(On January 20th a quartet of international labels released Megalit al Putrefacției, the highly anticipated second album by the Romanian death metal band Putred, and to follow up on that we now present Zoltar‘s interview of the band’s main man Uriel Aguillon, who as you’ll see has quite a history.)
Even from a European point of view, Romania remains one vast uncharted territory in terms of extreme metal, despite the fact that Metal Archives lists no fewer than 500 bands, with only the late Negurā Bunget having left a deep and still brooding mark (although the band ceased to exist over eight years ago). Yet somehow for those who know where to look in the deepest pits of the underground for the latest death metal sensation, a few low-key acts like Vorus, Reveler or Demoted kept coming back lately. Turns out all those bands/projects share more or less the same members, with guitar player, sometimes vocalist, engineer, and producer Uriel Aguillon at the very center of it.
Interestingly enough, Aguillon was born and raised in the US and was living in the country until a decade ago. Yet what is now, according to him, his main focus Putred might be one of the very first death metal bands to use Romanian for their lyrics. Not that it should stop you on your track, as song-titles like “Aura Macabra” or “Parasit In Purgatoriu” easily let you know what kind of murky swamps you’re about to enter.
Speaking of which, most of the music featured on the band’s just-released second album Megalit Al Putrefacției, after a whole bunch of demos and splits, is as fetid, lumping instead of running, while its decayed flesh reeks the kind of foul odor only downtuned and primitive old-school death metal manages to summon.
The fifty-year-old musician agreed to shed a light on his background, Putred‘s newest offering, how he ended up in Romania, and why playing death metal with your wife is far more entertaining than attending a couple’s night out at your local bingo club.
Uriel, besides playing guitar in Putred based in Deva, Romania, you’ve also played in Necrorite and Morbicus from Mexico back in the ’90s and you were officially born in Texas so it’s a bit confusing… So what is exactly your personal story?
Actually, Putred is from all over Transylvania, because we are all living in different towns; only Corina and myself live in Deva, Filip lives in Brașov, and Ficus our new drummer lives in Petroșani. I’m originally from McAllen, Texas in the USA – a border town with Northern Mexico, which in the underground metal scene was always stronger and more diverse in that specific region back in the late ’80s/early ’90s than in the Texas side.
In the McAllen area, there were just a bunch of thrash/death metal bands like Raise the Dead and Rest In Pain (pre Severance), and Ex-Mortis from Edinburg to name a few. I was connected to the Mexican underground due to the tape trading network, and also I was attending many underground concerts in Monterrey, Mexico when my older brother was living there from ’88 to ’92, I had the chance to see many bands live like Necrophiliac, Deus Mortis, Mortuary, Toxodeth, Noctambulism, Deadly Dark, Fatal Narcosis, Tormentor, Anarchus, Ripping Flesh, Cenotaph and many more.
I formed Morbicus with a group of friends in January 1990 and we recorded four demos until 1996 when the band split up. After Morbicus I was in many bands throughout the years. Necrorite is a newer band that I formed in 2013 with my old-time friend Tomas Pecina (ex Morbicus, ex DyingBreed, ex Gutwrench, ex Reveler) and Rick Garza from Laredo, Texas (ex Corpse, Antisma, EvilIncarnate, ex Indignation, ex Mortuary etc).
In between 2018 and 2020, once you were firmly settled in Romania, you more or less formed three bands: Vorus, Reveler, and Putred. All three are firmly rooted in the classic death metal of the early ’90s and share the same members. So how does one make a difference in between them all? Would you say that out of the three, Putred is the only ‘real’ band?
I moved to Romania in the autumn of 2014 and after settling here in my small studio, I first formed Cryptic Realms in mid 2015, an international death metal band that consisted of myself on guitars, Tersis Zonato from Brazil (Offal, ex Axecuter, Lutemkrat, Archityrants) on drums and lead guitar, Kostas Analytis from Greece (Abyssus, Soulskinner, ex Necrosis, ex Carnal Garden) on vocals, and Victor Varas from Mexico (The Zephyr, Ungodly Rest, ex Prohibitory) on bass guitar. We released a bunch of stuff until the band split up in 2018.
I created Vorus in 2017 and started it as a solo project and I recorded the first demo tape by myself only. Then I got signed by Detonation Records for the Vorus debut album and I asked my wife to help me with the bass guitar since she is an experienced musician, having played in a few Romanian death and black metal bands back then, like Deimos and Atys. Vorus became a full band in 2019 with the addition of Doru (ex Necrovile, Malpraxis, ex Korruption, ex Oncology) on drums and we released a bunch of stuff and played live all over Romania for the last five years. We put Vorus on hold last month to fully focus on Putred.
We created Reveler in 2018 as a studio project only; the lineup was Corina on bass, me on guitars/vocals, and Tomas Pecina (ex Morbicus) on drums. Reveler was a more murky, filthy-heavy, dense, low-tuned, and very gore-oriented band compared to Vorus. We recorded a bunch of demos, compilations, and one split, but the band is now defunct. The real bands as you mentioned are Vorus and Putred, with full albums out and constant live activities throughout the years.
Dante Valladares played drums on all Putred recordings, all the way until your debut album. Did he leave the band for practical reasons, as he’s Mexican?
Putred was at the beginning a studio project also. It came to life when I was working on 2 very heavy and slow rotten death metal down-tuned songs that didn’t fit either Vorus or the Reveler style, so I came out with the idea to create a new entity to put out that rotting stuff I was working on. I decided to go with a new moniker and lyrical concept totally written in the Romanian language under the name Putred (“Rotten” in Romanian), which I found very appealing to explore and I invited Filip (Necrotum, ex-Demoted) to lay down his unhuman vocals and bass guitar duties, leaving him in charge of all the lyrics.
