AN NCS INTERVIEW: COFFIN CURSE

(For various reasons the interview you’re about to read got lost in the ugly bowels of the NCS HQ, and because it’s one of the best discussions Comrade Aleks has produced, thanks significantly to the flair of his conversation partner Max Neira, our editor is flagellating himself for the delay with extra-bloody vigor.)

Two years ago we did the interview with the Chilean band Inanna. You probably remember these tough guys who do top-notch death metal with a twisted Lovecraftian touch. Two of those guys also have their own death metal band – Coffin Curse. Max Niera (guitars, bass, vocals) and Carlos Fuentes (drums) started it in 2012, and since then they do not stop. No rest for the wicked, so you say.

A few days ago I heard the absolutely malevolent and bloody straightforward death metal album The Continuous Nothing, which is their second full-length. Memento Mori released it on April 22nd. As the official press kit states, you should expect “a logical continuation of that not-inconsiderable debut: timeless, taut, and terrorizing”. And there’s hard to add something else to this laconic and capacious definition.

Naturally we had a lot to discuss with the band, and Max Neira provided us this detailed and thoughtful interview.

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Hi Coffin Curse!.. Hah, I was just starting to type the first question, and my phone tried to correct me and offer Coffee Curse instead. However, why not? How do both of you manage to play in two (or in the case of Carlos, four) extreme bands? How much coffee do you consume to stay awake, bitter and choleric?

Cursed by coffee! Well, first of all, we thank you for giving us a space in your house for these two ill-adjusted mental patients, and second, I apologize for answering almost everything in the first person; I know it’s plain rude but it’s difficult to do it any other way to talk about this band in particular.

The coffee thing, despite sounding strange, is no joke. I have a repetitive and tedious desk job all week long, and the only way to stay conscious for the day is by consuming about five or six large cups, not including breakfast. I am a weekend musician, yet the task of being in two bands, although it becomes somewhat tiring over the years, has not been so dreadful.

Carlos is fully dedicated to music; he is a sound engineer and constantly produces, every day, multiple records of different odors and textures. His free time is when he plays with other projects, but to be honest I have already lost count of how many of these he participates in and I am not aware of his schedule, I only know that he spends all day running from here and there. Still, to support himself, he also has to take odd jobs from time to time. Extreme metal doesn’t pay the bills in these lands.

 

 

Why don’t you use el mate to stay awake? It’s much more efficient than coffee, though I use it only when I have some really extra interviews or reviews as it’s quite a tough drink. I suppose that I’ll hold without it tonight and we’ll finish the interview fast 🙂

Mate is not as common here, unlike countries like Argentina or Uruguay. Although you can find it at some farm fairs or certain supermarkets. Through friends from those lands I was able to try it many years ago and I found its flavor too bitter and strong, and it required a more complicated preparation. I only drink instant coffee because it’s fast and keeps me awake. I am not interested in it as a drink, nor its quality, fragrances, nor its flavor, nor its origin. If it stops me from nodding off in front of the screen, that’s enough.

 

Men, both of you play in Inanna, and I see that one of Inanna’s guitarists Diego Ilabaca helps you as a live bass player in Coffin Curse. What’s the core difference between both bands?

Regarding the second part of the question, the main difference between both hordes, beyond musical or aesthetic differences, is that in COFFIN CURSE I am in charge of most of the songwriting. Since my skills are very limited and I am a bad guitarist, the result is what you hear. Twisted, disgusting and unpleasant music. Some folks will call it traditional death metal, good for them.

Diego has not played bass with us for many years, and now that I mention it, he is the main musical composer of INANNA. He’s a self-taught proper musician with a vast harmonic arsenal, therefore the final result is more sophisticated, if you want to call it something, but it never loses the brutality, that’s where the rest of the members comes in. It is a more combined work of craftsmanship. However, both proposals obey the name of Death Metal. No categories, no last names, no gibberish.

 

 

As you doubt your skills as a guitarist, how do you see the strong sides of Coffin Curse?

Teamwork. I hope this album can show that this is a band and not just a side project. Beyond the composition of the songs, the strongest thing about COFFIN CURSE is the symbiosis between the two pieces that form the monster, and that is thanks to the experience that one has gained as a musician in more than 20 years. Even if I go back to school years, much more. This second effort made it clear to me that this does not work without people working in sync and that back and forth of ideas.

 

Do you play gigs often with Coffin Curse? I always wonder how bands manage to play live nowadays as it seems that there’s no such… interest in live metal shows as before? Would you agree with that?

