1-Greetings and welcome to No Mercy Zine! As a start, please present Diminished to our readers ?
-Well Diminished started in 2005 in the fall with my singer and I where in a art class. We became friends and had a common interested in metal. I heard of 6 feet under and Cannibal Corspe but then he should a lot of death metal bands. Shorty after we decided to make a death metal band. From there is just snowballed into playing shows and earning stripes and then eventually getting signed to Sevared Records. Of course every BDM band has problems ours was our members flaking and no one being in death metal in 2005-2007 in our area, about 2008 we started getting heavier and winter 2009 we were signed by Sevared, he hit us up on myspace because BBB of Ossuary Industries reference us to him i believe. Now we are just building our name and working on making albums and playing shows and getting out there we currently have two full length albums which both came out in 2010. Our goal is to be one of the best death metal bands of all time like corspe, fetus, suffo, ect ect we want people tp say yeah i wanna sound like Diminished and inspire them to add something new to our genre.
2-Band is formed in 2005. What did you do before ?
-Well I (Daniel-Guitarist) meet Michael (singer) in high school we were 16, so we work at sonic and going to school. Diminished was our 1st real band , I ran cross country and track, Michael was an outsider in high school.
3-Are you gonna introduce other members to Diminished line up ?
-Its kid of hard too, because we lose or kick out members because of their lack of effort, so far it’s just been Michael and me caring the flag. Michael- Vocals, Daniel- Guitar, Marcus- Bass, Aaron – Drums. As of our latest album recorded (Rectal Torment).
4- Who are the bands that have inspired you to start playing death metal ?
-Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, Dying Fetus, Flesh Grind, Gore Trade started
5- How is the metal scene in Houston ?
-Houston isn’t dead, but it’s like everywhere else. Our style doesn’t belong because the “old timers” and the “Scene-core kids” don’t get it. Houston is a huge monopoly of bias promoters. They are killing our scene by being greedy with money and “hooking up” the same bands that don’t really grow or build a fan base.
6- Do you play for pleasure or for money ?
-I work for free, I do this because I love it an want to inspire others how my influences inspired me.
7- What kind of music do you listen to yourself ?
-metal, classic rock, 90’s alter/grunge, country .
8- Which are your 5 favourite albums of all time ?
-Metallica- Master of puppets, Dying Fetus- Stop at Nothing, Guttural Secrete- Reek of Pubescent Despoilment, Suffocation- Human Waste, Cryptopsy - Ungentle Exhumation (demo)
9- What are some of your non-musical influences ?
-haha my mother, Steve Francis, Rudy Tomjanovich, Shawn Michaels, Vegeta lol people who never give up. There participants and then there is competitors.
10- What is your occupations outside Diminished ?
-Michael owns a Sonic restaurant, I’m a sub teacher, Marcus is a janitor, and Aaron is a comp tech guy.
11- How would you describe your style of music ?
DeathGrindSlam
12- If you compare the U.S.A. metal and the European metal scene what is the difference tell us about the difference between the European scene and the us scene , between us and European fans and the media the CD’s art work ……….. and do you think that Europeans are inspired by the U.S. death metal ?
-I love America, but we as a scene are followers, Europe & Asia are open minded and it is easier to be built up to a success over there than in the U.S. Non- Americans are more loyal to the bands than America, here most people follow trends than set them.
13-What do you think of the worldwide death metal scene today ?and what is your opinion, what is your action against the metalcore and deathcore scene who invaded the death metal scene ?
-I think death metal is growing, the scene kids who bash death metal a year or two ago when they were in metalcore bands are now in deathcore bands. The music scene is growing heavier, I don’t hate metalcore or deathcore, I just hate those people who follow the trends just to be famous or cool back at home. I hate how our local scene-core bands do it to show off and not because they love the music. I think deathcore has help deathmetal popularity.
14- What can you tell us about the songs that are available on your official MySpace page ?
-Well the songs are a mix of the Chainsaw Cunt album and our new upcoming album Rectal Torment. I choose these songs because they seem to me as a fav to grab attention the quickest. For new viewers who stumble on our page I have like a minute to hook them as a fan.
