Photo: Josh Mahesh Kost
Another pandemic upstart, Distant Dominion is a Philadelphia area unit that consists of players with plenty of seasoning across the extreme metal landscape in acts like Krieg, Mortal Decay, and Rumplestiltskin Grinder. This five-piece for their debut album Ripping Through Time infuses a mix of heavy metal devastation with flourishes of technical intensity, incorporating influences across the spectrum of Death to Atheist, Kreator to Sepultura, even old school classic rock and Mercyful Fate crop up in the songwriting and performances. We reached out to guitarist Joe Gordon to learn about the inception of the group, the sci-fi lyrical content and cover art, influences that separate this work from previous outfits, thoughts on the local scene, Mortal Decay updates, a little NHL talk and future plans including some other albums from other members to look forward to.
Dead Rhetoric: What are some of your earliest memories surrounding music growing up in childhood? At what point did you discover heavier forms of music – and eventually pick up the desire to play an instrument to perform in your own bands?
Joe Gordon: My dad had a record collection when I was a kid. Probably like most kids our age. I would just go through and pick out what I liked cover-wise, put them on, and get lost in the music. I started to play guitar around 12 or 13, it was after I started playing that I started getting into heavier and heavier stuff. Probably when I started high school, I ran into a couple of guys that were into Metallica and stuff, showed me the way. Before then I was totally into classic rock and nothing else. I hit the metal pretty hard when I was in high school. From then on, things just got heavier and heavier.
Dead Rhetoric: Did you take any lessons on guitar or are you pretty much self-taught and learned things by ear?
Gordon: Mostly that. I have six to eight months of total lesson time under my belt, from way early back on. The senior year of high school I needed an extra class, so I took a guitar class, but that was basically rudimentary reading and stuff like that. No real training, I’ve been playing the guitar and doing things on my own for close to 35 years now.
Dead Rhetoric: Can you discuss the formation of Distant Dominion which happened during the pandemic? Did you know straight away the style of metal you wanted to play that maybe differed from other outfits you are involved in?
Gordon: Sure. Ryan Moll and Brian Deal got together probably in November or December of 2020. Started just jamming on some covers and wrote a couple of songs. They were talking about how to fill the lineup out and Brian Deal called me and asked if I wanted to come check it out – I said sure. It was cool, the songs that they wrote were cool, and it went from there. We haven’t followed any kind of format yet. Whatever we think sounds good at the time, usually it ends up being part of the song. Whatever style it is, it doesn’t have to be a certain style. However it comes out, hopefully we like it, and that’s usually how it comes about.
Dead Rhetoric: Ripping Through Time is the debut album for the band. How do you feel the songwriting and recording sessions went on this set of material? Were there any specific surprises, obstacles, or challenges that had to be worked through?
Gordon: No, I think the recording process went pretty smoothly. The drums were tracked in less than two days, the guitars were tracked pretty quickly too. The vocals and bass were done next, and anything extra like the guitar solos and stuff. As far as that, it went really smooth, no delays and no problems. We’d like to have a repeat process of this if we can, no problems.
As far as the writing process, we went in with ‘hey I got this riff’ and just work on it. A couple of things may have been brought in from home, but usually it’s written on the spot. We wrote about eight songs in about two years and got them really tight, went into the studio in February of 2023 and banged them out.
Dead Rhetoric: What were some of the lyrical themes you wanted to get across, or was that as open as the music topic by topic?
Gordon: It was open to start with. We fell into a spacey, kind of sci-fi theme with the lyrics. Which I think with our name fits in with the overall concept we fell into. We are happy with that direction, and I hope things continue in that way.
Dead Rhetoric: How did the cover art concept and process of development work between artist Mike Hrubovcak and the band this time? Do you still believe in the importance of striking cover art to set the tone before people press play on the record – especially those who choose to own the physical media?
Gordon: Oh yeah. I think we all grew up getting excited with how the cover art looks and hoping that the music would be just as intense as that, it goes hand in hand. I don’t eat peanut butter and jelly, but I’ve heard those in combination are the same kind of thing. With Mike, he’s a long-time friend of the band so he knows what we are going for. He read through the lyrics to know what he could pinpoint on. Different areas of the cover, I should say. He totally nailed it.
Dead Rhetoric: What’s it like being a part of the Fetzner Death Records roster – they are a relatively new label with an interesting mix of bands all across the world in various styles of death, doom, black, thrash, and speed metal?
Gordon: Yeah, it’s been really cool. Alex is really easy to work with and talk to. A lot of the bands I’ve listened to on the label have been really good. An eclectic mix, and I feel that we really fall into this. It’s been good so far.
Dead Rhetoric: Has the band had the opportunity to play out live so far?
Gordon: We’ve played a handful of shows so far. Our first show was back in April of last year, and then we played in September of last year. Our latest show was just this past March. We are looking to play out. If anybody has seen our other projects and bands, they know what to expect as far as a stage show. It’s totally different than anything we’ve ever done from our other bands. As far as what to expect, come check it out – if you like the record, you’ll like the live show.
Dead Rhetoric: What are the key elements that shape the compositions and performances for Distant Dominion – especially considering the multi-genre influences that you incorporate into your sound?
Gordon: That would just go along with how I was talking about how we just jam a lot of the stuff on the spot. I guess we go song to song with differences in riffing or structuring. A couple of things on this album sound more on the rock side, and some of it was more traditional sounding. It was how we were feeling at the time. The continuation into our writing of our second album now is along the same lines.
