I came across Deadmask for the first time only earlier this year after getting in touch with Dopi Diablo a little while ago and he told me about this doomrock band he had called Deadmask which he thought I might like after we exchanged some emails, he sent me a copy of their Mini CD "Under Lucferian Wings" and I was totally blown away by it and liked the band so much I made them a band of the week on the Terrorizer Magazine website the week after, here is that feature and interview posted up earlier this year. Read on...
Okay, first of all, how the fuck did this awesome band pass under my radar? I mean, I like to think I have my ear to the ground and my finger on the pulse when it comes to great new death, doom, crust bands, but this band's debut MCD (originally released in 2009 and only got to my ears last week) slipped under my musical radar like a stealth bomber!
Deadmask hail from Spain and play a hard rockin' brand of '70s-influenced doom, very much like a mix of The Obsessed and Mourn, with awesome female vocals courtesy of Nuria, which I have to admit are VERY bewitching! Her dark, dulcet tones glide over the music gracefully and seductively, like a siren drawing sailors in towards their impending doooooooom. Her vocals pulled me right in and caught my undivided attention on first listen and that was it, I was hooked.
I got sent the band's debut (and so far only recorded output), 'Under Luciferian Wings', last week by drummer Dopi (who is more well-known for drumming in death-grind band Machetazo and providing the vokills in d-beat punk mob Dishammer). I spent a whole day listening to it, seriously I just kept repeating the whole CD over and over and over again, I love it that much! The CD contains 2 original songs and 4 excellent cover versions including "Wicked Woman" by Coven and "No Rest For The Wicked" by The Coffinshakers, I sent some questions to Dopi about the band and its origins amongst other things and this is what he had to say:
Hails Dopi, first of all I love the two original tracks on your MCD, they kinda remind me of a mix of The Obsessed and the old UK female fronted doom band Mourn, just good solid ROCKIN' bluesy doom rock, what made you decide to form this project?
DOPI : “Hails Kat! The Obsessed have been a huge influence for us, but didn't know about Mourn until my buddy from Indesinence (from the UK too) sent me a CD two years ago, and they rule. I am a doom maniac, since [I was a] teenager, I always loved Black Sabbath and later around late '80s/early '90s got into Saint Vitus and Trouble and both blew me away. Anyway, I never played this style of music in my life (I used to be involved in extreme metal bands) until I played drums in a Sabbath tribute band named Wicked about six or seveb years ago. Nuria was the vocalist for that band, and when it disbanded we decided to make Deadmask just to record a couple of tracks we had in mind plus a few covers.”
You have released a MCD on PsycheDOOMelic, when can we expect to see a full length recording by the band? Your MCD only features two original songs along with 4 great varied covers of Pentagram, Abscess, Coven and even The Coffinshakers, why more covers? I thought the Abscess cover with normal female vocals was a great unique touch/approach and it really works very well!
DOPI: “The 'Under Luciferian Wings' MCD was just a demo, a recording just for ourselves, two tracks ours and a few covers of very different bands we really like and used to blast a lot, but when we heard the result we were really glad with it and decided to release it professionally, so we sent it to Mark (PsycheDOOMelic) and he agreed to release it as soon as he listened to the promo, and he made a good work releasing it in that beautiful digipack. Right now we're working on a couple of new songs to record a demo. Black Widow Records from Italy asked us about it to see if they're into releasing a full album, guess they'll do it cos' they loved the MCD and I'm sure the new stuff will be better, cos' we'll work harder on it this time. I'm talking about more rehearsals and time for polish the songs before going into studio.”
Have you thought of assembling a full line-up so you can play some live shows?
DOPI: “We're not interested in playing live shows, but we just got a full line-up to record the new stuff; Dis on guitar (from The Oath, already recorded some guitar solos on our MCD) and Santi on bass (from Nashgul).”
You also have your long running death/grind band Machetazo and crust/d-beat punk band Dishammer, what's up with these two bands?
DOPI: “Machetazo is my main band where I focus most of my energy, we have a few new releases coming out right now and some forthcoming shows too including the Maryland Deathfest in the USA. I gotta record the second Dishammer album, to be released again on Hells Headbangers, can't wait. Also gotta tell you about another new studio project I have with my buddy Lasse (Hooded Menace), it's named Ruinebell and we just recorded two songs for a 7”, total Axegrinder/Voivod worship!!”
Any last words or things you would like to share/plug to the readers?
DOPI: “Thanks for your interest and support to Deadmask! Anybody into getting 'Under Luciferian Wings' MCD go towww.shop.machetazo.org orwww.myspace.com/deadmaskdoom.”
In some up to date news the band have recorded new songs and have a split with Jess and The Ancient Ones coming soon via Doomentia Records!
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