“Devastate Insisted Existence” Track List:
1. Blackwing
2. Return Of Mars
3. Tracks Of Red
4. Buried Alive
5. Without Warning
6. Infidel
7. Long Way Home
8. Slaughterhouse
9. Ravenous
10. D.I.E.

It’s been a long and challenging year in the making, but Kilyakai’s full-length debut is finally ready for release.

On October 23, the hardcore influenced death metal juggernaut from Calgary, Alta. will unleash Devastate Insisted Existence on a local audience, followed by a cross-province series of shows to further spread the metal fury, before taking it online.

“We did extensive amount of writing and a lot of practicing, a lot of string sessions, just ironing out all the little bugs. And we took some time off from doing shows just to focus on the material and decide which songs we actually wanted to put on the album,” says Mike Porteous, one half of the band’s dual guitar onslaught.

According to Porteous, the band has more songs than there was space on a CD, so they had to sit down and figure out which ones were going to make the cut.

“It was more of a debate as a band. Everybody had their input,” he explains, leaning back in the office chair at Slaughterhouse Studios, where the bulk of the album was produced by the bands own bassist, Nate Renaud.

“We all decided which songs we thought were the best that we agreed on, and those are the ones we used,” chimes in second guitarist, Adam Vagacs.

“And it was pretty much unanimous,” Porteous smiles, obviously stoked about the release, and a little anxious to get back on the live circuit.

These guys thrive on live performance, and anyone that’s taken in a Kilyakai show can tell you that. The quintet definitely has chemistry on stage, which begs the question: did they manage to capture that in the recording studio?

“I recommend people see us live before you dive into our album and get to know us, because once you see us live…” interjects drummer Ryan Boyko as he walks into the office at Slaughterhouse, followed by Renaud and vocalist, Wes DeLeeuw.

They’ve just wrapped things up and it’s time to chill out for a while. As everyone finds a place to sit or lean or perch, the room slowly gets darker as the sun sets outside, is if reflecting the winding down of all the countless hours of work that’s gone into Devastate Insisted Existence up to this point.

The songs on the album, are they songs you were already playing live, or are there going to be some that we haven’t yet heard before?

Adam Vagacs: When we first started the album, most of them we didn’t play live at all, they were just for the CD.

Mike Porteous: But now we showcase one or two when we play live.

Which ones?

Porteous: “Infidel” is one of the newest ones. “Tracks of Red.”

Vagacs: “Without Warning”

Porteous: Those are all pretty new songs, as far as a live audience is concerned.

And how has the reaction been so far?

Porteous: Crushing.

Vagacs: They seem to be getting into the experience. I would say they’re liking it even more than the other stuff, so I can’t wait until they have the album and know the songs better.

Vagacs: Yes, that was at The Den. Greg came up and sang “Blackwing” with us and the crowd went nuts. He recorded the chorus on that track. His vocals are awesome and definitely add to it by making it really burly and heavy. This song is about the metal community coming together and helping each other because we’re all under the “Blackwing.” We also brought in Matt Mutzbauer, who used to play in Tempered.

Porteous: He sings on “Long Way Home” during the bridge.

Vagacs: He’s good. We thought his style would compliment that part because his style of vocals are so unique.

How much has the band’s overall sound changed up since that first CD, the EP you released last year?

Porteous: I feel like it’s got a little more death influence, as far as brutal, technical riffs. It seems everything is harder. Every song is harder to play.

Vagacs: It’s gotten heavier; it’s more technical. But the writing process has become way more organic, and we’ve learned to write together better, so they songs don’t feel as forced.

So you two are the main songwriters?

Vagacs: Yes. We come up with the main structure of the songs, and then everyone gives their input and ideas.

Do you find it’s your own maturity as musicians that’s making everything more difficult, more technical, or are you actively seeking out new techniques?

Vagacs: I’m always looking for new ways to play and new ways to apply those techniques.

Porteous: I’m always learning. Every time Vagacs shows me a new riff, it’s always the hardest thing I’ve had to play.

How does that make you better at your craft?

Porteous: It helps you transcend plateaus, that’s for sure.

Did you track each instrument individually.

Porteous: Yes, we went drums first, bass bed tracks, rhythm beds, lead beds.

