Interview: Blood Monolith
I think it’s mostly just a reaction to the fucked-up reality we’re living through. The global rise of technofascism and all the anger and bitterness that comes with it.
Blood Monolith are a veritable death metal supergroup with members who also play with the likes of Nails, Undeath, Ulthar, Genocide Pact and more making up their ranks. The band’s debut album The Calling Of Fire is out very soon and is an unholy mix of death metal, hardcore and anarcho punk that will satisfy the yearnings of any heavy music lover. Ahead of the albums release, Gavin Brown caught up with guitarist/vocalist Shelby Lermo to hear all about Blood Monolith and The Calling Of Fire, working with Nick Blinko from Rudimentary Peni and the influence of anarcho punk, death metal influences and what his other bands Nails, Ulthar, Human Corpse Abuse and Thanatotherion are up to.
E&D: The debut Blood Monolith album The Calling Of Fire is coming out very soon. How excited are you to be getting this album out?
Shelby: We’re all pretty pumped on it. I’ve personally been wanting to do a band like this for a long time.
E&D: Was the experience of making the album a smooth one?
Shelby: It really was. I think it was only about a year and a half from Tommy and I’s first writing session until we had an album finished and mastered. I just got LPs in the mail today, the whole process from initial inception to now was well under two years. I’ve never had an album come together so quickly, I chalk it up to the other guys being super focused and everyone doing their homework.
E&D: What are the biggest influences on the sound and outlook of The Calling Of Fire?
Shelby: I think it’s mostly just a reaction to the fucked-up reality we’re living through. The global rise of technofascism and all the anger and bitterness that comes with it. I mean we can talk musical influences but I think they’re pretty evident. What’s really at the root is that it’s an attempt to combat the feeling of helplessness, the words and the music are just pure anarchic nihilism in the face of greed and corruption.
E&D: Is the title of the album a statement of intent from Blood Monolith?
Shelby: Somewhat, yes. It’s calling the fire from within yourself to fight seemingly insurmountable external forces, but it’s also the fire calling YOU. Like the feeling that we are not alone, there are many others like us and we should burn this motherfucker to the ground. The fire is calling us all.
E&D: The artwork for the album is done by Rudimentary Peni frontman Nick Blinko. How was the experience of having home did that for the band?
Shelby: It’s kind of a lifelong dream being realised, working with Nick. His lyrics and artwork have meant a lot to me over the years, I owe it to Jensen from Iron Lung for getting me in touch with his people. Apparently Nick is ill and in hospital at present, so it was a complicated process of licensing the piece through a curator at a gallery in London. But it was definitely worth it. Here’s hoping Nick gets better soon, he’s an absolute legend.
E&D: Were bands like Rudimentary Peni and the whole anarcho punk scene and influence in you as a person and a musician?
Shelby: It was mostly Peni. I had a phase when I was younger when I listened to Subhumans and Crass a bit more, but the outsider weirdness of Rudimentary Peni was what stuck. The ethics behind that whole scene was of course formative for me, and I find it inspiring to this day. But it was the grindier stuff that came after—Carcass and Napalm Death and the like—that stay relevant to me, musically speaking.
E&D: What are your favourite punk records of all time?
Shelby: Peni’s Cacophony is probably #1 (there’s even a secret nod to it in the layout of the Calling of Fire LP). Outside of that it depends what you consider punk. D-beat? Hardcore? Fugazi opened a lot of doors for me as a teenager and showed me that a band can have a set of ethics. Black Flag, Minor Threat, even the Descendents are bands I cut my teeth on in the 90s that I still listen to. There were local punk bands where I grew up in Humboldt County, CA that were every bit as influential on me at that age too. I think “punk” might be too big of a term to make a tidy list. I think Blood Monolith could even be called a punk band.
E&D: How did Blood Monolith start as a band in the first place?
Shelby: I played in a band called Vastum, based out of the Bay Area in California, for about a decade. I left the band in Summer of 2023 and just kind of decided I wanted to start a band to fill that space. I wanted to do something kind of faster and crazier, and, since I live on the East Coast, I wanted to do it with people closer to me. I just talked to people I knew and the lineup fell into place pretty quickly.
E&D: What are your favourite ever death metal albums?
Shelby: Defeated Sanity – Chapters of Repugnance, Nile – Black Seeds of Vengeance, Suffocation – Effigy of the Forgotten, Cannibal Corpse – The Bleeding, Fixation on Suffering – Confined In Obscurity, Dead Congregation – Graves of the Archangels, Cryptopsy – None So Vile, Disgorge – She Lay Gutted, Severe Torture – Feasting on Blood, Morbid Angel – Covenant, etc etc etc….
