September 25
That's right, all of our current catalog of music is now available to listen to once again on Pure Volume! This includes all of the 2008 Demos and the entire "Proliferation" CD. Every now and then we may launch "free download Friday" again, so keep an eye to the blog for announcements. Thanks to everyone for the support as always and enjoy the music!
Horns and Hails,
S.D.
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September 25
http://www.freewebs.com/unfashionablecreatures
Sonic Devastation - Demo 2008
Spawned from the depths of Idaho, Sonic Devastation play their own take on a combination of Death and Black Metal which started when three guys - consisting of Brian Wright, Robert McCurdy and Sinder decided to get together to make something unholy and intense.
With already one album behind them entitled The Proliferation, the band have already started work on new songs (2008 Demo's) which so far feature four songs; Imago Mortis, Scorn Of Fire, Violence Is Golden and Awaiting Zero. The drums are now sounding sharper and faster than previous material and the vocals much more pronounced with catchier riffs and more versatile instrumental components.
Scorn Of Fire features more Black metal qualities but with a more defined and accessible sound that no doubt will appeal to fans of both Death metal and those who prefer the darker sounding vocals of Black metal. The underlying riffs in this song are well constructed and work really well in contrast to the harsh vocals.
Overall the sound on the 2008 Demo's comes across far more confident and on a bigger scale to The Proliferation, The Proliferation had great potential with well structured songs and production aside (at times the production is the only thing that can let it down) they are both solidly written albums that goes from strength to strength with each song
Laura Kelly spoke to Sonic Devastation's Brian Wright who play a hybrid of Black and Death metal, they are currently at work on the follow up to their debut album The Proliferation with their 2008 Demo's. We caught up with them to speak about song writing, touring and what the future holds...
Can you tell us a little bit about Sonic Devastation, how did you guys start and what have you set out to achieve?
The band was started in late 2003, but it didn't have a name at that point. At that time, it was comprised of myself on drums instead of vocals and guitar, Randy Jones on bass, and Dennis Paulsen on guitar. We were pretty serious, but the vibe felt more like 3 guys getting together to jam for fun with a handful of original songs with no vocals.
At the beginning of 2006 we had a membership shakeup or changing of the guard so to speak. Dennis had some legal troubles and was unable to continue with us. Randy and I were left wondering how or if to proceed with anything. A month or two passed and I had run into Damon Young, a long time friend of mine who played bass and I'd played in a band with back in 1996-97. He had been in the military and was among the first wave of U.S. troops in Iraq. I'd lost touch with him for several years, but we always had similar taste in metal music. Interestingly, in the time we'd been away from one another we had both become interested in playing drums and as I mentioned earlier, I was playing drums in this project at that time. I remember thinking that he'd be the ideal person to team up with again since he was multi-talented with instruments. I asked him, "so, if we get together again would you want to play guitar or drums?" He immediately replied "drums" to my dismay! Hahaha I just said, "ok...let's do it, I'll jump back out to playing the guitar again" which wasn't necessarily a bad thing since guitar was my original instrument anyway.
There were a few demo tracks at that time that I had played drums, guitar, and done vocal tracks on just to set the tone and complete the songs. I never intended on taking on vocals full-time whatsoever. We had tried a couple of people out that really just didn't get what we were doing with the death/black metal hybrid. At that point, I just decided to give it a shot and that's how it has remained ever since. Several songs were completely abandoned since Dennis had written the music by himself and we felt that in fairness to him that we would proceed only with the pair of songs he'd co-written with me and the songs I'd written on my own. Within a month after that changing of positions and re-thinking our song list, Robert McCurdy was referred to us by a member of another local band for the 2nd guitar position. The best thing about it was that he was the first potential audition and he became the right man for the job. The line-up was solid by May of 2006 and we began playing shows by August of that year. We played through the fall and wrote more material collectively that eventually ended up becoming "The Proliferation" CD that we released independently in June of 2007. I don't really think we had a real "agenda" at that point. We only wanted to achieve putting our material on a CD to be proud of and just say that we had done that at a minimum.
You've yet to grace us on these shores over in the UK, what touring plans do you have and are there any bands who you'd really love to play with?
Being an independent band has its drawbacks in the financial department, but we have a desire to tour should the opportunity and monetary backing present itself. We've stayed localized to our region within a few hours drive of our home base in Idaho Falls, ID. There are a lot of factors to think about before touring cross country being at the level we're at. We will continue taking our shows in a bullseye outwards as we gain more recognition and are able to realistically support ourselves in the process. I think we have more of a desire to play in Europe than anywhere! So hopefully we'll eventually be able to come to your shores, it would be an honour to us!
