INTERVIEW WITH GEORGE WILFINGER FROM “MONUMENT OF MISANTHROPY” AND “RAISING THE VEIL” (BY ROTTENDAMNED)

George “Misanthropy” Wilfinger was kind enough to take time answering these questions for me. He is the vocalist from Monument Of Misanthropy and Raising the Veil. Raising the Veil are about to release a new album in the coming weeks and George “Misanthropy” Wilfinger will give more information about the new album in this interview. ( Also keep reading and you might know who LGG is)

Hi!! First I want to say thanks for answering these questions. Can you introduce yourself and give the readers a little background on Monument Of Misanthropy? ( when did the band start, How you guys met)
Well “Monument Of Misanthropy” is a brutal death metal band founded by Jean-Pierre Battesti, Romain Goulon (also drummer for Necrophagist) and myself in 2012. Jean-Pierre and Romain knew each other already from other local projects and were jamming in Nice, France some time before 2012. One day JP hit me up if I would like to work with them and do a brutal death album with them. I listened to the stuff they sent me and I was like “Wow. Finally some brutal death with groove and nice hooklines to slam to! Yes of course for a 100% I wanna do it!!!”. So I started working out my vocal drafts and not long time after we were recording the debut-album „Anger Mismanagement“ in 2013 and self-released it after a successful crowdfunding campaign in January 2014 worldwide (digitally and physical CD).

Can you explain how the writing process is within Monument Of Misanthropy?
It’s pretty easy to be honest. JP comes up with an idea, sometimes already with a completely finished song already with computer drums. I sit down and get inspired by the sound of it , getting first ideas where to do what kind of vocs-stuff like deep growls or high screams , fast or slow stuff etc. And then I am already at the point where I start writing the lyrics to the vocs-patterns I have in mind and record the drafts for the others to say Yay or Nay, what almost never happens (laughs). Then drums get done and the pre-production is finished for a song.

I have read the lyrics from the song “Bring Me The Head Of LGG”, but out of curiosity who is LGG?
(laughs) First of all to avoid any legal problems: All the lyrics are written from the point of view, of a lunatic and crazy fictional character – the Monument Of Misanthropy – who hates all humans especially animal abusers, and politicians and all kinds of fat-cats in so-called “high-society” and industry etc. So it’s not a big surprise that this fictional character “Monument Of Misanthropy” commands to bring the head of some stupid pop-music bitch that wears fur and meat-dresses on stage. Hope this hint is sufficient, but you can also find the head of LGG on the cover-artwork’s backside. Then you should be able to reveal the mystery… (laughs)

“Anger Mismanagement” was released last year. How was it received among metal fans and when can we expect a new album from Monument Of Misanthropy?
I guess it was well received judging from the comments, likes etc. on our streams and pages. The CD was also selling quite well for a self-releasing independent metal band. So we’re all really proud of what we have achieved so far. Unlike signed bands we’re not forced to bring out a CD every year to keep up sale-figures. So we’re taking our time to get some new inspiration and gathering new grudge and anger for a follow-up on “Anger Mismanagement”. So don’t expect anything before 2016. 

You are about to release a new record from your other band, Raising The Veil (Which sounds very awesome). Can you tell the readers a little background on Raising The Veil?
Well originally the band was formed in 2010 when I was looking for some new musicians after the band Seeds Of Sorrow (death metal, Vienna) has disbanded. As most bands these days Raising The Veil also had a lot of members coming and going in the early days. But after a year or so we had a stable line-up to play and rehearse. This led to the 2012 release of our debut EP “Yucatanimvs”, which was quite well received by tech metal fans and also critics.  So normally this should have been a boost for the band to continue working with full energy. I am sorry to say that this has not been the case with all of the musicians who have been part of the 2012 line-up. So I decided to look for new and more enthusiastic musicians to continue the successful beginning. I found them in 2 Canadian shredders: Daniel R. McLellan (guitar), Denis Landry (bass) and French drummer Romain Goulon of Necrophagist with whom I have already played and recorded with in the deathgrind band “Monument Of Misanthropy” before.

