Interview with Mike Browning 2004
(www.voicesfromthedarkside)
Frank Stoever: Did you play in many bands before you
joined MORBID ANGEL?
Mike Browning:
"Not at all, I had jammed with people here
and there, but Trey and I both really started trying to have a real band
back in 1982."
MORBID ANGEL was formed in 1983, by yourself, Trey Azagthoth and
Dallas Ward. How did you get to know each other? Did you have the same
interests, the same musical taste etc.?
"I knew Trey from High School and he knew Dallas, I think from his
old neighbourhood, but I am not sure when they actually met. But yeah
Trey and I were like the only two kids in that school that were into the
occult and it just happened that he played guitar and I drums."
The name of the band was ICE, then you renamed it HERETIC until
you ended up with MORBID ANGEL... Who came up with MORBID ANGEL? Were
you dissatisfied with the previous names?
"ICE didn't last long and Dallas wasn't in it at first, but Trey
really wasn't happy with the name anymore so he changed it to HERETIC
(he came up with ICE as well) and almost right away we found out that
there was another HERETIC, so Trey came up with MORBID ANGEL, because
someone told him our stuff sounded really morbid!"
In your early days you played covers of ANGEL WITCH, SLAYER and
MERCYFUL FATE, which songs of these bands did you play?
"A lot of them actually! By ANGEL WITCH we played 'Baphomet' (still
one of my most favorite songs ever), 'Angel Of Death' and a few others
off the first album. We did a few songs off the first two SLAYER albums
as well and we did instrumental versions of a lot of old MERCYFUL FATE,
too! Too many too list, we played almost everything off
"Melissa" and the first EP!"
Didn't you play any VAN HALEN covers at that time? As far as I
know, Trey is / was a great fan of VAN HALEN, right?
"No VAN HALEN! We never played any of that at all."
Do you recall the early MORBID ANGEL rehearsals? How often did you
rehearse, how was your rehearsal place etc.?
"We played everywhere and anywhere! We would always try our houses
first and we used to go to this park that had a small hill and a neat
covered gazeebo that was pretty big and had electricity, so we would
carry all our stuff up that hill and just start jamming until someone
would finally complain and stop us. We even rented a generator and
played on the beach a few times, that drew huge crowds and of course
lots of parties!"
Did you take MORBID ANGEL seriously right from the start?
"Once we got Dallas, we really started taking the band seriously!!!
Before that the few other people we played with were really not into the
occult, but Dallas was too, so once Trey and I found that 3rd person
that had the same interests we got really serious."
How was the scene of Tampa at that time? AVATAR (later SAVATAGE),
NASTY SAVAGE, MORBID ANGEL, MANTAS were the first bands, is that
correct? Was there a healthy club scene? Could you tell us more about
this legendary period?
"It was amazing!!! All those bands and more! There was another band
called ARGUS that was a Metal band much like SAVATAGE, but they did more
cover songs than originals, but it was killer stuff like old MAIDEN and
ANGEL WITCH, I used to watch them all the time back then, but their
singer quit and they never found anyone that was as near as good of a
singer and frontman as he was, so they eventually just fell apart and
broke up. But two years ago I saw one of the guitar players and he said
that they were going to reform again with the original singer and both
guitar players and they needed a drummer, so I joined and we started
doing a lot of shows last year, but one of the guitar players and his
brother who was playing bass, ended up not having enough time to play in
a band, so they both quit and Demain from AFTER DEATH joined on guitar a
few months ago and we got another bass player and actually began writing
all new stuff, so we are working on that right now, soon we will have
some new stuff recorded!!!"
Would you say, that with the foundation of MANTAS and MORBID
ANGEL a very new, unknown style started, which was labeled Death Metal?
Was your approach different compared to for example SLAYER, RAZOR, DARK
ANGEL, METALLICA or EXODUS?
"I definitely think so, I mean MORBID ANGEL didn't sound like
anybody at all, especially back then and MANTAS was really heavy,
heavier than most of the bands back then!"
The fact was to play uncommercial, fast and aggressiv music,
right?
"For me it was always to be as origainal as possible and as Evil!
Speed wasn't really something we were into back then, it was more about
the mystique of the band itself and calling forth The Ancient
Ones!"
Although POSSESSED were the first who used the notation "Death
Metal" on their classic "Seven Churches" record, would
you say that the Florida based bands had an effect on POSSESSED? Were
you familiar with them?
