I remember reading an advertisement in Metal Maniacs magazine around '89 for
Obituary's "Slowly We Rot". The add was a simple one liner that read something like, "...the heaviest album ever recorded...". As a 13 year old kid, that made it a must own, so I picked it up on cassette the next time my parents took me to the mall. God bless my parents, they were trying to take an interest in what I was into, and asked if I wanted to listen to it on the way home. I unwrapped it, handed it to my dad, and sat in the back seat absolutely shitting my pants to the Obituary sound on the way home with my folks.
My listening habits between metal and punk/hardcore are very much cyclical. For the past couple years, I've been pretty punk/hardcore exclusive. However, when DC metallers,
Genocide Pact dropped their demo in Fall of 2013, their stripped down style rekindled my one love, Death Metal. Tim Mullaney from
G-Pact was cool enough to answer a few questions...
You guys have a strong
pedigree with other bands you play in. Tell us who’s in Genocide Pact,
what other bands you play in, and how Genocide Pact came together.
Nolan
and I are also in a grindcore band called Disciples of Christ. Connor also
plays in Protestor, Abuse., and Red Death. I met Connor when he lived in North
Carolina through our other bands. We hit it off through shared interests in
Chaos A.D. era Sepultura and Morbid Angel. He moved up to DC last summer and we
started jamming and writing the demo pretty much immediately. I asked Nolan to
play bass because he's the man.
You put out a 4 song demo in
the Fall of 2013, it was available on cassette and you later pressed it for a
tour. Is Genocide Pact a full time project or is this more of a Harmony Corruption one off? What
are your plans for the band in 2014?
G-Pact
is definitely a full time project. I just moved into Connor’s house so we can
finish writing for a full length that will be out later this year. We probably
won’t tour super heavily before the record is out besides a few weekends here
and there.
How has the response been to
Genocide Pact? Where did your tour take you and who did you get to play
with?
I
think the response has exceeded our expectations. DC is a very punk oriented city, so it has
been cool that people are into it at home. Our first tour was amazing and we
were fortunate enough to play with sick bands like Act of Impalement, Dridge,
Sex Prisoner, Mellow Harsher, Weekend Nachos, Rectal Hygienics, Atomik, Living
Void, Traitor Crucifix, Pizza Hi Five, and Callous.
As
someone who grew up on Death Metal, I appreciate your banal approach to the
genre. Besides the obvious, where to do draw some of your influence?
Is the classic Death Metal sound something we can expect in future
Genocide Pact releases?
Our
main influences are Sepultura, Obituary, Bolt Thrower, Carcass and other
classic death metal stuff. Aside from the obvious stuff, we are influenced by a
lot of hardcore punk and thrash. But we won’t be throwing any curveballs on the
LP.
For
me, straight up Death Metal was/is more about the full length album and
punk/hardcore, despite having a gazillion classic full lengths of their own, was
more live show centric. With your ties to grindcore/powerviolence, are
you bringing more of a punk mindset to Death Metal (DIY, small vinyl releases,
live shows)?
The
punk mindset is definitely there in that we are a DIY band. I recorded the
demo, Nolan put it out on his label, we book our own tours, etc. Other than that our ties to
grind/powerviolence are no more than ties, we have other bands for that. G-Pact
is a metal band through and through. As far as releases go we are probably more
metal in that sense. Our songs are a lot longer than our other bands, so I feel
like it makes more sense to write for us to write an LP rather than a bunch of
7 inches.
Grindcore
seems to be in an innovation period, however Death Metal seems to have become a
bit stagnant, in my opinion of course. What’s your take on the current
state of Death Metal? Is there anything happening in Death Metal that has
you excited?
I
just tend to think that anything considered “innovative” in modern death metal
kind of sucks because it is usually associated with wanky technical stuff.
However, there are definitely some death metal bands out now that rip like
Ilsa, Innumerable Forms, and Mammoth Grinder.
There
have always been aspects of Death Metal in Grindcore. Playing a straight
style of Death Metal, have you encountered any philosophical/idealist
differences between kids who are strictly into Death Metal and kids who are
into Grindcore/Powerviolence?
It
seems like the two groups aren’t mutually exclusive. A lot of punks are into
metal and vice versa.
There’s
a eugenic reference in your gatefold, a particular creepy belief/practice.
Is that where you guys come from lyrically, unsettling subject matters,
or do your lyrics come from a more personal place?
The
lyrics deal with social issues and have a generally bleak outlook on society. I
didn’t want to write some cheesy gore or satanic shit. I’ve always been into
bands like Sepultura or Terrorizer that wrote about fucked up things that take
place in reality. Those particular lyrics are about the history of eugenics in
the U.S. and the implications it has on modern society.
You
just played a show with Thrash gods Morbid Saint. How was that experience
and how did the show come about?
That
show was cool as fuck, probably my favorite show we’ve played at home. A friend
of ours got them to play at a spiritual center on her school’s campus and asked
us if we wanted to play. It was cool that Ilsa and Noisem both played because
they are two of the bigger metal bands from the area and the Ilsa dudes are old
friends of ours.
There
seems to be a lot of strong bands coming out of the Northeast. This zine
is out of Kansas City, Missouri. Are there any bands/labels/zines/venues
in your area that we need to know about down here?
Some
of the bands around that really bring it are Ilsa, Coke Bust, Triac, Drugs of
Faith, and Midnight Eye. There are a ton of young bands coming out of DC that
all rip, including Public Suicide, Pure Disgust, Misled Youth, Vile Faith, and
Zoom. As far as labels go, Nolan has a sick one called Malokul.
Where
can people go to listen to your stuff? Who can people contact for
tour/release/merch inquiries?
Our
demo is up free at genocidepact.bandcamp.com. We have merch up at
disciplesofchrist.storenvy.com. For booking you can email me at
timothyhmullaney@gmail.com.
I
appreciate you taking the time to do this interview. In a blast filled
world, I found your demo super refreshing. Feel free to say or plug
anything else that hasn’t been covered that you would like people know.
Thanks
for doing the interview!