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 Q: Just from a first listen to the new disc, already I can detect a dramatic
improvement in the vocals overall. I mean since this is now your second official full length recording with the band, I take it you've now finally become comfortable or at least accustomed to being the
frontman, correct?
A: To be real honest, this is the way I always sing. I mean, "Formulas.." was totally out of character for me. I pretty much did on "Formulas.." what Trey had asked. When I came in
everything was already written. He had the vocal patterns written in a certain way and that's how he wanted it sung. So by just coming in, I really had no push.. y'know what I
mean? I came in and sort of did what was asked of me and then went out on the road to prove myself and prove myself worthy of being capable of doing this stuff myself.
Then on this record I wrote the lyrics and stuff so therefore I'm thinking of vocal patterns when I'm writing words. So it all comes together and comes out more natural.
Q: Yeah, in fact if I had to select one particular track where I hear some noticeable changes it would certainly in the song "To the Victor, the Spoils." Here it seems you sort of
challenged yourself to experiment with a much higher range.
A: Dude, well that whole gutteral, almost sort of a.. well, I'm not trying to label it on anybody but that sort of a "Corpsegrinder" type voice, that's really not me. That's not
the way I've ever sung. I've been playing Death Metal since probably 1988 or so and I've never sung with just that only gutteral thing. I mean it's more always been about
diaphragm and throat to me. It wasn't always just the gruff. It's just not me. "Corpsegrinder" does it great. It sounds great and I mean the whole Six Feet Under, y'know
all them type of vocals. That's all fine and dandy for them guys but it's just not me.
Q: Ok, I understand but considering that you've seemed to finally get that sort of "push" you've been wanting with this record (I mean being able to contribute musically on your
own this time around) I'd imagine your expectations for this one are a lot bigger now as opposed to your last, no?
A: Well, to be real honest, my expectations for the record are sort of already met, man. When we got done with the record, I wanted to listen to it and not hear it as "my"
record. I wanted to sit back and listen to it and it to me to sound like I'm listening to someone else's record, and not really be able to recognize it for being in the studio and that
sort of thing. I just wanted to sit back and hear it as almost like a fan and think it was great. After the record, I took a couple of weeks off from it and then when I finally decided
to listen to it, I put it on and thought it was amazing. I thought, "Holy shit! This is great!" I didn't think of it as "that's my band." I just listened to it like a fan and I
thought, "Man, this is a fucking killer record!" So man, my expectations have already honestly been met. I mean everything else from here on is like sort of bonus points, y'know.
Q: So I take it from having this sort of enthusiasm you do for the music, you still get just as excited for being a fan of metal as say, the average teenager discovering it for the very first time?
A: Of course, man. I mean on tour dude, I always go out and watch the bands before us. I'm a heavy metal fan. I'm not beyond that and I don't know if I will ever be beyond
that. I hope I'm not ever beyond that. It's just something that's always been there in me and it'll never fade. As long as people are making exciting music, y'know.
“He’s... too sexy for his bass. Too sexy for his bass. The way he plays with one hand.”
Q: Well, does it ever sometimes get to the point where because you're surrounded by it practically all the time that you'll occasionally get bored enough to search out other possible outlets of inspiration?
A: Well, just listen to different bands, know what I mean? As far as me, I always have the time where I kick back or step back into the 80's and listen to Maiden or early
Metallica, or early Slayer and shit like that. I still listen to that stuff whenever I'm sort of burnt on "now" and believe it or not, listening to stuff like Dio's "Holy Diver" still
impresses me and it still excites me. It still makes me remember what metal's about, man.
Q: I've said this before and I'll say it again now just as I've always said in other interviews I've had with a lot of bands, as old as metal is it'll never ever become totally outdated
because the music from the bands of the 80's is only being rewritten and expanded upon today.
A: Oh, exactly. It's all derived from it. Everything I do or the way I sing is actually derived from the way I think Ronnie James Dio sings. I mean, he to me was the ultimate
singer and the way I sing is pretty comparable to the way he sings. It's about power and it comes from the gut, comes from the soul, and it's just big. I mean, obviously
it's different tones but hey, tones are personal.
Q: Well, getting back on track musically, I'd like you to explain to me this; why is a brunt of the material on "Gateways to Annihilation" much more slower when you
compare it to just about everything else Morbid Angel has done before it? It originally appeared to me as if the band was trying to capitalize on a much more "doomier"
atmosphere (something already hinted at it with "God of Emptiness" off of 93's Covenant album).
