INTERVIEW: Malcolm Pugh – Inferi

Technical death metal has come a long way since those first complex rhythms and face-melting solos ripped ears wide open in the 1990s. Now, death metal’s most complex style is very much its own beast populated with bands who push the boundaries of skill and extremity to the very limit. INFERI are one such band. Across their 12 year career, they have forged a worthy and absolutely punishing sound and yet, they still somewhat are flying under the radar in the progressive scene. Four years have passed since the excellent The Path of Apotheosis and armed with a new lineup comes Revenant, a record that will surely push INFERI to the forefront of progressive and technical death metal. We spoke with guitarist and sole original member Malcolm Pugh to get the lowdown on the upcoming record and how they hope to cement their place in modern technical death metal!

So, Revenant is set for release in April this year! What can fans expect from this upcoming album?

Malcolm: We are very happy with the results of this album because the line up really endured a huge upgrade. I think the fans can expect more of the catch and melodic lead work, virtuosic bass work, more epic symphonic elements and the best vocals of any of our albums to date.

Revenant arrives four years since The Path of Apotheosis. How has the band developed in that time?

Malcolm: We’ve grown a lot. Musically, we are more mature and open-minded and the new line-up, brought in more influences that really flavor our music in a tasteful manner.

This album is the first with your new lineup. What have the new members brought to the sound of INFERI?

Malcolm: With the addition of Sam Schneider on vocals and Joel Schwallier on bass, we really stepped up our game with these elements. The goal was to evolve our sound just enough to mesh with the new members, but not too much to violate our fan’s ears. It’s definitely a more mature album than The Path of Apotheosis and I think we took the right amount of risks musically to keep things interesting.

This will be your fourth full-length record. Has the process of making new records become easier for you and have you very much found your sound now?

Malcolm: This was a difficult album to write mostly because of the success of our last album with the addition of new members. However, all of our albums are difficult to create because of perfectionism we have to balance when crafting the music. The fifth album is about 40% written already, so I think that it will get a lot easier now that we have members that are fully dedicated to the band. But, I enjoy the challenges, so I don’t ever want it to become too easy because that struggle is what helps us push ourselves as musicians.

Can you describe the writing and recording process for Revenant?

Malcolm: Every song usually has it’s own character because Mike and I have different approaches to writing. We tend to work on our own material and send it back and forth to each other and create ideas based on the others work. This time around, mostly everyone in the band had the means to record at home, which really gives us an edge over the past albums. That kind of control over recording is something that I think we will continue for as long as we can. It’s a highly technical and punishing record and the musicianship on show is certainly impressive. How difficult was the creative process for you? We have a tendency to write more music than we need at the moment. Which I think is a good problem to have, because it gives us the ability to cherry-pick our favorite elements for the current album and have material on hand for the next that we can enhance in the future. I think we took a few risks musically, but they work for the album as a whole in my opinion.

Were there any hurdles you had to come to bring this record to life?

Malcolm: The main hurdle was time. We played a few shows during the recording process, which I hate doing. I wanted the album out late last year, but I think the stars are aligning for us to be more consistent with future albums.

What themes, messages and concepts does this new album explore?

Malcolm: The concept of the album picks up after our second album The End of an Era and is based on Dante’s Inferno with our own twist on mythos on the story. There isn’t really a message with Revenant. Our lyrics are heavily fantasy based because we want to keep it fun and open-ended. I don’t ever want to dive into politics or anything like that with our songs. Not directly at least.

The record features guest appearances from James Malone of ARSIS and Trevor Strnad of THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER. Can you describe what it was like working with these musicians and what do you feel they bring to the record?

Malcolm: First, I must say what an honour it was to work with both of these legendary musicians. INFERI was heavily influenced by both of their bands, so working with them is a dream come true. James is a phenomenal guitarist and his solo adds a completely different vibe to that song that we are extremely happy with. Trevor is a gem of a vocalist, to say the least. Having his vocals on Behold was really cool because he played the voice of Lucifer in the storyline.

And with the record set to see the light of day in April, what do you hope to achieve with Revenant?

Malcolm: I definitely want us to tour as much as we all can to support the release. We’ve built a surprisingly sizeable following with very little touring and I think that is a great foundation for us to finally make the move to focus on the road a bit more.

Technical death metal has really exploded in the past several years with bands pushing the style forward. With so many bands in the scene now, how do you view the competition? Do you think the scene is healthy and what do you think INFERI have to stand out from the pack?

Malcolm: The genre has come a long way, which is not surprising when the sky is the limit with this genre. I think the online scene is pretty healthy and there are a lot of fans of technical death metal all around the globe. I don’t think there are as many tech bands like other genres out there actually trying to tour and build that kind of fan base, which I would love to see change. Sadly, that is up to the fans to go to shows when a band tours, but I think we will get there. I feel that the younger metal listeners appreciate it a lot more than the old heads. As far as us standing out from the pack, I’d like to think we have our own sound. Yes, we are melodic, use symphonic elements and aren’t reinventing any wheels, but I think our songwriting and live shows have a lot of energy and hopefully, as we keep doing this, we will find more ways to expand what we do to separate ourselves even further.

And once the record is out, I imagine the plan moves to touring in support of your new record. What touring plans do you have for the rest of 2018 and can we expect to see Inferi on UK shores in the near future?

Malcolm: We would love to tour overseas! Hopefully sometime down the road, we will get the chance to do that, but for now, we are going to try and conquer our own land and do a few more tours this year. We will be touring more this year and we aren’t going to go away anytime soon, I can tell you that.

To close, we’ll offer you the floor. Do you have anything to say to the readers of Distorted Sound?

Malcolm: I want to thank everyone that has ever supported our music in any way and anyone that has been inspired by it, it means so much to us! Without each and every one of you, we would not be able to do the things are and will be doing. So, Thank you all and thank you, distorted sound, for taking the time to chat. Cheers!

Revenant is set for release on April 21st via The Artisan Era.

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