I recently flew out to Australia in my private jet to interview N.B. of the Aussie death metal savages, Vilifier. If you like your death metal ugly, heavy and dark, than do yourself a favor and hit up Crawling Chaos Productions to get your hands on Vilifier's "Ritual Obscuration" EP.
SFM - Greetings! Now for those reading this that don't know who you are (I'm gonna guess that's most of 'em) can you educate them on everything Vilifier. Where ya from? What sound can they expect? Who are your major influences?
NB - Gday mate, Where to start.... In a nutshell Vilifier started one night in 2007 under an old queenslander house after one too many beers and bongs, Incantation on the stereo and a direct lack of musical ability. At this stage the culprits involved were myself N.B (Lustration) Witchripper (ex Lustration, Demonreich maniac!) and Helveticunt (Abysm, Kingdom Of Decay). This was nothing more than an excuse to channel the ancient ones through alcoholic and narcotic ritual with feedback and distortion acting as the beacons towards the void, Turn the clock forward 4 years later and we are all in the same state again and have at our disposal a new drummer called Masokist (Blasmer, Ex Chemical Cascades) as Witchripper was off chasing women or something if my mind recalls correctly, At this time we had a ritual chamber/rehearsal room we shared with Lustration so we had access to recording gear (a broken 4 track) and equipment so with about 4 rehearsals we came up with 4 songs, 3 of them appeared on Rehearsal MMXI, recorded mainly to document the levels of our deprivation at the time until STI inquired about the project and after hearing the demo tracks signed the contract in blood to release the ancients unto the earth once more. That year we also recorded the two tracks that appeared on the split with Lustration.
Fast forward another year, I was then living in another state (Sydney) but the horde was kept alive by Masokist with the help of S.K (ex demonreich), J.Godkiller (ex demonreich, ex Lustration) and A.K (Abysm, Kingdom Of Decay) this lineup appeared on the Live Onslaught MMXII tape and is a recording of our set from Evil Invaders III where we played alongside Inquisition, Vomitor, Hobbs Angel Of Death, Assaulter and a heap of other death dealers and doom bringers from around Aus, This lineup minus A.K recorded the Ritual Obscuration release that was set to be released by STI until the closure of the label as I'm sure most people are aware of, this is where Wayde came to the rescue and on his label "Crawling Chaos Productions" released the first run of CDs for us, the new pressing was done by "Forgotten Wisdom Productions" in a much larger pressing but we are still in debt to Wayde for putting his money where his mouth is and releasing our shit!
Influences, in the beginning it was utter inebriation, incantation, goat molestor and my early stages of delving into the occult, these days it's less about a sound, and more about tapping that primal sound hidden deep within our subconscious and a call to arms for the guardians of the void.
SFM - Your most recent release is the demo "Ritual Obscuration," which is killer by the way, but what took the band 2 years to release proper, non-live recordings of these wicked tracks?
SFM - When I think of the Australian underground, I typically think of many of the bands who've been emulating their forefathers in Bestial Warlust, playing as punishing and fast as possible, but you guys have slowed things down a bit. Was it your intentions to sort of steer away from what a lot of the scene has been doing, or were you guys just really drunk listening to diSEMBOWELMENT one night? Both?
NB - You hit the nail on the head right there mate, past and current members do have an attachment to Bestial Warlust in some regard, but I tire easily of playing those kind of riffs as it doesn't hold my attention or give me the same feeling as a diSEMBOWELMENT style riff does, sound wise I guess we do have a similar sound to the current Brisbane death metal scene (Impetuous Ritual, Grave Upheaval, Dungeons of Blood etc..) but it's far from what we aimed for, a nice surprise really haha... If at the time I could play guitar faster I would imagine the material being different and more savage, but I was playing guitar for 2 months before recording the demo...
SFM - What do you want live viewers of the band to take away from the ideal Vilfiier live experience? Should they feel violated? Ripped off? Or should they not feel anything due to alcohol poisoning?
NB - All 3 would be ideal. In essence, the live show consists of stupid amounts of alcohol, incense burning in offering to the skulls adorning the stage in effigy of the forgotten spirits, a wall of feedback and thunder of the ancients awakening all coming together in a crescendo to bring upon the end times.
NB - Drunken handjob I do believe. Nah, as mentioned earlier, our old label got closed down by the Gestapo, and Wayde was looking for a first release, and as our komrade in Germany had done all the layouts already, it was perfect timing. Hail to Wayde Martin... Never stop the madness!
SFM - Is there any new material being conjured up for a future release yet? If so, when could fans expect some new, putrid offerings?
NB - Working on some new tracks for a split and a new EP, other than that nothing else is planned at this stage.
SFM - Well, that's the end of the interview, thank you for your time. Do you have any words for your fans, old and new?
NB - Buy us a beer ya kunts! For those chasing the EP, hit up Forgotten Wisdom Productions in France, also soon we will have shirts available. Contact vilifiercult@gmail.com for info.