"POSSESSED was way heavier than most of the bands out back then,
but to tell you the truth, I'm not sure when they actually formed, they
were all really young back then, younger than me and I know a lot of
heavy stuff had already been realeased by other bands for a while."
Would you say that the great Death Metal boom was around 1985 /
86?
"A lot of bands came into being, such as XECUTIONER (OBITUARY),
HELLWITCH, ATHEIST etc. For sure!!! It started around '85 and pretty
much stayed pretty strong until about 1992."
There was two scenes in Florida, in Tampa and in Fort Lauderdale.
Why did Florida become the center of Death Metal? Were there differences
between the scenes of Tampa and Fort Lauderdale?
"I guess that the Tampa bands were maybe just a bit more extreme
and original and there was always a bigger crowd in Tampa, so the
support of the people probably helped a lot too."
When did you start writing your own material? Was it a conscious,
logical step from your part to write more aggressive and brutal stuff
compared to the covers?
"Well, it's cool to play covers you like, but we always kind of did
them our own way anyway, but the idea was to create not to copy!!!"
In 1985 Kenny Bamber joined the band, what about his musical
past? Was he a good friend of the band?
"He had been in a few Rock bands and said he could sing like King
Diamond and he owned a huge PA and light system, he was older than us at
the time and he seemed to know a lot about the music business in
general, so there were a lot of reasons why we tried him, but in reality
it only lasted a few months, he just didn't fit in with us."
You recorded a two track demo featuring 'Demon Seed' and 'Welcome To
Hell'... Were they the very first MORBID ANGEL songs? As far as I know,
it was an instrumental recording, wasn't it?
"The first professionally recorded stuff was with Kenny on vocals
and Dallas did some vocals as well on it, if it was instrumental that
you heard than it was probably just some kind of a rehearsal tape. We
had tons of jambox recordings back then, I wish I still had a lot of
those old recordings, Dallas had most of them, but we always recorded
our rehearsals!"
In August 1985 you recorded "The Beginning" demo and
the vocal duties were taken over by Dallas Ward and Kenny Bamber... Why
did both of them sing?
"Basically the demo contains two songs 'The Gate / Demon Seed' and
'Evil Spells' plus two instrumental ones. We didn't really like the
stuff Kenny did, so while we were still in the studio Dallas also did
versions with him singing, so we could have them in case we didn't keep
Kenny, which of course we didn't!"
Who wrote the lyrics and the music in the early days? Was a
concept behind them? Did you have a kind of image, as far as your music,
lyrics, clothes etc.?
"Mostly everything was written by Trey, although Dallas wrote a lot
of stuff too and it wasn't until Dallas left and I started singing that
I started writing lyrics too. We all were really into the occult and the
Necronomicon as well, so that was our biggest influences!"
How and when did Richard Brunelle get into the picture as
frontman and guitarist / vocalist? In which bands did he play earlier?
Why did both Dallas and Kenny leave the band?
"We thought it would be a good idea to get two guitar players since
Trey liked to play a lot of leads and we saw Richard at a party, he
never really played in any bands before, but he was also interested in
the occult, so we thought he would be a great choice. Dallas went to
jail and Kenny just didn't fit in with us and what we wanted to do with
the band."
Then John Ortega joined the band, so Richard could concentrate on the
vocals exclusively... What about John's musical past?
"John joined because Dallas went to jail! Before that Dallas did
most of the vocals and Richard did a few, but he couldn't play and sing
at the same time, so in reality if Dallas hadn't of went to jail then he
would have been MORBID ANGEL's vocalist and I would have never even
tried singing!"
This line-up recorded a live demo in Tampa 1986 featuring 'Bleed
For The Devil', 'Chapel Of Ghouls', 'Abominations', 'Morbid Angel' and
'Hellspawn'... Could you tell us more about this tape?
"That wasn't a demo, it was just a soundboard tape of a show we did
that got circulated in the underground. It was here in Tampa at a place
called "The Power Company" and we played on the PA that was
owned by ARGUS back then, that was in 1984!"
Was Richard the perfect man for the position of the vocalist?
Didn't you think about adding a real singer / growler?
"No he couldn't sing and play at the same time, that's why I
believe that Dallas would have ended up as the frontman."
Talking about the live gigs of MORBID ANGEL, could you tell us
more about them? Any memories about those shows, when you played in the
band?
