Interview: Chaos Inception (2021)

 

Chaos Inception is a killer Death Metal band from Alabama worth supporting with a new album in the works. I got in touch with guitarist Matt to show my support and also get some details about the upcoming album. If you’re a fan of dark, abstract, and crushing death metal with tight musicianship, then you should definitely give them a listen. Chaos Inception is no lightweight, despite their under-the-radar status.

Hails! It's been a long time since Chaos Inception released an album. Can you please give us an update?

Hails, and thanks for the interview. It’s good to know someone cares about the band. We’ve been through hell and back trying to get this done and I can finally see the light at the end. Gary White and I are the band now, and that’s probably all there will be to it. We have been through so many changes in lineup and so much on a personal level, but I anticipate that a new album will be out on Lavadome Records by the end of 2021, or early next year.

Chaos Inception Members also play in various other bands such as Monstrosity, Diabolic, Quinta Essentia, etc. Are these other bands rather side bands or priority?

It’s hard to say what band is a side band or priority, mainly because it would piss off the other people in those bands. The priority for me is simply to play guitar in a band and to have someone hear it. So all I do is keep playing, keep writing, and when someone says let’s do an album I can say ok, here’s what I can contribute. At this stage of the game, and at the risk of pissing off some people, I’d say that the bands you mentioned are nobody’s ‘priority’ as far as their daily lives go, because it’s not their job or their family, with one exception that you might guess. Chaos Inception is my priority in a way, because I write everything. In other projects there is compromise, with other people changing my songs, but I’m proud of all of them. When it’s time to get it going the priorities shift to each one, but the constant is me sitting around playing a guitar. I’m much better at it now for being involved in those projects.

What led to the departure of Chris White and what does the new vocalist Jason Flippo bring to your sound?

As I mentioned, we’ve had a lot of changes. None of them were truly rancorous but to go over the reasons would be picking at scabs. Gary White is the vocalist for Chaos Inception now - you heard it here first!. He has done vocals before in spots with Chaos Inception and Convergence from Within, so it’s just easier and better for us to do it ourselves, together.

How will the direction of the new material differ compared to The Abrogation? What can we expect?

Expect something that’s a little more streamlined, without as many opposing guitar riffs. I mean I used to have one riff and then do another riff on top of it, and it sounded pretty cool, but I realized that often the reason for doing that is the first riff is not very good. It’s covering up for a crap riff, or what we call in the rehearsal room, ‘shizer’. That’s Alabaman for schiesse. Good riffs, not noise – that’s the goal. Just remember that the layers probably don’t make you a musical genius. Some death metal (ourselves included) use a blast beat as a cover for crap riffs. Put a blast on that and it sounds cool. Especially when the drummer is 10 times the musician as the guitar player, which is often the case. Well, we are blasting 90% of the time, so we try to avoid that. Besides all that, the new album runs more of the gamut – it goes from total defeat and despondency to triumph and overcoming. The latter is an absolute necessity for me, because if it’s not spiritually majestic and the singer is growling, you might as well be in Pantera – you’re making angry music, and I’m just not that angry. Now, there’s one song on it that almost makes me nauseous to think about, it’s so nasty. A bit of a departure. And as always, I have in mind the legacy of Floridian and South American death metal and we will always be happy to plant that flag through the eye socket of a poseur.

Which bands influenced the sound of Chaos Inception?

For me it’s everything, but mostly Floridian and South American bands. Sweat-panted and farmer tanned death metal from hell, as opposed to pale, cold death metal with neck beards and leather pants. The album Blessed Are the Sick. Any and all Sarcofago, not just INRI. Angel Corpse. Krisiun. Perdition Temple. Suffocation. Centurian. Sinister. Any kind of weird, dark metal. Necromantia. Striborg. Slayer should go without saying. Can’t forget Iron Maiden, Uli Roth, The Smiths, and Graham Parker. Just listen to what you like, or you will burn out your love of music. Use all your influences. I am not a huge fan of all death metal, such as mid-paced or slow stuff, or the stuff made by trained musicians who are slumming in the death metal world. I respect any band that has made a name for themselves doing this, and I’ve gone to their shows and bought their albums, but when it’s time for me to distill influences and create my thing, there’s none of that involved. And there’s always an element of horror involved, brought by a lifelong study of horror movies.

