DISSIMULATOR
DISSIMULATOR “Hacked To Infinity”
By Dr. Abner Mality
One of the best things that can happen to a music reviewer is getting blindsided. Having something unforeseen and unexpected emerge from the great grey mass of music releases that just totally catches you by surprise and blow you away. My most recent “blindside” experience was DISSIMULATOR’s debut record “Lower Form Resistance”.
Talk about a paradigm-shifting record, that’s what we have here. Something that combines the raw freshness of early 90’s death metal and thrash with the technical excellence and modernity of today’s extreme metal, all wrapped up in a cyberpunk coat and kicked in the ass. This effort is still my favorite record so far in 2024 and I don’t expect it to be surpassed anytime soon.
So it’s no surprise that I hunted down DISSIMULATOR guitarist/vocalist Claude Leduc in his Montreal, Quebec homebase and tried to pin him down for a few questions about this extraordinary band. Transmission of data follows immediately…
WORMWOOD CHRONICLES: Greetings to DISSIMULATOR and congrats on “Lower Form Resistance”. This is one of the best debuts I have heard in quite some time. How long has the band been in existence and how did you come together?
CLAUDE LEDUC: Thanks for the praise and kind words! DISSIMULATOR is very much a product of circumstance. I always wanted to do a thrash-style project and felt like working on some compositions with my friend and drummer Phil Boucher during the pandemic. The band just sort of happened as an excuse to play music together.
WC: This record is an absolute riff factory! Was it a painstaking process composing the music or did it flow pretty naturally?
CL: I learned the hard way that it’s usually better to not try too hard or overthink when writing a song. With DISSIMULATOR, I consciously try to keep things flowing and not overthink the process. The compositions came together relatively fast.
WC: What’s the songwriting process like? Do you kick the songs around a lot before their final form? Is it a total collaboration or does one songwriter kind of dominate the scene?
CL: I usually come up with a riff or two that I play around with and let marinate in my head for a while. Then – if inspiration hits – I spend some time expanding on it and developing a rough song structure. I then record a rough track for Phil and Antoine to chew on and we get together to arrange the whole thing. Sometimes I’ll make changes as I’m recording either because I get inspired in the moment or because I’m not convinced of some aspect of a riff or transition. But it’s a fairly ad hoc process overall.
WC: Canada and especially Quebec has always had an amazing scene for technical metal like VOIVOD, OBLIVEON, DBC, SOOTHSAYER and more. What’s in the water there? This great history certainly had to play a part in your musical direction.
CL: It definitely feels like we’re in the right place for DISSIMULATOR’s particular style of metal. As for causes, some sociologists have suggested that Quebec’s tendencies towards more radical forms of cultural expression were in a sense reactionary to a historical combination of its heavy and often repressive catholic background and its minority status in the Canadian political and economic landscape. Whatever the reasons, I’m proud to be a part of this scene and have its signature and qualities be such an integral part of our music.
WC: Is there one band more than others that influenced you? And have you got to meet or play with any of your heroes?
CL: It’s impossible to name just one, but I would say early MESHUGGAH, SADUS, and EXPANDER were primary references that I drew from when writing these songs. EXPANDER is such an underrated band! More people should be listening to that band.
WC: What is the meaning behind the title “Lower Form Resistance”?
CL: It is about different forms of life resisting - on a biological, instinctual, or ideological/symbolic level - against mechanization and digitalization in the face of imminent and total assimilation. The fact that they are deemed “lower” is an ironic reference to their relation to supposedly “higher” machine-forms.
WC: Is the album a concept album? The band certainly has a cyberpunk, futuristic vibe.
CL: The lyrics draw on various dimensions and situations within a fictional world where technological life (led by some hive-mind machinic entity) has essentially overtaken most natural processes. I use this lore as a springboard to imagine interesting and sometimes farfetched ideas and concepts, like the genesis of silicon-based parasitic lifeforms (“Hyperline”) or inserting your consciousness into inanimate objects as a form of drug trip (“Outer Phase”). I also use these ideas allegorically to relate to dominant western ideological stances on technological development and its social and cultural consequences. It’s a way for me to write about stuff that I find fascinating all the while maintaining a certain freedom with regards to style and approach. In short, it’s less of a concept as much as an open world from which I can draw on for ideas.
WC: Is there one song on the album in particular that stands out for you? One that you’re most proud of?
CL: I’m really pleased with the title track. I like how it maintains cohesion and structure despite all the tempo shifts and sudden transitions. It’s the last song I wrote and the one that came together the fastest for the record. However, my favorite moment on the album is probably the riff in “Mainframe” where the robot voice comes in; I was going for a “Third Eye Function”-era THEORY IN PRACTICE vibe on that riff and the lyrics really come together with the music for me.
wc: Do you get any influences from electro/techno music or soundscape artists?
CL: Hell yeah! I listen to a lot of APHEX TWIN, AUTECHRE, and SQUAREPUSHER but also like many Cold/Darkwave duos like BOY HARSHER, LINEA ASPERA and SIXTH JUNE. I probably listen to more electro than metal these days!
WC: On certain songs, there’s kind of a soothing robotic voice that pops up. Does this voice represent some kind of character or is it just used as a tool to enhance the songs?
CL: Both! It adds an extra layer to the songs while also representing the machine - the anthropomorphized voice of the aforementioned technological hive-mind lulling the subject into submission. In a way it bridges the music and the lyrical concepts.
WC: DISSIMULATOR to me brings back memories of the very late 80’s, when thrash and death metal were practically the same thing. Was that the kind of vibe you were going for on the album?
CL: Pretty much! I Initially wanted the project to be more straight-up thrash but inspiration kept driving me towards avenues that were more suited to death metal’s stylistic breadth and diversity. I think the mix just comes about naturally.
WC: I would imagine you guys are sci-fi fans. What books, movies or TV shows influenced your lyrics here?
CL: “Ghost in the Shell”, “Neo-Tokyo” and William Gibson’s “Sprawl” trilogy were big influences on an aesthetic and conceptual level. Thematically, I’m also heavily influenced by the thought of writers like Gunther Anders, Hannah Arendt, Aldous Huxley, and Lewis Mumford among many others.
WC: How do you see the band evolving? I don’t think you can get too much more technical without going overboard. But maybe I’m wrong?
CL: I already have much of the raw materials written for the next release and would rather not say anything about it for now. What I can say is that the technical aspects have little if any determination over the art itself outside of our physical limitations as musicians. I try to write music that I want to hear. If I’m really into an artist at a given moment then it’s likely to rub off onto the new music I’m working on, even if only superficially.
WC: Have you ever played live? Any plans for touring behind “LFR”?
CL: We broke the ice with our first local gig last winter and are planning a late album launch early spring. While we’re open to doing the odd series of shows and festival appearances here and there, there are no current plans for extensive touring.
WC: You guys are involved with some other bands. Does DISSIMULATOR take precedence, or does it fall in the middle of the pack?
CL: I can’t speak for Phil and Antoine, but for me DISSIMULATOR is definitely a primary creative outlet these days. That said, I go wherever inspiration takes me. Taking a break and working on other projects can help to bring new perspectives on the music. So, while my current focus is on this project, I don’t know where my head will be at musically in a year or even 6 months from now!
WC: If you could have dinner with any 3 people from history, who would they be?
CL: That’s a tough one! While my answer might be different at any given point, for now I would probably say Socrates, Walter Benjamin, and George Carlin. It wouldn’t be dinner though; I would walk around the city with them so I can get their different impressions of contemporary urban life and of where the world is at.
WC: Any last words or messages?
CL: Thanks for the interview! Listen to EXPANDER.
