Malthusian

[open face surgery]

Nothing has been proven.

[Danny]

Here, the fact that Andy listens to THERAPY? should be reason enough for anyone to suspect he is a possible lunatic and someone to worry about and avoid. 

Anyways, much like the OP; I was listening to some MALTHUSIAN earlier and felt vaguely compelled to come on here, give praise where due, and ask a couple questions I am curious about, maybe even do an informal mini fan interview, seeing as at least 2 of the band members/ex members are regulars on here.

First off, unlike the OP, for me the standout/classic release from the band remains Demo MMXIII. I obsessed/fanboy'd out overnight over it and firmly believed it quickly made them the best and most exciting Death metal band from the Country. and I still hold this as true. I mean c'mon, who else is there anyway? Abaddon Incarnate is grindcore man and shite anyway other than The Last Supper. Vircolac, Croscradh & ZOM etc are decent bands in their own right, but it seemed to me they kind of followed MALTHUSIANS lead. Not that they copied them at all stylewise, each of these bands sound different, but just they all seemed to be part of the same scene, and for me at least, just weren't as good.

First Question, and open to other heads and not just the band, would be, am I alone in this worship of the Demo over the releases since? Don't get me wrong; Hengiform and Across Deaths are deadly, I can't fault them, but I have rarely got such a feeling of being just like taken back & being like..WOW..WHAT.THE.FUCK.IS.THIS.SHIT!? when I first checked the Demo out and got sucked into the black filthy hole in space of it. It was and is astounding. It sounds fucking massive and evil and like pure CHAOS..despite the complex riffs and arrangements etc. The fuckin production man, and for a demo no less!, is some of the best I have ever heard. Everything sounds fucking violent and gnarly. The drums especially really fucking destroy, not to mention the drum performance itself, the energy and inventiveness of this guys playing is fucking shocking. Lastly I have to say, the artwork for it rules and matches the chaos of the music perfectly, unlike sadly very much most of the time for me at least, the albums artwork actually affected the experience of the music! The visuals of the art kinda stuck in and spun round me head vaguely while listening, seeming to be connected to the lyrical themes. ALSO the artwork reminds me (in a positive way) of one of; or maybe my all time fav visual Artist; Master Austin Osman Spare.

2nd Q to the band, were there any particular bands that served for inspiration for your sound? I could be way off but it seemed to me MALTHUSIAN were part of a scene of this kind of filthy dissonant black/death bands with bands like Mitochondrion, Irkallian Oracle, Qrixkuor, Abyssal etc (which seemed to peak around 2017-2020 and seems to have kinda died down lately;no?) who kind of all seemed to be worshiping the music of PORTAL (& DsO). So I am curious if you guys are actually that into and inspired by PORTAL, or is that overblown a bit and you are more just into bands like INCANTATION or what/who?

3rd, to Matt; any news or update on work of a new release? and can you give any insights into what you and the band wanna do creatively next with it? Am I way off thinking and hoping you would try and recapture the fucking rawness and chaos sigil magic of the demo?

4th and last Q is for our resident goat molester and the MasterLord of ANY Irish Metal Forum; Andy McLovin Sir! I really wanna know man, and sorry if you've answered this elsewhere, but I've not seen it....Why did you quit the band?

[Eoin McLove]

Life, maaan. No dramas, just felt it was time to bail out. Started a family and did that grown up stuff around then so it was inevitable.

My own influences on the demo were maybe stuff like Antediluvian or Swallowed. I liked Portal a bit but was never mad into them. I liked the idea of them more than the music and they were fucking cool live, but not a band I listened to much. I also think there were a few nods to Slidhr in my riffs occasionally but maybe not so much on the demo as on Across Deaths which has two or three riffs I thought were Slidhr-like, even if the end result was quite different.

