Interview with Cesar Torres Merciless Death 2007

By Bradley Smith

Some people like me are a little unfamiliar with you guys other than dealing your music.  Can you give us a little Band History? 

Hey there, Cesar Torres – drummer for Merciless Death here! Merciless Death first began back in 2003. At first, it was only Andy on vocals and Dan on guitars. Dan and Andy first met each other in high school. They both liked thrash metal and decided to start a band. Eventually they looked for other members to join. Meanwhile, my parents bought me a drum set and Dan and Andy let me join the band. At the same time, they found Mike to play guitars. After writing and practicing our songs for months, and two live performances – Mike left the band and we decided to stay a three piece. We then recorded the Annihilate the Masses demo and continued to play shows around the LA area. Our demo quickly ran out and we began to get a large following of fans. Eventually we recorded our self-financed debut album Evil in the Night in winter 2005. We released our album on May of 2006. Our first hundred album presses quickly sold out in one night!! Heavy Artillery contacted us late 2006, offering us a record deal. We signed with them and we re-released Evil in the Night with new cover artwork by Ed Repka on CD and Vinyl worldwide. And from what I’ve been hearing – our album has been doing quite well.

And so, here we are.

Evil in the Night is a harsh and smashing thrash album.  How do you view it as one of its creators?  Would you do anything differently?  How have the reactions to it been?  What was one of your favourite quotes regarding it?

I like what we had done with the album! After practicing our tunes for years, we really gave it our all when we recorded it. And I’m glad people and critics like it for what it is. Critics compare our music with Razor and Exodus, saying our album is true and authentic to the sound of the thrash days. I wouldn’t change anything on Evil in the Night; running only 25 minutes – the album leaves you craving for more

I noticed on your album you guys used a Photo collage on the inner sleeve.  That’s one thing that I miss since not many bands do it anymore.  Why did you use it and do you think more bands should use them?

Andy and Dan are huge vinyl collectors so they enjoy looking at the band collages within the sleeves. When we first self-released our album – we made a custom CD booklet with a fold out collage within. We all agreed we had to have a collage in our own album! The collage focuses around the people who helped us out during the years; family and friends and stuff. Whether more bands should have them – it’s their choice. We chose to do it because they are awesome to look at, and vinyl releases should come with a band collage! We were thinking about adding a collage to our second release. If so, we will probably only print it for the vinyl release and not the CD pressing.

Should people do research into the unknown bands in the thrash metal underground?  There were so many bands that got missed the first time around.  Is it important to know the roots of metal and pay attention to these missed gems?  What are some bands that you feel weren’t recognized to the degree they deserved?

There are a lot of bands people don’t know that were great thrash bands – people only think of Slayer, Megadeth, and Metallica. We look into as many bands as we can and it helps us with our music. Not only do they influence us, but we also make sure our riffs aren’t similar to guitar riffs written by other bands in the past. A band that I feel wasn’t recognized to the degree they deserved would be Infernal Majesty, Their album None Shall Defy is a heavy album! The music is complex and the drumming is just simply awesome! I advise anyone who has never heard of Infernal Majesty to pick up None Shall Defy!!

One thing that has always perplexed me is the demise of the Circle Pit.  I mean back in the day I used to always go to thrash concerts and Circle pitting was awesome.  But then about the time Death metal arose it seemed to disappear.  Why do you think that is?  Are you working to revive it?

Yeah, it’s a real shame people don’t remember circle pits anymore. We encourage circle pits at our shows; we don’t want to see our fans punching each other in the face, doing roundhouse kicks, windmills or plain o’ acting stupid – we want to see them circle pit! Over here in the LA thrash scene – everyone circle pits at thrash shows and it’s awesome to watch. Personally, I don’t circle pit, I’m fragile and I’ve had enough experiences with broken bones!

Everyone knows about the old American thrash bands to some degree but what is interesting to me is the new American scene that is popping up.  What do you think of the current modern American thrash scene?  Are there any bands that feel deserve more attention than the rest?

I understand there are many thrash bands grouping around the US, being based in California, I haven’t seen these bands live. Every once in a while a band from out of state comes down to LA and plays a couple of shows. We’ve shared the stage with Meltdown from Pennsylvania last year. Those guys were cool guys to hang out with and their music sounded awesome live. We have also played a couple of shows with Avenger of Blood from Las Vegas and Toxic Holocaust. When bands from other states aren’t coming around here, we usually play shows with Northern California based bands Devastator and Hatchet. Check out Meltdown, Avenger of Blood, Hatchet, Devastator and Toxic Holocaust.

On a similar topic, what do you think about all these classic bands that are reforming and putting out new albums like Assassin, Nuclear Assault, Exodus and so on?

I bought Exodus’ Tempo of the Damned when it came out, and I want my money back. I didn’t like it one bit. I haven’t heard that album in years. I also heard Shovel Headed Kill Machine and I didn’t like it either. I saw Celtic Frost live – and that sucked. It was slow and down tuned further than it ever was. I haven’t heard Nuclear Assault or Assassin live though. I try to stay away from old bands reforming and recording new material. It’s just not the same!!

You guys have a hate list, (an idea which I love) why do you hate these people?  Are there any ones that you think should get more hatred directed towards them than the others like say the Nu-metal or emo kids?  Why?

We have a hate list because before there was a LA thrash scene, there were a lot of people who hated our style of music. People just didn’t get it! They were too clouded by nu-metal that they didn’t know what thrash was. Plus emo was everywhere and I think they are stupid teens with issues who have nothing better to do than cry. People always ask us who Jason Kivi is –the last guy in our hate list – and why specifically want him to get AIDS and die. Well, Jason Kivi was a person we went to when we wanted to record a demo before Annihilate the Masses. We recorded around six tracks and we waited for the demo to be mixed and finalized. However that never came because he lost our tracks. He never even told us what happened to them. He just kept saying we’d have em in a couple of weeks. So yeah, we hate him the most.

What does it mean to be under the executioner’s command?  Who is the executioner and what does he want you and all of us to do?  Heh heh.

That’s a damn good question, cause even I didn’t know the answer! HAHA!! Well, I asked Dan and he said “Slaughter Lord” is about an executioner in Hell that sacrifices hell bound souls to the Devil. So I’m assuming the executioners command is that he wants us all to sacrifice our souls to Satan. Would you be willing to do that for him?

Off the topic of music for a second, what do you think of the state of American politics?  Are you a person with any political motivations at all? 

I don’t consider myself political. I do watch the news and am aware of current issues, but I don’t take it upon myself to go out and rally against or for political issues. I’m not against rallies or for standing up for what you believe in – I just don’t do it, that’s all.

What does the future hold for you guys?  Any idea on when you might start recording a new album?

We are currently planning our second release; we should be recording it in the winter time for an early 2008 release date. Our second album has already been written, so we just have to go in the studio and record! I don’t really enjoy the recording process because it feels like a job, but hey – the final product is worth it! Currently we are planning our first US Tour! If you’re interested in seeing us live – find our tour dates online!

Any last words before the Final Slaughter?

Thanks for this interview, and I hope to see you at one of our shows in the future! For all those who don’t have our album – I advise you to get it! Merciless Death – Evil in the Night out on Heavy Artillery Records!!!