One of the most greatestunderground Death Metal acts, they keep alive the ancient way of Death Metal, this an interview with Dave Wagner bassist of this obscure and brutal band.
1.- You play a really obscure Death Metal, what is your inspiration to create your music?
Yes, FUNEBRARUM is all about creating and performing what we consider to be “real” Death Metal, so creating a feeling of obscurity, darkness and brutality is the core fundamental for our existence. We draw inspiration from the greats that came before us, as well as the twisted psychoses of our minds and souls!!
2.- Before Funebrarum Daryl and Dave have been in Abazagorath, from who comes the idea to form Funebrarum?
Amongst other things, when we first met in 1995 to form the Black Metal band ABAZAGORATH, Daryl and I always shared a love for the early international Death Metal scene from the 80s and early 90s. So I suppose that it was inevitable that a Death Metal project would be birthed from that common interest. The idea fully germinated upon meeting and befriending Nick Orlando of New Jersey’s Doom Gods EVOKEN. We met Nick through the other original ABAZAGORATH guitarist Cythrall, and we got to hang out with and get to know Nick through the shows our bands played together in 1996 and 1997. It did not take long before we discovered Nick’s appreciation of “real” Death Metal and eventually things evolved to lead to the formation of FUNEBRARUM in the following years.
3.- Who are your main influences about music and lyrics?
There are a lot of killer bands that inspire us… NIHILIST / ENTOMBED, AUTOPSY, DEATH, CREMATORY (Sweden), RIPPIKOULU, DISGRACE, DEMILICH, DEMIGOD, ROTTREVORE, FUNEBRE, CARBONIZED, AFFLICTED CONVULSION, GROTESQUE, GRAVE, ABHORRENCE (Finland), CARNAGE, BOLT THROWER and frankly, I could keep going and going here… We also are influenced by dark literature, horror films, the fucked up things we see in the world around us and whatever our sick imaginations can come up with…
4.- After two demos, you came with "Beneath the Columns of Abandoned Gods" is an amazing album really ancient, obscure and aggressive sound, with who worked for this album?
“Amazing??” Wow! Thank you!! Well, it certainly does sound ancient and obscure as the recording came out pretty rough. It definitely has a really ugly, nasty, barbaric sound… No clean wimpy shit here, folks!! HAHA!! I can’t really say we planned for it to sound “that” raw, but the sound works well with what we are trying to do. It’s actually the same recording we did in 2000 for the “Tombs of Sleeping Darkness” promo. Originally, we did not spread that promo too widely, and we received enough positive feedback on FUNEBRARUM that it was eventually decided to re-master it and release it as “Beneath the Columns…” in 2002 through Necroharmonic Records. The man responsible for capturing this horrific racket on tape is Ed Kleyner, recording engineer at Offstage Studios in lovely West Paterson, New Jersey. The studio has a bunch of rehearsal rooms, and we had been practicing there for a while when we learned of the recording studio they had on the premises. Prior to working with us, Ed had an interest in experimental dissonant noise stuff, so he was used to hearing some crazy shit, but to my knowledge, we were the first Death Metal band he had worked with. Since then, Ed & Offstage Studios have played a big role not only for FUNEBRARUM but for ABAZAGORATH and even more recently EVOKEN, as we have done numerous recordings, re-mixings & re-mastering there!!
5.- Could you talk us about this song "Miasma of Pestilence"?
“Miasma…” is kind of an epic for us… 9 minutes is pretty long for a Death Metal tune!!! It has some parts that groove, parts that grind and some slower Doomy parts. In other words, it has it all!! Lyrically, it’s about the sweet whiff of decay and the terrible reek of dying plague victims!!! Niiiiceee!!!
6.- How was the contact for work with Interment (fucking swedish legends) in a split?
Long before anybody had ever written a book about Swedish Death Metal, our singer Daryl was an utter die hard freak as far as digging up the demos of obscure but great Swedes such as MACRODEX, FULMINATION, OBSCURE INFINITY, NIRVANA 2002 and so on… INTERMENT just happens to be one of these gems. A few years back he got in touch with Johan about trying to re-issue the INTERMENT demos on CD, and I guess the renewed interest led to those guys reforming. Daryl was also in touch with Howard from Conqueror of Thorns Records, and that’s how the idea for the split CD came about. We are very happy to be on the split with INTERMENT, and if you haven’t heard them yet and you are a fan of old ENTOMBED, DISMEMBER or CARNAGE, you need to check them out!! They just signed with Pulverised Records for a new full length, so look the fuck out for that!!
7.- Can you explain the source of your name Funebrarum and why you choose this?
FUNEBRARUM is Latin and means “Of a Funeral.” Sounds right for us, doesn’t it?
8.- Can you explain the method of songwriting employed by Funebrarum? Is the writing process generally collective or does one member often craft the song on his own?
Typically, Nick, Matt or Daryl might come up with some riffs on their own time, and we would take these riffs and arrange them into songs at “house jams” in the living room trying to get everything perfect before taking them to the studio or Shawn’s house for the full band rehearsals. It usually does end up as a collective effort being that everybody’s opinion is taken into consideration when it comes to deciding whether a song is good enough or if changes need to be made.
9.- For you what is most important, the music of the lyrics?
Both are equally important as far as conveying the essence & atmosphere of FUNEBRARUM!! The music and lyrics should work together to create the morbid images of the old tombs and cemeteries in your mind and to make you feel the cold touch of the Grave Reaper on your naked skin…
10.- What do you think about Brutal Death Metal style, you like?