A: It definitely wasn't a conscious effort to slow it down but rather something that was subconscious. I mean the last record was so constant y'know but we really didn't tone it
down though. There's some shit on here that's some of the fastest Morbid Angel riffs ever and instead of being a blast beat behind it, it's double bass with a little bit slower
snare or an offtime snare or something. So it's still some extremely extreme stuff but it's just sort of done a little bit differently, man. Morbid Angel is always about trying to
expand and do something a little bit different and well, we need to excite ourselves, y'know. Releasing the same record over and over is ridiculous. Nobody wants to do
that. That's petty, that's terrible. So it was just natural for us to just do this record. I mean if you look back at all the Morbid Angel records they all sort of go real fast then a
little slower, then fast, then slower! I mean it's just sort of a natural progression I think when you do something so extreme and then your mind says, "Ok, we did that now
this record is a little bit more complex and a little bit slower." But the fast stuff on it is fast as hell. So I don't know, man.. we sort of just let this record come out
naturally. We let it come out and we really didn't even worry about whether it was fast, slow or whatever. I mean we really didn't even think about it being slow until we were
in the studio and Jim Morris said, "Wow, this is not a very fast record. You guys didn't really do a lot of speed this time," and we just kind of looked at each other like, "Wow,
nobody ever really realized it."
Q: My first impression was that Paul Sandoval kind of toned it down with this one as opposed toprevious efforts where he'd been known to sort of overplay using all sorts of intricate fills and mindnumbing blastbeats.
A: Actually if you want to know the truth he's doing more complex rolls and more like cymbal/snare stuff than he's ever done. His drumming on this record is for more
extreme than any of the drumming he's ever done as far as techniquewise. It's just not blast, y'know. I mean almost every song has a blast part in it but it's used for like
punctuation, y'know. It's used for accenting areas. It's just not used in a constant manner. I think we used it sort of tastefully, honestly. I mean we tried to make a lot of these
songs very orchestrated, very big and very moving at all times; going through different emotions; going through different moods and that sort of thing. So I think we really accomplished what we wanted.
 Q: I'll tell ya, the song "Ageless Still I Am" could definitely be
mistaken for "God of Emptiness."
A: Wait, could you hold on one second? (Obviously tending to another call, Steve puts me on hold for about 2 minutes).. So "Ageless Still I Am" could be mistaken for "God of Emptiness"
(asking in an almost surprised sort of way)?
Q: Oh yes, indeed. It's one of the slower songs that also happens to be one of the standout tracks as well.
A: I think you actually mean "He Who Sleeps" maybe.
Q: Oh ok, yeah then I think you're right. I might have gotten the songtitles mixed up somewhere (further proving my utter stupidity at this point.. that's journalists for ya).
A: Yeah, the third song right?
Q: Yeah, that's the one!
A: Um.. actually to be honest, I wrote that song, man. I don't know but I've heard a couple of people that have actually said it sounded like "Blessed Are the Sick" too. I
mean I think the one thing that makes both "He Who Sleeps" and "God of Emptiness" sound the same is that they both with an open "B" so I guess that could definitely
resemble. I mean that's the way we tune but I think it's also different. It's a lot different from "God of Emptiness." For one thing, it's no where near as complex as "God of
Emptiness" was. "God of Emptiness" was actually a very complex song and "He Who Sleeps" I think is a little bit more cut and dried.
Q: Ok, well let's talk about that for a second. The track you previously mentioned was one that you wrote which obviously means you were given more leeway to create
and write a good majority of the material on this album as opposed to just stepping in as a replacement on the last one. How much of an influence did it have on the
songwriting overall and how much of a change was brought out as a result of it?
A: Oh, I think everybody brings a certain different vibe and I think my vibe is definitely all over this record. I wrote like half of three songs with Trey and then I wrote the whole
material to "He Who Sleeps," so that's 4 songs I wrote the music to and then I wrote the lyrics to all of the songs except for one so I definitely think that my influence is very
strong on this record. I think this record pretty much represents me really well. But it was something that wasn't an uncomfortable thing with everyone. I mean we wrote
together and that's something Morbid hasn't really done a lot of. Usually Trey wrote most of the music and then David wrote lyrics and that's just sort of how it always
worked. And then on "Domination" Erik wrote some stuff with Trey and Erik wrote a couple of things by himself. So to really write together was sort of a new thing but it was
something that we were both extremely comfortable with and I mean, he (Trey) was really excited about the things I brought and I was really excited about the things he had
until what I brought. And I thought, "Wow, this really makes these songs really fucking cool." I mean, we wrote, "To the Victor, The Spoils" together; we wrote, "At One
With Nothing" together and we wrote the song "I" together. So there was a lot of these things we did together that I thought came out really brilliant.
