Formation de vétérans de la scène métal du New Jersey, FUNEBRARUM s’est remis au travail près de six années après son seul et unique album. Avec un split album avec INTERMENTà venir prochainement sous l’égide de Conqueror of Thorns records, il était tant de faire le point sur la carrière du groupe avec Daryl Kahan également chanteur d’ABAZAGORATH. Quand un pur et dur se met à table, ça donne l’entretien qui suit :

VS - I've read FUNEBRARUM was a Nick Orlando's idea how did you came in this project with Dave ?
DARYL: FUNEBRARUM was spawned from the ashes of my solo project ,ORCUS. After having known Nick for many years and sharing the same musical taste we starting talking about forming a death metal band. We asked Dario Derna , vocalist of ABAZAGORATH and EVOKEN Keyboardist (at the time) to join us on drums (Dario was also the drummer in West coast bands, MEATSHITS and INFESTER). We wrote and recorded our first demo as a three piece unit with Nick handling the bass tracks. Dave joined shortly after.

VS - Was it a need to start something different than ABAZAGORATH ?
DARYL: I think it came naturally due to all of our years of involvment and interest in the death metal underground scene. I had been writing riffs in this vein long before we formed the band. ABAZAGORATH and EVOKEN are brother bands I guess so it was only a matter of time something musical developed in between.

VS - It seems you've been deeply influenced by finnish bands for the composition of "Beneath the Columns..." but there's also a little touch of BOLT THROWER sometimes. Are you agree with this vision medias can have of your music ?
DARYL: I would say you have discovered something in our coffin but not the graveyard. We do still enjoy this style very much but intend to take our heavy old school foundation and expand it into darker areas and skill levels.

VS - I'm agree about the fact you're not a simple copy but...
DARYL: But what? We play heavy downtuned death metal in a dark style which not many bands did or are doing. At least we dont sound like the thousands of other clones and novelty bands of today. FUNEBRARUM have our own strong identity and if some "old people" can recognize our age and influences then great otherwise their opinions of what we do are not the least bit important to us.
Unfortunately it has become slightly trendy to play "old school" We will turn into a rock band before that gets ruined as well. Maybe we should sound like old thrash, AUTOPSY, VENOM, DARKTHRONE, BATHORY or BURZUM.. Kill novelty bands and gimmicks!!

VS - well maybe the point was just to educate metal kids. That wasn't for old metal farts like us...;)
DARYL: I guess alot of today's death metal sucks and we wanted to play heavy music with a dark atmosphere.

VS - Do you feel frustrated or flattered when you're reading this kindda analysis about your music ?
DARYL: Lets ask INFERNO about VENOM, CRAFT about DARKTHRONE or MURDER SQUAD about AUTOPSY now that would be cool. If somebody even knows who FUNEBRE is we think that is more interesting than any newer bands but we are not trying to sound exactly like FUNEBRE or be a copy band by any means.

VS - Let's talk a little about this first album. You've recorded it in 2000 if I'm not wrong but it was released by Necroharmonic in 2002 did you release it first as an self produced record ?
DARYL: This album originally was recorded as our second demo. We ended up with a decent recording which was circulated in very small numbers. A record deal came two years later offering to release this second demo as an album. We remixed the demo and released it as "Beneath The Columns of Abandoned Gods"

VS - When I'm listening your answer I have the feeling you didn't really search a label...
DARYL: We actually sent the demo to Earache , who expressed interest in the band but we didnt pursue it that much. Necroharmonic was the best choice for us.

VS - but you mostly promote it in USA don't you ?
DARYL: We are starting to promote heavily worldwide. We do trade with our friends in europe to spread copies of our releases there. The label takes care of most of that. Now we are currently working on writing our second album which is tentatively titled "Perish Beneath".

VS - It's sometimes difficult for bands to cross the Atlantic Ocean (and that's true for european bands too)
DARYL: yes it is true ..and difficult to tour but our ABAZAGORATH tour of Europe with DEMONCY and KRIEG was killer. I can say that the fans and crowds in Europe are alot more into Metal than in the US. The scene in New york is not as great as it once was. The european scene rules.

