Today we are granted the massive honor of premiering an exclusive full stream of what is perhaps the strongest death/doom metal album out this year, the debut full-length from Costa Rican duo BLOODSOAKED NECROVOID. ‘Expelled into the Unknown Depths of the Unfathomable’ surely offers a sculptured, monumental portal to true death — Not mere aesthetic study of the finest old school craft but a deeper-still embodiment of tangibly morbid musical ideals, always on the precipice of death whilst unbinding and claiming death/doom metal’s ancient lineage. Of course they will speak best for themselves as they’ve been kind enough to answer a battery of questions you can read shortly. Before you dive into the interview you can wheel down to an early exclusive full stream of ‘Expelled into the Unknown Depths of the Unfathomable‘ with great thanks to the band, Iron Bonehead Productions and their representation. Make sure you Wishlist the album on Bandcamp and/or hit up your usual IBP distro joints on November 6th when the album officially releases.

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What constitutes your fascination with death, does Bloodsoaked Necrovoid represent some metaphysical connection to the realm of the dead? Is there some personal devotion, trauma or fixation that releases itself via death music?

Unconsciously, becoming fond of this stream of extreme music there’s got to be a cathartic aspect that when listening to it, you must be releasing something deep within and the mind rewards that by feeling identified, I think its indescribable even. Same goes with playing this style of music, even more so if you manage to merge spirit and instrument, it’s quite the combination.

When writing lyrics, they come more often in that vein of the process of dying, what’s on the other end and then channeling all the fears of unknown and uncertainty of what will we become after we leave our bodies or go within our mind, sometimes with disintegrating of the flesh or soul if transcending into other dimensions, what if things go wrong or you open doorways and things come in that were not supposed to when meditating or reaching other entities, there’s got to be something of a fixation with the unknown and occult (by proxy death itself) for sure in this band, sometimes consciously and sometimes not, but it’s something we enjoy exploring.

When I’d encountered your first two demos I’d gotten the impression of fourth dimensional access, movement that purposely communes with the unknown. Is there a greater conversation or message within ‘Expelled into the Unknown Depths of the Unfathomable’? What is conveyed?

As we wrote before, the title alludes to situations or scenarios of uncertainty or nightmarish images in the frame of the psyche, spirituality, hermetic or cosmic aberrations when exposed violently and unexpectedly to them in an inescapable way.

Folks have compared your song titles to Demilich’s infamous wordiness in the past. Where do you generally look for inspiration when writing lyrics?

We’ve heard this comparison before and probably was at some level, but we started doing that as a way to make song titles count and add texture to the music and lyrics; a way to creating a setting for the experience, don’t know if we manage to do so, but that was the purpose.

Inspiration for lyrics comes from works in the vein of Carl G. Jung, or hermetic/esoteric readings and Oriental literature and then soak them in a Lovecraftian aesthetic.

When I reviewed your demo compilation last year I’d assumed there was some love for Disembowelment and Timeghoul in your songwriting. Does that ring true? What have been the major guideposts/influences in developing your sound? Have these influences evolved over the last couple of years?

Yes! definitely, these two bands have a specific, characteristic sound that we wanted to worship and develop in our music since they got this cosmic, spiritual and unknown sound in one level or another. But of course, we are also mostly influenced by more classic 90’s Death/Doom approach as WINTER, the already mentioned dISEMBOWELMENT, MYTHIC, ETERNAL DARKNESS, RIPPIKOULU, DELIRIUM, SORROW and the more death metal bands such as MORBID ANGEL and INCANTATION. Influences have remained mostly the same as we are always exploring this style of music for inspiration.

Is the style of Bloodsoaked Necrovoid meant to evolve strictly within ‘old school’ forms? Was the original goal of the band to play classics influenced death/doom metal?

Yes, the foundation and original goal of the band was always to have this classic, real and organic Old School Death Doom Metal style.

We, of course, dive into other types of music whether is because of past projects of personal tastes, for example ambient/drone, noise, old prog rock and black metal/avant-garde metal. All these different styles are always and inevitably bleeding into our music and creativity; we think – in some shape or form- these genres are cohesive to the sound we try to develop and perhaps it will evolve our music from this standpoint at some moment, or not.

With some positive reaction to the demo tapes, was there much pressure to deliver something definitive on this full-length album?

We think it was more motivation than pressure to be honest; we were communicating our ideas better as a band and had a clearer vision of what sound we wanted. We were fully committed to deliver something as good and strong as both Demos, keeping the essence but trying to consolidate more our style and approach and even push it further if possible.

Was going from a trio to a duo for this record a necessity of invention — A way of honing in on very specific sounds and ideas?

No, not at all. The reason this happened was because of a disconnect within the band that saw a member leave. We didn’t had time to replace him and we didn’t wanted to delay the process of writing and recording since we felt strong as a duo as well.

Was any particular method or mindset sustained for the songwriting process? Does rehearsal or jamming factor into things? Is it a collaborative process?

Of course the song writing is a collaborative process, more so because we lost a member. One of the tenets when writing the songs was to try and use as less riffs as possible, to try and give more space and time to each section to make them more of a developing idea, we thought it would bring more cohesiveness to the songs.

A couple of songs resulted from jamming sessions; most of the songs we wrote and worked alone and then proposed to each other and developed them in a way that fitted the integrity and sound of the band.

Rehearsing was super important to try and get the right feeling and playing for the album and its components, and also since we record live its important to make the songs ours, to connect with them, if that makes sense, so that vibration can be channeled into the recording.

