Decayed Existence is a crushing death metal band, and after hearing the band’s newest release, I fired off some questions to guitar player Jeffrey Ke
Now, how did you get into the underground, and what were some of the early bands you heard? Are you still into them these days?
JK: When I was growing up as a kid, I wasn’t too much into music; I couldn’t find anything I was into. Kind of listened to Slipknot and Iron Maiden back in the day, but then, when I was about 12 years old, because of my brother Kevin. Eventually, he introduced me to some songs he had, which were “Hammered Smash Face” by Cannibal Corpse and “Dawn of the Angry” by Morbid Angel and for some reason, that clicked with me hard! Thought it was so raw and cool. Eventually, in 7th grade, going into high school, my friends Alex Carter and Ryan Brown (Our current bassist) started discovering bands because of a website called Metal Archives. Basically, an encyclopedia for metal bands, and I was able to discover some bands I did not know existed. And eventually, by the time I hit high school, I was listening to bands like Death, Deicide, Morbid Angel, Suffocation, Carcass, Bolt Thrower, basically all the big ’90s death metal bands. Also got into a lot of Black Metal and Thrash Metal like VON, Bathory and Sodom at the time. I would have to say death metal was my main go-to for sure! But yes, I still listen to these bands to this day, maybe not nearly as often as I tend to check out newer stuff a lot. But occasionally I’ll throw on the album “Leprosy” by Death or “The IVth Crusade” by Bolt Thrower and usually save the Black Metal stuff for winter seasons ha ha
What made you want to pick up a guitar, and who are some of your favourite guitar players?
JK: Funny enough what made me want to play guitar was the video game Guitar Hero when it came out in 2005, I was 12 years old at the time and it inspired me so much to play the real thing I traded my Nintendo GameCube for a guitar and started downloading tablature and every day just spent my time learning how to play guitar. First song ever learned was “Breaking The Law” by Judas Priest, to eventually learning how to play “Homicidal Retribution” by Dying Fetus, which you can probably find an old video of me playing on You Tube when I was a kid ha ha. But my favourite guitarist and my all-time hero is still to this day Chuck Schuldiner from Death. Not just on his solos from Human, Individual Thought Patterns and Symbolic, but the way he wanted to change how people looked at Death Metal as a whole. Not just as Cookie Monster vocals and singing about murder and whatnot, but it can be a very artful and skilled style of music. But some other guitarists I love are Andy Laroque and his work in King Diamond, and James Murphy of Gorguts.
Now, while doing some research, it says you joined the band in 2010. Now the band was around back in 1990 and had several releases from 1990 till 2010. When and how did you join the band, and what was the 1st release you played on?
JK: So I did join the band in 2010 when I was still in high school, messing around with little solo projects using drum machines. At the time, I was looking to actually start my band with other musicians, but it was so hard to find other musicians. We had a local metal merchandise shop called Fusion Pit that I used to visit a lot, and the owner, Mariann Antx, actually connected me with the band Decayed Existence. She told me they were looking for a new guitarist, so she gave me a CD, “Depopulation”. I listened to it, and then I found Harry Rocco later that day on Facebook and scheduled my first audition with them. The first album I appeared on was a 4-song EP called “Maranatha”.
I do see you played on the “Maranatha” EP. What are your thoughts on that these days?
JK: My thoughts on it these days were new and an exciting time! The first time ever playing with a full band and playing around with capable musicians. Around that time, we didn’t have too many musicians where we lived and absolutely barely any metalheads. So being able to play metal music with other fellow metal musicians was an absolute dream. I was new, so I didn’t get a lot of writing in, but I was just happy to play.
Another EP followed called “Slave State”. Were you getting involved in any of the writing since you were the lead guitar player?
JK: Yes! It was the first time I started writing with the band and helped out on the songs “Shotgun Facelift” and “Through The Valley of the Shadows”.
You guys were rolling right along as a full-length appeared in 2012 called “The Rot Box”. Was it easy writing songs back then and cranking out new releases?
JK: I would say yes, I lived down the street from Harry Rocco at that time, so every day or every other day I would skateboard up to his house with my guitar and we would just sit there and write music. We naturally had good writing abilities with each other, which made it very easy to make new songs or build on existing songs.
Now, for the 2014 release “Deathless”, did you get a new singer? If so, who was your thoughts on this release these days?
JK: We did get a new vocalist. I ended up taking over the vocals halfway through the album. At the time, our current vocalist, Rick Clark, eventually got nodes on his vocal cords. They caused him to lose his voice and have a hard time singing, and he eventually left the band because of it. Since we were halfway through recording that album, I stepped up to take over the vocals on the rest of the songs that he could not sing on, like “Extermination Campaign” and the title song “Deathless”, to name a few.
