Interviews: Inscribed

On this new occasion, we have had the opportunity to interview the Thrash Metal/Death Metal band Inscribed from the USA. Check out the interview and follow the band on their FACEBOOK PAGE.

1. Where did the name INSCRIBED come from, and what does it represent for the band?

I can’t say it had any certain meaning for us when we first came up with it. Evie and I had always been kicking around different band names, and one day she finally came up with Inscribed. I thought it sounded sick, and so we decided to use it. I guess in a certain way it could represent us wanting to try and “inscribe” ourselves into metal history, but that sounds really self-aggrandizing when I type it out, so let’s just say it doesn’t mean that.

2. How did the original lineup come together in Florida’s underground scene?

Evie and I became friends in middle school when I was in the seventh grade and she in the eighth, both of us both sharing the same band class. At that point in my life, I knew nothing about metal besides the fact that guitars were involved and that Metallica probably had something to do with it. She opened my eyes to Black Sabbath, Metallica, and Megadeth, and we quickly became close friends. She already played bass at the time, and she convinced me to pick up the drums. We met Mario a couple of years later in September of 2022 when the three of us saw the Bay Strikes Back tour (Testament, Exodus, Death Angel) at the Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale. We became friends, started rehearsing together, and the rest is history. None of us were involved in the metal scene before, and we were eager to get out there and start shredding.

3. What does releasing your debut full-length Upon the Twisted Throne mean to the band at this point in your journey?

I think for the three of us, there are definitely things about In Silent Oblivion which we weren’t so satisfied with. I’m proud of that EP, but I certainly am not totally satisfied with my own performance, both drumming-wise and especially vocally. So with Upon the Twisted Throne, I feel like we’re finally realizing the vision for the band that we’ve been trying to capture, at least much closer than In Silent Oblivion. Though, of course, our idea of Inscribed’s musical direction is always shifting as our tastes evolve and our instrumental skill increases.

4. How has your sound evolved since the earliest writing sessions that led to this album?

One thing we (or at least I) realized over the course of writing the record is the importance of melody. I don’t really mean that in a melodic death metal kind of way. I mean no offense to any of those bands, but they’re not really our thing except for a few certain acts. But a well-placed, memorable, impactful melody can bring a new emotional depth to a song without sacrificing the aggression and darkness that we find so important to metal. I don’t want to toot our own horns or anything, but I’m pretty satisfied with our writing on this album, and I think it covers the emotional bases musically that we wanted to cover.

5.“On the Stage of Death” is described as one of your most ambitious compositions. What made it such a complex piece to create?

Very early into Mario’s tenure in the band, he and Evie wrote several riffs that would end up in On the Stage of Death, a main one being the big, epic guitar break in the middle when the tempo slows down. Not only that, but the final riff in the song, with the super-technical bassline, was written by Evie, if I’m not mistaken, even before Mario joined. So we were combining riffs and sections from very disparate origins. Trying to find a structure that made sense and created cohesion between all those sections was difficult, and we spent a while on it. We finally settled on a kind of two-part structure, with the first half featuring a repeating verse and chorus and the second half being a more non-standard riff-salad thing, like Wake Up Dead or something along those lines. I think it ended up as a sick and epic-sounding track that covers a lot of ground in its brief runtime.

The track draws inspiration from Berserk.

6. How did that influence shape the mood, themes, or structure of the song?

Really, it was the opposite in that regard. I’m a fan of the manga series, and the vibe of the music that Mario and Evie wrote led me to connect it to that when writing the lyrics. We typically start off with a completely instrumental composition before I add any kind of vocals. I don’t know how standard that is in death metal songwriting, but it’s how we’ve always done it. Vocals are usually quite an afterthought!

7. How do you balance technical death/thrash complexity with emotional storytelling?

Haphazardly. As I said, we usually focus solely on the instrumentals before any vocals come into play. My lyrics typically just have to do with whatever book, comic, or video game concepts have been sticking in my mind recently. Evie’s lyrics are much more sociopolitically charged, so I think it’s a nice balance. I think my favorite vocal/musical moment is probably in the title track. Evie’s lyrics kick ass and work very well with the angry and sad music of that song.

8. What does the title Upon the Twisted Throne represent conceptually?

I had come up with that title years before we ever started even writing our first EP, and I think at the time I probably just thought it sounded cool! But as time went on, we started to have an idea that it would relate to the corruption that runs rampant among those in power, and the way power corrupts and twists the people who wield it.

