The Beast of Nod Interview

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?

We’re a very cohesive group; we’ve all become really good friends over time and spend a lot of time hanging out even when we’re not practicing.  We make a point of going to as many shows as possible and love being a part of the local scene.  For us, this band is just part of who we are.  We practice a lot both as individuals and as a band, are constantly striving to improve ourselves, and we really like to have fun with everything and try to bring that to the music as well. 

2.So far you have released 2 ep's, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on both of the recordings and also how do they differ from each other?

Simply put, musically we are a Death Metal band but lyrically we are a bit eclectic.  We focus on having a mix of aggressive, progressive, and technical riffs; and we always incorporate groove.  The two EPs differ in that the second EP has songs that have more complex composition and the EP is more technical overall.    

3.Can you tell us a little bit more about the lyrics the band brings out in the music?

Some are more traditional death metal lyrics and are specific upon that, for example Ripped Off Face is a proper description of how one could actually rip a face off.  Others are about a concept or idea, whether it be greed and consequence or artificial life becoming self-aware.  The rest are story driven and are about one or more of the characters in our comic book universe and the situations they get into; thus far these have been our most complex songs. 

4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'The Beast Of Nod'?

When we were first brainstorming a lot of things came up, but we wanted to have something that spoke to our music.  So from that we came up with ‘Nod’ because we always incorporate groove and our music makes people ‘nod’ their heads, then soon after The Beast of Nod came about.  The secondary meaning, which we discovered after the initial inspiration, is that in some citations the ‘Land of Nod’ is where Cain was sent after he killed Abel in Christian mythos.  In the ‘Land of Nod’ there were ‘beasts’ which were essentially demons, sometimes called by specific demon names, but the coming of the ‘beast of nod’ to earth is a sign of the coming apocalypse. 

5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?

Truthfully we are still at our infancy as a performing band.  We’ve been lucky enough to play a couple shows with international acts, but really we just like playing out and are still discovering what it means to be a good live act through watching our peers, our heroes, as well as just applying good old trial and error.  We work hard at being objective and evaluative of every live show we play and are constantly striving to improve in every way we can.  We don’t so much see this as a journey that will ever be complete either, just like with the music, we’re always going to want to improve our live show and bring it to the next level.  We have a lot of fun at local shows, ones where people are all part of a community, there’s just nothing like that.  One thing we try to push is crowd participation, whether it’s Brendan jumping in the pit during a breakdown or Paul jumping off stage and running around the crowd singing we simply don’t just let people stand there. 

6.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?

We have a number of local shows coming up and do plan to travel a bit this summer to gig and are hungry for more.  As we continue to grow we hope to be able to gig as much as possible in as many places as possible. 

7.Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?

We have received some interest, nothing substantive yet.  We love the community aspect of music and would be very interested in any relationship we could develop that may lead to us being able to create and play more music. 

8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of death metal?

Not even going to try to bullshit that we have a worldwide appeal, we hope to someday.  Although we have had some interaction from people from the Philippines, China, Russia, Mexico, Argentina, and various European countries; albeit a relatively small number it’s incredibly encouraging, as thus far all the feedback we have received has been positive. 

9.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

I see us continuing to involve more progressive elements; we plan to record again in the fall where we’ll be upping the technicality while still providing heavy driving rhythms. 

10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

Our influences are all over the place, but some staples are Cannibal Corpse, Carcass, and Gojira.  We’ve been listening to a lot of Dying Fetus as of late.  And we jam on different covers a practice including Megadeth, Sepultura, Motorhead, Liquid Tension Experiment, Rush, Dethklok, and Death. 

11.What are some of your non musical interests?

Görebläster does circuit design, among a number of other things.  Thus far he’s built a dynamic programmable Metal Metronome with led displays for practice and a guitar pedal called the Hyperanal Hyperdrive that we will be selling at our local shows; and he plans to build several other styles of pedals in the future on top of working on some new pretty awesome ideas.  He’s an incredibly hard working good dude.  Brendan is a huge Star Wars fan, enjoys reading Thoreau and Emerson, and he likes beer, preferably dark beer.  Nate is a Batman nut, likes his cats, and doing pretty much anything outdoors, like hiking and drinking beer.  Paul is comic book fan, likes anime and the 80s, is socio-politically conscience, and goes to the gym a lot. 

12.Before we wrap up this interview do you have any final words or thoughts?
Be open, be inclusive, stay metal, and bang your head!  Playing metal and performing live are incredibly cathartic for us, we live to share that experience with as many as possible.