In our latest band spotlight, we chat to Yuma Murata (lead vocals, rhythm guitar) and Danny Richardson (vocals, lead guitar) of York thrash metallers, Deathmace, following the release of their new album, ‘Bleeding Frenzy’.
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S] Deathmace! How’s it going?
Y] Good thanks! We just dropped our debut album ‘Bleeding Frenzy’, we’re in the midst of getting some awesome new merch made, and next month we’re back in the rehearsal room, sweating up a storm in preparation for our return to the live circuit.
S] What are the plans for the rest of this year?
Y] The CD version of ‘Bleeding Frenzy’ comes out in July, and will be followed by a handful of gigs for the remainder of 2018. We can’t gig too prolifically at the moment due to my work commitments, but hopefully the end of the year and 2019 onwards will see a bit more action.
S] What are the biggest challenges facing you as musicians right now?
Y] We’ve not played live in over a year, so we all have to re-learn our instruments. Seriously though, the hardest part is going to be organising four very busy people and making sure we can play the best gigs possible.
D] It’s also important to allow yourself time away from it. It’s the only thing I really get involved with outside of work; it’s my social life, it’s my hobby, it’s what I do on evenings, it’s what I do at weekends, what I think about when I’m ambling around town, it’s how I meet people and make friends. I don’t make any money out of it, – if anything it costs most of my wages. I only do it because I enjoy doing it. As soon as it becomes a chore I’ll stop doing it, but until then I’m constantly looking forward to whatever is coming next!
S] How do you all feel about the heavy music scene in Yorkshire, and the UK in general, at present?
Y] I’m not particularly tuned in to the underground scene – it’s quite widely known among my friends that I listen almost exclusively to Iron Maiden and Angelcorpse – but I do know there are new bands popping up all the time, which can only be a good thing. The quality of what little I’ve managed to hear has been very high, but I won’t name-check bands here in case I miss someone and start a social media feud.
What’s also really cool is that the scenes are cross-pollinating, so you’ve got bands of loads of styles – death metal, black metal, thrash, doom, hardcore, grind, industrial, etc. – all playing at each other’s gigs. It seems the underground is too big and too diverse to segregate itself these days, which is good news for a band like us who like to mix things up a bit stylistically.
D] I love being an active member of such a vibrant, exciting scene across York and Leeds and the richness of the musician pool in the punk/grind/metal scene is glorious!
S] Talk to us about some highs and lows when it came down to recording this new material?
Y] Working with Dave Boothroyd at Reel Recording Studio was an absolute pleasure. The gear there is top notch, the place is comfortable, the sound is amazing and Dave really knows his way around the desk. It was certainly a learning experience too — plenty of room for improvement for us all — but generally far more highs than lows. The main thing is we were able to capture the visceral energy of our live show with clarity and precision, without sacrificing any of the power. The songs are actually even faster than when we used to play them. We practised everything with the tempo set 10bpm higher than usual, and most of the songs sounded better that way, so we kept it fast in the studio! The pressure is now on to deliver the goods live, but I know if anyone can do it, these boys can.
