Cemetery Filth’s debut album, Dominion, has been among the heap of every self respecting death metal fan’s top albums of 2020 so far. Having listened to it countless times since its release myself, I knew I had to learn more about this savage beast of an album. Who better to talk to than Cemetery Filth guitarists Matt Kilpatrick and Ryan Guinn? I sat down with this dynamic duo of death as they discussed the making of Dominion and the ongoing journey of Cemetery Filth.
Matt and Ryan, welcome to Defenders of the Faith! Thank you for taking the time to do this.
Matt Kilpatrick: Thank you for having us!
You are the founding members of Cemetery Filth, correct?
MK: We are the last two remaining founding members.
How did you and Ryan meet and when did you decide to start the band?
MK: Well, we all wanted to do a project like this and our original bassist was the connecting point for us. He knew Ryan and had been talking to him for years. He met me through another friend and I guess we were within a couple hours from each other. So it was like, maybe we should start a project. I went up and jammed with him one day. Ryan and I became best buds that day pretty much.
Ryan Guinn: We clicked. I think the first song on the EP was knocked out our first time playing together.
Which serves as the perfect lead to the next question. Not long after you formed, you released your debut EP, Screams from the Catacombs (2014). It was met with wide acclaim within the death metal underground. This may come off as brash, but why did it take so long to release Dominion?
MK: Ryan, you wanna take this one?
RG: Yeah, I mean, we’ve been self aware as a band or at least as Matt and I and now with Devin that’s been with us for a pretty considerable amount of time. There’s been external forces in the way of…anytime you have 4 or 5 lives coming together, in that sense, you’re gonna have external forces that are gonna have effects. That relates to the members situation over time. And not to just throw out excuses, but I know a lot of it has been us being too critical and too particular in not wanting to just be satisfied with something. We want to refine it and make it something that we not only enjoy, but are proud of, instead of blazing through songs and throwing them on a record.
MK: Yeah it’s always been important for us to write things that feel right. I think Ryan and I can write a whole album in one day, but it’s not gonna be our best work. It needs to be something that you want to come back to and listen to. Also, I don’t know if a lot of people know this, but during the entire span of the band, members have been split up through at least 3 different states. Currently we’re at 4 different states. And we’re actually moving better now at 4 states!
RG: That’s what’s crazy! But I think a lot of it has to do with the mindset. Now that we’ve hit this major milestone, we have this record out, things are about as stable as they have been.
Well the wait paid off. Dominion is a fantastic record with many old school influences. Perhaps most notably, the influence of Morbid Angel. However, unlike many OSDM bands today, Cemetery Filth puts a fresh and unique take on this classic sound. How do you stride the line between wearing your influences on your sleeves while not sounding like a ripoff?
MK: Well, I think like Ryan said, we’re meticulous about it. We’re not gonna throw out anything. There will be times when we’re writing a riff and we’ll have one riff and say, “A cool Autopsy part could come after this!”. We’ll try to write a riff that has that feel, but it’s not going to sound EXACTLY like Autopsy. That’s been done. There’s no way in hell we’re gonna do better. You’ve gotta change it up and add your own flair to it. I think as a band we’ve always progressed. Our influences show, but we want to blend it all together and put it out in a more creative fashion that’s a little more unique.
We’ve talked about the time that went into making the record and lineup changes. The latest addition to your ranks is drummer Chris McDonald who also plays in Ectovoid. Has his inclusion influenced your sound in any way? If so, how?
RG: Immediately! It immediately influenced our sound from the live perspective. We had a limited amount of time rehearsing with Chris. Performing that first show with him was incredible. It was a pretty awesome feeling to have him as a part of the band. I think this album is really a highlight of him. There’s a reason he’s involved in so many awesome projects.
MK: He’s been a friend since the very beginning. I think I met him before our first show. Ectovoid played our first show and we’ve played with them tons over the years. I’ve always loved them. They’ve always loved us. They’re in Birmingham which is two and a half hours from Atlanta, but we’re the closest city for them, so they come play here a lot. We’ve always played shows together. We’ve always hung out. They’re good dudes and so talented. Chris is a mind blowing drummer. I don’t think he gives himself the credit he deserves. He’s very clean and precise and thinks about things a lot. It definitely showed in the studio. He was very meticulous to the point where we were ready to strangle him. But I’m so glad he was that way because we did get something we’re very proud of and it sounds great. It’s good to have somebody like that in the band. Somebody that wants to improve themselves, makes sure they’re giving their best work. It helps us in the long run. I think we had between 6 and 8 total practices with Chris before we went into the studio to record the album. A lot of those songs were being made in those practices. We definitely worked hard on the riffs, but putting it all together as a final song didn’t happen until we were all in the room together. But yeah, Chris is such a great addition to the band. We love him. He’s a good dude.
Let’s talk about some of the songs on Dominion. There are technical influences throughout, but most dominant on the opener, “Subduction”. How did that song come to be?
MK: That’s actually one of the oldest songs we wrote pieces of. Ryan met me at my parents’ place in Brevard, North Carolina, a tiny little mountain town. We spent a weekend there and just wrote. He came up with that intro riff, started jamming on it, and then I added stuff behind it. We just built other riffs that seemed to fit together with it, but we didn’t complete it until this past summer. We made some riffs together in my old living room and it came out that way. I really like that song. It became the perfect opener.
RG: When it began to take shape, we knew it was going to be the album opener. It had that commanding feel to it.
