When Imprecation announce a new album, you can unquestionably count on the fact that we will be dealing with another monumental piece of Blackened Death Metal. And, yes, with ‘In Nomine Diaboli’, the Texas veterans once again fulfil all expectations. The album undoubtedly ranks among the best albums of the unholy year 2022 anno bastardi. Together with bassist Jeff Tandy, I not only delved into the album, but also talked about the inevitable, tragic and unexpected loss of drummer and founder Ruben Elizondo and discussed the current Death Metal scene and Imprecation’s significance in it…
Hi Jeff, thanks for taking on the noble task of answering my questions and, of course, welcome to The Whispering Darkness. Can you reflect for us on your latest album, ‘In Nomine Diaboli’? How do you view the album now that it’s been out for a couple of months?
We are certainly very proud of it. We knew it was a genuinely dark and heavy recording, but we are of course biased. The court of public opinion seems to agree, however, and many seem to think this is our best album. It really became the beast we intended.
Maybe the most remarkable feature of ‘In Nomine Diaboli’ is the shift of sound that the band has made, compared to the preceding ‘Damnatio Ad Bestias’-album. That album had much of a crushing and all-devouring sound while your latest feat has much more of an old school crunch to it, leaving more room for that ancient vibe to resonate. How do you look at that difference in sound? Was it a preconceived plan or more a case of how everything fell together nicely by chance?
I wasn’t involved directly in the production of the album, but I can say that part of what makes Imprecation such a force of nature is that the results occur organically. Ruben in particular had very good instincts about letting the music go where it wanted, which is why each album has a different presence. I would agree that our latest really sounds like something unearthed directly from the golden days of death metal, with that arcane sensibility permeating it.
Despite the fact that the core of the band can be labelled pure Death Metal without discussion, an ounce of Black Metal has also crept into the sound in recent years. I think a good example of this is the album’s closing track, in which even some keyboards provide almost some moody backdrop. Not new of course, a band like Acheron did the same, but it still is a welcome addition to the sound. Do you see this development yourself and how would you place it in the zeitgeist?
Considering every member of this band performed black metal in other bands, that’s not hard to explain. Black and death metal have overlapped quite a bit over the years, so as old as the band is, it has left its imprint on our work as well. Also, the keyboards have always been a mainstay for the band. That was Ruben’s concept as an additional layer of ambience and menace.
As a non-musician, I am curious about the process of writing an album like ‘In Nomine Diaboli’. I was so very pleased that the album brought so much more than just heavily tuned guitars, equally deep grunts and a blubbering sound. For me, this album caught the essence of how Death Metal got that pure and evil energy. Can you take me through the creative process?
I can’t exactly, since the only thing I wrote for the album were some of my own bass arrangements. I was also unable to be in the studio due to concerns with the pandemic, so I missed a lot of the process. But I can say that the band as a unit has a genuine understanding of crafting evil music. We find it by feel and make it real. In general, Milton and Ruben would spend a lot of time in rehearsal piecing riffs and ideas together. Ruben was always full of ideas, and his mind’s eye was vast.
Besides the celebration of a great new addition to the Imprecation discography, the last few years could as well be seen as a difficult and sad period for the band. In the span of just a few months in 2021, the band lost drummer and co-founder Ruben Elizondo and former guitarist and friend Wes Weaver (also ex-Blaspherian). How did these tragic events affect the band and is this reflected in any way on the album?
Wes’s loss was very sad in that he was still a friend to the band, and he was also crucial in putting the Texas underground on the map. He did a lot for the underground, and I always respected him for that. Ruben’s death was a bigger surprise and even more devastating, as we had lost our leader. This isn’t actually reflected on the album in any way, because it was completed and ready to be pressed when he died. The release itself was bittersweet because he wasn’t here to see the final results and the accolades that have accompanied it. A large part of why we even agreed to continue without him was because we wanted those songs to have a life of their own, instead of being marooned on a glum posthumous release.
Imprecation is a band that has its roots in the early 90’s, although the band never reached the great heights like some of their peers at the time, it still has a modest cult status. Some even see Imprecation as one of the last of the Mohicans in the sense of old-school evil American Death Metal. Is that something you are aware of and concerned with when writing new music?
