Joe: First off I want to thank you Ammo for doing this interview. Now for anyone that doesn’t know about Humanity Falls give a brief history of the band?
Ammo: No problem man, glad to be doing it! Well it all started when I began jamming with my friend and our original drummer Migs when my previous band Sultan split up and his band Kresil (which he played guitar for) lost their drummer in the end of September 2008. Kresil eventually split up too and the vocalist (Eston) and bassist (Dorian) joined us to bring things into full circle. We recorded a demo and played out a lot in the NY/NJ area in 2009. We parted ways with our original rhythm section for personal reasons in the summer of and a month later found our current drummer Ed. We played out a lot more and eventually went on an 8 day tour and had the chance play with some great bands in May 2010. About a month before we went on what was going to be our first tour we recorded our first album at our rehearsal space (drummer's basement). In the late summer we got signed to Path Less Traveled Record and they put out our album early this year.
Joe: In your own opinion what separates Humanity Falls from other death metal/grind bands?
Ammo: I feel like besides the obvious things what separates us from a lot other modern death/grind bands is that we don't over think "brutality" and under think creativity. I get the impression that nowadays a lot of bands don't realized that as long as you have death metal or grindcore mindset while writing their songs, the brutality is going to naturally come out. Instead a lot of band just over think it and produce something that sounds great but easily forgettable. This is because they're all focused on being brutal instead writing memorable unique music that pushes them as a band and the genres of death metal or grindcore themselves. Just to be clear I'm not douchy enough to think that Humanity Falls is going to change the extreme music game forever. I just think that bands and the death metal/grindcore community in general have forgotten why the greats are great. It's not because they were the most brutal, it's because they were the most unique and memorable.
Joe: After listening to Ordaining the Apocalypse the one thing that really grabbed my attention where the riffs. Some of them are almost jazz inspired. Does jazz, classical or any other genre other than metal inspire you as far as writing goes?
Ammo: Free Jazz is the greatest genre of music ever!!! hahahaha. Yeah, I'm a lot more influenced by music outside of metal. Jazz and soundscape/ambient in particular are genres that influence me personally. For example I mess around a lot with free form parts. Some songs have partially free form part while other songs completely free form parts.
Joe: What’s the one important thing that you learned from just playing, being in a band, recording etc?
Ammo: There are so many important lessons to be learned as musician and as a person in general from being in a serious band but the most important to me is that the only expectations that matters and you need to live up to as a band is your own. If you have expectations about anything else like crowd turnouts, CD sales, etc. you're just setting yourself up for a big letdown.
Joe: For most bands the goal is improve every release with time. Do you feel like every release you put out gets better? On the older stuff what do you think could have been done better, and what do you wish to achieve on your next opus?
Ammo: I personally want to change with every release instead of just "improve" on our existing sound. The biggest things I'd like to change on the record is the absence of bass guitar and the mistakes made while recording. We were supposed to have bass on our CD but parted ways with original bassist and couldn't find a bassist in time for our recording session and tour. Our drummer Ed had to mix the record around the fact that we didn't have a bassist. He actually did the best job anyone could have done with the tracks considering all the fucking mistakes that were made during the recording. It sounds really amazing compared to the raw tracks but I know that if the mistakes weren't made the album would have sounded million times better.
Joe: Do you think the Internet is a beneficial tool for bands or do you think its destroying the music industry/music scene or both?
Ammo: I feel like the internet connects the world wide metal community in a great way but it kills the local scene. That’s why you always hear bands in the club scene say that people never come out to shows. It’s because all of the people that would go to the shows are too busy chatting on forum or looking up albums or live videos on blogs. What really fucks with me though is that a lot of the same people that stand in and troll on the internet instead of coming to the shows are the same people that complain about their local scene being dead. Lazy fucks! It’s sad. It’s getting to the point where bands are getting more connected in the industry posting on forums and blogs more so then playing amazing shows in their local area, demo trading with bands, and word of mouth do its work.
Joe: The beginning of the title track “Ordaining the Apocalypse” sounds almost like you are doing some weird tapping/string scratching is this what you did or did you do something else?
Ammo: That’s what it sounds like I did hahahaha. The beginning of the song is actually completely free form until I start playing the chords from the end of the song in the clean part.
Joe: The cover of Pattern Blue (Discordance Axis) is done very well. Why did you pick this particular Discordance Axis song to cover?
Ammo: When Ed joined the band he introduced me to Discordance Axis and I intently loved it Pattern Blue in particular. I learned the song for fun one day and Ed being a HUGE Witte fan already knew it and that’s how it came together hahaha.
Joe: When I think Humanity Falls I think about the world crumbling streets complete desolate pretty much the end of man. Do you feel like your music represents the name of your band?
Ammo: Our sound was actually decided before the name was chosen. If that’s what we sound like then fucking awesome. Funny fact me and Migs picked the name because we googled the name and it surprisingly not taken yet hahahahaha.
Joe: What’s in store as far as Humanity Falls is concerned? Any new releases, shows tours?
Ammo: We're mainly writing new material and looking for a bassist. As for shows, we have got some killer ones lined up. On March 20th We have a show in Manhattan with local greats Respawn The Ancients, Legionary, Ambient Death, Andromorphus Rexalia ( I sing for them), and New York City legends Malignancy headlining and afterwards on March 29th we play in Brooklyn with Backslider, Nimbus Terrifix, and Amputee. We're also working on doing some weekend tours.
Joe: Any last words?
Ammo: Last words are for people on their death bed.