Q: Sumerian mythology has, for the last 3 or 4 years played a big part in Morbid Angel's delivery but somehow it seems to have subsided on this one, perhaps because of
your ever increasing inlfuence on songwriting. Or is their a unifying concept at all?
A: Um.. there's really no Sumerian stuff at all on this record. I mean, that was something that we used totally on the last record but on this record we just didn't really
get into that. Actually I wrote a lot about Gods and that sort of thing on this record but I really didn't use any names, man. I don't want to use names. See, I personally
believe that Gods are very personal. Gods are very individualistic, man. Everyone has their own Gods, everyone has their own images of Gods, everyone derives
power from different Gods so I left that shit open.. y'know what I mean? I'm not gonna pin a name on Gods because I don't want to force my Gods upon anybody. They're mine
and I hold them to my soul, y'know. I left it open so that maybe other people can be inluenced by it yet they can come to their own conclusions about it also. It's not limited
to just a name and that's the name you have to accept or that's the name that it is. It's left open for interpretation, man. That's something I really felt strong about and really wanted to do.
Q: Well, a song like "To the Victor, the Spoils" really has an interesting title to it. What's that about?
“You know, I could have sworn I left a Chocodile on the snare...”
A: "To the Victor, the Spoils" is about people rising up and sort of rejoicing in individuality ‘cause let's face it, amongst the people that are into Morbid Angel are a special breed.
There's people that really understand Morbid Angel, they really get Morbid Angel and these people are very special. These people mean a lot to me and this song is basically a
song for those people. This song is right from me to these people saying, "Listen, we are the fucking merciless. We are the chosen ones. We will be the victors and when we
do we'll praise it and we'll rejoice in it.
Q: Well, aside from it's sound, Morbid Angel's uniqueness seems to stem from a more positive, uplifting vibe as opposed to the more angry, blatantly anti-christian rage of bands like Deicide.
A: I mean, don't get me wrong brother. We're anti-christian too because we totally believe that Christianity is the biggest brainwasher ever (laughs).. y'know what I mean? They're the biggest hypocrites in the
history of mankind so I mean, it definitely still is lashing out and it is directed at them people. For instance, we can go back to, "To the Victor, the Spoils." The first verse is
"Decide, between the way of the weak, The Sheep to live a lie, Or to come to life, in victory we stand, Above the meek, To raise the Chalice and toast the conquering." I
mean that's all about separating yourself from the basic christian ideas and the christian myths and the christian lies. It's about separating yourself from that, y'know completely
moving away from it and fucking rejoicing in it. I mean, that's a victory in itself because man, Christianity is very huge and it's very strong. It's had a 2000 year reign and
for people to separate themselves from that is a victory in itself.
Q: Right I understand where you're coming from but to clarify something in my last statement which obviously was a bit misconstrued is that a lot of other bands who
obviously uphold the same beliefs you do tend to vent them in a more violently aggressive mode, sort of like more in a grotesquely crude manner whereas Morbid's
outtake is a little bit more philosophically enlightening. Hence the difference lies in the intelligence factor, y'know what I mean?
A: Dude, that's important to everybody in this band. I mean, that's part of the goal of freedom. In order to really grow and to become a freebird you have to get intelligent
otherwise you're just going to sit back and you're going to accept things. So that's something we're honestly saying, "Don't do!" We're telling you that by growing more
intelligent you become more intelligent so that you can find out the truths and decide for yourself whether these truths are truths or whether these truths are bullshit. That's very
important. I mean, intelligence is very important in Morbid Angel. We never want to come across as unintelligent.
Q: In other words, doing something because there's a reason to do it or at least because you believe in it as opposed to doing it for the sake of doing it. Or in this case
you could also look at it from a musical standpoint such as continuing to do what you're obviously doing now because you have faith in yourself and not because your idols before you did it.
 A: Well, revolution without fucking intelligence is just rebellion. We just
don't want people to rebel.. I mean, we want a revolution but we want these people to rejoice in each other and acknowledge each other and acknowledge the fact that yes, we are different and that's great. We're
not fucking blind. We're not sheep and the fact is, times are changing. And I believe myself that Paganism will rise and probably become one of the very biggest religions in
the world because it's truth. It's total truth but it takes intelligence to realize this. I mean, you can't just be an idiot. Idiots are worthless.
