Beastplague Is "Just Trying to Write Metal Music" and Not Get "Lost in the Mix"

South Florida has maintained a long and storied tradition of putting out exasperatingly heavy bands. Broward County's Beastplague is doing its part to uphold that tradition by writing some of the most crushing metal to crawl forth from the area's swamps in a long time.

The quartet, which features former and/or current members of notable South Florida bands like Shai Hulud, Implosive Disgorgence, On Our Own, Know the Score, and XBishopX, has infiltrated the hearts of the area's various micro-scenes with a sound that takes the unrelenting churn of death-metal and fuses it with the rabid assault of grindcore to make for something that is altogether offensively heavy.

As one of the brightest lights in the area's heavy music scene, we spoke with Beastplague vocalist and guitarist, Sam Kooby, about the band's sound, its hopes for the future, and the loss of a home base with the Talent Farm's closing.

See also: Best Metal Band - Beastplague

How would you describe the band's sound to people that haven't heard Beastplague?

It's nice to be recognized as a death-metal band, and I appreciate that. We're not trying to reinvent the wheel by any means or try to pretentiously say we're not a hardcore or grind core band, we're just trying to write metal music and not just be another band that gets lost in the mix. That goes a long way.

Among the four of us, I listen to a lot of death-metal and grind and so does Erick, but Chad and Jared listen to a lot more heavy hardcore, so you can kind of hear their songwriting influence comes from there. And sometimes some kind of nu-metal parts happen because Chad and Erick are both really nu-metal (laughs). Collectively, it's all of our influences.

I don't want to say it's different because we're still a grindy band playing 30 second long songs, but you can hear that it's not just another band trying to be another Repulsion or Napalm Death or something.

What has the band put out at this point?

We have a demo, a split with Shovelhead, and then we have a full length cassette release, but technically it's like, 15 minutes long because all of the songs are short.

What's the plan for the next release? Any idea who you would like to record with?

I want to record with Erik Rutan in Tampa. That would be my dream. I don't know if Morrisound is still a studio, but that would be cool, too. I would love to go there. I know Erick has looked up how much it would cost to work with Rutan before, and he loves that dude as a drummer, engineer, and producer. And I grew up knowing Florida death-metal, first and foremost, and then years later I came to realize that almost all of my favorite death-metal recordings, and even that Shai Hulud record, were recorded at Morrisound.

I know the band used to practice at the Talent Farm and has some pretty close ties to Kevin Burns. Now that the venue is no more, do you have anything to say about your experiences there and what Kevin has done for the heavy music community?

Mr. Burns is definitely -- besides John McHale -- the most selfless and actually caring person about young people, and not just the hardcore scene, but just music in South Florida. I respect him and admire his personality and the sacrifices he's made more than anybody I've met in probably the last 10 years down here. The Talent Farm was very important to us.

Catch Beastplague on June 28, at Anonymous Guitars, 10778 NW 53rd St., Sunrise. Visit anonymousguitars.com.

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