I´m glad to interview these veterans of the Chilean
scene, since I follow them since shortly after launching their cult demo
"Vengeance from Darkness" in 1989. Oddly, like other contemporary
bands from their country they have had to wait several years for finally have
their debut album released. But the past has served to make DEATH YELL stronger
than ever! That´s why we talked to
guitarist and founding member Andres "Pollo" Lozano. Descent into Hell ...
At last! Could be the thoughts of many people to
see the announcement of your debut album, so first of all, how do you feel
before the release of that long awaited event?
Well it feels very
good to have this release finally out! It is a mixed sensation really, in one
side we feel satisfied about the album itself and especially about what Death
Yell fans are feeding back to us! All good so far! In the other hand it feels a
bit weird, 20 years looks like a long time really… we were like frozen in time.
Can you give details of the recording? Did you go
through some stress during the process? Are 100% satisfied with the result?
Sure; it was
completely recorded in Santiago, at Torture Chamber studios. We worked with our
good friend Pablo “Wawa” Gudino, whom we recorded with before for the “Back
from the depths” split so no stress at all.
We just went into
the studio and vomited all our stuff. We used acoustic drums and tube
amplifiers at maximum volume; we avoided the usage of digital processing.
We are very happy
and satisfied with the result. Of course it could have been always better, but
the album reflects what Death Yell is, all what you hear in “Descent into hell”
was made without any intention of been like that or sounding like this… we
wrote the songs as we just felt and liked!
Actually, we
entered the studio with 70% of the songs written, the rest was completed during
the process.
Please tell us about the cover artwork, which is
quite slayer-esque, for some obvious reasons, what was your idea for the front
cover? Did you have the title of the album before seeing the artwork?
We had the album concept
in mind when we started looking at some options for the front cover. The art
from Marcelo Vasco matched quite well what we wanted… it reflects very well
what you will hear in the album…. Rawness, brutality…hellish!
Is there an overall theme to the songs on
“Descent Into Hell? Do the lyrics or do they each discuss different topics? Is
there a concrete message beyond the album title?
Our lyrics talk
about several different things, but always about our own thoughts and feelings
of what we are living, seeing and hearing… particularly common themes about
church & religion, there are no fantasy dreams nor epic stories. It is all
about our own lives, nightmares and internal demons!
In Descent into
Hell you will hear about the real hell we are living in today…
I think that the music on the album reflects that
the band remain loyal to your roots and early influences, mainly from Slayer
and Morbid Angel, do the likes of the band member changed since the early days?
Do you think that Death yell music may be open to other kind of other styles?
We have always
listened to different musical styles… since the beginning.
We do not feel tied
to any particular style, and that is maybe what characterize our particular
style, no one of our songs looks like another… we can go from absolute chaotic
blasting sound to a rhythmic swinging melody.
You are right
saying that music reflects our roots, even though we have heard many different
things that may have influenced us, Death yell is still there, as it used to be
30 years ago.
What kind of reactions do you expect from the
fans, especially from your local fans in Chile?
We hope they like
the album… and go to our shows! So far
so good, we just played live in Santiago (Sept 2nd) and the
reception from our fans was absolutely great!
It was a weird thing that bands that has been
reference of the Chilean scene, lie Pentagram, Atomic Aggressor and you took so
long to release the full length, what do you think about it? And what do you
think about Pentagram and your brother band Atomic Aggressor albums?
How could we have
been so lazy hahaha… We are proud fans of bands like Pentagram and Atomic
Aggressor, they are also very good friends and we expect being touring together
with them soon.
Their recent albums
“The Malefice” and “Sights of Suffering” are killer ones! They raised the stick
very high before us!
When your recorded the 7” with Atomic Aggressor,
“Back from the depths” sounded like a strong statement…did you have any special
feeling while recording the song after a long time since the recording of
Vengeance from darkness?
I guess our songs
have a bit of self-biographic too… the fact that we wrote “Back from the
Depths” when we joined back after 20 years was not a simple coincidence. As
mentioned before, all our demons are becoming real through our music and
lyrics.
