With new release, The Tide Of Death And Fractured Dreams, hotly anticipated and something of a masterpiece, we were eager to catch up with Ingested and talk through the evolution of an album that has been touted as something of a rebirth after the excellent, but intensely dark Ashes Lie Still. We caught up with Jason Evans, the band’s open and amiable front man. Deeply passionate about metal, Ingested, and the art of making fantastically gory music videos (See Paragon Of Purity for evidence of his skills), Jason spent a good deal of time talking us through the development of Ingested’s latest epic offering.
Hey, how are you doing?
Nice to meet you, mate.
Thanks for taking the time to catch up and have a chat.
It’s all good mate, thanks for having me on.
To start with, you have talked a bit about the record in the press release, and you mentioned that Ashes Lie Still was darker in tone, necessarily because of when it was recorded during the pandemic. Do you see this album as being something of a reset for the band?
Yeah… I’d call it more like a rebirth. Ashes Lie Still was born of a very dark period for Ingested and our personal lives as individuals as well. We were all dealing with various demons, and it was like depression, addictions (various addictions whether drugs or alcohol), and loss as well – our guitarist Sean lost his dad during that time. It was a rough time.
So, that album was us putting all those feelings and experiences into our music, kind of like getting it off our chests; getting it out there and letting it go. And then this album, The Tide of Death and Fractured Dreams, it’s an entirely new beast – this is us coming out of that period bigger, better, and strong than we’ve ever been, and happy in ourselves as well. This is Ingested back with that fucking Mancunian attitude – fucking three working class lads with a fucking chip on their shoulder, a point to prove and a fuck-you attitude to everybody. The intent behind this album is to smash your fucking teeth in, that’s what it’s for [laughs].
Within that, one of the things I thought was really interesting is that, among other things in the lyrics, you talk about imposter syndrome. And, you know, despite being much more talked about, it still feels like a band, in particular, when seen from the outside, is this untouchable entity,
Well, at the end of the day, we’re human beings. We’re human beings with just normal human being thoughts – we’re just the same as everybody else. Everybody goes through these fucking things. But, for me, it’s like – imagine growing up and idolising all these bands and looking up to them and revering them, like idols. And then, eighteen years later, you’re sharing the stage with them and sitting in backstage green rooms with them laughing and joking; eating your food with them; becoming friends with them; living on a bus with them – and it’s like fucking crazy! It’s wild. These are people that I revered. I idolised them – they’re the reason I’m doing this. Bands like Suffocation, Dying Fetus, Devourment, Cannibal Corpse. And then you’re friends with these people. They become part of your life, and it’s like… imagine you’re sitting at the Mount Rushmore of death metal, and there’s me sitting at the fucking foot of it thinking: “What the fuck am I doing here? Do I even belong here? Am I even good enough to be here? Do I deserve to be here?”
The song’s called Pantheon because these people are my pantheon of gods, and they’re people I looked up to and it’s like “what am I doing here?” And then, it’s that realisation of “you do deserve to be here – you’ve earned it – you’ve worked your bollocks off for nearly two decades – you belong here.”
And it’s realising that yeah, this is where you’re supposed to be, and that’s what that song’s about.
And I don’t think you have to be in my position or in a band to resonate with that. I think people can resonate with that in all walks of life, because I think people deal with that all the time – that questioning of “do I belong? Am I supposed to be here?” And it’s like, “yeah, of course you fucking are! This is right where you’re supposed to be, so embrace it and run with it. Take the ball and fucking run!”
I think it’s something people talk about and are much more aware of now than at any other time in history, really. But it’s part of growing up, isn’t it, where you go into whatever job, and you slowly get promoted and have those moments of fear… but that’s something that metal has always been really good at addressing – providing a certain strength and conviction. It kind of sits at the core of what metal is, right?
Yeah absolutely. Metal is a community. We’re the anti-culture. When I was growing up, we were the outcasts. I was the guy getting fucking bullied all of the time because of the music I liked, or the way I dressed and shit like that.
We’re the anti-culture. That’s what metal is, it’s the antithesis of everything, which is what attracted me to it. That’s why I’m in a metal band. I didn’t join a metal band to play by the rules. I didn’t join a metal band to kow-tow to everyone. I joined a metal band because it’s got balls, it’s got attitude, and I want to break the rules and I want to rattle some fucking cages.