I was listening to loads of Necros Christos, Dead Congregation and tons of doom and black metal (which are the two styles I still mostly listen to) back then so it was probably all filtering in in one way or another, but a lot of the time I would simply respond to a riff Matt brought in to jamming and just hit upon something that sounded cool. It's hard to say where the influence began and my own style of playing ended, they all bled in together I think.

For the album we had actually intended to try a really dry production inspired by Covenant, but it sounded shite so we ended up going all out chaos and filth. It was so fucking noisy and chaotic that I think a lot of people were put off, maybe thinking we would end up sounding tighter, cleaner and more professional haha. I love it. Total fucking mayhem that reflected a lot of the chaos going on within the band between drinking and playing a few wild gigs around then. A perfect snapshot really. And also, I can see/hear my own mania at the time when I listen to it. I was so utterly obsessed with the album- unhealthily so- endlessly working on details, trying to get the artwork and layout pulled together, losing my mind over the mixing process... Not to mention myself, Matt and Pauric all getting so drunk on the day we did vocals that it ended up getting silly and having to do them all again, whereupon I got totally fucking gimped again! But it came out well the second time. Just the right amount of madness, but definitely hovering on the edge of collapse for me maybe. Fun times.

When I refer to The Last Supper when talking about Across Deaths, it's that unhinged quality of both our lives and the music we were making at the time that I'm thinking of. I suppose the balls to the wall extremity as well. The Last Supper should really be the red line that all local bands who are making extreme fucked up death metal should be aiming for. No mercy.

[Ducky]

"Hallucinogen" is one of the best songs of the last ten years, which isn't a slight against the rest of the discography - all killer.

I just had an odd moment there where fuckin' death metal makes me feel old-as-shit as I realise that the 2013 demo is a decade old (big "well duh" moment there, but still).

Fair play to all the chaps concerned, amazing music all round 

[Eoin McLove]

I haven't listened to the demo in ages so I just fired it on. Cool little release alright and there was a real buzz in the air at the time.

[Mithrandir]

Across Deaths is what I listen to most often but not too long ago I was listening to the demo on spotify and it went from hallucinogen finishing into Remnant fauna and it was like I was watching a band live then went to the smoking area and listened to the rest of the set from outside The denseness on the album is so swampy almost muddy but adds to the claustrophobic insanity. Truly filthy sounding album. Excited to hear where the new one goes.

[Eoin McLove]

Many a great night spent in the smoking area at gigs 

[jobrok1]

Following on from Danny's post above...


The demo and EP are well solid. But the album never really clicked with me. It was just a bit touch too much chaos for me.

Similarly, ZOM I just couldn't fully get my head around.

Coscradh can be fairly head melting too, but when they click, they're great. And so intense live.

Your comments about Abaddon Incarnate is pretty unfair. The Last Supper and Nadir are killer. And more recently Pessimist and their new one are savage as well.

More recently I'd through Unyielding Love into the mix of bands mentioned. Unbelievably intense live and on record.

[Eoin McLove]

How are my comments about AI unfair. For me TLS and Nadir are the business but I didn't really like anything after.

[jobrok1]

Danny's comments... see my very first line above

Following on from Danny's post above...

[Eoin McLove]

Ahhh 

[Pentagrimes]

Many a great night spent in the smoking area at gigs 

Good times. There was a nice lil buzz there during that period.

I remember being both delighted and furious after seeing the first Malthusian show - delighted that they were fucking great (panda make up and all), furious that I wasn't in a ggigng band to play with them yet.

"The Mother's Blade" is the all time Malthusian jam for me. Crushing. No disrespect to the current incarnation but the Suffering Hour split just didn't grab me the same way as the previous stuff.

[open face surgery]

I see the split as a sidestep and a nail in the coffin of a period. New album will be more death metal and may just hang it up after that. We'll see.

Edit: Will answer bits of those other questions later but Andy definitely hit on a few points.

[Danny]

Your comments about Abaddon Incarnate is pretty unfair. The Last Supper and Nadir are killer. And more recently Pessimist and their new one are savage as well.

