interview: Dilapidation

For years the death doom monument known as Dilapidation (Washington state, U.S.) has been launching heaviness toward the universe. Now they are on course to conquer in the extreme doom world with a new album called Transcending the Void. Reach out for your seatbelt and your bulletbelt because you will need them both. Their sound is perfect for those that like death doom and its close cousin, sludge. This is the new face of Dilapidation and it’s a great new adventure for the band. Let’s hope that the extreme doom fanatics hear about this album because once they hear the music itself, they should be convinced. If they are not convinced, why not?! Listen to the complete album at the first link below.

Congratulations on your new album of doom heaviness! Hello, Dilapidation! You have a new album, Transcending the Void, your debut and it was released in December of 2016! How much satisfaction do you feel now that the world can finally hear Dilapidation music at its best sound quality ever?! How is 2017 for you all?

Hello and thank you! Abraham here (bass/vocals). So far 2017 has been treating us pretty well considering all things. We are all greatly satisfied and excited to have finally gotten around to releasing our debut. It was truly a labor of love for all of us and we could not be happier with the results. We always knew that a full-length was inevitable and have played with the idea since we formed, but alas time and life had a funny way of holding things up. On top of which we recorded the entire album ourselves at my studio (Ham & Eggs) which saved us considerable stress that going elsewhere would have likely caused. Doing it on our own provided many luxuries and definite leisure, which is priceless when you have a hectic schedule already.

For the record, can you explain how many people are in the band? How long has each person been in the band? Is everyone an original member? Is it correct that the band started in 2012? What was going on in Seattle at the time that you decided start a band?

There are 3 of us in Dilapidation and the only two remaining original members are myself and Jerald our drummer. Our guitar player Sean joined the band 2014 I believe at which time I moved from guitar to bass. We did in fact start in 2012 in September if I am not mistaken and played our first show at the very beginning of 2013. The Dilapidation moniker was actually a solo project I had started in 2009 playing death metal in the style of Cannibal Corpse and Suffocation, but I abandoned it for other projects at the time. I really do not recall the climate musically in Seattle at the time of our inception, but I know that death/doom metal was not really of much interest. Jerald and I were both in punk bands prior/during the early years of Dilapidation. Jerald was in the band SuperNothing and I am still in the band Misuse of Power. Sean was between projects when he joined but was part of the band Omega Dawn just prior to joining with us.

On the demos Dilapidation sounds like a band that wants to sound genuine, not too computerized, not too polished by way of technology tricks and programs to change the sound of the band. Were you going for that "live sound" style for your band? Has your thinking changed?

Actually the sound of the early demos was in part from the simple fact that I am quite novice with recording techniques and tricks. I do definitely enjoy that it has that bleak and "old school" sound, but that was not entirely by design. Hahaha. The raw aesthetic and sound is definitely an integral part of the band though, that is for sure and I think that all of us understand that, as you said, sounding that was does maintain a certain genuine quality. I do prefer that Dilapidation maintains a certain level of rawness to the sound, but I do not ever disqualify polishing things a bit. That said, what most artists do to enhance their sound is utter nonsense and that I absolutely will not do.

The album is independent and you financed it all? Is that true? Where did you record? I hope that you did not get yourself in too much debt making the album?

We are definitely a "do-it-yourself" band. All of our recordings have been done at our own time with our own equipment. I use the name Ham & Eggs as the name of my studio since I have recorded other projects that do not include me. My experience is pretty much novice as I stated before, hahahaha, but I constantly learn new things and ways to approach certain aspects of recording and as a result my recordings have seen a definite upswing in quality over the years. We acquired no debt from the recording of this album or releasing it since we earned all of our cash through merch and shows. In reality, it was mostly our fans who ended up financing the album and I cannot thank everyone enough for that.

You recently played the Marduk and Incantation show, right? These kinds of shows can only raise your profile as a band. Do you plan to promote the new album with shows throughout 2017?

We did in fact play with Marduk and Incantation and it was absolutely wonderful. This was our second outing with Incantation, which is amazing to me since they are probably my biggest influence for Dilapidation. It certainly did seem to gain us more attention from the Seattle area as a lot of people at the show wanted to talk with us as well as our page getting some new attention. As of late we are playing a little less than last year and we are trying to promote the album as much as we can while also gearing up for another demo. We do have a benefit show on March 27 at the Substation in Ballard for our good friend Wes. He is one of the most badass dudes in the music world and has always been a great support for those of us in the underground. The show is for him, his wife and their child who is expected to be born right around the date.

Are the lyrics posted for the album on Metal Archives correct? Your band prefers a monolithic sound of heaviness. For this type of sound, you seem to have lyrics that are short lines, not too wordy. In addition, the words are not the expression of your views on politics or the government or the news, but rather they paint mental pictures. What is your thinking about the how the lyrics should function for your band and for your songs?

At a glance the lyrics for Transcending the Void on the Metal Archives appear to be correct. Hahaha. Vocals have never really been a strong suit of mine and as you mention is definitely more of another instrument. The lyrics written are to further enhance the mood the song is trying to convey. Some are slightly introspective but most are based around darkness and death and some on horror movies and Lovecraftian themes. I have admitted several times that Frozen Tomb is directly about the movie The Thing, but mostly the lyrics are about things I find interesting or are somewhat reflective. I have always had an interest in the macabre and dark things in the world. There is something enticing about the underbelly of the world around me and I would like to hope the lyrics sometimes reflect that. Going back to the sound of the band in general, our way of approaching writing is more on being massive, or as you said, monolithic as opposed to being atmospheric. Atmosphere is good, but crushing everything in sight appeals more to my nature. Hahahaha.

Related to the above question, I have noticed that in the Seattle area, there are bands making political statements because they are upset that their presidential candidate lost the election. However, your band does not have such lyrics and on Facebook I don't notice that you are ranting and raving, telling your supporters to be this or that way.

Put most simply, Dilapidation is not a political band and I have intent to allow it be. We are not here to be a point of view on a soapbox. We all have our own political ideals and in this state that can be a blessing or a curse. If bands out there want to be political with their music, that is their prerogative, but Dilapidation is here to be heavy and talk about things that haunt your dreams.

What do you think about guitar solos? The song "Doomed to Rest" does have a bit of a guitar solo, but overall, are you opposed to the idea of a little melody by way of a guitar solo? Personally, I like solos. I like the contrast that solos can have. What do you think?

Solos are perfectly great if a song needs one. I have never had any opposition to solos, and some of my favorite songs have long winded epic solos, but I am not really a fan of melody either. Hence why the songs are structured the way they are and that is probably our most notable difference from both traditional doom bands and most death/doom bands, but I understand its place in music. Some songs absolutely need leads and some I feel do not. The song "The Great End Falls From the Mouth of O'Blivion" has no leads and just plods along and sounds amazing, where as the following track "Unrest" has a rather diverse sounding solo near the end that really ties everything together. It is really more happenstance that a lot of the songs have no solos, but I have never been opposed to them being in our songs.

Finally, do you have news that you would like to mention? Thanks for your time!

As mentioned before, we have that benefit show March 27 for our friend Wes and as I mentioned briefly, we are gearing up to bring more DOOM to everyone. Hopefully by early winter. Possible tour as well later this year. All very up in the air at the moment. Hahaha. You are most welcome and thank you as well for the support!

dilapidation.bandcamp.com

facebook.com/dilapidation1

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