Emerging from a period of intense personal turmoil, Decrepisy channels raw grief and existential dread into Deific Mourning. We spoke with Kyle and Dan about the album’s harrowing creation, sonic evolution, and emotional depths.
1. Deific
Mourning delves into themes of horror, uncertainty, and disintegration. Can you
talk about the emotional and physical struggles that shaped the album’s creation?
Kyle - It
was a living hell to be in my body for a couple years. Extreme physical
anxiety, my nervous system stuck in fight or flight. Every heart beat felt like
impending doom. Everyday felt like it might be my last. I thought about taking
my own life a couple times. The depression, sorrow and terror were unbearable.
I couldn’t play guitar or focus on much the first couple years. I finally
started playing and recording songs for the album after 2 years of sickness,
forcing myself to endure the discomfort to get the songs out. I thought it
might be the last album I would make.
2. The
album incorporates heavier doom elements and goth-industrial influences. What
inspired this shift in sound from your debut, Emetic Communion?
Kyle - I
tried to put the way I was feeling into the riffs, ugly and dark discordant
bleakness. The song writing process was different on this album. I wrote the
riffs as I recorded the songs, the recording became part of the song writing
itself.
Even on the
first album I was trying to bring some Deathrock elements. Rikk Agnew’s
guitar playing on Christian Death’s ‘Only Theatre of Pain’ is beyond inspired
to me. The album artwork is influenced by old Goth-Industrial records. There
are always some remnants of the music I was listening to as a teen coming
through my psyche, into the songs.
I have been
wanting to cover Sisters of Mercy ‘Afterhours” for years, I even suggested to
Dan that Vastum do it when I was between bands. This album seemed the perfect
time to do it.
3. You’ve
described each track as a stage of grief and unbelief. Can you walk us through
the conceptual journey of the album?
Kyle - I titled each song with a general theme of dying, unbelief of what’s happening, terror, confusion, disillusionment, rage, depression, fear, powerlessness, surrender, letting go, and finally leaving the body. I didn’t become Corpseless but I experienced all the other emotions and sensations.
4. "Corpseless"
is an especially haunting track. What was the inspiration behind its themes of
death, light, and insignificance?
Dan - It’s
a weird, dissociative song about our final moments of life. Just before time’s
up, we may wonder if the body that’s dying has been a vessel for life or if
we’ve ’lived’ without a body, which also means we’d ‘die’ without becoming a
corpse. What if the body I’ve claimed as my own ultimately belongs to a light
that disturbs the living and comforts the dead? What if I’ve deluded myself
into thinking I have more power over life - and death - than I actually do? How
might I have lived differently - perhaps more fearlessly - if I’d accepted my
powerlessness in the face of time?
5. Kyle,
you’ve been through serious health challenges that impacted your ability to
create music. How did you find the strength to push through and complete Deific
Mourning?
Kyle -
Honestly, surrendering to death. Learning to live with sickness and loss and a
drive to create something out of it. Also family, I don’t know what would have
happened to me if I didn’t have the support of family. I haven’t been able to
function in the world the way I used to.
6. Daniel,
how did you approach writing lyrics and executing vocals for this album? Did
the subject matter change the way you delivered your performance?
Dan - The
subject matter affected my performance, but more than that I’d say the music is
what really called for deep guttural vocals. You’ll notice that the vocals are
probably more guttural than Vastum or other bands I’m in. Kyle gave me some
lyrical inspiration; he came up with the album’s concepts (body death, somatic
disintegration, etc.). I added some religious references, punk irreverence, and
generally off-kilter weirdness to the overarching theme of a slow death in
which your body feels like it’s attacking itself.
7. The
production on Deific Mourning is massive, with contributions from Greg
Wilkinson at Earhammer Studio and Charles Koryn at Elektric City
Recording. What was the recording process like?
Kyle - I
demoed the songs on GarageBand, programmed the drums, recorded guitars and
bass. I started writing some lyrics and doing vocals and realized the songs
called for something more than I am capable. I asked Dan to do the vocals and
write the lyrics which was a risk since it’s such a personal album. He
absolutely killed it. Such a great lyricist and monster of a vocalist. I sent
the demos to Charlie and Jonny to do drums and solos and Greg Wilkinson
reamped, mixed and mastered the tracks. We went from A standard tuning to G on
this album. I used a 12-string acoustic guitar through a distorted amp with
affects for some parts that give it an eerie fucked vibe.
8. The
album art includes illustrations by Kyle and a sculpture by Emil Melmoth. How
do these visuals connect with the music and themes of the record?
Kyle -
Death, Grief, Loss, Transgression, Stillness, Terror, Decay, Beauty, The
Unknown, Shroud, Faceless, Stone, Collapse, Surrender.
9. DECREPISY has
been described as “regressive, gut-churning death metal.” What draws you to
this raw, old-school approach in an era where extreme metal keeps evolving?
Dan - The
irony is that regression is progressive in Decrepisy’s case. What Kyle did with
some of the leads, especially the distorted acoustic guitar, as well as with
some of the weird arrangements, stands out in the contemporary death metal
landscape. I think it’s an evolution, but it evolves at such a knuckle-dragging
pace that it feels like it’s returning to a more and more primitive state.
10. Death
metal is often about raw aggression, but Deific Mourning carries a deep sense
of grief and despair. How do you balance brutality with emotional depth?
Dan - I’m
not sure how that’s achieved sonically, but personally it’s taken drugs,
trauma, violence, abstinence, prayer, meditation, self-reflection, etc…
11. You’ve
got several live dates lined up, including Disemboweled God Fest. How do you
translate the dense, suffocating atmosphere of your music into a live setting?
Dan - TBD!
12. With
Deific Mourning now complete and set for release, what’s next
for DECREPISY? Any future tours, collaborations, or sonic experiments on
the horizon?
Kyle -
Write the next album. Play some shows. Be grateful for another day.
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