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BACK
ENGORGED
- The Horror Of It All
By Mark "World Eater" Morton
The
heavy metal society parallels the horror film genre when it comes
to emulating the fine art of splattering gore. Both have become
complacent in their niche markets, rarely (if ever) breaking new
ground, daring to claw their way out of the mold previously created
for them, and have ended up predictable and stale. While extreme
metal bands recycle the same blast-ridden, derivative grindcore,
ne'er straying from their Napalm Death/Carcass roots, horror movies
have become blandly safe, wallowing in an incestuous pool of formulaic
plots and interchangeable Noxema-faced film & television starlets,
more afraid of entertaining the audience than missing out on a close-up
opportunity. These two distinctly different forms of amusement have
forgotten the basic equation of their art: more blood = more fun!
Like
an early Sam Raimi film, Oregon-based quintet Engorged spurts onto
the scene, turning (& decapitating) heads with a fresh outlook
on what many deem a stagnant art. They may not have invented the
genre, but through dedication, adoration of vintage thrash and a
bit of lunacy, the band is inadvertently altering the future of
their genre with their self-titled sophomore effort, recently released
through Necropolis Records.
When
discussing the origins of the band's sound with guitarist/co-vocalist
Ryan (all members of Engorged contribute vocals), the influences
read like a who's who of lost classics, as Engorged has more in
common musically with vintage thrash (i.e. Nuclear Assault production
value and Death Angel riffing), than typical modern death metal.
"Of
course, that's the stuff we all grew up on," he elaborates.
"To tell you the truth, that's the stuff we mostly listen to
nowadays…stuff like Nuclear Assault, Overkill, Tankard, Kreator,
etc., so I think the influence definitely comes through, especially
in our newer stuff. When we started out, we utilized a bit more
grind, and then more speed metal and thrash as we developed. We
definitely tried to structure the newer songs a lot more like old
school speed metal and such, which would obviously make is sound
a bit differently to the way most grind bands would structure their
songs."
Since
the band has such an affinity for classic metal, is "Gore Metal"
an accurate description for what they are trying to do? When the
term is mentioned, a stylistic stigma springs to mind, a conglomeration
of disgustingly fast, blasting metal, fronted with inhuman vocals
that sound like someone's esophagus is being shredded with a power
drill.
"Well,
I think there's definitely some of that going on in our music,"
Ryan continues. "The Carcass, Napalm Death, Terrorizer…bands
like that, and coupled with the horror movie lyrics, before anyone
actually hears us, we're labeled as 'Gore Metal'. And even some
people will think that just because we discuss gore, we're called
a Gore Metal band. We don't make a conscious decision to make our
songs like that, things just come out. If one riff or part has a
Carcass vibe and the next is in the Slayer vein but sounds cool,
we'll usually run with it. We're not preoccupied with whether or
not it's grind or thrash or death; as long as we're having a good
time playing it and it sounds cool, we'll go with it."
And
like the most entertaining horror films of the 80s, the merciless
savagery is offset with dark-natured humor (usually in poor taste,
but with flesh flinging in all directions, Shakespearean prose is
furthest from anyone's mind). With the growing popularity of ultra-serious
and technically proficient extreme metal, the audience for Engorged
is required to be at least slightly open-minded.
Ryan
explains, "Maybe someone who's totally into brutal Suffocation-style
death metal might be taken aback, but if you're a fan of grind,
heavy metal, and thrash, you might get what we're trying to do.
Some of our favorite bands like Impetigo, Rigor Mortis, Anthrax,
S.O.D. and Tankard incorporated a lot of humor, and you could tell
they were having a good time, even though the music was brutal.
It shows that we don't really take ourselves seriously, although
we do put a lot of time and effort into our music. We like to enjoy
what we're doing."
As
well they should, for metal was spawned on the premonition of fun
.
"Our recording, for the most part, is just plug-in and jam.
We don't spend a lot of time fooling around with everything. I think
it came out sounding great, and has a very 'live' vibe."
The
secret of their old school/modern stylistic marriage was assisted
in the mastering stage by a legendary talent, former Dark Angel
/ current Dreams Of Damnation guitarist/mastermind Jim Durkin. Ryan
explains the excitement of such valued aid.
"I
think we're very lucky to have had Jim Durkin master it. We were
planning on doing it ourselves, because we weren't super happy with
the overall sound of the original recordings; but Matt (Harvey,
Necropolis Records A&R) came to us saying that he could probably
get Jim Durkin to master it for us. Normally, we would want to be
there when someone works with our stuff, but if he did it, we felt
comfortable just dropping it into his hands. When we got it back,
he made it sound 10 times better than the un-mastered version. Hopefully
next time we record, we'll be able to get him to master it again,
if he's not already sick of our shit."
Appreciative
of Durkin's fine-tuning of their material, the album possesses a
firmly planted, true American metal style, where in this age of
heavy music, the separation between American-style metal and European
metal is beginning to blur.
