Interview - VOID ROT

If you are unfamiliar with Void Rot, see here first.

This interview is with vocalist and guitarist John Hancock.

1. Your debut EP (Consumed By Oblivion) is outstanding, how has the response to that been?

We've been really happy with the response! Consumed was the first time any of us recorded something for real so I'm just happy a couple of people don't think it's total garbage! We were so excited to show up on several people's year-end EP lists as well as Cvlt Nation's top 15 death/doom albums. A highlight for sure.

2. Your forthcoming split with Atavisma is also excellent, how did that release come about?

After we put out Consumed we knew that we wanted to get going on a full-length right away, so by the end of 2018/beginning of 2019 we had "Necrotic Deity" and "Accursed Earth" written with that in mind. Then Giorgio and Tito from Everlasting Spew told us they were bringing Atavisma over (awesome!) and thought it would be a good idea to do some sort of a split with us and them since we both do the death/doom thing. We were all really excited to work with each other on this.

3. It’s a clichéd question, but who are your main influences?

Well, there's the obvious ones - Krypts, Spectral Voice, Sempiternal Dusk, Innumerable Forms, dISEMBOWELMENT - but some other less obvious ones are Suffering Hour, Throane, Ulkum (close friends from Minneapolis), early Katatonia, Desolate Shrine, Phrenelith, and Irkallian Oracle. I think as we are developing our "own" sound it's less about listening for or trying to recreate something specific (i.e. a riff, drum pattern, etc), but more about listening to music that is inspiring. So anything that creates an immersive atmosphere that makes you want to stop whatever you're doing and go play your instrument.

4. Could you talk a little about the band's lyrical content?

We're not reinventing the wheel here at all - it's death metal, ha. Death, destruction, spooky stuff.

5. Do you know when we might see a full-length from you guys?

Writing is completely done, and we are heading into the studio mid-February to record it... so it may show up sooner rather than later... We tried to go all out as far as sound, art, etc. It's shaping up to be heavy.

6. What can we expect from the album (as compared to the six tracks you have released thus far, or in general)?

I'm really happy with the releases we have so far, and I think they really represent different "stages" of the band. On Consumed we had a really concise sound, we found a vibe that we really liked and focused on that. For the split songs, we knew that we wanted to try some new things, so yeah there's the familiar elements, but some more variety - stuff we haven't done before. But the split songs all still have a little bit of everything that make Void Rot what it is. For the full-length, we took a look at the elements that make Void Rot what it is and sort of pushed those elements up a couple notches - there's more atmosphere, more heaviness - but what I think people will really notice is the variety. We have one song pushing 9-10 minutes with lots of different sections, some ambient parts, and then we've also got a 3 minute song that's like all blast beats and some dissonant sounds. We really tried to push ourselves as musicians.

7. Do you have any other future plans that you can share with us?

2020 is shaping up to be a big year for us between this split, a full-length by the end of the year, playing Total Death Over Mexico III in March, plus a few other fests that will be announced in the coming months. We've had nothing but support from both Everlasting Spew and Sentient Ruin, as well as tons of fans we've met online and in person at shows. 2020 is shaping up to be a year where we really take that next step as a band.

More interviews: Malignant Altar / Graceless / Necronomicon / Antichrist / Dysylumn / Evoken / Ov Shadows / Morast / Assumption / Scour / Spectral Voice / Morta Skuld / Solothus / Memoriam / Ataraxy / Soulskinner / Necrot