Skip to main content

Interview with Defiled guitarist Yusuke Sumita



Japan's Defiled have returned with a lightning storm of technical riffs with their new album Infinite Regress. While civilization seems doomed to march toward a bleak future, these death metal veterans from the rising sun propel the genre forward with a chaotic but catchy record.

Their 1984-inspired single "Masses In Chaos," for instance, balances memorable hooks with otherwise spastic compositions. The song's official music video both captures their live intensity of fretboard shredding and breakneck blast beats, with an endearingly low-budget home video aesthetic. Look for the hands coming out of the gear case, if you catch my drift.

Infinite Regress jumps all over the place. It's got discordant arpeggios, the most staccato percussion arrangement, to straight-up thrash metal beats to keep it fast and old school. Imagine a cross between Immolation and early VoiVod, and that's the territory these freaks have carved out with their new album, which arrives today via Season Of Mist.

I interviewed their guitar Yusuke Sumita a few months ago via email, and our transmission is below.
How does Infinite Regress compare to your last record?
The album was mixed and mastered by Jim Morris at Morrisound Studio in Tampa, Florida. I can say without any hesitation that he brought the album's quality to a level that we wouldn't have been able to achieve by ourselves; we’re very, very happy with his great work and the final result. 

It's been a quarter century since your first official release, the 1994 Defeat of Sanity EP. How have you seen death metal evolve since then?   
Please don’t get offended by what I'm gonna say, it's just my opinion, nothing more. I honestly think that maybe only 10 or 20 death metal bands have actually brought something new to the table in terms of creating truly original music and coming up with their own personal sound. The rest is just trying to emulate them and follow some stylistic codes and genre "rules." But again, the same could be said for most music genres today, this is a contemporary problem that unfortunately affects music in general. 

What's your thoughts on death metal music today? 
 Nothing Special. Everybody enjoys what they like, nothing more, nothing less... As for myself, I still listen to a few of my old favorite death metal bands and albums; good music is timeless right?  

Tell me about one album that changed your life. 
 It's very difficult to choose only one album, but I’d say Metallica’s ‘Master of Puppets’ is the one!   

Who are you heavy metal heroes who inspire you? 
In the same mindset, I believe that James Hetfield from Metallica is that metal inspirational figure that changed my life.   

What's one of your favorite movies and why?  
 You and your hard question!! I guess that would force me to choose between Ridley Scott's ‘Blade Runner’ and George Orwell's ‘1984.’ As hard the choice seems to be, I would say that 1984 is my favorite movie. By the way, check out the song “Masses in Chaos” on our new album, it's actually about that movie. 

What are you excited to do in 2020 and beyond?  
We’d like to play as many shows as possible and hopefully be able to return to the USA, but nothing is confirmed yet. However, we have a 3 week European tour with Vader in March and we're really excited about it.   

Thanks for going one on one with the Grim-1. Anything you'd like to say in closing? 
  It was wonderful chatting you today, and I really appreciate you taking time to interview me. Also thank you so much for everybody reading this. Don’t forget to listen to our new album ‘Infinite Regress.’ Cheers! 

 Check out Defiled's new album at their bandcamp here. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

OG Blasphemy: An interview with Profanatica's Paul Ledney

Profanatica is widely recognized as the first United States black metal band. Building on the foundation set forth by Venom and Hellhammer, Profanatica has spewed a rambunctious attack on all that is holy since 1990. Their antics on and off stage gained the same notoriety as their hellish music. While their European counterparts posed for photographs with candelabras and swords, Profanatica did photos with blood dripping from their limp dicks. Grainy VHS from the early 90s interviews show them giggling as they rip pages out of a bible and eat them. In many ways, Profanatica is one of the metal bands to become a meme. The recordings of what was to become their first album was destroyed by spiteful band mates before it was ever released in 1990 - read on to find out more about that fateful event. It was nearly two decades later that Profanatica birthed their first full length  Profanatitas De Domanatias in 2007. Rotting Incarnation Of God  is Profanatica's upcoming full length,
Post a Comment
Read more

Interview with Pan-Amerikan Native Front

War is coming! Pan-Amerikan Native Front is among the fierce bands who lead the charge of in digenous black metal in the Americas. This group is fronted by its enigmatic chief, Kurator of War. Their 2016 full length Tecumseh's War  beats like a war club through the life and conflict of its namesake. Earlier this year, Pan-Amerikan Native Front released the Native Amerikan Black Metal split w ith the Ifernach, which is already sold out of of vinyls their bandcamp . Behold this interview I conducted with Kurator Of War.  Tecumseh's War was inspired by the life of Tecumseh, and it's a blistering musical journey. What was your inspiration for the Native Amerikan Black Metal split, lyrically, thematically and musically? The split album continued to retain a conceptual and storytelling approach, much like Tecumseh's War, and with a similar range of songwriting styles I implemented with the previous album. When Ifernach and I began focusing on themes we naturally landed on the
Post a Comment
Read more

215 OR DIE: An interview with Sonja's Melissa Moore

Melissa Moore is a Philadelphia-based guitarist who currently leads the classic metal band Sonja. Previously, she's shredded on ax duty in bands like Rumplestiltskin Grinder and Absu. Moore also runs Toxic Femme, a clothing and apparel company that brings light to trans, non-binary and LGBT+ people via heavy metal fashion. On the musical front, Sonja released a promising two-song digital album  Nylon Nights/Wanting Me Dead  last year, which will win over fans of Mercyful Fate, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. I present to you, a dark transmission with the voice of Sonja, Melissa Moore.  Hell-O Melissa (in my best King Diamond voice). How the hell are YOU? Not bad. Thank you for realizing the Mercyful Fate reference in my name. How do you describe the musical experience that is Sonja, in your own words? What can someone expect at a Sonja concert?   Trans femme fronted dark heavy metal that wishes it was death rock. If Lana Del Rey was the singer of Manowar, I think it would be si
2 comments
Read more