I see for the 2015 release “The Blessed Graves”, you guys were a 3-piece and you were the singer, how did that happen?
JK: Since our vocalist, Rick Clark, got vocal cord nodes and ended up leaving halfway through the recording of the album “Deathless”, I finished off the last half of the album on vocals. We figured, why not give it a try for the next album, “The Blessed Graves”, since I did a good job on Deathless. It was very hard teaching myself to be able to sing and do vocals at the same time, and even quit smoking just so I could have the lung capacity for when we would play live.
Now, how did you guys end up at Melting Pot Productions, and how was it working with them?
JK: Melting Pot Productions was started by one of the original guitarists for Decayed, Jason Davis, in 2006 to put on shows. Eventually, Harry helped Jason throw on shows and promote local bands, along with recording them.
In 2016, you were right back with an EP release called “Funeral”. Was it easy or hard to write tunes after having so many releases out by now?
JK: Surprisingly, no! And Harry was always writing something, even if one of us was going through a lull in our writing, then usually the other person had something cooking ha ha. The “Funeral” album was one of our more special EP’s we hold close to our hearts. It was dedicated to the memory of our two friends who passed away. The song “The Crusher” was dedicated to our friend Adam Hadix aka Atom Bomb who passed away in 2015 of Cirrhosis of the liver and the song “Fuck Cancer” was dedicated to Kevin Bunce who passed away in 2014 due brain tumors.
Were you guys as a band playing many live shows by this point? Do you think you were a pretty good live band?
JK: I would say yeah, we’re playing a good amount of shows around that time, we eventually picked up three more members for the band. Donald Carroll is to take over vocals since it was very taxing on me and my guitar playing. We also got Grey Harris to take over bass duties since our original bass player Richard left to play in a different band he was starting up, and Chuck Watson to do live keyboards and sound clips like on the song “Sick” off of The Blessed Graves.
You hooked up with Rottweiler Records, who you’re still on for an EP in 2018 called “Eulogy”. How did you end up working with them?
JK: The band arrived at Rottweiler Records via the band called Hand of Fire. The singer Jim Settle turned us onto Sean Browning who was the original owner of Rottweiler at the time.
Do you think the band’s sound has changed much over the years, and if it has, to what degree?
JK: I would say it’s changed a lot from when the band first started in 1990 to 2010 back when it was our founder Harry Rocco with their original lineup that was on that “Eulogy” EP featuring Adam Tregoning on guitar and Eli Brown on keyboards which was recorded in 2002 and was collecting dust for many years before it finally got to shine on Rottweiler. From 2010 to now, though, I don’t think the band has changed drastically in our musical style and writing. I would have to say that we’re a little more precise on what we want when writing nowadays, and our music may show that.
Now, in late 2024, you released an 8-song EP that blew me away called “The Beginning of Sorrows, with 5 new tunes and 3 live tracks. How did the writing of these songs come together?
JK: So when they started writing “The Beginning of Sorrows”, I was actually on break from the band from late 2019 until I rejoined back in mid-2022. After coming back, Harry had written songs, The Beginning of Sorrows, Mind Wars and Baptised. The demo tracks Conqueror of Flesh, Where Death Dies, and Detonation were recorded with the help of Keith Thompson and Jason Davis. Then I eventually wrote Escape the Dead and Beheading the Colossus soon after. Now with the current lineup consisting of me, Harry Rocco, Kyle Balsiger and Ryan Brown, I see even greater things to come!
I imagine the feedback must be great so far, am I right?
JK: Yes! The feedback has been very positive and supportive. We are glad that people are enjoying the singles currently released and hope that everyone will enjoy the full album when it gets released on October 11th
For anybody who has not heard the band, what would you say you sound like?
JK: That’s kind of a hard one to answer, I can only really describe our sound as Decayed Existence ha ha. But if I were to tell someone how it sounds, I’d ask them, “Do you like ’90s death metal? If so, it sounds like that”.
Does it blow you away at all that the band has been around for so long?
JK: Yes! It has been an honour to play with so many talented and great people. The band is pretty much my family, Harry and everyone have been such a great inspiration to me over these past 14 years.
Please plug in any social media or websites.
JK: Here are all of our socials it to contact us personally, Facebook would be the best! Decayed Existence | Rottweiler Records Eulogy | Decayed Existence (bandcamp.com) Decayed Existence | Spotify Facebook
James horns up for the interview. Good luck with the band, any last words to wrap this up?
JK: I would like to thank Jarius Pascale and Rottweiler Records, and the people at Imperative PR for their support and being awesome. My family, friends and my girlfriend Ashley for being so supportive! To all the people out there, believe in the beauty of your dreams and the power of your hard work. Embrace the journey, persist through challenges, and let your dedication shine brighter than your fears. Thank you for your time, Chris!
