MALEVOLENT CREATION

for Painkiller Mag #8
July 2003

Interview with Phil Fasciana - guitar

by Yang Yu/Wooqu

all pics are linked from www.malevolentcreation.cjb.net
by any problems refer to webmaster

You are now active in the extreme death metal scene for 15 years, what is your recipe to stay by your style without being boring to yourself and your fans?

We just play what feels natural to us. If we felt that what we were playing was weak or boring we would just retire the band.But we still crave to play vicous music and we will continue till it's time to stop.

Do you think your debut "the ten commandments" has still any influences on you? Do you like to remember back to the time before you moved to Florida?

Yes,that album has actually a little bit as of lately because of how simple and heavy the music sounds.Before we moved to Florida in 88 we lived and were born in Buffalo,NY and those days were great.We were just a bunch of little metal heads thrashing away!!!!

Can you tell us something about your first line up? How long did Lee Harrison (MONSTROSITY) stayed in the band? Why didnt Larry Hawk stay as your longtime drumer? You had 7 drummers in MC, right?

Lee played with us from 89 till 90 and recorded our 89 demo with us.We then met Mark Simpson and he joined the band and recorded our 90 demo and 1st album.Larry unfortunately died in 1997.He was the drummer in my other band Hate Plow and played with Malevolent on many occasions.He was my favorite drummer of all.He was a mad man!!!We still to this day have drummer problems,it never ends !!!!

I think the drumer Dave Culross (SUFFOCATION) is one of the best death metal drumer, can you tell us a little about him? What is he doing now, any other projects etc.

We just did a Hate Plow European tour in June with Dave.He lives in NY right now and runs his own roofing company and has a child now and is getting married. He still plays though and will be playing drums on the 3rd Hate Plow album later in the year.

Justin Dipinto, who was responsible for the drums on “the will to kill” must quit because he didn’t want to or couldn’t go on tour with you. Your new young drummer Arieo Alverado does not have any problems with the law, does he?

Actually Ariel has been out of the band for quite some time and we have had Tony Laurean (Nile)filling in on tour for us.Ariel could not commit the time for this band abd was not to focused.Good drummer but a strange person.Justin could not tour with us so we had to find a replacement.Also a good drummer but a strange person as well.

Now the Voc Bret left the band for a while, came back and left again. Was it only because of his alcohol and drug problems? How is he doing in DIVINE EMPIRE?

You made a mistake with this question.Brett was fired from MC 2 yrs abo and Jason Blachowicz who was in the band in 98 formed Divine Empire.Divine Empire have just released there 3rd album.I am still friends with Jason.

How did the cooperation between Guitar Rob (CANNIBAL CORPSE) and you get started? Now M.C. must be the band where he stayed the longest time, right?

Well me and Rob have known each other for quite some time and he was in the band for our 2nd album Retribution.He returned to the band in 97 and has been with us since.

I heard some funny things of your Producer Jean Francois Degenais (KATAKLYSM), there were some problems for him to come and do the production for “The will to kill”. How did you finally solve the problem?

We had problems getting him into America because they said he needed working papers to come in and it really fucked us up.We had to record the album with another engineer(Shawn Ohtani)and then wait a month before we could get JF down to Florida to mix the album.He did a great job and we definately want him to record our next album.

You guys seem to always in trouble with the law and the police ... what is wrong with you? Are you all savage outlaw criminals? I can belief what troubles you have with all the former members, you make a quiet professional impression with your music ...

We all have had our problems with the law,but lately we have been good boys.We aren't as crazy as we were.But we still have our moment's!!!

MC has always been a very angry, aggressive and brutal styled band. Does it directly reflect your daily feelings and living state? Do you sometimes feel to do all those killings and murdering the way what it is all about in your lyrics?

We are all very mellow if you meet us,but through the lyric's and the music we can express the real way we feel.I'm not saying we would murder anyone but you understand !!!!

HATE PLOWs Kyle is also responsible for your voc and lyrics now. Are you satisfied with his workouts? Will he stay as the steady voc of MC in the future?

Yes,we are very happy with Kyle and are having fun with the band.We are excited to get into the studio to record a new album with him.

Phil, are you the main leader and song writer of the band? Did/do you make all decisions for MC? What was the problem you have that MC had such a long time of member changing period?

Some people just don't like to put in the time that is needed to keep thids band going.I have seen a lot of people come and go and then return in this band.I do what i think is nessesary.

The style of the album “the fine art of murder” has changed a lot comparing to the other outputs. Do the changes has any certain visible reasons? The original Album title was meant to be “Countdown to murder”, right?

Yes that album was a bit strange at times,but we just got Brett back into the band and we were having problems with him during that time.We had drummer problems at that time as well and had to call Dave Culross to come in and clean up the mess. It was a rough album to make for sure.

Why and how does it come to the formation of HATE PLOW? Do you aim to go more grind with HATE PLOW and more metal with MC? Now after so many line up changes both bands have nearly the same musicians. Sometimes it’s funny how things turn out, itsnt it? You only need to change the stage banner than you are a complete other band ... :)

Well Hate Plow was formed by me,Rob and Larry Hawke in 94 as a side band influenced by Terrorizer and Napalm Death.3 members of MC are in Hate Plow but we make sure the music is more grind for Hate Plow.MC has a bit of melody to it sometimes.Hate Plow has no melody.

“The will to kill” turned out to be more metal and slower in general. The slowest MC song supposed to be published now on an EP this year. Why the sudden turn down of speed?

Thge Will To Kill is quite fast i think.We took out more of the blast beats and put slayer beats to give it that old school feel.We have a pretty slow song that was not recorded when we did that album but we will record it next time around.It is slow but extremely brutal.I don't think we will be slowing down to much though.

James Murphy has played a solo again for “The will to kill”, how is he doing now?

James is doing great these days and is producing and recording albums and working on a few studio project's.He did a killer job on the song "Assasin Squad"from our new album.

Is Artic Music your own company? What are the main functions and deeds of this company?

To spread more metal around the world and try to help out new band's!!!!

now in the extreme metal booming new century, how do you keep the contact between former members and other bands from your earlier periods (for exsample CANNIBAL CORPSE, MONSTROSITY, etc.).

Both band's are great friends of ours and we have known each other for a long time.It's great to see eachother and talk about bullshit and drink. It's awesome to see us all still going at it!!!!

SUFFOCATION is resurrected now, are you still in contact with them? Do you know any news about them? Have you seen them playing on their new gigs? By the way, do you still remember DEMOLITION HAMMER? Are these guys totally disbanded?

I haven't talked with the Suffocation guys in a few years or the Demolition Hammer guys.Demolition Hammer broke up a while ago and i will probably see Suffocation sometime this year.

What do you think in which way metal or death metal music will get more developed in the near future: in song writing skills, in techniqual effects or in recording productions?

Only the future can tell.The music industry is too strange!!!

Now you are touring very much again. Things seems to look just fine for MC. Is MC steady enough now in general to make any bigger future plans?

We finish touring in Brazil at the end of August and then we will probably work on new material and try to record a new album.A Hate Plow album as well is being written and we want to record that some time soon as well.

Thanx for the interview and really sorry for the delay. My life has been crazy lately!!!!

Phil Fasciana

www.malevolentcreation.cjb.net
www.hateplow.cjb.net
www.arcticmusicgroup.com