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Interview with: Phil King
Conducted by: Will Ring
Texas (USA) based extreme metal act Whore Of Bethlehem formed in 2009 by Ryan Sylvie, TJ Rodriguez and Rene Martinez, the band was established to break away from the signature brutal death metal sound of Texas with a more blackened and sinister approach. Since their inception, they've released some demos along with their two full lengths, Upon Judas' Throne (2014) and Extinguish The Light (2017) while also sharing the stage with established acts like Suffocation, Jungle Rot, Septicflesh and Nile to name a few. Whore Of Bethlehem plays black/death metal influenced by bands like Dark Funeral, Suffocation, Watain, Immolation, Dissection, Behemoth, Incantation, Morbid Angel, Celtic Frost, Venom, Darkthrone and similar. The band today consists of Ryan Sylvie (guitar/backup vocals), Sam Axelrad (drums), James VanDenBerg (vocals), Alan Berryman (bass), Phil King (guitar). This interview was originally conducted during the summer of 2018.
Will: What made you want to play this style of music?
Phil: It's not so much what style of music we want to play, but rather the style of music that came out on our guitars derived from all of our influences. Dark Funeral, Morbid Angel, Suffocation, Behemoth, Cannibal Corpse, Satyricon, Deicide, and Naglfar to name a few of the all too many usual suspects and more. When we write riffs we don't necessarily go for a particular style so much as let the fingers dance and see what we like. Maybe that's not entirely true, we do want our songs to have an evil undertone that is unmistakably blackened.
Will: What's the most ridiculous thing to happen to you at one of your shows?
Phil: Our live performance has yet to see any over the top chaos just yet, but one of the more memorable moments was when we were on tour up the Mid-West in 2017. We had just finished our set, and a dude came up to us and wanted to buy one of our old stage banners and have us autograph it. It was one of the coolest things we've had the privilege to do!
Will: If you could go back in time and stop one band/musician from ever making music, who would it be and why?
Phil: That's an interesting question. For me, personally, I feel a lot of music has its place, even if subjectively it's not something I would ever listen to. While I'd love to be able to hate on a musician or a band for the drama, the reality is that all the musicians and bands generally work hard, are doing their thing, and acquiring fans. I don't have to like it to respect the fact someone put themselves out there because it's very easy to shit on someone's parade. But opinions aren't facts.
Will: You're stranded on an island and can only have three albums. What would you want to have?
Phil: For me it would have to be Perturbator - New Model, Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain, and Mgla - Exercises In Futility. There really are some other fantastic albums out there, but at the moment this would be them.
Will: What movie would your music be the perfect soundtrack for?
Phil: Definitely some kind of apocalyptic movie, something involving demon's rising from the depths and a complete disregard or murder of those of faith. All forms of faith.
Will: What's something you listen to that may surprise people?
Phil: I listen to a lot of dark wave, so bands like Perturbator and Carpenter Brut might surprise people. In the realm of metal I enjoy stuff like Eldamar and Draconian as well.
Will: What are your thoughts on the current state of music?
Phil: It's incredibly saturated, which is both good and bad. It's good in that the accessibility of new music for those hungry to find it can do so but bad in the fact that, honestly, there is a lot of crap out there. Not just in metal. All genres suffer from this. The amount of crap makes it harder to find those really excellent bands, and it makes it harder for those quality bands to surface to the top. There's not really any money to be made from metal like in days past, and the idea of real rockstar success like Ozzy, Slayer, Iron Maiden, and Metallica all had is pretty much impossible now. We have to keep that in mind when we tour and look at playing festivals, because we want to go out there and meet our fans and make new ones but we have to be aware of the realities and adjust accordingly.
Will: With which of your albums are you most proud of?
Phil: I can speak for all of us when I say we're very proud of Extinguish The Light. It was a few years in the making, involved a couple of line-up changes and some perseverance that paid off. Reaction to the album has been very positive, and it drives us to write new material.
Will: Name a song you wish you had written.
Phil: "Eaten" by Bloodbath. That shit is an embodiment of all the things I love about death metal.
Will: Any last words?
Phil: Thanks for the interview! And thanks to all our fans for their support, it means the world to us.
Whore Of Bethlehem links: Official website, Facebook
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