Malthusian are one of Ireland’s few hopes of not only extreme metal but metal in general in Ireland to survive. Ireland is similar in a sense to Scotland and Wales in the fact that there is an abundance of talent in some places but these bands are not being given the chance by record labels unlike bands in England. Malthusian have been lucky enough to be given that opportunity to release their debut album Across Death tly through Irish record label Invictus Productions and American label Dark Descent Records. I caught up with guitarist/vocalist Andy Cunningham who gave his own personal thoughts on the matter and the composition of songs on the album. I thank and wish Andy and the band success for the future.
First of all, thank you for taking the time to answer these questions for our readers at Moshville Times over here in Scotland. You must be extremely proud of Across Deaths as you are not only making us older fans, like me, relive the glory days but establishing a fan base with new younger fans. How have the press and the metal world accepted Across Deaths?
Thanks a lot. Yeah, we are really happy with how it has turned out but it was a lot of work and frustration to get it to this point. Everything took longer than we had hoped with the mixing and artwork so it was hard to maintain enthusiasm over the last year at certain points, but then as each element came together we would be re-energised again. We have only seen three or four reviews so far but the album appears to be going down very well with the press. I have seen a few people online say they are disappointed that it has moved away from the demo sound and style but for us it is just delving deeper into what we started with and exploring those musical ideas in greater detail. We have always treated each song as a new adventure, even on the demo – the three songs on that recording cover a lot of ground – so we try not to repeat ourselves too much while still keeping the overall feel focused.
Malthusian has worked with Invictus Productions from the beginning to release all your recordings. How has the relationship been so far with the label?
It has been great. We are friends with Darragh and have known him a long time so we are all on the same page. He has been behind the band 100% from the very beginning. In fact, as soon as he heard that we were putting together a death metal band, he said that if it was any good he’d release it. We couldn’t think of a better label to work with so after he saw our first gig (opening for Gospel of the Horns, Bolzer and Zom, I think), he was blown away and we have continued to work together since. Dark Descent will be handling the US version and Matt Calvert is a very sound dude and he likes what we are doing so it will be interesting to see what he can do for us over there. Interesting times ahead, I suspect.
Listening to Across Deaths, it’s easy to hear that you are all seasoned musicians and that you use this experience of your other bands when composing your songs. Does it still amaze you though what other of the band are coming up with?
Myself and Matt come up with the riffs and we both have very different styles which can be confounding at certain times. Trying to get my head into the strange logic of Matt’s riffs can sometimes be a challenge, and the same goes for him. Somehow the combination of our different signature styles is very complimentary and keeps the songs varied. Johnny is a ridiculous drummer and his capabilities never cease to amaze us. He doesn’t just blast songs to death but he really feels the riffs and moves with them adding tremendous amounts of colour that enlivens things. Pauric’s vocal talents also add another level of unhinged oddness to the final thing. He can produce weird noises that myself and Matt couldn’t achieve, and he has a vast range of voices in there that seem to spill out at the right moments. I think that the general ethos of the band is to be interesting, if only to ourselves, so we generally keep each other on our toes.
There seems to be resurgence of old school aesthetics and releasing cassette versions of EP/albums. Is this something that you would want to do with Across Deaths and be nostalgic about the tape trading days?
Tape, CD and vinyl editions are all planned, as well as digital s. I started buying tapes when I was very young so there is a nostalgic link for me with that format, but none of us were clued in enough in the nineties to be involved in tape trading. It’s something I’d love to have experienced because reading about the early days of the metal scene with tapes flying all over the world with bands who were all trying new things out and were, in the process, laying down the groundwork for the music we are creating now is really inspiring.
Historically, the UK and Ireland has had a tough time when it comes to being internationally recognised in of extreme metal compared to Sweden and Florida for example. Yes there are Carcass and Cradle of Filth, but what is it do you think that prevents British and Irish bands from reaching the next level?
I think that, historically, bands from Ireland have been cut off from the wider scene being stuck on an island, far from the action, when bands from the mainland could easily drive to other countries to gig. Cheap flights have redressed the balance to some degree, but even now, when things here are really strong, the scene is still tiny. There is no metal on the radio here at all any more, where there was a bit in the early nineties. It almost doesn’t exist here, so I’m not sure how young people are getting into it these days, and from what I can see, very few people are trickling into the scene. I can’t speak for the UK but from my perspective, when I was growing up and reading Metal Hammer and later Terrorizer (and these days Zero Tolerance), it always appeared that England had a really good scene and, in some ways, led the pack, if only in of the metal media. I think there is a world of difference between the scenes of the two countries, but the population of Ireland is miniscule compared to the UK.
Ireland has an abundance of talent, what with Jenova, Coscradh, Words That Burn and yourselves flying the flag high for Irish metal. Is there a good healthy friendship between bands on the Irish scene? What are venues and recording facilities like in Ireland for bands like yourselves?
We’d be friends with some bands here but the scene is very compartmentalised, with a handful of bands operating in the corner of the scene that we operate in, and other splinter factions operating in various separate pockets too, but despite being small it feels really healthy at the moment. There is little cross-over between the bands in of personnel which results in a nice variety of sounds emerging. In Sweden and Norway, for example, the bands often appear to rehearse in the same facilities and hang out with each other and often share band , which can lead to a more unified scene sound. Here, the bands go into their rehearsal rooms, shut the door and enclose themselves in their own little creative bubbles, so each band ends up sounding very different. I think that is a really good thing. Each band should have its own focus and identity and not just be a copy of anyone else operating in their own scene or it would soon become stale.
Malthusian have gone from one sole demo and EP to now releasing your debut album. All the hard work is beginning to pay off but what do you think Malthusian need to do to maintain and build on this recent success?
We have done what we need to do. We write songs and that’s all that matters really. It sounds cliched to say it but we just follow our own instincts when we write so if a riff gets us excited and gets the creative fires blazing in our brains, then that is all we are concerned with. We assume that if it sounds good to us it will probably sound good to people who like us anyway. We are not the type of band who sit down and calculate where we need to go next or map out our future, we just focus on the songs and artwork, and have been lucky to get plenty of great gig offers over the last few years. We know what we like and what we don’t like and we only follow our own interests so we would never even consider altering our sound to gain more fans. I don’t think we’d even be able to make such a cynical move because dragging yourself into a cold garage in the middle of winter to jam after a hard day’s work is a fucking pain. I couldn’t see us committing to doing that if we weren’t truly excited by what we were writing. We are naturally lazy bastards so we really have to be motivated to put in the necessary hard work.
How hard is it for an extreme metal band like Malthusian to survive in the current climate where bands have to tour non-stop in order to bring money back into the band?
The only money we ever make from the band is through merch, but we all work full time jobs so we don’t rely on the band for cash. A bit of pocket money here and there is about all it amounts to, but at the level we are operating at, that’s more than enough. If the band magically became huge and started bringing in loads of cash then that would, of course, be amazing but I won’t be holding my breath.
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