Interview Cerebral Hemorrhage

In this interview, Tommy from Cerebral Hemorrhage reflects on the re-release of their 2001 album Exempting Reality. He discusses the album’s legacy, creative process, remastering, and future plans for the band.

1. Exempting Reality was originally released in 2001. How does it feel to see this album coming back to life more than two decades later? What emotions does this re-release stir up for you?

It’s very gratifying of course, but the reason why it’s especially rewarding that the album is getting some recognition now with its re-release is because the album never really had its chance to be exposed to the death metal community when it was originally released. When it was released back in 2001, the album didn’t get much exposure, and as a result it was largely unnoticed. So now, maybe that it’s being pushed by a label that can properly promote it, such as Comatose Music, it can get the exposure it deserves and can finally be heard by a wider audience in the death metal community.

2. Can you tell us about the creative process behind Exempting Reality back in 2001? What were some of the influences and inspirations that shaped the album’s unique blend of brutality and atmospheric depth?

The writing process was intensive. We really wanted to write songs that stood up against the iconic bands in the NY death metal scene that we looked up to, such as Suffocation, Internal Bleeding, and many others. But, at the same time, we wanted to also add some original elements to our songs that would set us apart from other bands and allow our songs to offer something somewhat different. Being original was an important part of how we wrote the songs. We wanted our sound to be, at its core, really heavy and brutal in the vein of our influences, but also different in some respects, so that we would have our own identity.

3. The album has been remastered by Colin Davis, known for his work with bands like Aborted and Defeated Sanity. How has his remastering work enhanced the sound of the album, and what can old and new listeners expect from this refreshed version?

Colin Davis did an amazing job remastering this album. He managed to give the sound of the album that added boost it needed to stand up against modern albums while also preserving enough of the original audio quality of the album such that it still has its original raw, genuine quality that it had back when it was first recorded. It’s a perfect balance of leaving the “realness” of the original mix alone while tweaking it to enhance what’s already there in that original mix.

4. Exempting Reality explores themes of decay, rebirth, and the unkillable. How do these themes connect with your vision for the album, and what message do you hope listeners take away?

The lyrical content in the album is pretty sick and twisted, to be honest. So, lyrically, like many death metal albums, the album operates the same way that an anthology of horror stories does, in the sense that it offers a series of disturbing tales. Many of the songs tell a story that is intended to explore the dark side of human experience. But, in addition to that, building on the point I mentioned earlier about trying to offer something original to our audience, some of the songs are heavily psychedelic, like the lyrics to the title track “Exempting Reality”, and some songs are heavily historically based, like the track “Remnants of the Final Solution.”

5. Tracks like ‘Abusive Power’ and ‘Remnants Of The Final Solution’ stand out for their technical prowess and unexpected melodic or jazz-inflected elements. What inspired you to take these experimental directions in your music?

For one thing, we were inspired by bands like Cynic, Candiria, Death, and Mortal Decay, to branch out into areas of musical influence beyond just death metal, such as jazz and other styles. But besides the influence of those bands, we wanted to push the musicality and creativity of our songs to a level where the songs were more than just typical death metal. We wanted to make our songs brutal, heavy as fuck, and dark, but also creatively unique at the same time.

6. Comatose Music has an impressive reputation in the death metal scene. How did your partnership with them come about, and how has it impacted the resurgence of Cerebral Hemorrhage?

We reached out to a bunch of labels about re-releasing the album. But things fell into place most naturally with Comatose Music. They seemed to genuinely appreciate the album and wanted to give it the proper re-release that it deserves but never had, which is what we were looking for. We’re very grateful for Comatose taking on the re-release! They’re a great label and we are very proud to have them be the label that is re-birthing “Exempting Reality.”

7. Cerebral Hemorrhage’s music has often been compared to legends like Suffocation and Cryptopsy. How do you see your band’s identity and style as different from or complementary to these influences?

Well, first of all, just being compared to Suffocation and Cryptopsy is a HUGE compliment, of course. Since both bands were a huge influence on us, of course much of our style comes from them, not to mention many other un-conventional or boundary-pushing death metal bands. Indeed, these are two of the bands that made us fascinated with trading off between sheer brutality and musical experimentation in a single song.

8. Looking back, is there anything about Exempting Reality that you would change or add if you were recording it today, or does it still feel complete and timeless as it is?

After all these years of hearing those recordings of the songs, it’s natural to think of the songs as sounding exactly THAT WAY, even with all of the mess-ups and blemishes. So, it’s tough to say what we would like to have done differently other than fix all of the mistakes and mess ups in the tracking. I think that after all these years, we feel as if we do like the overall sound and mix of the album but only wish we could fix the parts of our playing where we didn’t play up to our intended proficiency. 

9. With the re-release, do you have any plans for touring or performing these songs live again? How does the idea of bringing these tracks back to the stage feel to you?

That’s hard to say right now. There will be some live performances soon. But when and where is undetermined. Our guitarist’s other band, Coronary Thrombosis, is currently very active. So, things with Cerebral Hemorrhage will have to be balanced with that, as well as our vocalist’s other band, Dracaris.

10. For fans who are discovering Cerebral Hemorrhage for the first time through Exempting Reality, what would you want them to know about the band’s journey, philosophy, or mission in death metal?

We’re just a bunch of dudes who love death metal and try to offer quality death metal to other fans of this type of music. And we try to offer something a little unique and interesting, but at the same time, we keep it dark, heavy, and brutal, above all. If you’re into the kind of death metal that’s really fuckin heavy, brutal, and slamming, but also somewhat experimental, old school, and boundary-pushing, you’ll probably dig Cerebral Hemorrhage.

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