9. Was there a central narrative running through the album, or more of a thematic collection of ideas?

We didn’t set out with the idea of having a particular concept explored by the album, but as we wrote songs, they all ended up having themes of, one way or another, the struggles of having injustices thrust on you by your government and by society. The record definitely has a certain continuity in that way.

10. INSCRIBED has a strong bass-forward approach. How did that become such a defining part of your sound?

As the band started off as just me and Evie with no guitarist, our earliest songwriting attempts were naturally very focused on the basslines, given that the bass guitar was making up half of the sound. Not only that, but Evie’s always been a very talented bassist with an ear for creative lines and constantly pushes herself to play crazier stuff. After she got turned onto Atheist’s Piece of Time, the holy grail of extreme metal with insane bass chops, there was no going back. We HAD to sound like that! I think our focus on the bass guitar has turned out to be a very beneficial quality for us, as it gives the listener a unique sonic palette which has been neglected by more mainstream extreme metal bands throughout the years. For us, it seems obvious that the bass should be loud. All the best and most influential heavy metal records from the 70s and early 80s had the bass turned up to all hell (see: Mob Rules, Blizzard of Ozz). So, for us, it makes no sense to have metal with quiet bass. That’s what makes the music heavy. We have always played in standard tuning, and thanks to that bass presence, we’ve had no complaints so far about sounding wimpy!

11. What role does improvisation vs. structured writing play in your process?

When it comes to songwriting, we are very structured with 0 improvisation, which I think is pretty normal among extreme metal bands. With soloing, though, we take more of a freewheeling out-there improvisational approach, particularly in a live setting. We like crazy guitar solos! (Though the solos that Fernando Calero of Amnio graciously wrote and recorded for us are more down-to-earth and composed, and are incredibly beautiful and impressive.)

12. Which bands had the biggest influence on this record (Atheist, Cynic, Sadus, etc.), and how did you make those influences your own?

Atheist, Sadus, Hellwitch, Cynic, and Nocturnus are the five bands that come to mind in terms of influences. There are definitely ideas from all over the map, both in terms of metal as well as other genres (progressive rock is a big one, we love that shit), but those bands are the main ones that allowed us to discover our own sound through synthesizing what we liked about their music. Atheist, Sadus, and Cynic’s large bass presence was very influential, and all the bands’ speed, creative sense of melody, and progressive notes were things we wanted to try and capture. Hellwitch is probably the least known of all those bands, so I’ll take this time to say to your readers: please go listen to them if you’re not familiar with their work! Pat, JP, Brian, and Jason are all incredible musicians and great people. I take much pleasure in giving them my money every time I see the band live, and implore you to do the same. Urgh!! Crush the cross! Jerk off on the bible!!! (I don’t know if you’re allowed to print that.)

13. What was the most difficult track on the album to finish, and why?

On the Stage of Death’s structure was really tough to get sounding right, as I mentioned before, so I might have to nominate that one for this. The other song that comes to mind is the title track. Evie wrote it front-to-back, words and music, and it was very, very tough to get it all down and sound clean due to its high complexity. Very out-there track.

14. How did working with engineers like Ferny Coipel and John Sample shape the final result?

Ferny rules. The Shack North is an awesome studio and recording drums and vocals there has been great both for the EP and the full album. Ferny’s not a metal guy, really, which I think gives him a certain insight that a more metal-focused engineer would miss, especially given the fact that we want old-school sounding production. We really aren’t fans of the overly-clean and punchy modern thrash sound, “Sneaping” as it were (sorry to Mr. Andy Sneap, love your work with Sabbat), and prefer the less compressed sound of 80s thrash and death metal albums. Overkill’s The Years of Decay and Atheist’s Unquestionable Presence demos were points of reference for what we wanted to attain with the mix, and Ferny was able to achieve a great sound. Chris Barcia, who did the mastering on the album and is the bassist for fellow Florida death metallers Hexorcist (fucking great band, by the way), gave the mix an extra clarity and really nailed the sound we wanted. Thank you, Chris! As for the elusive and cryptic Mr. Sample, I’m afraid I can’t say much without giving away his identity. He lives, breathes, and exudes the aura of the shadowy darkness of a muggy Hialeah night. He gained his wisdom playing in death metal bands throughout the state in the early 90s, some well-known names here and there. A run-in with law enforcement in 1999 turned his life down a dark path. I can’t say I know much about what he’s doing now. But what I do know is he knows how to get a nice guitar sound, like his life depends on it. Mr. Sample has not responded to our request for comment about his involvement in the creation of this LP.

