For any brutal death metal/deathgrind fans that missed out on Narcissistic Necrosis’ debut full length, The Art of Deformity last August, now is a good chance to rectify that. This entity got its start as a one man death machine back in 2014 but has slowly evolved into a full fledged-band but not before founder, vocalist, and guitarist William Bigcrow had all the songs written for what would become said debut. Their lyrical topics range from religious hypocrisy, narcissism, and misanthropy to name a few, and their music perfectly aligns to the cavalcade of spikes present in each of those topics. Over the course of ten tracks and just over thirty minutes, the band leaves an indelible mark with blasts, wails, guttural anomalies, and barbed grind. We recently posed our set of Profile questions to William for a bit of backstory so head directly below to see how it went down.
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How did you first get into playing music, and have you achieved the level of success that you hoped for?
Been playing music for most of my life. Started young at 12 learning acoustic guitar. Got into playing live, paying shows at 18. I definitely consider the amount of success I’ve achieved so far to exceed anything that I could have hoped for.
What’s the most you have ever debased yourself to get your band onto a show, into a magazine or otherwise promoted, covered, and praised? (If you don’t have a story, please tell us any funny/embarrassing story.)
We’ve had to play a few too many times “just for the exposure” and never were paid for those shows.
What do you see as some of the great things happening in metal and what are some of the worst things happening inside the scene right now?
The greatest thing right now is the unification of metal as a whole with its music and people coming to accept and embrace one another. The worst thing is the division between so many with the likes of elitism, politics, bigotry, spitefulness, and racism.
It seems that now everyone has a passion for some cause and that those people are very open about displaying their passions. This is probably a very, very good (and progressive) thing socially. What are some of the most important issues (social/political/humorous/etc.) for you and how do you insert those issues into your music?
Topically, we introduce those issues through song meanings and the lyrics behind them. We have songs about feeling stigmatized and alienated for having beliefs or behaving outside of what is considered the norm. We don’t just want our songs to be about getting violent or partying and having a good time. The songs are more about addressing topics like religion, narcissism, hypocrisy, etc.
What, or who, got you into metal and how old were you? How did your family take the news?
Iron Maiden, “The Number of The Beast.” I must have been 6 when I first heard that but I’ve been listening to metal ever since then. I think by the time they realized, they must have thought I was a devil worshipper or something. Haha. My family is very supportive of my choice in music and I couldn’t be luckier.
What advice do you have for aspiring music critics and outlets out there? How can we all better serve the genre in the eyes of a hard-working musician?
Step outside your comfort zone as much as possible. Make that comfort zone as wide as you can and need to. Like I said earlier about unification, that’s probably one of the best ways to serve metal or any subgenre of metal for that matter. Just keep blending and embracing all the styles of metal and all the people. You’ll soon figure out what makes yourself unique.
What’s your goal? You guys thinking world domination? Maybe saving a continent? Maybe invading one? Any interest in starting a cult? Do you guys have day jobs or hobbies you want to share? Whatever it is, please let us know.
Our goal is to basically play shows and live happily ever after doing that. We want to keep pushing out recordings. We got a lot of material we’ve written and we’re ready to record the next album. As for hobbies and jobs, we like to pretend playing metal and going to shows are the only thing we do. I’m currently in another active band called Dethgod and we are looking to record an album for 2021.
When you’re not obsessing over your own material, what are some of your favorite albums to listen to currently? (Feel free to include non-metal)
Detherous – “Stench of Deth”
Pathetic – “The Pestilence Born of Unclean Acts”
Third Chamber – “Harvesting Our Decay”
Those are all some of the heaviest, hard-hitting local acts I can think of.
What is the 12-month outlook for you or your band? Any specific events on the horizon that the masses should be aware of?
Write, rehearse, record. In that order. You can bet we’re going to be on one of the first show bills once live shows start slowly coming back. We’re currently under the second lockdown, going through this pandemic. We’re looking to get back on track as soon as everything returns to normal, or, at least, for the world of metal. Until then, we got surprises on this new album for everyone. Once it gets rolling, we’ll probably keep quiet until it’s time to promote it.
Summarize your band in exactly one word. (Disclosure: If you include additional words, we will select our favorite for the final publication.)
Narcissism.
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Many thanks to William for his time!
The Art of Deformity is available now on the band’s Bandcamp page. For more information on Narcissistic Necrosis, visit their Facebook page.
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