You mentioned Diego in the previous question. Between 2013 and 2017 we had a very good streak of gigs with him, as we managed to consolidate a tight three-piece. After the departure of Felipe, founding drummer, Nicolás Fariña, a great musician, joined the group, but unfortunately residing a very long distance from our city, and that made his stay in the group short. At that time, we concentrated more on creating new material and putting the live gigs on standby, hence the Inward Dissolution EP was spawned. Then came Carlos, the debut album, and a new session bassist joined. In March 2020, after just a single performance, Covid hit our continent and everything was over.

In Chile there are all kinds of metal concerts: Proper live venues, pubs, bars, community centers, dumps, condemned property, or skate parks, you name it. I agree with you that the audience does not come in masses to events anymore, like in from the mid-80s until 1997 or so. There are many gigs and personally I don’t care if there are 1000 or three persons in front of the stage, ’cause our gang does the same job, everytime. Inevitable things like getting old, lack of free time, and the amount of responsibilities crush you and it is no longer so realistic to play live every weekend.

Just come to Chile for a month and see the amount of events the younger acts organize. There will always be something interesting to choose from. There is still interest around.

 

 

What are your personal highlights regarding the live shows?

That question would be easier if referring to INANNA, since there are two decades of stories invested in that and the most diverse situations. COFFIN CURSE, since its creation, including its last gig in 2020, has had no more than 10 live performances. I really don’t want to speculate on this, because really in the live department we are very indebted. I really hope that can change, although it looks very difficult now.

 

What kind of ideas did you have on your mind when you shaped the band’s image? Were you looking for a special sound? Did you know exactly which elements you needed to polish it to all satisfying?

Now more seriously. It is true that I am a mediocre guitarist, since my thing is the bass. When I started this alone, I didn’t even have a guitar, but an old friend left his at my house. It was a good opportunity to write new music. Despite having already written a couple of songs for INANNA before, being a songwriter was not my main thing. With that borrowed guitar, without thinking too much, a vomit of riffs began to come out of my brain, resulting in a more primitive, corrosive and simple approach than what I had been doing with the guys. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, I just knew that these songs weren’t going to fit into our repertoire.

I showed these aberrations to Felipe and he liked them, and he offered to be the drummer so we could record them. That was it. By the end of 2012 we already had a very ramshackle demo spreading around the scene.

The sound has been evolving with each material we release, perhaps because my writer-guitarist’s skills have been inevitably polished after 12 years. If you listen to this new album compared to what we released in 2013, the difference is totally palpable. We don’t like to copy ourselves, because that is freaking difficult and boring. DM is the more malleable subgenre of metal in general, and we were not going to waste that opportunity. Our only milestone that we want to respect and not deviate too much from is the COFFIN CURSE sound, which others will know how to define and analyze; I have no idea.

 

 

The Continuous Nothing is the band’s second album, so can we talk about any conscious progress here? Technical or metaphysical or whatever?

Sorry for the confusion, but I think I answered some of this in a later question, my bad. Anyway I can taint it up with a couple of things.

It should be said that these lyrics were written in early 2020, long before there was a single chord in mind. These mind wanderings turned out to be much harsher than in previous works. I had never written more disgusting, unpleasant and uncomfortable scenes before. The music had to be tied in some way to these deviant landscapes. To achieve that sense of uncontrolled malice, the music had to reach vertigo and get a little convoluted, so to speak. The riffs sped up and we began to make use of full, very perverse and dissonant chords. Hysterical primordial melodies appeared, using the highest registers. On a technical level we had to climb a couple of steps to be able to reach those places. Regarding the percussion work, we return to it in a further question.

 

 

Your songs’ new titles (and the old ones too) look as if they were taken from a death metal rulebook. How would you explain the lyrical component of Coffin Curse? Is it your vessel of self-expression, a manifest of death and Ruinous Powers, or is it a cultural code to communicate with listeners?

Fear, horror and the fascination with the unknown are our main vehicle of inspiration for writing lyrics. I’m not going to explain any of them. I’m going to go back to the old cliché, the one that each beholder must do their own imaginary painting inside. Why? Because I don’t even know what is happening when I read those texts.

Of course they are images that come from the darkest and most twisted confines of the mind, just read two paragraphs. I am not interested in giving a message, spreading feelings, and even less interested in preaching like a priest or someone who takes the occult seriously. Death is all I have for sure, I can wait for it, I have it at hand today, I can ignore it. That fascination can be terrifying at times, but you pursue it anyway. Something isn’t working very well, and I must have my wires crossed, because I don’t think twice about every verse, it’s just that there is a great communion between sick spirituality and the world of physical decay, stirred in a blender with the most disgusting dirty fluids emanated from the soil.