That’s what metal’s about. Being a badass! Being Stone Cold fucking Steve Austin! That’s what metal is to me. We are the anticulture, but we’re a community too, because we’re the outcasts. When another outcast comes along – come on in, join us! That’s what it is. It’s about strength and solidarity and saying, “fuck you!” to everyone else. That’s what I love about it and that’s why I love the metal scene because, yeah, we’re the outcasts and yeah, we say “fuck you” to everything. But if you want to fucking join us… be my fucking guest! Come on in, the water’s lovely! [laughs]
Speaking of being badass, it looks like the band had a lot of fun hanging you from the ceiling…
[laughs]
…and brutalising you for Paragon of Purity. Whose idea was that?
That was my idea [laughs]
I love… we all love horror films and all those gory b movies and shit. That’s the shit we grew up watching. And I love practical effects and stuff. I’m not a CGI guy. I don’t like that shit, I want practical shit, I want the real shit! So, what I wanted to do with that song was… Musically Paragon of Purity slowly ramps up towards a crescendo at the end that’s really heavy, slamming, and brutal. So, what I wanted was the video needed to mirror that visually.
So, if you watch the whole video, I slowly get more and more fucked up as it goes on, as it reaches that crescendo. So, at first there’s a bit of blood and cuts and that; and then second, it’s all barbed wire wrapped around my head and blood dribbling down. Then, after that, I’m getting my guts ripped out; then, after that, my eyes are ripped out; and then, right before the end, my tongue is torn out of my mouth; so, at the end, when the big slam comes in – the big breakdown, I’m just vomiting blood everywhere! I’m caked in the shit, and it’s just…
I think it visually mirrors what the song does. It’s a visual journey that accompanies the musical journey of that song, and that was the idea behind it. I wanted it to ramp up in violence as the song ramps up before its close.
You know, I’m surprised that it’s on YouTube and didn’t get censored, because YouTube’s a bit fucking… censor happy with shit like that, so I was shocked. I thought “fuck it, let’s make it really violent – this is death metal bro! Go!”
And, yeah, we put it up and it was fine [laughs].
It’s nice to see bands embracing video making and practical effects and stuff. I know some bands have a bit of a love/hate relationship with it, but it’s always a cool part of the creative journey for me – especially the practical effects over CGI / green screen. It just looks cool and it’s part of caring and creating a whole package that goes with the record.
Yeah, exactly, we’re very meticulous with stuff like that. We work like a year in advance, so what we did was, when our last album, Ashes Lie Still, was released in November 2022 – four weeks later, in December 2022, we went into the studio and recorded The Tide of Death and Fractured Dreams. So, we did that immediately because it was done. We’d demoed it all out and we knew exactly what we wanted to do with it. And, yeah, the album was written, all the tinkering was done, and it was exactly how we wanted it to be, so we just went straight in to record it, and then we had a year to prepare everything – music videos, the artwork, the merchandising – every facet of the presentation of this album. We had a whole year to do it, so we’re not running around last minute like headless chickens. We were able to take our time, and get it exactly how we want it, and that’s how we were able to dig into the creative side of making music videos.
Actually, we’ve just done another one. We’ve just finished shooting it and It’s being edited now, and it’s all practical effects and props and stuff like that. We shot it on location at some massive waterfall. And, again, I made all the props for the video, like the masks and special effects – like this mask here (holds up terrifying mask) – I made it. It’s just really cool because I love creating things like that. I like making stuff. That’s why I’m such a big fan of stuff like Warhammer and Dungeons and Dragons. I’m a creative person, but I’m a practicalcreative person, I like making physical stuff. So, being able to get properly involved in the music video side of things has been really fun.
It’s interesting that you went straight into the recording, and I’ve always found you’re more inspired when you’ve finished a previous project, and you have all that adrenaline running through you – it makes more sense to me than stepping away after each project.
Yeah, I mean, for us – we’re always in writing cycle. All the time. We never stop writing.
Sean is a writing machine. He’s always writing riffs, songs, song structures, everything. Whenever he has any spare time, he’s always doing it. Because of that, we always have material to draw from. Like, whenever we’re writing an album, we always have tonnes and tonnes and tonnes and tonnes of material to draw from. It might not be the full song elements, but we’ll sit down and listen through the stuff we like and then look at the bits that are cool, and we take those bits and craft a song around it.
