Rude "Outer Reaches"

    When I received the promo for this release I had to make sure I was looking at the same band called, Rude, that released a killer debut album in 2014 called, “Soul Recall,” and a fearsome sophomore release back in 2017 called, “Remnants.” I thought this band fell off the face of the Earth, or maybe they decided to go explore the outer reaches of space with some Russian cosmonauts. Anyway, Rude is back with a brand new EP called, “Outer Reaches,” which is focused on providing listeners more unforgiving head slamming old school death metal. 

    Actually, the first time I heard any music from Rude was when I went to see Morbid Angel and they were one of the opening acts. I remember they put on a solid performance and I could tell right they were huge old school death metal fans. Like most old school death metal acts you can hear the Pestilence, Morbid Angel, Nocturnus, Obituary and all the others who wrote face ripping death metal that paved the way. I have always felt that Rude was not just another stereotypical old school death metal worship act, especially after I reviewed, “Soul Recall.” The musicianship and the ability to write gruesome sounding pieces of fiendish headbanging brutality never sounds simplistic, or painfully repetitive. 

    “Outer Reaches,” seems to pick up where the band left off on, “Remnants,” by continuing to explore science fiction themes and by also coming up with more bombastic sounding arrangements than the more straightforward style heard on the band’s debut album. Taking a page from death metal icons Pestilence, Rude incorporates instrumental tracks into the mix to give the album a very unique flow. Instead of song after song that all sounds the same, the band tries to present more dynamic arrangements full of casket crushing riffs and skillful lead guitar playing. 

    The opening of the album reminded me a lot of science fiction death metal greats Nocturnus by incorporating these haunting celestial sounds that are quickly followed by some sinister sounding guitar work. Vocalist and guitarist Yusef Wallace delivers the lyrics in such a raw and agonizing fashion which makes the music sound even more horrifying. “Chaos (Discarded),” was an appropriate opening track that really helped kick this EP off with a mighty punch to the gut. Forget getting choke slammed by the Undertaker, this band would put you through more than just a table with their raw and ruthless energy! 

    Throughout the album the band experiments with different tempos and ear shattering compositions, so you always feel like you are on the edge of your seat about to fall into the bloodthirsty abyss below. David Rodriguez, who is an unbelievably talented lead guitar player, skillfully shreds throughout this entire release. Also, the riffs Yusef and David hammer out on songs like, “Outer Reaches” and “Calamity from the Sky,” are extremely savage sounding. Credit also needs to be given to bassist Jason Gluck who has one of the most brilliant sounding bass tones and helps add to the galactic storm of old school death metal chaos. The band’s new drummer, Edward Andrade, is a tremendously talented player from behind the kit. Overall, this line-up seems to be firing on all cylinders, because there are no weak moments on the entire album. 

    From the opening track, “Chaos (Discarded),” until the final punishing piece of music titled, “Omega,” there is no stopping this band’s brutal and fearsome nature. “Outer Reaches,” is highly recommended for fans of merciless sounding old school death metal, especially those who enjoy raising hell and pissing their neighbors off by turning the volume up to the max. Rude knows how to make solid death metal and does not mess around by making an album with a symphony, or deciding to collaborate with some folk singer who sounds like a goat was forced to drink bleach. I just hope I will not have to wait four year for another Rude album! 

Check out the song "Chaos (Discarded)"  below: 

“Outer Reaches” will released on cassette through Dawnbreed Records (European) and Headsplit Records (USA). Album will be released September 24th 2021. CD and Vinyl to come out later this year. 

Rude Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100031795407017

Rude "Remnants…"

    Bay Area death metal fanatics, Rude, conjure up yet another colossal and malicious sounding release with their sophomore full-length album, Remnants… . For all those fans who were possessed by the unforgiving old school sound off of Rude's debut album, Soul Recall, those fans will rejoice as the band delivers more crushing tunes of unspeakable destruction.

    These guys have really raised the bar with Remnants… and have also reassured people that the old school style of death metal is alive and kicking. Although there are numerous bands who play a similar style of death metal, I have always felt that Rude’s sound and presentation of the music separates them from the other old school death metal worship acts.

    Rude really put some thought into the new songs and one can hear where the band improves in certain areas. The recording quality for the new album is probably where I think the band excelled the most. I thought the drum sound of the first album was solid, however, the new album has a more bombastic and bold drum sound. Also, I think the riffs were recorded extremely well on Remnants…,which is saying something because I thought Soul Recall had a great guitar sound that captured the band’s vicious old school attitude.

