Good night Efrén, how's been the day at the morgue?
Kinda normal, I guess. Drug addicts with diseases like tuberculosis and HIV, car accidents, a 98 year old woman beaten to death by her son, a 6 month old baby that died in his sleep and the now normal Covid-19 cases.
I'm pretty sure not many people knows you're in fact a real forensic worker who sings for a grind / death band. How much does it inspire you all that raw human flesh you handle almost every day?
Around the time that I first started working with the dead I was more inspired by death metal/grind and horror/gore movies, which was one of the main reasons why I asked if I could do my social service in high school there. Then I got into med school and got the job, I dropped out in my last semester, but I still got the job as a necropsy technician, I don’t embalm nor do I prepare the body for the funeral ceremony; I do the autopsy. I cut, eviscerate, weigh, and all that gnarly stuff.
Are your co-workers interested in your music? Do they buy your tapes? Maybe you give promos away in the morgue to the families of the deceased?
Oh hell no, they just know that I´m into metal, but they don´t know a thing about the stuff I do out of work. I should start handing out prints of the photos to the families of their dead relative. Like those horrible souvenir your parents buy in any road trip.
Concilio Cadavérico is a young band, for how long have you been together?
We played our first show on December 2016, but we had been writing the songs for a whole year prior to that, maybe more. We all have lived in Mexicali our whole lives, and we have been friends for more than 10 years. The idea started when Marco and I were rehearsing with our noise project at Chili’s (our bass player) house; each one of us bought like 18 cans of beer, made noise for half and hour and the rest of the session consisted in drinking and smoking weed. At first we wanted to make a d-beat band, based on the sensationalist nature of our national news, but when we started writing music, we ended up become a grindcore band with doom metal interludes.
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Do you guys play in more bands or is Concilio Cadavérico the only one? I know you're also into noise / experimental music with Error Humano.
Marco and I ended Error Humano in 2021 when I moved to Tijuana to work at the morgue over there, it’s way more violent over here and they needed help. But all members except one of our guitarists, Melón, have a side project. Marco plays bass at a stench core band called Tormentum and I still play noise by the FBH name and a power electronics project called Sincretismo, Chili used to play in a hardcore band named Disslate, and Pepe, our drummer, plays in Tombstoners. Check them all out, or don’t. Don’t care.
If I'm not mistaken, by the way you released three split tapes (with Haggus, Mandroque, and Leprophiliac) and most recently another tape titled "Portadores De Plagas". Any recording plans for the future? Maybe an album?
Right now we are working on our first full length that will include some of our early songs that haven’t been recorded yet. I moved to the city of Tijuana, and Pepe has been living in Mexico City for a few years. We are talking about doing a compilation with all first songs included in those splits, and there’s gonna be a mexican reissue on CD of our split with Leprophiliac by Clandestine Prods. Also, there’s the idea of touring México for the first time.
So you all don't live at the same town but try to get together whenever you can?
We just uploaded a live session were we play one of our newest songs “Synodus Horrenda”, we try at least to see us 2 or 3 times per year, rehearse and make the songs for the full even tho 2/5 of the band live outside the rest. We don’t play that many shows since I have a really serious injury on my back and I’m waiting for surgery, hopefully the Dr puts more anesthesia on me and die on the table.
In your first tapes you play pure old styled grindcore but for the third one you came with something a little more death metal oriented, was that your intention?
I was working in the weed fields back in California when they put those songs together. So, when I came back, the songs had already been written, but hadn’t been recorded yet, just the drums, so I went on a two month tour around Mexico.
How difficult is to tour in Mexico? Years ago I remember your country had a very bad reputation for small tours, maybe with big bands was different?
Hahahaha, that reputation will still hold effective until the end of times. Some of the bands that I can remember to be ripped off are: Violator, Sadistic Intent, Paul Di´Anno, Testament, Slayer, Danzig, Malevolent Creation, Ángeles del Infierno, Disgorge (mex), mexican promoters don´t spare mexicans bands, haha. Also, the rumor says that Violator had to make t-shirts and sell them at the famous Tianguis Cultural del Chopo to pay for their trip back to Brazil. A funny story not related to the question is that a decade ago, some guy tried to bring Deicide to Mexicali, as well as Dark Funeral and both said no because they didn´t want to cross the border, same thing with Meat Shits. To make a tour here in México if you are a small band, you need to make sure that the guy that makes the show is really reliable, a bunch of money, don´t be scared of the police, as they might intimidate you saying things such as taking your ass to jail or some shit like that. Try all kinds of food but beware, because you can get what we call “Moctezuma´s revenge” (diarrea).
