A few months back, I stopped by Backstage Café in Covington to check out a random metal show. One of the early bands on the bill was Dismemberment, a blackened thrash band hailing from Laurelville, OH, which isn't far from where the Blogger of Doom grew up. Naturally, that piqued my interest. It turns out that Dismemberment was in the midst of a three night run with the mighty Skeletonwitch and took a detour through Covington on a night off. I couldn't have been more impressed with the live show and I've been eagerly awaiting a full-length release ever since. That wait is nearly over, as Dismemberment is set to release Embrace the Dark next Tuesday (4/29) on Horror Pain Gore Death Records. From what I've heard so far, the album is one of the essential metal releases of 2014. The quartet is proving once again that Ohio has somehow become ground zero for American heavy metal. I recently had a chat with Dismemberment bassist J.D. Henderly to get the scoop on the recent Dismemberment news.
How did Dismemberment come together and how long have you been at it?
J.D. Henderly: Luke (Shively, guitars/vocals) and Jake (Shively, guitars) formed Dismemberment in early 2010 while Taylor (Emerine, drums) and myself were playing in Butchered Remains. Taylor had jammed with them a handful of times and told me I had to come down and check it out, so we showed up and played an early version of “Possessed” and I was immediately hooked. We've been at it pretty steadily ever since and have been lucky enough to share the stage with a pretty large amount of incredible acts. Hard to believe it's been four years.
When and where did you record the new record?
JD: We recorded Embrace The Dark at Club Sandwich in Columbus, OH with Travis Lautenschlager. It was an awesome experience all around. Travis is great to work with and he tossed in some killer ideas as well. As far as the bass went, I basically just brought in my rig that I always play with live and let him tweak it and dial it in his own way. We ended up with the best tone I've ever had hands down. I believe Travis deemed it "nasty chainsaw bass". After laying the tracks down there, we sent the record to Joel Grind to mix and then Dan Randall at Mammoth Sound for mastering. We are all super grateful for everyone's hard work and contributions. It came out sounding way more killer than I could have imagined.
What kind of gear did you use on the new album?
JD: I used a 70's Aims Jazz bass copy through a DOD FX80-B Compressor Sustainer which ran into a Traynor TS50-B powering a Peavy 410 TX as well as a custom 1x15" cab. Oh, and a Boss TU-3 tuner.
How have you been received so far on your series of mini-tours?
JD: It's gone pretty well so far. We've met some awesome people and seen some killer acts. Stayed in some nasty hotels; one with a mystery boot print on the wall and another with some questionable sheets. Detroit was really cool, as was Ft. Wayne and Covington. Got to stop by Niagara Falls after we played in Buffalo, where Jake and I found ourselves driving the promoter's van 30 minutes to our hotel to grab the keys to the trailer we had left behind. All in all it's been amazing.
Who are some of your main influences?
JD: For me definitely Steve DiGiorgio and Kelly Conlon for their works with Death. DiGiorgio is unreal in his creativity and Conlon has some of the most intelligent bass lines I have ever heard on the Symbolic record. Tone-wise I kinda try to shoot somewhere between Land Phil from Municipal Waste and Lemmy. I also draw a little bit from Jeff Matz of High on Fire and Dan Maines of Clutch.
Who are you currently listening to?
JD: The past couple days I've been listening to Clutch's new one, Earth Rocker, which is quickly becoming one of my favorites from them, Municipal Waste's Massive Aggressive, Carcass's Surgical Steel, which is fucking killer, and a bit of Revocation here and there, Existence Is Futile and Chaos Of Forms.
How did Dismemberment come together and how long have you been at it?
J.D. Henderly: Luke (Shively, guitars/vocals) and Jake (Shively, guitars) formed Dismemberment in early 2010 while Taylor (Emerine, drums) and myself were playing in Butchered Remains. Taylor had jammed with them a handful of times and told me I had to come down and check it out, so we showed up and played an early version of “Possessed” and I was immediately hooked. We've been at it pretty steadily ever since and have been lucky enough to share the stage with a pretty large amount of incredible acts. Hard to believe it's been four years.
When and where did you record the new record?
JD: We recorded Embrace The Dark at Club Sandwich in Columbus, OH with Travis Lautenschlager. It was an awesome experience all around. Travis is great to work with and he tossed in some killer ideas as well. As far as the bass went, I basically just brought in my rig that I always play with live and let him tweak it and dial it in his own way. We ended up with the best tone I've ever had hands down. I believe Travis deemed it "nasty chainsaw bass". After laying the tracks down there, we sent the record to Joel Grind to mix and then Dan Randall at Mammoth Sound for mastering. We are all super grateful for everyone's hard work and contributions. It came out sounding way more killer than I could have imagined.
What kind of gear did you use on the new album?
JD: I used a 70's Aims Jazz bass copy through a DOD FX80-B Compressor Sustainer which ran into a Traynor TS50-B powering a Peavy 410 TX as well as a custom 1x15" cab. Oh, and a Boss TU-3 tuner.
How have you been received so far on your series of mini-tours?
JD: It's gone pretty well so far. We've met some awesome people and seen some killer acts. Stayed in some nasty hotels; one with a mystery boot print on the wall and another with some questionable sheets. Detroit was really cool, as was Ft. Wayne and Covington. Got to stop by Niagara Falls after we played in Buffalo, where Jake and I found ourselves driving the promoter's van 30 minutes to our hotel to grab the keys to the trailer we had left behind. All in all it's been amazing.
Who are some of your main influences?
JD: For me definitely Steve DiGiorgio and Kelly Conlon for their works with Death. DiGiorgio is unreal in his creativity and Conlon has some of the most intelligent bass lines I have ever heard on the Symbolic record. Tone-wise I kinda try to shoot somewhere between Land Phil from Municipal Waste and Lemmy. I also draw a little bit from Jeff Matz of High on Fire and Dan Maines of Clutch.
Who are you currently listening to?
JD: The past couple days I've been listening to Clutch's new one, Earth Rocker, which is quickly becoming one of my favorites from them, Municipal Waste's Massive Aggressive, Carcass's Surgical Steel, which is fucking killer, and a bit of Revocation here and there, Existence Is Futile and Chaos Of Forms.
Editor's Notes: Big thanks to J.D. for taking some time to speak with us here at The Blog of Doom. To hear some tracks off of Embrace the Dark, check out Dismemberment's bandcamp page at the link below. Pre-orders of Embrace the Dark are available now. - JO
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