More recently I'd through Unyielding Love into the mix of bands mentioned. Unbelievably intense live and on record.

I mean no disrespect good Sir, nor to the band or other fans; I am just naturally expressing my honest opinion, everyone has different musical tastes and so on.. I actually have a lot of respect for AI for their debut album, The Last Supper, released back in 99', It's a lethal and savage Death metal album that any Irish metal head should be proud of. But as much as I've tried & kinda wanted to, I just don't enjoy and can't get into any of their other releases. For the most part this is just cus I don't like the style or sound or production of them. But here, I'm just not into Grindcore and can't get into NAPALM DEATH either.

Unyielding Love; I agree deserve a mention along with other notable Irish DM bands, but with respect to the band, aren't they from Belfast? they could identify as British no? Regardless; & as a Republican meself, an interesting new band for sure. And for the record I actually really like Vircolac. Coscradh are okay I guess, but for me just not really exciting, & ZOM, I'm with you, I cannot get into whatsofuckinever.

The Last Supper should really be the red line that all local bands who are making extreme fucked up death metal should be aiming for. No mercy.

To add to what I just said, I would actually agree with this fairly enough and move to pass as Irish Metal Law. As far as Death Metal from Ireland goes, AI set an undeniable lethal standard with The Last Supper, that should be the benchmark for any Irish Death metal band considering putting out a release and playing shows. If you are not on this level at least, or confidently something else, then just stick to enjoying playing with your mates for the craic! 

[open face surgery]

No, I think it's the general consensus that the demo is the best which can get irritating when you're progressing as a band but in reality there is no pressure on us to do anything. Obviously I can't subjectively comment on the demo but it's often the case with debut releases. I will say it doesn't really sound chaotic to me but again that's from the inside looking out. Artwork is fine. I've seen a few Austin Osman Spare bits that I like. Don't see the comparison though.

There were certainly bands like Kaamos, Dead Congregation and that ilk that were a theoretic influence in that they were playing dirty, evil sounding death metal. I was mad into Outre and Swarth by Portal and am still mad into DSO. These would only be an influence in the overall atmosphere of the music rather than the actual style of playing. I am a fairly limited guitarist and I work with what I can. Doom and black metal, as Andy said, were massive influences. Again, that comes down to the creation of unease. Qrixkuor weren't a thing at that point, but I love them, I liked the first Mitochondrion at that time but, again, not really an influence, Irkallian Oracle were counterparts rather than an influence, and aside from seeing the word Malthusian in an Abyssal song title, I never really bothered with them too much. Good band though. I think a mix of growing up listening to Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Deicide, Immolation, Cryptopsy mixed with countless doom, from sludge to funeral, and black metal bands was my basis, and then me and Andy met somewhere in the middle. I had more or less stopped listening to Portal by the time we got going and I fuckin hate the, as I see it, lazy comparisons to them. Not into more or less any of the discordant style death metal bands that are around now, not my thing, I'd rather listen to Van Halen, and I listen to more Incantation now than I did back then so that doesn't apply. I'd say Adversarial, Antediluvian, Swallowed, Diocletian, Lvcifyre, Grave Miasma, that sort of stuff, would be the main influences from newer bands at the time. There's def others as well but they're the ones what come to mind. Many influences from many sources.

Have songs written for the album. Demoed 3 of them lately so working on them and have the whole thing plotted out in my head for a year or two. Our most recent songs are 2 years old at this point and one is from before the split was written. Need to just get it out of my head at this stage. It's consuming. Different buzz anyway. I don't like a lot of new death metal, it's not evil and twisted. So it will be warped but the tunes are more direct death metal. Guess we'll see when we see.

The Last Supper was a massive influence on me growing up and it's still fuckin unbelievable plus my first gigging metal band was called Nadir so there is no denying the AI influence. I also lived with 3/4 of AI when we started jamming and Steve M was going to come out and have a jam with myself and Kinger at one point when we started out.