Immolated arrived on the metal scene shortly after the guitarist’s first picking up of a guitar, and quickly involving themselves in music production. His stage name pretty portrays his music style, which is a mix of late 80s thrash and 90s death metal.
Taking inspiration of day to day struggle and the transience of life, Immolated then reflects the brutal part of the daily life into his music. What was once a one-man standpoint has metamorphosed into something with friends collaborating under the Immolated moniker.
Together, they are trying to bring headbanging feeling to people along with the main message of life’s cruel reality. I sat down for an intense discussion with Immolated to talk about everything about the band – including how he got started, how he taught himself to play, and what he has planned for the band and its music.
Listen to Two Minutes To Mosh (Feat. Forlorn) below
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What is your stage name:
Immolated
Is there a story behind your stage name?
I kind of just thought what setting oneself on fire would feel like, you know, to immolate yourself.
Where do you find inspiration?
Day to day life. I find something crude and brutal about it. The thought that we’re dying a little more every day, selling our lifetime away in order to experience life. The challenges one faces daily when getting up to work, the diseases and illnesses that come from stress and such. The thought that every time you cross the street you could be ran over but you never really consider that. That sort of things, I find life overall crude, brutal and disturbing.
What was the role of music in the early years of your life?
Music was always an interest of mine, for example when seeing my brother play bass when I was little, or listening to Amerika by Rammstein and being amazed by the energy. It wasn’t until my teenage years that I found myself listening to music constantly, to deal with stress or depression.
Are you from a musical or artistic family?
Well… yeah. My father used to be a musician, from a band called ‘Los Grillos’ if I recall correctly. It was Chilean folklore music, which at the time was quite left-wing. Every time he talked about it he seemed happy yet sad. I understood that being a musician was something that really made him happy.
It was later in my life, nearly into adulthood, that I found out that when the coup happend in my country during the early 70’s, my father had just finished recording his first album. Due to the fact that a right-winged dictatorship had taken over he and his band burned all the records of their album, then split forever, never to see each other again.
My father passed away little more than two years ago, a few months after I picked up a guitar. To this day I wonder what he would’ve thought of what I’m doing now. I’m no believer, but somehow I hope he’s happy and proud.
Who inspired you to be a part of the music industry?
Nobody really, I just kinda bought a cheap guitar and a toy amp with my first salary and things took off from there.
How did you learn to sing/write/to play?
By myself, in my room alone. Sometimes I’d look at youtube videos, study a bit of music theory, but it’s mostly been me playing guitar to entertain and express myself nearly every day since I picked the hobby up.
What was the first concert that you ever went to and who did you see perform?
I went to see a friend’s uncle perform, who plays the bass like a madman. They’re called Arkonte, a local Chilean modern heavy metal band that mixed elements from classic rock, melodic metal, metalcore, amongst others. It was pretty fun, though I was quite tired for an entire week after all that. We’d been partying for two days by that point, so quite taxing to me at least but nevertheless very fun.
How could you describe your music?
This is a strange question to me. Heavy, I suppose? I’ve got a lot of inspiration from late 80’s and early 90’s thrash and 90’s death metal, so I guess you could describe it as a mix of them.
Describe your creative process.
I pick up the guitar and start playing, start arranging riffs and gluing ideas together until I’ve got something I consider solid.
What is your main inspiration?
Dying slowly and living my life away into existence, and what that means when applied to what I do in my daily, regular life.
What musician do you admire most and why?
Buckethead, because he’s an amazing guitar playing who’s found his way to breach his anxieties and other problems in order to breach into music.
Did your style evolve since the beginning of your career?
Well it’s just beginning, so no not at all I think.
Who do you see as your main competitor?
Nobody, I don’t see this as a competition at all.
What are your interests outside of music?
Videogames, sci-fi, mechanics, electricity, literature, among a few other things.
If it wasn’t a music career, what would you be doing?
Well I don’t really have a music ‘career’ per se. I have a normal, regular job in the IT industry and I just become Immolated in my free time.
What is the biggest problem you have encountered in the journey of music?
Being consistent, not giving up, and not succumbing to the feeling of not being good enough.
If you could change one thing in the music industry, what would it be?
I’d make it less about ego and vanity than it currently is.
Why did you choose this as the title of this project?
Sometimes I feel like waking up and getting out of bed is like being in a mosh kind of, and life goes pretty fast nowadays, like you’ve got two minutes to do everything, and it’s never enough.
What are your plans for the coming months?
Keep releasing music, get my own place so I can scream into a microphone and start adding vocals to my songs.
Do you have any artistic collaboration plans
Well yeah, I wanna make music with my friends. Forlorn is actually one of my very best and closest friends, and I’m pretty happy to be making music with him.
What message would you like to give to your fans
Life is like a mosh pit, you just get hit in different places and get sore in different ways. Keep at it, keep moshing.