15. The album blends technical precision with a darker cinematic edge. Was that contrast intentional from the start?

For sure! We adore some nice contrasts in our music, and creating parts which go from crazy fast and twisted passages to epic melodic moments was very important for us while writing. I hope listeners like how it turned out!

16. How do you approach writing vocals that keep up with such intricate instrumentation?

On instinct, really. I have no particular approach to creating vocal cadences. I do tend to prefer more syncopated and wordy cadences than some other vocalists, which obviously bites me in the ass when I have to figure out how to drum and sing the songs at the same time, but I think it hopefully creates some uniqueness in our sound. A few big inspirations for me in terms of vocals are the Cynic ‘91 demo and Ripping Corpse’s Dreaming with the Dead. Both are masterpieces of death metal with awesome and memorable vocal performances.

17. What does the Florida death metal scene mean to you today compared to its legacy?

I think for some people who don’t live here, especially people outside the US, there might be a conception of the old Tampa Bay area death metal scene, which spawned death metal’s most famous household names, still existing in that same form today. That is not the case. We all obviously have love and reverence for the original Florida death metal bands, but the scene today is quite a different beast! Really, the scene that is most similar in energy (not in music, though) to how Florida death metal was back then is the super-active South Florida hardcore scene. People show up to shows, mosh their asses off, get crazy injuries, and are back to do it again at the next show. It’s fucking badass! And despite us not fitting in musically with the hardcore crowd, I’ve found there are plenty of people who dig us and have been very receptive to us, even if we are losers who like Hellwitch and Hexx and other weirdo shit like that. The metal scene down here isn’t quite as active as the younger hardcore scene but is also home to some great, creative bands that we all love a lot and have proudly shared the stage with, as well as some of the most awesome defenders of the faith out there who will gladly put you onto all kinds of crazy, obscure bands. We’re very grateful for all the friends we’ve made through music down here, and our special thanks list on the album has more people than seems reasonable to include in a CD booklet.

18. How do you translate this level of technicality into a live setting without losing intensity?

We’ve always been a band that believes in doing things pretty stripped-down, and we tend to forgo complicated overdubs or anything like that despite our musical complexity, so when we write the songs, however we play them while rehearsing is pretty much how we intend for them to end up on the record. So I don’t think there’s a big discrepancy between the live experience and the album. Generally speaking, I think we tend to err on the side of intensity rather than technicality. In other words, it’s O.K. if you flub a couple of notes as long as we sound boosted as fuck and make people want to mosh and do backflips.

19. What emotions do you hope listeners walk away with after hearing the album in full?

We’d obviously like for people to be caught off-guard by the speed and craziness, but I hope the melodic core that drives our songwriting can connect with people. I would be very happy to hear someone felt moved by one of the more emotional sections in our music.

20. If Upon the Twisted Throne were a visual experience, what would it look like?

I think the album cover hits quite a few of the notes there, thanks to Stephanie D-Sorensen’s sick art, but generally speaking, I guess I’d picture contrasts between intense luminosity and darkness, bright colors, futuristic battlefields, scenes of tragic loss, and angry retribution. What has been the most important lesson learned during the making of this record? Things are always more expensive than you think.

21. Where do you see INSCRIBED heading after this release?

We have plenty of material we’ve independently worked on, and we’re all looking forward to starting back up writing sessions again for the creation of our second album. It will hopefully be a sick next step from what we’ve laid out with Upon the Twisted Throne. A bit of a boost, if you will…

22. The album title suggests power, corruption, and decay in leadership. Is Upon the Twisted Throne meant as a metaphor for real-world systems, or more of a fictional narrative world?

For now it’s acted mostly as a metaphor for real-world systems and struggles, but we do have a conception of it in a narrative way as well which we’ve been discussing as a way of connecting all of our album covers through a sort-of continuity. I think we’ll probably explore some of that in the lyrics on the upcoming album. It’ll be some crazy sci-fi shit!

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