Sydney death metallers The Plague wowed audiences in 2021 with the swift gut-punch that was their debut album “Within Death”. While the lockdowns 2021 snuffed out any chances to play shows in support of their album, the band simply went back to the drawing board and returned with yet another monster of an album.
This year, The Plague released their sophomore effort “Erosion of Gods” through Brilliant Emperor Records and have been very busy on the road these past couple months. I fired a few questions off to vocalist Mike Ryan and drummer Zac Sale via email to get the lowdown on their new studio offering.
Metal-Roos: Hey everyone, huge congratulations on the release of your second album “Erosion of Gods”. How has reception been so far?
ZAC: The reception has been great in Australia. We’ve been sending out loads of pre-orders and the video clips are stacking up lots of views. We have also seen some great, honest reviews from other countries as well. What we’re doing, sound wise, is something a lot of OSDM fans hold dear and we want to make sure we do it well.
Metal-Roos: What inspired the title?
MIKE: Shaneo (Piercy, guitars) came up with the title, he’s pretty creative with them… he often will come up with our song titles as well. I will base my lyrics around the title, and that was the case with this song. When we were choosing the album cover art we thought that title suited it well, so we decided to go with it
Metal-Roos: I love what I hear on “Erosion of Gods” because it is “100% The Plague”. But in your own words, what can fans of your previous album “Within Death” expect on this new record? How would you describe this album’s progression from the last?
ZAC: Speed. Speed is a major factor on this album. “Within Death” had much more groove.
While we didn’t want to get rid of the groove aspect (which is a massive part of the OSDM sound) we wanted to be more aggressive with this one.
Metal-Roos: This new album arrives merely two years after “Within Death” which was released in 2021, right in the middle of the COVID lockdowns. That year, it was near-impossible to play any shows or tour anywhere. Am I right to assume these lockdowns factored into such a quick turnaround for a new album?
ZAC: Partly, yes. Covid was the best time to write a new album. But regardless of whether covid was there or not we would have written another album anyway. Covid actually played more of a factor in getting “Within Death” released.
MIKE: We had all the music written and recorded for it well before covid hit but when it did hit it slowed down the process of getting that album out, we didn’t want that to happen to us a second time so we knuckled down and used the time to our advantage to get “Erosion Of Gods” written and recorded and released and you can thank Shaneo for that he doesn’t stop!!
Metal-Roos: The sound on this album is absolutely monstrous. Where did you record it and who engineered it?
ZAC: We recorded it in north-western Sydney, with a young bloke called Chris Blancato at his studio in Kellyville. He’s worked with some great bands, and he definitely knows how to capture the sound that we are going for. He recorded, mixed and mastered the album. This was the same place that we recorded “Within Death” and (2019’s) “Mass Genocide” EP. We think the sound on the new album is a result of lessons learnt from the first one.
Metal-Roos: And the album has been released on Brilliant Emperor Records, who just keep putting out quality Australian extreme metal. What’s the relationship been like with Burksy and his label?
ZAC: Bursky is an absolute legend. Juggling a family, playing guitar in Killrazer and Sumeru AND running a label is no small feat. He has done things for The Plague that we have no idea about, so we’re very grateful for his efforts. When Bitter Loss folded, we had to scramble to get the album released when we wanted to, to coincide with shows we had booked to promote the album. Bursky was there to get it out in record time! He has been an enormous help to us.
Metal-Roos: Since the return of live shows in Australia, The Plague have been on the road a lot. You have played supports with Skeletal Remains, Vio-Lence, Sacred Reich and Vader and done quite a lot of interstate shows. How were these shows for you, especially ranging from local shows to larger support shows?
ZAC: The international spots are always a big thing for us. Especially when we’ve supported bands that we have spent a lot of our lives looking up to, let alone sharing a stage with them. We love the local shows, they’re always more intimate and personal. It’s great seeing the local crowd support us through the years and we’re always seeing new faces as well which is promising for the future of metal in Australia.
Metal-Roos: What has been the strangest thing to happen at one of your gigs? Tell us all…
ZAC: Haha there have been a few. We did a gig at the Duke in Newtown and someone brought raw vegetables with them (corn and carrots mostly) and people were chewing on these veggies and spitting them at us/ the stage. So, Mike returned the favour!
MIKE: Another time at a show in Canberra I tried to see how long I could hold one of my screams, and I ended up fainting into Zac’s kit!
Metal-Roos: I’m curious as to how The Plague came together. Your band just came out of nowhere… how did The Plague begin?
ZAC: It started with Shaneo and his vision of doing Swedish OSDM. He wanted to emulate that HM-2 sound. Shaneo had worked with Chinch (Ross Chinchilla, guitars) in the past and got him on board. Mike was doing vocals in a band called Paralysis that eventually folded and he ended up joining The Plague.
We’ve had a “Metallica curse” with bass players! It started with Will (Selby) and the bass player role has been a revolving door ever since. Our original drummer Dan (Garcia) who was on the “Mass Genocide” EP, left the band not long after the EP was released and with Mike and I being longtime friends it was fitting for me to join the fold. That’s the story without going into detail…
Metal-Roos: With “Erosion of Gods” now out, what’s next for The Plague?
ZAC: Gigs, Write, Release, Repeat…. Always repeat.
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“Erosion of Gods” is out now via Brilliant Emperor and can be streamed via Bandcamp.
