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| PROCESSION - The Cult of Disease LP | |
HRR 174, limited to 500 copies, silver foil stamp, 150 x silver/ black splatter vinyl, 350 x black vinyl, cardboard lyric insert, 2nd pressing: 250 x black + 250 x transparent ultra clear vinyl, 5c cardboard cover, lyric sheet (mastered for vinyl by Patrick W. Engel at Temple of Disharmony) | |
| Felipe Plaza - Vocals, Guitar Daniel Perez - Bass Francisco Vera - Drums | |
| Side A - "The Cult Of Disease" EP: -Raven of Disease -Like a Plague upon the Earth -The Funeral of an Age Side B - "Burn" Demo: -Down the River of Corpses -The Road to the Gravegarden -Incinerate | |
| SOLD OUT! | |
After the overwhelming success of “Destroyers of the Faith” (well into its second presssing now), High Roller Records is proud to announce the vinyl re-release of “The Cult of Disease”, Procession’s debut EP (plus the “Burn” demo as a bonus on the B-Side). Vocalist/guitarist Felipe Plaza is not that surprised about how fast the “Destroyers of the Faith” vinyl has been selling: “It’s not a big surprise to me. Don’t get me wrong, I mean, we were totally confident since the moment we entered the studio, we like our stuff, we like heavy metal, we like doom metal. So nothing could’ve gone wrong when it flowed straight from darkened souls to damned ears! That was our part … of course the good High Roller Records distribution and promotion had its influence too (and still has)!”
In my eyes, the cover artwork was the best of any High Roller release. It came out brilliantly ... Felipe agrees whole-heartedly: “Claudio did an awesome job, we kinda discussed the symbols present in the songs to somehow create a background for them, you know, the first listen to an album is always with the cover (I’m not talking to you, fucking downloader!). So we wanted people to stand in that graveyard, look at the church and let themselves guided by the hooded preacher for the songs to be unveiled as six bloody stories to be told. The album is ‘black’ all around, outside of any metal genre considerations. The packaging is also a great addition and was mostly Claudio’s idea, he works with that so knows how to get good results. What to say … we don’t sit down thinking of ‘how people are gonna react to the music’, even less with the artwork. We just want it to make sense with the different aspects of the songs and we have to feel comfortable with it. In the end, never forget that confusion is part of the magic!”
As mentioned above, "The Cult of Disease" is a re-release and was originally issued on CD as well as on vinyl by Iron Kodex. Felipe explains the reasoning behind the current re-issue: “We just thought it was a good way to give another chance to people who missed that first pressing on Iron Kodex. I’ve seen some ridiculous prices on ebay already … which makes no sense at all with us being a new band, we’re still fucking alive and pounding, haha! So sure, we just decided on making it with the same tracklist: EP on side A and the ‘Burn’ demo as bonus tracks on side B. In league with High Roller Records, we’ll make sure everyone that discovered us with ‘Destroyers of the Faith’ gets a chance to get our earlier material.”
And how would Felipe describe the music on "The Cult of Disease" EP and the "Burn" demo in comparism to "Destroyers of the Faith"? Here’s what he says: “I wouldn’t call it an evolution … but sure there’s progression in ‘Destroyers of the Faith’, mostly on the sound, the approach/vibe of the songs and our own performance. ‘The Cult of Disease’ was our first attempt on getting a more solid, tight sound and the topics required some research. It took around five months to make it, also because we had to find a drummer. It features one of my favorite tracks, ‘The Funeral of an Age’, which is almost like a never ending procession inside this grotesque structure in fetid ruins you can see in the brilliant artwork Elaine (SGraffitto) made for us. ‘Burn’ on the other hand is raw as f..k, I even played drums on it for f..k’s sake, haha! But it has some sort of charm … the three songs are part of a story, pretty simple one, but the music is pretty dynamic I’d say. And I still remember how it all came out, loads of beer, drunk decisions, getting fired etc. So I’d say it’s the most spontaneous material we got. Expect nothing and you’ll get it the way it is.”
Because of logistical reasons, Felipe has two line-ups for Procession: basically there’s a European touring line-up and a Chilean recording line-up. This seems to be working just fine: “We’re all functional in this, of course my intentions are on keeping recording with Claudio and Francisco in Chile, same studio as always. That’s how the planning is going so far and with the internet, it gets much easier to work from a distance and just get down there and build the stuff before locking ourselves in the studio once again. But if circumstances start delaying things too much, it is good to know I can count on Jonas and Uno … I’m still the one composing most of the stuff, so then again, I know I can ask for the best from both line-ups and they will give it, for sure! Sometimes other people seem TOO interested in faces, names and roles. Let’s not forget, it’s about the music and we’ll do whatever it takes to keep on delivering our vision of doom.”
For some strange reason, quite a few bands get snapped up by Metal Blade at the moment: Pentagram, In Solitude, Portrait ... So have Metal Blade already been knocking on Procession’s door? Or is it going to be Nuclear Blast (who’ve just signed the utter travesty of a band formerly known as Hell)? Felipe has his own thoughts: “From my modest point of view, I think it’s all a matter of ambition and goals. Other bands are grown in different grounds, they have different intentions, whatever … I don’t stop and think about it too much. I only know I don’t feel like we need Metal Blade or Nuclear Blast to achieve what we want. We’ve managed to tour a couple of times, release our stuff, play festivals, drink tons of beer, increase our record collections and meet girls. And coming from where we come, we never expected stuff like this. And now we have achieved it. We’ve done it with our own hands and we’ll keep on doing it … so why changing it? Live fast, play slow!”
Matthias Mader