MONSTROSITY-Interview with Drummer Lee Harrison

You can’t keep a good Death Metal band down, which is certainly the case for Florida veterans, MONSTROSITY.  The group have a history that goes back to the early days of Florida Death Metal. Their debut album “Imperial Doom” is an under-appreciated early Florida Death metal album. Its best known for the evil spawn that is the neck man himself, George “Corpsegrinder Fisher.

Drummer Lee Harrison took the time to answer a few of our questions. Read the following interview to find out more about “Screams from Beneath the Surface.”

MONSTROSITY has always been under the heels of such bands as DEICIDE, CANNIBAL CORPSE, MORBID ANGEL, DEATH, and OBITUARY.  They never seem to get their accolades they deserve. I hope this changes once “Screams from Beneath the Surface” hits the street, expect nothing more than brilliance.

Well, the bands you mentioned come from a generation just before ours, at least in terms of when our first album came out. We kind of arrived as part of the second wave of Florida death metal. We do tend to get overlooked because of that, but I think the reviews speak for themselves.

“Screams from Beneath the Surface” drops in less than two weeks. How has the early reaction been in the press and fans on YouTube?

The response has been our best yet, without question. We usually get pretty good reviews, but we know we put in the work to make these records as good as they can possibly be. That’s part of the reason why our albums sometimes take longer to release, we want everything to be exactly the way we envision it, and we refuse to rush anything out just for the sake of getting it done. We don’t respond to deadlines, and luckily, we really don’t have to. We’ve been fortunate to be able to work at our own pace, although sometimes that works to our detriment. It can take so long that it’s easy to get forgotten in an environment with such short attention spans. I completely understand it, of course, that’s just how things are these days. Still, I’m glad we were able to put something out and receive the kind of response we did. I think having the videos helped a lot. I’ve always looked at videos as something you can’t really gain from financially in a direct sense. We could have used that money to invest in more T-shirts, which would probably bring in more immediate revenue to promote the band. But since we hadn’t had a real quality video, I wanted to make sure this album got a fair shake and that there would be no excuses. Fortunately, I think it paid off. People tend to watch the videos and get a real sense of who we are as a band, rather than just listening to a lyric video or something that lacks imagery.

Please talk about the writing process.

As far as the writing process goes, I started writing during the mixing sessions for our last album,” Passage of Existence.” I came up with the first four songs during that time… “Banished to the Skies,” “The Atrophied,” “The Thorns,” and “Dark Aura.” I actually used as part of my drum solo on the 2019 tour, so European fans were exposed to the song even before it had vocals, though it was in a much more primitive form back then. The rest of the songs were written mostly in 2020, when the pandemic hit. That was the period when I really focused and came up with a bunch of new material to finish the album. Matt Barnes took my songs and elevated them to another level. He also contributed the song “Fortunes Engraved in Blood,” and we went back and forth on it a bit. In the end, it’s pretty much his song the way it turned out.

What about recording process and all that goes along with it (mixing, mastering, etc.)?

We recorded the drums at Audio Hammer in Sanford with Jason Suecof. It’s a very relaxing atmosphere the way he works, which lets us spend a little more time dialing in killer tones and making sure the drum sound is as good as it can possibly be. We also tracked the bass guitar there. We did some guitar work and vocals at Morrisound, then sent everything back to Jason for mixing. After that, we took the mixes back to Morrisound for mastering. So, it was a real back and forth, back and forth, process between the two studios. Overall, it was the best way for us to work and really get the results we wanted. I prefer Jason’s laid-back approach to recording drums, and it was great working with Jim Morris again at Morrisound for the guitars and vocals. Jim has done numerous albums with us over the years, and it’s always a pleasure working with him.

How do you feel about the album? Did it meet your expectations? Was there anything you would have done differently?

Of course, there are always things we would do differently if we had more time and more budget. But I think each project kind of takes on a life of its own, and you just have to go with it sometimes. Of course, we do everything in our power to make sure we’re happy with the final result, but there’s never a perfect album. Unfortunately, even if the albums you think are perfect at the time, given a few years, you start to rethink them. New advancements in studio technology can make even the best of our older albums sound somewhat primitive by comparison. I think it’s all about striking that balance, blending something modern with something classic and timeless.

How would you describe the music to a returning fan, someone who dropped off early on? Would you say it fits the spirit of the band?

To me, every album we’ve released feels like a continuing chapter of our very first one. Starting with “Dark Purity,” the music became a bit more melodic, but we’ve largely stuck to our core formula ever since” Imperial Doom.” It’s the combining of raw brutality and technical precision, with just a dash of melody thrown in. Above all, we’ve always tried to focus on solid songwriting, making sure every part is as catchy and memorable as it can be. At the end of the day, that’s just how we do things.

Tell me about singer, Ed Webb joining the band. I feel like I’m hearing Corpse Grinder on the first record. Would you say that’s a fair assessment?

Well, I’m sure there are similarities. He understands exactly what we’re going for and what the ‘Monstrosity’ sound is. We’ve always retained the high screams through all of the singer changes we’ve had. But we’re really happy with Ed, and I think he did a great job, probably some of the best vocals we’ve ever had. I’ve always liked his vocals, but when we were looking for a new singer, I had actually kind of forgotten about him. It wasn’t until Terry Butler mentioned Ed that I thought, ‘Of course, he would be perfect.’ So, the first chance I got, I gave him a call, and we’ve been working together ever since.

Explain to our readers the album title and the title track. What is going on here? Can you explain the concept of the album art and the lyrics to the title track and more…?

Well, there is no title track. The phrase “Screams from Beneath the Surface” has kind of taken on a life of its own as I’ve been doing these interviews. I’m really hoping that fans will dig beneath the surface and peel back some of the layers of the songs. Like I said before, I realize attention spans are very short these days and there’s always something new coming along. But I think if people approached the album the way we did in the ’90s, when you’d actually listen to the same record over and over because it was often the only one you could afford, you’d give it time to sink in and reveal itself. With the instant gratification of social media and the internet constantly flooding people’s minds, it’s easy to get lost in the mix and for people to move on quickly. So, I’m basically hoping listeners will take the time to go beneath the surface a little bit. Fortunately, the response so far has been really good, so I’m hopeful people will stick with the album.

How do you feel about the instrumentation?

I mean, we’re happy with it, of course, or we wouldn’t have done it, you know? But I think everybody did a great job on their individual parts, and I think it really shows in the end result

What’s next for MONSTROSITY? Will our readers be able to see some of our global fans be able to catch your performance?

Yes, we start touring on April 18th in Lucerne, Switzerland, and we’ll be on the road for about three to three-and-a-half weeks. We’re really looking forward to getting back out there. We’re in a pretty hectic frame of mind right now because it’s all coming up so soon. We’ve been practicing hard and trying to get everything ready, figuring out all the details and tying up loose ends. As soon as we get back, we’ll be playing the Maryland Deathfest pre party on Wednesday night before the festival officially starts. Then in June we’re doing Milwaukee Metal Fest, followed by Brutal Assault Festival in the Czech Republic in August. After that, the plan is to hopefully do a U.S. tour in the fall, as well as a Latin American tour. It’s possible we’ll keep things going into the new year too, but the goal is to stay busy.