I mean, we just have endless material, just because of the way that we work – we’re just always in creative mode… all the time, which is why we’re able to do things like work a year in advance and give ourselves time, because everything is done. But it’s hard, because we sat on this album for like a year without being able to tell anyone, and more like a year-and-a-half by the time it comes out. But then, knowing that it’s done and knowing that it’s all finished and keeping it a secret, and then finally being able to announce: “hello, here’s the album!” It’s great fun!
We just never stop writing. It’s just always going, all the time. There’s never a moment where we’re not inspired. We might be on tour; we might be sitting at home. I might be sat on the bus and writing lyrics on my phone. And there’s no music to write them to – I’m not writing it to a piece of music or whatever, I’m just writing ideas or lines.
And the way I write lyrics is… I grew up listening to a lot of hip hop and rap, and I noticed that they always finish on a killer line. Like every verse has a sick final line to it, so I just… what I do is I write in reverse. I write the last line first and then write it that way because, that way, I know that the verse is going to end on a banger. So, I write in reverse. What I have on my phone is like a note file with loads of banging last lines – proper sick last lines. Then, I work back from that whenever I’m placing them to music. It’s a constant cycle of creation, basically – we’re always writing. We never stop.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone describe their writing process like that, but it makes perfect sense. So, this constant writing, do you think that’s part of the reason why you’ve had such a steady evolution over the years?
Absolutely – well, this is the thing. We’re always evolving, even eighteen years in, because we’re not a band that ever wants to make the same album twice. I know there are fans out there who want us to do another Surpassing the Boundaries of Human Suffering, but it’s not going to happen. Because we would get bored.
This is the thing. It’s like, first and foremost we make music for us. That’s always how it’s been. We don’t make music for anybody else. We love our fans, and we love that they love our music, but it’s our music – we’re making the music that we want to hear, because we can’t do it any other way. I think it wouldn’t be us.
We’re always a band that have done things on our own terms, and that’s such a big part of who we are as people as well. We do it for us. That means that we’re kind of like a musical shark – in the sense that we always have to be moving. Always. We can’t stop, we can’t go backwards, because we’ll drown. We’d die. We’d get bored.
Every album that we write, we’re influenced by different things. Because we have different lives; we’re getting older; our tastes might change. The things that we listen to and the things around us might be different. So, what that does is it means that we’re then adding different elements every single time we do an album. There’ll always be something we’ve not done before, because that keeps it interesting for us. We want to see what we’re capable of doing. And, if we just sat back and thought: “Oh, when we did Where Only Gods May Tread, that’s it! That’s the Ingested sound! We’ve nailed it now – let’s just do that…” Do you know what I mean? We wouldn’t have lasted two albums after that because we’d have gotten bored and, when we’re bored and we don’t want to do it anymore, then we’re done.
We do this because we love it. The moment that we don’t love it and we’re doing it for any other reason than ourselves, then I don’t want to do it anymore. So, that’s why there’ll always be these elements, there’ll always be something you’ve not heard before, which… to me it’s a good thing, because what that does is it gives every album it’s individual character. Yes, it sounds like us, but none of the albums are the same. There’s always something different and each album has its own feel and its own character, and I think that’s a really hard line to tow. Being recognisable as ingested but making sure it stays fresh and is something different.
But yeah, I’m really happy with the choices we made in this album – there’s new elements in there, we even brought back some old elements as well. This is the thing, it’s like doing all these albums over the years and learning everything we’ve learned, it’s like, when you start your career, you’ve got a toolbox. But for us, when we started and brought out Surpassing the Boundaries of Human Suffering…On our first album, the only tool we had in that toolbox was a sledgehammer. And that did the job for the time. For the job that we wanted to do, that sledgehammer did fucking great. But, as times have gone on, we’ve acquired different tools for different jobs and new tools for new jobs, and now what’s happening is that, through every album we’ve done and all the experience we’ve gained, now we have a massive toolbox filled with shit loads of tools, all for different jobs, which frees us so much in the song writing space. So, we can explore different things and keep it exciting for us as well, rather than doing the same fucking thing over and over again.
But that’s cool – when you’ve got a great back catalogue, while having moved on from release to release, you can cycle back very organically. Not because someone’s asked you to or pushed you – but because it’s part of your passion, and that’s when it feels fresh and exciting again. And I guess that’s the difference between a band trying to recapture a point in time and a band that consistently evolves.