"It was always a very magical event when we played, we always had
incense and the proper things to set the mood before we played. I don't
want to go into too much details but we did a lot of ritual type stuff
before shows!"
I have a DVD in my collection which titles "Live In Tampa"
1986...
"Could be either "Rocky Point" which was outside or
"Sidestreets" which was inside. If it is neither than let me
know so I can get a copy!!!"
For a little period you rehearsed with a female singer Evilynn as well,
what about this period? Did you also play shows while she was in the
band?
"Lynn was Trey's girlfriend and we never did any shows with her and
she only jammed with us a couple of times when we rehearsed, so she was
never actually in the band at all. I think it was only two or three
practices at the most."
Why did she leave the band?
"She was never really in the band, but her and Trey broke up
anyway, they weren't together for too long."
After Evilynn's departure you took over the vocals... Were you
forced to do the vocals or couldn't you find real singer? Could you
concentrate on both, the vocals and on the drumming at the same time?
"We were tired of trying to find a singer, especially someone that
really fit in with what we were into as far as the occult and music. So
I said I will try and bought a headset microphone and tried and it
worked pretty naturally for me and today I am still singing and playing
drums together. In NOCTURNUS I did the same thing and toured all over
Europe and the United States and thousands of people have seen that I
have no problem playing and singing at the same time."
Dan Beehler of EXCITER was also drummer / vocalist...
"Yeah, I still remeber 'Black Witch', what a classic song!"
In 1986 you recorded the four song demo "Scream Fourth
Blasphemy" including 'Hellspawn', 'Chapel Of Ghouls', 'Angel Of
Disease' and 'Abominations'... Did you develop compared to your previous
recordings?
"Nope we never did a demo, that may have been another rehearsal
tape that got out and circulated around, but we never recorded anything
after what we did with Kenny until we recorded that full length
"Abominataions Of Desolation" LP. Which was in truth MORBID
ANGEL's real first album, not "Altars Of Madness"."
The demo spread the name of the band worldwide, it found its way
onto the underground trading market, did you think at that time that the
demo would be successful? Did more fans become interested in the band?
"I am not sure what this demo is that you are talking about, maybe
you can send me a copy, because it's probably just a really good
sounding rehearsal and I don't even have a copy of it!"
Did you get letters from fans worldwide who wanted to buy the
demo? Do you still remember how many copies were sold from the demo?
"Trey did most of the mail for MORBID ANGEL back then, so you would
have to ask him that question."
At that time (1986) labels started to get interested in the band, which
labels did show an interest in the band? Did they offer you a serious
deal?
"We really hadn't talked to any labels at all yet, but an old
friend of mine from Tampa that had moved to North Carolina had called me
and he said he was in a band called BARREN CEMETARY and that the bass
player had a record label and he wanted to hear our stuff, so we sent
him a rehearsal tape and he sent us a contract, that person who owned
the label happened to be David Vincent (Evil D), the contract was really
good and he wanted Bill Metoyer (of old SLAYER fame and countless other
bands) to engineer the album, so we signed it right away."
Goreque Records, which was owned by David Vincent, was also
interested in the band, is that correct?
"Yep, just like I mentioned, but he was really the first to be
serious about signing us, so instead of waiting we just went ahead and
signed a deal with him."
Do you still remember what kind of releases David did have at
that time? Which bands did he sign at that time?
"We were the first to be on Goreque, but he was also very
interested in MASSACRE at the time."
He wanted to release the debut album of MASSACRE, but the plan
fell through, do you know something about it?
"I am not sure what actually happened with the MASSACRE thing, but
I remeber the deal fell through pretty much when David got in MORBID
ANGEL."
Was the tape a real demo or would you name it as a pre-production
of the "Abominations Of Desolation" record?
"Like I said we never recorded a demo in the studio after Kenny so
it had to be a rehearsal tape."
In May 1986 you went to North Carolina to record the debut album
"Abominations Of Desolation"... Why didn't you record it in
Florida? Had Morrisound not opened their doors at that time?
"David wanted us to use some expensive fancy studio where he lived,
so we drove up there in a rented truck with our stuff and he flew in
Bill Metoyer from California and we recorded in some studio that did a
lot of country music, the guys that owned the studio didn't know what to
think about our music!"
The material consists of old tracks, but 'Azagthoth' and 'Lord Of All
Fevers And Plague' were brandnew tunes, right? When did you write them?
