Interviews
Unfathomable Ruination - Daniel Herrera
15/03/14 || The Duff
Unfathomable Ruination are an English tech-death-groove outfit; they mix deliciousness is all I can say, the best from across the board, the oceans, never forsaking craft for style. Musically they blow my tits off too, though. Regular contributors to SMN Forums as well, I shot a message over to this blazing five-piece to see if they truly are one of the most promising UK bands in a while – they are not – and to inquire about their new album, their recently departed vokillist, their taste in strange pornography. I strongly support these guys, I think for such a strong-powerhouse upfront metal band they are sadly underrated; they are for death metal what Sickening Horror are to Morbid Angel.
Global Domination: Tell us about Unfathomable Ruination and your importance in today’s scene. Do you think that there is much competition in the UK market?
Daniel: Well, it would be arrogant to say we are important to the scene or shit like that haha, we are just doing our own thing and trying to bring something new or at least bring more variety to the table.
I wouldn’t say there’s competition at all within Death Metal bands, as most of us do it just for fun rather than to make bands our jobs, which is hilarious who anyone that still think this is possible these days. You do get the occasional pricks that think they are above everyone else and they just care about themselves but with us, we support all the bands that support us and we care about keeping good relations with everybody.
Are you friendly with any of the bands? Cerebral Bore? Infected Disarray? Are you familiar with Grindethic at all?
Of course, we are good friends with all these bands and the label Grindethic. Actually the bassist from Infected Disarray was the first bassist that we started jamming with in UR but Fed was the best fitting for the band after all. Also, I have co-organised the past two Anti-Xmas bash fests with Tom who is the owner of Grindethic, we brought Wormed for the first time in the UK as well as Corpus Mortale, Vomitous, Human Parasite, Sickening, Murder Intentions, Indecent Excision. These were some awesome shows man!
What made you sign to Sevared?
We started working with Sevared from the very beginning, we sent out samples of our EP prior to release and although we had quite a few offers, Barrett was the one we went for because of his reputation in the scene and distribution, due to the success of the EP he signed us for the album and he has helped us a lot until we know!
Tell us about your new record. It sounds like a solid blend of many influences; which bands would you say for the writing of the record influenced you the most?
Each song in the record has a lot of influences, so no point mentioning all the 50 bands or so. We love writing stuff over the top or experimenting with new ideas as long as the result sounds heavy and interesting, we are never going to be a band that has limited creativity, that’s for sure.
As a foundation, we are highly influenced by Suffocation, Death, Krisiun, Dying Fetus, Internal Suffering, Abysmal Torment, Decapitated, Origin, Disgorge, etc…
Where was it recorded and how has it been received? Is it leaving you out of pocket?
The album was recorded in Rome at the 16th Cellar studio, the response has been amazing and we have gotten all the costs back from making the album now, so no money was lost.
Your album artwork is original to say the least – was it designed by a band member? It fits the album’s content, somehow. What made you go the ragged CGI route?
Yes, and although people that are into Brutal Death, they always expect something gory and the usual stuff, we in the other hand wanted something that represents the growth of malignant psychological behavior and the depraved plant we got as a cover was dead on for the concept of MCE.
The person responsible for this was Phlegeton (Wormed), he also did the artwork for our EP and both of these times he has understood the concepts very well. I am personally a big fan of Resident Evil and the artwork for MCE reminds me a lot of that evil scenery that this game has. Phlegeton’s art design has just been really suitable for our material so far, something that some bands are missing these days, is choosing the correct artwork for their music, a lot of them just go to what is popular at the moment rather than focusing in how to bring the concept to life.
Which bands have you toured with in support of it, and how have the tours been?
We did an EU tour with Pyrexia and Beheaded and then a UK Tour with Iniquity and Hideous Divinity last year along with many awesome festivals, 2013 was a really good year for us. We got another UK tour coming this May with Malignancy and we can’t wait for it too!
Which bands do you consider are up-and-coming, on par with Unfathomable Ruination?
In the UK, two of my favorites at the moment are Abyssal and Burial. Both do a great mix of blackened Death Metal with a lot of feeling. Then we have Flayed Disciple and Seprevation which do Death/Trash perfectly, tight as fuck bands!
You guys are wizards on your instruments, yet you never forsake the groove, the hook or the melody – you deliberately downplay it when tech-death is probably the next trend to latch onto. Are you likely to write a second record soon and if so, stick to your guns in terms of keeping things grounded/focused?
Thanks man, we actually have about 5 skeletons of new songs now. We will be releasing a single of two tracks this year and carry on writing for the next album in which we can hopefully start recording early next year.
As I mentioned before, we like to play around with new sounds but we feel that the new material will be more varied than MCE and certainly more brutal. We will stick to our guns in terms of writing everything in the same organic way we have always done it though, this means no fake midi/guitar pro shit or adding dumb shit to Death Metal.
Tell us about Neagoe’s departure and who you have replacing him.
As his statement said, he left to focus on his health and family which was totally understandable for us. A few weeks ago, we announced Ben Wright from Fleshrot as our new vocalist.
Since I was in this band a few years ago, I was aware of the potential of his voice so he was the first guy we wanted to try out and it worked out really well as expected. We can’t wait for him to start laying out lyrics and vocals to the tracks we are writing, I really think he is going to bring something especial to our music and most of all; the brutality level of our live set has been raised to a new level with him now.
What are your future plans for Unfathomable Ruination, aspirations?
More tours, more music, more beer, more green!
Any final thoughts to your fans?
Manowar, Kelly Wells and anal golf \m/
Disclaimer: For all of the love in the world to our readers, we urge you not research Kelly Wells.
Kind Regards,
Daniel Herrera
Unfathomable Ruination
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