Trauma, Troma Entertainment & The Horrors Of Homicidal Ecstasy
Devin Swank knows the task. Fronting acclaimed brutal death metal newcomers sanguisugabogg, he is conductor, fool, guide and executioner at the same time. Charon of a new nation of metalheads, he leads them down the slippery, muddy and immeasurably bloody river to Hades, which is the new wave of modern death metal. No pressure right?
For the uninitiated who’bog are a kick in the gut with steel-toed combat boots, a bong hit in a windowless room with a midnight movie marathon on a less-than-hi-fi TV.
They’re violent, vicious, sometimes extremely tongue-in-cheek, yet deadly serious about their craft. And for Varyall this slowly built credibility comes with a tip of the hat to the death metal legends who built the pillars 200 stab wounds, frozen soul, Vomitand undeath now proudly occupy.
“I think what’s cool about this new wave (of death metal) as opposed to the kind of first wave American death metal like ’88, ’89 when there were bands like Death and cannibal corpseyou had the suffocation Demo 1990, 1991, Morbid Angel and so on, is that they created this style of music out of really nothing,” Vary shared with in a sit-down metal injection.
“That was the most violent thing they heard creator, Hunterand Celtic Frost. cannibal corpse says they listened a lot Wild, Basically TSO Back in the day. Like, ‘Wow, did you make that up? That in itself is bloody unreal and insane.’ And what’s cool about this new modern wave is that we’ve had 30+ years of death metal that we don’t really need to influence, but rather take inspiration from.”
Vary is a proud student of the game and details his extensive and magnificent collection of live DVDs and albums, which proudly fill a shopping cart at his house. He’s been all-in for years, to say the least.
“I remember being young and in my room I have a huge record collection and a huge live DVD collection. I literally have a shopping cart in one of my rooms with live DVDs. And I remember how napalm death‘s living corruption from the 90’s and see people go. And I was just like, ‘Man, I want to be in a band that does that.’ I’ve been playing death metal for 11 years, 12 years.
“I started my first death metal band in high school and never really saw the crowds kicking in. And then for some reason we hit the gas and struck a match Sanguisugabogg really off the shelf.”
next to guy’bog members CodyDavidson, Ced Davisand Drew Arnold, Sanguisugabogg have emerged from the murky bile to lay claim to the title of one of the foremost practitioners of bloody death metal in modern times.
Heavily influenced by horror and a not-so-shy dose of humor (Vary himself is a comedian in a second life), SanguisugaboggThe cult following of has grown steadily, with the band occupying prominent touring spots alongside genre legends cannibal corpse, terrorand Nile.
It was her short run beside that corpse grinder-led gore gods in 2022 who really have ascended.bog in the eyes of many.
“This tour was a success Jesus moment for us because at the beginning I never thought that we would support such a band”, Vary sincerely remembers. “Having this opportunity was definitely a big deal for us because they are by far the number one death metal band in the world.
“They’re heavyweight champions and having an audience that might be the only death metal band they hear and they hear us at 280 beats per minute, inaudible vocals, muddy guitars and they’re like the first style of those.” kind of music they’ve probably ever been exposed to and still winning them over to us is a hell of a big deal for us. That was a short ass tour. It was short lived but damn it, every night of it was a dream that didn’t feel real.”
A self-proclaimed horror film fanatic who became infected as a youngster when his parents dragged him to watch The ring in theaters aged just ten (he loved it, by the way, and aimed to transmit the trauma to his friends and classmates), a chance collaboration with underdog purveyors of the cheese-filled gonzo horror Troma The conversation, with two bombastic music videos, further established the boys as a band that not only rips your guts out with their gut-crunching music, but improves every part of their game when it comes to the ‘bog Brand.
“Working with Troma was really cool, you know? It was like a dream of ours, we were all like giant Tromaheads before we even became a band. We would have continued to work with Troma if they hadn’t been so busy and wrapped up working on The Venomous Avenger reboot with Peter Dinkel,” Vary concedes before delving further into the connective tissue of heavy metal and horror.