"Trey and I were always writing a bunch of stuff, one thing that
never got recorded was the song 'Morbid Angel', I believe it was over 10
minutes long!"
What about the recording sessions? Any memories of it?
"We did all the recording in a few days and then David sent me and
Richard and Johnny back to Tampa and kept Trey there by himself for the
mixing, little did we know that the whole thing was a plan by David to
try to get Trey to quit MORBID ANGEL and join his band! And in the end
it worked."
Who played the bassparts on the record? Were they played by John
Ortega or was Sterling Von Scarborough already a member of the band?
"They were played by John Ortega, David convinced Trey to fire
Johnny and it was David who hooked us up with Sterling. We never knew
Sterling before he tried out for MORBID ANGEL. But David didn't want me
or Johnny or David, he wanted Trey for himself, and it wasn't until Trey
and I got in an actual fight when I caught him with my girlfriend and
beat his ass really bad and that was the real reason why Trey and
Richard left Florida to play with David Vincent."
The album was shelved due to the band disintigrating in a
physichal argument over your girlfriend, what happened? Didn't the
bandmembers get along well with your girlfriend?
"As I just said I guess Trey got along too good with my girlfriend,
I caught them together at Trey's moms house where he lived at the time
and I beat his ass so bad that was the end of me being in MORBID ANGEL
and jamming with Trey! The next day he came and got his equipment from
the house that Richard, Sterling and I lived in and that was the last
time we ever played together."
The album wasn't released, because you weren't satisfied with the
sound of it... What was the reason for it? Was the equipment not good
enough, didn't you have enough time to finish the recordings, was the
staff non-professional or something?
"That was the real reason because I beat Trey up!!! There were a
lot of excuses that Trey made after that, because he didn't want the
people to know what really happened!!! But the only thing we really
weren't happy about was the bass playing, we were pretty happy with the
rest of the recording, so it was still supposed to come out, it's just
that Trey and I got in that fight and everything changed from that point
on."
When "Abominations..." would have been released in
1986, would it have been the very first Death Metal record?
"I doubt that! There was lots of other stuff out by that time I
think!"
"Abominations..." was released by Earache in 1991...
What happened? Did you re-record the material? Were you satisfied with
the end result?
"David sold the album to Earache just as it was recorded back in
1986. I didn't even know anything about it until after it was already
out and in the stores, so I had no say in anything, they weren't even
going to give me any royalties or any credit for it at all, David and
Trey were going to make all of the money off of it, but they ended up
paying me some little royalties but they never gave anything to Richard
or Johnny at all even though they both played on it and no credit or
information as to who even played on it was given either. Even to this
day on the official MORBID ANGEL website it says that
"Abominations..." was a demo, but it is clear to see it is a
full length record and no, Sterling did not play on it either! So even
to this day Trey is not telling the real truth about
"Abominations..." and who played on it."
The titles of the MORBID ANGEL records follow the alphabetical
order, is this a concept? Who came with this idea?
"I came up with "Abominations Of Desolation", it's from
Aleister Crowleys Book Of The Law. About the rest of the albums I don't
know if it was done on purpose at first, I think it was just something
that happened and after a few albums they noticed it and then kept it
going."
In your opinion, how much did the music and the lyrics of MORBID ANGEL
develop on the other records? Were David Vincent and Steven Tucker good
singers, did they fit to the band?
"MORBID ANGEL has changed a lot, David Vincent brought in a lot of
lyrics that were not occult oriented, it's pretty clear to see that
MORBID ANGEL is now a corporate type of band that is all about making
money more than true soul inspired musick!"
How do you see the career of MORBID ANGEL as a whole?
"I think they hit their high back around "Domination" and
they will make a really good come back if they record with David again,
but like I said it's all about the money now!"
When and why did you leave the band? Did Sterling von Scarborough
join the band after your departure?
"As I mentioned earlier after Trey and I got into that fight, he
and Richard actually left Florida altogether and Sterling and I reformed
his old band INCUBUS with a new guitar player Gino Marino. So Sterling
was in the band before I left, he had just joined and we did just one
show with him on bass, but unfortunately that show never got recorded in
video or audio!"
At that time John Ortega has left he band as well... Why did he
decide to quit the band? Was the reason of his departure that he founded
a new band called MATRICIDE?
"Johnny was fired by Trey right after we recorded that album and
Sterling was brought in as his replacement. It was after that that he
formed MATRICIDE."