METAL NIGHTMARE: DEAD CONGREGATION INTERVIEW 2008

Death metal is really seeing a resurgence these days, and along with it comes a return to the roots. A return to what the core sound and ideology of what death metal is supposed to be. Not about super-intricate riffs. Not about how long or fast one can play a blast beat. No. We're seeing bands that were never into any of that and instead have chosen to focus on what matters... the songs. Bands like Greece's DEAD CONGREGATION are all about writing heavy death metal that sets a mood of decay, devastation, evilness and darkness. I got in contact with guitarist/vocalist A.V.

Is the death metal scene in Greece largely ignored because of the black metal scene?

Why, is the Greek Black Metal scene popular or something? I suppose you’re referring to the old Black Metal bands like NECROMANTIA, ROTTING CHRIST, THOU ART LORD, etcetera.... It’s probably ignored because there are not many good bands coming from Greece to begin with.

Have you found that people are surprised to learn that you are a Greek band?

Not really. They are mostly surprised that we don’t sound ‘Greek’.

If I were to say that the booklet and artwork for your latest album has a real "Finnish" feeling to them, what would be your response? I'm not trying to be insulting. I actually did think you were a band from Finland. The look of the CD and the music on it are so unlike what I'm used to hearing from Greece.

Ha, it’s not insulting, I just don’t agree. I can’t think of any CDs from Finnish bands that look remotely similar to ours. In fact I can’t think of any Death Metal CDs that look similar to ours, I think our artwork and overall design is much more Black Metal looking. But the artist who draw the artwork is in fact Finnish!

Do you play many gigs? Is there even much of a live scene in Greece?

We play only once a year in Athens with the exception of the year 2006 when we played twice because we had good offers-- one was to support WATAIN and one to support KAAMOS. We don’t think it’s necessary to play more than that in the same city, it would be boring to both us and the people showing up. Other than that, we are very selective in the gigs we choose to do, in terms of bands we’ll play with. We feel that the line-up should be very coherent in imagery, ideology and musical atmosphere. The live scene in Greece is quite active, there is a gig almost every week. And that’s probably why not many people attend the gigs anymore, there’s just not enough time or money or motivation to go to every gig, be it with local or foreign acts.

How was that big show in Berlin back in March?

Ah, the crowd was simply amazing! Too bad that the sound engineer couldn’t really understand what the hell we told him to do and this resulted in him having only one of the bass drum mics active, while our drummer played with two bass drums. The other bands in the line-up used a double pedal so they only needed one mic – the guy couldn’t understand that we wanted two.... So the drum sound was weird and crappy and a couple of other technical problems didn’t allow us to perform our best but the audience was really amazing so we kinda forgot about that and unleashed the fury.

Are there any other up and coming death metal bands in Greece?

We have a few who are really good like INVERACITY, EXTREME VIOLENCE, BLUSTERY CAVEAT, VULRUS and NOCTURNAL VOMIT. Apart from the last the others are in the school of technical and tight US Death Metal, very influenced by SUFFOCATION and CANNIBAL CORPSE. Not really my favorite but still these guys are great if you dig that sort of Death Metal.

Is "ugly and dirty" the true death metal way? Why do you think that so many bands instead have gone for a "pretty" sound, like IN FLAMES? What happened?

True Death Metal must sound Evil, Dark and twisted above all. Ugly and dirty too but it’s mostly about the atmosphere rather than the sound itself... IN FLAMES never qualified as a Death Metal band in my book anyway so I can’t speak for them. As for other bands that eventually wimped out, maybe they got tired, bored, wanted to get more attention (true Death Metal will always remain underground) and money, maybe they just lost inspiration or changed musical taste, who gives? If they are happy with what they do, good for them!

I heard the mcd will be reissued. Will there be any bonus material?

Enucleation Records offered us to license the release for the American territories and since the original version was poorly distributed there we agreed. We went for a digipack box to make it different from the Konqueror Records version and the layout/design is quite filthier on this one. There is no bonus material so that the coherence of the recording remains intact. It is already released by the way.

Without giving away too many secrets, how do you create such a suffocating sound? Are there certain types of distortion you use?

[laughs] It’s not a secret man, we just plug our axes directly to our amplifiers. We didn’t even put any equalizer for the guitars in the studio, we mixed them flat as they where recorded.... We used my CRATE BV150H amp head with it’s matching 4x12 speaker cabinet and a Peavey 5150 head that was available at the studio. Our sound has a lot to do with the playing and riffing rather than the guitar tone itself.... It’s like what Tomas Skogsberg once said to a band that went to Sunlight Studios in the early days and asked for their album to have the "Left Hand Path" sound. He replied to them that, "To have THAT sound you must play with Uffe’s hand...". Also it’s how you blend in the guitars with the bass, drums, vocals, everything plays its part!

What's your main lyrical inspiration?

Christianity.

In another interview, you said that if you listed your main influences, we would be shocked. Go ahead... shock us.

OK, apart from the obvious, some albums that had a big impact on our sound in the early days are:
HATE ETERNAL - Conquering the Throne
DIABOLIC - Supreme Evil and Subterranean Magnitude
BELPHEGOR – Necrodaemon Terrorsathan
ARKHON INFAUSTUS – EVERYTHING
MORBID ANGEL - EVERYTHING...yes, even the Tucker albums minus Heretic
MAYHEM – De Mysteriis...
FUNERAL MIST - Salvation...This last one is not influential in music but the most inspiring incentive to create Dark Art in general.

Has the underground become too big for its own good? Or would you say that what used to be "underground" is now practically "mainstream"?

It’s more accessible, that’s for sure! Now, I don’t know how bands like us and the likes can ever be considered as "mainstream". The so called "old school"-- a label that I despise-- is quite hyped in the underground circles but I would never consider any Death Metal band to be mainstream. I mean, even NILE and CANNIBAL CORPSE-- probably the two most popular Death Metal bands in terms of sales-- are quite brutal for the ears of sissy ass kids who think Metal is BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE and EVANESCENCE, you know?

Final comments are yours!

Honestly, some of the most original questions ever. Thumbs up for not asking me about Nuclear Winter. [laughs] I should also add that we’ll be releasing a split 7”EP with HATESPAWN from Germany very soon. This will be co-released by Enucleation Records and Nuclear Winter Records. Thanks for the support.