Decaying Purity pour l'album "Phases Of Dimensional Torture"

Hi Mustapha, how do you do? Thanks for accepting this interview. Since you're a new band, not everyone is aware of your existence so can you please introduce Decaying Purity to our readers?

Hi, I'm so fine nowadays, thanks… DP was founded by me and Onur in the end of 2005. We were already playing together, but we started DP because we wanted to play more seriously. We changed some members and at last, we found Malik to bass, and Serkan to vocals, then we formed our new staff. Until now we have played a lot of shows, and also recorded a promo and a full length album. In these days, we work for album promotion and new shows, and everything goes quite well...


I must say I'm pretty impressed with your first album. Pure brutal death metal in the Americain way! How are the reactions to "Phases Of Dimensional Torture" so far?

Thanks, I'm happy you liked it. I can say that I haven't heard bad feedback except one or two… The reactions are beyond our expectations. It pleased us.


I guess you agree if I say Disgorge (US) is your biggest influence. It seems you were raised listening to US brutal death metal! What are your favorite bands? What are the ones that have the most influence on Decaying Purity music?

If I say that Disgorge is one of my three favorite bands, it's not a lie. Yes, the influence of Disgorge on us is true. But we're not a clone. In general, the USA death grind sound has an affective role, you are right, because we grew up listening to our favourite bands of this genre. So, it affects our music a bit.


As a singer yourself, what are your favorite ones, your idols?

Note that I do only screaming vocals. Serkan is the lead vocalist. Answer of this question depends on generations. Joe Ptacek (Broken Hope), Frank Mullen (Suffocation), Chris Barnes (Cannibal Corpse era) are my favorites of 90's. There are really powerful names of brutal vocalists between the end of 90's and now... For example, Matti Way (ex-Disgorge, Cinerary, Liturgy), Dusty Boisjolie (ex-Severed Savior), Jon Zig (Sarcolytic, Images of Violence).


The sound on "Phases Of Dimensional Torture" is awesome, very suffocating and oppressing yet brutal and powerful. Where did the recording take place? How did it go?

Recordings were completed at Studio Turquoise at Kadıkoy. We didn't want a very clean and weak sound. Mixing and mastering were done by Serhat Deniz and Emre Sen who are our friends. And the results have satisfied us.


Who's the main writer in the band? What about the writing process in Decaying Purity?

In the band, the main themes of the songs are formed by me and Onur. In the beginning, we study our thoughts, and now, Serkan contributes with us to the songwriting process. And despite the one shit, he has a big role in taking shape of songs with arrangements and riffs he found.


Don't you plan on adding a second guitarist to your lineup?

We don't need a second guitarist. Maybe we'll think about it in the future.


The cover artwork was made by almighty Jon Zig. You must be proud! Colors remind me of Degrade's "Lost Torso Found". Is that someting you specifically asked for or is it a complete coincidence?

We're pleased with our artwork, and working with Zig is a really sick experience. We wanted to tell the concept we thought to him with the two lyrics. Then he created this image directly. Yes, people said that our cover was similar to Degrade's but you can look and see that our concept and lyrics are different. Cause of the color similarity but the green tone was our choice. As a result, if it has satisfied us, it's OK…


How did you meet Grotesque Productions? How are your relations so far? Are you satisfied by the way they handled your first release?

After completing album recordings, many labels were interested in it. One of them was Juan from Grotesque. And because of the most sensible deal offer came from him, the agreement was unescapable. Until now, everything is OK for the first album. But I can't know about future.


Is a European tour planned to promote the new album? Can I hope to see you one day in France?

There's no tour at this time. Because we live in a country like Turkey, it's not easy like an American or European band. We got a European tour offer with Condemned (USA) but it didn't happen because of schedule conflicts. We were recently contacted to play some fests, not tours. Our first two shows are Carnal Decapitation n3 DeathFest in Oct. 4 in Greece and Ludwigshafen DeathFest in Oct. 18 in Germany. Hope we drop in on there.


Do you know some French bands by the way?

In France, the band which I always pursued is Imperial Sodomy. I can say that I am a true Imperial Sodomy fan. I had pursued the band from the very beginning. But I think that they broke up. I can't say since a long time. Hope they continue to demolish again with the new album.


Do you listen to other kinds of music? Some traditionnal Turkish music maybe?

Everyone in the band listen to various kinds of stuff. Sometimes we listen to samples of traditional Turkish music with pleasure. Besides that, there are other kinds of music we like to listen to.


We don't know much about the Turkish metal scene. Personally, I only know Cenotaph. Decaying Purity too now of course. Can you tell us your opinion about your national scene? Are there a lot of bands, especially extreme ones? Is it hard to find musicians?

If we tell the truth, the Turkish metal scene follows very back to the European and USA scenes. Of course this arises from the difficulties according to other countries which have big markets. Those difficulties can be something like consumption of this music by strong listeners, acceptance, marketing, or finding musicians who play this style. However, I can say that very important news happened in the last years, especially about death metal. Certainly first band is Cenotaph who hailed from Turkey and became worldwide known. But besides them, there are other successful bands that gained really good reactions and feedback, too. For example, if you follow bands like Nettlethrone, Suicide, Self Turture, Carnophage, you can see our scene that says “we are here, too”.


How is it to live in Turkey? Turkey is a non-religious country but 99% of the population are muslim. Are you muslim yourselves? What do you think about religion and Islam in particular?

To live is to show difficulties. We live in a conservative land, this is the truth. But it's not a problem. I don't want to talk about religions, because I don't think that it gains. Yes, we live with Muslim people. But I can't say that we are religious people.


What about censorship regarding the type of music you play. Is it strong over there?

We can't see this as censorship. Because the committees of censorship are not censoring death metal, it has English lyrics. However, they're not interested and don't support this music, they say loud noise about this. There's no problem about official. But the pressure can be from the conservative people. If they read and understand our lyrics, they stone us…


What do you think about the possible entry of Turkey into the European Union? I am opposed to it, for reasons you must know already (geography, religion, democracy, human rights, etc) but that's just my opinion. What's yours, man?

If they think they can take us with our status, they have to think again. We have to be objective person. I don't see us joining the EU. How much we perform their formation's needs? And, how much they meet our needs? If there's an abyss between these expectations, let them look what amount we decrease these. But if we make concessions over the Turkish culture to join this community, this is something I could never agree with.


I'm afraid it was my last question. Thanks again for your time, Mustapha. I wish you and your band all the best for the future. Last words are yours!

I thank you for the interview. Hope we come to there, speak to you from the stage, and spend some time together. Good work.