Photo: Scott Wilson
Early death metal possesses this raw combination of aggression next to passion, unleashing a firestorm of riffs, growls, and tempos that pushed the underground scene further into a global movement that still lives strong today. Obscene from Indiana keep that spirit alive through their albums, of which their most recent release Agony & Wounds slices and dices through an intertwining influence tree that takes from aspects of death, doom, and extreme angles where artists like Asphyx, Brutality, Morgoth, and others treasure. We reached out to vocalist Kyle Shaw who was happy to provide us his early memories moving from Green Day to Deicide in his musical tastes, how Obscene developed as a band, the traditional nuances they’ve added to their latest record, thoughts on making sure the band puts on killer live performances, favorite metal records, and what’s in store for the band for the rest of 2024 plus hints at 2025.
Dead Rhetoric: What are some of your earliest childhood memories surrounding music? At what point did you start leaning towards heavier styles, and eventually get the desire to start performing your own music in bands?
Kyle Shaw: The first band I fell in love with which is kind of funny to think about now because I thought they were so cool because of crazy hair, piercings and tattoos was Green Day when I saw a music video of theirs in third or fourth grade. It was when the Dookie album came out. Then I got into heavier stuff like Metallica, Pantera, and then I got into underground metal when I was reading Metal Maniacs, when I was vacationing with my parents in Florida, and we went by some grocery store and saw an issue with some metal bands in there. I was into Soulfly, I read about Death, Marduk, all these extreme bands. This is what I was looking for, a whole new world. And it’s gone downhill ever since (laughs). Everyone knew who Cannibal Corpse were back in seventh or eighth grade. There was Deicide, Suffocation, Morbid Angel, Malevolent Creation, Monstrosity, Cryptopsy, and there are these bands in other countries Entombed, Dismember, Emperor, Cradle of Filth, oh wow. It just blew my mind, I wanted to consume all of it. That changed a whole lot for me, as a grown man now who will be forty next year.
I tried playing guitar, but the problem I had is I’m woefully impatient. I would knock out some riffs, but I couldn’t solo for shit, so it ended up pissing me off. I tried so hard; I could never get it right. I was singing as a fan – especially in Indianapolis, there isn’t a whole lot for extreme metal. There was a guy Dan Ferguson who ran Abyss Records, and he would put on shows, I did what I could to promote, send out flyers. Macabre would play here all the time. I was promoting my own shows a little bit as I grew older. I joined bands by bullying my way in – I could do vocals; it’ll be sick bro! My first band was a sludge kind of band, like Eyehategod, Dystopia.
I was in some bands off and on – Obscene started when my previous band Boddicker kind of fell apart cause the guy who had written all the songs moved out of the country, nothing ever happened once he did. I just wanted to do something straight up metal, whether it’s death, thrash, black. I was into Asphyx, Demolition Hammer, Immolation, Pestilence. Brandon (Howe) our drummer, he had been around because he’s a multi-instrumentalist. He was working on this old school sounding project like Dismember and Hail of Bullets. We got to talking, hashed out ideas, traditional death metal, and we never looked back.
Dead Rhetoric: Tell us about the origins of Obscene – which developed for one year as Blood Chasm? Did you know straight away the type of death metal you wanted to execute- or was it a feeling out process through rehearsals to arrive at your sound?
Shaw: A little bit of both. Once bands get together, they have a grandiose idea of the way things should be, and once pen comes to paper it turns into something else. When we started out, you could hear on the Sermon to the Snake EP it was slower, mid-paced. We have an aspect of that still, but we started getting faster once guitarist Mike Morgan joined the band. Blood Chasm, we just played two or three shows under that name. We changed it to Obscene, there were too many bands with Blood in their name. I was looking on Metal Archives, and there were some bands that were called Obscene but didn’t last long. We could do something with this.
Dead Rhetoric: Agony & Wounds is the third album for Obscene – and first with Nameless Grave Records. How did the songwriting and recording sessions go for this set of material? Where do you see the biggest changes, differences, or improvements through this record compared to the previous two offerings?
