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Burning Down Bridges With MATT McGACHY From CRYTOPSY · HEAVY Music Interviews

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  Sure. Hey, what's up everyone? I'm Matt mcgaky, the vocalist of
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  Cryptopsy and you listen to the Heavy mag you got it come back? Thanks
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  for joining us, Chris, how you doing so stuck to be here?
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  Thank you for having me? All right? Pleasure? Mates say Cryptopsy,
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  Well we'll lead to your new album. As glomer of Burns on September eight,
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  might say, it's been a while between albums. How you feeling it's
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  stoked? Is it's great to be back to creating full length records. Throughout
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  the past eleven years, we did drop two EPs, and then we toured
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  like a lot before the pandemic, so we were extremely busy. So so
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  a lot of people think not much has happened since the self title, but
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  we have been extremely busy up until twenty nineteen. We toured like a lot,
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  and then we stopped in twenty nineteen to write a new record, and
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  then the pandemic just added a little bit more time. So what's actually changed
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  with the band in those eleven years, mate, Actually nothing has changed because
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  we are the same lineup. Twenty twelve, John was in the band,
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  so he left the band, and then since that moment, we're the same
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  four dudes that have been touring the world together. We released the Book of
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  Suffering Tom one Tome two together. Those were independent and then we signed to
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  Nuclear Blast, which is where Askamore is coming out. So those would be
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  the biggest changes. That were the longest running Cryptopsy lineup and that we signed
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  to Nuclear Blasts and we're releasing a full length record coming up on September eighth.
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  Yeah, it's gonna good. So tell us a bit more about as
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  Gomer Burns from a musical point of view and what you've gone for with it.
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  We definitely wanted to groove more. Askamore Burns is something that we worked
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  a lot on for many many years, but leading into even playing a note
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  or laying down a concept or a word, we had discussed about having sections
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  repeat longer because Cryptopsy is a very chaotic band. It has been for many
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  many years. If you go back to the first era, as I like
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  to call it, lord warm, blasphem made flesh none so vile. There
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  was eras area as in the music that were had more repetitive, repetitive,
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  sorry that we're repetitive and groove lad and while being hyper melodic. So we
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  definitely definitely wanted to include some of that while melding into the chaoticness of the
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  second era of Cryptopsy, the Mic Di Salvo era, the Whispered supremaccy the
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  and then You'll Bag. So we wanted to find our own voice while honoring
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  the legacy of those two eras and craft something that was dark and groovy,
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  which while being super chaotic, while still feeling like a cohesive song. So
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  that sounds extremely challenging, and it was, but they found a way to
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  do with And that's because Christian Donaldson, our guitarist and producer, as basically
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  a musical genius, and he labor, he works very, very very hard
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  to make it happen. So so he's Askamore Burns, is by far,
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  this new era of Cryptopsy, as I've been calling it, the most groovy,
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  dark yet melodic, chaotic music that we've released in a long time.
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  Released the singles Played the Swine and in a Bayance, so far would I
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  would decay there are a good sonic representation. What do you expect from the
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  whole album? I believe that they are. I believe that there's there's maybe
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  lacking a little bit of the darkness that's still hiding. On some of the
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  other tracks, specifically the album Closer praised the filth it ends on such a
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  dark malaise, something that just makes you feel horrible, something that makes you
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  feel uncomfortable, and that's really what we were going for. We weren't necessarily
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  going for, well, a lot of these death metal bands are doing these
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  days, blending in the black metal with the death metal. That's not something
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  that represents cryptop See. We wanted to find something that makes you feel bad,
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  that makes you feel like you wake up the next morning after a hangover.