The list of bands we'd love to play with is immense between the three of us. My personal list comprises of Behemoth, Dimmu Borgir, Vader, Slayer, Cradle of Filth, Emperor (RIP.), Celtic Frost (RIP.), and Goatwhore to name some right off the top of my head. Notice how I'd love to play with a couple of bands that are no more? Wishful thinking on my part I suppose! By the time this interview goes to publication we will have played with Martriden, a great death/black metal band from Montana that got the distinct pleasure of performing with Emperor last summer. We've wanted to play alongside them for quite some time and that certainly feels like an accomplishment and a step in the right direction for us!
Having listened to your 2008 Demo, you have sound like you have really progressed to something more confident and heavier since the first album, what do you feel is different with these new songs compared to your first album, they sound a lot darker?
I can safely say that we all feel that the latest demo tracks do come across much darker than the previous material. In addition, the song writing is sounding much more mature than "The Proliferation" CD as well. I attribute that to a couple of factors.
Firstly, these new songs are just that, new. Quite a number of the songs or parts of songs from last year's CD release were actually comprised of guitar riffs I had written over the span of 15 or more years. If someone raises the issue of songs from the CD having an obvious thrash influence, I can completely agree with that statement since some of those riffs were written at a time when thrash metal was very dominant and a big influence on me. "The Proliferation" was the culmination of work that had been stored in the mental file cabinet for the future I guess you could say. I think that is true of many band's debut albums and naturally everything that follows is more fresh and collective amongst the members. That seems to be true in our case as well. We've kind of found our niche with one another and our more current influences are coming into play more with every piece of new material. That's not to say that those early influences will be abandoned either, something with a thrash vibe is still sneaking in here and there as we continue writing. However, it's very noticeable that the songs are heavily influenced by death and black metal with the songs so far this year. It seems like the marriage of great genres to us and we enjoy how things are turning out!
There's a real mixture of black metal with hints of thrash in your music, is this intentional or just something that progressed naturally?
Vocally, I think I'm just figuring it out as I go! Hahaha I don't think I'd describe my vocals as thrash influenced at all. I've only been performing vocals for just over 2 years now and I think the more I do it, the more I find what feels comfortable to me. To this point, I've just known that I want to approach vocals in the "dirty" realm verses clean since that's what I've been into ever since I first heard Chuck Schuldiner along with the progression of death and black metal vocals over the years. When I first started doing it I felt that I wanted to keep them in the low register of death metal and that has evolved to slightly higher to more of a mid and high range approach more like that of black metal, and that seems more comfortable for me as far as my abilities and stamina in the department. On the recent demo recordings I heavily experimented with the mid and high range layered vocals for a darker sound in the recordings and it's sounding good to me so far.
What's the metal scene in your area like? Are you getting a good response to your music?
Our area has taken us very well to our surprise. At times it's been difficult to get people out to the shows since our area isn't heavily populated, but it's been an honour playing for the die-hard fans we've acquired here. I think we kind of coaxed them in with the thrash influence from the previous songs and gently took them to the darker side in the process! I say that because we have always felt that what we do is probably better received by a European audience, but more and more people State-side seem to be more appreciative of death and black metal anymore. By no means am I discounting the legions of fans worldwide that followed the influence of the Florida death metal scene when it emerged in the late 80s here in the states, myself included.
What were the ideas behind the artwork of your first album 'The Proliferation'?
We have a friend in Denmark, Daniel Eskildson that went over the lyrics of all of the songs to brainstorm artistic concepts. He and a group of students were in the midst of a project for a college course in advertising and marketing. Daniel is very into extreme metal and wanted to take his group into the realm of music verses traditional business for the project for the course and we were in the midst of recording with no idea how to package it. They took some of the key ideas from some songs and combined them into several pieces of art. The guy on the floor sitting in a circle in meditation is primarily taken from the lyrics of "Cast the Circle", the prelude portion to the latter part "Ancient Ones". What's going on outside the wall blown out is basically Armageddon from the concepts in the song "The Proliferation". The walls in the pictures are difficult to see, but in some of the artwork you can detect a mold spreading on them which is representative of "Delayed Reaction", a song about my wife's battle with Mesothelioma (Asbestos Related Lung Cancer).
Are you involved with any other musicians/bands?
I'm not currently involved in any other projects other than helping other local bands run sound at shows that we do with them. A couple of years ago I had brief involvement playing bass for a band locally called Ixxion and co-wrote a set of lyrics on a song entitled "Omega" with them. I was filling in until they had someone exclusive to their band and we remain great friends and do many shows together currently.
Particularly on the new demo, your songs are sounding really well constructed - what is your song writing process?
Thank you for the compliment first of all! It usually begins with any one of us writing a set of related guitar riffs, then we pair off whether it's Robert and I, or Damon and I just shooting ideas back and forth altering, adding, and elaborating upon ideas as we go. The newer material also reflects more of a dual guitar approach verses both playing the same lines at all times. We've really got into the guitars playing off of one another in harmonies instead of straight rhythm and an occasional lead. It makes the approach much more dynamic and full sounding especially since we've done everything this year with no bassist in live settings. Once the order of the riffs and lengths are determined, Damon gets behind the drums and we start rehearsing the songs to see how they feel with percussion.
