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After the mighty Cryptae last year, we now welcome another duo with a peculiar vision for death metal. Hailing from the USA, Acausal Intrusion is just one of both members many projects and their first album, Nulitas, was released this year through I, Voidhanger – if you’re seeking new technical, dissonant death metal that doesn’t resume to wankery, look no further. I spoke with Nythroth (guitar, bass, synth) and Cave Ritual (drums, vocals) about their inspirations, working ethos and much more. Scroll it down!
First of all, how are you doing?
Nythroth: I am doing pretty well, very busy with work, school, and making tons of other music, but overall living a good productive life and can’t complain. Hope you are doing well.
Cave Ritual: Well enough, keeping busy as well with the same ol work, paintings, building cabs, and bunch of other music. Just got back from a 15 mile hike so that’s something.
Nulitas is a technical and dissonant record, but unlike many records in the same vein it doesn’t have an “academic” approach – not virtuosity based, production isn’t clean, compositions sound rather fluid than ultra click-tight, that snare tone, etc. What’s your thoughts on that?
Nythroth: I find that when certain metal albums are all scale based, ultra clean, overproduced, and all intellectualized and have no raw and primal energy, it loses all of what metal is truly about. To me this album is about tapping into dark and primal forces, accessing areas of the self and universe that are forbidden and terrifying. I did use my music theory knowledge to stretch to music ideas of dissonance farther than I had ever before on any previous albums, but the writing process was very fluid, just riffing on the guitar and tying one idea after another into a cohesive whole.
As for the lack of “click” tempo, the quantized and click tracked modern sound really destroys a lot of metal music for me too. It is boring, constrictive, and does not allow for any dynamic playing of slowing down or speeding up the tempo on a whim together as a band, which is something that adds so much more feeling to the music for me. As for the sound, I have always gravitated towards a more organic sound, and metal albums produced like pop albums will have me immediately turn them off if I try to listen.
Cave Ritual: There is a time and a place for that sorta production and there is no issue with bands that want to use that for their composition. Just isn’t what I enjoy and same with Nythroth. I enjoy more technical bands from back in the day where it was still very organic sounding and the technicality is just the composition and the ideas/riffs utilized. They don’t have to have all obscure scales ran at 300BPM. Just has to be something gripping. Snare to me is important and I like hearing it in my compositions. I kinda dislike it how some records chose to make it this deep booming almost mimmicking the kick. But I really appreciate how the writing on this album wasn’t “let’s map out this super complicated work”. Hell, I didn’t even really think of it as technical. It’s just what makes sense and was interesting.
What was your gear set for the album?
Nythroth: To keep things extra weird, I used a vintage fender telecaster from the 1970s, not something you would probably hear on any typical tech death album tuned to B standard. This is why it might seem like there is not too much distortion, and there is that extra cutting twang sound which adds to the uneasy feeling. For amplifiers I used an Ampeg ss140c solid state amplifier and an original block letter Peavey 5150 mixed in 2 guitar tracks of each, then all of the lead lines I did with the 5150. For bass I used a shitty Ibanez bass running into both channels on a Sunn Beta Lead, one channel being set to clean and the other distorted on the amp and also with an HM2 Clone to get that extra grind and girth. My interface is a focusrite clarett 8 pre, and I used a mixture of guitar cabinets (custom mauler cabinets made by our drummer Cave Ritual), a 212115 and a 412, as well as a torpedo live cabinet simulator for recording in my apartment and getting those lead lines perfectly how I wanted them.
Cave Ritual: I used the kit I’ve been using for the last 17 years, Tama Imperialstar. 3 rack 8, 10, 12 and a 16 floor. 22in Kicks. Evans G2 Coated heads, Remo Powerstroke 77 coated. Hand hammered brass snare, 8 various sabian and zildjin cymbals, Trick Bigfoot Pro1 Pedals. Vic Firth Ralph Hardimon signature corpsmaster woodtip sticks. presonous firepod 8 channel interface with Shure drum mics. Mapex Black Panther snare. So really nothing fancy.
You mentioned jazz as an inspiration, but you don’t do the fretless bass + scales over scales clichés. How would you argue the jazz influence comes through? What are some of your favorite jazz artists?
Nythroth: I would say the jazz influence comes through in the improvisational and fluid nature of the writing process. In jazz there is a main theme and then all of the players begin to improvise off of that theme and permutate it further. For me I would start with a main riff idea or theme and then literally just spur of the moment keep distorting and mutating it into further grotesque incarnations, and as soon as I felt it was done I would record it and send it to Cave Ritual to track drums. No overthinking, pure expression just like jazz.
However, the riffs were all very thought out in their own way and all designed to flow perfectly into eachother. All of the lead lines were 100 percent improvised over the main base tracks. My favorite jazz artists are John Coltrane, particularly A Love Supreme and onward, Eric Dolphy, Sun Ra, later era Miles Davis, Albert Ayler, pretty much anything weird and experimental. Coltrane’s A Love Supreme was a huge inpiration for me in embracing power, simplicity, and a spiritual feeling over pointless technicality.
The interludes also add to the “homemade” feeling of the album too, as they evoke Angelo Badalamenti sounds. One review mentioned Lynch, was his work an influence to this vibe as well? If negative, what were the inspirations?