Weren´t you tempted of rerecording any of the old
songs? I think that “Obsessed by the vision” might sound killer with the new
song, but on the other hand, sometimes re-recorded songs loss the vibe and the
magic of the original recording of its time. Anyway I, m sure that such a
classic like "Obsessed" might turn the fans crazy when you play it live
We have thought
about it; actually, those songs were recorded as demo versions only, never on
LP format. And yes you are absolutely right, our fans really enjoy when we play
live our old demo songs… it is really awesome not only for them but also for
us, feeling like when we were in our 20’s.
We thought it was
better recording brand new songs in our first LP, we’ll see in the future… no
need to rush as we will be enjoying Descent into Hell for a while!
You keep sharing stage with coeval bands like
Atomic Aggressor, Torturer and Sadism. Some shows under the slogan Old School
Reunion, in the early 90s I remember seeing the old flyers of the famous Sala
lautaro gigs, though I asked Suivang Kong, from Darkness and he told me that
most of the times the sound was awful and the bands didn´t get any money and sometimes
there was pure chaos, but they had lot of fun playing anyway,
That is absolutely
correct, we were pure passion… no sound checks, no quality equipment, poor
organization… but we had so much fun!. We try to keep the essence of the 90s
alive today… I mean, we may have better sound & equipment now, but our
concerts are still quite chaotic and we have lots of fun!
Like almost all the bands that started in those
times I guess you had lots of trouble and difficulties, but the fact that Chile
was under military dictatorship surely made things even worse…
Those were very
tough times! It was hard to reunite, to go out and hang out with friends,
particularly if you were longhaired! Not
following classical social standards. The church also had (and still has) lots
of power and influence in the Country, which did not help when you were into
extreme metal music!
The Chilean scene was very active and many demos
began to be published in a short period of time, but a few achieved to release
a debut LP, maybe Chile needed a strong record label like Cogumelo was in
Brazil, What was your impressions about the Chilean scene back then? Did you
see a strong scene or were you pissed off?
Maybe yes, maybe
not… who knows if having a local label in Chile could have helped the bands.
There were at that time some labels supporting bands (like Toxic records) and
other rip offs too… actually we were offered to record a full length but that
was just after we split up. Both labels Skin Drill and Turbo records
disappeared short after releasing our material!
Vengeance from Darkness, Bloody Ceremonial by Atomic Aggressor and
Demo I from Darkness are excellent demos and I really love theme, but there were
other demos like Perditions of Souls, (Sadism) or The King Of Hell Reclaims His Throne (Totten Korps), what do you think
about those demo tapes?
Those are excellent
demos too! Most of those works were made with lots of effort, scarce resources
and extreme passion. It is amazing the amount of different ideas, riffs and
sounds recorded at that time.
Did you use to do a lot of tape trading? Were
you in touch with zines and bands from abroad?
Sure we did many
tape trading, I do remember having exchanged demos with bands like Blasphemy,
Alastis, Acheron, Rotting Christ… and many others! It was great to write
letters and receive answers from the band members themselves. Lots of zines
wrote us at that time too, some of whom we received a copy from afterwards… and
others we never heard back!
And what did you think about the South American
scene? There were emerging bands like Massacre (Colombia) Mortem (Peru) or Inner
Sanctvm (Uruguay) trying to make a place among stablished bands of the huge
Brazilian scene?
There are no bad or
good scenes, ones with more resources and better coverage than others, also
related to the market size... but in the end all South American scene was great
and eventually some bands received the recognition they deserved.
Yet, in 1991 you released the Split 7" with
Beherit through Turbo music, how were the contacts to make that record
possible?
We just received a
letter from Turbo Music to use one of our songs… and next thing we knew was
about the split with Beherit, only when we received some copies back from the
label afterwards.
Actually they put
one of our songs in a CD compilation too (Triumph of Death) including Acheron,
Carcass, Samael, Mortuary and Beherit
What thoughts did you have back then about
Beherit, and what do you think about them nowadays and the cult status they´ve reached?
Did you follow the black metal scene of the early 90s?
