I know music writers can overdo it on the hyperbole from time to time, but I’m struggling to think of a more extreme metalcore album that’s come out in the last few years than Vulgarity’s Beckoned Beyond.
The Springfield, Missouri band’s sophomore LP takes a classic H8000-type approach—big on the death and black metal influences, with a load of Slayer riffs, basically—with the advances of modern production doing exactly what they should: adding weight without sacrificing raw savagery.
It’s an impressive DIY job, too, produced by the band’s guitarist/vocalist Zach Griffin, who also took the lead on pulling together input from vocalist Brandon Procell, drummer Preston Rohr, and bassist/vocalist Patrick Sweet to answer my questions below.
What have you learned as a band since the release of For Your Flesh Only?
We learned that DIY hardcore is our home. We learned that taking our time with songwriting and recording is best for us. We recorded FYFO at a venue where I worked sound, so we’d have to schedule recording around all the shows they had going on. Imagine writing and recording vocals at 3 a.m. in an empty venue after a 250-paid EDM show.
This time around, we recorded it all at my house and took our time with everything. We love to experiment, which means the less pressure, the better. There were lots of “holy shit” moments that came out of us messing around and trying stuff on this new record.
Also learned how to blast at 220 BPM.
Was there anything you set out to do differently for Beckoned Beyond?
We wanted to perfect the atmosphere. We always just write the music we wish existed, but we wanted to make it as cohesive as possible this time, as if it were one song.
We experimented more with combining different sounds, like taking a Slayer part and imagining it being played by Gojira, for example.
How much thought did you give to the overall journey of the album, e.g., with the ambient section at the end of “You Are, Not Me” being well-timed around the middle, or ending with the acoustic bit in “Finally Free”?
The overall album listening experience is very important to us—we tried to make the whole album flow like one song. Specifically, with “You Are, Not Me,” the narrator realizes the horrors of war and then turns to a false god in order to grapple with the reality of this world, so the dungeon synth felt right to transition between those two songs. Shoutout to Obsidian Glacier (KZ Primitive Rage) for making that interlude.
The “Finally Free” acoustic bit was meant to represent all of the voices of this life fading out, resonating from a small spark.
What are some of the main themes of the record?
Beckoned Beyond is the most we’ve dwelled on the idea of religion and the battle of good vs. evil, as well as our own personal experiences growing up in the Bible Belt.
The record is a set of vignettes showing all the negative attributes of humanity, finding hope in the fact that at some point we will be gone—by our own volition—and the Earth will shake us off like a bad case of fleas.
We have formed into an entity operating outside of nature itself and have dug our own graves by severing ties with the Mother Nature that gave us life in the first place.
What other Springfield/Missouri bands are you excited about at the moment?
Act With Empathy, Pomfret, Covert, Reinforced, Passion, Fleshless Body.
How important is your DIY ethos at this point?
We all love hardcore and DIY so much that it truly feels like the only way. The connection to community that hardcore gives you is essential to making genuine art in this genre.
You can always tell when music isn’t genuine or isn’t being made for the love of the game. If you are thinking about how much money, fame, or accolades a song can get you, you’ve already lost the plot.
I love producing our own music. We get to be obsessive and experimental without wasting time in a studio. We don’t have to attempt to describe the atmosphere to a mixing engineer, and the record ends up sounding more unique to us as friends.
We’ve all known each other for so long that we know exactly what we want to hear. We’re always trying to write the music we want to listen to over anything else.
Do you have any highlights from your experiences as a band so far?
We’ve all been great friends since middle school, so touring is a highlight every time. The last Show Me Showcase was one of our favorite sets we’ve ever played.
All of the “holy shit” moments while writing and recording have a special place in my heart. Having a couple of beers and listening to the final product after years of work is always an incredible feeling as well.
Do you have any specific hopes for the future?
We want to tour and play as much as we can. We are always trying to become better musicians and songwriters as well. We already have some ideas for what we want to do next! Who knows, maybe a shorter release next time. We shall see.
We’re always trying to one-up ourselves!
***
Vulgarity on social media: Facebook | Instagram
Tagged: vulgarity
