MAGGOT SORCERER TURN THE FILTH INTO HUMOR

Girthquake is a nine-song exercise in grotesque imagination and heavy-metal excess that deliberately refuses to behave

The album’s nine songs move through a deliberately grotesque experience. “Skeleton Slapper,” “Ice Cube,” “Piss,” “Slow Bacon,” “Business Fish” and “Centipede Woman” sound like fragments from some deranged cartoon universe, while the five-minute title track gives the record its largest piece of real estate. The whole thing clocks in at just under 32 minutes, which gives them time to make the joke, build the world and leave before the absurdity becomes predictable.

Girthquake sounds like a project built around the possibility that heaviness and humour can amplify each other. It is proudly weird!

Interview with Maggot Sorcerer

(•)> What was the first song written for Girthquake, and did it establish the album’s overall musical direction?

(•)> Why did “Girthquake” become the title track, and what does that word mean within the world of Maggot Sorcerer?

(•)> The tracklist moves from “Maggot Sorcerer” to “Haughten Raughten,” “Skeleton Slapper,” “Ice Cube” and “Piss.” How important is humor or absurdity to the band’s songwriting identity?

(•)> “Girthquake” is the album’s longest track at 5:19. What made that particular song require more space than the others?

(•)> How do you approach writing riffs that are heavy enough for extreme metal but still memorable after the initial impact?

(•)> What role do the drums play in determining when a song should accelerate, slow down or settle into a heavier groove?

(•)> Were the bizarre song titles written before the music, after the songs were finished, or somewhere in between?

(•)> Did you deliberately build a contrast between the ridiculous imagery and a genuinely serious approach to playing and production?

(•)> What were the most important production choices in getting the guitars, bass, drums and vocals to feel as physically heavy as possible?

(•)> Maggot Sorcerer have appeared on bills with bands such as Afterbirth Pulp, Kryptoxik Mortality and No Signs Of Serenity, as well as Burial Cloud and Tar Pit. How has the Seattle extreme-metal community influenced the way you write and perform?

(•)> “Slow Bacon,” “Business Fish” and “Centipede Woman” all carry very different visual associations. Did you have particular images or characters in mind while writing those songs?

(•)> After Girthquake, what part of the Maggot Sorcerer sound do you most want to make heavier, stranger or more ambitious on the next release?

(•)> That's all, Folks! Check out Maggot Sorcerer on the Pigeon Opinion Playlist