If by Brutal Death Metal, you are referring to bands that play a Darker, “Old School” style, then “Fuck Yes!!” I totally support bands like NECROS CHRISTOS, DROWNED, IGNIVIMOUS, CEMETERY URN, COFFINS, FATHER BEFOULED, GOREAPHOBIA, INCANTATION, DEAD CONGREGATION, ASPHYX, HAIL OF BULLETS, INVIDIOUS, KAAMOS, REPUGNANT, etc. I also like Fast and Evil Death Metal like old MORBID ANGEL, old DEICIDE, ANGELCORPSE, DAMNATION, LIERS IN WAIT, NUN SLAUGHTER and KRISIUN. If you are referring to bands that have a lot of overly technical parts, hardcore parts, dumb lyrics, super low or pig squeal vocals to make everybody think they are “oh so extreme,” then I am not interested at all…
11.- Do you have plans for record a new album soon, or tours?
We actually have a new album all recorded and ready to go. It is called “The Sleep of Morbid Dreams” and Germany’s Cyclone Empire Records will be releasing it in (hopefully) February or March of 2009. It contains 7 tracks of our best stuff yet, so we are really eager for this album to get out there! We recorded it over a year ago, so there has been a bit of a wait for this one. We sent promos to a bunch of labels at the beginning of the year, and even though Cyclone was very interested early on, it took quite a bit of time and going through “red tape” to finalize the deal. We are really happy to be with them as they are extremely professional and I think they have the power to promote the Hell out of us! Also, Nuclear War Now just released a really amazing LP version of “Beneath the Columns of Abandoned Gods.” It also contains the “Dormant Hallucination” 7” recordings. .It comes with a cool lyrics sheet / photo collage insert and the “Die Hard” edition comes with a poster, sticker, logo patch and a second LP with the 1999 demo and 2 old rehearsal tracks from 2000. As with all of their releases, NWN did a killer job on this one!! We have not been too active on the live front, since 2000, which was the year we played our most gigs, we have only gigged twice. Once was in 2006 with DEMILICH (Gods!!) and MUCUPURULENT, and we did a gig last year with DEAD INFECTION. We were also trying to put together a European tour with INTERMENT for August of last year, but that unfortunately fell through. Right now it is tough to say what the future holds for upcoming recordings, gigs and tours, but if it were up to me, I would want to do more of all of those things with FUNEBRARUM!
12.- Besides Funebrarum, do you have other occupations?
Unfortunately, FUNEBRARUM can’t pay the bills for us (…yet anyway! Let’s hope that changes!!), so we have to work to support ourselves. I work as a Broadcast Operations Technician for World Wrestling Entertainment, so in doing that I help get our wrestling TV programs on the air in the US and around the world. Do you like Lucha Libre?? Daryl works as a graphics designer and web developer for a small advertising agency. On the side, he does freelance layouts and art work for Metal bands, labels and promoters. Check out his sick logo and art for the cover of CEMETERY URN’s “Urn of Blood” CD amongst many others (…including most FUNEBRARUM / ABAZAGORATH releases). Nick is out of work right now as he is just about to move down south to North Carolina. He has been busy preparing for that lately, and unfortunately with him moving away, we are not sure what the future holds for his involvement in the band. Shawn works at a record store, and Matt is a computer programmer. What little extra time there is, is sometimes devoted to other bands such as ABAZAGORATH for Daryl and myself, EVOKEN for Nick and myself, DISMA for Daryl, THE CIEM SHOW for Shawn and KALOPSIA, HIV PLUS and FIRE FROM THE ALTAR for Matt, so we all stay pretty involved in Metal!!
13.- In your gigs, you like the circle pits, stage diving, headbanging or the people act like a fucking necro?
We like circle pits, stage diving, headbanging and “acting necro” if you are talking about people fornicating with corpses!!! The nerds who stand around in the back like a bunch of trendy wimps will hopefully get their asses kicked by the moshing maniacs!!
14.- Could you describes Death Metal?
Death Metal is brutality and darkness put into musical form… It is simply the most powerful musical art form there is…
15.- You like some mexican band, and maybe you can visit us soon?
Yeah, there are some great Mexican bands! I was just listening to SHUB NIGGURATH’s “Evilness and Darkness Prevails” CD yesterday morning, and I also like NECROCCULTUS, SARGATANAS, and CENOTAPH. I have heard a lot about DENIAL but I haven’t listened to them yet. I think I need to check them out!! Daryl was actually in touch with the guys from HACAVITZ & DENIAL about trying to go down there for some gigs last year, but nothing came out of that… Who knows, maybe we will do it some day. I’ve heard that the Mexican fans are really die hard and dedicated, so I do hope we can come down for some gigs, tequila drinking and Aztec blood rites!!
16.- Thank you so much for the interview, for last anything to say guys?
You are very welcome! Thank you, in fact, for showing interest and support and giving me the chance to spill my guts here!! Anyone interesting in contacting us can e-mail me at abazagorath69@hotmail.com. As I mentioned before, the new album should be out early next year, and we have merchandise like the “Beneath..” LPs, the split CD with INTERMENT, shirts, patches and stickers available for order directly from us!! All readers: Stay Sick & Brutal & worship Death Metal til the Grave…
Answered by Dave Wagner (bass guitar) on behalf of FUNEBRARUM
www.myspace.com/funebrarum
www.funebrarum.com
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