We recently had the chance to sit down and talk with drummer Steve Shalaty of Immolation to discuss their newest album, ‘Acts of God,’ which was released on February 18, 2022, via Nuclear Blast records.
SDM: There were four years between Kingdom of Conspiracy and Atonement and five years between Atonement and Acts of God. Do you think the album would have been out any sooner if it wasn’t for COVID?
Steve: Yeah, that was the plan. We had four songs written that we were actually rehearsing a little bit when we were still running out and doing tours for Atonement. After the tour cycle stop for Atonement, we were going to finish the album, get it recorded ASAP, and get back out on the road. Unfortunately, the timing just hit perfectly with the shutdown. Then the brakes were on, and no dates were being locked in. There were no deadlines or anything like that. It was just Bob writing at his own pace and sending me the songs as he did them, so we had a long time to work on it.
SDM: I was just down in Florida a month and a half ago, actually on the 17th anniversary of the passing of Dime. I was in Armadillo headquarters sitting in a room with a bunch of Dean guitars, and I believe Dime actually played one of them, which was crazy cool. I bumped into Paul Mazurkiewicz, who was talking to me about the new Cannibal record. I didn’t realize that Alex Webster recorded his parts at home and sent them to Mana, where everybody else tracked. How did you guys go about doing it? Were you all in the same location? Or did someone track remotely? How did it all come together?
Steve: We initially planned on working with Paul Rufino again. Then due to the shutdown, he had to move the studio’s location to a smaller facility, and we were a little worried that it wouldn’t be what we needed. So for a minute there, we were looking at many Plan B’s and Plan C’s and even having me look around here locally where I live to see if there was a place where I could make my drum tracks and send that out to them. But luckily, things came through with Paul, and he was able to accommodate us. So we ended up going out there and doing everything in the studio just like usual. It was cool because it was all four of us. Usually, it’s just me and Bob and Ross, you know, Bill, he never recorded with us or had anything to do with the studio. This time, Alex is out there because he recorded guitar tracks, solos, and all that good stuff. So it was the whole crew, which was nice.
SDM: Yeah. It sounds like you lucked out a little bit on that one. Alright, so that was just a little bit of an up. I haven’t interviewed in a while. This feels a bit weird.
Steve: I haven’t either, man. I’ve been doing them on the regular lately, though. It just took some getting used to.
SDM: I used to do them all the time on the phone, but a lot of them via email. We had a great list of albums for the SDM top list of 2021. And, despite everything else, we still featured like 50 guys! You’ll go on next year’s list for sure 😉
Steve: Yeah, the writing didn’t stop… that’s for sure. If anything, it increased, man. I played a lot more drums. What else are you going to do? You know!
SDM: Exactly. I made a post yesterday on our Facebook, and I said, “Hey, I’m interviewing Steve from Immolation, blah, blah, blah. Has Anybody got any good questions?” and a couple of people have chimed in with a couple of good ones. What’s your favorite immolation album? And what are a few of your favorite tracks to play live?
Steve: That’s cool. My favorite Immolation album is Dawn of Possession. Just because of what it meant to me when it came out and how much listening I did to that album over and over, wearing out tape after tape, was the first thing I heard. I was so young; it had a big impression on my drumming and influenced my drumming style. So, that’s my favorite one. And again, songs off of that are my favorite to play, and my favorite to play live are usually the Smilowski songs. So anything off the DOP or Here in After. Into Everlasting Fire and Burn with Jesus are two of my faves.
SDM: Nice… I’ve talked to many different people over the years, and even I would say you have a unique playing style. Who might have been some of your early and more recent influences as far as players go that may have contributed to your style, if at all?
Steve: Craig Smilowski definitely and Alex Marquez. Those dudes did like smooth, slippery stuff that I liked a lot. And I couldn’t help but pick up those techniques and try to kind of work them into my own thing. Also, I was super hyped on athletic drummers back then, such as Mike Smith, Steve Asheim, and Pete Sandoval. Especially Steve, as they used to practice the shit out of Deicide because I love the concept of being able to play double bass, the whole frickin song, like from the open to close of a song, all double bass. I spent a lot of hours playing Steve’s Deicide stuff. Those are just a few of my formative influences.
Lately, George Kollias and Derek Roddy would be in that category. And Lille Gruber is huge. That dude is so buttery and smooth, and he’s so innovative. It’s like he’s doing shit he just made up. Do you know what I mean? That’s what I loved about the early days of death metal drumming. It’s like these guys were doing stuff that wasn’t done or hadn’t been seen, and it was just, you know, stuff they came up with to sound good over the music. Lile does that kind of stuff all the time. I love it. So yeah, he was a massive influence on me as far as modern influences go.
