The mind can be a terrible thing to behold.
How can you navigate the perilous corridors of life when your biggest threat, your greatest enemy, is your mind itself?
Welcome, to “The Decomposing” The long-awaited debut album from The Canadian King of Negativity, Multi-Instrumentalist, “PHLESH”
An autobiographical concept album told through the eyes of madness. Documenting the lifelong battle between mind and heart. The downward spiral through mental illness and addiction, and the heartbreaking and debilitating struggle through depression, anxiety and self-destruction.
11 tracks of hard to define Melodic & Gothic Extreme Black Death Metal, with massive production and cyclopean structures, steeped in somber melodies that sink their hooks in deep.
“If you're looking for hope, you won’t find any here.”
“Enter at your own risk, but but don’t break the mirror”.
(For fans of: Shining (Swe), (early) Cradle of Filth, Old Man’s Child, Belphegor, SepticFlesh & Rotting Christ)
-Interview- (11/14/24)
1. How did you get started with music and how did you develop your sound? How did the name "Phlesh" come about and is there any meaning to it?
Xeth Goateth: Greetings, and thank you very much for the interview. Creativity has been an important part of my life for as long as I can remember. I have this unquenchable need to create something from nothing and Music is my only source of doing that. I played in bands when I was younger, but never had the opportunity to do things exactly how I wanted them, and that is the main reason why Phlesh was created. As far as my sound goes, I can only sound like myself. I’ve noticed no matter how hard I try to differ or change it up, it always sounds like me in the end. I believe there are two reasons for this. 1 is for the amalgamation of different music that I listen to and I am influenced by and the other is my very limited skill as a guitar player and musician. I consider myself more of a songwriter than a musician. I have never been a fanatical guitar player or even particularly enjoyed playing all that much, for me the guitar is a means to an end. Kind of like a carpenter needs a saw, it’s not so much that he is in love with the saw and different ways to use it, but without using his saw, he could not create the woodwork that he does. In that sense, my guitar is a tool.
As far as the name Phlesh goes, I used to be known as Phlesh in my old band so when I decided to do this new project, I decided to keep the name, only after a while I realized the hassle of having my name the same as the group name. It makes it hard to differentiate as to if I’m referring to myself or the group. I decided to keep the group name as Phlesh and I would go by my other name, Xeth Goateth. Phlesh is the name that I chose because for most of my life, I felt soulless ! I felt that I am nothing more than bones and flesh ! I figured the chances of another band somewhere in the world being called flesh is pretty good so I decided to spell it with a Ph instead of an F. So yes There is a meaning to the name Phlesh, there is meaning to almost everything that I do with the group.
2. What do you want people to take away from your music?
First and foremost, I make music for myself, But in saying that of course you want others to get something out of your music. With this album being an autobiographical concept album it makes it a little tough these days because of everyone’s need for immediate gratification. People just aren’t listening to full albums with the patience That they deserve. People listen to a song here, a song there, but rarely listen to an album from beginning to end. “The Decomposing” is meant to be listened to from beginning to end, it has a continuity and flow and it was designed that way. That being said it still holds up pretty good just listening to random songs as well. I just hope that people dig the music and more than that I would hope that they could ”relate in some way to my lyrics. The lyrics on this album are 100% pure self expression and they are directly from the heart and whether that’s a good thing or bad thing I’ll let others be the judge of that.
3. How would you describe your sound to the average listener?
Wow, what a difficult question. As a musician, it’s nearly impossible to listen to your own music subjectively. When I hear my music, I hear me. The best way that I can describe my music to people is this: Extreme, Melodic, Black Metal With hints of Death Metal and Gothic Metal.
4. Who are three bands you’d like to tour with?
Well, keeping in mind that PHLESH is just myself, and therefore cannot tour as of now, however, that may not always be the case, A few bands that I would like to tour with would be Shining from Sweden, perhaps Cradle of Filth or a band like Tribulation would be a cool vibe !!!
5. What's your thoughts on AI generated music?
There’s a small part of me that finds it interesting and amazing that it can even happen, but the overwhelming majority of my consciousness is scared shitless by it. The last thing as an artist that I would want to see would be a scene where people stop writing their own music and use AI to come up with it instead. There is more than enough talent in this world to keep the song writing human and it would be an insult to Art to think otherwise !
6. What’s your take on the current state of Black Death Metal?
Normally, I would’ve been able to answer this question easily but due to the last few years of my life being completely out of control I have stepped back from listening to new music as much as I would like too. Don’t get me wrong, I still keep up a bit, but mainly with the older bands. One band I will always listen to and follow will be Belphegor !!! I find they do not get nearly the credit they deserve. But a lot of what I listen to now is very Avant-Garde you might say. Bands like Blut Aus Nord, DHG, Oranssi Pazuzu and Akhlys to name a few.
7. What’s the current music scene like there in Canada?
Again, because of my addiction issues, the last few years of my life have been quite unmanageable, and I have not been to any shows. I tend to isolate, and when I say isolate I mean the true meaning of the word. I can only speak for Vancouver and the West Coast of Canada, but we’ve always had a healthy number of bands out here, however I wouldn’t say there is any bands out there that sound like Phlesh. Not a lot of blackened Death Metal and the black metal that we have tends to be on the more straight up Black Metal side than anything else.
8. What’s your take on the royalties that streaming services pay out to artists?
Personally, I don’t think it’s enough. I put my heart and soul into making this music and being the only person in the band means that I pay 100% of the bill so it’s kind of a kick in the teeth to not be able to recoup any of that money or barely any of that money through streaming. In my opinion, the majority of the money should go to the Artists and the rest can go to labels and streaming sites, etc. not the other way around, but I am new to all of this. I’ve never been a part of social media in my whole life and now I’m forced to if I want to get my music out there, so I’m kind of learning as I go, and due to my isolation, I have nobody to teach me the tricks or even the basics.
9. What’s next for Phlesh?
Well, ultimately, I would like to hook up with a quality label and get some physical copies out there and some merch. Other than that, I have slowly started to write some new material and I’m thinking that an EP will be my next move because there’s no way I can afford another album at this point. But nothing will stop me, I have this Burning need to create, and being healthy now allows me to access that part of myself in a much more tangible way.
10. Any shoutouts?
I just want to thank you for taking the time to interview me and for showing interest in my work with PHLESH ! and to anybody else who takes the time to listen to my music, it is much appreciated and it means a lot.
