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Murder Construct

Whether it is a full-fledged band or merely a project – that is something that guitarist Leon del Muerte is not really sure about himself either. Probably every member of Murder Construct will have a different answer. One thing that is for sure is that their debut record 'Results', last month unleashed upon the world by Relapse, bursts with delicious death/grind. Below Leon gives us a short background to the genesis of both the band and their debut record.

By: Richard G. | Archive under death metal / grindcore

Congratulations on the recent release of your debut full-length 'Results'. To start with an obvious opener, looking back on the recording process now, what do you think of the results?
As a picky shithead, I can always find things that I'd go back and change, but it's about 80% decent. I wish we had fixed a few things here and there, but it could certainly be worse. We went into the studio with only about 75% of the album written, and we came out with a couple songs that we had only really played as a band once or twice before. So there was a few surprises on the album even for us, haha.

What is the idea behind Murder Construct? Is it an actual band (with touring aspirations for example), or should we regard it more as a project?
Hard to say, and a different answer for each different member. I think of it as my main band now. I'm sure Travis thinks of it as a project and Danny could probably go either way. Caleb and Kevin most likely regard it as an actual band. I would love to tour and we have gotten a few offers, but it really has to be perfect for us to be able to do it. Timewise, money-wise, etc. It's not as easy as planning for a regular band where everyone is in town all the time, that's for sure.

And creatively? When you guys first got the idea to start a new initiative, what kind of a sound did you guys set out to create?
I started the “band” back in 2001 around the same time that I parted ways with Impaled. I wanted to do something more stripped-down and faster than the direction that Impaled was heading. So, in my bedroom, I started writing all these shitty Terrorizer rip-offs with a drum machine while looking for a drummer. I kinda made the philosophy that not every riff had to be the best riff I ever wrote, but everything had to flow better, so that meant thinking a little differently than I had previously. I put together a few lineups in the bay area, but nothing ever lasted. At some point, I rejoined Exhumed, then went on to do Intronaut and Phobia and put MC on the back burner. Then after leaving those bands, I decided to do it again and put together a new line-up. Danny was first up, of course, as we had been talking about it the whole time we were in Europe with Exhumed. Then Caleb, Kevin then Travis. The point of the band remained throughout, though. Short, aggressive songs that are very fast. There's a lot more elements to the sound now, but that has remained the focus.

And what kind of topics are addressed in the lyrics?
There's a lyric book that comes with the CD, it might be in another language, but I think you can pick it up, haha.

band image

With so many seasoned musicians in the extreme metal genre, is it hard to compromise during the creative process? What does the writing process look like in MC?
There's very little compromise in this band, actually. To tell you the truth, I'm a bit of a tyrant about the music. I wrote 99% of the EP, and something like 65% of 'Results'. Mostly the songs come to the rehearsal room fully formed. We may debate about this and that, but for the majority of tunes we have, they were written completely by one person and shown to the rest of the band. There's a few songs on there that we collaborated on, like 'Compelled By Mediocrity,' but songs like 'Red All Over' and 'Under The Weight Of The Wood,' were written completely by me. Caleb wrote 'Mercy, Mercy' and Kevin wrote 'Dead Hope' and 'Feign Ignorance.'

Since MC's sound combines the best of both worlds: what is your favorite death metal band and what is your favorite grindcore band at the moment and why?
Oh man, that's a fucked up question, haha. I think my eternal favorite death metal album would be 'Like An Everflowing Stream' by Dismember and either 'Unrest' by Disrupt or 'World Downfall' by Terrorizer for grind. The why is obvious: because those are all like the best shit ever, haha.

Do you feel more closer to any of these two genres? If so, why?
I definitely am more of a grind guy, I guess, but I listen to a fair amount of death metal, I suppose. Mostly older stuff, whereas there's a lot of newer grind bands that I can get into also. I don't strictly pull influence from either genre, but yeah if it came down to one or the other, I'd probably choose grind.

Where does the name Murder Construct come from?
A mental 'construct' is basically a state of mind. Murder Construct would just be a mindset bent on murder. The name actually came from a parody website I was reading about a 'serious' interpretation of the game Clue, where the line said '...the murder's construct is blah blah blah.' Those two words together stuck out for me.

What was the idea behind ending on a more atmospheric note with the long and mellow outro of the title track?
I'm not strictly into metal music, and I love a lot of middle eastern music. I've been a big fan of Secret Chiefs 3 for a long time, and that was a simple homage to them, really, for being the gateway into a lot of middle eastern music. It's just a different way for the CD to finish. It starts sorta soft for a moment, then blasts for a solid 20-something minutes, and then THAT ends it, haha.

What about the Spanish in ´Resultados'? Where did that idea come from?
That's Travis' thing. He wanted to get Brujo from Brujeria to do a duet with him on that track, but it turns out that Brujo doesn't do guest appearances. Since the song is basically about the Mexican drug war, it felt appropriate to have some of it be in Spanish.

These were my questions for now. Thanks a lot for your time and for your music. Hope to get the chance to see you play somewhere in Europe soon, if not with Murder Construct, maybe with another project. If you have anything to add, please go ahead
Cheers, and thanks! We hope to get out there sometime in 2013!

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