Words by David C. Obenour
Three years after the release of their debut album, San Jose’s Spinebreaker put out a promo tape for the single, “The Cost of Innocent Life” with a b-side cover of Agnostic Front’s “Power.” The thinking back then was this could buy some time before they wrote, recorded, and released their follow-up full length. While the tape was as exciting and visceral as any fan could hope, coming out in 2019 the world had it’s own plans for how to follow things up.
A pandemic later, Spinebreaker have refined and are finally able to unleash Cavern of Inoculated Cognition – a brutal interplanetary grinding of death metal played with the ferocity of the pits from which it was birthed.
Off Shelf: In 2019 you released a promo tape with “The Cost Of Innocent Life” and a cover of Agnostic Front’s “Power.” Knowing how the pandemic affected everything that proceeded, how had you originally imagined following up that release?
Alex Herrera: The plan was to put those songs out to buy some time while we write the rest of a record. It would have been for sure closer to the fast aggressive sound on the promo but in the end it worked out. I think a better product came of it just based on the style we decided to go with after all was said and done.
OS: Was Cavern of Inoculated Cognition shaped at all by the pandemic? Either in its writing or recording?
AH: If anything the pandemic killed any motivation that we had for the band overall. It was written in small parts before the pandemic and finished and refined after it.
OS: The album art is really incredible. Did you give Brad Moore any direction in it? How do you think it welcomes listeners into the album?
AH: I think the listeners know exactly what they’re getting into right as they look at the cover. I actually commissioned Brad to do the artwork years before the album was ever even written. The direction I gave him I thought was pretty simple as his style really specializes in freaky, alien type imagery. I really just told him I want a cave with dead alien remains scattered about, as if it was post battle, with the winning aliens patrolling the area.
OS: I was looking at the merch too and was wondering about the writing on the back of the Inoculated Cognition shirts. How involved are you with those designs?
AH: The writing on the back is totally custom by Brad Moore too. He painted a prototype to use as the insert for the record and it included a completely original alien language, so if it does say anything, Brad is the only one who knows what it actually says. Some of the simpler merch I design myself, others I commission through artists. I just like dark, hard, lowkey sketchy looking things like weapons, goats, and then anything SJ [San Jose].
OS: With three guitarists, are their roles that each player more or less fits into?
AH: Our three guitarist system isn’t totally the conventional way it would normally be done. We like to have three so that when one or sometimes two are inevitably busy we can still play a show. Elliot would be our lead guitarist, as he writes all the music along with our drummer Brian. JNUT actually wrote the solo in Crimson Mask but other than that, the writing is all Elliot.
OS: What do you appreciate about the sound that each guitarist brings to Spinebreaker?
AH: Everyone is on the same page and just wants to be loud with a unique tone. Took a while to get Cole on board with the ignorantly loud part but I think we got him finally. [laughs]
OS: For people who’ve only heard the albums, how would you compare the Spinebreaker live experience?
AH: Depending on the scene you come from it may differ. Spinebreaker has always played death metal, and we’ve always stayed true to that. But we are a hardcore band and at our shows people punch each other, kick each other, and jump off of shit, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
OS: The new songs definitely seem to lean further into the death metal sound, what excites you about exploring this more? Do you see this as a direction you’ll want to continue further on?
AH: We’ll for sure continue down this direction. There is some space for evolution and experimentation because we like so many different versions of metal in general, so you’ll hear some new things here and there, but right now I like where we’re at.
OS: You all have a number of other projects you play in, what stands out to you about what you’re able to do in Spinebreaker?
AH: I’m the only one with no other projects but we just try to have fun and do shit we want to do and that’s it. If anything comes of it that’s cool but we just want to put on for San Jose.