Give us a quick rundown of the MUNT story so far?
Munt was formed in 2016 by Spud (guitars, vocals) as a solo project inspired after catching Magrudergrind on their Australian tour. I think it was just him and his ex bandmate George from The Color Pink Is Gay his old mathy tech-deathcore band doing session drums for the original Cage demo.
I'm not sure when exactly but Spud met Ronnie (bass) who told him he had to make it into a proper band and he then linked up with Seb our old drummer and Joe the original singer who were both from bogan power-violence outfit, Uncle Geezer.
They then went onto re-record Cage and do two singles.
Not long later Joe ended up leaving and myself, Tim (lead vocals) was asked to fill in. I hadn't been in a band properly for abput 6 years at this stage but after hearing the demos for the song we now call Cleansing the World with Sickness and Disease from Towards Extinction, I knew immediately I'd want to join.
It was around this time I pushed for the idea of a second guitarist as there was too much potential for more layers for mood and atmosphere in the blackened parts of the music and it was only recently I'd become good friends with Sol (guitars) after going to Dark Mofo together and knew he was a perfect fit.
We then went onto do Towards Extinction, play some cool shows and do an East Coast tour. At the end of tour Seb left to pursue other things.
We'd been talking about doing a split with our friends in Cordell a fellow blackened grind/crust type band and just before lockdown started we got around to doing that. This worked out as for a short time we had their drummer at the time David, in our band as well.
Unfortunately lockdown fucked up really promoting and playing shows to support that release and with everyone burned out two years later we decided to just move onto making another EP which is where we land today. During the production stage we went our separate ways with David and through Luke at Dangertone studios, we were introduced to Jared who pretty much immediately was recruited to be our new drummer. We then got hard at work on recording Pain Ouroboros, our second EP.
I am normally one for way too many words and fluff in my speech so that's pretty much everything up until this point!
Labels & webzines often like to write at the end of a bio or review with the term ‘for fans of’ such & such bands. But we really think the band itself should be telling us this. So enlighten us if you would. MUNT is for fans of?
Sure, well everyone in the band has a pretty different take on what we are in their mind. We have taglined ourself as "blackened grinding death" for a little while and though that's more of a slogan than genre tag, it's pretty accurate.
If I were to actually describe our genre it's more like blackened false-grinding death-sludge hardcore… or something like that.
But to specifically say FFO I would say: The Secret, Full of Hell, End, Nails, Pig Destroyer, Celeste etc
Your third EP, ‘Pain Ouroboros’, is out on March 3rd independently. What would you say to a metal punter now to convince them to part with their crypto or credit card & grab themselves a copy?
I'm honestly a fucking picky elitist if I'm honest, but I honestly believe we're sitting on something pretty special as a band.
So, I call myself the fun police in the band, probably because I'm mainly lyricist and singer and prioritize more the mood and serious tone than the sick riffs and catchy bits. But that's kind of what has really worked for us, the tension between serious feelings and themes in the lyrics and atmospheric against… dare I say it "catchy" high intensity grindy-metal.
I think that translates into the experience really well. Like, do I want to sit here and read the lyrics and get pissed off thinking about things in this atmospheric sludge feeling bit but then I'm being bombared with intense riffs and pounding blast beats a second later and it's like a clashing sensory overload at times.
I think that's what people like about us, it's like the struggle we feel inside to define ourselves is very palpable and it's infectious.
I think despite my often wanting to make it more stripped back or serious, I fully believe that clash does cause us to stand out and not just be another whatever-core band.
Why call the band MUNT? You all have munted heads? Is it a collective term for a group rowdy knobs in Melbourne? Rhymes with something else? Why?
So, to Munt is to throw up, and Spud once put it as writing a band about everything that makes you sick in the world.
Also, he couldn't believe Munt wasn't already used for a band name especially in Australia. Funnily, Munt is used the same way in Scotland where Spud is from (Glasgow specifically) as it is here in Australia. So it's also a cool link between his past and present.
‘Pain Ouroboros’ is an interesting EP title, what exactly does it mean?
Sol came up with this one, funnily enough I didn't like it for a long time and fought against it. The reason why is I wanted something a little more wordy and eloquent, in other words pretentious, haha.
The themes on this record are a bit more of a mixed bag than a cohesive conceptual piece. But something that unifies everything together is concepts of struggle, conflict, pain and futility.
So I guess really it's the cycles of pain in life and the world. Cycles, using the image of the Ouroboros, the serpent devouring it's own tail. I think that speaks for itself really, and many of the lyrics are inspired by meditations on recent world events.
We are devouring ourselves through our acts of self and mutual destruction. And in a way, it is mastubatory in a masochistic and sadistic manner.
To date you have released 1 split, 2 singles & 3 EP’S. When can we expect a full length recording? Or will you be one of those grind bands that only releases the small stuff?
I think we're getting close to a full length album, but I think we're feeling like it's no rush.
I personally really want the next record to be a piece of art or cinema. Like something we've sat around and thought about a lot. How all the pieces fit together and the nuances and pacing and tone. I feel like we have that opportunity now and hopefully we can manifest something really cohesive and expansive. It's possible the next record is also just a collection of sick songs too with no grand narrative or pretentious approaches to composition and that would still hit hard, haha.
However, I see us doing small releases still. We have a lot, and I mean a lot of songs we are sitting on. Ones that myself, Sol and Spud have all individually demo'd out. Technically, we could just make it all into an album as was nearly the goal for Pain Ouroboros until we realized it could be too soon and might feel forced.
