Please rediscover Craig Pillard, ex-Incantation singer, who recently impressed the Death Metal community all over again with the release of Disma's Towards the Megalith.
Hi Craig, what have been your various musical projects since you left Incantation and later formed Disma?After I had left Incantation from '90 to '94, I was still great friends with Ronny Deo, and Jim Roe both whom played on the first Incantation album 'Onward to Golgatha'... So me, Jim and Ronny started a 2-Bass guitar doom band called Womb in '94 and only recorded a 4-song demo and did some shows... then a couple years went by and the 3 of us had abandoned Womb and created Disciples of Mockery (death metal), then recorded a full length CD called 'Prelude to Apocalypse' also doing a bunch of shows, and dismantled that in '00... I then started my own solo/ 2-Bass guitar doom project called Methadrone , whom Randy stokes (now in Disma) played bass with me for live shows.. I had recorded 4- CD's in my modest 4-track cassette home studio as Methadrone between '02 to '09, I still plan to record another Methadrone CD sometime in the future... also between '05-'06 I had played Bass for Evoken (doom) on their 'A Caress of the Void' album which was alot of fun... and then in '09 I had joined the new formed Disma on Vocals....
How was Disma born? Is there some sort of relation between you being a past member of Evoken and Funebrarum’s Nick Orlando presence?
Disma started out with Bill Venner (who played guitar in Incantation in '89-'90) and Daryl Kahan both writing riffs on thier guitars and getting Shawn Eldridge on drums since he and Daryl had Funebrarum... they then got Randi Stokes to play bass with them, then asked me to do vocals (at first i declined because i was busy with a Methadrone recording) then later that year I listened to one of their rehersals and said Im in!! Nick Orlando was always a friend of mine since way back as well as Daryl and Bill, we've all known eachother for many years before playing together...
Profund Lore is a label that mainly deals with Doom Met
al; although I believe that Disma’s music may have a few Doom elements, you guys do play Death Metal, so how is it that Profund Lore signed Disma?Chris Bruni from Profound Lore really liked our demo and sound so he offered us a record deal and it worked out great.. Chris is a smart man and is very passionate about all sorts of music maybe that is why we are on Profound Lore, there is a veriety of different music on his lable which I think is great.. why stick with only one style, there are different forms of extreme musics out there, and to limit yourself to one style of music is boring to me...
It seems to me that you have the very same voice you did have some 20 years ago whereas other singers tend to lose intensity with time. Did you practice a lot in the last years?
Actually no... I havent practiced at all really through the years I mean I did sing death style on Womb, and D.O.M. but havent really made a concious effort to do so...
I think with age it helped me, also Im a smoker so maybe that has something to do with it... perhaps not though, I do plan to quite soon, so we will see...
Thanks to your unique vocals, Disma’s debut carries the same spirit that may be found in Incantation’s first two albums. Was that your intention? What are the influences of the writers?
My intention was to sing the hardest and best I could that best fit Disma's music... As far as influences we all have many different ones... both Daryl and Bill have alot of similar tastes in music, for me Im into different forms of extreme music, like Swans, Laibach, Dead Can Dance... most of my metal influences are from the 80's like Celtic Frost, Possessed, Venom...
Old School Death Metal is gaining a lot more attention lately. Did you follow the rise of “new school” Death Metal bands like Behemoth, Anata, Hate Eternal or Origin or are you just interested
in the recent revival of OSDM?To be honest I really have not followed any metal scenes in years since 80's early 90's...
What recent Death Metal albums would you consider recommending?
I guess the newest metal that I do enjoy and recomend is Autopsy, Morbid Angel, Type O Negative...
Not only Towards the Megalith is a fantastic Death Metal record but it also displays a great album cover (which would also be true of the previous EP) that is the perfect imagery to transcribe the raw feel of the album. Would you mind telling us of Ola Larsson who was in charge of the artwork?
All I know about Ola is that he's from Sweden and works doing computer art, I don't think he is a regular artist for the metal underground from my understanding..
Morbid Angel’s latest record has been very much in the limelight lately. Did you listen to it and if so what are your thoughts about it?
Yes i do own it, I like about half the record, my fave tracks are the Intro, Destructos vs earth, Blades of Baal, 10 more dead, and the last track...
Could we expect a European tour to support the release of Towards the Megalith?
Absolutely... we plan to tour Europe sometime next year and are very much looking forward to doing that!
Do you have something planned in the future for Disma? Is there already a sophomore album waiting to be recorded or would you rather tour extensively first?
We are actually working on new material now, and do plan to record 2-tracks in the next couple months for a 7 inch that will be included with our Megalith vinyl release thats coming out on Doomentia records... we both plan to play as much as possible and record the next full length as soon as we have enough material ready to do so, probably during the first half of next year...
>
Interview done by GandhiEgo
You must be logged in to add a comment