Mutilation Rites


Mutilation Rites not only boast some of the coldest, most evil riffs that New York City has to offer -- they're also fortunate to count one Michael Dimmitt amongst their ranks. Besides slinging the axe in Mutilation Rites and Rabia, and having been a part of Disassociate, he also works in film. And not just any film, mind you.

"I was co-editor on [black metal documentary] 'Until the Light Takes Us,'" Dimmitt told Noisecreep. "That means that I got to do a lot of creative stuff and also did a lot of the technical stuff. A more experienced editor, Andey Ford, got editor credit. He took the half that I worked on and incorporated it with his half and did the final finessing of it. Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell, the directors and producers, were extremely involved in the editing process as well."

Dimmitt continued, "You know how when you read a biography of someone or see a documentary about someone, when you listen to their music again, it's so much more meaningful because you can see it from their perspective and put it in historical context? Well imagine what's like when work on something full-time for six months, or seeing a documentary that's 350 hours instead of an hour and a half. You get completely immersed.

"I rediscovered black metal and weeded through all the crap that had made up the circus it was when I lived in Norway. I discovered a s--- load of new and older bands that were the real thing. I mean, I've always been a metalhead since I was 12, but never really found the subgenre that I could totally relate to until black metal. The grim atmosphere, soothing monotony, primal rawness and sad beauty draws me in, like no other music does."

Mutilation Rites' sound is wreathed in ravishing grimness and ice-cold tremolo picking, echoing the mid-'90s Scandinavian sound culled from hours spent listening to Mayhem, Emperor and Immortal. It's no surprise, then, to hear that Dimmitt and his band of blackened brethren have taken a pronounced influence from those that came before but have added their own diabolical twists.

"I refer to it as doomy black metal," Dimmitt mused. "We have the typical blast beat parts but we also have the slow doomy parts and the symphonic trances. Justin Ennis, our drummer, was in Tombs and Heuristic and currently plays in Curandera with Monty from Asra. Jose and I both play in Rabia. I was also in Disassociate in their later years. Jose is the black metal veteran of the band. He fronted Vomito Negro and Satanas when he was a teenager back in the 90s in Peru. Our new bass player Iain is from One Hundred Suns and Hadan.

"Justin is sort of like a doom drummer playing black metal. He's way into Burzum, Leviathan and Eyehategod. Jose sites his favorite vocal influences as Sarcofago, Mortem, Inquisition and Morbid. As far as where the riffs come from, I can't deny influences from Scandinavian bands like Darkthrone, Immortal and Dissection, but also stuff from other places like Moon and Abyssic Hate from Australia and Inquisition from Colombia."

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