Nythroth: I did not have any one single particular influence for the interludes. I wanted to provide soundscapes that would draw the listener further into the strange and alien feelings of the music while also providing breaks and segues into each successive track. I was watching a lot of obscure 70’s and 80’s horror movies at the time, and I think that these inspired me to do some of these synthesizer soundscapes. They were very fun to do, and I was able to go into a sort of trance with each one and let the sounds possess me to sculpt themselves.
I also see a bit of Lynch on the cover art, with all the gray and strange creatures (not to mention the little sitting fella looks a bit like No Face from Spirited Away?). Did you give any particular instructions to Daniele Valeriani on that? It’s a bit more raw than his usual style, a bit of a Salvador Dalí aura there as well.
Nythroth: I will have to credit I, Voidhanger Records with all aspects of contacting Valeriani and securing this art. We wanted to use another piece of his originally, but as time went on we found this piece to be much more fitting. Valeriani didn’t want anything to do with us or our music at first, but eventually he found himself listening to our album every time he sat down to paint, and agreed to do the cover art. I’m extremely grateful to him and for I, Voidhanger records for helping make this release so complete.
The name Nulitas is a nod to the null, but wouldn’t you say that the concept of channeling and embracing those energies is kinda the opposite of nothingness, maybe?
Nythroth: Yes and no; to me the void or the “Acausal Realm” is Nothingness but it is also home to numerous chaotic entities and spirits which can kind of jump out and into you in disorganized fashion. Whereas in this physical realm things are organized based on matter, physicality, and a group conscience reality, in this null or acausal realm things are ancient, chaotic, disorganized, and home to things that are truly threatening to the psyche. But it is also not corrupted by any group reality, matter, and beliefs of any kind. I think this album is mainly meant to put each listener through a sort of trial, which will be different for each individual, and look at those aspects of themselves they may have suppressed or not wanted to see. This is meant to help them acknowledge those things and by the end of the album accept them fully as an integrated whole as you can hear in the more cathartic ending sequence.
Cave Ritual: Have to agree pretty much with Nythroth. Just to tack on, I viewed it as here is this album you start with no knowledge, a blank slate, and as you listen to it you create the world surrounding it filling that void. The name of the album is just the start to the creation upon embracing the sounds that come forth.
You both play on a lot of other projects as well. How do you keep the inspiration flowing, or would you argue is more of a perspiration quest? You live in different states, how did you meet?
Nythroth: Music is what I love, and I just don’t feel right in life unless I am working on something. I stay inspired and keep it fresh by always trying to do something different that I have not quite done before with each album. Before Nulitas, I had never ventured into tech death of any kind, and it was truly inspiring to write the most weird, twisted, and insane riffs of my life, some of which I could barely even play. I just recorded an album of absolutely downtuned funeral/death doom as well, which was quite the opposite, all focusing on a feeling of utter crushing hopelessness, with quite little technicality. So it helps me to always break new ground and territory for myself personally with each album, and have it all be an accurate reflection of what I am feeling in life at that time.
Cave Ritual: I have always loved creating overall and with music my 2 favorite aspects are writing and recording. I’ve done my shows and touring doing hundreds of shows, that’s fine, but creating that music is most important. And to me why I have so many projects is I always felt if I want to do X sorta band and I write that way. To me I feel if I put everything into one project it’s going to sound like a jumbled mess. At least to me, I don’t want to hear some punky lo-fi 3 chord strumming next to technical death riffs followed by dirt sludge, or noisy post hardcore jangly bits that then goes into a goregrind section of super detuned bass. I can write that but it’s not satisfying.
I usually have something inspires me and if I can’t fit it into an existing band then I create a new one – or I am doing stuff with friends and they want to go for a very specific thing and I can achieve that very specific thing. And, on top of that, I also being a drummer and can process through material quickly I can do session work or jump into bands that are seeking a drummer that just want to release material. I’ve been doing that a ton more the last couple of years with quality results and happy people that either go on and make me a “full” member of the band. I guess it’s a mix of i’m easy and fast to work with and they are happy with the results.
And on the side question, yes, we live in separate states and coasts. We meet via him ordering some custom cabs and he was driving out to pick them up. With our going back and forth and talking, we wrote some material and tracked it here while he was visiting and it’s just been a great consistent relationship of collabing in different bands. We work extremely well together and I’m excited to keep it going.
I know it’s soon to discuss this, but you already have the second LP done. What can people expect from it?
Nythroth: The main change is that it is overall much more dynamic. There are much more clean sections in each song, switching from soft to heavy. Also, the songs feel a bit more tight and well realized and throughout. The insanity and dissonance is still there, but we are becoming more familiar with this style and the execution sounds much better to my ears. I also feel that the tone of each instrument and the album as a whole is much better. There is also an acoustic track as one of the interludes which is both classical sounding and disturbing as hell at the same time.
To me, the album sounds like a continuation of the individual who made it through the first album, an already changed being totally fused with aspects of light and darkness, going through ever more grotesque changes in this album. However, I have been talking with I, Voidhanger Records with some plans for this release, and we definitely have some surprises for this one which we can’t divulge quite yet.
Anything you would like to add?
Nythroth: I just want to thank you for the time to do this interview with us and commend you for some well thought out questions. Hope you are well and stay tuned for much more music from both of us!
Cave Ritual: Thank you very much for the interview, and just keep your eyes peeled for releases on the horizon. We both have many albums and records that will be dropping relatively soon and onward consistently.
Bass Doom 