What’s the Deal With Organ Dealer? Probing Interview Shows Their Pride in Delivering Deathgrind
It’s something of a mass delusion among hard-core music fans that they’re the only ones who pine for special vinyl versions of albums by their favorite bands. What’s overlooked all too often is that such fancy pressings bring equal delight to the musicians who spent so much time creating their records and dream of them getting reissued in classy form.
To that end, Organ Dealer presumably ascended to cloud nine upon hearing that Horror Pain Gore Death decided to reissue the band’s first album, Visceral Infection, on vinyl for the first time. Released last month through the aforementioned label from Philadelphia, Organ Dealer’s first full-length is re-presented in glorious form for the 10th anniversary of the album’s initial release.
Below is our spanking-new (people still use that expression, right?) interview with Organ Dealer, conducted less than 24 hours ago.
What do you consider to be the most worthy reason Visceral Infection deserves to be reissued?
Visceral Infection never got a vinyl release, so when [HPGD owner] Mike [Juliano] hit us up about it, it really just made sense to do a vinyl release for the record’s 10th anniversary. We’re really happy with how they came out and are glad to finally get the album in this format!
What does Visceral Infection represent to you personally?
It represents us getting our start as a band. The lyrical content is mostly focused around personal struggles both internal and external, dealing with topics of mental illness and spanning to the wickedness of big pharma and the control and exploitation it brings to the world.
What is the importance of Visceral Infection within the scope of Organ Dealer’s career and catalog?
It’s the album that got us started and helped plant our roots. Granted, since its release, we have artistically gone in a bit of a different direction when compared [to our other albums], but it was pivotal in establishing ourselves early on and giving us a direction to go in from there.
Would Organ Dealer’s legacy be markedly different without this release?
Probably. [But it’s] hard to say, really. If it wasn’t this album [that changed our style,] it would have been another one, and who knows how that would have shaped us. This was for sure a great start for us, though, as we got our footing in the world of grindcore.
It sounds like the physical space where you recorded Visceral Infection actually shaped its character.
Ah yes, the radioactive wastelands of New Jersey for sure had an impact on this record. At the time, we were practicing at The Meatlocker in Montclair. If you’ve ever been, you’d know how it’s great fuel for writing angsty music. It’s a small DIY punk space that had a black mold problem at the time. We’re all still working the kinks out from that.
We did eventually move our practice space to Backroom Studios, which is where we recorded this album with Kevin Antreassian. Our practice space is very small, so I’m sure that uneasiness of all being on top of each other in a hot, sweaty, subterranean room was reflected in the album.
How long did it take to write, record, mix, master and release Visceral Infection? After all, it’s only 20 minutes long.
From start to finish, it took about a year from writing our first song to getting it pressed and released.
What kind of pushback did you get at the time you proposed putting out a record this short — and a record this bonkers? Who were your strongest supporters and detractors for the release of Visceral Infection?
We didn’t really get any pushback about the length of the record. Grind has always had short songs that are chaotic and to the point. Love the term “bonkers,” too: It’s one of my favorite descriptors to use and for sure sums up grindcore. If you look at our latest release, The Weight of Being, it is also about 20 minutes in length … but also has nine more songs. So, we’ve managed to make the songs even shorter and arguably more chaotic.
Our biggest supporters at the start were our friends in the scene in NJ. We all grew up attending shows in the area. We also have a ton of friends who play in local bands as well. They were pretty instrumental in our start. We have a really accepting and supportive community behind us.
When you made this record, did you think it’d be impossible for any band to make an album this intense, fast and short? Were you surprised when some bands did, and what were your reactions to those records?
Again, that’s just the nature of grind: intense, fast and short. Get in, make your point, condense a ton of info into that short time span, and before anyone knows what happened, you’re already onto the next song. We weren’t too surprised other grind bands followed the same format. We sure do love seeing more grind bands pop up after us, though, and getting to listen to and enjoy their music!
After deciding to reissue the album, how deeply did you scrounge around for what was left on the cutting-room floor? Did you debate whether to include what you found, or was it collectively agreed that none of the leftovers — if there were any — deserved inclusion on the re-release?
We honestly didn’t have anything we took out when recording the original pressing. Everything you hear is everything we had for this one. Sadly, we didn’t have any funny or cool outtake tracks or songs we omitted. It was pretty straightforward for us.
In what ways do you think Visceral Infection has held up well over the years? Does it sound dated to you in any respects?
We think it’s held up well. The lyrics are still applicable in today’s world (and, sadly, likely always will be). The thing that did change in regards to our sound though is we went in a more grindcore direction. When we started, it was kind of a more death/grindy mix. We’ve moved away from the death-metal influence a lot more and are now all about the blasts, baby!
Listening back, it doesn’t sound too dated. It’s kind of cool to look back and listen to where we started and where we are now. It’s a nice thing to reflect on and appreciate.
Buy Organ Dealer music and merch on the website for Horror Pain Gore Productions. Also, check out Organ Dealer’s Bandcamp profile here and their Instagram account here.
The Bad Penny (beta) 
Leave a comment