Scaphism (Death Thrash from South Boston, MA)

http://facebook.com/Scaphism

http://Scaphism.bandcamp.com

http://Scaphism.bigcartel.com

Biography:-
Scaphism was formed in April of 2007 as a death metal side-project by Evan Woolley (Treachery, Legion of the Dying, etc.). In 2008 Evan released the two track, limited edition cassette demo entitled "Butchered and Devoured" and soon after its release it was decided his project needed to evolve into a full fledged four piece. After some time spent in the local scene looking for the right musicians to fill the void, it led to the discovery of Alex Fewell (Forced Asphyxiation), Tom Gretschel (Never Say Never), and Tony Jordan (Sacreligion). In mid-2009, Scaphism began playing shows all over the New England area, and in late 2009 the unofficial live demo entitled "Live at Church" was released. In 2010 Scaphism released a three way split CD with Boarcorpse and Composted, which was their first studio release to date.

Scaphism's debut album "Festering Human Remains" was released on April 19th, 2012 and performed an East Coast tour in support of the release.

Description
Scaphism, also known as the boats, was an ancient Persian method of execution designed to inflict torturous death. The name comes from the Greek word skaphe, meaning "scooped (or hollowed) out".

The intended victim was stripped naked and then firmly fastened within a face-to-face pair of narrow rowing boats (or hollowed-out tree trunks), with the head, hands and feet protruding. The condemned was forced to ingest milk and honey to the point of developing severe diarrhea, and more honey would be rubbed on his body to attract insects to the exposed appendages. He would then be left to float on a stagnant pond or be exposed to the sun. The defenseless individual's feces accumulated within the container, attracting more insects, which would eat and breed within his exposed flesh, which—pursuant to interruption of the blood supply by burrowing insects—became increasingly gangrenous. The feeding would be repeated each day in some cases to prolong the torture, so that dehydration or starvation did not kill him. Death, when it eventually occurred, was probably due to a combination of dehydration, starvation and septic shock. Delirium would typically set in after a few days.

In other recorded versions, the insects did not eat the person; biting and stinging insects such as wasps, which were attracted by honey on the body, acted as the torture.

Death by scaphism was painful, humiliating and protracted. Plutarch writes in his biography of Artaxerxes that Mithridates, sentenced to die in this manner for killing Cyrus the Younger, survived 17 days before dying.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Alex this is Vishal from EUMSN (a small group that are really into Extreme Metal from Nepal) !!

Vishal - What are you doing nowadays?

Alex & Evan - Keeping busy and maintaining a productive practice schedule! The writing process is already underway for our next release and we are preparing to enter the studio in early 2013. Most recently, Scaphism had the opportunity to share the stage with Suffocation this past November with our good friend Josh Staples of Abnormality filling in for us on bass for the performance. You can view a clip below from our set!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOwu31yMLIM

Vishal - Can i get the story of your band and biography? What is the meaning of Scaphism exactly means to the band?

Alex & Evan - Scaphism originally started as a one man project by our guitar player Evan Woolley in 2007 and saw the release of the original two track demo on cassette in 2008. Evan later decided to recruit members in 2009 and turn the project into a full fledged four piece. We've spent a good amount of time playing shows over the years and have put out a few releases including our recent full length CD "Festering Human Remains" which was released earlier this year in April 2012 and we conducted an east coast tour in the US in support soon after its release. If you're interested to see how the tour went, here's a taste of our time on the road!  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZAwkL2WgvE

Scaphism is actually an ancient Persian method of execution designed to inflict torturous death. The intended victim was stripped naked and then firmly fastened within a face-to-face pair of narrow rowing boats (or hollowed-out tree trunks), with the head, hands and feet protruding. The condemned was forced to ingest milk and honey to the point of developing severe diarrhea, and more honey would be rubbed on his body to attract insects to the exposed appendages. He would then be left to float on a stagnant pond or be exposed to the sun. The defenseless individual's feces accumulated within the container, attracting more insects, which would eat and breed within his exposed flesh, which—pursuant to interruption of the blood supply by burrowing insects—became increasingly gangrenous. The feeding would be repeated each day in some cases to prolong the torture, so that dehydration or starvation did not kill him. Death, when it eventually occurred, was probably due to a combination of dehydration, starvation and septic shock. Delirium would typically set in after a few days.

We like to think we've had a similar impact on some of our more timid listeners with our music as we make no apologies for our subject matter, which believe it or not has caused some patrons to take issue at our shows.

Vishal - What are the lyrical themes you use in your song?gore, horror, politics, anti religion etc..

