CARNIVORE CRUSHER (vegan death metal project by UK’s Rat (Statement, Unborn) & Germany’s Tim Rule (Forward To Eden, Castigator), Portuguese pone man deathgrind / slam project STINKBRUTE (by Bernardo Rebelo (Slaughter Industry Records)), and PROPITIOUS VEGETATION (vegan brutal death metal / grind project by Zack Plunkett (Caustic Hymn Productions) have teamed up for a unique, vicious new 3-way split offering from Bound By Modern Age Records! “An All Vegan Extreme Metal 3-Way Split” is streaming in its entirety and to celebrate, we have teamed up with all three acts to discuss the state of vegan metal in 2022,
“An All Vegan Extreme Metal 3-Way Split” is a 15-track, 38-minute long monster of a collaboration, filled with some of the hardest and most unrelenting tracks ever reorded, all in the name of total liberation, unleashed just in time for the Halloween Weekend to scare the living shit out of some meat eaters.
Thoughts on the state of vegan metal in 2022
Tim (Carnivore Crusher): Oh, I feel like it’s flourishing! We have bigg(er) bands like Cattle Decapitation, Arch Enemy, Heaven Shall Burn, etc. who have been promoting this lifestyle for years. But especially in the newer, younger generation we have lots of newcomers as well, who can really make an impact on their own scene and the kids out there! Path of Resurgence, xApothecaryx, Times of Desperation, Ritual of Decay, Caged and of course the mighty Temple Guard, to name just a few of my own recent favorites.
Rat (Carnivore Crusher): There seems to be good bands around, altho, I’m unsure as to the amount that are 100% vegan bands.
But it’s definitely way bigger than it used to be, and possibly thanks to, dare I say it, Earth Crisis!
Bernardo (Stinkbrute): I think the vegan metal scene really is growing, bands like Architects and SeeYouSpaceCowboy, and people like Derrick Green from Sepultura, Joe Duplantier from Gojira and Barney Greenway from Napalm Death are some of the ones that constantly influence me to keep wanting to make music with the “vegan stamp” on it.
Zack (Propitious Vegetation): There definitely needs to be more vegan bands in extreme metal. You really have to dig for these bands because they do not have a prominent place within the metal scene. It’s easier to find several hardcore/punk bands with a vegan message, but not so much in metal, at least from my experience.
3-way band introduction
Rat (Carnivore Crusher): CC just started as a project with tim and myself doing the initial recording. It came out really well and from there we recorded more songs.
Tim (Carnivore Crusher): Yeah, I think it actually began with the Statement – Decide EP in 2017, in which I had the honor of doing Vocals. Soon after, you (Rat) began to record some more, even darker tunes in that vein and asked me if I’d wanna do some more Vocals as well, haha – the rest is history.
Bernardo (Stinkbrute): The band started at the end of 2020 as a bit of a joke, with me, Bernardo Rebelo. I composed and recorded the first half of the album as an EP. At the time my idea was to write the most gruesome Death Metal/Grindcore I could with the most ridiculous name I came up with in the moment and it was “Stinkbrute, The Gruesome Exchange of Bodily Fluids That Turned Into a Bile Duct Titan”, later I decided to stick with just “Stinkbrute” and the rest for the name of the first album. Later I decided to take it more into the Vegan side of things and here we are.
Zack (Propitious Vegetation): I started making music with Propitious Vegetation in 2018. The primary message of the band was to be about health, wellness and nutrition. Eventually the messaging would change as I became more aware about the injustices of factory farming and animal abuse. Now, each song I write reflects the horrors of those industries that exploit and abuse animals. The musical style would also change; at first, the music was more slam/brutal death metal, but changed into grindcore with hardcore/punk influences, while still keeping the slam brutal death metal style.
How long have you been vegan?
Tim (Carnivore Crusher): Almost 9 years now and it has been (along with the Straight Edge) the best decision of my life. I remember that I was vegetarian for quite a while and like 90% vegan for the better part of it, that changed though, the instant I heard the xREPENTANCEx Demo in late 2013 I was reborn Hardline, haha
Rat (Carnivore Crusher): I’ve been vegan for around 37/38 years. (Tim: yeah, he is OLD)
Bernardo (Stinkbrute): I’ve been vegan since February 2018.
Zack (Propitious Vegetation): I have been a vegan for nearly six years.
What made you gravitate towards this particular niche as a band / inspirations?
Rat (Carnivore Crusher): It was, musically, kind of an accident. I just wrote those first 4/5 songs with no initial idea to aim for, it just happened, and consequently it wasn’t so easy to write in a similar vein after that.
Tim (Carnivore Crusher): Yeah, as I already indicated, this was kind of the conceptual continuation of the last Statement EP and I guess then I/we tried to make it “even more extreme”. I think Rat was listening to a lot of Deicide and Hatred (some obscure oldschool Death Metal band) in the beginning, while I was more into Cattle Decapitation, but I guess that’s what made the mix eventually.
Bernardo (Stinkbrute): This style of music (slam/death/grind) allows me to demonstrate my raw emotions to the fullest like I wouldn’t be able to in other genres. I never try to restrict myself to one type of sound because it really depends on what I’m feeling at the moment. My main inspirations for this project are Wormrot, Analepsy, Napalm Death.
Zack (Propitious Vegetation): My initial inspiration for starting the project was to promote the health aspects of a vegan diet and express concerns and criticism for the standard American diet. It sort of had the intention of being comical at first, but I decided to take a more serious approach when I became aware of the practices of factory farming. The more I learned, the more passionate I became to spread awareness regarding the topic.
Give us a quick overview of your local hardcore / metal scene
Rat (Carnivore Crusher): Local HC scene? No idea as I’ve only been living in my current location (Scotland) for just over a year, but before that, I wasn’t active in a local scene anyway
Tim (Carnivore Crusher): Unfortunately my only long-term live band Castigator has effectively disbanded due to Corona… or at least we haven’t rehearsed or even talked about the band in over a year now, haha.
I also started a new vegan straight edge hardcore band shortly before Corona hit xRESISTANCEx and played a couple shows/did a short tour with it, but yeah, also kind of disbanded during that time…
There definitely are shows happening again and we also have a bunch of really good local bands (even with vegan members), like Ancst, Depravation, Clear Cut, Implore, but yeah, you can definitely still feel the impact on the scene (less people at shows, etc.) and also I retrieved to the confinement of my living room for now (really have a shit load of music prjects going though, haha)
Bernardo (Stinkbrute): The local hardcore/metal scene is not very developed, I’m in a couple bands and I can vouch for them but mostly I would say I’m not very interested in the bands from here.
Zack (Propitious Vegetation): Unfortunately I do not have much to say about my local music scene. A lot has changed after Covid and my activity in the live music scene has been limited. I have had some experience lately playing live music again in a band called Death Holler. The band is hardcore punk with some doom/stoner metal influences and we have just started playing in the local punk scene in Nashville.