SDM: Yes, he’s unique as well. And that’s interesting you say that. They were just here on March 12. I went to see them. You’ve been to the montage music hall in Rochester. They played there. It’s Defeated Sanity, with Vitriol, and Vitriol had Chason Westmoreland, and yeah, dude… he’s a fucking monster. I’ve watched him play live several times right next to him, and he blows my mind every time. And then Skeletal Remains with Pierce Williams. That was one hell of a show. Not to mention I got to see Matt Kilner rip it up as well.
Steve: Yeah, that’s a drumming buffet for sure.
SDM: Dude, it was insane, and I’m also getting to see Soreption pretty soon, and I’ve never seen Tony Westermark. Exciting. Here’s a weird question. So I’m looking at the tracklisting for Acts of God, and it sounds like a story to me. Like in order. Is that the case? Or am I just overthinking it?
Steve: No, it’s not. It’s not in order. It’s not even in like numerical order of how it was written. There’s no sequence to it.
SDM: Wow, I was predicting you were going to say yes.
Steve: This album has had a lot of stuff work out like that, and I don’t know if it’s because we had the time to put into it or whatever. Everything melded together really well; the artwork, the music, the imagery, the lyrics… just everything.
SDM: Is that up to you guys in the end? Or does the label have any final say in the order of tracks?
Steve: Usually, when we’re still doing mixes and stuff like that, one of the members is like, this is how I’ve been listening to it, and it sounds incredible. I think that should be the running order, you know? And then we’ll throw in our two cents and whatever whatnot. And I think, I believe Ross came up with the very first one this time, and we stuck with it. It’s awesome. I think he came up with the perfect running order.
SDM: You already said some information about the studio and switching to a different location at the beginning of this call. Anything else you can tell me? Because here’s the thing… I have this question that works with the following question, but I don’t want you to take any offense to it because I think the fucking drums sound amazing. They sound different to me: the snare, the kicks, and the cymbals. Even the high tones of the cymbals seem to be out front a lot in the mix, and the toms appeared to take a little bit of a backseat in the mix. I’m wondering if that was done on purpose, or if it was an idea of the engineer, Paul, or you? Or maybe it was because of the room switch? Were there any other differences done in the tracking that would have led to that sound? Or am I, again, crazy?
Steve: We tweaked and tweaked and tweaked it. And honestly, when I listened to it, at least on the systems that I’ve been listening to regularly, I’m still like, Whoa, that’s a lot of toms. So it probably depends on what you’re listening to it on. But I think the result is because of all the tweaking we did. Some of the mixes we got from him were pounding, man, and it was like, there was a lot of attack on them too… and it was kind of distracting me. I don’t know if you know what I’m talking about, but when there’s a Tom roll, and you’re just listening, and you got your eyes closed, and you hear like a click back, and there’s too much click if everything’s clicking the kicks clicking. The snare slaps, and every time you hit a tom or do a fill, all those hits sound like clicks, and it was just too much. So we spent the following three or four mixes just trying to find the exact perfect pocket for those toms, get the snare and kick levels, and EQ exactly where we wanted it on the kicks. For the kicks, we had to round off a lot too. The drums are so busy and bombastic that with all that attack on it, it was just too much.
SDM: To reiterate, it sounds great! The kicks sound fucking fantastic. And the snare! Don’t get me wrong, I just thought the toms were a bit gated too much, and I’m listening on M-Audio studio monitors hooked up to my iMac. Were there any other tricks that he used in the studio? Mic techniques or tunnels with pillows and blankets across the front of the kick face?
Steve: No, nothing crazy like that. Nothing fancy like that at all. It was pretty much business as usual. The area he had for the drum room, so to speak, was small, so I couldn’t fit the drums in the typical arrangement to where I would be facing out towards him. So I had to stuff it in there sideways, you know. So it was a little weird because you’re just this is the first time to where I’m playing, and I’m in the room with everybody else. I’m not in my booth, or they’re in their booth, you know, isolated. So that was a little weird, but yeah, no real tricks or anything like that.
SDM: Right on. Well, while we’re talking about the drums that wouldn’t fit into the room. Why don’t you tell us a little about the gear you use on this record?
Steve: I am still on the Mapex Orion kit running pinstripes all the time. It’s a 12, 13, 14, 16 setup with 22 x 18 kicks. Steel Mapex Black Panther snare with a Kevlar head strapped on it to control the steel ring. It’s like using a machine gun! Lol
I was using Axis A Long Boards on the kit and all Sabians. I had to get a rush of cymbals before this record, and it sucked because of shipping and supply chain issues. I was super worried that I was going to be playing a broken cymbal… lol. Then on top of that, about two and a half weeks out, I broke one and cracked another one! I was like, Oh no, there’s no way they’re going to be able to get me this one in time, but they did. They got me one just in time. It was like a day before I went out there… I almost didn’t believe it.
SDM: Sabian is awesome. Do you deal with Chris Stankey or somebody else?