“I think there’s definitely a fine line between extreme music and horror, and I think what it really is is just like you said, it’s a middle finger to the mainstream. You know, it’s something you don’t necessarily think you’ll like on paper, but visually and sonically it’s very impressive and speaks to people and grabs people.
“I didn’t get into horror until my early teens, and that’s because I was so scared of it as a kid. The same goes for my kind of music. You know, my father heard a lot Morbid Angel and sepulture growing up and I couldn’t believe it. Couldn’t really understand it until maybe a little bit older. I just thought: you know what? I fuck with it and it talks to me.”
And while the powers that be behind the ‘bog beast know that a tongue-in-cheek approach to life can be satisfyingly useful, the band’s latest collection Murderous ecstasy ventures into darker waters, both in tone and subject matter, reflecting the realities of all hands involved.
“It’s kind of the theme of the whole album, it’s all about death and ecstasy is like euphoria. It could also refer to a substance or like a drug. You know, it’s something that draws you in.” Vary explained, open.
“There’s a song we called ‘A Lesson in Savagery’ and it’s about a guy who just can’t stop killing for his life. It’s almost like an addiction. I’ve drawn a couple of what I think Easter eggs look like like that Bundy Confessions of how it’s like an addiction and it’s just something that you need and you need something that’s harder and harder and harder. So it’s like the mind of a serial killer and how he can’t shake the feeling of killing.”
The loss of VaryHis grandmother, he shares, had a direct influence on the album’s writing, an act of catharsis the frontman hopes will resonate with the band’s listeners, who in turn need an outlet for their pain.
“With drugs, there’s also a relapse or there’s this big shadow that you have over yourself and around the people who love you so much and care about you. And you’re mad, you’re depressed. And I kind of took ‘Mortal’ in that kind of route.
“You lose something. For me, I took it as a kind of premonition when I lost my grandmother who raised me. I was like, in my head, I was just like, ‘Am I going to let this wear me down, am I? will I choose to live for her?’ Luckily I chose the latter but in this song it was like what if I didn’t?
“I just wrote this song to let people know we have people reaching out to us all the time like hey your album helped me get through this, helped me get through this. I just kind of want to reach out and touch people and tell them like, hey, we’ll always be there for you. You know, if you need a band to kind of get you through something, let’s be that band. We will gladly do it for you.
Sanguisugabogg‘s Murderous ecstasy is available worldwide from February 3rd to century media records. The band will embark on a number of tour dates alongside dying fetus, suicide silence, Born of Osiris, Canceled, Slay Squad and Crown Magenta for the Chaos & Carnage Tour in April! The band will also play a handful of shows in February internal bleeding, year of the knifeand Vomit.
with internal bleeding, year of the knife & Vomit
2/23 Grand Rapids, MI – Pyramid Scheme
02/24 Indianapolis, IN – Black Circle
25.02 Toledo, OH – Ottawa Tavern
02/26 Columbus, OH – Cup ace
with dying fetus, suicide silence, Born of Osiris, Canceled, Slay Squad & Crown Magenta
4/7 Fort Worth, TX – Ridglea Theater
4/8 San Antonio, TX – Vibes Events Center
4/9 Houston, TX – Warehouse live
4/11 Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade
4/13 New York, NY – Palladium Times Square
4/14 Sayreville, NJ – Starland Ballroom
4/15 Hartford, CT – Webster Theater
4/16 reading, PA – reverb
4/18 Pittsburgh, PA – Mountain View Amplifiers.
4/19 Cleveland, OH – Agora Theater
4/20 Covington, KY – Madison Theater
4/21 Pontiac, MI – The Crofoot
4/22 Joliet, IL – The Forge
4/24 Denver, CO – Ogden Theater
4/26 Las Vegas, NV – House of the Blues
4/27 Mesa, AZ – The Nile
4/28 Los Angeles, California – The Belasco
4/29 Berkeley, CA – UC Theater
4/30 Anaheim, CA – House of the Blues
