INTERVIEW: INGESTED

Easily earning their reputation as one of the heaviest bands coming out the UK, brutal savagery mixed with grease-lighting fast riffs have pushed this band to the front lines. Forming in 2006 and releasing their debut album Surpassing the Boundaries of Human Suffering, this band has had a steady stream of success leading into their upcoming album, The Architect of Extinction, releasing Jan 12, 2015. This mind blowing record is mixed by Christian Donaldson (CRYPTOPSY) and features once again, the artwork from Toshihiro Egawa.

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What are the origins of your band?

We started off as teenagers in a band called ‘Age of Suffering’ and when we decided to switch to a more brutal style we acquired the drumming talents of Lyn and changed our name to Ingested which was a word we picked out of lyrics from a song we wrote called ‘Joined by Digestion’, a love song about eating someone to be a part of you forever. (laughs)

What has influenced your sound the most?

We started getting into brutal death bands around 2006.  Decrepit Birth, Gorgasm and Devourment were big influences for us around that time and we wanted to mix the fast parts from the faster bands with the slam elements of the slower bands.  Our main influences include bands like Dying Fetus, Suffocation and Decapitated, so we always wanted to amalgamate all these styles into what we see as our current ‘sound’ taking the best elements and making them our own.

Kinda bad-ass seeing the UK metal scene making a strong come back. Do you see yourselves as being a front runner in the new rise?

We have been a part of the UK scene for eight years now and I think it’s taken us a lot of grind and a lot of criticism to get to the point where we are now.  Elitism has always been the downfall of the UK scene and I think finally we are standing our ground and proving that we have longevity.  So many bands have come and gone and it’s a shame. I hope the new breed of UK Death Metal stands the test of time because we have many friends within the scene and I only hope that one day we all just do these dream tours, that people want to see and stop getting so caught up in what it means to be metal.

You have a very raw, yet clean sound. Is that something you were shooting for? 

We always take a little bit of everything from the albums we love and the sounds we love ourselves.  We certainly have a vision of that mix between well produced yet aggressive.  On the newest record we wanted a bit more room and naturalness to our overall sound but we didn’t want it to take away from the harsh aggressive tonality of it. I think the production reflects perfectly the musical ideas we want to convey.

Is this style something we can continue to see in following albums?

I think that the new album is us finally finding our ‘sound’ as cheesy and clichéd as that seems. This is the album we have wanted to write since day one, I think it brings everything we have ever done in the past together to make one unified entity.  I hope that we can carry on the creative boom we’ve had writing this album as it was such a fun, exciting experience.

What do you think is setting this album apart from everything else out there/ why would I, as a metal-head, want to buy this album and check you guys out? 

I think in a time of over saturation, and bands being so niche that it stops being that you even like ‘metal’ anymore, we have something for all fans of the genre.  We don’t care about being the most ‘____’,  we only care about being the best.  Song writing is the most important thing to us.  Brutality, technicality, speed are all bonuses we indulge rather than rely on.

Who beside yourselves is really standing out in the UK music scene/ who should we be looking out for as well?

Acrainia, Black Tongue, Malevolence, Dyscarnate, Unfathomable Ruination, Sentenced, Neuroma, Martyr Defiled, Foetal Juice, Crepitation are making a comeback, Scordatura, Ageless Oblivion, Corrupt Moral Altar.

Online media seems to be playing such a big part in the success in so many bands these days. How many fans do you think you guys have reached with your music because of it?

I think it has been crucial to our development as a band, I don’t think we would have the freedom to do what we do without the instant accessibility of social media.  Our band pretty much depends on it.  Part of me thinks that maybe going out and just touring non-stop like how bands used to do it would be more beneficial in the long run, but we don’t live in times where it is financially viable to do so.  We wouldn’t be as well-known now without online media and we’re grateful to be able to use technology to its potential.

Off of your new album, what do your fans say is your best single?

Our album isn’t out until Jan 2015, we released a track from it recently “The Divine Right of Kings” and the response has been awesome so far. Hopefully we can do a video for another track of the album ASAP but we are still in talks about it.

INGESTED – The Divine Right Of Kings (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

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 What gear have you guys been using on your current tours?

Guitars we use 5150 and 6505 Peavey heads, I use a Les Paul Studio with an EMG-81 fitted into the bridge and Sean uses an ESP M-1000 deluxe. I am waiting on a Mesa oversize 4×12 and Sean uses a Vader cab which has the same speaker setup as the Mesa oversize.  Lyn’s breakables are a Spaun custom steel snare, Paiste ‘Rude’ cymbals and Axis longboards.  He also uses a DM5 trigger module and a Roland SPD-S sample pad. Brad uses a Schechter 5-string which I cannot remember the model of with a Sans Amp. Jason uses a sm58.

What made you guys want to play music in the first place?

We have always just wanted to write music we wanted to hear.  Plus the temptation of making pig noises in front of crowd of people was too hard to resist.

Any shows that you would say would be your favorite?

We played some amazing shows over the years.  Paris – Bonecrusher, Hood of Hate fest in Germany, The last home show we did was wild! We enjoy all our shows but these are some choice moments.

How do you guys fill down time?

Unfortunately, we all work a lot, but we are all very close friends, we spend a lot of time together socially and we just like to knock back with some beers and some spliffs and some riffs. Computer games are big in Jay and Brad’s life as well, so if you ever see them posting their users add them and play online with those dudes!  We try to attend a lot of the Manchester metal shows and mingle just usual stuff really; most of us work in restaurants too so you know where the good food is at (laughs).

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 by Christian M King, RockRevolt Magazine Contributor