"Yeah,
with the mosh-core focus, definitely. I think when people listen
to us; they can easily pick out that Nuclear Assault mosh piece
or that S.O.D. & Carnivore essence," emphasizes Ryan, who
acknowledges the eternally changing tides of metal. "Now there
are bands that utilize Swedish death metal sounds, and the popularity
of black metal really brought a lot of people into it. It's all
getting crossed over, which is fine. D.R.I. had to cross over to
move forward, so it's cool that bands are still doing that stuff."
As
for honoring their metal heroes, Engorged places a major focus on
musically recreating their favorite horror films, as their mentors
had done years ago, including Texas' Rigor Mortis, which did "Reanimator"
on their debut album.
"Or
utilizing the Texas Chainsaw Massacre samples, yeah. Or even going
back further to Iron Maiden or Black Sabbath, who were always doing
songs based on old horror movies or novels. For as long as I can
remember, horror movies and metal were always tied together, so
I guess we're just emulating that. I guess we haven't really come
very far into advancing metal…"
On
a unique note, the band has also taken to reminiscing on their childhood
by incorporating samples and thematic elements from the G.I. Joe
cartoon into their music.
"We
don't really do it on purpose, although there are at least one or
two G.I. Joe songs on each disc," defends Ryan. "After
we actually write the song, we'll decide whether it will be based
on this movie or that or whatever, and it's normally done jokingly,
so it's even funnier when that's what the songs are actually about.
It's also funny, because when we put out our first demos, there
was none of that merch, no skateboards with those logos or anything.
Now, I hear people saying, 'Hey, I think I saw somebody with an
Engorged sweatshirt, blah blah blah.' And I'm always like 'umm,
we never made any sweatshirts.' Every time there's a piece of merchandise
with a cobra insignia on it, there's always someone that makes the
Engorged connection. So as long as Hasbro doesn't come knocking
on our door, it's pretty cool.
There
are plenty of bands out there singing about death and Satan. There
are plenty of bands singing about horror movies, too. There are
metal bands out there for everybody. If you don't like it, there
are 100 million other bands out there you could listen to that sing
about whatever that individual is into."
Of
course, horror is foremost on the band's mind, as it was that initial
common interest that forged the band!
"That's
how we all met (before we ever thought about jamming), we used to
sit around and talk about horror films. It became pretty natural
for us to make the transition into the band then."
It
was that interest that laid the groundwork for the band's most ambitious
endeavor, a 3-part epic based on gore-film pioneer George Romero's
work (Night Of The Living Dead, Dawn Of The Dead, Day Of The Dead),
which closes their new album. Melodic clean guitar interludes, smooth
tempo transitions, and solid structure set the tone for this labor
of love.
"We
messed around with that for a really long time," Ryan recalls.
"It was originally meant for an EP, but when we were in the
studio, we felt it would be a good way to close the album. When
we were writing for this album, there were people telling us that
other bands had already done songs based on movies that we were
planning on covering. But we decided just to say 'fuck it' and do
whatever we wanted, not worrying about who had previously used this
sample or written about that movie."
Let
this serve as a lesson in passion, for those who are quick to criticize
a band's efforts to push the envelope and open doors to new planes
of creativity are eventually doomed to the politically correct mediocrity
that has befallen the current state of the horror film genre. Engorged
whole-heartedly agrees.
"I
don't think you can even make [a good horror movie] anymore. If
you try to put any gore into your movie, they're not even gonna
let you put it out…they're way too strict about it now,"
evokes an embittered Ryan. "I was reading an interview with
Kane Hodder after Jason X came out, and he said that they don't
even bother shooting gore scenes anymore, because they can't get
an R Rating, simply because it's a Friday The 13th flick. If it
was Hannibal, then you can get away with it, because it's 'artsy'.
I haven't seen the new Halloween movie, but I can pretty much guarantee
they don't have shit for gore going on. I think if they had the
balls to throw some gore into these new horror movies, it would
knock everyone on their asses."
Sadly,
this trend of toning down the entire landscape of what is acceptable
for horror in this ignorant-teen placating world of film was initiated
by the release of Scream, a contrived, extended MTV commercial unfortunately
birthed from one-time horror master Wes Craven (previously better
known for a little film called A Nightmare On Elm Street).
"Yeah,
he fucked everything up," concurs an equally irate Ryan. "Instead
of a cool scary image, all the movie posters display a bunch of
kids looking like they're from 90210, and then the movies themselves
are like rap videos with LL Cool J running around. That's definitely
not what I liked about horror movies."
Regardless,
it is horrifically pleasant that Engorged is keeping the macabre
spirit of 'decent' horror alive. Ryan has hope for the future, as
Engorged may serve as an unknowing influence for young filmmakers.
"The
pendulum may swing back, and this stuff might get big again, because
there are tons of these movies getting released and looking killer
on DVD. Maybe the younger kids who didn't know about that shit then
will now start checking it out, and maybe somewhere it will inspire
someone to make a good movie?"
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