We actually don’t take any of that into consideration. It’s more about if the material sounds to us like Imprecation or not. If it does, then those roots will be on display, and that is what the audience will get to hear. This is, of course, where the whole “OSDM” movement gets disingenuous by design. It’s not about purposely sounding like bands of yore in the interest of claiming legitimacy, but rather about letting the ideas inform the sound itself. It’s hard to explain, I suppose. You either get it, or you don’t.
You have joined the band in 2014, just after the release of ‘Satanae Tenebris Infinita’, as a relative newcomer, can you share us your thoughts on what the main difference is between the first and second incarnation of the band, meaning the early, formative years in the 90’s and the fundaments of the second coming?
The first era was much more about instinct, in my estimation. The songs were often complex and unconventional, which added to their uniqueness. The current-era material is more streamlined while still managing to retain that unfettered core at its heart. I like playing the old songs, but it’s quite validating to play the new material and bear down on a riff that gets a whole room full of people to start shifting.
To me, ‘In Nomine Diaboli’ was a bit of an eye-opener. Not that I really fell asleep to it, but the Death Metal genre of the last couple of years got kind of flooded with rather underwhelming bands playing either very snoozing mid-tempo Death Metal or Incantation/Undergang sort of ‘cavernous’ sounding Death Metal. Your latest album shows a lot of dedication to riffs and it clearly brings the aforementioned “evil spirit” of the genre back to the music’s core. How do you personally look at today’s Death Metal scene?
As I mentioned before, there’s a disingenuous undercurrent going around that can be really obnoxious, which isn’t to say that there aren’t some genuinely good newer bands out there. People in all arenas chase novelty more than ever now, so if you bring forward a death metal sound with some kind of cute concept, you’ll get a fan base eating it up. Will your band be relevant ten years from now? I highly doubt it. Will it have the reverence of a band like Imprecation 30 years from now? No fucking way.
I agree with what you said about the “cavern-core” trend. It was really a bore, and in my estimation just a cheesy way of getting out of writing actual riffs (or having a talented vocalist, for that matter). Riffs are everything, from the roots of rock music and onward. Who wants to listen to a bunch of overmodulated rumbling?
Just out of curiosity, how did you end up joining the band in the first place? Do you feel you have become a part of the band in that time, and how do you think you have been able to leave your mark on the current sound of Imprecation?
I was actually first approached in 2012. I knew the guys already, and Dave and I were friends prior to that. Their bassist at the time was pulling back, and it became a question of when he was going to finally leave, which ended up being in 2014. I am definitely part of the band, and my biggest contribution has been the expansion of our art direction. When I came in, I didn’t feel like it made sense for us to stick wholly to 90s aesthetics, but to update them and make them more visually arresting. The guys were really supportive of my ideas, and we have since tapped some artists who came up with amazing results and really set us apart from bands of the now.
Last year you have also released your first album with Trenchant, in which you play with your Imprecation bandmate Nick Norris. What is it that you pursued in forming this band?
Nick and I formed Trenchant before he was in Imprecation. It was his brainchild, and I quickly decided I wanted in once he showed me the material. We’ve known each other for a decade, and wanted to do a band together. And now here we are, doing double damage!
Your CV shows a pretty impressive career in extreme metal, not only does it include your current bands Imprecation and Trenchant, but also with Averse Sefira you have had quite some success. How do you look back on those years?
They were great and essential times where I made a name for myself. I got to do all the world-traveling and met so many friends and peers. I like where I am now with my two very productive bands, but without having everything else hanging on the line like I did with Averse Sefira. This version of having bands fits my current needs much better.
In addition, you were also a live musician for Antaeus and Krieg. This might be a bit of bar-talk, but would you care entertaining us with some memorable anecdote from those days?
Me teaching the other Krieg session musicians the songs in Germany about 3 hours before our first show of the tour comes to mind. I had to queue everyone on riff changes like a conductor, it was pretty nuts. And then one of the sets became a live album!
With Antaeus, it was less crazy. I’m very orderly in general, and they matched that energy when I appeared with them. I figured maybe we’d start drinking and get into some trouble after the gig, and it didn’t even come close to happening.
Thanks for your time and effort Jeff. I like to give you the honour of closing the interview with your words.
Death to the false! Live for metal, fight til’ death! Hail Hanneman!
