FIVE MINUTES WITH
The death metal growler/guitarist talks #WhyNotDyingFetus, South Park and whether death metal still has the power to shock
Your new album, Make Them Beg For Death, continues the rich tradition of brutal Dying Fetus titles. Have any of your titles had to be changed because they were too violent?
“Not the title, but I wanted the artwork for [2017 album] Wrong One To Fuck With to be more gory. We were kind of censored by the record label, like: ‘No, you can’t have any naked people on the cover being murdered.’ That’s the first time we were censored, so I didn’t push anything on this album.”
Is it possible for death metal to truly shock people in the modern age? “Everyone is past that now. It’s all been done, right? Unless you’re brand-new to death metal. It’s been done over and over again a million times, so topics like necrophilia are just kind of ‘whatever’ at this point. We’re not trying to be offensive; I don’t think you can offend anyone anymore.”
Your song Second Skin was featured in South Park a few years ago. Was that something you enjoyed?
“Of course, that was a big moment for us –one of our shining achievements! As a fan of comedy and not taking things so seriously, it was an honour to be involved with that.”
Did you know in advance that it would be used for Stan’s fictional band, Crimson Dawn?
“I had no idea. I was on vacation and received a text message from our manager: ‘You’re on South Park!’ It was a shock to me! They contacted our label, Relapse, I think, but it was very quick and last-minute. I wasn’t butthurt, it was killer. I hope somebody else uses our music. Put us in anew movie or something!”
It’s now been 10 years since #WhyNotDyingFetus, a campaign to get Dying Fetus on the Download line-up, first trended on social media. “Yeah! I think the industry and youth of today have loosened up and aren’t terrified of Dying Fetus anymore. So many more people are attending our shows now. We’re getting 1,000 people in places where we once only got, like, 250 or 300. So that movement, #WhyNotDyingFetus, worked! We’re playing Download again and they are including other death metal bands and kind of embracing that scene.”
What was your reaction when you first saw that hashtag?
“I was like, ‘Wow! T