Shaw: Recording was actually a little bit tougher. Just because one of our guys was pretty ill – he’s fine now, but during the recording, it wasn’t fun. There was definitely some agony involved with that. As far as changes – maybe we had a clearer idea of what we were doing. Not that we didn’t previously. The last record, a lot of the harmonies were improvised in the studio, whereas with this one we had a clear idea of what we were doing and when we were going to do it. Not to downplay our previous offerings, we love them all and asking what your favorite record is, it’s like asking who your favorite kid is. I think we stepped up our game, more nuances and catchier songwriting.
Our contract with Blood Harvest expired, and we were thinking to go back to them. We wanted to look at other labels too. I felt like where we are as a band, we pride ourselves on being a death metal band first and foremost, but we definitely feel like we are more heavy metal inclined. We have more in common with the first few Twisted Sister records than we do with Tomb Mold. I knew Brandon (Corsair) was a fan of our band, always super supportive so I reached out to his label, and he said yes. It’s been great.
Dead Rhetoric: What fuels the lyrical content and themes you put across for Obscene? Do you try to draw equally from fiction as well as real-life experiences, or are there other influences/inspirations?
Shaw: It’s a little bit of a mishmash of everything, but I try to keep things fictional based. I don’t know anything about killing anybody (laughs). There is a love of literature too. Sometimes playing a video game can inspire a cool death metal title. I try to keep it more fiction related.
Dead Rhetoric: How have things worked with your vocal technique over the years – any specific tricks to be at your best?
Shaw: First and foremost, you want to drink hot tea with honey as often as you can. It’ll keep things loose. You want to always pull more from your diaphragm instead of your throat. I haven’t blown my voice out yet – I did when I was younger, but I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. I have figured it out as the years go by. I try to do a shot or two of whiskey before we perform or get in the studio – it loosens things up a little bit.
Dead Rhetoric: Brad Moore handled the artwork piece for Agony & Wounds – how did the process work between the band and Brad from initial idea to final concept that we see? Did you purposely want to do something different than the norm to stand out more?
Shaw: Yes, a little bit. A lot of it was, I give all the credit to Brad for just bringing in a creative mind. I gave him minimal direction, song titles and a couple of lyrics. I had an idea, something along the lines of Autopsy with Mental Funeral and Cannibal Corpse with a bunch of corpses strung together. We didn’t want to over think this – we trusted him and this is what he did. We couldn’t be happier with how he did it, he’s very transparent and a joy to work with.
Dead Rhetoric: Do you enjoy the exploration with physical media and different color offerings on vinyl these days?
Shaw: A little bit. Truth be told, we didn’t have a whole lot of input on what the vinyl should be. We are happy we got a gatefold; the last record should have been a gatefold, but something got lost in translation with Blood Harvest. That’s alright. As far as the different color variants – he went with the color themes of the actual record itself. I like black vinyl; I like colored vinyl – as long as it looks cool, and it can be played. I’m not too terribly picky about that. Truth be told, I’m more of a CD guy than a vinyl guy. When you have the vinyl though in your hand as a musician and a performer, there’s no better feeling of accomplishment.
Dead Rhetoric: What have you learned the most on the road touring with acts like Morta Skuld, Molder, and Re-Buried among others that you believe has made you stronger as a band and as musicians?
Shaw: I really believe in putting on a show when you are performing. It gets under my craw when you see a band that plays aggressive music, and they have a very cavalier stage presence. It’s all about having fun but not making it a joke. Nine times out of ten, the crowd will respond. Be professional, be a decent person going out on road. You don’t have to be an angel, but don’t be a total shithead, you know? We feel like we are pretty aggressive live band, we are tight, and we try to have the best time we can on stage, and I think that translates to the people watching us.
Dead Rhetoric: How would you assess the career arc of Obscene currently? What do you believe are the next steps that you would like to achieve in moving up the ladder to establish a stronger following for the group?
Shaw: That’s a difficult question. For us, it’s not really a career, it’s more of a passion project. I’m happy with where we are at, and we have things in the works. Next year, we got confirmed for something pretty major, I’m very excited about it. I can’t spill the beans just yet. Pushing the band to gain more of a following, we have to do it the old school way, get in the van, play shows, do the best you can. We have a pretty low ceiling, I don’t see any point in touring any longer than ten days, unless you are making a living at this to have this be your job. We all have mortgages, families, playing death metal to roughly 50 people a night probably isn’t going to get that done. But we like doing this and I’m not complaining about it. We’ve been out long enough, released quality albums, people have responded to it. We gain new fans and I couldn’t be more prouder of this.
