Summon: How did the band get started?
Jake: Me (Jake), Nick and Ed used to play together in a band called Dead By Dawn over ten years ago and we decided it was time to do it again. I had just left a band called Torrential Bleeding, Nick had just left Embludgeoned so we started jamming again. Brian our other guitarist played in a band called Tyrant with me and that band broke up as well. Tim our bassist got picked up while playing for Victims of Contagion. It all happened pretty quick and once we started composing songs together we knew we were on to something good.
Summon: What kind of music do you play?
Jake: We play death metal with subtle parts from other genres like black metal, tech death and slamming brutal death.
Summon: How has the fan response been?
Jake: We have great fans. We’ve only been on the scene for a year now and our fan base has expanded enormously. We hope to reach even more this coming year.
Summon: Where did the band name come from?
Jake: Well Post Mortal Possession means becoming possessed after you die. Sounded cool and it pretty much crushed all the other names we were trying.
Summon: Introduce the band members and what they do in the band.
Jake: Well Ed is our singer and he writes majority of the lyrics with exception of a few ideas I throw at him and he likes. He also chimes in during the writing process if he thinks something should be somewhere in the music. Nick is the drummer and he writes all the drums. He even writes some of the guitar parts. Majority of the song “The Arrival” was wrote by him and any time he brings something to the table its usually pretty good. Brian and me (Jake) write majority of the guitar parts and I’ve never met another guitarist that I could bounce riffs and ideas off of as well as him. We trade off what we do during a song. Sometimes I harmonize or play solos/leads and vice versa. Tim the bassist learns our parts and builds what he plays off of what we play. We all work very well together and nobody has a problem speaking up if they think someone should change their part. Even when we disagree with each other we hear each other out.
Summon: And where do the lyric ideas come from?
Jake: Ed listens to the music and builds off what he thinks the song should be about. He writes about historical events such as WW2 and the Salem witch trials as well as famous serial killers but like most death metal vocalist some songs call for pointless killing and torture. He mixes it up pretty good.
Summon: What is your view in Satanism and Occultism?
Jake: I don’t really have a view on Satanism of Occultism. If someone wants to worship something or believe in something that isn’t what I believe in, that’s their thing and I couldn’t care less.
Summon: How many albums/CD’s have you released?
Jake: We have one release to date called “Possessing Entity”. It’s a five song EP that we recorded with Shane Mayer at Shane Brutal Studios in October. Its raw and brutal and we think we get our point across with those five songs.
Summon: Tell me about some the songs on the latest CD?
Jake: Well it starts out with “The Harvest” which is about human organ harvesting and one of our more intense songs on the album. The song following it is called “Suspended by Nails” about torture through crucifixion and revenge. The third song on the EP is “Death March” about the horrific events during the Holocaust where the Jewish prisoners were lead to the slaughter like sheep. Next song on the EP “The Arrival” is about demonic intervention and the apocalypse and our final song is “Visceral Butchery” about torture and meaningless butchery haha. Nothing we write about is meant to be satanic although we do talk about the devil and nothing we write about glorifies the events we are talking about. Its death metal so take it with a grain of salt you know? We don’t want to slaughter Jews and we don’t go around killing people. Its all about creating brutal imagery to match the brutality of the songs.
Summon: Do you have any side projects?
Jake: Some of us used to but we all came to the conclusion that if you are going to do something the best of your ability that you should put all of your effort into that one thing. We work really hard to make this band the best it can be.
Summon: Who are some of your musical influences?
Jake: Bands like Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, Aeon, Deicide, Decapitated, Gorguts, Severe Torture, Severed Savior and Psycroptic to name a few. A lot of good bands on Unique Leader, Earache, Metalblade, Releapse also. Great labels.
Summon: What is the band like when you play live?
Jake: What you hear on the disk is what you hear live. Only difference is that you cannot mimic a live performance with a CD so we encourage you and anyone else to go see us live with the head banging and guttural screams on top of blistering drums and technical riffs. We think we do it well but if you want we have several videos on our face book page and reverbnation you can check out on the internet.
Summon: Have you guys ever played in another country?
Jake: No not yet.
Summon: How big of crowd shows up at shows usually?
Jake: Depends on the night in Pittsburgh where we are from but the numbers are growing. We have played bigger shows but generally speaking around 60 people will be at our show.
Summon: How is the crowd response when you play?
Jake: Can’t complain there. Our fans are great and their support means everything to us.
Summon: What do you think of the US Black Metal/Death Metal scene?
Jake: Haven’t seen enough other scenes besides Pittsburgh to have an opinion.
Summon: What do you think of the Overseas scenes?
Jake: We hear good things but haven’t experienced it ourselves yet.
Summon: What are some of new favorite black metal/death metal bands?
Jake: I just recently got into Fallujah which is death metal/black metal with some ambient parts. Great band.
Summon: When do you guys plan on writing any new material?
Jake: We are always writing. We have probably thrown out as many songs as we have kept.
Summon: What does the future hold for the band??
Jake: Well we are currently seeking a good label to represent us, we are working on new material, you can expect another release before the year is over and we plan on traveling a lot more this coming year so we can spread our music across the US the best we can.
Contact them at:
https://www.facebook.com/postmortalpossession
http://www.reverbnation.com/postmortalpossession666
http://www.songkick.com/artists/7827264-post-mortal-possession
http://concerts.eventful.com/performers/post-mortal-possession-/P0-001-014195831-7