VS - to go on about your first album, that's difficult to imagine this recording was a simple demo.
DARYL: Thank you. We remixed it several times and the studio was quite good so we ended up with decent debut album and nice piece of hell. Many drunken nights in the studio with our crazy russian engineer behind the mixing board. This recording was alot of fun but also stressful at times.

VS - I guess the first press was sold out for ages...
DARYL: Yes we decided to re-issue "Beneath..." with improved artwork and sound. It had been sold out for a few years and Roy simply re-released it after I -re-worked our cover painting and layout a bit more. I think it
looks better. Originally a label in Italy was going to release a vinyl version of "Beneath..." with two bonus tracks but it never came out.

VS - What about this ep you're supposed to record with EVISCIUM ?
DARYL: Well that has been an idea Mark Mastro (EVISCIUM/ROTTREVORE) and I have been talking for a long time. I am not sure how active EVISCIUM are at this point but we would still be interested in working with them.

VS - Oh really ? That's great. I guess you're a ROTTREVORE fan
DARYL: Yes ROTTREVORE were an excellent band who I got to see live a few times. I designed the ROTTREVORE discography CD which was cool project to work on. Released by Necroharmonic.

VS - and I've read something about a project with Kam Lee's new band...
DARYL: We came in contact with Wes Rhodes of DEKAPITATOR years ago. He offered FUNEBRARUM a split with his new band CADAVERIZER, featuring Kam Lee. Eventually CADAVERIZER band split up and Wes decided to release the 7"ep as a FUNEBRARUM release titled "Dormant Hallucination". He did a great job with
this record.

VS - another out of print release...
DARYL: Yes I have several copies hidden here.

VS – I’ve heard you have some new members in the band since a few. Tell me more about them.
DARYL - After several years without a decent replacement on drums we eventually found Shaun Eldrige. An incredibly skilled drummer with tons of power and speed. We started working with Shaun in the studio as a 4 piece when an old friend, Matt Medeiros agreed to join on second guitar. Both of these guys are incredibly skilled musicians who bring a tremendous amount of power and dimension into the band. This line-up is definately the strongest we have had so far.

VS – I guess it was great for the band to solidify the line-up this way. Let’s talk about your upcoming release. Few month ago FUNEBRARUM was working on two albums at the same time and now it seems you’ve changed your mind to release a split album. Explai
DARYL - Once we solidified a new line-up, we started to write and focus on our second album as well as another CD release scheduled on the Japanese label, Weird Truth. A few months later I got in contact with Johan and INTERMENT to discuss my label (Morbid Wrath Records) releasing their discography album. We soon became friends and decided we should make a split album between our bands. INTERMENT are an excellent old Death Metal band from Sweden have returned to kick some serious ass. Our split "Conjuration of the Sepulchral" was supposed to be a quick project but it took longer than we expected. It is almost ready will be released on the american label, Conqueror of Thorns. It looks and sounds brutal as fucking hell!!
We still intend to work with Weird Truth for a Japanese release but that is after the split and our upcoming new album which will be released on Necroharmonic Productions.

VS – A split album with INTERMENT, a full release with Necroharmonic soon. All you need now is some intensive tours. Do you have some in plans ?
DARYL - FUNEBRARUM will be playing Party San festival in Germany which wil be
the first gig of our european tour in August 2007. We have invited INTERMENT
to join us as well as a few other well know death grind bands.

VS – I think we’ll have to talk about this new album when it will be available. That’s it for the interview. Thanks for your time.
DARYL - Thanks Thierry for the interview and interest in FUNEBRARUM. Support
Violent Solutions Webzine. More info soon. We will have new t-shirts and other merchandise soon.



Related links :
http://www.funebrarum.com
http://www.conquerorofthorns.com
http://www.necroharmonic.com