Some of those might work their way into smaller releases too. Look at a band like The Acacia Strain for example. Recently they've just been pounding out singles and small releases for the experimental feel of it (though some of that ended up being collated into a full release)
I even think today with streaming, digital platforms and more of a collectors passion vibe going through the scene lately, bands really can get away with doing cool little releases. I actually have started to find full lengths quite boring at times. I think trying to do 12 songs every 2 to 3 years for a record is a little on the grind for me and for some bands.
One thing I've spoken with the guys about is doing experimental tracks or releases too, perhaps something live and improv driven akin to the collab albums between The Body and Full of Hell.
Perhaps that's genuinely too out there and would take a lot of practice to make happen, but that's just to demonstrate how open minded things are.
Your music has a blended sound with a blob of grind, a dash of black, a drizzle of sludge, a dollop of death and maybe even a pinch of hardcore. How’s it got to sounding this way?
It's all of our tastes combined, honestly.
The first demo/EP (which I really love as a fan before joining) has a real Magrudergrind/Full of Hell thing going on. That's kind of the roots of it all, that modern power violence/grind energy.
Spud had already opened things up to be more atmospheric and bleak but also a bit more modern hardcore by the time I had joined, but I certainly have tried to push it even further into grim and moody territories. Not necessarily to remove the grindy or hardcore elements, but just to color them a bit more with the discordant and despondent black metal and sludge vibes.
And then with Sol joining it's brought his taste in too, which is very similar to mine and Spuds. Like Sol likes a lot of intense and moody black metal or sludge as much as he likes more I guess, manic thrashy pure grindcore or death metal as well.
It's one of those things about too many cooks in the kitchen, it can be hard for your music not to feel like a riff salad. But that can also work really well with the right TLC and I think we always find the balance and avoid a total identity crisis.
Genre is only really relevant to help situate a band for reference, but at the end of the day they're all tools for conveying feeling and ideas.
Mainstream metal vs the underground – what’s your preference & hit us with 3 bands that have been tickling your fancy lately & we should check out.
Jesus christ, that is a can of worms.
Mainstream metal is pop music. It's popular music, for people with extreme tastes. It is an aggregation of what is accessible, which is not to say it's bad, it can be quite enjoyable. I guess you could say mainstream metal is like Marvel or Star Wars movies of metal. Maybe not the McDonald's of metal, but moreso just a tried and true classic dish. Like a parma, salad and chips with a pint of beer.
It's not to say these bands don't work hard, or intentionally tick boxes to contrive a positive response from the largest crowd. I guess it's just what tends to resonate most with more people? People=shit is a great example of that, it's something almost all people can agree with in some way. It's not something you need to think about too much to feel.
I'm trying my hardest not to shit on bands like that, haha. They're having fun and making waves. But we shouldn't conflate popularity and "success" with what is more impressive and better. Which is what I've seen casual fans of metal say about why underground bands aren't bigger.
Why I like and prefer underground acts more, is they're seeking more challenging, confronting or out there ideas and feelings in their music. Mainstream bands do experiment at times, and it's not to say they can't be on the forefront of a new sound. But I think underground bands tend to be less often bound by higher expectations because it's less often a viable career path. I think it's so much easier to really go hard in doing wild things for underground bands.
But you've got to give it to mainstream metal bands who manage to be hugely popular whilst experimenting with the mold.
Three bands from me are Plebeian Grandstand, their last album Rien Ne Suffit is the closest comparison to Mayhems very experimental, Ordo Ad Chao. It's a twisting horror orchestra of modern discordant and chaotic black metal, written by people come from a shoegazing and crust background, punctuated with extreme and scathing electronic elements. Like Deathspell Omega meets Mick Gordon. The compositions are utterly insane.
Walk Through Fire, are a Swedish sludge/funeral doom act who manage to make despondent walls of bleak guitar chords so aggressive I want to punch people. The vocals sound like someone from a beatdown hardcore band, but the music is like Primitive Man but instead of tritones they use melodious and despondent like Bell Witch riffs.
Lastly I would suggest King Yoself.
They're an infectious mix of (good) industrial metal, trap and the energy of moshy hardcore.
It's what Code Orange would sound like if they'd not become WWE core, and instead hung out with Justin Broadrick of Godflesh a bunch.
Really fucking angsty and bleak moods, punctuated by huge beats and walls of crunchy, gristling electronics.
Favourite musical format? Tape, vinyl, CD or digital & why?
The digital age comes with many perils, but it's made finding music so, so much more easier. I do miss buying physical media and being forced to listen to it. Or moreso, I lament the younger generations not having to do this. But seriously, even if streaming is killing artists making money and making music a little disposable, so many bands are getting found who would NEVER be known.
What formats will your EP be available on?
Currently digital and CD's, with an open mind towards pressing analog formats.
A lot of bands in the current climate are adapting & coming up with some interesting & out there ideas for merch. Anything you plan on doing differently? Or if not, what do you have on offer at the moment?
Haha, we talk about this often enough.
Sometimes they are half joked gimmicky ideas that could actually be awesome to do.
Such as balaclavas, polo shirts for that lad/eshay look, slides etc
I think mostly we want to find great designs with a great aesthetic but also things people will want to wear.
So far for this release cycle we have two logo shirts, a longsleeve with a design by BMS Illustrations and a tshirt with a design by Bloodthrower.
Hypothetically, your next album is out, you’ve booked a massive national tour. What would be your ultimate Australian heavy music line-up that you would take with you to support you on it?
With Munt headlining and anyone willing to support us? Damn.
YLVA, Altars, Resin Tomb and… Burn In Hell? You've given me the easiest question and I'm overthinking it, haha.
And lastly….
Most overrated metal band ever is?
(Early era) Mayhem
Most underrated metal band ever is?
Black Sheep Wall