The last piece to be added to the puzzle was Dante on drums (Slaughter Ceremony, Necroccultus, ex In Obscurity Revealed). He was more like a remote studio drummer for the band. We parted ways with him because we got our first invitation to play live at the Old Grave Fest in Bucharest. That’s when I asked Corina to play bass in the band, letting Filip to be focused on the vocals only, and finally I asked Vorus drummer Doru to help us with the live shows from then on.
This being said, who played drums on the new record? You’ve recently added a second guitar player yet you recorded the album with only you, Uriel, handling the six-strings didn’t you?
Due to the very busy agenda of Doru who’s touring with a few brutal death metal bands from abroad, he couldn’t record drums for our new album in time. I had to ask a friend of mine and a very competent and professional drummer George Alb (Decease, Omnitrocy, Crumble) to learn and record the whole album as a session drummer. All the drums were tracked at Liveset Recording Studio in Cluj-Napoca.
I’ve recorded all the guitars on the album as always. The addition of a second guitarist is for live purposes only, as all the songs are arranged for two guitars. We have a very busy schedule for next year, playing in Romania and some other countries in Europe and with plans to play in America for the first time also, so we have to be prepared.
Your bass player Corina, who also does bass in Vorus and Reveler, is your wife. Isn’t it dangerous in a way to play in the same band as your loved one?
I don’t think so! I really enjoy playing with her in our bands, besides being my wife. She’s a very good and creative artist and bassist, with a ton of experience live and in the studio.
Who decided to use Romanian for your lyrics? Is this why you’re ‘only’ playing guitar here, as it’s not your native tongue? Are you the first Romanian DM band to use Romanian for your vocals? There’s got to be some precedents in black metal but as far as death metal goes, I’m not sure…
I came with the idea to use Romanian for all the lyrics, band name, and the whole concept. Although I do know Romanian as my third language, as I’ve been living in the country for the last ten years, I didn’t want to do vocals this time. I was kind of bored of myself, and knowing of Filip’s vocal capabilities I didn’t hesitate to invite him onboard, giving him all the song titles to work on the lyrics also. Filip’s vocals fit perfectly for Putred music. There are, indeed, many Romanian metal bands singing in their native language but I’m not sure if there’s another death metal band at this moment doing it besides us.
On the other hand, did you on purpose make sure to use simple and direct words and lyrical contents? I mean I don’t speak nor read Romanian but it’s pretty obvious to me what the title Repulsie Post-Mortem means…
Exactly! I do create all the song titles and album titles as well thinking to make them easy to get in other languages, something simple and direct as you said, but with substance of course. Like the new album title Megalit al Putrefacției translates to English as “Megalith of Rot” or even more accurately “Megalith of Putrefaction” for example.
Musically speaking, your music is overall quite mid-paced. Is it due to the quite low tuning of your guitars? Or do you feel this is the tempo that fits your music best?
I guess it is based on my music taste or musical influences. I must say, I like my death metal heavy, dense, rotting, and with a twist of nauseating groove. My main influences are old Necrophagia, old Death, Master, Slaughter, Nihilist, Cianide, Carnage, Derketa, old Grave, old Asphyx, Dr Shrinker, Phantasm, Autopsy, Apparition / Sorrow, Rottrevore, Winter, Benediction, Bolt Thrower, old Pungent Stench among others.
You’ve been extremely productive over the last three or four years, especially with Putred. How so? Is it due to the fact that you’re running your own studio in Deva and thus have access to it 24/7?
I disagree hehe! I have been this productive since 1990 non-stop.
Am I an obsessive, compulsive death metal freak? I guess so.
Some would argue that the brand of primitive and raw death metal you’re doing works best on shorter formats, like on demos or a split EP. Do you beg to differ?
I agree 100%! The fact that we are now releasing our second full-length album is more of a consequence than a planned effort. And the awesome and very kind labels who were approaching us offering and full album deals even when we were just putting out new stuff, they are appearing to offer our next full album contract deal! It is crazy! We had to decline four or five recent offers for our third full album. It is very premature to even think about it, when we are just preparing to unleash our latest and fresh new album.
Whereas your debut album included one Asphyx cover, this time around you’ve tackled Autopsy’s “Critical Madness.” Do you plan to cover an old DM classic in every album of yours so that, maybe, younger generations of listeners can (re)discover if they haven’t already?
We also did a cover of Grave’s “Deformed” for a tribute CD compilation. We like to do it as the last track on every Putred album — it is a way to pay homage to our all-time death metal heroes! Next will be some Carnage or Pungent Stench, who knows?
Do you think that Putred would have sounded different if you hadn’t been born in the first half of the ’70s, and thus had the chance to catch the whole death metal boom when it all started?
Absolutely! I’ve been in the metal underground since the mid ’80s and it is what I know how to do, it comes naturally, and I couldn’t continue listening to new stuff after 1996, so I got stuck in the past for good. Putred is old rusted murky and filthy rotting death metal based in that feeling/mood rather than anything else.
What’s next for you guys?
The launch of our new album coming out on January 20th, 2025 in all formats. Our first live performance out of Romania in February when we are playing Black Valentine Fest in Slovakia along with Maceration from Denmark and The Bleeding from the UK, plus other killer bands. Then also in February, a mini tour in southern Italy with Lebbra and Liquid Rot. Next will be a mini tour in Romania promoting our new album with a killer young band called Psychiatry as the support band.
https://www.facebook.com/metalputredalmortii/
https://putred.bandcamp.com/album/megalit-al-putrefac-iei