
- April 11 – Hamburg (Ger) – Bambi Galore
- April 12 – Freiberg (Ger) – Train Control
- April 13 – Weißenfels (Ger) – Schlosskeller
- April 14 – Cottbus (Ger) – La Casa
Tags: bloodsoaked, death metal
There is nothing original about this music. Generic.
It’s super-repetitive. Death metal bands used to use different riffs and notes sometimes. This is like pop song format applied to death metal. It reminds me of the new Immolation (Scion days) material.
Fuck the haters, this is great. Death metal should be catchy and mean. This is crushing and it will beat your eye sockets in.
Memorability is important, no doubt. With out it, you end up like Deeds of Flesh: well-intentioned and well-constructed, but ultimately boring. However, Bloodsoaked lay it on a little too thick, resulting in a blockheadedness akin to Mugsy’s sidekick. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=sM5nO5M1OTA#t=72s
Boy, they sure don’t make cartoons like they used to…
This is far from great. They’re just rehashing unimaginative 1996 death metal riffs in repetitive structuring. Bland and boring.
I laughed my ass off when I saw this. A long time ago i accidently ordered one of this bands cd’s, when I intended to buy a BLOOD album. I remember opening it and yelling ” WHAT THE FUCK!?”. I was pissed that I somehow mistakenly ordered it. So i popped it in the player just to see what it sounded like, meanwhile looking through the booklet on every page there was a picture of him yelling or making angry faces. I threw it in the fucking garbage afterwards. I never thought I would see this band even mentioned on this website.
“When I think of metal, I think of the best, because I don’t want to waste my time listening to anything but the best. This is less from some elitism, or perception of my own position as important enough to require the best, than it is from a sense of taking my time seriously. I don’t get as much time as I could fill. Unlike most people, I don’t need television because I don’t normally have hours on end when I have no idea what to do with myself. There’s more here that I want to do than I can in this lifetime. So why fill hours with less than the best art? It only makes sense if you don’t value your time, or have no idea how to amuse yourself, or no higher purpose in life than to consume (and to those people, I always ask: why bother with metal, when rock music is easier and there’s more variation?).”