What are some newer bands that you like? Are there any albums that have left an impression on you recently?

That is a good question. I try. I really try. I think most everything sounds pretty good, with good but usually the same production values, but I just don’t have that goosebump feeling from anything new. And there are so many old things that I haven’t heard that sometimes it’s best to check out old bands that I missed. Like with horror movies – what’s the best new horror movie of 2021? I couldn’t tell you. But I don’t just sit around watching John Carpenter’s Halloween for the 127^th time. I’ll find out there was something I missed from back then with the same vibe. Or there is some band that the label Nuclear War Now found from the USSR or Haiti from way back that’s cool. There are lots of new bands that try to recapture the old magic, and I’m cool with them doing that too – like Gruesome. Some overzealous fans or critics sometimes piss me off when they say it’s even better than the original when it isn’t. I’m still looking for the heir to Azagthoth, Palubicki, and the rest. Where are the psychotic soloists? Anyways, if absolutely pressed to name a newer band I’d say Cemetery Lights, which is like a Greek black metal sounding thing on Nuclear War Now. If you asked Gary that question, he would definitely not drop the name Cemetery Lights, that I can tell you.

Can you tell us a little about the themes on The Abrogation, including some details about songs like "Pazazu Eternal" and "The Exterminati"?

Lyrical themes . . . For me, it’s nightmares, visions, and whatever happens in the rehearsal room. We name riffs and then those names make it back into the lyrics. We had a riff called the Pincer riff and that translated into a working title of 1000 Dead by Pincer. Now the challenge is what the hell does that mean? I can’t even remember why we called the riff ‘pincer’ now someone has to base lyrics to a song about that. I will admit that some of the things I put in my lyrics are meant to shock, but not in the usual sense. How can you shock someone who’s been listening to Cannibal Corpse for 25 years, or watching Evil Dead for 40? Well, you can put in something unexpected, maybe something that leaves them scratching their heads. Usually it’s because I’m scratching my head about it as well. You just know it’s right when you hear it spoken. Go with your instincts and don’t overthink it. Some people have accused us of being devil worshippers because of some lyrical content, but I can tell you that we don’t believe in devil worshippers. Anyone who wastes time seriously studying demonic rituals to put them into practice is a fool. But if you study them for historical interest, that’s something else. And if you have studied them and you think some of it sounds cool, like ‘man, that’s some heavy shit. What if that was a song lyric?’ Also cool. But copying directly from the text? Boring. Plagiarism. And obviously, the rituals don’t work in the intended way, or else all these underground metal bands would have wealth, fame, and there’d be a lot more women at their shows. So I use some artistic license and maybe write a lyric in the language of ritual but make it my own, knowing that it’s nonsense. You can be serious about your art and do that at the same time. No one can tell me I’m not serious, given the time and years I’ve put into this, with little to no reward. So I leave people wondering if it’s from an ancient scroll or a dreaded tome found at an archaeological site, or is it totally made up yet sounds like a cool death metal song? I try to be honest about what we’re doing here – making music for teenagers (in spirit, at the moments even a mature adult is enjoying this music), just like the teenagers we were when you got into it.

Will your collaboration with Lavadome Productions continue?

Yes. Lavadome is the best. The have the best roster of any newer label. Jan has treated us well and has not pressured us to hurry up and put out the album. We know it was too long between albums, but there was not much we could do about it. I don’t like getting involved with the business of music. I’m just too busy. I worry about making money at my day job. If I calculated how much money I make on music I’m probably paid a fraction of 1 cent per hour. If I made some phone calls and deals I could maybe bump that up to 1 whole cent per hour. I just leave it alone. Anything is a bonus. With Chaos Inception I only care about making good music that I like, and meeting my potential for creating magic through a musical performance. I have always felt that I failed to hit that mark. The songs for this 3^rd album are finished except for vocals and leads. This is where we might make it happen.

Thank you very much for your time. Looking forward to new material from Chaos Inception. The last words are yours.

Hang in there. We’re still around. Thanks for sticking with us. I think there will be a lot of happy folks out there once you put the needle down on the first track off this one. Yeah, you thought I was all nice in this interview but you didn’t realize that what I’m putting together is going to be a megaton blast of destructive madness pounding through your skull and it will torture your soul in the nether region past the Third Inferno in the wasteland of the desolator. Eaaaagghhhhh!!!!!