15- Please speak about " Chainsaw Cunt ", your first full length album... Are you satisified the way it's been done ?
-I’m happy with the production, I’m upset at the fact we weren’t better prepared, practically our former drummer Cesar, and he could have done a way better job than he did. He was slacking so I kicked him out. Having fresh ears and listening to Chainsaw Cunt I like it a lot and jam to it every now and then. That was our goal since day one to write music that captures what we want to hear in brutal death metal.
16 -Where do you get inspiration from for the lyrics? , how do you write your music? Is there a set guideline or do you write what you feel as you go along ?
-Music starts from me, I write when I very energetic to capture an exciting feeling. Lyrics Michael has an idea from watching a gore movie and then we spin it from there.
17-Chainsaw Cunt ? I mean, it fucking kills... since 2005! I would imagine there were label troubles or band in-fighting, there had to be some sort of hurdle to overcome? Did you forget to set the alarm clock? What's the deal, man ?
-yeah every day, our biggest problem is finding solid band members, after this year Marcus is quitting. It’s just boils down to people not doing their jobs and hold Diminished back, in addition we are like forever getting screwed in shows in Houston, same monopolized promoting going on when the big bands come to town. So that’s why we play out of town shows a lot, because we have to.
18-Please explain the title and cover image of your Full-length Chainsaw Cunt ?
-Me and Michael we at work and he loves the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and got the idea from the 80’s version where leather face was humping the girl with a chainsaw in the scene. From there he and I spun it from there and got a hold of Jon Zig to create it.
19-Which label would fit your music ?
-Brutal Deathgrind
20-Do you have any future split with any band ?
-we were suppose to have a spilt in July 2010 with Devourment, and others but they got signed to relapse and drop Limbsplitter
21-The most impressive thing about your band is that you were on stage with fucking great bands like Vital remains Insidious Decrepancy , Dying Fetus ,Devourment …. what were the emotions afterwards? you have been successful with all this monsters of brutal ?
playing with bands of that calibers is nerve wracking but sometime there is your moment of opportunity to get know in that show. So its a cool feeling that your sharing the stage with your idols but at the same time you have to go to work and earn your rep of being a good band. Shawn of Insidious is cool, we never talk to fetus or much of devourment they kept to themselves. Vital Remains the singer was very cool didn't talk to the guitars he kept to himself too. It neat but them you have to worry about the next show and ect.
22-Describe Diminished gigs, do you include some personal touches ?
-“Cool here we are”, but in the back of our minds we got to show them up to make a statement that we are a band to remember and is not going anywhere (r.i.p.) anytime, and to gain new fans. -All were awesome shows, but those shows don’t mean anything if you don’t have merch for the crowd to remember you, because there is another huge show next week and you might not get that opportunity to play with a huge act (which is always the case).
-Dying Fetus I was mad my old drummer that cost us the show because he had to take a shower before we left to play and by the time he got to show we had one minute to get on stage, and so they kick us off the show, we made the promoter a lot of money 580 dollars we rake in, the band after us only made like 40 dollars.
-Our shows we try and not to act tough or “evil” we act real, we clown with the fans, we don’t get a rock star attitude with them like others do.
23-What are the plans for the future? New material out soon ?
-The plans for the future is to keep releasing albums, our next album is out in December 2010. Our goal is to be one of the most dominate bands from Texas and then America ect ect.
24-Any fav bands to get on stage with ?
-I like working with Shawn’s bands (insidious, viral load ect ect) P.L.F. (pretty little flower) because I’m still huge fans of them.
25 -What is your daily consumption amount of alcohol, cigarettes......?
-My singer drinks on weekends, same with my bass player, I stay “straight edge” most of the time
26-What kind of music do you play in your car? What car do you own ?
-I play death metal, thrash, Grind core, grudge, Alternative (90’s), country, classic rock, and I own a 2010 Honda Accord.
27 -Thank you alot Diminished for sharing your time with No Mercy Zine and good luck for you do you have any particular messages or any closing notes, any comment here last words are yours
