Resurrecting death metal
RockKansas.com
A long ten years have gone by since the heyday of death metal, and it seems the record labels have learned their lesson.
Back then, seeing crazed teens overrun the local record stores for anything death led the major music labels to sign whoever could grunt and growl without regard to quality.
Many of the death metal bands following such genre legends as Morbid Angel, Napalm Death, and Sepultura were but weak imitations.
Weak imitations and unfulfilled promises of a new twist on a rising genre.
Consequently, interest waned, mainstream labels dropped bands and death metal took a back burner to the likes of black metal and new-school hardcore.
Origin could care less.
Regardless of the mainstream's whim, the Topeka band has the same devotion to death metal as they did during the genre's heyday.
And their plan is to bring the whole sick mess to a roiling boil with their second album, "Informitis, Infinitas, Inhumanitas."
Since their debut two years ago, Origin has worked overtime touring with the likes of Nile, Cryptopsy, and Gorguts.
The band also headlined their own U.S. tour last March bringing in smaller crowds of 70 to 80 people each night.
But to guitarist Paul Ryan, such occupancy figures are acceptable because even the top sellers in the death metal genre only sell about 30,000 albums, the typical population of the small cities the band plays during a year-long tour.
Although the Origin fan base is still in its infancy, the band hopes it to grow by leaps and bounds following the release of "Informitis" due out June 11 on Relapse Records.
The band will tour this summer to support the album with Arch Enemy, Hate Eternal, and Nile.
The addition of new bass player Mike Florez and vocalist James Lee along with the musical progression of existing members makes "Informitis" a faster and more varied extension of their first effort.
"A helluva lot faster," Lee said. "Considering how fast it is, there's a lot more mood changes in it. I haven't heard too many albums that are this fast that have that many mood swings in them."
How Origin could even get together to write for the new CD was a task in itself. Three members live in Topeka, another resides in Overland Park, and Lee drives eight hours from his home in Mankato, Minn., every other weekend for band practice in Kansas.
For the most part, Lee is the wordsmith of the group, conjuring up lyrics like puzzle pieces that fit snuggly in each part of a particular song that Ryan and co-guitarist Jeremy Turner have put together.
"It all just comes from my head, whatever comes to mind at the time," Lee said. "A lot of lyrics started with a title, and I take the title and whatever story I can think of ends up being the lyrics."
Despite what those who don't listen to death metal may think, lyrics are an important piece to the songs, even if you can't understand them.
"For the most part you have to read 'em," Lee said. "As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter what kind of music it is, a lot of times you can't understand what they're saying anyway."
Not even a master linguist could crack the code of Pearl Jam's "Evenflow" or James Brown's wonderful and indecipherable singing. Although one might not understand everything Eddie Vedder sings, he uses his voice as a melody to complement the music.
But in death metal, it isn't so much what the lyrics say as how they are said, with the vocalist using his voice as a rhythm, jack-hammering a verbal riff to the ominous instruments pounding away behind him.
The words are there mainly for image, so there are those who get a kick out of reading them, especially those of the death metal genre.
"I spend a lot of time reading the lyrics," guitarist Ryan said. "I like the music, but part of the fun of listening to a CD is reading the lyrics along with it, besides the fact that a lot of the stuff they say is all whacked anyway (laughs)!"
"Metal is pretty outlandish, you know? Anything offensive is generally considered better, and the more offensive, the best," Ryan said. "Anything that modern-day society (is freaked out by), you know, shock value: religion or gore or whatever."
Religion and gory violence may seem like a typical target to aim at in the name of shock value, but Origin decided to not corner themselves in as an all-out gore or religious band.
But they do scratch the surface of the topics from time to time.
"But not in a conventional way," Ryan said. "We're not a satanic band, we're not a religious band, we're not a gore band. We don't stick to any one philosophy of doing anything. It involves all of it, but not just any one."
Crushingly brutal music, too.
The two main songwriters of Origin attribute this brutality to the environment in which their songs are created.
"There's a lot of violence in Topeka," Turner said of his hometown. Not too long ago, Topeka had the highest murder rate per capita in the U.S. "It doesn't matter where -- west-side, east-side, south-side, north-side -- doesn't matter."
"I think (the environment has) definitely influenced some of the aggressive nature of the band," Ryan said.
"From the musician standpoint to also the lyrical standpoint. There is definitely a pride issue, you know I hate to say it, but our instruments are pretty brutal and progressive. And we play aggressive music and it comes across in the music. That has a lot to do with the people we're around, the environment we're around."
"I don't know," Lee said, "but that's where I go on vacation."
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