For a little over a decade Desecrator have proudly flown the Australian flag for thrash metal.
With a ferocious and entertaining live presence that somehow manages to surpass even the recorded version of their songs, Desecrator have loudly gone about their business of bringing the thrash back into metal both home and abroad.
And succeeded.
Whereas many bands find their music tastes and output altering significantly over the period of a decade, Desecrator have only strengthened their resolve, staying within the traditional realms of thrash metal while still pushing the boundaries in whatever direction they see fit at the time.
Fresh from celebrating the tenth anniversary of their debut album Live Til Death Desecrator have unleashed Summoning, possibly one of their finest singles yet, once more almost daring your neck not to snap backward and forewards violently from the very first note.
It is a song that highlights everything that is obvious about Desecrator, yet still stamping them as a band who are continually exploring within their genre – at times unafraid to venture from the path in search of new musical glory.
Guitarist and vocalist Riley Strong joined HEAVY during the week to talk about the single.
“Summoning was a…,” he measured, “it wasn’t really a deviation from what we do and who we are. I guess it was kind of a refinement of what we’ve been doing with the band over the last while with songwriting. We really feel like we’ve nailed down the core of what we anna do with our songs to this point. We’ve trimmed the fat, if you like. We’re really happy with the song and we can’t wait for people to react to it and have it out there. It’s a song we wrote a while ago now and Corona’s hit the world a few times since then and slowed our progression down so it’s nice to get it out there to some people.”
While essentially a thrash song at its core, Summoning also provides Desecrator to show off differing sides of their musical psyche while still remaining true to their image.
“We are known for having such strong thrash metal roots,” Riley nodded, and if you go back through our catalog over the last ten plus years that’s where our identity has been in that intensity and kind of militant parts of the genre, but as we have grown as people, as a band, and as we’ve toured we’ve seen a lot and played with a lot of bands and done a lot out on the road. It kind of opened up our eyes and helped us mature as songwriters and as a band.”
In the full interview, Riley discusses Summoning in more detail, the Marshall-driven film clip, the next album, playing live again, releasing a live album as your debut, and more.
Watch Summoning below:
