Genocide Pact - Interview 2/04/14 - Metal Through and Through

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!