Skeletal Remains are currently gearing up to release their brand new album, aptly titled The Entombment of Chaos. Prior to the release of the album, our senior editor got the opportunity to chat with frontman and founding member Chris about the new album, his opinion of the music industry and a range of other topics.
How do you feel the response has been to the material you’ve released so far?
For the most part it’s all been positive. You obviously get those trolls from time to time, but everyone seems to be really digging it. We wrote the album as one that’s supposed to be listened to from top to bottom instead of a bunch of random songs. I’m excited to see what people think when they listen to it all the way through and it’s already been doing well. We’ve sold more than we’ve done on any of our previous albums so we’re excited to see where this album takes us.
It’s a pretty apt title for the times.
Yeah, it has a bit of influence from what’s going on at the moment. It’s not a concept album, it has a lot of different influences from Sci-Fi to more traditional death metal material, but two or three tracks were definitely influenced by the pandemic and some of the hysteria that’s surrounded it. It definitely fits with what’s going on right now.
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This was also the first album with Noah and Mike. How was it working with them?
It’s the first album with both Noah and Mike, but Mike and I started the band. He wrote with me most of the demo and about half the first album which was most of the demo re-recorded. Mike has helped out a few times when our previous guitar player Adrian wasn’t able to do tours. We never intended the band to be serious, but when it started to be Mike wasn’t able to fully commit to touring as he was married and there were a few other things. He didn’t want to hold the band back so we parted ways, but when Adrian left the band, he (Mike) was the first one I reached out to. He’s now able to fully commit and tour with the band which is really great.
Noah is another guy who’s been around for a while, helping the band out. When both Adrian and Mike weren’t available, Noah would help out as he’s a guitarist instead of a bassist. He helped out on bass a few times in the past as well which helped out as we needed a bassist for the band. He’s super into the band and he did the past 2 or 3 tours with us on bass so it’s been great to have him in the band full time.
It’s been great having the guys in the band as there’s some fresh players bringing new things to the plate. I’d already written about half of the material between tours on the last cycle before those guys came in. When Mike came into the band, we finished the material within a matter of about 6 weeks. I’m really happy with this lineup and I can’t wait for people to hear what we’ve created with this album.
You got the opportunity to tour with Obituary recently, how was that?
That was so amazing man. Obituary are one of our biggest influences and I’m a big fan of John Tardy’s vocal style, so it was a dream come true to be able to tour with those guys. It was such a stacked lineup with Hatebreed, Prong and Madball on the bill as well. Every single show was amazing and people were so stoked on us which led to us gaining a lot more fans. There was a wide variety of fans coming out to those shows which led to some really awesome shows.
We got treated super well as well. We were the smallest band on the bill, but they treated us super well making sure that we had everything we need. Jamey Jasta was a big fan of our music and helped us to get on the bill which was really awesome. To date, it has to be one of the best tours I’ve ever done.
What’s something you want to see less of in the music industry?
I’m not really sure. We’re still a very small underground band so there’s probably stuff that we’re not aware of, but we’re pretty happy with the following we have and how things are. I guess, it would be really cool for people to buy more physical material. It’s not something that’s fading in our genre as people still tend to collect the LP’s and CD’s, but the streaming thing is something which has been dominant in other genres. I don’t think it’s a bad thing though, as I’ve personally listened to a band on spotify before I buy the record. I think it’s really cool that we have these streaming services to be able to do something like that, but it would be nice to make some money from music sales.
We only make money for going out touring and selling merch at shows, which is our favourite part of doing this, but it would be nice to get some money from it. I don’t think any bands make any money from streaming unless you’re a huge artist that’s getting millions of streams. We’re not doing it for that though, we’re doing it for the love of the music and we love what we do. Everyone has bills though and some of us have kids so we need to obviously make some money. I can’t complain though, things are good for us at the moment and I’m happy how things are working out for us.
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What are your plans for the next few months?
It’s kind of a waiting around game at the moment. We played a show in February, but pretty much everything has been moved to next year due to what’s been happening. I’m hoping that things are better next year as we have a new record and obviously want to bring the music to the people. We just got booked onto a show in October in Las Vegas which will have all the rules in place. Hopefully that one still goes ahead and we’re able to play it.
What are your thoughts on the ‘live’ shows that are online?
I think it’s pretty cool. We got asked to do it a few times when we were in the process of recording the album which meant we weren’t able to do it. If shows don’t come back when our album drops, we’ll probably be doing a similar thing. It’s not going to be same though as I love the live interaction between the fans, but it’s something as opposed to nothing. It’s cool that people are doing it though and offering the fans something.
What would you say was the main reason you started the band?
I was actually in another band prior to starting Skeletal Remains. That band was more thrash-oriented and whilst it had a bit of death metal, I’ve always been more of a pure death metal person. When I was home from tour, I’d be waiting till the next tour and just jamming with some friends and Mike. We started playing a couple of covers of Death and other death metal bands and then it gradually evolved into us creating our own music. I got really stoked about it and after we released our demo, folk got really stoked about that and it started to gain a bit of momentum.
It was never really meant to be anything serious as the other band I was in was very serious and was a signed touring band. However, it wasn’t a band that I started, so I wanted to focus on the band that I started. And things have grown from there. It started from the influences from all the old-school death metal bands and they were the reason we started the band.
Sweet or savoury?
I tend to be more savoury than sweet. When I was growing up, I was a big fan of pistachio ice cream but these days I’m not into that as much.
If you had to put together a plate of nachos, what toppings would you use?
Now you’re talking. I love hot Cheetos so I would definitely put them on there. To be honest, I’d probably just use hot Cheetos and Nacho cheese. I’d be snaking on hot Cheetos when I was a kid all the time. I try not to eat them as much these days as they aren’t that healthy, but I just love the taste of them.
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