Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to my humble lil’ blog!
Crazy V has an extra special treat for y’all today! We will chatting with Dean and Nathan of the crushingly heavy band DELIBERALIZE!
So, without any further ado …
So let’s start at the beginning. How did y’all get to together! I’ve been listening since ‘Unhallowed Halls,’ which was a while ago.
Dean: Nathan is my son and he grew up listening to death metal. I’ve been playing drums for about thirty-three years so I was hoping Nathan would take an interest in it when he got older. He did and quickly learned guitar, bass, and vocals.
Holy …! What I adore the most about Nathan is how clear his lyrics are even with his vocal chords turned all the way up. That’s talent! You don’t often see that in death metal, including my lifelong faves My Dying Bride and Carcass. The vocals may sound great but the lyrics are often muddy, you know? Kudos to him! Who writes the lyrics?
Dean: I write all the lyrics.
I quite like them. I’m listening to ‘Unseditious’ at the moment, which is fantastic. We’ll get back to the music in a minute, but we may as well come out of the gate with the obvious: It’s clear (given both the band name and the lyrics) that Deliberalize – much like old-school Black Sabbath and Megadeth – has a message. What would that be? And do please speak your mind; this ain’t the mainstream media here. I’m a musical journalist, not an ideologue or narrative peddler!
Dean: We believe there’s a deep moral and cultural decay happening in the world right now. Our music reflects our view that a lot of the decline is driven by corrupt leadership, ideological manipulation, and narratives that undermine truth, faith, and taking responsibility for your own actions. There’s been an erosion of traditional values. Somehow the rejection of truth has become normalized and there has been a cultural shift away from faith and biological reality, such as more than two genders existing. At the end of the day, our songs are not about hate. They’re about confrontation. Death metal has always been a genre that exposes what it sees as evil, corruption, and decay. We are just applying that same intensity to the modern political and cultural world as we see it today.
Death metal has ALWAYS flipped the establishment the bird! It’s funny, I did a deep dive into history for my new novel series. I held my nose and read both ‘Mein Kampf’ and ‘The Communist Manifesto.’ What leapt out at me is this: What they have in common is that they put God on a back burner and ask their adherents to follow the whims of capricious state leaders. I LOVE the cover of one of your albums: ‘It is when a people forget God, that tyrants will forge their chains!’ One will either serve a loving and just God or self-serving and corrupt men. I don’t think I see a third option and it kinda looks like you guys don’t either. Tell me, did this message evolve or was it planned going into your first album?
Dean: It was intentional from the beginning. We started Deliberalize with the goal of channeling our frustrations about what we saw as government corruption and cultural decline into something creative and aggressive. But at the same time, we didn’t want to be just another cliched death metal band writing purely shock-based horror themes about the exciting journey of a maggot eating a corpse. We wanted our music to reflect real world issues that matter to us rather than fictional gore narratives.
I LOVE it! Using music to express anger and discontent is civilized; it’s a form of dialogue. Chucking bricks at police and ICE agents is barbaric, and in my opinion doing such things is removing oneself from civilized society and becoming a savage. Dialogue is civilized. Chucking bricks is some shit that a caveman would do. Tell me, have you guys ever gotten any pushback against your music? (Note: I won’t be at all surprised if you say yes, since I write from a similar perspective to yours and I’ve taken some heat.) So, any pushback …? Trolling?
Nathan: I run the social media for Deliberalize. Surprisingly, no. We’ve only seen positive feedback on YouTube and Instagram. People saying they love the nineties feel of our music. Some have commented that they agree with and enjoy the conservative lyrics. No one has tried to ‘cancel’ us.
That’s good to hear! I think coming out of the gate with who and what you are heads trouble off at the pass. At a glance, people who love Bad Bunny and think Robert de Niro is a genius will look at your marketing and walk away rather than listening, getting pissed off, and leaving nasty comments. So, that having been established … back to he MUSIC!!! Dean, who were your drumming influences? Death metal drummers often sound like machine guns. I listen and I’m like, oof! That sounds like my better half emptying his AR-15 magazine as fast as he can! (He loves doing that, btw.) Your style is much more measured and nuanced. So which drummers did you listen to while you were learning?
