If you are a die-hard fan of old school death metal and an admirer of killer grooves, then you should definitely get ready for the new Morta Skuld record. I had the pleasure of asking Dave Gregor (guitar/vocals) some details about their upcoming new album and of course their plans for the coming year.
Hi Dave! The new Morta Skuld album is just around the corner. What should fans know about the making of "Creation Undone"? I mean who created that awesome artwork for the cover?
- This art piece was definitely a way different process than what we have done in the past. There was an illustrator who had a digital piece of art and then we had Danielle Masek at PixelCore do some painting and basically we did a collaboration with the cover concept by Mike Wyatt. So it's kind of got a little bit of everything I guess mixed in so painting digital.
What will be the lyrical content of "Creation Undone"? Where did you get the inspiration to write the lyrics?
- The lyrical inspiration for "Creation Undone" pretty much came from the times that we've been living in in recent years, it's all basically about the savage destructive state of our world and present times and how we're all just trying to deal with things day by day regardless of who we are.
Musically, where are you heading compared to your previous album, "Suffer for Nothing" (2020)?
- The difference between "Creation Undone" versus "Suffer for Nothing" is we didn't really settle for songs at this point, we wrote directly for ourselves and what we like to hear in songs that we listen to. Also I think there's kind of an old school groove more so on this not to mention we wrote songs one by one.
As I see, two tours have already been confirmed for early 2024, one with Throne and the other with Malevolent Creation. What setlist are you preparing for these tours? Are you also planning to conquer Europe in 2024?
- Yes, we definitely have some small things going on here in 2024, as far as setlist goes it's always a tough one especially when you have, you know, six records plus demos and countless other things to really figure out what setlist you're going to play, we have had a lot of requests for, of course, "Dying Remains", which is our first record and seems to be the one the fans love the most. So we'll definitely do probably half for a little bit more than half of "Dying Remains" songs and, of course, try to work some of our current catalog in there as well as some of the new songs from the yet to be released album "Creation Undone".
Peaceville Records recently released a split with label mates Autopsy, Cancer and Static Abyss. What do we need to know about "Peace till Death"?
- "Peace till Death" was something that the label wanted to offer to the fans like outtakes or different versions of the songs that were going to be coming forward, as for us we decided to do a very nice basement addition of "Dying Remains" the title track, and then also some pre-production stuff we worked on for "Perfect Prey" off the new record coming out in February. And I think it was just something the label wanted to give back to the fans, kind of like in an old school way where you used to get comps all the time with, you know, multiple bands coming out with something cool.
Speaking of reissues, Sewer Rot Records did a great job collecting your demos and some previously unreleased rehearsals for the "Nascency of the Prolific" CD release. What do you personally think of this compilation? Are there plans for more reissues in the near future?
- Sarah at Snapper Music did a great job at this and we were very pleased to work with them, they definitely wanted to release this and definitely cared about it, so we felt that they were definitely a label worth working with.
You are from Milwaukee. What does the underground death metal scene look like there at the moment? Oh, and how was this year's Milwaukee Metalfest? How do you remember your performance there?
- Yes, I am born and raised here in Milwaukee Wisconsin, as far as the scene I'm not really sure we don't really play a lot out locally and usually we're either at practice or at work, so it's kind of hard to say how the scene is really here, but I can say this we have an amazing bunch of bands in our scene and a lot of up and coming bands that are going to do really well. This year's metal fest was really amazing. We played at least eight of them between 1990 and 2000, and it was always a home for us. We cut our teeth at that particular venue in 1991 supporting Napalm Death, so it's very near and dear to our heart the Milwaukee Metalfest. It was amazing to see all the people that literally came to see us at that time of day with all the other bands and really, really good bands going on too, so we were very happy and appreciative of the fans of Milwaukee and all the fans that came to see us at the Milwaukee Metalfest.
Besides the band, I assume everyone has a steady job, right? So what jobs do you do? How often do you have rehearsals these days? How long do you usually rehearse?
- Yes, almost all of us have steady jobs or whatever jobs we can work between traveling on the road, John actually works at Amazon distribution center, Adam actually works at QuikTrip, I actually do quality control for BMW cars, and Eric is a screen shirt printer. We rehearse once a week as two of the members come from more north of the state, when we do get together we usually practice for 2 to 3 hours and then, of course, there's always the hangout time afterwards.
What kind of music do you like to spin these days? Please tell me about some of your favorite albums and their influence on you. By the way, what was the first metal record you bought back then?
- I personally listen to a lot more rock music, Scorpions, Michael Schenker, Accept, stuff like that, but I will say the new Dying Fetus is pretty amazing and the guitar tone is just awesome. It's hard to say which albums really influenced me, but I will have to say Ozzy Osbourne's "Diary of a Madman" was one of the major influences album wise and as far as buying a metal record back in the day hard to say, because rock and metal was one in the same for so many years before it got all categorized, so probably the first or second Accept record "Restless and Wild" was probably one of my first really heavy records to get besides, you know, Judas Priest or something of that nature.
Finally, please send your thoughts to all Morta Skuld fans in Ukraine. All subsequent visions are yours.
- Well, our thoughts, hearts and wishes go out to the Ukrainian people for everything and hopefully someday we will be blessed enough to come to your country and perform for you cheers all.