Dead Rhetoric: Being an older musician, how have you adapted to the current industry landscape with social media and technology compared to the older model, finding out about bands through flyers, tape trading, physical magazines?
Shaw: I don’t know. We do things our own way. We share reviews and cool news. I don’t know how good at it I am, the social stuff. I don’t want to do Tik Tok and do stupid things just to keep the algorithm happy. I’d rather post about new merchandise, a new record, new shows coming up. I’m barebones when it comes to that. Hopefully people respond to this. If people buy the record, hell yeah. We are going to just keep going.
Dead Rhetoric: What do you consider three of the most important metal releases that helped shape your outlook and viewpoints on the genre? And what’s the best concert memory you have – purely attending a show as a member of the audience – plus what made that show so special to you?
Shaw: Oh, that’s a tough one. I’m going to say – Autopsy – Mental Funeral. Some of this comes with nostalgia. Emperor – Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk. That was huge for me when I was growing up. And I’m going to say Hail of Bullets – Of Frost and War. I got that in my early to mid-20s. I hadn’t really listened to Pestilence at the time – or Asphyx really – and I heard that, and it definitely changed my approach to listening to and try to perform music. Those three.
Not metal – I went to go see Laibach. My wife and I ended up going on a whim, in Indianapolis in 2016 I want to say. I wasn’t a huge fan, I went, and we got in for free. There weren’t a whole lot of people there, but the way they performed, the way they conducted themselves, they played the venue as if there was like 5,000 people there and there were maybe 50. I can’t describe it; they were so locked in and very intent on putting on a show. One of those things where I knew who they were, my jaw was on the floor the entire time pretty much.
Dead Rhetoric: Do you have the support of your family and friends when it comes to your metal endeavors? Did they have any worries when growing up when you were listening to these extreme bands?
Shaw: Oh yeah, a little bit. My parents are conservative Christians, my dad hated Deicide. He was shaken up about that, my mom heard King Diamond one time and thought, ‘what the hell is this?’. I told them this is what I am into, I’m not joining a cult, I’m not killing anybody, it’s the music that I enjoy. They’ve chilled out as I’ve gotten older and proven that this wasn’t just a phase, I’m not a weirdo who is going around murdering cats or anything like that. My parents are into Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, but this is a little more extreme than that. My wife is chill and super supportive. When I was younger and we were first dating, I would go out for shows and originally, she wasn’t so stoked on that. Ten days though, and she would be okay with it. It’s never a problem for my family and friends, they think it’s cool when I am doing stuff.
Dead Rhetoric: How would you describe your local scene in terms of acceptance and support from the promoters, venues, other bands, etc.? What do you enjoy most about things, and what changes (if any) would you like people to consider for the greater good of all?
Shaw: We’ve been at this for a bit. If you are into metal and you’ve been in Indianapolis, you at least know of Obscene. Promoters have been cool; shows have been cool. I feel we’ve been pretty well accepted by everybody. As far as the changes I’d like to see, I think we are in a pretty good space right now. I couldn’t say that for many years to be in a metal band in Indiana. There are a lot of cool bands popping up, putting out good releases, touring. If one band does well, we all do well as a result of that. Just more bands I guess would be cool. I’ll be diplomatic here. Less of the chugga chugga stuff and more of the traditional, black metal, thrash. We have a decent scene going on here.
Dead Rhetoric: What’s on the agenda for anything related to Obscene over the next twelve months or so? Are there any other side projects or bands from the members that we need to learn more about and check out?
Shaw: Our drummer sings for Mother of Graves; they have a record coming out in the fall. It’s death/doom in the vein of early Katatonia, My Dying Bride. Our guitarist joined a top-secret band, it’s traditional heavy metal like Judas Priest, W.A.S.P., King Diamond. Obscene, we have a tour coming up in December, an eight-day thing through the Midwest. It’ll be a fun time.