Interview: NECROT talks Decibel Tour, upcoming music plans

One fifth of this all star tour.

Photograph by Peyote Gutierrez

When you have a year like death metal did in 2018, it's safe to say that the genre is in good hands. This is not only attributed to genre titans still putting out quality records, but to excellent talent rising from the grave to carry the torch as well. Bay Area trio NECROT ran with that torch straight to two Billboard chart placements, leaving charred remains with their debut record Blood Offerings (2017). Almost two years now since the release, the band continue to unleash hell across stages worldwide, paving the way and cementing themselves as one of death metal's most promising newcomers.

NECROT will join CANNIBAL CORPSE, MORBID ANGEL, IMMOLATION, and BLOOD INCANTATION for the 2019 edition of the annual Decibel Magazine Tour. As you can see by the names listed before you, this is probably one of the best tours to hit your side of town in recent years.

We talk to drummer Chad Gailey about the band's participation on this historic tour, the art direction for Blood Offerings, gore, upcoming plans, and a fuck ton more.

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You’re fresh off the Tankcrimes Takeover, which looked insane from the footage Scotty shared. How did that go for you guys?

I thought it went pretty well. I think Necrot’s set went really solid and I also played with Mortuous that night. It was our first show in about 5 months. We had a new guitarist and vocalist. We got Adam from Ensepulcher, Fiend, and he also plays in Acephalix now. Everybody who saw us says we did well and I thought we did really well also.

Yeah I was going to mention that you pulled double duty with Mortuous. I bet your feet hurt after all that damn double pedal work by the end of the night.

Yeah, I was pretty tired at the end of the night. We got done loading gear and loading out of the venue and into our practice space around like 4:00 AM that night, so it was a long day for me. I thought the show went well and I thought it was good that both bands played. It was good to support Tankcrimes because they’ve supported our bands for the last couple years now, so it was a great night.

That’s awesome man. In a little under two weeks now, you’ll be taking part in of the heaviest tours (if not the heaviest tour) of the year on the Decibel Tour. How do you feel coming into this?

It’s going to be a great tour. We’re all really looking forward to it. I never expected this kind of tour to happen where you have Cannibal, Morbid Angel, Immolation, and then our brother band Blood Incantation. It’s really cool that it all worked out and we’re about to do it. It’s finally coming to fruition. You know when it’s coming and you’re gearing up for it and not really thinking about it, but then it’s about to be here and it starts hitting you? It’s like ‘oh shit it’s actually happening now.’ It’s not just talk anymore. I think it’s finally starting to sink in that it’s about to happen.

I think it’s a perfect example of the new generation of death metal meeting the old, legends meet newcomers in a way, which makes it pretty special wouldn’t you say?

Oh yeah. We’ve all looked up to those bands, especially Necrot. Those bands are huge influences since we started playing, so it’s pretty insane to be able to tour with them. We’ve always looked up to those bands and now we get to do a full tour with them. It’s pretty sick.

It pretty much came full circle.

Yeah, exactly.

So, you’re nearing the 2-year mark from your debut Blood Offerings. Where do you see the record now as opposed to when you first released it?

When we first released it, we knew it was a great record. We thought we did a really solid job on it as far as production and making sure that we were all happy about it. The response was just something I wasn’t expecting. I wasn’t expecting such a great response from everybody you know. You have your fans already and they’re always into it, but the amount of other people that never knew of us and had their first taste of what Necrot is was pretty overwhelming.

We toured solidly in the last half of 2017 to support it doing two full North American tours and then in 2018, we did a bunch of festival and exclusive show runs on the East and West Coasts. We then did a full 11 country European Tour to support. We’ve been really trying to promote the album as much as possible and I think it’s really paying off with the amount of people who are finding out about it and telling their friends to listen to it. It’s all been beneficial. I’m pretty stoked with how it’s been received so far.

Absolutely. I mean shit, it even made Billboard charts.

I know! That’s so crazy.