Yeah, we love our history and our roots and where we’ve come from as a band, and we’ll never ever be the type of band that shits on that. Because it’s part of our legacy. It’s part of our journey as a band. And our albums are the reasons why some of our fans love us – they love those old albums, and I’d never ever do anything or say anything to shit on that, because it’s important. It’s important to us and to our fans. But, we are a band who are always looking forward. Always. We respect and revere the past, but we’re always looking to the future. So, we’ll always take elements from our past and always bring them back, because it’s part of us. We’ll never lose that.
I see comments and see shit like “Oh, I prefer the old Ingested” [laughs] we’re still the same band! We’re the same three guys from the very beginning. We never changed and those albums are always going to be there. Just because we don’t write Skinned and Fucked ten times anymore, they’re always going to be there. Spotify’s not going to delete the albums because a new album’s come out. So, yeah, we love our history and revere our past, but we’re always looking to the future. Always.
The new album has a really interesting title – a lot of people find themselves sacrificing their dreams for what they need to live, is that part of the idea behind it.
It’s pretty much the reverse – It’s all the things you have to sacrifice to achieve your dreams and all the obstacles that get put in the way that might hinder your progress as to what you want to achieve – the various things that life puts in the way. It might not be anybody’s fault, but shit happens.
So, that’s what the album’s about. Everybody has to make sacrifices. If you want to achieve something, you’re going to have to sacrifice something for it. For us, it’s time with our families. It’s missing things like a kid’s birthday or anniversaries, or missing things like funerals and weddings. All the things that we’ve had to give up to achieve this and the risks and the gambles that we’ve had to take – full times jobs, well-paying jobs that would have been proper careers. We gave it all up for this. And the position that puts us in. Like financially – it’s a gamble and it might not pay off. And it’s scary because then what do you do if it doesn’t pay off, when you’ve got a wife and kids? How do you pay the bills? It’s stuff like that. It’s what the album’s about.
There’s a tide of death coming and, when it washes over you, you may find your dreams have been fractured. Or you may stand strong against the tide. You’ll let it roll past, but you won’t let it knock you over. It won’t move you because you’re sure in your convictions and what it is you want to do, so you’ll make that sacrifice and put your balls on the line and work your bollocks off and make sure you’ve done everything in your power to make it work for you and your family. That’s what it’s about.
My last question, really, is about the artwork – the cover is stunning. Can you talk me through who did it and how involved you were in the process.
Well, the artwork is David Seidman He did the art for Ashes Lie Still as well, which was the first time we’d worked with him. What he’s known for is that he creates custom, commissioned, bespoke, 80s and horror movie posters. So, people commission him to make these posters and the art is just incredible. And our guitarist, Sean, is like a huge B movie and horror movie collector. If you go into his house, it’s like a fucking museum. Mental! He’s fucking mad! And he commissioned some of these posters from David, when were on tour somewhere, and he was like “check this out!” And he showed me and Lyn, and me and Lynn were like “fucking hell, that artwork’s insane”. So, we wondered if he’d ever done any album art, and we asked him because his vision – the way he looks at things, it’s mad. We got in contact to see if we could work something out. We asked him if it’s something he’d be interested in, and he was totally interested.
Our approach with David was very different from what we’ve done previously. On albums before, we always had a very strong idea and a very strong concept of what we wanted the album to look like. So, we were very hands on with the idea of it, the concept, and how things should be placed. With David, because his art style is so striking and so surreal, we didn’t want to interfere with it. We wanted to work with him because of the way that he looks at things. His vision is so odd, we just sent him the album, the music, the lyrics – and then we asked him to give us his visual interpretation of the album.
And that’s what we did on both records, and he smashed it out the park. He properly smashed it out the park. Both of those albums, especially the newest one – I looked at it and I totally got it. I totally got where he had got the image from. Just that brutal, surreal image with an underlying beauty to it. And it’s just deteriorated. It completely encapsulates what the album should look like I think. It’s unlike any album art I’ve ever seen before, it’s so cool.
It is really cool, and I think it gives the album a unique look that perfectly suits it.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for taking so much time to go over these things with me. I’ve really enjoyed speaking to you.
Thank you very much. Cheers Philip, it’s been really nice chatting to you.