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  That's that's what we wanted to bring to the Groove and Melody. For
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  sure. You've been quite an insane that as we were writing, and we
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  kept asking ourselves if the music was too dark and too ominous, So do
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  you I'll write on that. First, we were worried that it was too
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  far outside of the umbrella of what Cryptopsy is, because when I look at
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  Cryptopsy with its multiple eras, it's sort of like paints like an umbrella of
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  where Cryptopsy songs can fall. We can argue that The Unspoken King was outside
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  of that umbrella, and I would agree with you. We don't want to
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  make mistakes like that. Again, so so, there were certain moments,
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  specifically the ending praise the filth. It's it's so just gut wrenching. We
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  were worried it was just a bit too much, But I feel like it's
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  an interesting approach to Cryptopsy's music to include something that's just so gut wrenching.
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  So so, I mean, I'm excited to see the fans reactions that I
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  track once once the album is live, because it's not going to be a
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  single. I personally in the band, I think it's one of the best
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  songs on the records. I'm excited to hear what other people think about.
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  And there's also a cool conceptual threat on the album, the biblical stories of
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  Solomon Gomera against some modern day internet might. All that sounds quite intriguing.
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  Where did I come from? It comes from me having a podcast. I
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  have a podcast called Vox and Hops where I sit down with fellow metal musicians
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  talk about the lives of music while drinking Kilocraft beers. Since I launched the
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  podcast, I found myself being just horribly addicted to social media, the doom
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  scroll, the dopamine drip of notifications. So I you know, I want
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  to be a better human. I want to be a better version of myself.
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  So I'm working on that. But as you're like working on something,
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  it sticks in your mind. At the same time, Mike Deacappo had told
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  me that Cryptopsy's original Nameles Gomorra, and I was like, I love this.
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  How can I include this? You know by the time they'll you know,
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  we were approaching the thirtieth anniversary of the band. How can I honor
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  the legacy of the band by including this in the title? And then Sodom
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  when Goma I was doing some research of a utopia of wealth and knowledge and
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  power of the Internet. It just seems to be a parallel of that makes
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  perfect sense to me that the Internet is a beautiful place. It's amazing.
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  We're having a conversation right now thanks to the Internet being such a utopia of
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  wealth and power and knowledge and abundance. It's amazing. It's never ending the
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  Internet. But because of that, there are people and things that have happened
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  that are extremely negative, such as online bullying, people being stocks, people
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  being defamed, fake news misinformation is a better word, people being catfished.
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  It's just there's like a rabbit hole of of the dark web of just horribleness
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  out there. So I chose this topic and I just explored upon it,
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  and I dug through the Internet, which is funny to find horrible things that
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  happened in these thematics, and I chose eight of them, eight themes online
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  preachers being another one, and then just had fun and explored them, found
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  true life horrible stories that happened for about six out of eight of the stories.
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  And then I just creative writing challenged myself to take these topics and turned
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  them into something. So so I pushed myself. I put myself into a
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  particular character in the stories mindset, and then basically just free flow wrote lyrics
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  as if I was writing on a blog to keep falling into the Internet part
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  of it. So so some of the lyrics are extremely simple and brutal and
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  very vulgar, which is very far from the poetic nature of cryptopsies let's say
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  not so vile Lord worm Era, or even my other work where I was
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  more trying to be more poetic. It's far more brutal. And that's because
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  I'm trying to enter into the mind of the character, and in the mind
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  of the characters their intellectual state as well, and their intellectual mental vocabulary capacity
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  as well. That's fascinating, fascinating. And the album was written in the
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  cabinet in the forest Becca as well Mane, so that must to be pretty
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  freaky. It was what was especially freaky because we went to the one week
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  where Trump shut everything down and then COVID became like a thing, and we
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  would go to the grocery store just about every day to re stock on craft
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  beer because we would drink it all and people would like, the lines were
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  happening at the toilet, paper was disappearing, and we were like buying beer
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  like shrimps and then going back to the cottage and then like the next day
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  we were like, maybe we should, like, I don't know, buy
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  like some canned goods for our families back home in case there's nothing left.
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  So it's extremely omnous, Yeah, but going to the cabin was something that
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  we've always wanted to do. Not during the beginning of a global pandemic,
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  but we wanted to really focus because cryptopsy has always been it's not a second
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  thing. But we would go and like enter the studio after a day's work.