That’s something you don’t really expect nowadays, especially from a death metal band. It’s become a pop and radio rock dominated area, and then it’s like ‘oh shit, we’re on Billboard.’

I know. You don’t expect underground music to reach a Billboard level, but it did on two separate charts. It’s cool that it’s being recognized by that industry, an industry that caters to more popular bands. We’re popular but not on that pop level, so it was pretty cool to get that recognition and to be able to say that you charted on a Billboard chart or two.

Let’s hope that’s a sign and hopefully you guys will be headlining areas in the future.

Hey, that wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Of course. Here at Heaviest of Art, I like to appreciate and highlight metal album covers, which I know draws a lot of people into music. Marald Van Haasteren, who designed the cover for Blood Offerings, put together a set demons sacrificing a newborn. How did that go about and what kind of crazy shit did you give him for inspiration?

I’ve been a fan of his growing up just seeing his art on other albums from bands I really liked. I was just like, ‘I want to have him to do some art for one of my bands one day.’ Sure enough, it worked out with Necrot. He’s just been super receptive to everything.

He was really interested to get working on it, so we sent him over the lyrics and music. From that, he came up with his own vision of the album cover. It started off a little differently at first. There was a few changes made but overall, it became what it is today. It’s a pretty striking album cover. A lot of people really love it and a lot of people really hate it, so it’s kind of controversial in a way. I think if that happens, it’s pretty successful.

I think it’s a perfect representation of the filthy death metal that lies beneath it.

It has that old style, kind of like the old Death covers, like Leprosy or something. It’s shocking and morbid. A lot of people get turned off that there’s a baby being sacrificed on the cover. A lot of people with children don’t like it and I can totally understand where they’re coming from. We’re doing something right if we’re shocking somebody in this day and age. Not a lot of stuff is shocking anymore. If people can get shocked by something, you did right I guess.

Definitely. We’ve become completely desensitized to shit. I mean the Pissgrave cover doesn’t shock some, it’s insane.

If you’re a true internet fiend, you’d know of all the super gory websites like Ogrish and Bestgore. It’s kind of funny people are like ‘oh man, where did they find those covers’ and you just gotta dig. You can find pretty much anything. When you see stuff like that, it’s almost like ‘how do you top that shit.’ It’s able to happen in one way or another.

Definitely. So, Blood Offerings and an incredible work ethic has really taken the band to new heights, even landing spots on Billboard on release week and tours around the world. With that said, I think you’ve set expectations substantially high for the sophomore release, but of course what matters is that you’re happy with what you put together. What can you tell us about what’s next?

After the Decibel Tour, we’re going to start writing our sophomore album. We hope to hit the studio by the end of the year just so that we can have the album out by maybe Spring or Summer of 2020 and then we can do a big tour to support it. Other than that, we’ll be going to Japan and Australia at the end of this year, probably around late September and October. The Japanese show is an exclusive show in Tokyo at Asakusa Deathfest. We’re kind of planning the Australian route right now, but it’s sort of on the down low because it hasn’t been properly routed, but Japan is confirmed.

Yeah, I think I saw the Japan show on your socials. Is that your first time in Japan?

Yeah, that’ll be Necrot’s first time. I went out there in 2016 with another band and I had a great time, so I’m really looking forward to going back this year.

That’s awesome. Musically, what would you like to do on this second record? The first one had lots of old school, filthy death metal influences. What direction would you like to do on this next one?

We’re going to do another great record. We want to definitely encompass a lot of the stuff that we’ve always done, but take it a little further. We’ve all improved with our playing. With this next album, we can definitely bring it to another level. This is not to say that Blood Offerings wasn’t already at 100 or anything, but we can get it to 110.

That’s true, you should always want to one up yourselves and be happy with what you’re doing.

I think it’s important so that it stays fresh and you’re not just repeating yourself. There’s no point. There’s always room for improvement. This next album is going to be really dialed in. We got a couple of songs in the works right now. We got a few more to go and we need to practice a shit ton for them. I think people will really like the next one.

