Dying Fetus

DYING FETUS established a reputation for uncompromising integrity with a slew of classic albums and today rides a resurgence of respect and esteem with a new generation. As Revolver Magazine wrote upon the release of their first new material since 2017’s Wrong One To Fuck With: “Their unique sound has always straddled the line between extreme metal instrumentation and heavy hardcore chugginess, and right now, they’re extremely well-regarded by many of today’s heavy-hitting hardcore acts, as well as their fair share of death metal and deathcore up-and-comers.”

Recorded in Baltimore with longtime producer Steve Wright (Future Islands) and mixed by Mark Lewis (Cannibal Corpse), Make Them Beg For Death contains every Dying Fetus hallmark. The veteran death metal band’s ninth album is fast, intense, and brimming with unstoppable grooves.

Monstrous riffs, blast beats, unstoppable hooks, and earth-moving grooves define their catalog. The Black Dahlia Murder, Suicide Silence, and Whitechapel co-headlined tours with Dying Fetus in recent years, a testament to the veteran band’s continued relevance and respect in the genre.

Decibel Magazine inducted the band’s zeitgeist third album, Destroy the Opposition (2000), into their prestigious Hall Of Fame, next to genre-defining classics from the likes of Metallica and Slayer. Metal Injection hailed Wrong One to Fuck With as a “menacing motherfucker.” The band continually refines its unique take on death, grind, and hardcore with a combination of virtuosity and ferocity, inescapably catchy hooks and punishing breakdowns, and a lack of pretension.

“We put our own twist on death metal,” explains co-vocalist/guitarist John Gallagher, who co-founded the group in 1991. “We were like most bands, starting in the garage, drinking beer, having a little fun on the weekend, finding the right amps through trial and error. We blended aspects of bands we liked – Suffocation, Obituary, Deicide, and Cannibal Corpse, among others; the dual vocal approach of Carcass – and made them our own. ‘Let’s make it moshy, let’s make it slammy.’”

Surprisingly, the band took a few cues from early Agnostic Front and Madball and even a bit of Rage Against The Machine, whose debut album arrived in 1992. “I wanted to take some of that groove and put it into death metal,” Gallagher says. Internal Bleeding, arguably the first band to do “all slam, all the time,” was another influence; their native New York was just a few hours away from the Dying Fetus home base in Maryland. “That whole New York scene really inspired us. It was a big part of our development, as all of our bands were continually influenced by each other.”

Eschewing leather and spikes in favor of t-shirts, and shorts, the “street level” look of Dying Fetus ruffled some feathers in elitist metal circles but helped the music crossover to other scenes. That no-frills approach is the norm today; some death metal bands even sell branded basketball shorts.

Early demos and a pair of albums on smaller labels led to the landmark release of Destroy the Opposition. The high-speed Stop At Nothing (2003) introduced bassist Sean Beasley, who began sharing vocal duties with Gallagher on the excessively brutal War of Attrition (2007).

Drummer Trey Williams rounded out the modern, definitive Dying Fetus lineup beginning with the tech-metal masterpiece, Descend into Depravity (2009). “Outstanding technical bands like Necrophagist were out at that time,” Beasley remembers. “I wrote songs with like 25 riffs in them.”

While no less technically proficient, Reign Supreme (2012) pushed the band’s groovier side back to the forefront. (“Second Skin” even appeared in an episode of South Park.) Five years later, “Dying Fetus hit the mark again” (Exclaim!) with the ruthless and crushing Wrong One To Fuck With.

Hatebreed, As I Lay Dying, Knocked Loose, GWAR, Morbid Angel, and Six Feet Under are just a few bands who’ve taken Dying Fetus on tour over the years. In 2014, the fan-driven and tongue-in-cheek “What About Dying Fetus?” hashtag campaign earned them a mainstage spot at the UK’s Download Festival, playing before the likes of Bring Me The Horizon, Fall Out Boy, and Linkin Park.

Make Them Beg For Death, set for release in 2023, delivers savage beatdowns equally designed to pulverize and mesmerize. “It follows on from where Wrong One To Fuck With left off,” Williams promises. “We don’t need to participate in the technical death metal arms race. We’ve got the big guns, and we’ve proven that. It’s all about pointing them in the right direction, so to speak.”  

To the men of Dying Fetus, the mission is straightforward. “The philosophy is the same now as it was when the band started,” Gallagher confirms. “To write catchy riffs and to make it memorable. Whatever style of music you’re doing, make it something people want to hear repeatedly.”

After the dust settles and the apocalypse runs its course, art will still persist in the wake of insanity. Society may crumble, but music endures and even thrives. The Acacia Strain document this deconstruction from the front row. The metal institution—Vincent Bennett [vocals], Kevin Boutot [drums], Devin Shidaker [guitar], Griffin Landa [bass], and Tom “The Hammer” Smith, Jr. [guitar]—survey humanity’s fate with seasick grooves, thrash precision, doom vulnerability, and vocal convulsions in 2020 throughout a series of five digital and physical two-song seven-inches. These releases ultimately comprise their eighth full-length offering, Slow Decay [Rise Records]. 

Unveiled in three-week increments, the music and the rollout itself adhere to 
a calculated vision.