It may be, as you say, typical of the rulebook, how can I know? I never read it. I only know that since my dumb teen years, I never again visited a cemetery to be in touch with the spirits, or whatever, when I can do the same thing while writing a useless report sitting at the office.

 

Do you believe in the supernatural?

Yes of course. But I have no evidence of its existence, since I have not had any personal experience with the supernatural. I am not an atheist, since I believe that there must be “something” after all this, I don’t know what it is, just “something”. I guess that makes you an agnostic, right? The truth is I don’t know the terminology well. What I am sure of is that this “something” can never be summoned just by wanting it, and no man, whether priest or occultist, can call this supposed paranormal entity at will, with words, candles or incense. It is not possible, it is pure autosuggestion.

Religions teach a lot about cultural patterns during the history of the human race, as an historian can study the sacred books to put together the missing parts. They are interesting and a lot, but nothing more. The same with magic and witchcraft. Entertaining as freak, but manmade. I prefer not to know anything for sure.

 

 

Sorry, I can’t skip this question: I know you have some in Inanna, so what about Lovecraftian influences in Coffin Curse? It feels present in your artworks and lyrics but in a more indirect way.

As a lyricist… What a pretentious word, right? Anyway, like the weirdo in charge of writing the verses, it is impossible that the lyrical themes of INANNA and COFFIN CURSE are not related to each other. They use similar forms ​​and manners, and come from the same damaged brain. Perhaps INANNA is more introspective and doesn’t submerge so often into the mud and slime of the physical states. Themes dare to cross to other dimensions, whether outside the earth, in the underworld, or in the ocean.

Lovecraft was part of our words from day one, and returning to what I talked about concerning the occult, forgive me but HP Lovecraft was a tormented and misanthropic mind, a science fiction horror writer, the best, but nothing more than that. He is not a priest or prophet of a different incarnation of evil or the devil, reeking with shellfish stench, by the way. That’s nonsense. But being the best writer, his landscapes and mental states can be easily injected into the reader, and from then on, the reader can wander around and be hypnotized in wonder or cringe in terror. Ah, the question, there is no Lovecraft in the lyrics of COFFIN CURSE, only death.

 

Damn… Well, then what kind of personal achievements make you proud of The Continuous Nothing?

We were able to work as a band this time more than a project. Starting from a fairly rustic demo, we were both able to pre-produce these new riffs and work on rough versions of each of the songs, before entering to record any note in the studio. From April to June we worked with a guitar and a drum machine. After studying those demos Carlos could deliver that destructive and relentless bombardment of drumming, in my opinion his best performance as a percussionist so far. Furthermore, this time the number of arrangements and counterpoint between guitars increased. Now we created a new problem — we need a four-person combo to be able to play live again.

The mixing is more balanced and ​​mature and fully meets what we were looking for, and the mastering by a third party gave us a new approach. The music became somewhat complicated, but at the same time more unpleasant, without ever losing our goal of reaching a devastating atmosphere that provokes us to play air guitar and bang our heads.

On a personal-family level, 2023 was the worst year I have ever suffered in my life, and managing to continue with the process of making a professional album at the same time was a titanic effort. After 365 days and a little more, I still hear a giant humming sound. Carlos says the material is good and I have to believe him. I hope everything turned out well. Oh, we will be proud of getting as far away from that lame “old school” characterization as possible. That would be a great achievement.

 

 

How do you see Coffin Curse’s prospects? How do you see a chance to go further with the band? To reach more listeners and so on? Do you feel a necessity to spread Coffin Curse?

The “coffee curse again”. Of course we would love to go further with the band. But at least at this time in 2024, the most we can hope for is to play live two or three times. With the large number of personal commitments, and the task of being able to form an ideal lineup for the gigs. I don’t know if it’s a need or a desire, it’s simply what we like the most and what we do best. The album is just coming out at this time, and the listener reaction factor is very important, and we can’t get ahead of that.

 

What are your further plans for 2024?

Drink a lot, calibrate depression and start writing our 3rd album in December. It would be a nice Christmas gift. Thank you a lot for your hospitality. Cheers!

 

Thanks for the interview, Max! It was good to talk again.

I thank you again, this is like the third time. Greetings.

https://www.facebook.com/coffincurse/

https://coffincurse.bandcamp.com/