Vagacs: Nate and Boyko, they went in there and recorded bass and drums. They got the drum tracks by playing live together. Then Mike went in and put his tracks over top, then I went in, then Nate re-recorded over his ghost tracks, and then we recorded the vocals.

Wes, did you wrap up the lyrics right before you started to record your tracks?
Wes DeLeeuw: As soon as we got into the studio, there was actually an abundance of lyrics that still needed to be written, and Mike, Nate and I sat down and wrote a lot of them out then.

You wanted to tell us something about the thesis behind the lyrics…

DeLeeuw: It is and it isn’t a concept album. It’s a concept album in the fact that we are kind of approaching the whole decimation of the human race and the Earth being cleansed by either fire or a meteor hitting it or something of that nature, so I guess it is in that aspect. It definitely has something to do with us all being obliterated.

With all this obliterating going on, how does it affect how intense things get in the percussion department?

Ryan Boyko: It’s changed throughout the whole process. I mean, during recording, there were ideas that came out that weren’t in the original blueprint of the beast. But it was always evolving. We’d record something and hear it and decide to change it.

You obviously hit a point where enough was enough and it was time to mix and master. Are you doing that yourselves as well?

Renaud: I’m going to attempt mixing, but if my mix isn’t as good as we want, we’re going to send it to somebody and have them mix it. Mastering, definitely not.

Do you know who is going to master it yet?

Renaud: We’re looking at Joe Sikorski from CMSS. He’s rad. So we’ll definitely – unless we want to spend a whole shitload of money, we’re going with Joe.

Boyko: Yeah, it’s either Joe or Devin Townsend.

Townsend would be cool, but you already have one pretty intense artist on this project. What can you tell us about Marcela Bolivar and how she ended up designing the cover art?

DeLeeuw: I kind of actually fluked out on it. We tried a couple artists and they weren’t up to snuff and I was kind of aggravated by that, so one day I just went on the Internet and Googled “dark art” and her website, Gray Decay, was the first thing that came up and  it was magic.

Did you tell her what you wanted and she made it happen, or was it a pre-existing piece of art?

DeLeeuw: It was pre-existing, but it was also something that was very tentative to what we were looking for and something she had to alter in ways to make it work with out ideas.

Renaud: We basically said, “We love this concept. Can you do this whole crazy explanation of it art-wise?” and she was able to do that.

DeLeeuw: And we told her what we were about and she went with it. We told her that we wanted something that was live devastation and something that was abrasive and destructive.

How does the cover reflect the music?

DeLeeuw: Perfectly. I think Kilyakai on a whole reflects that whole devastated existence. I think it’s about us as humanity kind of sitting there and getting use of living, but taking that and decimating ourselves.

With all said and done with this recording, what will you do differently next time?

DeLeeuw: Take more time in pre-production.

Vagacs: Practice more. Mental prep is a huge thing to. You have to be ready to play the same part over and over and over. As for the actual recording process, I would like to try recording live just because you can catch the emotion of the music better than going in and playing to a click. You don’t get to feed off the emotion of the other players in the band.

Porteous: More string sessions.

How do you know how much pre-production is enough though?

DeLeeuw: Until everyone is hammering it out. Everybody in the band when we go into the studio cannot be second guessing one another or themselves.

Vagacs: Everyone needs to know what they’re doing 100 per cent, know what they’re playing.

Renaud: Here’s the thing, though, like, we did three to four months of pre-production, and we thought we were ready, but, there’s certain situations and instances that you learn about when you get into the studio that those are all the things you do different on the second album. Because there’s all those things you didn’t think about. You practice, you try to be as tight as possible, and it don’t mean shit.

Boyko: You just can’t foresee certain things until you’re in there.

DeLeeuw: When you’re making progressive death thrash music, you can go into it as ready as you would like to be, but when the chips are down and you’re in there, well, you know.

Vagacs: It’s never going to be perfect because you’re always getting new ideas as you’re going along. It just comes to a point where we have to get it out there.

What do you hope people get out of this album?

Porteous: Inspired.

DeLeeuw: I hope that people listen to the music and read the lyrics and it opens their eyes to things they might not have thought about before they listened to it.

Renaud: I hope people get pumped up. I hope they hear what I hear.

Vagacs: I just want people to like it and appreciate the work that went into it.

Boyko: Yeah, just get inspired by it and know that you can be a part of whatever you want no matter what it is, you can do it, and hopefully you can realize that through hearing this.