Interview by Supalerk of Hell Productions in Thailand
Greetings Desolator, how is the Metal life in your land?
Greetings Supalerk – you maniac (especially in this time)! “All is well” in Los Angeles. Everything is pretty much dead at this point. No concerts. No shows. The last big metal concert happening was on March 14th for ManowaR playing their first show in Mexico City, I wish I could’ve have gone to that show. Last year I saw Iron Maiden up and close than ever before, it was insane.. I also saw King Diamond in after X-mas. Anyways, we are in unprecedented times with covid-19 and the future looks dire… and dark for a while.. Some of the world’s biggest festivals either cancelled this year, or will reschedule for a later date. The global pandemic has put a lot of strain on independent artists who made most of their income by playing gigs and other independent ventures. To me it looks like we may be heading into another Great Depression. Maybe this was mother nature’s way of sending us a warning: the human race needs to reboot and reconsider a lot of our ways in our society.
Recommend Desolator to Deathblackbanger on the earth, Please.
I don’t know what you want me to recommend, but if its our music, my favorite recording is The Bells Ninth Chime released by a guy in France and Yitz of Metalutifus based in Bolivia. That recording is my favorite, very dark old school sound, we will try to recreate this sound again. Truthbe told, it was entirely recorded by Adrian SOS and our friend Manny Sanchez on drums aka macabre. I did vocals on Conjured…
Tell me a band story?
Some years ago we played a show in south central with Ultra Beast. There was a keg, it was really packed, and everyone was feeling rowdy. When we started our set this guy kept placing his beer on the head of my amp. In between songs, I told him to move his beer, as nicely I could. I learned from this story to never place liquids on top of an amplifier of any kind. A pit broke out in front of us. A group of moshers hit my amp with the beer on top of it and fryed out my head causing a short circuit. The guy looked mortified after realizing he had messed up my amp cause all my friends and homies were going to kick his ass. It could’ve turn into a castration. I intervened and told him to leave the show and that he could pay me in the future. Never heard from that guy again. That was the first Marshall head I bought for myself at 18yrs old. There’s been plenty of other stories of cops wanting to kick my ass, but I will save that for another time.
I really love your two demos (Infernal Desolation and The Bells Ninth Chime) very much! Please, Let me know more things about the recording process, the alcohol ritual, the Label etc.
We were just graduating high school when we recorded Infernal Desolation. We were young chumps and it all just came out organically. Really no structure. Playing shows was fun, but its also fun not playing a show. For ID we did everything in Josesito’s apartment in South LA one block from the University of Southern California. The year was 2009 and we had Daboub as drummer. It was a good time. Adrian and I have been friends since the days of MySpace and we’re both from Hawthorne, the City of Beach Boys. We bonded and became good friends through our interest in heavy metal music. When I met him, Adrian had a solo black metal project called Nokturnal Hymns- it was great music. I used to play bass in a Death Metal band called Niebla. That was around 06-07.
OK, let’s talk about Infernal Desolation, I have a tape from Metaltifus Prod. My copy number is 6/500, How were hellbangers’s reaction after this demo came out? Is it available?
Yes, all our music is available on pretty much every streaming platform. I am learning that you have the valuable 6th copy. Cool. To be honest, we never really had any promoters. We operate cause the interest and support from the heads is true and it has been strong over the years. When Infernal Desolation came out, it was shared by a lot of people who sent it to different people in different places around the world. It put the band out there! It was shared and traded among labels, zines, boys and girls. I give Yitz of Metaltifus based in Bolivia the credit deserved for aggressively pushing our propaganda to humankind. Channel the old-school !
It was released by Metaltifus Prod, Bolivia label, How did you find this label?
Yitz was contact with some of the LA bands back in the MySpace days, notably worked and knew the guys in Execution and Sakrificer. Somehow we got in his radar. He reached out to us to propose releasing a tape, which we agreed to. He released Infernal Desolation, then we worked on releasing the Bell’s under South American version of the tape. It worked out nicely.
The cover art is fucking good! It look like Sickness666 style, Right?
Yes. It was sickness. Wondering how he is doing these days? Say hello for me. I know he’s based in Thailand as well. Back in the day he did a lot of artwork for our friends in the LA Metal scene. We reached out to him and he readily got on board with producing and promoting our material. It came out cool. If you look at the cover of ID, you can see planes crashing into the buildings. That was intentional. RAW WAR!
Who is the main song composer?
Adrian SOS is the main songwriter. He is a talented musician and a pretty good writer as well. These days he also has a side project called The Chupacabras, very surfy type music, its catchy. Adrian does vocals.
I smell some old Black Metal spirit too. Does BM influence your band? What bands are influenced to Desolator?