    Out of the nine tracks on the album I find choosing a favorite rather difficult, because each one has strong qualities. The overall songwriting is extremely solid, so the album does not have any dual moments. For their opening song, “Torrent to the Past,” the band grabs your attention right away with a bold crushing intro riff that leads into an explosion of old school devastation. The second track, “House of Dust,” creates a very bone chilling atmosphere in the beginning and I liked the song’s dark tone. Rude’s singer/guitarist Yusef Wallace helps strengthen the music’s haunting sound by providing some gruesome old school death metal growls. I think he is definitely one of the best death metal singers around, especially with regards to the more old school style.

    Track number three, “Blood Sucker,” is a nasty piece of guitar riff carnage. I like how the bass sounds during the song and the playing by bassist Jason Gluck is very impressive. The following songs, “Interpretations of the Ultimate Finality,” and “Remnants” continue the fiendish sounding musical destruction. Drummer Chad Gailey lays down some crushing drum parts while Yusef and fellow guitarist David Rodriguez crank out plenty of blasphemous sounding riffs. On track number six, “Fracturing the Gates of Truth,” the band composes a dynamic piece of extreme music and cleverly transitions throughout the aggressive sounding musical landscape.

    The final three tracks, “Sanctuary,” “Reboot,” and “Children of Atom,” are not too different from the earlier songs with exception to track number eight, “Reboot.” On, “Reboot,” the band creates a very prog like instrumental piece with these mellow yet haunting chord progressions. The last song, “Children of Atom,” would have to be my favorite if I was forced to pick one. I found the song’s science fiction horror theme to be very appealing along with the band’s instrumental compositions. You feel as though time has stopped and you are drifting through an endless vortex into worlds beyond with the music playing in the background.

    I think it should be noted that some people have this belief that a band might go into a slump after putting out a solid debut album. Well, I can say that your fears about Rude going into a slump shall be put to rest when you listen to, Remnants… .  Rude shows that if you are going to write music in the old school death metal vein, you better not just release boring and simplistic crap. I think the most important aspect to emphasize and the one that will hopefully get more people to check out this album, is that these guys know how to write pure unforgiving old school style death metal music. If you can't write the songs, your music shall not remain…Definitely not the case for Rude.


Rude "House of Dust" :

Rude Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/Rude-391039200987363/

FDA Rekotz Website:
http://www.fda-rekotz.com

Interview with Jason "brainsplitter" Gluck from Rude

Hi, thanks for taking the time to do this email interview. Great job on “Soul Recall.” That album really captures the essence of old school death metal. Now that the album has been out for a while, what are some of the reactions that you have been receiving from fans? How satisfied are you with the album overall?


Jason: No problem dude! Thanks for the kind words. So far we’ve got almost nothing but praise. We ran into some bumps in the recording process that forced us to rush a bit to make the release date, but overall I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out.

I actually saw you guys open for Morbid Angel in SF at Slims. Being my first introduction to Rude, I was impressed by your very old school death metal sound and have to say you were the perfect opener for Morbid Angel. As fans of Morbid Angel, what was the experience like opening them? Do you think that helped get you exposed to a larger audience?

Jason: It was truly an honor. We really couldn’t have asked for a better show to play- it proved that to us that our work was paying off and gave us exactly the exposure we needed. Not only that, but people began to take us very seriously.

I was wondering if you could give the people out there a little background history on Rude. Is this the original line-up? How long has this current line-up been together?

Jason: Far from the original line up. Rude existed in 2008 with different members aside from Yusef. They played different music too, darker and dirtier metal, more primitive to what it is now. My old band played a show with them once which is how I met Yusef. Ended up bumming burgers off of him at his job in Berkeley for years to come... In those years, Rude kind of evolved into a short lived thrashier band called Forsaker, with a new line up including current Rude drummer Tony. When that ended, Yusef joined a band called Scolex, and eventually in 2012 he hit me up to record some new stuff he was working on that didn't quite fit with Scolex. Of course I was surprised how good it was!! That material became the Haunted demo, and since then its been the same drummer Tony and lead guitarist David along with Yusef. I joined the band just before the Morbid Angel show. But you can say I've been there along the way.

Also, what other bands have any of you played in before Rude, and what is different about those bands compared to Rude?

Jason: I also play guitar in a band called Limbs, a pretty looney death/grind band with some powerviolence and noisecore thrown in, so it's different from Rude in that we don't take ourselves very seriously, and the songs are shorter, more frantic. Before that I was in high school, playing guitar in a band called Lobotomizer. That project had a lot of old school death metal influences, but especially more technical bands like Atheist. It had some funky and groovy riffs with a lot of real heavy slap bass. When it comes to Rude, I don't write much of what I play, so the style is different. I like the style the band had before I joined, so I'd rather adapt to it than try to inject my own style and make it all funky and weird. I'll save that for when I get my own project going again.

