Interview with Zack Plunkett (Abated Mass Of Flesh)

These guys' last EP is called "Brutal Death". That, ladies and gentlemen, that is what I call an epic name for an epic EP. Their guitarist and vocalist Zack answered a few questions for IAYFE.

1: What does the name "Abated Mass Of Flesh" mean? 
When I started the project I was thinking of certain terms that sounded cool. The word “abated” stood out for me. It means to be reduced in great amounts, to be made less. I thought about the Christian theme of our music and wanted to combine it with a “gore sounding” title. The meaning is, when we take on the name of Christ, we as the body are “abated” before Him. We are nothing. Nothing more than an abated mass of flesh in His presence humbling ourselves before Him to show that He is worthy.

2: What are your future plans or ambitions?
Good question, we all plan to pursue this thing. That’s pretty much it. Our main goal is to remain obedient and pursue this. We haven’t set any major goals. We have watched things unfold for us and it’s been really awesome so far! Of coarse we look forward to future shows and writing/releasing new material, but we really look forward to meeting new people as well.

3: Is it true that you're a Christian band? 
We all believe in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and our music reflects that belief.

4: Do you think God is OK with your music and your EP cover? Do your family members respect your music?
We believe God is very pleased with what we are doing. We believe He is calling believers to be bold and different. All four of us are into really heavy music and we choose to express our faith through it. Our music doesn’t necessarily follow a typical “Christian” guideline. Some people will look at our art and say, “how in the world could this be considered Christian ?“ Some people get where we’re coming from and some do not.

Our album cover for “Brutal Death” is a depiction of chaos and modern day martyrdom. It shows a man being persecuted for his beliefs. All hell is breaking loose around him, but he is remaining faithful, even to the point of public crucifixion, like Jesus. It’s a modern representation of what Jesus did on the cross and a symbol of faith and strength in the midst of persecution in today‘s society. Christ suffered the ultimate brutal death. He was badly beaten, publicly mocked, flogged beyond recognition, stripped naked and crucified. Where’s the sunshine and lilies in that? It was a very dark and brutal display of God’s affection towards us. He was revealing humanity’s way to freedom and restoration through the pain and torture He endured.

You know, our families have been very supportive towards us. Our drummer’s grandmother is a big fan! She cooks us up a huge homemade dinner every weekend at band practice. Our bassist’s family have been really supportive as well. They have faith in what we are doing and have supported him since the very beginning. All of our parents are awesome, they are pretty metal.

5: If you could only listen to one album/EP to the rest of your life, what would it be? 
C’mon man! That’s a hard one to answer! There can‘t be “just one“….Suffocation’s 2006 self titled, Impending Doom’s Nailed.Dead.Risen, Slayer’s Reign In Blood, Black Sabbath’s Volume 4, Epicardiectomy’s Gore Soaked Slam Massacre and anything from Neil Diamond.

6: Who inspires you? 
Our fans inspire us; we call them family. Their continued support has really helped us and we’re really grateful. There’s also a lot of musicians that inspire us along with a lot of good friends. We as a band inspire each other and feed off of each other’s support, joy and motivation.

7: Is there a song you are most proud of writing?
That’s a tough one man. We surprised ourselves with the new material we’ve written. We just finished our new release as a full band. Everything before that was composed as a project, so there’s some new additions and differences we’ve thrown in. We are excited to let everyone hear it!

Awesome?
Awesome.
"Brutal Death"

8: Have you encountered the "this music is shit" attitude? 
Only through some YouTube comments here and there. But that’s cool. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It’s always exciting to see how people receive our music. Some love it, some hate it and some just don’t understand it.

9: What is the craziest shit that ever happened to you? (Related to the band)
Well we’ve been a full band for about 6 months now so we haven’t encountered anything really crazy yet. For me personally, it’s crazy how much has changed with this band since the beginning! We’ve met a lot of great people and have had a lot of great opportunities. One crazy thing was getting to work with Rocky Gray from Living Sacrifice, Soul Embraced, ex-Evanescence, etc. He works with our label and mastered “Brutal Death” for us. We’ve been a huge fan of that guys work for quite a while now. It’s an ongoing thing man, things just keep coming our way and it’s really exciting to see things change.

10: Have you been through the days you felt like quitting doing music? (If yes) why?
There have been times when I’ve been really stressed out with music. Recording, promotion, merch, funding, etc. takes a lot of time and can be really stressful. But one thing I’ve learned is that music is a part of me. No matter how bad I get pissed off and frustrated by it, it always returns to inspire me and fuel my creativity. It’s been such a huge blessing in my life and I am honored to have the opportunity to share it. So I’ve never considered quitting it; I am going to pursue it as long as I possibly can.

11: If you could choose one band to tour the world with, who would you choose? 
I am really into Brian "Head" Welch. I would love to tour with him because he's been a huge inspiration to me as a person and a musician. Our drummer Kade would probably want to tour with Circle of Dead Children, haha! Our vocalist Matthew would probably want to get a time machine and go back in time to tour with Death or Cannibal Corpse (Christ Barnes era). And our bassist Logan wants to tour with Cee Lo Green so he can be his backing vocalist.

Prepare your anus, their new album "The Omen King"
 is dropping soon!

12: Your last EP's name is absolutely sweet. Who came up with the idea?
Thanks brother! “Brutal Death” was conducted as a project. So it was me (Zack) who did all the writing and recording for the release. I tagged my brother on board to deliver some vocals for the release, making it a duo. Then as time went on we became a full line up. But I really liked the idea of having a release titled “Brutal Death”. I felt it was fitting for the message and sound we were going for on the release.

13: Alien invasion or zombie apocalypse? 
Man, normally I would go with Zombie Apocalypse, but it’s so overrated nowadays. Zombies have been in the spotlight for far too long. So I am going with alien invasion.

14: Say anything you want to all your fans.

You guys have been so awesome! Thank you for giving us a shot. Your acceptance towards us has been such a blessing. Your support has inspired us to keep doing what we do. Know that you guys are loved and accepted by us. Thank you!

Be sure to like Deathcore Devotion on Facebook for more interviews!: https://www.facebook.com/DeathcoreDevotion
Abated Mass Of Flesh: https://www.facebook.com/AbatedMassOfFlesh?fref=ts