Whatever comes next, I think it’s safe to say the Bay Area, Tankcrimes, and your own Carbonized Records has your back 100%.

Oh yeah, definitely.

Since the release, you’ve played with a fuck ton of bands such as Possessed, Undergang, Testament, Demilich and festivals like Psycho Las Vegas, Northwest Terror Fest, and the Decibel Metal & Beer Fest. I mean shit, is there anyone else left you’d like to play with?

Oh man. We’ve definitely been knocking off the checklist it seems like. There’s always going to be a bunch of bands that we’ve love to play with. It all depends on if schedules can make it happen or if we get offers to go out with certain bands. We always want to tour, so we’re always looking to do stuff.

I’m trying to think of some bands. Gorguts would probably be a big one I’d like to do a show with. Man, now you have me thinking. We’ve played with so many bands. Even if we played with the same bands we’ve already played with, we’d still be totally into it because we love all those bands. We’ve played with bands like D.R.I., Incantation, Suffocation, and the list goes on. We’re always down to play shows and tour.

Well to wrap it up, what do you have to say to people who haven’t picked up their tickets for the Decibel Tour? I’m actually surprised every tour stop hasn’t sold out yet.

People should be getting their tickets because these shows are going to sell out. If they don’t, it’s going to be surprising. I heard that the LA show at The Fonda was sold out, last I heard. I wouldn’t be surprised if the shows sold out the day of.

I agree. I’ll be at the LA show, so I’ll see you there.

Awesome man, it’ll be great to catch up.

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Catch NECROT alongside a death metal all-star team on the eighth annual Decibel Magazine Tour, set to begin in just a few days. They'll be playing a warm-up show alongside BLOOD INCANTATION for the lovers on Valentine's Day in New Mexico. See all the dates below.

NECROT: 2/14/2019 Sister – Albuquerque, NM **

Decibel Magazine Tour w/ Cannibal Corpse (2/17–3/07), Morbid Angel, Immolation (3/08–3/14), Blood Incantation: 2/17/2019 Alamo Music Hall – San Antonio, TX 2/18/2019 Rock House – El Paso, TX ** 2/19/2019 Club Xs – Tucson, AZ 2/20/2019 The Observatory – San Diego, CA 2/21/2019 The Fonda Theater – Los Angeles, CA 2/22/2019 The Observatory – Santa Ana, CA 2/23/2019 The Regency Ballroom – San Francisco, CA 2/24/2019 Siren’s Song – Eureka, CA ** 2/25/2019 Roseland Ballroom – Portland, OR 2/26/2019 Showbox Market – Seattle, WA 2/27/2019 Neurolux – Boise, ID ** 2/28/2019 Metro – Salt Lake City, UT ** 3/01/2019 The Oriental Theater – Denver, CO 3/02/2019 The Truman – Kansas City, MO 3/03/2019 Skyway Theater – Minneapolis, MN 3/04/2019 The Concord – Chicago, IL 3/05/2019 Black Circle Brewing – Indianapolis, IN ** 3/06/2019 Town Ballroom – Buffalo, NY 3/07/2019 Playstation Theater – New York, NY 3/08/2019 TLA – Philadelphia, PA 3/09/2019 Palladium – Worcester, MA 3/10/2019 Baltimore Soundstage – Baltimore, MD 3/11/2019 Lincoln Theater – Raleigh, NC 3/12/2019 1904 Music Hall – Jacksonville, FL ** 3/13/2019 The Masquerade – Atlanta, GA 3/14/2019 Orpheum – Tampa, FL 3/15/2019 Santos – New Orleans, LA ** 3/16/2019 Lost Well – Austin, TX ** 3/17/2019 Three Links – Dallas, TX ** ** NECROT + Blood Incantation Only

Enjoy the baby sacrifices below and stream NECROT's Blood Offerings in full on Bandcamp to prepare for what's expected to be one of the best tours of all time.

Cover art by Marald Van Haasteren