The most brutal, yet holy band you'll ever listen to.

The Background:

Recently I came across a post for the band Hematidrosis, advertising their debut ep, "Disfigurement of the Holy Sacrament." It definitely caught my eye seeing a band releasing their first project, already carrying a pretty good following. It was pretty obvious what genre they were. Especially given the "_bdm" tag and the song clip on the post. And the album cover featuring Jesus wasn't much of a surprise either, with a lot of metal using Christian imagery. However, rather than a blasphemous approach, the band uses it as followers of Christ. They make their beliefs very clear on their page. Now Christian metal isn't a wild concept these days. Theres plenty of bands filling that role now, mostly in a metalcore setting. However I don't think I've ever seen a Christian extreme metal band before. Let alone one as heavy as this. I very much enjoyed their debut ep, so I messaged them and got a little interview with questions regarding how they get viewed and how they view the metal scene. I got separate answers from both members Willy and Cody. Enjoy!

The Interview:

Now obviously one of the most striking factors to a lot of people is the fact you’re a Christian brutal death metal band. Something not often seen. Does that ever get y'all looked at differently? Whether by your own personal community or the death metal scene.

Willy: We haven’t been a band for very long but we definitely get a lot of eyes on us both good and bad when it comes to us being a Christian band. We have yet to really play shows but people from both of our scenes have taken interest in what we do.

Cody: To be completely honest I thought we were going to see a lot of backlash from both sides of the coin, but the support has been pretty well received by the metal Christian community and people who don’t necessarily believe in Christianity.

How long has Hematidrosis been a band in the making before the release of your debut ep?

Willy: The band officially started with the initial post on instagram so April 22nd. We sent demos back and forth kinda a little prior but didn’t really make the statement that we were an official project until that first post was made.

Cody: Hematidrosis conceptualized less than 6 months ago. Probably even less than 3 months ago, I haven’t been counting. Me and Willy both were working together on another project that we ended up tossing into the bin, when he approached me with the idea of fully diving into Hema and publicly declaring faith through a genre of music we both love, it was an immediate yes.

Where are you guys from?

Willy: I am from a small town in Georgia called Chickamauga

Cody: I’m from Connecticut!

What would you describe your local metal scene like? Are there any standout bands you’d like to shout out?

Willy: I attend the Chattanooga metal scene. It’s the closest to me. There are some really cool bands from there but the scene itself isn’t very big. I’d say a really big standout band is Ritual Killer, super heavy band.

Cody: Connecticuts local metal scene is insane, I think it’s best in the country next to the Bay Area. It goes without mention the insane roster of bands Connecticut produces. Our brothers in Christ Vomit forth, Boundaries, 100 Demons, Mercy Whip, Groaning Retch, Hatebreed, Roots Of Deception, Cryptic Entity, and the list goes on.

Something I’ve been seeing where I’m from is the crossover of metal and hardcore punk. Have y'all noticed a blend of those two where you're from? Or have you been strictly focused on metal?

Willy: I come from a more hardcore based background, bands like Hatebreed, Terror and others helped shape my music taste early on. I found death metal in middle school and always loved listening to the two genres.

Cody: Me personally l’m pretty focused on BDM and the MySpace deathcore revival. I’m not too much into punk, I love hardcore, but again I’m just not inolved enough in the hardcore scene to speak on it.

Do you think your band's following has grown relatively fast or slow with your first release?

Willy: Realistically we’ve started growing since the very first post and haven’t stopped since. So I’d definitely say fast.

Cody: The response to our first release has been insane, I thought for sure we would face persecution from both sides of the religious spectrum given it being brutal death metal and giving glory to Christ, but honestly the response is nothing short of gods will and grace. I couldn’t ask for anything more. I’m grateful for all of it.

What message would you guys say to the fans of extreme metal or just in any underground scene? Could be as basic or unique as you’d like.

Willy: My message I suppose is enjoy what you enjoy and don’t let others control that. I hope you all come to know Christ like I have.

Cody: My message is glory to god. Don’t let bad relationships whether it be with family, your fellow church goers growing up, childhood trauma, or ANYTHING keep you from that relationship with god. Bad people love to hide behind a Bible and let the book catch metaphoerical bullets for their bad actions, thinking it will exalt them from the lords judgement. Do not let those people shape your idea of what Christianity is. Christianity is love, it’s community, it’s giving thanks to the people around you, it’s helping the homeless, it’s breaking bread with EVERYBODY!

With that being said..from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

The Music:

As mentioned previously, Christian metal is not very hard to come across now. But for some unknown reason, almost all of them are metalcore bands. They carry a very watered down sound. I would assume it's to make it more accessible to the public, but it's leaning on the edge of what I would call actual heavy music. However, Hematidrosis steers away from that style and has gone with true extreme metal. None of the brutality is spared when making such death metal. It may be what I admire most about the band. Perfectly incorporating their beliefs while not diluting the perfected sound of brutal death metal. I think their debut ep is a very strong start to the bands career. They use more slam style vocals with long lasting pig squeals riddling each track. The production and guitar tones are similar to an old school death metal record. There is plenty use of uncertain, yet vile riffs. I also enjoy the occasional harmonic in the riffs. I think the break downs are very solid as well. The band has released a very high quality, promising debut leaving me curious on where they could go next. Who knows just how long until they release a full length album. I'll definitely be keeping track and following the duos path as they pave their way into the brutal death metal scene.

The two members, Willy and Cody

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