At that time we did
not realize how important that fact was going to be for Death Yell… We like most
their first period. Last year (when playing in Berlin) we catched up with Jari
Pirinen, it was very emotional to meet him up after all this years!
A year later of the split with Beherit the EP “Morbid
Rites” came out, that features 3 songs from Vengeance From Darkness. It was
released via Skin Drill/Seraphic Decay Records. What can you tell about that
release?
It was very similar to the agreement
with Turbo; they wrote us asking for permission to put some songs in the 7”
format; we never questioned it too much as we just thought it was a good
opportunity to reach more fans worldwide.
Not sure how many copies they made.
Being one of the most acclaimed bands in Chile
and South America, anyone could think that Death Yell would continue his career
with strength and that would soon record the debut LP...the band received offer
for a full-length however…that didn´t
happened, why?
Thanks for saying we were an acclaimed
band… maybe that is part of the answer as we never realized that.
We were youngsters in our 20’s; our main
interests then were to play metal, drink and having sex!... we never thought
about moving Death Yell to the next level, when we received the offer it was
late for us, as we were doing all sort of different things...but not thinking
about writing new songs for a full length album.
When the band was inactive, did you follow the
scene and were you in contact with other musicians?
Sure, actually Galleta, Pollo and Pulga
played in other projects with different musicians (De Guard, Raptor, Criador,
etc.) but always keeping it at amateur level. We also kept close contact with
our friends from sister bands like Atomic Aggressor, Torturer or Sadism.
In 2007 NWN released Morbid Rites compilation.
How did the contact to NWN come about?
That was thanks to a group of fans who
organized everything; one of them was in contact with NWN! and was asked to
obtain our permission. We did not do anything really… only sending the idea for
cover to Chris Moyen and finding some pictures to put in the insert.
Yosuke from NWN! should get all the
credit for making this release into reality!
So, the band did reunite before the release of
the compilation? How did the reunion process exactly happen?
Not really, the band only though about
reunite when we recorded the split with Atomic Aggressor afterwards in 2012/3.
I guess we avoided the idea about
reunion for a while… but in a moment we just did it, we eventually went to the
studio and recorded “Back from the Depths” to find out about how much of Death
Yell was still there… and you can see the result now and assess by yourself.
How do you find the scene nowadays? Looking
back, what has changed in the scene for bad and for good? What do you miss from
the old days?
Certainly there are much more
professionalism nowadays, better equipment, better productions, better promotors,
very good bands!. In the early days, passion was it all.
What we miss from that time – without
internet, facebook, etc - was the fact that to hear and know about the band you
had to go to the concerts, or contact them directly to obtain material, now you
can download mp3 and that’s it!
In your opinion, why are still bands coming out
of the Chilean scene so extreme and with such quality? Bands like Oraculum, Invocation
Spells, Unnausprechlichen Kulten, Invocations, Disembowel, Perversor, Soulrot… Which new bands/albums do you like/recommend?
There are very good bands in Chile now,
I can add Slaughtbath, Diabolical Messiah and Communion to your list, just to
mention a few more (yeah great bands too! - Chris).
What did you think of the announcements of Massacre
(Massacre X - with Kam Lee and the classic line up) and Possessed working on a
new album?
Always good to hear about good musicians
releasing new stuff, particularly from the ones that helped to create the death
metal scene we have today (these questions were sent some time ago, long before Kam Lee confirmed in the Akatahrta interview that that reunion unfortunately will NOT happen - Chris).
What is the strangest and the most shocking place you have been?
Not strange or shocking, but one of the most
mystical places I have visited… Stonehenge. Then the “valley of the death” at
San Pedro de Atacama (north of Chile).
Tell us about the next steps of the band?
No much planning
so far… we are starting to play “descent into Hell! live in Chile… ideally we
would like to play in America and Europe.., so promoters please contact us! We
are willing to play as much as we can!
Ok that´s it, thanks for your time. Is there
anything you would like to add to end this interview?
Thank you Chris
for the interview! it took a while to answer it but we really appreciated
having these words with you… greetings to you and all your readers, we hope to
be playing close to you soon so we have the chance to meet up! Stay brutal!
