Over the last few years, Canada’s Grave Infestation have established themselves as a more than interesting band in the current Death Metal landscape. Last year the debut album saw the light of day as well as a compilation album featuring both demos, for both of which Irish Invictus Productions signed up. Even more recent is the split 7″ EP with Sněť, via Me Saco Un Ojo Records, enough to ask the band for an update…
Hi and welcome to The Whispering Darkness… Last year, Grave Infestation released their debut album ‘Persecution Of The Living’, which followed up their previous two demo tapes from the late 2010s. High time to take a look at these Canadians. So, if you look back at those years, how would you describe them? How has time treated the band so far?
We’ve been busy over those years churning out filthy death metal and working on our second LP to vomit out some of the disgusting material that we’ve got rotting inside of us that is time to share.
We released our first LP “Persecution of the Living” with Invictus Productions and a split 7” with SNET, a death metal band from Czech including an old friend of ours. We also played some festivals, including Total Death Over Mexico, and completed a tour in Mexico as well as our first desecration of the US East Coast thanks to Ripping Headaches’ support with booking the tour, and the other US dates on the West Coast.
We are heading to KillTown Death Fest along with so many crushing bands to bring a weekend of death metal to Copenhagen.
It is in those years that you have had the opportunity to forge some deadly steel, which would eventually materialize into what became your debut album, ‘Persecution Of The Living’. Can you please take us along with you on your journey that comprised the whole process of realising this album? How do you look back at that process and to the result?
The process was to create a record that pulled together the main influences for the band while also honouring our own independent sound and allowing each of us to show up and bring our contributions to the final tracks. GC and TS each brought rough skeletons to the band and we molded and formed the songs into the final tracks as a group, which is standard for us – to co-write and put each of our grotesque ideas into each track. We learned through that process what we want to bring forward to the next record, and what we need to shift to realize the sound we want – which is filthy, disgusting death metal.
If you’d compare those two first demo tapes and the debut full-length album, what would you consider the main difference between those two facets, if you like to call it that, of the band?
Production is the main difference. The writing remained rooted in primitive and raw death metal and the lyrics throughout have always maintained their demented and disturbing nature, and GC’s solos still bring a raw psychotic energy contrasting with BC’s razor precision – so those elements can be found on all 3 (BC did not play on the first demo), but the production on the LP allowed for the leads and solos to come out more and we managed to push the rhythm section into some interesting territory on the LP as well. The production difference comes down to demo recording in our rehearsal room for the second demo and then a studio for the LP.
Apart from the updated sound, production wise, there seems to be a bit of a Thrashy vibe throughout the album. It even reminds me a bit of Horrendous’ first demo, which happens to be one of my all-time favourite demo recordings by any Death Metal band. Was it a deliberate choice to incorporate some of those elements into your music and what does the Thrash Metal genre, as a whole, mean to you?
We didn’t aim to have a more “thrashy vibe”, but we all love metal, across genres. When you grow up worshipping and listening to metal, and do that for decades, it’s impossible to just be influenced by one sub-genre, thrash is as much a root for much of the metal we listen to as any other metal and the fact that it showed up is not surprising, even if it was not intentional. There was not any attempt to make it more thrash or less, but it is fact that death metal and thrash have an intertwined and twisted relationship.
Personally I was kind of intrigued by your comment in the previous chat here on VM-Underground that you were also massively influenced by Blasphemy, Sarcófago and Mystifier. On ‘Infesticide’ there indeed is a distinct Blasphemy feel to it. But that on ‘Persecution Of The Living, your latest effort, that seems mostly vanished. Can you elaborate about the influence of those acts and about the absence of that particular sound on your debut album?
Again this is not intentional, we continue to be influenced by those bands deeply and refer to them often. While it may not be obvious, the influence is there as it is infused within us and our respect for those bands remains embedded in all music we make as a band, and in our other projects as well. You may hear more of that influence come to the surface as a listener in the next record, but it is there across all of our music.
In the previous interview you already mentioned the reissue of both demos on vinyl, but it took until 2022 before that finally crystalized, I guess that was to blame on the pandemic and the queues at the pressing plants, but, now the product is finally released, are you satisfied with how it all turned out?
Absolutely, we are honoured to have Invictus take an interest in the release of the demos and feel it’s a strong release, especially for those who were especially inspired by the demos.
And, more recently, you have also released a split 7” EP with Sněť from Czechia, it was put out by the revered Me Saco Un Ojo label. Can you tell us how this split release came about and how you think it turned out?
Marek from SNET is an old friend of GC and AS, from touring with their other bands in Czech a decade ago, and they both also knew Jesus who ran Me Saco Un Ojo who they met at a festival in prior years. As both Grave Infestation and SNET started to develop as bands, they decided to do a split together and the label was on board. Me Saco Un Ojo did a great job with the release, and the art is on point – done by the vocalist in SNET. The split was centered on a love for death metal. Pseudocommando was a track that reflected on some cases about Pseudocommandos that were starting to show up in parts of Canada, probably because people were starting to lose their minds around the pandemic.
Some of you are playing in different other bands like Encoffinate, Ahna and Ceremonial Bloodbath. Now that we do meet again, please take this opportunity to give us an update on those bands and their activities? Which of them should we definitely invite to our too?
Yes, Ceremonial Bloodbath has our 2nd LP coming out on Sentient Ruin in fall 2023 and has been playing gigs the whole time. AHNA finally had the last record recorded almost 8 years ago released on vinyl through Phobia Records, and is writing a new record. Encoffinate released a split 12” on Seed of Doom Records with Abscess Lord. The drummer (AS) also plays in other bands and projects but we won’t go into more bands unless you’re interested. Grave Infestation is the most active of these bands.
We know that you are avid (cassette) collectors, so what have your latest purchases been? Be it either cassette tapes or vinyl, or maybe CD’s as well. Any favourites among them?
It’s difficult to narrow down to favourites here – as mentioned earlier, we listen to such a wide range of metal and it’s difficult to say pick and choose the favourites.
You mentioned that you were about to tour in 2020, or at least were intending to do so, I guess we all know what happened in those early 2020’s. So, do you have any updated plans for the band in the remainder of 2023?
Yes we will be playing KillTown Death Fest in Copenhagen and then playing some more US dates including in Seattle with Baxaxaxa in September, and some dates with Autophagy in late November.
Alright, that would be all, thanks for updating us on your current activities.
