Gutless finally unleashes High Impact Violence, their fierce debut album, after six years of setbacks and evolution since their 2018 demo. Dive into their raw, thrash-inspired death metal journey.
1. After
six years since your 2018 demo, your debut album High Impact Violence is
finally here! How does it feel to release this record after such a long wait?
Honestly,
it’s more of a relief than anything, haha. It’s been a long time in the works
and there have been plenty of setbacks along the way so it feels good to
finally get it out into the world.
Your sound
is intense and visceral. What inspired you to create such a brutal and raw take
on death metal, and how has your style evolved since the 2018 demo?
I think our
tastes in death metal are just more in the realm of the heavier, thrash-based
American death metal of the early 90s and early brutal death metal, which are
not super popular styles to play these days, it seems. We just wanted to start
a band that sounds somewhat like all those bands that we love because not a lot
of other people seem to be pulling from that pool of influences. In terms of
how our style has evolved, I think we’ve basically just tried to expand on the
template set by the demo. We wanted to have a good mix of intense thrashy death
metal and more mid-paced groove stuff.
2. The
album has been described as having “snap-neck rhythms and visceral grinding
warfare.” Can you tell us more about the writing and recording process that
brought out such intensity in these tracks?
We really just try
to make sure that our songs are as heavy and as catchy as possible. It’s all
well and good to write super technical flashy stuff or super brutal stuff - and
we love all that - but we really just want to write good songs that are memorable.
We also try to be cognisant of only making songs as long as they need to be. My
attention span is pretty shot so there’s a lot of death metal records where the
songs are so dense that I feel totally exhausted like two or three songs in,
haha. But Reign In Blood was a big reference point for us while we were writing
the album - we wanted to write a record that you could put on start to finish
and it’d be over before you know it.
3. Your
music seems to blend old-school death metal influences with a fresh twist. Who
are some of the bands or albums that have inspired Gutless, and how do you keep
your sound distinct in a crowded genre?
We love all the old Floridian and New York bands. Demolition Hammer, Solstice, Deicide, Malevolent Creation, Resurrection, Cannibal Corpse and Cryptopsy are some of our all time favourites. A big part of the groovier aspects of our sound come from records like Prey by Solstice or Once Upon the Cross by Deicide, while records like the Bleeding and None So Vile are an influence in that they feel like good old fashioned metal albums - a real catchy, memorable mix of songs that all have their own distinct feel from each other.
4. How did the collaboration with Dark Descent Records and Me Saco Un Ojo come about, and what has it been like working with them on this release?
We were put
in touch with Me Saco by Max from Faceless Burial back when we first released
the demo. Those guys were already working with him and only had good things to
say about working with them so it made sense to do some stuff together. They
handled the vinyl release of our demo and we’ve been working with them ever
since. Jesus is the man, it was sick to meet him and hang out at Killtown
Deathfest last year!
5. For High
Impact Violence, did you have a particular theme or narrative you wanted to
convey through the music and lyrics? What are some of the concepts listeners
can expect?
Pretty much
just different forms of horrific violence, haha. There’s not really an
overarching narrative or anything, we just tried to make sure that the lyrics
match the vibe and intensity of the music.
6. The album art is bold and reminiscent of classic ’90s death metal covers.
Who created it, and how does it reflect the themes and vibe of the music?
It was made by our good bud Jesse Webb. We’ve been friends with him for a very long time and he’s done basically all of our artwork from the get-go. We’ve got a pretty perfect working relationship - he knows exactly the vibe for what artwork should be like for the band so it makes things really easy. In a lot of ways he’s basically another member of the band. For the album cover we wanted something that would fit the sound of the record - blunt force brutality and like just a little bit ridiculous, but not so ridiculous that it’s a joke.
7. With such relentless and intense performances, do you have any specific rituals or preparations before you hit the stage or studio?
Not really,
we just have to make sure we’re warmed up enough before we go on stage. None of
us are like super refined tech death musicians or anything so we’re kind of
just brute forcing our way through the songs, which I think is sort of part of
our sound at this point, but it certainly takes a toll on the body, haha.
8. It’s mentioned that High Impact Violence will be released on CD,
digital, vinyl, and cassette. What are your thoughts on these different
formats, and do you think they bring something unique to the death metal
experience?
It’s cool
that there are options there for people in terms of what format they want to
get. Metal tends to be a style that is favoured by a lot of collectors so it’s
sick that it’s there for them. I’m pretty lazy and broke so I generally just
stream stuff these days but there is something very sick about owning an album
you love on vinyl and seeing the album cover blown up real big and reading
through liner notes and stuff.
9. The album was delayed for quite some time. Were there any particular
challenges or setbacks that influenced its release timeline? And how did the
extra time affect the final result?
Well we actually recorded the demo before we were a proper band, so once we put it out we had to spend some time actually becoming a band, finding a lineup, playing shows etc. I think we also had more of a response to the demo overseas than we did at home so we spent a lot of time playing shows here and building up a following in our local scene. In terms of this record, we actually started the writing process not too long after recording our split with Mortal Wound back in 2019 but then COVID hit and so we were all stuck indoors and unable to write together for a good while there. At a certain point we said fuck it and started writing together over Zoom just to try get some sort of progress going again, so about half of the songs on the record were written remotely. Having the extra time meant that we wrote a shitload of extra songs and whittled them down to the ones we were happiest with, so hopefully that’s made for a better record in the end.
10. Your lineup has remained consistent over the years. How do each of you
bring your personal strengths and musical influences to the table, and what’s
the chemistry like in the band?
We’ve
actually had a fair few lineup changes over the years, with myself (Ollie) and
Tom being the only consistent members. We started out as a 3 piece with our
friend and former bandmate Jamo on bass but I think he was just doing us a
favour more than anything haha, his band Vile Apparition is his baby so I think
he just wanted to focus on that. We’ve had the same lineup since 2023 though
and it’s been sick. We’re all good buds and see eye to eye creatively and
personally on a lot of shit - everyone is into a really diverse range of music
as well which is also nice, I think all of us would go insane if we could only
listen to metal.
11. Looking ahead, what are Gutless’s goals for 2024 and beyond? Can fans
expect tours, new material, or perhaps more brutal surprises on the horizon?
We’d love
to get back on the road again once the record is out. A US tour has been
something we’ve wanted to do for a good while now so hopefully having the
record out will make that viable. It would be amazing to go back to Europe
again at some point too, we had a sick time touring there and playing Killtown
last year! Other than that, we’ll get back into writing soon, maybe do a couple
of smaller releases like splits or EPs before we commit to writing another full
length.
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