In death metal history there has been a multitude of powerful vocalists but only a handful have stood out that have established the foundation for future vocalists. Death Metal demands a powerful and energetic front-man that can command the crowd with the highest of mastery and deliver a devastating lyrical onslaught that can annihilate the masses. The vocalist is one of the most important and most integral components of any death metal band and I believe that Frank Rini was one of these people. He was the reason for Internal Bleeding's evolution into higher levels of intensity and supreme display of brutality. This is what death metal is suppose to be all about. Once again, it is with great honor that I now present to you Frank Rini's recollection of his experience in New York Death Metal and Internal Bleeding.
Its time to feast on the flesh of man... -Lou
I was the vocalist for Internal Bleeding from 1994-1997. I was there for the beginning of New York Death Metal. It all really started out with bands playing thrash metal and then shortly after bands began to get heavier and faster. I attended tons of shows back in the day. I saw Carcass open up for Death and many of the greats. I remember seeing Suffocation play when they were unsigned along with Winter who were a incredible doom/death band that played the slowest music possible. When I first saw Suffocation back in 1989, I was like what the hell is this! It was not something that I had ever heard before and they were pretty raw back then but the vocals, for me, stood at the most significant, since I always wanted to be in a band. I would go to shows at the Sundance and supported the local scene. You had Apparition, who later became Sorrow, Human Remains from New Jersey always played, as well as Ripping Corpse from New Jersey and then you also had Pyrexia and Immolation. Talk about a show at Sparks on the Island! In one night it was Immolation, Suffocation, Pyrexia and Human Remains. I bought the Pyrexia demo, Human Remains and tons of Suffocation and Immolation shit. I believe that Pyrexia and Suffocation are the pinnacle of the slam death metal. Shows were not always packed, which was a shame but we all pitted and stage diving was mandatory. Back in the early 90' no one gave a shit about that, no bouncers, nothing. I had a blast. I had long hair and had a denim jacket with Entombed's Left Hand Path airbrushed on the back and I would mosh while smoking the biggest cigars. The scene was united at that point. I would go to shows with my friends the McGuirk brothers and Bill Tolley, who went on to drum for IB. I went away to college in 1992 and when I came back, I would go back to the shows and growl. One day at a sparks show, Bill said that I should be a singer, but I had to finish college first. I saw Internal Bleeding first open for Cannibal Corpse and Sinister in 1993. I bought the “Invocation of Evil” demo from Chris Pervelis and hung out with him for a while. I loved their show and thought the pit was pretty devastating. Never had a death metal band create so many breakdowns but still play death metal and not hardcore. When I graduated from college in the summer of 1994, I went to Slipped Disc Records near my house, and saw that Internal Bleeding were looking for a new singer. Chris Pervelis came over to my house and we talked for a while and I had to learn “Prophet of the Blasphemes” and “Anointed in Servitude” from the “Perpetual Degradation” EP demo that was due to be released in about 2 months. It was tough and my vocals were raw, but the band liked what I had to offer. Anthony Miola was really pushing me to hold out the growls longer and was killing me in the rehearsals, but in the long run it made me better. So I think it was after the 3rd try-out that they basically said they wanted me in the band and I went home and shaved my head. I had a shaved head in college, but grew it back. When I was first trying out for Internal Bleeding they were probably going to say that this alternative hairstyle had to go, but I knew all along if I got in I was shaving my head. They loved the look and then I had to learn all the songs from both demos. We headed out that summer and played the Milwaukee Metal Fest, some other Midwest shows then we went up to Canada and tore it up. The scene was tight and I had become friends with Mortician, Afterbirth, Necrosis and a lot of other NY bands. I received a great reaction from the fans and they liked my live rants where I told people to rip up the floorboards and I wanted to see body bags get carried out of the club. I bought a cordless microphone and sang in the pit for probably 2/3 of the shows. I loved the community and I was such a supporter of the scene that I would buy everything in site.