Alex & Evan - We try not to limit ourselves to specific genres when determining lyrical themes for our songs. We range from classic gore and horror ("Violating the Deceased" & "Tower Deflower") to rape and torture ("Raped Til Death" & "Chainsawdomy") but we've also included more abstract ideas into our songwriting including influences from H.P. Lovecraft and the mighty Cthulu ("Gruesome Unmentionables and Unutterable Horros") as well as some of our favorite movies such as Ghostbusters ("Trepenate the Undesired") and of course Star Wars ("Slowly Digested Over 1,000 Years")!

Vishal - How it feels to be in a Underground band? And for how many years you are in this scene?

Alex & Evan - It feels good to contribute to a community that primarily focuses on the music and not on trends and popularity of the masses. I think most people can agree that the majority of bands in the underground death metal scene are doing it for the music and not for fame and fortune. While all musicians wish to establish a fan base, I feel it is a more genuine approach to musical expression that still lives today amidst all of the pop culture centered artists and the media that follows which has been a barren wasteland of marketing and contract deals for decades. 

We've been pushing forward as a band in the scene for almost 5 years now but individually each of us have been involved in the local music scene anywhere from 8-10+ years. Going to metal shows is much more involved than participating in the large touring packages that come through the area and the local New England metal scene has been living on with what some would consider more substantial show offerings than the major headliners that are out there today.

Vishal - Which are the bands that have influenced your band most?

Alex & Evan - We all have our backgrounds in metal and the influences that accompany our journey in discovering new music and artists is always different. Overall, I believe Scaphism can derive most of our influences from the following bands: Autopsy, Baphomet, Blood Red Throne, Cannibal Corpse, Carcass, Defeated Sanity, Devourment, Dying Fetus, Exhumed, Gorguts, Immolation, Impaled, Incantation, Lividity, Misery Index, Monstrosity, Morbid Angel, Obituary, Psycroptic, Putrid Pile, Skinless, and Suffocation to name a few.

Vishal - What are the future plans of Scaphism? any tours, releases, recordings etc.

Alex & Evan - We will be taking some time off from playing live to focus on finishing the writing and rehearsal process for the new album before hitting the studio in mid 2013. Once the new CD is completed we will most definitely be hitting the road for another tour in support of the release and hope to cover the entire U.S. on a full East to West coast tour.  

We will be doing some shows here and there but we are definitely going to stay selective until we are finished with the new release.

Vishal - What is your opinion on sites posting Underground Materials?

Alex & Evan - We fucking love it! It is always great to see people out there supporting the underground death metal community in anyway possible and we of course encourage people to continue! We are very appreciative of any and all support that we have received and more importantly it is great to have sites out there that continue to share awesome new bands that we may not have heard of otherwise. 

Vishal - How do you feel about the classifications in metal? like deathcore, metalcore and other subgenres..

Alex & Evan - We feel that bands should spend more time worrying about writing quality music and less time trying to fit into a specific "genre." Basic classifications are only necessary to a degree, as its kind of hard to argue that Darkthrone and Cannibal Corpse are in the same genere of metal.

Vishal - In general term extreme metal isn't appreciated by Society what do you have to say on this?

Alex & Evan - We don't expect extreme metal to fit in with society nor do we care. We have a collective disdain for the bulk of society and dont seek acceptance for our music.

Vishal - Ok, what do you want to tell those peoples who rips off the band hard work and illegally downloads their music?

Alex & Evan - While we all still prefer to buy our music in the physical form, we are more concerned with exposing our music to as many people as possible regardless of their methods to obtain it. We do have physical CDs for sale but hopefully if someone finds our music online for free and they enjoy it they will still support what we do in some way by purchasing a shirt or coming to one of our shows.  

We've got some CDs and T-shirts for sale online for anyone interested! http://Scaphism.bigcartel.com

Vishal - Beside Scaphism do you have any other projects too?

Alex & Evan - I also play drums for another death metal band called Forced Asphyxiation (http://facebook.com/Forced Asphyxiation), we are currently preparing to record our first full length in early 2013 but we have a three track demo up online for now. We recently came back from tour in October, here's a video if you'd like to check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqDLfqjaFaQ

Vishal - Is it hard surviving in underground Scene?

Alex & Evan - It can be, I think the most part is continuing to enjoy what we do as a band and have fun. Trying to make a name for yourself as an underground death metal band can be difficult but we don't let anything or anyone stop us from what we want to do.  

Vishal - Metal has to be underground or metal has to go mainstream, what's your opinion?

