INHUMAN CONDITION - Florida, Sea, Sun.. and DEATH fuckin' METAL ! (Interview with Taylor NORDBERG)

- Hello Taylor ! Hope you're well and ready for a chat with ROUGH TIMES ? How do you feel today ? How is life in sunny Florida ?
Hello! I am feeling fine today, thank you. Life in Florida is exactly that…sunny! And hot! It’s that special time of year where it rains every day in the late afternoon for a few months.

- You're NO newcomers in the scene, since all of you have been involved (and still are !) in several bands... when looking at the list, it's just impressive .. so, my first question is : Why this need to form one more band ? One could think all your numerous bands are enough but.... no... do you always need more ? How do you organise your time between all of them ?
This band has a pretty long history already. Jeramie and I were invited to join Massacre in September of 2019, and we were told to start writing a new album. The other guys were digging the material so we ended up with 14 songs for the record, and more. We recorded the drums and guitars by the end of the year and that’s where it sat. Fast forward a year later, to when Jeramie and I exit Massacre. We knew they would have no problem getting new members to write new music so we decided not to scrap the music we had prepared for what was to be the new Massacre album. It obviously has that Massacre vibe, which was our original intention, so that’s one of the reasons we went with the Inhuman Condition name and logo design. Also having Terry on board, who wrote the song “Inhuman Condition”, is a help! It’s also just a kick ass band name, if you ask me! So we didn’t really set out to make a new band, but the music was so strong that we were self-obligated to get it out.

- Since day one.. with such a bandname as INHUMAN CONDTION, refering to MASSACRE, cult-band from Florida in which you all took part, your intentions are clear.. Death-Fucking-Metal all the way - right ? Kinda back-to-the-roots style, in the purest tradition, in the veins of MASSACRE, DEATH, OBITUARY... fast-forward, sick, primitive, pounding... Some bad mouths would say this has been already heard a thousand times.. what do you think makes INHUMAN CONDITION different and worth to listen to in 2021 ...
“Nothing new” has been thrown around, but what is new these days? There are only 12 notes. Tony Iommi already wrote most of the good riffs anyway. But yes, this was intended to have a late 80s/early 90s vibe. We wanted to capture the energy of those early death metal releases like the Massacre demos, Scream Bloody Gore, Morbid Tales, Slowly We Rot, From Beyond. I think what makes us stand out a bit in the sea of “old school death metal” bands, is that we bring a certain hardcore edge to it, that some bands omit in their sound. Jeramie’s vocals are very unique as well, and you can understand what he’s saying.

- So INHUMAN CONDITION was formed during that goddamn year 2020, thru that Covid-19 SHITuation .. First - how did you team up ? I guess you knew each other long before INHUMAN CONDITION, but what made you say "Hey - let's start a new band" ?
The music was a new Massacre album up until September of 2020 when we quit the band, so I guess Inhuman Condition was formed almost immediately after that. Jeramie and Terry have known each other for about 15 years so we all had a chat after we left Massacre and “compared notes”, haha. He asked about the music and we sent him some tunes and he seemed to totally love it. So we asked him if he wanted to play on it, and he was not only into the idea, but wanted to be a full-on band member and do this thing for real. He came in early 2021 to lay down his bass tracks for the 14 songs.

- Since all gigs were cancelled during 2020, can we say it was for you the right time to start INHUMAN CONDITION, since you had more time to gather/rehearse/compose/record ? Did you take this pandemic as an opportunity to concentrate 100% on this new project ?
Jeramie and I were pretty busy with our other various 100 bands we have during 2020. We first did a project in our studio where we woke up, wrote a song, recorded it, mixed/mastered it, and released it all in one day. We did this for 12 days, all in different sub-genres of metal, and ended up inviting 15-20 friends from around the world to collaborate on it. It was pretty special. Out of that we formed our punk band FORE, with Spiesi (former Kreator bassist) and our good pal Brian “The Canadian Glenn Hughes” Stephenson on vocals, and released a full length. Jeramie and I also finished up a Goregäng EP, an album for the Absence, recorded drums for the new Venom Inc album and the new Ex-Deo album. At the end of last year Obituary did a handful of live-stream shows, so we all had our hands full !

- The only "appetizers" were a few videos released a few months before the official release of the album.. that was the main promotion done I think.. am i wrong ? Do you consider VIDEOS as the current BEST way to promote a band nowadays - in this "digital" era ?
Yes, that was the main promotion for the album. The videos for Tyrantula, Killing Pace, and Euphoriphobia were done all in-house, and The Neck Step was done by our buddy Frank McMahon. Jeramie and his wife Deidra (who also does our band photography) filmed the first three videos, and Jeramie did the editing. We’re honestly not sure what is the BEST way to promote a band these days….I guess that’s what we’re all trying to figure out. In a world that is constantly changing, it’s difficult to keep up, but we’ll do what we can!

- Can you tell us more on the writing-process.. Were the songs of the album more or less composed ? I mean were they ideas from each band members before the band started or did you really compose them after the band was formed.. ?
I had demo’d guitars for the songs back in 2019, and Jeramie and I did some arranging and jamming of the tunes to complete the writing for the album. The guitars and drums were done when we formed Inhuman Condition, then Terry came in and did his bass parts while Jeramie and I finished writing lyrics for the album earlier this year.