What are the lyrical themes of Raising The Veil?
I am a big fan of National Geographic and Discovery Channel documentaries. Especially astronomy, quantum physics and human brain research documentaries are things I like to watch and get inspired by. I am a real freak when it comes to questions about what is our consciousness, what does the cosmos look like, do multiverses and parallel universes exist etc. etc. I think it also fits like a glove to the complex song structures and solos in technical progressive death metal. Blood, Guts & Gore themed lyrics wouldn’t be fitting as well I suppose…. (laughs) So the lyrical themes are a mix of fringe scientific research and theories as well as conspiracy theoretical fiction.  Sometimes they are oppressive or even depressive, sometimes even a bit melancholic and dreamy when the musical theme seems to require it.

I really love your sick vocals, but during the album preview I heard a few clean vocals. Are you singing those clean vocals or someone else in the band?
Yes I do all the vocals on every song and also in every band I’ve recorded with so far. So yes, also the clean vocals were also done by me again. Some say death metal and clean vocals don’t go together at all. I’ve been thinking the same many years ago, but some bands, like The Faceless for example, made me reconsider my point of view and now I am doing it myself… (laughs)

I know that you don’t have a date for the release of the album. But around when do you expect it to be released?
We had to be a cautious with revealing any release date when we started our crowdfunding campaign on pledgemusic.com (http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/raisingtheveilnewalbum2015). Nothing more embarrassing than bragging around with a new release and release date and then nobody is funding the whole project. So we really could not announce any release date some weeks ago. But now as we speak the campaign has reached already 109% of its goal and still counting. So we can proudly announce the new album will be ready for release within the coming weeks, around end of June beginning of July 2015.

Just like Monument of Misanthropy you guys are financing the new album from Raising The Veil with the help of crowd funding. Why use this method and are there no record labels that are interested in Raising The Veil or Monument Of Misanthropy?
Well the answer is a counter question. Why should we not be using the opportunities of the 21^st century? (laughs). When you take a closer look at the downfall of music industry you will come to the conclusion that the only one you can trust and rely on is only you yourself and no one else. So why shouldn’t we record our stuff on our own with engineers and producers WE trust, let CD-artwork done by layoutists WE like and sell T-Shirts we want to wear ourselves. I think the crowdfunding thing is the future for bands who want to keep their artistic freedom and have the balls to take the DIY-path. And moreover if anyone thinks that a record company or label is willing to spend money in advance into your band just because of your incredible talents or because you’re such a cool and nice guy or a beast on stage, you’re a fool. It’s called music business and the music industry wants to earn money FROM you in the first place. So you have to be successfully selling you music & merch and selling out concert-tours year after year. Once the success stops, you get fired and the next new band gets hired. I don’t kiss ass in my day job, so why should I do this for my bands. It’s also speaking for itself, that many bigger bands are or have already founded their own record labels… Plus my motto in life has and always will be: “NON SERVIAM”. I wish more metal bands could say this nowadays….

Which metal band had a big influence on you that made you decide to start a band? What are your top 3 albums of all time? What are your favorite bands and what are you currently listening to?
Hmmm let me think, cos this has been quite some time ago. My first metal records were Judas Priest’s “Unleashed in the East” and Iron Maiden “Killers” when I started to air-guitar and fancy being in a band (laughs). But I guess it has been Morbid Angel’s “Altars Of Madness” that made me join a forerunner band of “Miasma”. Which leads me already to my Top 3 albums of all time… #1 Morbid Angel – “Altars Of Madness”, #2 Death – Symbolic, #3 The Faceless – Planetary Duality. My favorite bands are all kinds of crazy metal bands and it’s even a bit unfair to just pick a few, but I guess of course all the before mentioned bands and anything that ranges between Atheist, Oceano to Viraemia. Currently I am listening a lot the Obscura spin-off Alkaloid and also detected another cool band called Kronos for myself.

Thanks for taking time answering these question! Anything else you would like to share with our readers?
The entire band wants to thank you and your webzine for having the chance to talk to you! Hailz from Raising The Veil, stay tech and keep blasting!! \m/ George and RTV! \m/

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(c) Rottendamned