Metal from down under has been on a roll for quite some time, with newcomers entering the fray on a regular basis. One such who has assembled a sound that’s virulent and shatteringly abrasive is Resin Tomb. The debut album Cerebral Purgatory is a feast of ferocious blackened death metal that brings a bit of everything, yet is laser focused to eradicate all in its pathway.
We got the opportunity to have a chat with vocalist Matthew Budge about the band’s sound, influences, hobbies outside of music, streaming issues, and a whole lot more. Most importantly, the awesomeness of Australian snacks (if you don’t know, you’ll learn). Join us, and while you read, check out the album! It’s damn fine listening.
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Dead Rhetoric: First off, congratulations on the release of your first full-length Cerebral Purgatory. Tell us a little bit about the band’s origins and journey from your two EPs to completing this first album.
Matthew Budge (vocals): Thanks dude! It’s been a fun journey honestly, when we released our debut 2020 EP, it was in the early stages of COVID. We couldn’t play, which sucked, but it meant we could focus on writing, which was the introduction of our 4th member, Mitch (Long) on bass. Once we recorded that we realized how integral having that extra member was, and we onboarded a 5th member, Matt (Gordon) on second guitar. Having the five of us together felt right, and we started working towards the writing of Cerebral Purgatory.
Dead Rhetoric: Resin Tomb has managed to successfully merge a plethora of influences – from death metal and grind, to sludge and doom, and even a black metal atmosphere, all while managing to craft a coherent individual sound profile. Give us some insight on your songwriting process, and what kind of influences have helped ultimately form your approach?
Budge: Having played in a variety of different bands together previously, we knew straight off the bat what we liked and what we didn’t like individually and as a band, as well we knew what we wanted Resin Tomb to be. Our objective was clear to us, so it was just a matter of capturing the ideas in their rawest form, whilst their inception was still fresh. That same concept was applied to the writing process for Cerebral Purgatory. We are usually pretty confident in our writing, so whilst the ideas are fresh and exciting, our guitarist Brendan (Auld – aka Pip), was recording the entire LP into Pro Tools as demos for us to reference, and then we develop it as a band together as we learn to play the songs. They really came to life when we finally recorded them in April 2022. The initial ideas were all written in only about 2-3 weeks, so it’s almost a time capsule for the ideas and energy that we wanted to put forward at that time.
Dead Rhetoric: Is there a specific lyrical theme present for Cerebral Purgatory?
Budge: Yeah man, it’s essentially about how fragile life is. Every song is about someone who has met their demise at the hands of something out of their control. Every song is based off a real story.
Dead Rhetoric: Cerebral Purgatory is your first release with Transcending Obscurity. How did you end up signing with them, and has it been a difficult step to sign with a label of their stature and presence within the scene?
Budge: Transcending Obscurity hit up Pip about releasing a Snorlax record via them, and he already had a label for that project, so he sent Kunal (Choksi – label owner) the demos for Cerebral Purgatory and he was keen immediately. We already really liked Transcending as a label, so when he was on board, so were we. Kunal has been amazing to work with. He’s made everything as easy as possible, we know he believes in what we do, and we fully trust him with his end of it, so together it works seamlessly.
Dead Rhetoric: Your music is a raging ball of fury, yet contains a technical aspect that helps put the music on another level. How important is precise instrumentation to Resin Tomb’s music?
Budge: It’s everything honestly. When we practice, we scrutinize each other something fierce, in a fun way obviously, but one off note when you’re playing something that dissonant can make it sound very average! Luckily we are all in our early 30s, we are passed the point of doing music just for the fun of it, we obviously want it to be fun, but we’ve got jobs and kids, so if you’re not trying your hardest and practicing in what limited spare time we have, then it’s sort of like ‘what’s the point?’ So yeah, being precise is very important for our sound.
Dead Rhetoric: You worked with Mitchell Nolte on the cover art, which matches well with the album’s uncompromising tone. Tell us a little bit about the piece, and how you ended up working with Nolte.
Budge: Pips other band Descent used Mitchell Nolte for the cover art of their album Order of Chaos, and when he was going through that process he couldn’t have spoken higher of Mitchell. So when it came to doing the Cerebral Purgatory album art we asked if he would be keen, and he said yes. He’s incredible, he managed to nail exactly what we wanted without us even communicating our ideas well. I don’t know how he did it honestly!
Dead Rhetoric: For my taste at least, Australia has been a hotbed for quality music – from newer bands like yourselves, Ashen, The Plague, Werewolves, Aglo, etc., to long standing groups such as Portal, Psycroptic, StarGazer, Ne Obliviscaris, among many others. How strong is the heavy music scene currently in Australia, and is it difficult to gain traction being from that geographic location?