Dean: When I first picked up drumsticks, it was Dave Lombardo and Lars Ulrich. Deicide’s Steve Asheim’s double bass and blast beats blew me away and opened my eyes to a whole new technical and speed-based style. Mike Smith of Suffocation and Gene Hoglan. But my biggest influence of all time is Sean Reinert of Cynic and Death. He was so good it was almost non-human.
I know Cynic and Death! Lars has slipped as of late, but it’s not his fault; he has admitted that his shoulders are completely shot. But when I saw the ‘Load’ and ‘Reload’ tours, he was rippin’ through his ‘wall o’ drums’ like nobody’s BUSINESS! Nice choices. So, Nathan, who were your vocal influences?
Nathan: Chuck Schuldiner is my biggest influence. His style was unique, no one else was doing vocals like that at the time. Others include early 90s Chris Barnes, Frank Mullen, and Mohammed Suicmez from Necrophagist, and Glen Benton.
NICE! You do a fine job, young man. So expressive and articulate! And, yes, Necrophagist I know as well! Sadly, gentlemen? I can’t do death metal vocals ‘cuz they hurt my throat; I can only admire, since I’m your usual choir-trained alto/soprano. And I never mastered the full-body fluidity required to artfully play the drums. Generally, I just count out the beats, turn in my chair like Micheal Keaton’s Batman in his stiff rubber mask, and I sound like I’m typing with drumsticks … which, I suppose, one would expect from a writer. But I DO know guitars and bass! Who plays those in Deliberalize?
Nathan: I write and record the majority of the guitar and bass. The solos are a combination of both of us as we trade off similar to the way of Death and Slayer. He does the structuring and we both record bass and guitar depending on the song.
LOVE IT! The precision of the rhythm guitar reminds me a lot of Dimebag Darrel (may he rest in peace.) Interestingly, the lead guitar fascinates me as well because it has Dimebag’s precision but delivered with an expressiveness that one would expect more from the likes of Steve Vai or Eric Johnson. So, Nathan – me being a tech geek here – let’s talk equipment! What’s your preferred gear? I’m an Ibanez guitar gal with an affinity for Fender amps. But it always interests me which instruments and amps players prefer because they choose them according to their playing style. So …?
Nathan: Ibanez guitar, strictly. I love the feeling of Ibanez guitars, I’ve played Fenders and Gibson, and Jackson, etc. But Ibanez guitars feel right. I play an Ibanez Xiphos, the most comfortable guitar I’ve ever played. For amps, I mostly enjoy the dual rectifier and the ENGL powerball and the Marshall JCM 800 are my favorite amps. For cabinets, ideally, I go for strictly ENGL because I like the way they sound. Maybe some Mesa/Boogie cabinets. I record vocals on a Shure Sm7b.
I love the feeling as well; the slender necks suit my small hands. K … done geeking out now! Dean and Nathan, I’d like to ask y’all final question before we go. I always end with this question, and honestly? I always get similar answers. But I think it’s an important question AND an important answer! Gentlemen, what advice would you give to a young/aspiring musician?
Dean and Nathan: Practice relentlessly, tighten your sound, and treat your music like it matters, because it does. Write what you feel and genuinely believe. Stand on it. Don’t back down from haters. Most importantly, don’t be afraid to tell the truth whether people agree with you or not. Conviction is powerful. Music has always been a voice for expression, so don’t be afraid to use it.
THANK you, gentlemen, for gracing my humble blog this evening! Your music is amazing and what makes it even more amazing is that you have a powerful, heartfelt message. Here’s looking forward to more from DELIBERALIZE!
Dean and Nathan: Thank you, V, for giving us this opportunity. We are working on a new album called Wrath of Euphrates that will be releasing sometime later this year. Your readers can find us on YouTube, Instagram, and Spotify.
EVEN COOLER, YOU CAN ALSO GET MERCH!
https://deliberalize.bandcamp.com/merch
Thanks again, gentlemen, and best of luck to you!