Pavement Records enjoyed our Milwaukee Metal Fest performance and signed us. We reworked some older demo songs and coupled them with the newer songs that were released on the “Voracious Contempt” full-length. The purpose of my vocals was to growl but to punctuate and make at least some of what I was growling to be understandable—I think that I achieved that to some degree. Pavement Records did not like the original recording mix of the first album and sent it to Scott Burns for remixing that compressed everything. I actually still have the original “Voracious Contempt” mix on a crappy cassette tape. The guitars were more upfront in the original mix, but in reality the Scott Burns mix was better. The original was just too raw and did not sound as tight. It sounded a little sloppy (I just listened to it last year). It was my first time in a recording studio and some may say the overall sound did not capture our live sound fully. But, hey back in 1995 for a first full-length recording, I think that “Voracious Contempt” sounds pretty good still. They got the tape to Chris Barnes who was now singing with Six Feet Under and I spoke to Chris at Milwaukee and he liked it. We got booked on the Six Ft Under “Haunted Tour” with Immolation. It was an amazing experience. We sold tons of merchandise and met all our friends that we had been keeping in touch with. There were no emails back then and I remember-all snail mail. After that tour I did some vocals on Immortal Suffering's second demo, along with Kelly from Deathrune and also did vocals for Dystopia 1 on their second record. Things were going really well. We then started to write “Extinction of Benevolence” in between playing shows. The music was getting heavier and I was had began to experiment with my vocals more. I had been taking vocal lessons before the tour because I was having problems with my throat. The teacher trained Tony Bennett. He was this little old guy who thought I was insane to be singing death metal. But, he helped me out and I never had a problem ever again. I learned to do the inhale growling singing and hold my growls for over 2 minutes and I incorporated that onto the second record. The problem at this time, around 1996, was that I had moved down to Maryland to live with my girlfriend, who is now my wife. Playing shows was not happening a lot and I could not get to New York as much as I wanted to since I was working and supporting myself. Yes, you can say this was the old cliche of a chick breaking a band apart. What was I to do? I worked on my vocals really hard and I think they came out great on “Extinction of Benevolence.” They carried a lot more range and were angry sounding. The music was killer too and it was so heavy. The production was marred by Anthony, who was listening to a lot of rap and wanted to put 808 bass drops everywhere. The album is overloaded with those bass booms. I guess you can say that we were the first death metal band to do that. Now, “deathcore” bands do it all the time. But “Extinction of Benevolence” is the first record to include those sonic bass parts and that was back in 1997. Once “Extinction of Benevolence” was recorded, I was promoted at the Correctional Facility that I was working at and knew that my days in the band were over. I went up to New York and had a nice steak dinner and smoked cigars at Chris Pervelis’ house. We both had tears in our eyes because he and I were close friends. When I told the rest of the band that I was leaving, they were upset and Anthony was pretty angry that he even tried to get my vocals removed from the recording. Let's just say that he and I had a little talk and he understood how important the vocals were to me and they were left alone. By this point I was a little bitter. The band had been sued for $10 million. It was a ridiculous lawsuit from someone that was hurt at an Internal Bleeding show. It turned out that I was named in the lawsuit, but the incident happened in early 1994, when I was not in the band. At the time, I was in upstate New York attending college. I had to shell out over $2000 to clear my name, while some of the other members in Internal Bleeding did not put in any money. So I was a little bitter, but that is not why I left, it was because of the job and I knew it was not fair to the fans and the band. We parted on good terms. Ryan from Disfigured filled in for me when I left and then the band got Ray from Immortal Suffering to sing and he was also on the “Driven to Conquer” record. I knew my name was bad mouthed by some of the Internal Bleeding members for a while, but I still bought “Driven to Conquer” and thought it was a killer record. I loved Ray's vocals. A few years later, Chris Pervelis and I were back in touch and the summer of 2005 was the Maryland Death Fest where Chris was playing his last show with the band and wanted me to do some vocals. They had Jerry in the band at the time and he was cool with it. He complimented me by saying he could not really sing too much off “Extinction of Benevolence” because my phrasing was pretty complicated. That made me smile. I was introduced during Internal Bleeding's set and the place went wild! We ripped into “Languish in Despair” and the pit became an NY style pit instantly. I cried after the show, no one knows that. It brought back a lot of memories and I signed posted and autographed the entire weekend. Internal Bleeding then released “Onward to Mecca” and not a lot of people like it due to Jerry's hardcore style but I think Internal Bleeding released an amazing record with the best production they ever had. I loved Jerry's vocals on the record and think the songs were killer. Chris Pervelis and I then began talking of reforming the old band. I wrote an entire album worth of lyrics. Matt from the Illinois Death Fest had us headlining the 2007 summer death fest that we were planning to do, but I got another promotion at work and my wife was pregnant with our daughter. I could not do it. I know it pissed Chris Pervelis and Brian Hobbie off as well as Matt and a lot of fans. I felt really bad. I had memorized all the music from the first two Internal Bleeding albums again and was practicing at my house three times a week and my vocals sounded really good. Unfortunately, I was entering another new stage of my life in fatherhood and could not pursue the music. I tried to get into a metalcore band over here in Maryland about 5 years ago, but my vocals were too “heavy” for them. I still miss playing live and would love to do some singing again. I want to be back in a band that plays a form of Death Metal, but with alot of Grindcore influences. As a father of two and working in corrections for over 13 years now I have never stopped listening to death metal and Grindcore. I actually do love all the deathcore bands, maybe because they took a page or two out of the Internal Bleeding book. I love Whitechapel, I Declare War, Impending Doom, Suicide Silence, Oceano, Carnifex, Acacia Strain, Chelsea Grin, and Despised Icon. I do not like melodic Death Metal. The music has to be brutal as shit, whether it's Defeated Sanity from Germany, Tech bands like Braindrill, Origin, Gorod, Ulcerate, Fleshgod Apocalypse, or Grindcore like Defeatist, Captain Cleanoff, Wormrot, Misery Index, Mumakil, Squash Bowels, Napalm, Insect Warfare, and bands playing an older style like Asphyx, Hail of Bullets, etc. I still listen to the bands from the 1990's, and I still love Suffocation, Dying Fetus, Scattered Remnants, etc. My wife complains that at 38 years old I still buy records and shirts and ruin family pictures with my Pig Destroyer or Krisiun shirts. She knows it's a non-winning battle since Death Metal will always be in my blood. I will be 90 years old sick and decrepit but I will still listen to death metal.
