Plague Bringer
- Story by Kevin Stewart-Panko
Drum machine-propelled grinders scream bloody gore
It was a marriage made in metal heaven (and hell) from the very beginning, five years ago.
“It was our second rehearsal,” explains Plague Bringer’s guitarist/programmer Greg Ratajczak, “and we were doing ‘Burn Ward Whore.’ I’m playing with my eyes closed and Josh [Rosenthal, vocals] does the first scream. There’s a pause right before my vocals come in and I feel him fall against me. I thought he was just getting into the music, but as I open my eyes, I see him fall to the ground. He falls on my pedals, the drum machine is blaring and Josh is laying there, eyes rolled back in his head and twitching. I’m panicking, thinking he had an aneurysm. He came to and was like, ‘Whoa! What happened? I remember letting out that scream, getting light-headed, then seeing you looking down at me.’ Needless to say, we were both a little shaken up, but from that moment on it was like, ‘This is who I want to do this with.’ Josh understands it and lets loose, lyrically and physically.”
To say this Chicago-based grind/thrash duo is intense is like saying it gets a little cold down Antarctic way. They’re also probably really neat as well; in most bands’ practice rooms, if someone collapses in a scream-induced heap, chances are they’re taking a broken beer bottle teeming with tetanus to the jugular. The tidy precision, vein-bulging intensity and industrialized blood-of-a-bitch ire of Plague Bringer’s second album, Life Songs in a Land of Death, sups from wells filled by Pig Destroyer, Godflesh and Anaal Nathrakh, as well as grabbing from classic thrash and the likes of Fear Factory and Ratajczak’s favorites, Tool.
“I write all the music myself and Josh writes lyrics that fit based on mood and vibe. I like it like that, and bringing another musician to that process is unacceptable,” he punctuates, regarding Plague Bringer’s mechanized anchor. “The only exception would be if Danny Carey calls me up and says, ‘I’m down.’ But, because we’re a drum machine band, we’ve got something to prove and I’m constantly trying to write stuff that stands out using the drum machine.”
Ironically, considering Plague Bringer’s forward-thinking sonic storm and the lyrical vividness of “The Severed Breath” and “Suffering in Reverse” (“There’s no reasoning with the thin-skinned masochist,” Rosenthal bellows), we have the jangly guitar, scarf-wearing indie rock scene to thank for bringing Ratajczak from behind the recording console.
“I was working at Clava Studios with Brian Deck recording indie rock bands. Brian took me under his wing and I learned almost every thing there is to know about Pro Tools and computer stuff and fell in love with electronic-based stuff and how it worked in my own songwriting. I loved working with those bands, but I wanted to play and write heavy metal. I love indie rock, but it’s really lacking, guitar-wise. They don’t have ‘The Riff,’ y’know!”