Dead Rhetoric: Were there any specific songs on this record that took on the greatest amount of transformation from the initial riff idea to the final output?
Gordon: Some things maybe arrangement-wise, but a lot of the riffs were used. I don’t think we took anything majorly out as far as that. We are a little bit more picky now writing the second (album), as far as maybe this part doesn’t sound right here, or let’s try to mix it with this part from another song, that kind of thing. While we are almost done writing the new album, there are things up for conjecture. As far as the last (album), we wrote how everything was over the two years tightening up the songs we definitely tweaked some things, add a harmony here, things like that.
Dead Rhetoric: How do you view the current underground metal scene on a local, national, and international basis? What excites you most, and what changes (if any) would you like to make for the greater good of all parties involved?
Gordon: I think the only thing that’s missing here is, I’ve been in this scene with another band for a long time Mortal Decay – just a change in venues. There are not any venues in south New Jersey where I’m from anymore. And then bands have all but stopped coming to Philly. I’d like to see the Philly scene pick back up. Other than that, the bands from here are all good, we are all friends, and we want to help each other get together and do stuff together – but it’s kind of hard when there is nowhere to do it. I would like to see the scene venue-wise pick back up.
Dead Rhetoric: You recently had the chance to attend the 20th anniversary Decibel magazine show – how was it in your view and what were some of your favorite bands?
Gordon: I think it was great. That’s exactly what I was talking about in regard to Philadelphia and how the scene can be. I know there were a lot of people that travelled not far away, but out of state people. The whole day was a great time, nothing but friends. I couldn’t have asked for a better day that way. The bands I liked, Immolation of course – they always kill whenever I see them. It was good seeing Autopsy play Severed Survival, which was killer. Krieg was great, Deathevokation was great, Horrendous- awesome. Crypt Sermon – awesome. It couldn’t have been a better mix of bands on that day.
Dead Rhetoric: What are three metal albums that helped shape your outlook and impacted your views the most to the good of the genre? And what’s your favorite concert / show memory, purely attending as a member of the audience – and what made that memory so special to you?
Gordon: There were a few summers in a row where me and my father would go see the Allman Brothers play at this place in Philly called the Mann Music Center. There’s not like one moment that pinpoints those shows, but it’s just like the amount of shows that me and him together went to. Those were some of my favorites.
For the albums, it depends on the band. For Mortal Decay, it’s brutal death metal related albums. Suffocation albums, early Cannibal Corpse like the first couple of albums, Malevolent Creation – they all got me going into Gorguts. With this stuff, I’m bringing a whole different side of myself to this because I think I’m leaning more on my classic rock influences but playing in a metal style. You know what I mean? It’s a weird dichotomy, because I’m trying not to do what I would do in Mortal Decay, it’s not hard to separate it. It’s a totally different thing from each other. What I listen to when I want to get inspired for Distant Dominion… a lot of doom stuff. Pallbearer, instrumental-wise some Russian Circles. Mastodon of course is a big influence in what I’m trying to do with Distant. Those kinds of bands, stuff like that.
Dead Rhetoric: Speaking of Mortal Decay, there hasn’t been any new material from the band in quite a while. Are you going to be working on new material soon to release, or are you sticking with just playing out live?
Gordon: We are always writing new stuff. It’s just hard, we end up compiling and compiling. We have probably two albums worth of material, we just have to settle down and start picking some stuff that we like a lot and get together. There is a lot there, a lot to sift through, but we are still together.
Dead Rhetoric: What are some hobbies, interests, and passions that you like to pursue away from music when you have the free time and energy to do so? And do you have the proper support from family, friends, and your significant other when it comes to your musical endeavors?
Gordon: Yes, as far as support, I couldn’t be more supported. I am appreciative of my family for that aspect of it – especially my fiancé. Practicing 3 to 5 days a week is not easy on her – it can get to be that many (practices) with Mortal and Distant getting together a couple of days each week. The support is definitely there.
As far as hobbies go, I game a little bit. I like to play sports games – a big NHL guy, I like to watch a lot of hockey when it’s on. Play a lot of that NHL on the PlayStation, once in a while I get out to the driving range and get some swinging in.
Dead Rhetoric: Being an avid NHL fan, do you go with the Flyers or are you a Devils fan?
Gordon: Flyers of course. We live 20 minutes from Philly, and about 90 minutes from North Jersey where the Devils play. It’s an easy choice for me. I get that question all the time – why aren’t you guys Devils fans? It’s because I live only 20 minutes from Philly. The Eagles and Phillies too I love, it takes up a lot of time during the summer with baseball.
Dead Rhetoric: What’s on the horizon for anything related to Distant Dominion, Mortal Decay, or any of the other bands/ projects the members have over the course of the next twelve months or so?
Gordon: As far as Distant Dominion, we are almost finished writing album number two. Hopefully we will get into the studio soon, probably early next year. For Mortal Decay, we are going to keep on writing and just try to come up with as cool stuff as we can. I know with Ryan and the guy Mike that did our artwork, they are in a band called Azure Emote and they are about to come out with their new album. In the Fire, which is another Ryan project and a Fetzner Death release is out now. Check that out. I think Krieg with Shawn may be ready to do another album. I know they are working on some new songs. That’s pretty much everything.