- You released the album through LISTENABLE INSANITY Records.. to be honest, I had never heard of this label before... it seems to be a small independant one... why this choice ? I mean, considering your backgrounds, one could have thought to find you on a bigger label.. What were your motivations - kinda return to something more underground & a certain DIY spirit ?
You’ve probably never heard of Listenable Insanity Records because it is Jeramie and I’s label! We started it 5 or 6 years ago just to “release” our side-projects. We wanted to self-release this album so we were in full-control of every aspect of its release. It was 100% self-financed. We wanted to be in charge of the main release, and then team up with various labels across the globe to get the album into more ears. We had a few offers from some bigger labels, but we wanted to see how this would go. We own the music, so we could always re-release it later.

- The album is now out since June 2021 and surprisingly, according to your bandcamp page, alot of versions are already sold-out... Cassettes, Vinyls, all gone.. it seems at this time, only CD version is only available.. Were you surprised when you launched the pre-orders to see so many orders coming in ? Is that something you expected ?
To be honest, I don’t think any of us expected it to take off quite like it did. Of course we didn’t print 50,000 copies or anything insane, but we sold out of our CD and vinyl box sets in the first day of pre-sales. We’ve had to order our 4th pressing of CDs now, which is pretty incredible.

- Do you plan a repress for the vinyl version and/or cassettes ? As you worked with many different other labels for some cool versions of the album, are there some interested in some new vinyl/cassette edition ?
We are absolutely going to do a repressing of the vinyl, and as a matter of fact, our next 2 cassette variants arrive this evening! So by the time this is out, they will be available. There have been a ton of collectors for this album, getting all the different releases and vinyl variants, it’s so cool to see and to be a part of.

- Ok I see you recently played live with GRUESOME, INTOXICATED to name a few.. was it your first AFTER-Covid19 show ? How was it ? I mean, your feelings about it as much as musicians as to the reactions of the audience ? Was it WILD ? I guess that's something you were missing so much, right ?
The show with Gruesome was actually our second show back! We did a sold-out show here in Florida with Deicide back in April, which was a great show, but this show with Gruesome was FANTASTIC! It was such an amazing turnout, and the crowd was there for all the bands and was going ape-shit for all 5 bands that played. The people there seemed so happy to be there and it was like a family reunion seeing all these people again that we haven’t seen since shows were happening regularly.

- Since Jeramie sings and play drums on the album.. i was wondering.. you didn't consider to play live as a 3-piece band.. ? Why the need for an additional member on stage ? More stage-presence ? Or Jeramie simply can't stay behind a drum-kit and prefers to jump from left to right and get the audience mad hehe... ?
Jeramie has drummed and sang in a black metal band we have, but live he will just be handling vocal duties. We have talked about Jeramie singing and playing live, but we think it’s important to have a front-man, and while I think there are several great singing drummers, I think having Jeramie pacing around like a maniac helps create a vibe at our show. People have said we have great energy on stage and I think part of that is having Jeramie all over the place.

- Who was the guy to play with you as drummer ? Will he be your "live-session" drummer or is it like you like to invite friends from time to time to join the band on stage ?
Our first show came about so quickly, and we had our buddy Ruston Grosse (Master) play with us, and this last show we had Lee Harrison (Monstrosity) playing with us. Jeramie will play drums on all the future recordings, because it will sound like the three of us, and we will play with live-drummers, whether that’s one guy, or a handful of guys that fill in as their schedule permits, we haven’t really made it that far yet. We’re just stoked to have such great drummers playing with us live.

- Talking of "friends".. you have some great guests on the album - right ? Another MASSACRE/DEATH member with RICK ROZZ for a solo on "Tyrantula" and CANNIBAL CORPSE drummer Paul MAZURKIEWICZ for the lyrics of "Killing Pace".. no wonder now why the video for this song is so gore/horror influenced.. hehe.. How was it working with those lads ?
Rick had reached out to Jeramie and I also after we left Massacre, to “compare notes” hahah. He was also interested in hearing the music, and we asked him if he wanted to lay down a few solos, and he was more than happy to do so. This was even before we approached Terry to play on the record. He came in and laid down all three solos in about 15 minutes, hahah. Rick plays the second solo in Tyrantula, and he did 2 other solos for 2 other songs that will be on the next record. As for Paul, we wanted him to write lyrics for 2 songs that Kam had previously demo’d vocals on when they were still Massacre songs. We were used to hearing those demo’s so it helped having Paul write patterns and lyrics…and of course they are grisly and gory!! That’s one of the most fun songs on the record because of his contribution. He is an absolute privilege to work with.

- September will be the month for your EAST COAST Tour.. feeling excited about this ? USA are still a bit far for me, can I hope to see you in Europe after this tour ? It would be great you know hehe.. I guess alot of death-metal maniacs are waiting for you too..
We can’t wait to hit the road! It’s another big unknown, of course, being a self-managed band, and being a new band, but I think it’s going to be killer. People seem stoked to see us so we’ll play to anyone who’ll come out! We plan on playing as much as we can, in between our other bands’ schedules.

- Besides those shows, what are the other plans at the moment ? Have you already started writing new songs for a new release ?
We have a few other shows we are waiting to hear back on, but we are always busy. We have 5 songs from the original writing session that will most likely go on the next record, as well as music written by the three of us together, so I’m very excited for that. No release date in sight, but we’re always on the move.

- Thanks SO MUCH for your time and answers.. this is now the end... last words are yours ...
Thanks for your time! Thanks to everyone who checked out Rat°God so far, and be sure to come out and see us when you get a chance. Let the music do the talking.

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