An Interview with Land Phil of Cannabis Corpse
Cannabis Corpse has been lighting up their unique strain of death metal since 2006. With four albums, two Eps and a split with Ghoul, there are more than enough killer riffs, thunderous drums, and weed inspired guttural roars to keep your buzz going all night. I caught up with vocalist/bassist Land Phil to find out what’s next for the trio from Richmond, Virginia.
Derek: Hi! Thank you for taking the time to chat with me! You released “From Wisdom to Baked”, which in my opinion is the most awesome Cannabis Corpse album to date, in 2014 and did a headlining tour with Mammoth Grinder and Inanimate Existence. How was the response to album from your perspective? How was the tour?
Phil: Hello MetalSucks! Last year was an incredibly busy year for me. I wrote and recorded 3 full length albums: Cannabis Corpse “From Wisdom to Baked”, Iron Reagan “Tyranny of Will” and Six feet Under “Crypt of the Devil”. I also extensively toured with Iron Reagan playing well over 250 shows with bands like Napalm Death, Voivod, Exhumed, Power Trip, Eyehategod as well as a month long tour with Cannabis Corpse and several short runs with Municipal Waste, one of which took us to Malaysia and Indonesia! I feel very fortunate to have has these opportunities to bring my music to all the fans out there around the globe. And the feedback I have been getting makes me excited to get started on the next batch of albums I have planned for the future. I will continue to work hard for all you headbangers out there for as long as I have a heartbeat.
Derek: Cannabis Corpse entered the studio in January to begin work on your fifth album. Where are you at in the recording process? Do you have a title for the album? Will we be getting a taste of the new songs soon?
Phil: We are very early in the recording process, my brother Hallhammer and I do all the engineering ourselves so generally I will finish some scratch demos and Hallhammer will record drums while I am on tour. Then when I get back I will begin working on the guitar tracks or vocals etc. We are currently at the drum recording stage of the new album. So far so good! I think this material is much faster and catchier than previous efforts. Plus we have a new addition to our line-up that I am sure will bring a ton of new ideas to the table.
Derek: You’ve recruited Brandon Ellis of Arsis as your new guitar player. How did that come about? How involved was he in songwriting for the new album?
Phil: Yes, we are super pumped on Brandon joining Cannabis Corpse, he is by far the best guitar player that I have ever been in a band with. He is incredible! We had written these demos before Brandon had joined but we are going to get him to record all the rhythm guitar tracks and add as much embellishment and solos as he wants, I am sure his style will come through on the new material. All our previous material was Josh and I doing all of the writing; it will be great to have fresh blood in the mix.
Derek: On your Facebook page you’re once again asking fans to submit ideas for song titles. That’s an awesome way to interact with your fanbase! You receive so many replies, is it hard to narrow them down to just an album’s worth of titles?
Phil: We love fan submissions! It’s hilarious! But most of the time we don’t end up using any of them ha ha! It has to be something really, really good for us to use it on an album. We just think it’s funny to see how random it gets, occasionally we will get a good one but a lot of the time it’s totally ridiculous.
Derek: Often with bands that are built around a gimmick or a spoof the appeal can start to wane once the joke has run its course. But Cannabis Corpse delivers solid, top-notch death metal that only seems to get better with each album. That can only happen if you truly love what you’re doing. Do you see this band continuing on for many years to come?
Phil: When Josh and I started this band we wanted to do brutal 90s style death metal without doing the typical death metal imagery. We knew that if we just went with the same old “blood, death, gore” lyrics it would just get lost in the endless abyss of bands doing that type of stuff. We thought that naming our band Cannabis Corpse and having the weed imagery was a way to be different. We love the style and never half ass any of our music so hopefully that dedication to quality comes across in everything we put out. This band is also a way for my brother and I to travel and tour together. I am touring a lot with Municipal Waste and Iron Reagan so when we get a chance to hit the road it is special to us. I don’t see Cannabis Corpse ending any time soon. Knock on wood.
Derek: You collaborated with Chris Barnes on the upcoming Six Feet Under album, how did that come about?
Phil: Barnes has been a really cool guy to us, we asked if he would be interested in doing some guest vocals on the new Cannabis Corpse album and he did an awesome job. After that he reached out to us and asked if we would like to collaborate on the new Six Feet Under album, we are huge fans of Chris so we jumped at the chance to make more music with him. I was very busy touring with Iron Reagan at the time but we still found a way to write and record the entire album on the road. I was super pumped on making music with one of my all-time favorite vocalists and I am happy with how it turned out. I saw the write up that MetalSucks did on the single we put out and “Axl Rosenberg” threw it under the bus saying it was boring, and that he wanted some dude from Whitechapel or some shit back. Sorry my style of writing isn’t anything like the Whitechapel dude.
Derek: I was very fortunate to have seen Cannabis Corpse in 2013 on your tour with Six Feet Under and Decrepit Birth; it was an absolutely awesome show and ranks up there as one of my all-time favorite concerts! What are your tour plans for 2015? Any chance they include a visit to Lawrence, Kansas? Pretty please?
Phil: Lawrence actually has a pretty awesome death metal scene. A lot of really good bands coming out of that town that are super brutal. As far as 2015 goes I have a ton of European shows with Iron Reagan already booked, (I am doing this interview in Melbourne Australia as we speak) so hopefully Cannabis Corpse will do another run in the fall somewhere after we finish tracking the new album.
Derek: Now it’s time for The Marvelous Three Round of Questions! What’s your favorite breakfast cereal? Most metalheads have large concert t-shirt collections. What’s your favorite band t-shirt? And last but not least, are you a cat person or a dog person?
Phil:
1. I will take several brands and mix them together.
2. I have a Razor Ramon t shirt that I cherish.
3. I love dogs but the only pet I own Is a cat named Sarah.
Derek: Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions! I can’t wait to hear the new album and I hope to see you on tour soon!
Check out “Individual Pot Patterns” off of “From Wisdom to Baked”
