HOMEGROWN: DELUBRIUM

Sonically brutal and musically adventurous, Caviteño death metal act DELUBRIUM are dead set on making 2023 the year that they break-out and spread their message and sound. Comprised of vocalist John Carlo Binungcal, guitarists Von Louie Ecal and Brandon Salazar, bassist Xat Verano and drummer Immanuel Gonzales, the outfit’s combination of detuned and extra chunk riffs, blistering solos, fast double-bass, blast beats and sludgy rhythms – finished off with intensely guttural vocals offers an almost refreshing alternative to like-minded heavy metal fans who might have temporarily forgot to tune-in to legitimately heavy shit…

Formed in 2021 by bassist Xat and vocalist Carl (who also played for a band called Molested Cadaver…), they ultimately gathered more members who were involved with other projects at the time: Aweng, who played for a band called Dark Theory, Brandon (formerly of Exoria) and guitarist Von who was also busy with various musical projects. The group naturally bonded through a desire to combine their common love for death metal with a more melodic kind of approach. 

By August 2022, they had recorded and released their first official single “Inhuman Plagues,” and announced that it would be part of a full-length to be released this year called Era of Falsity, and just last March, they were able to release an official music video for the track (which you can view here: https://youtu.be/bxJAyEeF_t4). And despite the members’ busy schedules, they’ve managed to hit the ground running this 2023 by playing anywhere and everywhere they can in their hometown and in Manila.

PULP got the opportunity to chat with vocalist Carl to get to know the band a little better. 

PULP: Thank you for indulging us! How’s it going with the band, and what’s been keeping you busy these past few months?

Carl: Well aside from our personal lives and commitments with our other bands, we’ve been able to play shows in Manila – mainly because we have a target to play two to four per month. It can be a struggle – dealing with everyone’s schedule since some of us have to run-off to play another show in one night – but seeing everyone’s commitment has made the band stronger. 

PULP: Describe the first time you all got together… was it an easy fit?

Carl: It was, really… we were all friends when we were young, so being in a band sort of already made sense. And like we mentioned, death metal was something we bonded over – we were all influenced heavily by it. 

PULP: So from the get-go, did you all know that it was the direction you’d take with the music? Was it always the plan from day one?

Carl: Well it’s really hard to claim that we’re just a death metal band, but like I mentioned, the influence of it is really strong among the members; as a band, we’re also keeping our eyes and ears glued to the scene – how it evolves and progresses, musically – so because we also believe in community within the scene, we never want to stay boxed-in with just one particular sound: we’re very open to other possibilities that we can fuse with our music… there is that desire to try and add our own character to the music we make, that’ll represent everyone’s personality and preferences.

PULP: “Inhuman Plagues” you say is influenced by the loss a lot of us went through during the pandemic… how did you get the ball rolling in terms of writing and recording the track?

Carl: It came together pretty quickly! We’d only been together for a few months, and we already came up with two tracks actually: a song called “Falsity Through Cure” and “Inhuman Plagues.” We took a vote on which song to record first, and it was unanimous that “Inhuman Plagues” would be first, so we went for it immediately. We felt it perfectly described the struggle we all had to go through, near-death experiences and all.

The track was recorded and mastered at Audio 747 Studios in our hometown of Cavite, and the clips we used in the music video were shot by Von’s brother, Ryan… and edited by Ryuu Soulshin, a buddy of mine…

PULP: You mentioned you’re already in the process of putting-together your full-length Era of Falsity… what can you tell us about it?

Carl: The whole album actually has a theme that connects all of the tracks: those years when we were all going through the pandemic: we’re trying to share everyone’s experiences, basically – it’ll have eight songs and they’re all full of aggression and melodic passages that we’re sure a lot of listeners will get a kick out of.

PULP: Now that metal is seemingly resurfacing again from the underground, how is the scene now in your perspective? Are there a lot of contemporaries you enjoy playing alongside?

Carl: It’s actually overwhelming and very fun these days, because we were not expecting it to be a big as it is right now, considering what we’ve all been through in the past couple of years; we’re very grateful that a lot of non-metal events have invited us, so we’re now very much open to sharing the stages with anyone – even though we did sort of had our doubts at first. These days, we very much look forward to playing those kinds of shows, so we salute ALL the underground event organizers and productions for allowing us to be a part of their platform. 

PULP: So what are the band’s immediate plans?

Carl: We’re planning to do a sort of EP launch this year, and we’ll reveal the full album

Launch on our facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/delubriumdmph/). But we’re going to keep hitting the studio whenever we can, and play as much shows in the process. PULP