Abhorrency is a 3 piece death/black metal band from California and after hearing the band’s “Climax of Disgusting Impurities”, I got in touch with drummer Jaime DeOdio for this chat:
Where were you born and where did you grow up? What sort of kid were you growing up? Did you listen to a lot of music early on in life?
JD: San Jose, California. Mainly just punk at first. I grew up around a lot of gang bangers and thugs but they all had shitty music taste so I was never interested in getting too involved with them and was more focused on finding new music. I’d take the bus all around town as a kid to go to record stores and look for cheap used CDs to buy or to the flea market to purchase bootleg merch.
Now how did you come to discover heavy metal? What were some early bands that you heard?
JD: I started with the typical entry-level metal bands like Slayer, Metallica, Pantera, Gwar, and Megadeth from the radio and MTV.
When did you discover underground metal? What were some of the 1st bands you heard? Are you still a fan of these bands? Did it take you a few listens to get into it or did you love it right away?
JD: In the mid-90s some punk kids I knew from school were more familiar with underground metal and showed me Cannibal Corpse, Napalm Death, and Morbid Angel. I thought it was cool and different at first but it didn’t immediately become my favorite style of music. But there was a record store chain back then called Blockbuster Music (not sure if it was related to the video rental chain). You could take any of their CDs to a listening station in the middle of the store and they would open it up and let you listen to it then re-shrink wrap it if you didn’t want to buy it and that was how I discovered Deicide. That was when it all clicked and I went down the death metal rabbit hole and couldn’t get enough of it. I’m still into those bands but haven’t checked out any of their more recent stuff.
What made you want to take up drums and not say guitar or bass? Who are some of your favorite drummers?
JD: I didn’t want to play anything, I just wanted to be a vocalist for a band because I didn’t have any talent. I quickly learned though that drummers are hard to come by and the few I managed to find to jam with either became too busy or weren’t reliable so I bought a drum set in 2004 since it looked like that’s the only way I was ever going to get a band going. I figured how hard can it be to do blast beats…it’s just hitting the hi-hat and snare as fast as you can at the same time, right? And so with that mentality, I was able to record a shitty demo right away after only playing a few months and I’ve only improved my skills marginally since then. I never really thought about who my favorite drummers are but some that come to mind off the top of my head that inspired me are Nick Null (RIP) from those early Lividity and Waco Jesus albums, Col Jones on the first several Exhumed albums, Sascha from CBT, Paul Ledney and Cazz Grant. Flo also was a huge inspiration on the first 2 Cryptopsy albums but definitely can’t say he’s one of my favorites with what he turned that band into…
Now you are also in another band called Rotten Funeral. How did you end up joining them and how much different are they from Abhorrency?
JD: Abhorrency is more brutal black/death metal whereas Rotten Funeral is more standard mid-paced black metal. I joined Rotten Funeral in 2009 but the main guy in that band, Nekrotiis, started it in the late 90s when he was a teenager. He asked me to drum for them several years prior but I didn’t think I’d have the time for multiple bands back then so I suggested another guy I knew to be their drummer who was looking for a new band. But that guy I recommended ultimately wasted their time so I felt bad and said I’ll be the drummer then to make up for the bad recommendation and I owe Rotten Funeral forever now because of that. So even if the last original member were to quit I would still have to keep Rotten Funeral going as the sole member to atone for that terrible recommendation.
Tell me about Rotten Funeral and what kind of music they are, etc.
JD: Rotten Funeral is inspired by a lot of the 90s 2nd wave black metal. Nerkotiis has been doing it for over 2 decades with various lineups but I did my first recording with them in 2010 and have been the longest stable member besides him. We practiced in Sacramento, CA where I live now but Nekrotiis moved away to the East Coast in 2014 and now lives in Oregon so we can only meet up to practice very sporadically nowadays. We have an album’s worth of material written from over a decade ago but haven’t got enough rehearsals in to book studio time yet.
So how did the forming of Abhorrency come about? Was it the 3 of you from the start or were there other members at all before it became you 3? Early on did you decide to make it a 3 piece?
JD: Yes it was us 3 from the start. I prefer to keep bands a 3 piece when possible. It’s less conflicting schedules and makes travel easier so since our style doesn’t need a 2nd guitarist 3 members is ideal.
Me and the bass player, Ejaculator, and were both in Defecrator before Abhorrency but the guitarist of Defecrator, Invoker, moved out of the country in 2019 so we had to put that project on hold so we looked for a new person to make music with. Invoker was a powerlifter and we enjoyed working with him in Defecrator and the heaviness of his riffs so we wanted to continue having a buff guy write our riffs for our next project because the music just sounds heavier when the writer of it can lift over 666 lbs. Abhorrency’s guitarist Upheavor was another local powerlifter we knew who was into our style of music but he was never in a band before. Despite that, though he was still able to effortlessly play heavy black/death riffs when we scheduled a try-out practice with him and so Abhorrency was born that day we had our first practice in May 2019. There were talks of trying to do more Defecrator stuff long distance simultaneously but I ultimately decided to quit doing Defecrator and have Abhorrency be my main focus.
Now how long was the band together before you started writing/putting together songs that would appear on your debut release in 2020? How was it for you guys in the studio for the 1st time?