“The whole concept is reality breaking down around us,” explains Vincent. “We’ve done our time on earth, broken through the boundaries of what reality actually is, and we’re now witnessing our collective descent into madness. Lyrically and sonically, everything reflects that. You’re getting the vision piece by piece. The whole theme is a slow dive. By the same token, it organically becomes one record instead of just one big push out of the gate. As soon as you think you’re getting the hang of it, we throw out a wrench with the full-length. There’s no evidence to suggest we’re aren’t actually in a living hell. The things happening around us could be out of a comic book or a movie. The idea is, ‘This can’t be real’. Maybe something happened. Maybe we’re all dead and we don’t even know it. Maybe we’re just living in some augmented reality hellscape of actual planet earth.”

Founded in 2001, such ponderousness always crept between the cracks of the band’s menacing maelstrom of metal and hardcore. As such, they engendered diehard fandom within a cult audience and put up unprecedented numbers for an extreme act. The 2010 opus Wormwood spawned standouts “Beast” [3.8 million Spotify streams] and “The Hills Have Eyes” [1.4 million Spotify streams]. Meanwhile, 2014’s Coma Witch staked out a spot in the Top 35 of the Billboard Top 200. In 2017, Gravebloom soared to the Top 5 of the Billboard US Independent Albums Chart and yielded “Worthless,” which exceeded 1.7 million Spotify streams to date. Along the way, they toured with the likes of Architects UK, Hatebreed, and Crowbar in addition to selling out countless headline gigs. 

Capping off 2019, they surprised fans everywhere with the seven-song conceptual EP, It Comes In Waves. Not only did it tally 1 million total streams in less than a month, but it engendered some of the best reviews of the group’s career. In a 9-out-of-10 star review, Metal Injection claimed, “It’s 30 minutes of doom, death metal, atmosphere, and storytelling that is hands down the best thing they’ve ever done,” and Decibel dubbed it, “the most interesting and varied record of The Acacia Strain’s nearly-twenty-year career.” 

With It Comes In Waves as a launchpad, they ramped up this momentum in 2020.

“We fully experimented on It Comes In Waves,” Vincent continues. “It made us grow musically. When we got back in the studio, we didn’t follow a typical formula. We integrated the sound of It Comes In Waves into what we normally would’ve done. Slow Decay is a culmination of everything that The Acacia Strain is mashed into twelve solid songs.”

Throughout September 2019, The Acacia Strain recorded at Griffin’s studio alongside producer Randy LeBoeuf [Kublai Khan, Left Behind] in Des Moines, IA. Even though they tracked drums at the same spot for It Comes In Waves, it marked the first time they cut a whole record in Iowa and worked with Randy. Additionally, they expanded the soundscapes with wooden frog and other “weird percussion instruments.” 

As a whole, they also perfected their patented approach.

“We were able to write emotional doom songs,” states Vincent. “We’re trying to evolve, and we hope people evolve with us.”

They introduced this chapter with the seven-inch D in February. “Feed A Pigeon Breed A Rat” slips from an ominous ticking into a crushing chug as the vocalist screams, “It feels like hell.” Meanwhile, the accompanying “Seeing God” [feat. Aaron Heard of Jesus Piece & Nothing] teeters between a gnashing riff and guttural growls.

“These two tracks bridge the gap,” he goes on. “‘Feed A Pigeon Breed A Rat’ is about how certain parts of society are just ignorant to the norm. Sometimes, you have to follow the rules in order to survive though. ‘Seeing God’ is the beginning of the explanation of what’s to come. It’s a style of death metal we’ve hoped to do for a long time. We’ve also wanted to showcase guest vocalists, and Aaron killed it.”

In March, the E seven-inch touts “Solace and Serenity” and “The Lucid Dream” [feat. Jess Nyx]. According to Vincent, “Those two songs plunge you deeper into this world.” April’s C seven-inch boasts his two personal favorites: “Crossgates” and “I Breathed in the smoke deeply it tasted like death and I Smiled” [feat. Zach Hatfield of Left Behind]. The latter hinges on a hulking beat as it builds towards a hypnotic and haunting refrain warped and wrapped in a delicate doom-scape.

“It’s about a very emotional time in my life,” admits Vincent. “I recorded it last, so I could make sure I was emotionally available to record it. The time didn’t break me, but what I was going through shines through.”
During May, A unleashed “Inverted Person” and “Chhinnamasta” as June’s Y delivered “One Thousand Painful Stings [feat. Courtney LaPlante of Spiritbox & iwrestledabearonce] and the finale “EARTH WILL BECOME DEATH.” LaPlante’s inclusion widened the scope yet again.

“Courtney’s got a beautiful voice,” the singer affirms. “What she did really blew us away, and it added another dimension.”

These seven-inches ultimately form on Slow Decay and a statement for The Acacia Strain.

“I want people to know we’re still here,” Vincent leaves off. “2021 will be 20 years of The Acacia Strain. We’re still making music, growing, doing new things, and encourage others to do the same.  We want everyone to be more creative and aware of the way they do things. It’s art after all. There’s more out there than what’s in front of our faces. I’ve been doing this since I was 19. The band is my life; I’m going to keep pushing.”