Often times, we find ourselves re-thinking and re-writing the feel or length of parts once we have a jam session with any new material. When we feel comfortable with a song and feel good about it's overall sound, we then record all of the parts on a Fostex digital recorder without vocals. To this point, lyrics never take shape until the music is done completely. I sit down and listen to the instrumental tracks and determine a rhythmic flow that fits the song from a vocal standpoint. On this new set of songs, Damon has been the best lyrical partner I could have ever imagined. He's come up with entire sets of lyrics and emails them to me to review and I then Taylor them to fit the songs. In those cases I've been able to simply use alternate words with the same meaning or changing just a few things to fit the number of syllables I have in mind. So far this year, "Imago Mortis" has been the only set that I've done completely by myself, much like what I did on "The Proliferation" album with the exception of 2 sets that were co-written with a friend from Austria named Sebastian.
What do you base your lyrical content on?
I hate to sound cliché', but all of the material this year has been very anti-religion based with concepts of how foolish the believers of organized religion can be most times. "Imago Mortis" ended up being more of a question, basically asking yourself "what is your image/belief of the afterlife?". However, that question takes a turn toward the end of the song that sums up that people are ridiculous to live life by the rules of religion to reach any concept of a "heaven". Some of the lyrics on "The Proliferation" album were doomsday or fantasy based in nature. "Cast the Circle - Ancient Ones" was a song that proposed the idea of summoning the elder spirits of ancient Egypt, and they in turn destroy modern day society to take the world back to something more primitive; enslaving the people of the earth for taking it in the direction that it's currently in. "The Proliferation" was a prophetic nuclear war set of lyrics. As mentioned before, "Delayed Reaction" related to my anger associated with my family's personal struggle dealing with my wife's cancer. That CD definitely had its share of anti-religious banter as well. It's found its way into everything we've done in some form or another, but none of the lyrics promote Satanism either since we're not into that.
What does the future hold for Sonic Devastation?
The first order of business is to write additional material to add to the current slab of demos for a second CD release. In the meantime, we've got some shows scheduled around the area that we're looking forward to before we retreat to the basement for creative mode. We will continue to do what we enjoy, and that is writing and performing our brand of extreme hybrid metal. Having people out there that enjoy what we do is just an added benefit and motivation for us to keep doing it. It's an privilege and an honour to us and we appreciate everyone that finds something they like in what we write!
www.myspace.com/sonicdevastation
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June 10
Sonic Devastation
Imago Mortis Demo
Self-Released
Street: 06.10
Sonic Devastation = Deicide + Darkthrone + Death
There is no doubt about it; Sonic Devastation is off to a great start. Relative neighbors to Utah, the band hails from Idaho Falls, getting their start in roughly 2006. This two-track demo shows a massive progression from the band's self-released debut album, The Proliferation, released last summer. Playing a death/black metal mix, the style infused in these tunes is captivating, sinister and carries that evil atmosphere that many bands try to capture. The vocals are visceral, taking some strange middle ground between a death growl and a black-metal shrill. While there is a foundation in the band's blastbeats and the main structure of the songs, the band excels to astounding territory in its leads and solo work. There is a somber melody to them and a showcase of some great technical prowess going on. The songwriting here is fantastic; listening to these two tracks will undoubtedly leave listeners ready for more. The music truly is Sonic Devastation.
–Bryer Wharton
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April 13
"Violence is Golden (Piercing the Veil)" has officially been launched in demo form for your pleasure! We hope that you enjoy this new rough demo track as much as we've enjoyed putting it all together! Thanks to all for the immense support!
Hails,
Sonic Devastation
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March 13
Download all of our tracks at will and have a great weekend. The pipeline will be shut down at 12 AM Saturday mountain daylight time! Thanks for everyone's support!
S.D.
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14pirate
hi do you guys want to come to boise and play a show
with my band and probably other?
posted Dec 24
ThaLilAngel666
All I can say is wicked. Let me know if you guys ever
hit up Canada for some shows.
posted Jul 31
knives70
HELL YA, KEEP ON ROCKIN, whats weird is i live in IF
and i never heard you guys, reguardless this Fucking
rules
posted Jun 20
sarahstranger
SEVEN!
posted May 23
Satrycom
Add Comment here...
posted May 20
Katastrophy
Hey I am the guitarist of Fayth vs Fayt...Shelley
Idaho... You guys are wicked good.. Would you like to
do a show sometime?
posted Apr 08
mrtx
exelent
posted Feb 06
finntroller
i think you guys are alright, keep rockin
posted Jan 07