There are also thrash influences, but without fully veering into death/thrash territory like Sepultura or Possessed. On that note, who are your favorite thrash metal bands?
MK: I think we both would instantly say Slayer. Overall, I think Slayer is the biggest thrash band that’s influenced Cemetery Filth. Ryan would say Metallica. I would say Megadeth. We love all sorts of other stuff like Devastation, Sepultura, Possessed if you count them as a thrash band which I do. I love Coroner, Sodom, a lot of the German stuff. There’s a lot of great stuff out there.
RG: Yeah, you nailed it. We’ve been in a band together so long we don’t touch on it, but it used to be back and forth Metallica vs. Megadeth. I know we have things that we love about both. But yeah, Slayer by far…the riffs…Hanneman…
I’ve always felt a great album needs a memorable closer to leave a lasting impression. Dominion certainly does this with its 8 minute title track and specifically, the gargantuan riff that makes up the last 3 minutes. Which one of you is responsible for that?
MK: That riff is actually the second half of the acoustic instrumental before the song (“From Euphonic Crypts”). It was one of the first things I ever wrote on guitar. It’s super simple, just walking up a scale and down. I wrote that when I didn’t know how to play anything. It stuck with me all these years. When I ended up playing the weird death metal chorded version, it was like, “Woah! That’d be a cool outro!” And it came together like that.
In my review, I compared it to the old Looney Tunes when the anvil would come out of the sky and “BAM!”
MK: *laughs* Yeah we wanted it to be very heavy. We obviously love to play fast, but good death metal to me is not just fast. It’s got slow parts, really toxically slow chuggy shit, mid placed stuff with a thrash beat. I like a mix of everything. That’s why I like bands like Morbid Angel. That’s why I will always say Scream Bloody Gore *points to Scream Bloody Gore tattoo* is the first death metal album. Possessed got really close with Seven Churches, but it was mostly thrash stuff. You can have thrash in death metal, but I think death metal has to have all of it at some point.
Here’s one to appease the gearheads. What equipment did you use (guitars/amps) to record the album?
RG: It was pretty cool how we went about it. We tracked simultaneously, Matt and I together. I used a Kemper Profiler. Back when we toured with Church of Disgust, I made a profile of an ENGL Ironball and put drive and delay on it. The Kemper is a piece of technology that’s smarter than I, by far. I feel like I’m playing on a space station. It gives a little light show too, my personal little R2-D2. It’s killer and stands up to the wave of sound Matt and Devin brings live, so I’m happy with it. For guitars, I’ve always been an Ibanez guy. I have two Japanese RGs. They play well and have been very good to me. They’re durable and stay in tune, especially with the bar stuff. I’ve had some version of the RG ever since the band began. I know Matt is a Marshall guy.
MK: Yep my rig is a Marshall TSL JCM2000. I love it. It was my first amp. I lucked out and got one I actually liked. The guitar I used was this BC Rich Ironbird. I started with the BC Rich guitar and I actually went to Jackson for a little bit. I still like Jackson, but I just love weird shapes. I love seeing old Mockingbirds in glam videos.
They’re just cool!
MK: Yeah they catch your eye!
Dominion was released on one of the premiere death metal labels today, Unspeakable Axe Records. You released a couple splits through them, so I assume it made sense to release the full length through them as well?
MK: Yeah! Eric, the head of Unspeakable Axe, was at our first show. He had just signed Shards of Humanity and put out their first album, Fractured Frequencies (2014). He was out there just to check it out and see them. We just talked to him. I ended up sending him a tape and drew this cool zombie scene on his letter that caught his eye. He’s always been good to us and been a good friend. We see eye to eye. He takes care of us and hooks us up. As long as we can, we’ll always stick by Eric. Unspeakable Axe is a great label and I wish people would pay more attention to some of his other releases because everything he’s put out is pretty damn stellar. They’re the only label I own every release from except maybe one release.
RG: We kept that in mind as the record started to take shape. We knew we wanted it to be something Eric would be proud to release. He’s been nothing short of a cornerstone of our band. He’s the reason we’ve been able to maintain through everything.
I love hearing stuff like that because not every band can boast that artist/label relationship.
MK: I say that all the time. I’m so thankful. I got lucky with my first amp, but we got lucky with our first label. I hear label nightmare stories all the time from my peer. I’m glad we’ve got such a good relationship with Eric.
In closing, I know it’s hard to predict anything at this point, but what would you say are Cemetery Filth’s plans for the near future?
MK: Well, we would still love to play our album release show, but I don’t know if that’s gonna happen. It might be the one year anniversary show at this point! I know we’re going to keep writing. I don’t know if we’re even going to be willing to play shows for a while after they come back, just to play it safe. We don’t want to get sick and we especially don’t want to get anyone else sick. I know we want to do a good tour. That was the plan for the fall and it immediately fell apart. It’s unfortunate, but we’re gonna keep writing. If we have to, we’ll just do a tour for the next release, whether it’s an EP or an album or whatever we wanna do.
RG: We had lots of plans and a lot to look forward to, but we just have to take it as it is and go from there. We’ll definitely make the best of it. When we get to do a release show, it’ll be a good time. I’m excited to keep writing and see what we can turn out next.
Well guys, thanks again for taking the time to speak to Defenders of the Faith. I love Dominion. It rules and I hope you keep up the good work!
MK: Thanks!
RG: Thanks, we appreciate that.