US deathers Disinter recently released their new killer album "Breaker Of Bones" (read review here). Here in Germany the band is pretty much unknown and I can only guess the same goes for the death metal scene worldwide. So I took the chance to send some questions to the band leader Mike LeGros (guitars) to get more into detail about Disinter in general and some more specific things concerning the band and the album – just enjoy reading!

Michael

Hi Mike, how are things doing with Disinter?

Hello Michael, greetz, cheers and thank you for the opportunity to answer some questions for you and anybody reading this Disinterview...

Things are going pretty fuckin' good right now, I must say. We've been busy the last few years writing enough material for 2 releases. We've also been tightening up our live set and expanding it as well. Adding songs to it that we've never played live before, or songs that haven't been played live in awhile. Everyone is excited about the current releases Demolition, Breaker Of Bones, and Alliance Of Death, the split cd with the Disinter from Peru. We are getting good press and good reviews. Also, we are ready to start the rehearsals for new material to be recorded at the end of 2023, or early 2024.

With "Breaker Of Bones" you recently released your 6th full-length album. How were the reactions about it so far?

Yes, BOB in physical copy was officially released Nov 14th 2022. On 22 02 2022 we released 300 cardboard promo copies. We are working on getting it uploaded to the streaming platforms. So far it's been well received. Good reviews, positive responses and decent merch sales, especially at our live desecrations.

In my review I wrote that you may have created the best Disinter album yet, do you agree with that, or do you still have another fave?

I will say I am very proud of this album, it was a long journey from the day we started rehearsing the first song that was written, till the time the recording process was completed. I would also like to say that this time around the album was mostly written by our other guitarist Michael "Bats" Martocci. He is a fucking riff machine. He just keeps coming up with killer riffs. I do like this album a lot, but I think As We Burn may be my personal favorite.

You are much more technical and brutal this time, and in a lot of parts, your new  vocalist Casey Loving sounds pretty much like Corpsegrinder of Cannibal Corpse. Was that a little bit intentional?

Well Mr Martocci is a grind head while I'm more of thrashy traditional old school death metalist, so that explains the more brutal aspect of BOB as compared to our previous releases. I had contributed more riffs back in the day. As for Casey, he's just fuckin' Casey. He's a fuckin' beast of a vocalist, pure fuckin' death throat! There was no intention to sound like anyone. Casey sounds like Casey to us. We're glad he stepped up when Jon Corston stepped down after Zion stepped down. Casey's a fuckin' beast!

Because of that slightly different style – how much were the other band members involved in the songwriting process?

As I stated in my last answer most of this album was written by Bats. Jon and myself contributed a song each and Bats threw down eight rippers. Casey, Bats and I handled the lyrics. Basically, whoever is contributing the song they wrote, teaches it to the other guys, we rehearse it and follow suit on the next song contribution, till we have enough songs for an album. This time around we tracked 15 originals and 1 cover.

Why did it take so long to write a follow-up to "Designed By The Devil, Powered By The Dead"? It has been 8 years now since that one was released.

Man, it'll take just as long to tell the tale...

DbtD,PbtD was recorded at the same time we recorded As We Burn, in 2003/04. We were on our last album with Morbid Records, 3 album deal, Oblivion, Demonic, As We Burn. As We Burn would have been the 3rd release, the contract fulfilled. We had hoped to upgrade our label status to the next level, something a little bigger or better. And we would have that 1st album ready to go… After our last European tour with Grave, AWB was released and within a year's time we imploded, we were at each other's throats. We needed space and we needed a break. Well, many years would go by before we were all on the same stage together again. DbtD,PbtD should have been released by 2006 but it was shelved because of our inactive status, but in 2017 we released 100 cardboard slipcase promos of it. In 2021Black Unholy Records licensed it from us for an official first press on full CD physical copy. We regrouped for a few gigs here and there but it was for my 40th & 45th birthday which was 2013 we did the inevitable reunion shows, which after the 2nd one, my 45th, we decided to keep going. The time was again right, and we were all older, wiser, and better musicians. Also with jobs and families now. We continued playing live before we started down the new material road. Before we could start, we would lose to very important members, Zion vox and Tom Grindblaster drums. Max would usurp the drum throne and Jon Corston from Beyond Deth grabbed the mic from Zion. 'Demolition Of The Mind' was the 1st song we wrote and that was around 2017. From then till now we have had lineup changes, death and loss, medical struggles, a pandemic and inflation... it's definitely slowed us down. Jon would step down after a year on vox, Casey stepped up and this time around, it's full speed ahead!

What do the lyrics deal with? I guess it would be pretty much too easy to say that it's all about horror and violence….and where do you draw all the inspiration for that? Books, media or the good old TV?

Well, horror at least... I have always been proud of the fact that as a band we never jumped on the people killing people, bodily dismemberment, slasher gore, violence type of lyrics... we always been about the cemetery and zombies, monsters, legends, wars and warlocks, history, witchcraft, demonology and scary stuff, mythological beings, video games, and warlocks, but not gore… I myself craft most of my lyrics from movies. If you read the lyrics and you know your movies you can figure out what movie was wrote about for that song...couple examples

'The Sleeper Awakens' - Prince of Darkness

'Welcome To Oblivion' - Hellraiser series

'Revelation Horror' - Event Horizon

'Designed By The Devil' - 13 Ghosts

'Powered By The Dead' - 13 Ghosts

'Born To Darkness' - Interview With A Vampire

'Poisoning The Lands' - Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver video game

The song 'Breaker Of Bones' is based on the character Azog The Defiler from the movie "The Hobbit", but was not in the book...

What do you think are the reasons why Disinter didn't get the attention the band should get? I mean, I don 't know too many metalheads who know it and I would say that the band is still pure underground.

Well for many reasons...

We've always unfortunately had members who struggle with addiction or abuse issues, which affects the band in the most destructive and debilitating ways. We could never really tour like we would have needed to. Selfishness and ego has also played a big role in crippling our efforts… But now I think we are almost, finally, after 32 years, passed that. We are still dealing with internal dilemmas but we are sticking together and overcoming these obstacles together.... We are more focused now than we have been in years. It feels really good to be active and still making metal!

Do you plan to go on tour with "Breaker Of Bones", maybe even out of the USA?

I don't believe we could hit the road for the period of time it takes to properly promote a new release...We could maybe pull off a week maybe in spring and maybe a week in fall. We can do out of state weekend exclusive appearance shows. We will do a handful of shows around Chicago and our neighboring states. But because of our ages and work and family commitments we just couldn't plan a month-long tour as much as we'd wished that we could.

Are there some other plans you're currently working on?

Yeah, we're busy conjuring and digging up all kinds of shit… We're almost ready to start shooting a video, technically our first official one, for the song 'Demolition Of The Mind' which appears on Demolition demo comp CD… We've got a gig in April as support for Vader and Krisiun… We're getting ready to start rehearsals/pre production for our next album, for a 23/24 release. We're going to be releasing a few surprise and special releases before we drop full length number 7. A sampler of current material, entitled Electric Casket, and a special treat for our collectors out there featuring re-recorded TITLE tracks spanning 1990 thru 2021 entitled...The EnTITLEment And Privilege Of Death.

Do you think that the next Disinter album will also take such a long time up to its release date?

Well being one of the current projects on the table, with 11 songs ready to go for rehearsals, we are hoping for an end of the year release or early 2024 for some more new DISINTER! I can say we have one new song already down with lyrics/vox, and it's right in line with what should be coming next!

Thank you very much for the interview☺

Michael, thank you, it's been a pleasure… Remember that, when you die, you don't go to heaven.... YOU COME TO US!