Definitely. I enjoy all sorts of black metal as long as its’ not that national socialist shit thats been getting traction recently. Keep your bullshit politics out of black metal. But yeah, we are fans. Adrian’s first band was a black metal project. I also had a black metal band back in the day. We used to paint our face haha. Good times.
You have a very good guitar solo too, That’s fucking great! Many bands forgot it, In my opinion I think that it makes the music more interesting. What do you think?
The guitar solos have definitely got better over the years. We have a running joke about this in the band. None of us took formal music lessons.
In The Bells Ninth Chime demo (my copy number is 312/500 Metaltifus Prod.), The line up was change, What happened?
The lineup changed on drums. Our drummer at the time, Debob was focusing on other projects and we brought in Manny to play with us. I have known Manny the longest and he’s in my opinion one of the best drummer in Los Angeles. Chaotic Thrasher who was the bassist was focusing on another project as well. Adrian SOS and Manny recorded most of the record, Adrian recorded both guitars and the bass.
For this demo, If my ears not wrong I heard an acoustic guitar sound too, Right? If I am right, Tell me about the idea behind those parts?
There are no acoustic guitar sounds in any of the demos.
Like the first demo, this stuff has a nice solo too. It shows that you give attention for solo parts, Right?
Honestly, I (Adrian SOS) am a very bad soloist. I only know how to compose black metal/thrash metal riffs. I improvise very badly on the solos. So none of them are premeditated but wholly improvised.
Do you have any shows coming up. When can Metalheads see Desolator on stage again?
Very hard to predict because we are all on different schedules. Especially with this whole thing going down in the world. We definitely are looking forward to being able to share the stage with other bands and traveling. This past year we travelled with our friends from Unholy Lust and played 3 shows in a mini-tour. We played Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle. West Coast best coast. That was fun, and it was also a good way of making a little bit of extra money.
All you guys love alcohol? Drug? Tell me some of experience of being fucking drunk on the stage.
We like to party and have a good time. Sure. Though these years, as you get older, you also have to listen to your body and not overdo anything detrimental to your health. I’ve lost too many friends to alcohol. . . and drugs. The drummer from my first band is now a beggar on the street. Many burn out. He doesn’t remember me anymore. Shit is serious. As the saying goes… “some get high, and some never come down.”
Are you Satanic? If you are not, What do you believe in?
I don’t subscribe to any form of organized religion. I’ve always found it fascinating how the stories of early civilizations are told through the scriptures. I guess all religions have something unique to offer its believers. One thing I’ve found to be true is that a power is within us and that everyday we should aspire to be a bit better than we were in the past, to control negative emotions, to channel your passion and ardor in a positive way, to treat others with respect and compassion. That is my belief.
Do you have a plan for the debut album? Are there any labels contact for the album?
No label contacts, yet. Necruz released our last recording we did in 2013. The self-titled EP on tape. You can listen to that on SoundCloud or BandCamp. Given this worldwide lockdown and the fact we’ve spent about 1 month indoors, Adrian and I have been talking about making music again. This is an ongoing conversation, but for one reason or another, we don’t take it too serious. It is my intention, and I believe Adrian’s too, that we create a debut album. Most of it is being created right now- in Isolation 2020. The working name for the upcoming debut is called “The Final Sacrifice” named after a track on ID. We would like to re-record that track as well and give it the attention it deserves.
What do you think about the word “Only analog is real”? Do you hate CD?
Among the great debates between metalheads around the world is this idea that music sounds better in certain formats. It really depends on music taste and genre to determine which sounds are better in which formats. I used to collect CDs but to be honest I have sold most of my CDs, except for the occasional rare one that can’t be find on music streaming platforms. I don’t collect tapes anymore, and most of our music has been done on tapes. As with anything that you mass produce, it tends to lose its sound quality. I prefer being able to play a vinyl record and listening all of Side A and Side B. Listening to a recording with intention and focus. It’s out of this world man.
Do you think that Fanzine and Trade still important for the Underground Metal scene?
Absolutely. This is a tradition that has connected individuals from all walks of life with each other for the love of metal. It has been a great pleasure to connect with your readers and fans all around the world and it certainly is my hope to one day travel to SouthEast Asia to play for the maniacs out there! Continue to trade and to continue to support each other at whatever way possible.
Finally, Thank you very much for your interview. Hope to hear your album 666 soon!!!
Thank you. I would like to dedicate this interview and this time to Adrian Mejia aka MetalWarZone666 on YouTube. His passing has created a void in the metal scene here in LA and many remember his memory. He had been a long time fan of ours and initially took interest in the band from its inception. He was a well know supporter of all the bands locally and travelling in Los Angeles. All the metalheads in LA remember him as a kind and genuine photographer/videographer and brother in metal.
May he Rest in Power.
FUCK COVID 19
solo un chico de l.a. 