Exclusive: Pile of Knives Break Down Their ‘Faces of Death’-Inspired EP ‘Driven By The Blade’
(Editor’s note: In our constant push to get more artist-driven content, we occasionally reach out to new and upcoming artists to put their mark on the ol’ ‘Sucks machine. Here, we’ve got Pennsylvania-based slam act Pile of Knives’s vocalist Bryan Martinez breaking down their newly released EP ‘Driven By The Blade.’)
When writing lyrics, I love seeking film and my own life experiences as an inspiration. I wanted to stay true to death metal as possible, but at the same time keeping a human element to it. So I literally watched Faces Of Death 1 through 4 and just took down a bunch of notes. I know a lot of the film is fake, but there is something to say about how popular it got back in the day through tape trading. A lot of people believed it was real, and some of it does look real.
I mixed the aesthetics of the films with my real life situations. Without going deep into it because it is super personal, but I for a long time have been a big control freak when it comes to myself. For years, I thought I was in full control of everything that I am, and that just wasn’t the case. I had a hard time coming to terms with that, so I wrote about it in these three songs. The lyrics are true to me, but at the same time it has a lot of fun brutal death metal lyrics. The last line on “Driven By The Blade” encompasses the overall theme of the EP: “I have a horrible closeness with self-destruction.”
“Laceration”
“Laceration” encompasses everything we love about heavy music; technical guitar work, to crushing blasting drums, and of course slow caveman slams. It gives the perspective of having that feeling of being stuck in quicksand. You have all the help in the world laid out in front of you, but you just keep sinking. This one is a blast to play live, for the band, and the crowd responds really well to it at shows with nothing but violence. Making the music video for this song was an awesome experience also, and the end result speaks for itself.
“Shank”
There are times in life when you have been overworked and under a lot of pressure. You are caught at a desperate moment unable to keep up. You drop your guard and begin to show yourself when you are most vulnerable. “Shank” is the line you crossed and there is no point of return. This song is a straight up ass beater. Its relentless, non-stop mayhem from start to finish. It’s fast and groovy all at once. It’s definitely a riff driven song that hits hard with front to back blast beats. We wanted to write a song focused more on death metal elements, both musically and lyrically.
“Kukri”
“Kukri” helped to break up the record as an instrumental track, which we love to do. This is our second time adding this element, to set a tone. Imagine walking in the dark late at night. Someone is following you. Then you come to realize it’s you who’s doing the following. It’s creepy, eerie, and ominous all the same time. Just like in our debut EP No Light we brought back our friends Anthony Bacola on guitar and Ben Karas on violin to help bring cold and somber feelings.
“Stabbed”
With an opening cyclical riff to set the tone, “Stabbed” is non-stop heavy. One hard hitting riff after another which leads to a massive ending breakdown. This song is a representation of highs and lows during severe anxiety. There is a feeling of a burden lifted in a very vicious way as the song progresses. It’s definitely unforgiving throughout. It has it all from the pinch harmonics at the start or the breakdown at the end. I think this song really helps define what Pile of Knives sounds like.
