FLESH PRISON is a utilitarian grindcore machine. Featuring members of Population Control, HEXX + every other local heavy band, this project is a purpose-built three-piece focused on speed, live aggression + oppressive sonic terror.
Bridging the gap between hyper-speed grind, fastcore + death metal, the atmosphere is relentless, lunging between psychosis + despair. Definitely for fans of Insect Warfare, Magrudergrind + Suffocation. We chatted with Mike and Luke ahead of their ALT//FEST slot on Saturday, November 12 at Badlands Bar.
The band’s been quiet so far this year. What have you been up to?
MIKE: In short, not much. I guess we've just had our own life crap getting in the way. We played our first and only show of the year in August and I think that gave us a bit of a shot in the arm to start being productive again, because it reminded us how fun it was!
How did Flesh Prison come about?
MIKE: We're all folk of a certain age... so we've been in the same Perth metal/punk orbit for many years. Luke played guitar in Population Control with me in the early years of that project, and I always wanted to start a new project with him at some point. And Paul is just an absolute wizard multi-instrumentalist and legend, so we knew who we wanted on drums from day one I think.
Who are you most excited to see on the ALT//FEST line-up?
LUKE: Extortion and Drowning Horse literally directly influenced this band. Like one of my favourite songs is just me writing a sped-up Extortion song. I’m hell keen to see Bolt Gun, Sow Discord and Sooks!
Who is your biggest musical influence?
LUKE: I think our biggest influences are somewhere between grind stuff like Insect Warfare, Captain Cleanoff, Sex Prisoner, then lots of US death metal and UK fastcore.
The band describes itself as “utilitarian grindcore”. Do you want to elaborate on what that means?
LUKE: Basically, just really economical song structures. No unnecessary bullshit and nothing longer than it needs to be. But also having one guitar and no bass allows each of us to focus on our thing; it makes the creative and the logistical side of the band really easy to manage. It’s following in the footsteps of heaps of sick bands like Internal Rot, Magrudergrind, The Kill, Pig Destroyer, Wormrot, etc.
Does Flesh Prison have any plans or anything coming up that people should know about?
We recently got the final masters back for a proper record and we're stoked at how it sounds. Now we just need to figure out how we want to release it into the wild finally. We'll also have a couple of new shirts for ALT//FEST, and we're considering tour options for next year.
ALT // FEST is on Saturday, November 12 at Badlands Bar. Tickets available now here.