Of course it does not take a rocket scientist to tell that you guys enjoy death metal. What are some of your favorite bands? Also, what is the one death metal album you could not live without?

Jason: I enjoy the technical and quirky stuff. Atheist is a favorite for sure, along with Gorguts, Ripping Corpse, Demilich, Edge of Sanity. Of course we all worship the classic masters like Morbid Angel, Pestilence, Entombed, etc. The album I could not live without is probably Piece of Time or Unquestionable Presence. It's not often you hear such heavy music played with such depth. And the BASS!!

Time to talk more about what I consider to be one of the best death metal albums of the year. When I first listened to “Soul Recall,” I noticed how all the songs sounded solid and there were absolutely no fillers. How long had you guys worked on those songs? Also, how long did it take to record the album?

Jason: Thanks so much for the regards!! Most of the songs are from the Haunted demo, so they've had plenty of time to develop. Although, newer tracks like Internal Ascension we kind of worked out as we recorded them. So there's really both sides of the spectrum!

To record the album, it took a few months total. The first sessions were done in Yusef's basement and we didn't really get the sound we were hoping for. Later we did everything again in our rehearsal space where everything went smoothly over a few days worth of tracking. By then we were under a lot of pressure from our label, so I spent a week or two mixing it and sent it off with a pretty rushed mastering job. Some things I would have liked to change, but again, pretty satisfied overall.

All the songs on the album are great in my opinion, but if you could only pick three, which would you say are your favorite songs? Also, what song is the most challenging to play?

Jason: My favorites are all the new ones! Soul Recall, Last of Us, Internal Ascension. I recorded the Haunted demo and listened to those songs over and fucking over mixing them. I'm too tired of them to like them so much! Not to say they aren't any good of course. The most challenging one for me is probably Haunted. Those long 16th note sections are tough on bass, using 3 fingers to play notes in groups of 4. Alternate picking is a piece of cake, but that kind of stuff trips me up a bit, and my fingers get pretty tired whenever we play it later in the set.

As much as I keep saying how great the music sounds on “Soul Recall,” I must not forget how amazing the album art work looks. Dan Seagrave did one spectacular job. How pleased are you guys with the album cover art?

Jason: Um, its god damn amazing. Thank you Lord Seagrave. It helps us fit in with the old school classics! Can't wait to see what he might do for us next....!!

Now practice makes perfect, unless you are Allen Inverson, so I was wondering how often do you guys practice together? Do you come up with most of your songs when you all practice together?

Jason: We don't practice enough if you ask me. But its okay, cause the style we play doesn't exactly call for surgical precision or anything. We're only starting to write songs together more recently, after Soul Recall. Before it was mostly Yusef with some input from David. Of course Tony is there laying down the most pummeling rhythm section to support their ideas.

Now, Rude is signed to FDA Rekotz, a great German label specializing in some of the best new extreme bands. How did you guys get in contact with FDA Rekotz? What have you liked most about working with them? 

Jason: Man, Yusef sent those tapes everywhere. He is relentless. I guess the demo just ended up in the right hands! It's been nice seeing so much recognition in Europe. They seem to be making great connections for us that we hope to utilize soon. Its awesome, seeing our pictures and interviews in magazines with languages I can't even read, haha.

Recently Rude just finished up a west coast tour with Derogatory and Skelethal. Overall, how did the tour go? What was your favorite venue to play at on the tour?

Jason: It was a lot of fun! The crowds weren't very big, but people really enjoyed the music bought a lot of records. And the West was introduced to Skelethal, who are doing a killer job bringing old Swedish style. My favorite venue was the Metro in Oakland. 3 tours all crossed paths that night making for one hell of a show. Also the biggest and most comfortable stage!

I know touring is becoming extremely difficult for bands. However, do you have any future tour plans in the works, or are you still working the local scene for the time being?

Jason: We are hoping to tour Europe next and reunite with Skelethal over there! It will be nice to play for people that have been waiting to hear us live. The local scene here is pretty apathetic.

Well, I guess that is all the questions I have. Thanks again for taking the time to answer these questions. Can’t wait for the next release, and highly recommend everyone reading this who has not yet listened to “Soul Recall,” do so now!

Jason: No problem!! Cheers! If you dig the sound of the album, check out my studio website www.brainsplitterstudios.com - I have killer deals for recordings and I'm happy to travel.