As far as genres go Death Metal has very much been a DIY affair. From the likes of Cannibal Corpse right up until the new breed of Metal visionaries the genre has always relied on relentless touring, quick learning and of course being as sonically devastating as possible. These three ingredients make up Abnormality’s DNA, having just released their Metal Blade debut Mechanisms of Omniscience the band stake their claim as a truly ferocious band in the Death Metal arena. Kindly able to speak to us whilst on tour in the US we spoke to singer Mallika Sunduramurthy on the new record. From its lyrical meanings to its significantly impactful artwork, designed by Sunduramurthy and how Death Metal being DIY may have been rife in the past and is coincidentally in the future.
Today we have Mallika Sunduramurthy from Abnormality with us, how are you?
I’m well thank you! We’re just on tour right now…
So how has the tour been so far, the first four days?
Its been great, its been really chaotic but exciting to tour with all of these bands, especially our friends in Suffocation. Its been really cool!
Excellent! You’ve got your new album Mechanisms of Omniscience coming out on Friday, what was it like writing and recording the album?
We have a new guitarist now Sam, so first we needed to get him up to speed on our older songs and how we write as a group. Getting used to our style and he has been working out great! We’re just continuing on with our style and our evolution as a band. It just kind of happened naturally and we worked really hard on it and are really happy with it.
What themes have you got on the album?
Everything has a kind of dark atmosphere. Musically or lyrically are you asking?
More lyrically I would say.
Well we just talk about what is going in the world and what is going on in our lives. Things that are happening around us and things that we feel need to change, like with the state of our country and the world.
What about the albums title, Mechanisms of Omniscience, what does that mean?
Well its about the many ways which the people in power manipulate the masses through television, the media, news reporting advertising a lot of different other subversive ways. Thats what its about mainly!
How did come up with the album artwork? I love the face being ripped to shreds!
Hahaha, yeah I did the artwork and its supposed to encompass a lot of the themes in the whole album. The album was named after the title track “Mechanisms Of Omniscience” so that was the starting point. Its about trying to be as abstract enough to capture the feeling of the music mainly. In my mind it was a normal human being, being manipulated and kind of losing themselves and becoming someone else. Exploding from within is kind of what it supposed to be symbolising. I like that its abstract though, if someone else reads something else into it, thats fine too!
You did the artwork yourself?
Yes, I’m an artist.
Is a painting?
Well I started as a drawing in charcoal and then I brought it into Photoshop and painted it in photoshop with a WACOM synthique tablet so I just paint on there digitally. I love working with that!
Have you done a lot of other Death Metal artworks?
I’ve done all of our album covers thus far, I’ve done some other bands work but not a lot. I’m usually pretty busy with the band and whatever jobs I’m doing. I do contract work for art often and videogames, thats my background. I went to school for art and I do that professionally.
Thats pretty cool! So what about the band name, how did you guys come up with idea to be called Abnormality?
A lot of hours of debating it and fighting over a name. It wasn’t easy, as it goes with a lot of bands, picking a name. We were all bringing ideas to the table, bringing lists and debating it. It took a while to even come up with a name, we even played a show before we had a name haha! Somebody brought the name Abnormality and we thought, I dunno, OK! Since nobody disagreed we went with it but I think its really come to suit us very well. I do like it and it doesn’t keep us in a box, it doesn’t limit us so its a good name for us! We had to play a show before we had a name, we just put a little illegible smudge on the flyer! That was funny back in eleven years ago.
I’ve kind of wondered, you’ve got some Frank Mullen style growls, how do you get them across?
The same way Frank Mullen does! What do you mean?
Are you inspired by Suffocation and things like that or many other bands?
Of course yeah! Its cool that you can hear that, Frank Mullen is a huge influence. Chris Barnes and Corpsegrinder a lot of bands I’m inspired by but Frank Mullen is a huge one. Matty Way from Disgorge, Morbid Angel, Deicide a lot of Old School Death Metal bands and Brutal Death Metal bands!
Butcher Babies for example get quite a lot of stigma from the way that they look and things like that, do you ever find that some people accidentally prejudge the band because you’re singing as a woman?
I don’t know! I think that people are fans of the music get it, you know? Based on how I look doesn’t really have to do with the music it just has to do with their own prejudices.
Its a bit of a touchy subject to talk on but I am one hundred percent behind you! What is your influence in terms of lyrics, any particular sort of things?
Oh yeah! We write a lot of different things like I was saying earlier, we have a song about tripping on mushrooms, we have a song about drone warfare which is a terrible thing going on. Warfare perpetrated by our government that is completely anonymous and really awful. We comment on that, the military industrial complex in the US and worldwide now. Especially our military in the US is so huge and powerful. We talk about the mass manipulations going on in our culture and the dumbing down of American society, the disinformation going on.
Blatant lies by the media, blatant lies about the politicians… Just look whats going on in the world, there is so much corruption. Its just ridiculous at this point and Heavy music is just a fantastic way to vent our frustrations at the world. Though I think a lot of people are pissed off, the rich are getting richer and the middle class is disappearing. The average person is suffering more and more and we are exploiting third world countries, its really awful theres just too much greed and corruption. We speak about those things!
Wow, I guess that pretty much nails it!
Hahahaha we’re not always such a downer! Its theraputic for us to have a way to communicate those kind of things and hope that other people wake up to it. We’re pretty easy going people, we have a good sense of humour but we take the music very seriously. The mushroom song, that was written by the drummer. He writes lyrics with me but I was totally on point with him on that one. That song isn’t about recreational drug use its more about opening your mind to whats around you and changing your perception of reality as a way of escaping the bonds of the construct of society. If anyone has done mushrooms before they will know what I’m talking about! If you haven’t done them before then you probably won’t get it but thats ok!
Finally what has been album that you have been listening to over the last six months to a year?
The new Wormed album that just came out, Artificial Brain! I can’t remember if that was this year or last year but that album is really good.
Is that Labyrinth Constellation?
Yes, yes!
What else are we listening to? We’re always sharing music back and forth in this band too as a way to stay inspired. We listen to a lot of things not just Death Metal. Its always hard to think of first thing in the morning and on the spot but yeah, a lot of things! Always a big fan of Defeated Sanity and looking forward to their new album too coming out.
Well thank you ever so much for having this quick chat with us!
Of course thank you!
