Exclusive Interview: Inexorable talk writing and recording “Immortal”!
Taking inspiration from bands like Dying Fetus and Dimmu Borgir vocalist Matt Alleger and multi instrumentalist Dustin Smith to joined forces in Inexorable and unleashed an old school Death Metal demo tape style EP that you might consider Blackened by their love of Black Metal in “Immortal” last month. As is usually the way, we went creature double feature with this being the second of two exclusive interviews with duo…
You mentioned having written some tracks that were placed on the back burner as they didn’t necessarily fit the sound you were looking for. What did you learn from writing those that made the finished product better?“Some of the songs just plain sucked. They made us reflect back on what we really wanted to sound like. The Immortal EP is a simplistic foundation for the complexity to come. *wink <@:)”
How does the writing process of a new Inexorable track start? Melody, riff or rhythm first?“Well some nights start with some whiskey and guitar noodling. Usually I (Dustin) will have a rhythm idea in my head and will try to record that into guitar notes. Doesn’t always work out as planned but then I’ll send it to Matt to get some ideas to bounce off of”
The vocals are impressive; unclean enough to get the adrenaline going but clean enough so as all the lyrics are heard; how did you go about getting that balance right?“Vocals are a bit of what came naturally and an evolution over time. I (Matt) used to just go as low and guttural as possible. As I progressed as a vocalist I realized I wanted to have more range. My enunciation, I feel is the core to Inexorable’s message”
The mastering of the EP was done by JP of Just Art Dead; how did you go about finding him for the purpose and what was it like to work with him?“Matt is the vocalist for Just Art Dead, which JP is also a part of. We all met by chance doing a podcast about metal. JP is super easy to work with and has a vast knowledge and background in musical engineering. He’s awesome! He was able to fine tune our mixes to be as powerful as can be”
For us gear nerds out there, can you tell us what you’re using gear wise (pedals, strings, drums etc) to get your sound?“Matt uses an Aston microphone. We felt the mic emphasizes the high end some and with his lower registar vocals it works well for our needs. I (Dustin) use a Solar 7 string on rhythm and a Dean Razorback for leads into the Nolly DPS plugin. I used an overdrive pedal and delay that’s in the DSP plugin but that’s about it. We like to keep it somewhat old school and simple. Digital amps are so nice to record with. You don’t have to worry about settings being the same and can change your sound after a performance easily. For bass I use a Schecter 6 string and Parallax plugin. I used to be able to play drums decently but I’m old and my joints can’t keep up anymore. Thankfully there’s ezdrummer”
What difference would it make to you as a band if you could land an endorsement from a gear manufacturer?“I think it would mean a lot to us. Something like that would be a massive validation of our hard work and effort. Since childhood we always thought, how cool it would be to have our name on a guitar?”