What do you think are the main influences in your music? Which are you fave Mexican bands?
Candlemass, Carcass, Darkthrone, Sarcófago, Impetigo, Celtic Frost, old Napalm Death, Terrorizer (the World Downfall LP, the split with Nausea and the demos). Some Mexican bands that I could recommend would be Hacavitz, Tombstoners, Infernal Conjuration, Raped God 666, Anarchus, Nuke, Mandroque, Disslate, Hog, Mortuary. If any of you are into noise, I recommend you to check out Mito del Desierto, CCOOWWSS, Orutzakiloji, S.I.N. F.O.R.M.A., Cacophonic Joy and Heraldos Negros.
Is Mexico still plagued with stupid porn-gore bands everywhere or that “scene” is dead at last?
I fucking hate those bands. But yeah, they’re still around, I still don’t know what’s the appeal.
Years ago I interviewed you for Invocation Of Obscene Gods zine but only about your job as forensic technician, I see you're still working so guess you really like it?
I started working there back when I was 17 for my social service program at school. I’m still here 14 years later, so yeah, I love making a living with the dead.
Do you practice an autopsy with all the cadavers you receive? Maybe sometimes the cause of death is so obvious that you don't need to do so?
For the most part, yeah. The ones that I don’t practice the autopsy on are bodies that died by causes regarding terminal diseases, HIV, cancer, old people, or those with a history of heart disease-related problems. Sometimes the cause of death might seem obvious, but when I open them up it turns out to be another unrelated cause. I remember this guy that cut up both wrists and bled out in his bedroom, but when I started eviscerating the body, it turns out that he had tried to swallow a piece of cloth. It seemed that in the process of desperation caused by realizing that he wasn’t dying by the loss of blood, he put the rag in his mouth and died of asphyxiation.
Do you work with headphones like the guy at the beginning of Nacho Cerdá's film “Aftermath”? Or do you have a proper stereo in the morgue to blast music all night long?
That is such a classic movie, go watch that if you haven’t. Another recommendation would be “Orozco, el embalsamador”. I used to use earplugs before, but I recently noticed a substantial decrease on my hearing, mostly caused by noise, and punk shows. I got a speaker at a flea market for 3 bucks, probably stolen. I tend to listen to albums on the whole while working; here is some of the stuff that I’ve been blasting:
Carcass - Symphonies of sickness.
Disembowelment - Transcendence into the peripheral
Leprophiliac - Necrosis
Rippikoulu - Musta seremonia demo
Candlemass - Epicus doomicus metallicus
Corrupted - Dios injusto
Tigres del norte - 16 zarpazos
V/A - Movimiento alterado Vol 4
Impetigo - Horror of the zombies
I'm sure the narco victims are still very usual, tell me which is the most extreme and brutal execution they brought you.
Actually, Mexicali is a really tame city when compared to Tijuana or Tecate. Cities in which the narco victims are considered to be “el pan de cada día”. However, I’ve received a few dismembered bodies a few times, some with messages written on their foreheads, and displaying signs of torture before being killed. A few of them turn up piece by piece; first the head, then a few days later an arm and a leg come up. There’s an arm that’s been rotting for a few months there. Some of them are dismembered alive; one can only imagine the suffering that they go through before perishing.
Is Carcass “Symphonies Of Sickness” still your fave album? Did you like their comeback and latest records?
Symphonies of Sickness and Reek of Putrefaction until the day I die!!! I haven’t listened to their latest stuff, and I don’t really care about doing so. Those reunions shows/tours are just made by people that want to cash in on the hype.
Ok cabrón thanks a lot for your time answering this, all the best luck in Tijuana, keep on going with the dismemberment and embalming!!
Tus, ahuevote mi Dopi, thanks for all the support and interest for our work and my work at the morgue. Be safe when you visit Tijuana, if not I´ll see you at the table.