Alex & Evan - We dont believe metal HAS to do either but some of the best bands out there are considered to be in the mainstream of metal (Cannibal Corpse, Carcass, Dying Fetus while there are just as many gems in the underground scene that continued to be discovered and signed to labels every day now. Just recently our friends in Rivers of Nihil (PA) signed to Metal Blade but its hard to say at what point in a bands career do they become mainstream, we dont feel that it matters as long as they continue to produce killer albums!

Vishal - What is your opinion on the current state of underground metal?

Alex & Evan - Its definitely been more connected than ever thanks to the internet! Glad to see people are still doing things the old school way with plenty of CD and Cassette trading still going on world wide, we've done a good amount of that ourselves trading our releases with people and distros both in the U.S. and internationally.

Vishal - Which is the album you want to take to your grave?

Alex & Evan - Grave - Into The Grave

Vishal - Can you recommend us some good bands from your place for our readers?

Alex & Evan - Definitely! Here is some killer fucking death metal from the East Coast!

Boarcorpse (MA) - https://www.facebook.com/boarcorpse

Composted (MA) - https://www.facebook.com/composted

Abnormality (MA) - https://www.facebook.com/AbnormalityOfficial

Sexcrement (MA) - https://www.facebook.com/sexcrement

Forced Asphyxiation (MA) - https://www.facebook.com/ForcedAsphyxiation

Macerated (VA) - https://www.facebook.com/macerated

Human Infection (VA) -

Tentacles (NY) - https://www.facebook.com/nytentacles

Abdicate (NY) - https://www.facebook.com/AbdicateNY

Rivers of Nihil (PA) - https://www.facebook.com/riversofnihil

Fisthammer (PA) - https://www.facebook.com/Fisthammer

Vishal - Support Underground Metal, how much you agree on this quote?

Alex & Evan - 100 FUCKING PERCENT!

Vishal - Where do our readers can buy and listen Scaphism music and any other merchandise?

Alex & Evan - For all things Scaphism including updates, events, and more visit us here:

https://www.facebook.com/Scaphism

You can listen to the entire album streaming for free here:

http://scaphism.bandcamp.com/album/festering-human-remains

You can purchase CDs, T-Shirts, and any other merchandise at our official merch store here:

http://scaphism.bigcartel.com/

Vishal - Do you remember the feeling of your first show with Scaphism? and how did the crowd reacted to your first show?

Alex & Evan - We do! We had the pleasure of playing Metal Thursday #71 at Ralph's Diner in Worcester, MA for our first live performance. We've all been regulars there for quite some time and even played there with other bands so it was good to unveil the beginning of a new project with plenty of our friends! We didn't get boo'd off stage, which is always good, and we've had the pleasure to be asked to return many times to play there since then so I guess we did something right haha.

Vishal - In near future if any band from Nepal aproaches to you for a Split Album, are you goin to approve this?

Alex & Evan - We would definitely be interested in the opportunity! We've done a split CD release with some friends in the past which you can listen to at the link below.

http://bacontrashrape.bandcamp.com/

Vishal - Any tour plans for Nepal in coming days?

Alex & Evan - Not currently. We had a past offer to join some friends in a fellow band from the Boston area, Soul Annihilation, when they traveled to Nepal earlier this year to play a show with Decapitated. It just happened to be too short notice for us to consider the offer but we hope to have another opportunity again soon!

Vishal - What do you hate in current underground scene?

Alex & Evan - The scene is too small for bands not to work together more often. We see a lot of bands burning bridges with each other over personal issues and other drama. The local music scene would be a lot more prosperous for everyone if bands didn't try so hard to put each other down.

Vishal - Your dream metal fest line up.

Alex & Evan - In no particular order:

Pantera

Type O Negative

Death

Decapitated w/ Vitek

Exodus w/ Paul Baloff

Metallica w/ Cliff Burton

Dio

Dissection

Anaal Nathrakh

Skinless

Morbid Angel

Darkthrone

Nile

Suffocation

Nunslaughter

Vishal - Quick top 5 albums we must have in our collection.

Scaphism - We all have different personal music tastes so we've listed them below.

Alex:

Defeated Sanity - "Psalms Of The Moribound"

Skinless - "Foreshadowing Our Demise"

Pig Destroyer - "Prowler In the Yard"

Dismember - "Like An Ever Flowing Stream"

Nile - "In Their Darkened Shrines"

Evan:

Black Sabbath - "Heaven and Hell"

Cannibal Corpse - "Bloodthirst"

Darkthrone - "A Blaze in the Northern Sky"

Whiplash - "Power and Pain"

Exhumed - "Gore Metal"

Vishal - Lastly, a space for you anything EUMSN have forgotten to ask you can tell us here?

Alex & Evan -Thank you for the support and the interest in conducting this interview! The metal scene needs more supporters like EUMSN!