How do you approach writing riffs and rhythms for different projects? I could imagine some ideas might fit Astriferous and Bloodsoaked Necrovoid on some common level but the vibes are kept remarkably separate.

Thanks, that’s great to hear since it’s the main objective. When we started both bands, as a part of creating bands that embody this types of genres, styles and approach you hardly hardly see in our country’s scene along the rest of other projects we are involved in, it was important for us to keep things separate. Writing sessions for each band come separate in time, so we don’t blend any ideas. The influences from each band are also different with the exception of maybe INCANTATION or AUTOPSY; tone wise is the same: there are different pedals, fx and EQ we use for each element. Lyrics are wrote by Felipe on ASTRIFEROUS, so they don’t mix with BSNV themes as well and so on and so forth.

Were there any particular challenges in completing this record? Did the global pandemic hinder any of the process?

No, not any particular challenges aside from having to record the bass with no real bass player. We recorded it in January, in the span of 3 days. Corona hit mid March so at least in Costa Rica we had no COVID-19 at all by the time we recorded the album. Everything else went smoothly in terms of mixing and mastering.

Working with V.K. for the mastering process must have been an honor, and I’m guessing a functional choice in terms of atmosphere? Are you guys big Vassafor fans?

Yes, VK worked on our demos too and thought he made a huge difference and was a big boost to our DIY-mix so it felt right that he handled mixing and mastering duties for this record. He is affiliated with a number of IBP projects also and of course we knew him from the mighty TEMPLE NIGHTSIDE, so yeah, great honor to have him collaborate with us in this recording.

Why doesn’t more underground death metal make it out of Costa Rica? Most folks might know Sentence’s ‘Devastating Wrath’ tape if they look hard enough, but might not know more recent stuff like Pazuzu, Corpse Garden, or labels like New Order Records. Just a general lack of interest and investment from North American labels?

Well it’s a tough question, we can’t know for sure. We can agree that it’s better for a band from CR to reach a label from North America or Europe to release the music and get some exposure (which is the hardest for a Central American country), than to release independently and ignore this aspect. But we’re seeing more bands from Costa Rica get more spotlight, more recently bands like PAZUZU, ORDO CAPER or MORBID STENCH have released records through DUNKELHEIT PRODS or BLOOD HARVEST so maybe our Death Metal UG scene starts growing further so more people take notice.

Do you have any favorite Costa Rican bands, death metal or otherwise?

We have deep respect for PSEUDOSTRATIFFIED EPITHELIUM and PSY-WAR , both pioneer Death Metal bands of the country (PSEUDO are still active!). We also like and recommend death metal wise INSEPULTO, MORBID STENCH, PAZUZU, ORDO CAPER and otherwise VOIDOATH (sludge/doom), LIBEROSIS (grindcore), SUICIDIO INFANTIL (HCP), PESADEZ (Crust Punk), DILAPIDATED MECHANISM (Industrial Noise), UMBRA CONSCIENTIA (Black Metal), CULTO NEGRO (black/speed), GOATRIDER (black/speed) and DEPLORABLE (Sludge/Doom).

Also, keep an eye out for SOLARCRYPT (Death Metal), which is the next release of our DIY label HARMFUL EXISTENCE!!

What is the best way fans can support Bloodsoaked Necrovoid?

We would have to say sharing our music is the most important, but then also buying records and merch, and if the pandemic allows it to assist to the upcoming shows we were supposed to have.

Now that you’ve reached this milestone and the record is out, any major goals for the project going forward? Big tours or festivals for 2021?

At the moment, only a presentation on KILLTOWN DEATHFEST 2021 remains. We had a USA East Coast tour planned for the past May that we hope gets rescheduled at some point. Of course, we would like to tour more extensively with this debut FL but we know things are rather uncertain and problematic at the moment with corona lurking still, but we’ll take any opportunities as they appear.

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Per the press release:

IRON BONEHEAD PRODUCTIONS is proud to present BLOODSOAKED NECROVOID‘s highly anticipated debut album, Expelled into the Unknown Depths of the Unfathomable, on CD and vinyl LP formats.

Hailing from Costa Rica, BLOODSOAKED NECRVOID formed in 2018 and quickly set to work on their first recordings. Two demos followed that year, which were later compiled onto vinyl format as Apocryphal Paths Of The Ancient 8th Vitriolic Transcendence via IRON BONEHEAD in early 2019. Later that year came a limited promo/rehearsal recording a split tape with Ratlord. Through all these suffocating recordings, the duo built a smokestack of charred DEATH so impossibly bleak as to be unbearable. And now, they eclipse that feat with their long-awaited, literally-massive debut album…

Aptly fucking titled, Expelled into the Unknown Depths of the Unfathomable is the no-hope/no-fun churn of sepulchral doom-death turned completely inside out. More crushingly suffocating than previous recordings and yet somehow emitting a massive sense of space that punctures through the veil of complete atmosphere, BLOODSOAKED NECROVOID here drag the listener kicking & screaming (slooowwwly) through the caverns below the caverns of the mind/subconscious/spirit and then spit blood and bile across the putrid pile. It’s a six-song/41-minute experience that seems to last for infinity but just as effortlessly retains a sulfurous urgency seemingly at odds with its guttural slo-motion grind, surprisingly kicking into gutsfucking gallops that sound like bestial metal dragged through tar. Unknown and unfathomable are their ways, and expelled you most certainly will be!

BLOODSOAKED NECROVOID will ruin your day, again and again and again, and there’s no sweet succor when one’s Expelled into the Unknown Depths of the Unfathomable.

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