Regarding Slam Death Metal, New York Style: Prime songs to listen to are Suffocation “Liege of Inveracity,” Pyrexia “God,” Internal Bleeding “Anointed in Servitude” or “Ocular Introspection,” Repudialtion, and Skinless. New York Death Slam music usually has a “rat a tat tat” type of blast beat that abruptly goes into a slow breakdown made to incite mass riots and violence. With respect to what we did, we loved the hardcore breakdowns of hardcore bands and incorporated that type of breakdown into the music that then had hardcore bands/fans loving us. I listen to a band like Braindrill and I love them, but seeing that live, not sure how that would translate. In a death metal band with slam, you are going to have group participation from the fans, where people are pitting and feed off the energy of the bands performance. New York Death Metal has influenced a lot of other countries. For example, Germany’s Defeated Sanity, are similar to a more brutal 1990's version of Suffocation and their slowdowns are NY Death Metal inspired, then you have Deranged From Sweden who used to incorporate a lot of NY Style influences. The NY Style is very recognizable.
Heavy vocal contenders of the 1990's in the tri-state area were obviously Frank Mullen from Suffocation, Daryl from Pyrexia, John from Mortal Decay, Will from Mortician, Matt from Afterbirth, Sherwood from Skinless, Repudilation. I would like to think that I also had an impact on the scene as well. When preparing for the second Internal Bleeding record, my prime vocal influences were John from Mortal Decay, Rick from Embalmer (Ohio), and Will from Mortician. That is why my vocals were deeper on the second record. I just developed my singing from doing lots of growls, listening to bands, accepting feedback from the guys in Internal Bleeding, and the vocal lessons I was taking. Take note that breathing is an integral part for any singer.
I have to say that being in Internal Bleeding in the 1990's was one of the highlights of my life. I felt Chris, Brian,, Anthony and Bill were my brothers and we would try and give the crowd the best show possible, even if it was in front of 30 people, and yes we had shows that you could hear crickets sometimes. We toured together, were in car accidents together, fought together, and we hung out together as friends which is why I cherish those moments and will do so for the rest of my life. I buy records, shirts, but only go to maybe 1-2 shows a year now. The scene is younger now. They don't know what unity is, the way it was in the 1990's. Yet, I am still happy to see that heavy music is so popular. So what if a “deathcore” band sells 7000 records on their first week, the fact that so many people are into heavy music makes me smile. Sure, we were all competitive as bands and there was some shit talkers, but by and large, we were all friends having a good time. I looked at myself as a fan first and band member second.
I love death metal and still listen to my older records. My death metal collection, both new and old tops at 1000. As I convert them into my hardrives, the records will still adorn my house and I always need to look at the lyrics and see the record for myself. The newer bands today are using better technology and are faster than they were years ago. But a show back in the 1990's in New York would tear your head off. The pits were so vicious. Look on the inside tray card of “Voracious Contempt” and there is a picture of one of our pits, while we are playing live. Just a sea of bodies smashing into each other, that's how it was and all the New York fans were the best, most down to earth muthafuckers, and I love them for supporting Internal Bleeding and the bands in the scene.
I will end by saying thank you to Lou and to all you crazy death metal maniacs. Support your death metal and help stop the building of the muslim Mosque near ground zero in NYC!