JD: Upheavor had tons of riffs ready as soon as we started practicing so we wrote the 3 songs that appeared on our first demo rather quickly. We wanted to get something out ASAP DIY style just to get our name out there so once we felt we had those debut songs rehearsed and solidified enough we had Kriegshammer from Minenwerfer record us in our rehearsal room since he shares that room with us and had an 8 track recorder. Recording the 2020 demo wasn’t mine or Ejaculator’s first time recording but it was Upheavor’s and he didn’t seem to have any issues. It was pretty rough sounding though since it was done on an analog 8 track and guitar, bass, and drums were recorded live simultaneously but it worked for what we needed at the time.
What was the response from the underground to it? Were you able to play any live shows at all? What was your 1st live show like?
JD: The demo was received surprisingly well. It got reissued 3 times after our self-released batch sold out. We played one show on March 13th, 2020, and then right after that the whole world shut down and we didn’t play our 2nd show until nearly the end of 2021.
Speaking of, what were some early live shows that you saw?
JD: Slayer and Pantera toured a lot in the mid-90s so I saw them many times when I was young. Slayer is probably the band I’ve seen live the most. Eventually, I learned about the Cactus Club in San Jose and started going to a lot of shows there. I can’t remember what the first death metal show I saw there was but I think it was Cannibal Corpse/Angelcorpse in 1998. There’s footage of Angelcorpse’s set from that gig on YouTube that someone uploaded with an 8th-grade me somewhere in the crowd. If that wasn’t the first one then it might have been either Deicide or Six Feet Under since I saw them too at the Cactus Club at a young age.
Who came up with the name and the logo and were any other names thrown around?
JD: I came up with the name along with many other rejected name ideas that I don’t remember. The only other name we thought of possibly going with was Penetration Rites but we just turned that into a song title instead. My wife drew the logo.
What made you decide to make your next release a full-length and not a demo or EP?
JD: We wanted to re-record the demo songs along with the new songs we wrote to give those older ones a proper studio recording so it was enough material for a full-length.
So how long were you in the studio for the full length? How much did it cost you? Are you happy with it?
JD: We recorded the instruments in 3 days at Earth Tone Studio but he had to move to a new building right after that so he had his recording operation on hold for several months and we couldn’t go back to add vocals for another few months. It costs $1200 for recording, mixing, and mastering. We were very happy with it and plan to record our 2nd album there.
So now once this was recorded did you contact any labels to release it or was the idea all along to put it out on your own?
JD: For the full length we just knew we wanted Stygian Black Hand to do the tape who we worked with in re-issuing our demo tape and Goat Throne Records for the CD, who we worked with in the past with Defecrator. And then we just hoped someone would offer to do a vinyl release after the CD/tape/digital release got some buzz and sure enough Sentient Ruin came through for us and offered to do it on vinyl. It took another year after the initial release date for the vinyl to come out since wait times are so long with vinyl pressing but we are just glad it’s out there finally.
Once it was released was the reaction from the underground? Any bad reviews?
JD: It got a lot of praise in the underground. Several reviewers praised it as war metal with riffs you can hear and we have been offered a lot of good show opportunities since it came out. No bad reviews that I’ve noticed. Some people couldn’t tell if we were a black metal band or a death metal band (the answer is “yes”).
Have you played live much? If so, how many shows have you played?
JD: We have played 27 shows so far from 2020 through 2023. We haven’t played any shows in 2024 yet as of this writing but have several in the works, including our first out-of-country show in Mexico this June.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has not heard you guys?
JD: Pulverizing black/death. Or what I mentioned above that reviewers have said: “War metal with riffs you can hear”. We try to blur the lines between black metal and death metal so we are influenced just as much by bands like Archgoat and Profanatica as we are by bands like Immolation and Dead Congregation.
So how did Limp Messiah Productions get in touch with you for that 4 way split they released last year? The song, “Entrails Altar” did you record that for this split or was it a leftover tune?
JD: Limp Messiah is Nekrotiis from Rotten Funeral’s label. He is also in Horns Against Heaven and Invoker from Defecrator is in Declension so we wanted to do a multi-band split tape with our previous bandmates’ new projects and Nekrotiis/Limp Messiah said he’d release it. We needed 1 more band to even it out though and we knew some friends who at the time recently started their new band Deiphage we asked if they were ready to record anything yet and would want to be part of this split and they said they’re interested and would be ready soon. Horns and Declension already had their songs recorded so it was just on us and Deiphage to record ours. Both our song and Deiphage’s song were recorded exclusively for the split.
Now can we expect to hear new music from you guys at some point in 2024?
JD: If you attend our live shows you might hear some brand new material but we are still writing more for the 2nd album. It’s about 80% written and we hope to be ready to record it late this year.
Please plug any social media sites you have anywhere anyone who reads this and wants to pick up some music or merchandise from you guys?
JD: Abhorrency_666 on Instagram is the only social media and abhorrency.bandcamp.com for the music. We encourage people to order physical copies of our full-length from Goat Throne Records (CD), Stygian Black Hand (tape), Sentient Ruin (vinyl), and the split tape from Limp Messiah or through any distros that carry our shit.
Jaime is up for doing this interview, Best of luck with the band going forward. Any last words to wrap this up?
JDl Thanks, Chris! I was a fan of the MetalCore zine back in the day. (appreciate that-Chris) It sucks that name got ruined by the false shit. (the website is still up at http://www.metalcorezine.com Glad you’re still supporting the underground with http://www.Extreminal.com)