Budge: The heavy scene in Australia is awesome, most people back each other pretty hard and it has a good feeling of community. As for gaining traction, that’s a tough one, there are bands that do it and I’m always so stoked for them, however I do feel it is pretty hard being too far away. Mainly for financial reasons, touring Australia as a band has a ceiling, there’s about 6 major cities to hit,and they are all very far apart. Touring is the way to get your name out there, so without that avenue being readily available it does make it a touch more difficult.
Dead Rhetoric: Are there any live shows or tours in the works? Is there anywhere in particular that you’d like to play?
Budge: There is an influx of bands touring Australia post-COVID, which is huge. I never know who’s coming until it’s announced, but I’m sure there will be some shows we’d love to jump on. As for what’s planned, very little at the moment, however I can say A Cold Day In BNE 2024 will go off.
Dead Rhetoric: As a total gear nerd, I have to ask – what kind of equipment do you currently use? I’m in love with that filthy guitar tone.
Budge: The guitars were tracked by Brendan on two different Ibanez RG421 with Seymour Duncan distortion pickups plugged directly into a JCM 800, with a Blackstar 4×12 Cabinet. It’s surprisingly clean. Most of the crunch comes from the way the riffs are played.
Dead Rhetoric: Music streaming has been a hot button topic as of late – both the financial viability of it, and how much benefit it may have for artists. Has music streaming benefited Resin Tomb at all, and what place do you see it having in the near and distant future?
Budge: It’s both good and bad at the same time. On one hand – streaming has crushed the physical music market, people can listen to your music all day, essentially for free, without ever supporting the band financially in any capacity. There’s the comparatively underwhelming stream quality to a CD or Vinyl, and how that squashes our mixes. There’s rubbish royalty rates, I could go on. But ultimately, having our music readily available, accessible for anyone to listen to anywhere at any time and to be able to find us through other artists that they like or to be recommended to us by Spotify or any other streaming service based on what they already listen to, is priceless. It’s the next best thing to having a friend recommend a good band. Much like having to promote yourself on social media, it is a necessary evil that we do begrudgingly whilst accepting that it is our best means of connecting to our listeners and promoting shows, etc. Unfortunately, I think it is here to stay at least for a while longer.
Dead Rhetoric: I’m always curious as to what kind of music an artist has been enjoying as of late. What does your playlist look like? Anything cool that we should check out?
Budge: That varies so drastically from each member of the band, however I can say it’s far from exclusively metal. There’s a time and a place for everything, but we love hardcore, hip-hop, midwest emo and everything in between.
Dead Rhetoric: Let’s lighten things up a bit; what kind of hobbies and passions do you have outside of music?
Budge: A few of the boys are pretty avid outdoorsmen, whether that’s camping, surfing, skating or fishing. We all have wives or long term partners, so hanging with them and our kids/dogs takes up the majority of our free time.
Dead Rhetoric: This one is a bit out of left field, but I have to ask. I have an unhealthy obsession with Australian snack foods. Burger Rings, Chicken Twisties, Shapes, and especially Tim Tams. Do you have any favorite home-based snack foods, and if one of them is indeed the mighty Tim Tam, what’s your method for the famed Tim Tam Slam? Yes, I have a problem.
Budge: Haha hell yeah man, Chicken Twisties absolutely rip. There’s another chip called “Burger Man” that was discontinued for a few years for absolutely no reason, then when they bought it back everyone lost their mind again, they are sick! But I also love a Double Dipped Cherry Ripe, the double dipped it the move though, the ratio of chocolate to filling is better. Another household favorite is any ice cream by the brand Connoisseur, unreal stuff.
The Tim Tam Slam, you’ve done your research! My personal favorite for this is a hot drink, usually an English Breakfast Tea with milk and 1 sugar, the heat of the drink melts the internal chocolate of the Tim Tam for one hell of an experience. My only pointer is don’t let the Tim Tam linger in that tea or you’ll lose half the biscuit to the bottom of the cup, and that’s nasty. Pro move – once again use a double coat Tim Tam, the extra chocolate on the outside will preserve the biscuit for a safer, longer dunk time haha.
Dead Rhetoric: With the debut album now being freshly released out into the wild, what future plans are in store for Resin Tomb?
Budge: We would love to do some touring in the near future. It’s difficult to predict, we are all at the stage in our lives where we are buying houses, having kids and getting married. Resin Tomb is a huge passion for us all, but the stars have to align pretty nicely for us all to have time to do anything big together. If the right offer came up though, we’d make it happen.
Dead Rhetoric: I want to thank you so much for answering my sometimes weird questions. Is there anything additional that you’d like to mention?
Budge: Support the bands you like, but their merch, let them know you care about what they do. It’s a passion for so many of us, and knowing people care makes it all the more worthwhile when it’s hard.
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Pick up Resin Tomb’s new album Cerebral Purgatory on Bandcamp or at the Transcending Obscurity’s official store.