E&D: What are the most underrated death metal bands and albums for you?
Shelby: There was a band from San Jose, CA called Cyanic, specifically an album called Litanies of Lust Unholy, that should’ve been way bigger than it ever was. A German band called Pavor, featuring Rainer Landefermann from Bethlehem on fretless bass, also sort of forgotten but they put out two amazing albums in 1994 and 2003. Veiyadra from Japan, the aforementioned album by Fixation on Suffering, and the one full-length by Inhumano from Chile are all unsung greats.
E&D: What are some of the best death metal shows you have ever seen?
Shelby: Brujeria back in the day, around ’02 or ’03, that was insane. Also Cryptopsy with Lord Worm, completely bonkers. I missed them in their prime, but I’ll always go see Cannibal Corpse when they’re in my town. Undeniable gods of the genre.
E&D: How did you discover death metal in the first place?
Shelby: I had a friend named Joe in high school who was into death metal, and I bought both Legion and Butchered At Birth on cassette at my local record store (The Works in Eureka, CA) around 1994 or so. At first I couldn’t even tell what the fuck was going on, I’d put those albums on in the car just to freak people out. Are they even playing notes? Is that a guy’s voice? I was listening to shit like NOFX and Screeching Weasel at the time. Fast forward thirty years though and guess what I’m still listening to?
E&D: Are there plans for a new Nails album?
Shelby: Yes.
E&D: Have you been happy with how your last album Every Bridge Burning has been received?
Shelby: Yeah, it’s been really cool, and definitely opened the door for a lot of new touring experiences. I’m leaving in 3 days for 5 weeks supporting Obituary, that’s definitely something I don’t think would’ve happened without that album. It’s been crazy.
E&D: How was the experience of Nails playing at last year’s Damnation festival?
Shelby: Damnation was fucking sick. Definitely the largest audience I’ve ever played in front of, and the whole festival was just run really well and really efficiently. None of the bullshit I’ve sometimes experienced with shady “festival promoters” in the past. I got to see Cradle of Filth for the first time, which was cool. I’ve been a fan for many years. Ahab, Dragged Into Sunlight and Inter Arma were great too. So was Gatecreeper! I’ve been buddies with those guys for a long time, it’s always cool to link up with your friends in a faraway place like that.
E&D: What other Nails live shows have stood out for you to this day?
Shelby: We did a show in Los Angeles in November, which was Nails’ first hometown show (all the other members besides me live there) in like 8 years or something. That alone made it special, but Max Cavalera came out and did 2 songs with us, which is something I’ll remember on my deathbed. Absolutely surreal playing the solo from “Territory”, a song I’ve loved for 30 years, and I look over and Max is standing next to me air-guitaring. I have a photo of that moment framed on the wall in my office.
E&D: Are there plans for a new Ulthar album?
Shelby: We are writing now, yes.
E&D: What have some of the highlights from your time with Ulthar been as well?
Shelby: We did our first European tour in August, with our friends Succumb. It was a great trip, and in the middle we got to play at PartySan in Schlotheim, Germany. Our first time playing with pyro! I had my back to the audience and I just feel this crazy heat, I turn around and there are these 20 foot tall columns of flame shooting in the fucking air! Hilarious. Last month we played in a basement in Indiana. We do it all haha. No show too big or too small.
E&D: As well as Blood Monolith, Nails and Ulthar, you also play in Human Corpse Abuse and Thanatotherion. Is it a challenge being in so many bands?
Shelby: I’m lucky to have a life where I can make time for all of it. I work freelance, so I don’t have a strict 9-5 schedule, and I don’t have to ask a boss for time off to go on tour. I’m my own boss, and I treat my music like it’s a job too. I set goals and then create a schedule to get myself to that goal. It can be overwhelming but it’s what I’ve always wanted to do with my life, playing music. I ate shit for a long time but I feel like I’m finally figuring it out. I’m sober, I don’t party. I don’t have social media so I’m not distracted by that shit. I had to learn how to focus and not get sidetracked by ego bullshit.
E&D: Have Human Corpse Abuse and Thanatotherion got anything new coming up?
Shelby: Human Corpse Abuse has a split 7” finished, and we just finished tracking drums for a new full-length last weekend. I’ll record vocals tomorrow. I hope to have a new Thanatotherion album out next year as well, following the same basic timeline as Ulthar.
E&D: Who are your biggest influences as both a vocalist and a guitarist?
Shelby: Freddie Mercury and Brian May. You can’t do better than Queen, talent-wise.