Steve: Yeah, Stanky… he’s the man. Yes, I got a huge ice bell! I think it’s like a 12,” the biggest one they make. For one of the songs, during the chorus part, it’s like a smooth double bass part with a bone on that bell. And I needed something like that, something out of the ordinary that wasn’t too delicate sounding. It was perfect. So I almost bought that just for that part, although I found ways to work it into some of the other songs. I’ve never done that before. So that was like a specialty item.
SDM: Nice. All right, let’s talk a little bit about your process. And I know COVID played into differences in your process(es), maybe that you didn’t normally do. But you adapted. As far as who starts, where do you get the stems from, and how does your pre-production work before you go into the tracking? What’s the order of the process between you and the guys before you track?
Steve: Well, Bob would send me over songs as he wrote, like, I think he writes them, records the guitar, then records some idea of a drum groove, and runs the whole thing by Ross. If Ross gives the thumbs up, it comes over to me. Then I take it to the studio, and I’ve got a track of just a guitar and a separate click. I throw those on my laptop, and then I just run my interface into that and record ideas. I start messing with whatever, and if I like it, I try to use that as my framework and come up with something from that. It’s like coloring everything in, you know? Coming up with some tasteful stuff, fillers, and things like that. Once I come up with something I’m happy with, then I send it back to them, and they give me their feedback; thumbs up, thumbs down, or whatever. So that’s what I did this time. After the first four songs, I also started to record videos. There were parts where they were like, Yeah, I kind of hear what you’re doing? But not too sure… So I just sent them a video so they can see me hitting the shit 🙂
SDM: Nice. Yeah. That isn’t easy. For me, that would be really difficult. I have a very, very hard time when I’m tracking, and I don’t have vocals in my ear—[Steve: That’s weird]. Yea, yea… lol, everyone tells me I’m funny when I say that. Haha.
Steve: I would have ideally liked to have had them, but they weren’t written at that point. They never are. This time I thought he might have just because we had all that extra time, but they just weren’t ready by the time I had to do my drums. But yeah, I had the time to write precisely what I wanted to do. There wasn’t a lot on this album where I was going in there and whatever happened in the studio was the way it was going to be, you know? Pretty much everything was locked in for me for the most part on this album, which has never been the case, so it was cool that I could walk away from it with a lot less regret. Like, I wish I would have done this or that, you know?
SDM: How long did it take you for the 15 tracks? I mean, how long did you spend tracking?
Steve: I was there (I think) a week and three days, and there were one or two days in there where we couldn’t record because of outside noise like the neighboring property had some wood cutting. They were taking some trees down with chainsaws and using a wood chipper… all day. So yeah, we ended up recording like some guitar or something like that, where we didn’t need the live mics on that day and then returned to it the next day.
SDM: Which track gave you the most difficulty, and which is your favorite, if they’re not the same one? Well, before you answer that, let me rephrase… You said that you get some ideas from Bob or whatnot and how these songs should go. Is any of that ever kept? I mean, if you’re keeping some of the ideas from some of the other guys, it plays into the entire song and the difficulty level, I would imagine.
Steve: I’d say track 10, Broken Prey. I spent a long, long, long time with that one. It’s like a basher all the way through, but I kept rewriting the parts and rewriting. I was going to the studio every other night, recording my ideas, listening back to them that night, and then deciding what I liked and didn’t. I don’t know. For some reason, I kept reworking that tune, and I would get one riff the way I wanted it, then start playing it that way, then change it. It seemed an endless process at the time. That went on for almost six months! At that point, I had other songs that were piling up!
I remember they sent me a meme after I finally sent them over the demo for that song. It was a big birthday cake with the number 10 on it… lol. I love the way it came out, though, and I think it gave me more trouble than I expected in the studio simply because I spent so much time on it. There’s one beat in there that’s got a lot of weird groupings of six and three on the kick drums, and to get that clean and groove was much more difficult than I expected. So I’ll say that one… Broken Prey, for sure.
SDM: I marked it green now in my track listing, so I know that’s your favorite and most complex. Pieces of the Tom work in ‘Noose of Thorns’ gave me a Behemoth, Anti-Christian Phenomenon vibe. Are you a fan of Inferno, or is that random?
Steve: That’s random. Not that I don’t like Inferno, I love the dude. I love his work. When I heard that song, I thought the same thing. You know, when I played in bands before Immolation, there was rarely a time where I started a phrase with a Tom hit on the one, and with Immolation, that is common. So many groupings begin with the downbeat on the one, like some sort of tribal or militant rhythm. So much of that stuff is just based on Bob’s grooves, and he did an excellent job of coming up with stuff. It was quirky, and I love it because it’s like I said, it’s stuff that a traditional drummer or your average drummer isn’t just going to come up with instinctually. So anytime I thought… that’s kind of weird, I don’t know if I would do that… my first instinct was not to use it, but for this album, especially, I just tried it, you know. Let’s try it, and see what happens. See what feels groovy. There’s a lot of weird stuff on this one.
SDM: Thanks for your time Steve… I LOVE the record and all your drumming.
Steve: Thank you!
Steve’s Links:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009969464578
