CARDIAC ARREST

Long running Chicago death metal machine CARDIAC ARREST formed in 1997 and since then the world of metal has not been the same. 2023 was a busy year for the band with CARDIAC ARREST joining forces with Hells Headbangers to reissue their second album, and fan favorite, 2008's ”Cadaverous Presence” on vinyl for the first time and playing what can only be described as one of the best live sets at Blades Of Steel Metal Fest in late September. 

2024 will see CARDIAC ARREST gearing up to release their eighth studio album 'The Stench Of Eternity' in the spring, also via Hells Headbangers. Their first single, "Victims To The Blasphemy," is streaming now on YouTube, which you can check out HERE.

WORMWOOD CHRONICLES: Do you remember what got you into death metal?

TOM KNIZNER: For me, since I’m a little older than Adam, I had some older female cousins and their boyfriends started getting me into stuff like KISS and AC/DC, PRIEST, and SABBATH and all that, so that’s more or less where I got my start. And you know, I just started looking for heavier stuff after that. The first thing I heard which really got my attention was VENOM, it was off a compilation tape I bought at the local Osco. Later on it was friends that turned me onto stuff, plus it was during the first era of death metal that I got into tape trading, I got into it pretty young.

ADAM SCOTT: When the band initially started, we all kind of got into the same stuff roughly around the same time. We were all kind of into the early 90’s death metal shit that was coming out at that time and kind of what we were hearing was really what influenced the band overall and it’s still a huge influence to me to this very day. And with certain guys we’d get in CARDIAC, some were sort of into it and others were not, and we were like, “well this was a fuckin’ waste of our time!”     

WC: What was the goal behind forming CARDIAC ARREST in the beginning? Was the goal to cut a demo and secure a record deal, or something else?

AS: Well, it started off slow, it was more about trying to find out where our niche was and most importantly, finding the right guys to jam with, coexist with, and write some good songs. Obviously the endgame was to figure out how to get something out and how to get it to as many people as possible. The endgame with CARDIAC has always been to take it as far it’ll go, whatever that ends up looking like. 

When the band first started, it was like me and my buddy and I played guitar and he played bass and I knew he wanted to do vocals as well but we found someone else and he stepped in to do vocals, coincidentally, who was another friend of ours and really that’s where it all started. But it was that one buddy of mine, and we had this set goal of putting a band together and at that point we talked about what to name it. 

I remember one time after a fuckin’ class we were in, freshman year, it was like, “Hey man, how does this sound – CARDIAC ARREST?” and it was cool and it pretty much stuck. I was like sixteen years old when all of this started. It was ’97 where we had the idea of putting something together and 2004 when we released our two EPs. 

WC: And then after 2004 it seemed like CARDIAC was releasing records pretty frequently.

AS: Yep, but there were a lot of hurdles we went through like lineup changes and such. There was a lot of stagnant time we had between the late 90’s and when we got the EPs done because we had the material but nothing was getting done. Finally we found guys we could work with, some we went to school with too that had a common interest in what we were doing, and they just said, “Hey, let’s fuckin’ jam!” and again, going back to the beginning of the band, that’s where it started. It wasn’t until 2001 when we had a full, real, active lineup playing gigs together. 

WC: It seems like the creative process comes pretty easy to you guys. Are you writing all the time, do you have a notebook full of lyrics or riffs, how does that work?

AS: Well, ha-ha, there’s definitely a lot of ideas, at least on my end. 

TK: I don’t sit down and write. Even in my past bands I’ve always come up with something on the fly. A lot of times we’ll be getting ready to jam and I’ll play a riff and then Adam comes in, and the drums kick in, that’s how it happens, that’s all I need to come up with something. It’s very rare I sit and write although I have done that but it’s not real often, I like being spontaneous about that. But yeah, Adam’s the one that, hell, we’re two songs into the new album right now. We play once a week, all four of us, same room, like the old days, I don’t know if many bands even do that anymore. 

AS: A lot of our lyrical inspiration comes from the old horror movies, we’re diehard fuckin’ horror freaks so that component to our lyrics just comes naturally. To me, death metal and horror just go hand in hand, it’s a perfect fit. Anything that’s dark fuckin’ subject matter, too, something you read in an article, see on the news, it’s gonna make its way into a song. 

WC: Chicago has quite the history of serial killers and mass murderers. Does any that feed into what you’re writing or is that MACABRE territory? 

TK: I wouldn’t say so, not that much. With serial killers, I like to read about it and watch stuff about it but I was never into the glorification of it. “Oh! Oh Dahmer’s so cool!” Sure. No. I was never into, fascinated by it, sure, but you won’t find me wearing a shirt with Manson on it or whatever, but that’s just me though.

WC: You’re recording for Hell’s Headbangers now. Has CARDIAC ARREST received attention from the bigger indie labels like Metal Blade or Century Media, for example?

TK: No, we’ve never tried and honestly, and I don’t know, I’ve heard a lot of horror stories from friends that were involved with some of those labels. We don’t want somebody owning our stuff, it’s ours, and we want to be in a position to do whatever we want to with our music. In the past we worked with a series of labels and they were all good to us but I’ve been after Hells Headbangers for a while, they’ve been in business for a long time and they treat their bands very well. We’re not gonna get on any huge tours or anything like that, which is fine, but with the bigger labels, let the younger guys do that! We’ve been on Hells a couple years now. 

Let me tell you something, my life’s been through a whirlwind, literally, in that time. My house got hit by as tornado a couple years ago, and that’s where we practiced, and everybody was OK and no damage to our stuff, but we couldn’t be in the house which meant we couldn’t practice so that held us back. And our drummer became a dad so we took time for that but we had the songs, they were done and now the new album is finally turned in. The two new songs we’re working on right now are for the next album after 'The Stench Of Eternity,' we’re already working on the new album now, believe it or not. “…Stench…” is done, it’s in the can! Did you see the video that Hells did for us with "Victims To The Blasphemy?”

WC:  I did it, it’s heavy, killer song. 

TK: We’ve been playing that song live so we figured it’d be the best to…

AS: It’s a really strong one, I mean, all the songs on 'The Stench Of Eternity' are strong but “Victims…” is definitely a standout song, it has that feel to it. It’s just a real evil sounding tune, evil message, I just knew that when that song was written it was gonna be something special. 

WC For those who may not know, has Cardiac toured throughout the U.S. previously?

TK: We did a tour in 2010, it was a mini tour with DESTROYER 666, two Midwest dates and two Canadian dates. Before that we did some dates with GRAVEHILL and HOD, who at the time were labelmates on Ibex Moon {Editor’s Note: July 2, 2010, to July 18, 2010} and uh, it went as well as it could, definitely learned a lot. We also toured Europe for a couple weeks and went back a few years later for a week. 

WC: I’ve heard a lot of horror stories about bands trying to make a tour financially successful in these unpredictable economic times. Have you guys talked about trying to launch another tour again?

TK: For me personally, I have kind of an important job so, I mean, I could get time off but it’d have to be for the right thing. Gone are the days of jumping into a van to take off, I can’t do that anymore. Everybody’s a homeowner, have bills, families, and stuff, it’s a lot more complicated than it used to be.

CARDIAC ARREST