Q: I have to agree with on that 100% especially when you take into consideration here in the new millenium Christianity seems to be slowly dwindling by the wayside. I
think what I can attest to this is after so many years of promises, nothing has changed. Hence a lot of once firm believers are now beginning to have second doubts.
A: That, and also I think because a lot of christian people have started to realize that maybe they were scared into this, y'know the whole idea of the millenium change and as
far as Christianity goes, the world was supposed to end. They've been preaching this for as long as I have existed on this planet and I mean, it didn't happen. Oh my God!
Now all of a sudden their whole scare tactic is sort of gone. It's gone, it's out the window. Their christian Satan did not rise and destroy the Earth. There was no great battle
between good and evil and you know why? Because this was just something that they made up. This is their perceived ideas that they made up to scare people. Let's
face it, yes there is good and evil but it's no different than good and bad. I mean, it's no different than say, knowing you shouldn't do something and you do it anyway. That's
bad, obviously! But it's just moral issues. The fact is they try to turn moral issues, which morals were around long before Christianity, into scare things. So it's like because
we say that you must worship Jesus Christ there must also be a counterbalance to that. So they made up a Satan. They took a pagan fucking god and turned it into Satan.
Now suddenly this is the god of evil and that's why so many people go to satanism and think they are ultimately extremely evil and so bad, and "fuck christians!" y'know
and all this shit. Well let's face it bro, if you're a true fucking satanist then you're no better than a fucking christian because in turn you're believing the lies that they're telling
you and you're basically fucking worshipping one of their gods. Yes, it's the god of evil, it's their god of dark but you're still worshipping a christian god. That means you're
still a christian. A lot of people don't get that. They say, "What the fuck are you talking about? Satan rules!" Satan is a rebellion and that's cool. I understand that but when
most people start to break away from christianity that's what happens. They go to satanism and that's great. I think that's fucking wonderful. I think that's a great thing
that they are starting to turn their back a little bit but if you get stuck in that then you're mundane. You're not really thinking. If you're stuck as a satanist for 15 years, you're
playing by their rules. You're not starting to really open up your mind and find out and make your own rules.
Q: Well, again this all kind of ties into what I touched upon before when I mentioned bands like Deicide. As a matter of fact, a lot of the earlier Scandinavian Black Metal bands tend to fit this category as well.
There is a fine between the “metal solo face” and the “fart face.”
A: A lot of people use that whole christian ideology of Satan. Satan as a symbol is okay because it's rebellion, it's stepping away but to worship THE Satan, y'know
Beelzebub, Lucifer, whatever.. that's what I'm talking about. But to be honest, a lot of the early Black Metal bands, y'know the guys that have grown up, they're not
21 years old anymore. These guys are 26, 27, 28 years old and a lot of them are all very into paganism, heathenism now. They used satanism as a stepping stone and when I was young I did too! I'm Irish, I'm fucking
Gaelic y'know and so all my people were Catholic. So for me when I broke away, that's what I turned to too. I remember hearing "Number of the Beast" and they're
saying, "666" and I'm like, "Oh my God! That fucking rules!" That was great to me but that's where I started. That was my stepping stone too. I used it but then I went
beyond it. I really used my brain and realized, "Hold on a minute! What I'm basically doing is playing by their rules. I'm accepting what they tell me is true. I'm rebelling against
them but I'm still playing by their rules and that's when I started to really change my beliefs and started heading towards a more paganistic point of view. The idea of finding
out your own gods and everyone is an individual and everyone does their own individual things for power. I started going to that. I think a lot of the early Black Metal
bands, they definitely did that too. There's a lot of them guys that really moved away from the satanist stuff but there's still people that fully on use it just as a tool. It's just
a shock value and it's scary to christian people. I guess because maybe they see that as "Well, that's scarier to christian people than I'm supposed to be." But I'm going to
tell you what. I've had fucking Mormons come to my door and I've had the Mormons in my house and I've talked to ‘em for 20 fucking minutes. They then walked away with
like, "Oh my God, this guy is fucking brilliant. This guy knows what the fuck he's talking about." I'm just not some jackass. I don't worship their god but they walk away with
respect for me ‘cause what I'm saying is true and they fucking know it, y'know.
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