(French NCS contributor Zoltar returns today with an interview he recently conducted with Justin Stubbs, the focus being on Father Befouled and their newest release via Everlasting Spew, but also touching on the status of Stubbs‘ other projects.)
While their early years were plagued by various, and a tad reductive, accusations of simply trying to be more Incantation than Incantation themselves, from their 2012 album Morbid Destitution Of Covenant onwards, Father Befouled have been carefully crafting their own brand of dark death metal, one release at a time, with 2022’s Crowned In Veneficium proving to be another highlight.
By the time you’ll be reading this, the band will be in the middle of a two-week European tour with label mates Fossilization. As they have a new EP out named Immaculate Pain, whose video for the title-track was premiered on NCS on July 30th, we took that opportunity to talk with their main man Justin Stubbs about this new slab of brutality, their latest line-up shift. and why he will always have something blasphemous to say.
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Over the last two decades or so, you’ve put out over a dozen releases under multiple aliases: Occulsed, Encoffination, Stench Of Evil, Infestment, etc. Yet you somehow always come back to Father Befouled, no matter what. Why does this particular band, also by far the longest-running project of yours, hold such a special place?
Father Befouled has always been the most “complete” band – the one with a line-up and rehearsals and shows, etc…. Not only was it the first, it’s definitely the one most catered to the sound I want to play. Death metal for me goes back 30+ years and I get the most satisfaction from it. Everything else is essentially just scratching a particular itch at that time.
Is the European tour you’re currently on the impetus to get something done, so you guys can have something new to promote?
The tour just came out of nowhere. Going into 2024 we really did not have any plans and then the tour was offered out of the blue. We were already working on material with no real intention yet of what the release would be. So with a tour deadline in place, we decided on the EP. We just did not have time for a full-length. Of course, we wanted to have something new to promote for the tour once it was planned.
This EP is a mix of originals and covers. Was this decision made out of necessity or was it by design?
By design. We’ve talked about doing a Morbid Angel cover for YEARS. So for this I finally put my foot down and said ”we’re doing it!” The Abhorrence cover was actually done for a Finnish Death Metal comp that came out earlier this year on Noxious Ruin. We only tacked it on as a bonus for the CD and digital.
But back to the Morbid Angel cover – we’ve talked about a MA cover for years and finally started working on this one for the EP. Morbid Angel was my gateway to death metal as a 12-year-old kid in 1993 and Covenant stands as the greatest DM album of all time. So we definitely wanted to do a song from it. We went with a little deeper cut with ‘Pain Divine’ as opposed to something more obvious. I hope we did it justice.
Is this EP a way to somehow pay tribute to all those great EPs death metal bands used to put out in the ’90s in between albums? Out of those – Entombed’s Crawl, Carcass’ Tools Of The Trade, Incantation’s The Forsaken Mourning Of Angelic Anguish and so on – which one would be your favourite and why?
Not necessarily. We just wanted to have a release for the tour. We did the same thing with Holy Rotten Blood for our 2019 European tour. As for which EP is my favourite, it definitely is Incantation. No surprise there.
Were those three new tracks specifically written for this EP or were they originally written for a potential full-length?
No, these were written specifically to be the EP. The first idea was a 7” but then it just grew into a bigger thing. But it was never full-length material.
Stylistically speaking, only ‘Abomination Of Flesh’ has the kind of slow and suffocating parts typical of Father Befouled. The other two sound, to my ears at least, to lean more towards ‘classic’ so to speak death metal. What’s your take on them?
That’s pretty spot on. ‘Immaculate Pain’ and ‘Impenitent Faith’ are largely Morbid Angel and Dead Congregation influenced. Those two bands are probably my biggest influences these days. But I knew I wanted to have a longer and doomier song to balance it out.
How did you pick up those two covers? Abhorrence seems to me quite obvious as it has always been one of your major influences, but Morbid Angel’s ‘Pain Divine’ is a different case, as if you meant to pay homage to one of the genre’s biggest and most revered names yet but NOT picking up an obvious cut, as the easy way out would have been to put your stamp on anything off, say, Altars Of Madness for instance…
I mentioned this above, but to expound on it a little – for years we wanted to cover ‘Maze of Torment’. Derrick (guitar) and I had even been learning it. We would play it at soundchecks often, haha. Then the band Schizophrenia released an amazing cover of it a couple years ago and took the wind out of our sails, haha. So we regrouped and talked about many different songs before we chose ‘Pain Divine’. Covenant is my favourite death metal album of all time. So we chose it instead. And yes, we did not want to choose an obvious song (‘God of Emptiness’ was always discussed too) and instead picked something a little deeper.
This is your very first recording with Chris McDonald from Ectovoid and Seraphic Entombment. Has his arrival changed anything, knowing he’s a quite competent guitar player and songwriter too?
Yes, the addition of Chris has been amazing. He’s a true death metal drummer. He’s added a new dimension that is really pushing us. He’s a fucking machine and contributes a ton with arrangements. I could not be happier with him joining.
Despite Dan Swanö’s mastering job, the overall result is quite obscure and rough. Did you put in extra efforts to make it sound that way?
We just wanted it to sound like us. We will never be a polished band. We prefer to be a little rough around the edges and raw and brutal.
Would you say that Immaculate Pain is best for those who still haven’t tasted your poison, or would you advise another entry from your catalogue?
I’d say try anything. Well, anything except for the first album. But from Morbid Destitution onward – you are hearing us the way we sound. I love all of our releases and I think anything would work. But I am very proud of Immaculate Pain. I think it’s our most focused material we’ve ever done.
After almost two decades, is it still easy for you as a lyricist to write about mysticism and how religion crushes as an individual? Overall, is it still easy to be worthy of the name Father Befouled?
Yes, I still find inspiration everyday. My disdain for Christianity and religion has only grown stronger.
You’re about to go on tour with Fossilization in Europe (this interview was done in early September). Who would you say is the filthiest, heaviest, and meanest of them of all?
Between the two of us? Hard to say haha. I love Fossilization and they’re dark as fuck. I cannot wait to see them every night! Thiago (vocals and guitar) has toured together before with his other band, and I cannot wait to see them.
Do you know what’s scheduled after that? Is there any new Occulsed material on the horizon for instance? Your 2021 was probably one of your most perverse creations… This being said, the once quite prolific Encoffination has gone pretty silent lately — why?
For Father Befouled in 2025 we will be working on an album and we will be playing MDF and the Metal Threat fests. Anything else could happen along the way, we will see!
The new Occulsed album is 100% done. Music, layout, everything. I am just sitting on it now since we are releasing FB. I do not want them to compete. But it will be announced soon.
Yes, Encoffination has been quiet. We did just release a new split last month though, but that material is probably 2 years old. However, I have been writing and demoing the new album. It is probably 30% done. So I imagine it will be completed and released next year.
https://everlastingspew.bandcamp.com/album/immaculate-pain
https://fatherbefouled.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/FatherBefouled/