Void Rot from Minneapolis/Minnesota playing Doom/Death Metal, here is an interview with them now online!
- Hi there, first, would you introduce Void Rot to us?
JH: There are four of us. JH does vocals and guitars, KS guitars, CC bass, and WB drums. JH, KS, and WB all actually work together and that’s how we met several years ago now. I think it
was a Friday and we were wearing some random band shirts and that sort of started a conversation about music and metal and then we started jamming. Shortly after that, we met CC through his wife who also works with us and we started writing what would end up as “Consumed by Oblivion.”
- Minnesota is a state that has a Finnish influence for a long time and you have fine metal the scene as you named MinnDeath, so it would be proper to say that you can not run away its natural effects…
Yeah, I agree – it makes sense why a lot of Scandinavian and Nordic heritage is in Minnesota. Lots of trees, lakes (Amorphis’ “Tales From the Thousand Lakes” comes to mind) and harsh winters. I think that’s why there is such a good metal scene – in the winter you are forced to stay inside most of the time so why not write some dark music? After we all got together and started playing covers and random bits of riffs we started to develop something unique and it turned into the death/doom that we play now.
- After your first record “Consumed by Oblivion”s release you have drawn very good attention and contributed MinnDeath very fine. We would be pleased if you tell us about this interesting contribution and your metal scene.
There are a lot of really diverse bands in Minneapolis that we’ve been able to play with. Several years ago it wasn’t always the case but there has been a real growth of new bands here. Ulkum plays a dark, blackened, funeral doom and we’ve played a lot of shows with them. They straddle that line between fully death metal and fully doom metal like us a lot. We’re all good friends. Nothingness is another band that has come up recently and there are all great dudes who write really sick riffs. Coagulate does some really old school raw early Demigod/Convulse worship, Feral Light is a cool black/crust two-person group and Tvaer is an exciting black metal band in the vein of Mgla or Uada that I think can really go far. The cool thing is that a lot of these bands have all recorded or had some involvement with Adam Tucker at Signaturetone Studio. He sort of runs the Minneapolis metal equivalent of God City for metalcore.
- Your first record “Consumed by Oblivion” was released with Sentient Ruin from California and distributed to Europe with Everlasting Spew from Italy, and your cooperation is still ongoing today. How is your relation with your label and what are your expectations from Europe?
Yeah, both labels have been really great to work with – they’re less of a label and more friends now as we’ve worked together for over two years now. We got picked up by Sentient Ruin through Stephen Wilson (Unknown Relic) who designed our logo and passed some demo tracks to M at Sentient Ruin. Then Tito at Everlasting Spew had heard of us and got in contact and since Sentient Ruin and Everlasting Spew had worked together on some prior releases (Abstracter, Convocation) it all worked out. Europe in general has been really supportive. Having Everlasting Spew over there has been great to help reach the European fans that we wouldn’t really be able to on our own. Nothing but gratitude for everyone.
- You have released a split with Atavisma in this year’s beginning. For me, it was a good thing for this record that your styles are similar to each. Also, it was a good work that has no trash pieces and we criticized this work in our previous issue. What is the story behind this attentive work?
Everlasting Spew approached us about doing the split with Atavisma and it turned out great. We had heard of Atavisma prior so it was really cool to be able to release something together. Writing the songs for it was fun too and I think was a good point to grow as musicians and have an “intermediate” release between “Consumed” and now “Descending Pillars”.
- Have you ever tried to contact with Dark Descent Record which is appropriate for you regarding your style and who contains important doom/death metal bands? And of course, why did you choose to work with Everlasting?
Absolutely love Dark Descent Records – I was able to go their 9th-anniversary show and see Krypts, Adversarial, Cianide, Sempiternal Dusk, Spectral Voice, and Blood Incantion – all amazing bands, such an awesome show. There are so many excellent labels out there now in the underground and a lot of collaboration between them as well, so being able to work with Everlasting Spew is so great. G (ESR) and Matt (DDR) work together a lot so it really helps connect the whole underground into one. I think Bandcamp/streaming and the internet, in general, do a lot of that as well. I know I find new bands all the time just through browsing Bandcamp, and then being able to support them or the labels directly is great too.
- You have released 2 singles (Descending Pillar and Inversion) before the new album. In general, how was the feedback for those two singles?
The response so far has been awesome! We actually just dropped the third and final single on August 18th through Decibel Magazine. The singles that we’ve released are all fairly different, with the title track being a bit longer and churning while “Liminal Forms” is more melodic and atmospheric, and finally “Inversion” is a lot more straightforward death metal ala Bolt Thrower or Rippikoulu.
- Beyond new album, “ Descending Pillar”s delicious guitar tones, exceedingly atmospheric and heavy sound; parts that drums dominate and increases the tempo are well balanced. Except the title track is up to 9 minutes it seems you have pushed hard your limits in terms of musicality. A good debut album that rocks. Would you tell us about the album?
For “Descending Pillars” I think we really honed in on what makes Void Rot sound like Void Rot. There’s songs that are more atmospheric and ones that alternate between blast beats and slow churning riffs. It’s sort of a big of everything. We aren’t doing anything drastically new in the realm of death/doom but it’s really allowed us to grow. I think if you listen to “Consumed” then our split with Atavisma and now “Descending Pillars” you’ll see a lot of growth as musicians and the band/songs. I think that’s important to not stay the same and try new things.
- What is the theme of lyrics in the album, is it conceptual?
It’s more conceptual I would say – a giant monolith appears on Earth and slowly causes death and destruction where humanity is transported to other realms and the disintegrating Earth is swallowed by a chasm in space. Lots of 2001: A Space Odyssey imagery in there.
- I guess your main influence is FinnDeath. Are there any other bands that influence the bandmates except Krypts and Spectral Voice?
Yeah love both of those bands for sure, but any death/doom band that doesn’t grab influence from diSEMBOWELMENT, Thergothon, Winter, Rippikoulu etc is doing it wrong. Other newer bands that we dig are Mortiferum, Foul, Yawning Void, Convocation, Petrification. But our favourite death metal band by far is BOLT THROWER.
- You were about to share the stage with some other kick-ass bands in September in Europe still-Town Fest but it has been hung up to 2021 September due to the covid19. We are passing by uncertain times as you know. For the next term, after the new album, could Void Rot make any plans?
Well, the COVID-19 pandemic absolutely sucks, but we’d all rather be safe and healthy. I think postponing KTDF to next year is the smart move, and hopefully, by then things will be calmer. We just did a Livestream through Cvlt Nation so we might do another one at some point.
- Thanks for the interview! At last, do you have anything say to the metalheads in Turkey
Thanks for the support!
