Dying Fetus Bassist Thinks Death Metal Is Thriving

Dying Fetus' Sean Beasley doesn't mind a little healthy competition. Sure, it seems like there's always some new death metal band everyone's buzzing about practically every other day, but he's glad to see the genre thriving.

"Death metal definitely goes in phases where, every couple of years, it seems like death metal's coming back more and more, and more and more bands pop up," the bassist reflected during a recent interview with Noisecreep. "But then, a couple of years go by, and it seems like the styles change again. This is just one of those times where more bands are popping up right now. It's cyclical. Every couple of years, a bunch of bands come out of nowhere...some of them disappear and some of them stick around. I mean, a couple of years ago, it seemed like death metal was dying out. But now, its not like that. Its pretty cool that that so many bands have popped up."

When asked to name some of his favorites from the freshman class, Beasley takes a moment to think about it, and returns with Trigger the Bloodshed: "Those guys can f---ing play."

Alas, Trigger the Bloodshed will not be part of this year's Summer Slaughter tour, which runs through July 20 in New York with Necrophagist, Suffocation, Origin, and others, but Dying Fetus has played with them in the past, and Beasley says he was impressed by their live set. Perhaps they'll tap Trigger for their upcoming headlining tour, which, while unconfirmed at this point, should go down before the winter.

Of course, Dying Fetus will be spending much of the next year promoting their forthcoming album, 'Descend Into Depravity,' which drops September 15. The band recorded the entire disc within the span of three weeks, and Beasley says they'll be posting material from the new one in the coming months, on both their Web site and on their MySpace page. The album is, in his words, "brutal," but does it push the death metal envelope? Beasley says it does...at least in his mind. But if you're looking for something that's going to influence the genre's current course, look somewhere else.

"We're not considered one of the fastest bands or one of the most technical bands," he points out. "Some bands will keep pushing speed, unbelievable speeds, and then you don't understand what they're doing at that point. For us, it's not as bad, because there's a lot of stop-riffs in between technical parts and fast parts on this album. We're just mixing it up as much as we can. We're not one of those bands that has to keep pushing it faster and faster. Its easier for us to have a mixture between fast and technical. We just want to keep the groove there. Some bands, they just sound like they're trying to play faster than they did the last time. But it gets to a point where it can be too fast."