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  We would go to the studio on this day and then go back a
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  week later. We wanted to really focus and like really immerse ourselves in the
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  experience of writing the record, which is what happened for Askamarre Burns. And
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  then little did we know that when we I'm back home after the Cabin in
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  the Woods, I wouldn't have a job to go back to. We'd have
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  to wait a few months to do that. I love But have you got
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  any any cool ghost stories from me? Toby cabin? Did any anything happen
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  to really freaking? I was it was a brand new cabin. It wasn't
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  scary, No, it was. Well, we have some funny stories.
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  They're like like band members locking their keys in the car and having just call
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  ciaa but but but that's probably the worst thing. Yeah, I love Rally.
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  This is your third album. I's vcaalist might so didn't. You've settled
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  into the roll a bit more or a bit more comfortable with the position the
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  band, Chris, I'm finally having fun, which is which is for the
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  first time ever in my career with Kriptopsy, and I've been with the band
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  for sixteen years. I'm literally finally only enjoying myself now. Up until now.
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  It was a living up to the standards of the two previous vocals before
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  me. When I first entered the band, I had literally no idea what
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  I was doing as an extreme vocalist. I was a metal core vocalist from
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  a metalcore band, not death core as I've been called many times before.
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  I was never a death core vocalist. I was never in a band that
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  sounded like despised Icon. I was a metalcore vocalist that was chosen for the
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  band that had to because I could sing clean, so I had to learn
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  how to scream extreme vocals. It took me many, many, many many
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  years, and now finally now we were tracking the vocals, which were sponsored
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  by Overhop Canada. They gave me a bunch of beer to go drink and
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  which is what I did while recording vocals for Askamore Burns. And we had
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  so much fun. And I'm having so much fun now and we're like jamming
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  now for the tourist coming up in September in the States, the Carnival of
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  Death tour, and I'm like, this is awesome. This is like I
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  think, like the pandemic also helped me, Like you know, we were
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  touring so heavily, and then have it just be gone? Is it ever
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  going to come back? What's going on? I think I think that sort
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  of like added into my enjoyment factor too. But I'm literally starting to have
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  fun. So the journey has just begun sixteen years into my career, that's
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  right. So when you were talking about a new year before, that's what
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  you meant. Well, now now you're actually having fun, you think you
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  can take it. I'd like Lukes in I think like the new era of
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  Cryptopsy starts. I consider it this is me talking, not the band.
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  From the Tomes Onward. I feel like John coming back and doing the self
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  titled was almost like its own error was like the end of the Unspoken King
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  era because him coming back was like a redemption story, let's say. And
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  then The Tomes Onwards is a new era because it's Christian writing for the band
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  where it's just handwriting music. So I think that you can hear it.
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  You can see his voice over the Tomes and then as the Askimore burns at
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  this moment before I let you go. But we've started up doing three different
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  Spotify lists with songs from people we interview. So usually your own songs.
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  Can you give us one for a playlist to get the party started, one
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  for to save your marriage, and one for a playlist essentially end your marriage.
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  Oh okay, okay, okay, I got the getting a party started.
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  Crown of Horns. It's it's it's how can you go wrong with that?
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  It's fucking awesome. The second one was sorry, save your marriage.
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  To Save your marriage was a love song for Oh there is one. I
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  actually do have one. The Wretch of Living is a love song. It's
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  about old people, helpable people. It's about an elderly couple that, because
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  there is such pain and suffering together, instead of like suffering through their old
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  each together, they choose to kill themselves together so that one, that one
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  will save your marriage. And then the last one was one that could potentially
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  end your marriage. Praise the film that ending is. It's a sad,
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  horrible moment. Yeah, beautiful made? All right, Well, thanks very
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  much for your time to day, Matt. It's been a pleasure. Best
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  of luck when the album it comes out on September eighth, made And like
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  you say, I've had to listen to before, and you actually do sound
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  like you're having fun with the brace the congratulations and all the best. I
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  appreciate that. Thank you so much. I have a great, great,
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  great day. Awesome Brace Okay, cheers,