The year’s well underway now, but for those in Scotland who get two days to allow the hangover to wear off here’s some nice, gentle death metal courtesy of Basilysk…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We currently practice and reside in Philadelphia.
How did you meet?
Josh Perrin formed Basilysk and released their first album Seasons of Misanthropy in 2012. Josh also joined forces with current Basilysk drummer Mike Churry in the cult death metal band Deform in 2013. Unfortunately, Deform disbanded in 2015, and its guitarist and founder Tim passed away soon after (RIP Tim). The stage was set once again for Perrin to reignite Basilysk from the ashes of Deform.
How long have you been playing as a band?
Eight years. This current line up has been actively playing together since 2016.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
The Basilisk is a mythical creature depicted as being part snake, part dragon and part bird. True to form, Basilysk’s musical style is a serpentine assault on the senses, careening between death metal, black metal and thrash metal, with an esoteric atmosphere and dark, mystical lyrics.
What are your influences?
Morbid Angel, Death, Dissection, Emperor, Suffocation, Demilich, Slayer, King Diamond, Mayhem, Satyricon, Captor, Gorguts, Metallica, are all big influences to us. One of the best compliments we’ve received from our new album EmergencE is that, while you can hear hints of those bands in our songs, we also have a sound that in uniquely our own.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Josh is the chief lyricist of Basilysk so far. “Sinners Of Their Own Reality” is about hypocrisy in society. “Sad State Of The Arts” is our battle cry against both the soulless music industry and also current mainstream metal trends. Josh devoted a huge artistic effort in not just writing the lyrics, but creating his own artwork to accompany them in our CD booklet. We highly implore you preorder our album on Bandcamp so you can read along and get the full audio and visual experience.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
We’ve played consistently since 2016 .We pride ourselves on playing loud, fast, and very tight. One of our biggest shows was opening for Cannabis Corpse at the 2018 Philly Tattoo Convention after party and we had a audience members from that night tell us that we gave them a run for their money.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
We played a DIY show in the Poconos that had pig bones scattered on the floor and a dude in full Viking gear having sword fights in the mosh pit. Luckily, no one was impaled. The cops showed up with a noise complaint after we played. They walked in to make sure everything was cool, but didn’t seem to notice or care about the bones or viking swords lying around.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
Josh: Ibanez RG, Marshall combo head played through a Marhall half staff, D’Addario strings.
Luke: Jackson DKmg, Egnator Renegade head played through an Orange PPC 212.
Jimmy: Spector NS bass, Fender Jaguar Japan series bass, Hartke head played through a GK 4X10.
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
We have our new album EmergencE due on February 22, 2019. We’ll also be playing an album release show that night in Philadelphia with Azotador from Bolivia.
What are your plans for 2019?
We have a music video to film in January, and hopefully a few EPs to record within the next year.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
Our guitarist Luke Gary started a new band called Blood Spore that we have yet to play with. Likewise, we head a great time playing with Headrot in Providence last year, so we’d love to play with them again.
From another BotD, Chasing Dragons: If you could have one artist feature on a song of yours, who would you have?
I think we would collectively all geek out over one of the Obituary guys playing a song with us.
And from The Grudge: Who would win in a fight… a tiger or a shark?
A Basilysk will slay both.
