"The band was born from a few drinks in a friend's kitchen during quarantine kicking around the idea of starting a death metal band in the vein of early Entombed and Sepultura," says Evan Grove, vocalist of Morbid Visionz.
Those talks usually don't end up materializing into anything, but in this case, Evan and his musician friends from the Little Rock, Arkansas scene— bassist Ted Gilliam, drummer Kirby Westmorland, and guitarists Josh Delack and Andrew Sorrows—got busy.
"The style of death metal we play has never really existed in Little Rock," the singer tells No Echo. "Death metal has had a footing here but never anything close to the sound we started doing and especially what our sound has grown into. Most death metal here is more on the slamming / brutal side of things and that's just not us. So starting out we thought there was a need for something we were shooting for in Arkansas."
Morbid Visionz first attracted attention from heavy music fans through their 2022 Cycle of Cessation EP, and they closed out 2024 with the release of their follow-up EP, a 4-tracker called Remnants of Death:
Evan touched upon it a bit earlier, but he gets further into explaining the influence behind Morbid Visionz' style. "I would say our sound is strongly OSDM derived. The music we have out right now sounds like a mix of Obituary, Bolt Thrower, and Morbid Angel for the most part. We sprinkle some other stuff in there, but I think that's where our heads ended up while writing a lot of the music on Cycle of Cessation, specifically.
"When you dive into the 2 newer tracks on our recent EP, Remnants of Death, you might find some more sounds from the Finnish scene like Convulse, Demilich, Adramelech, and stuff like that. Myself and our guitar player (Andrew) really like that stuff. Moving forward into our LP, I think you'll find a lot more of that sound mixed with Florida DM riffs, which is where our other guitar player (Josh) gets most influence."
Remnants of Death was issued by Maggot Stomp Records, an important label in today's death metal landscape, behind releases by the likes of Bodybox, 200 Stab Wounds, and Sanguisugabogg. So, how did Evan and Morbid Visionz initially connect with Scott Magrath from the Southern California label?
"I don’t specifically remember, but Scott and Stan from Terminal Nation had been friends for a little while, Stan has been a huge supporter of this band from the beginning. He posted live clips of us constantly and I think that's probably how we ended up on Scott's radar initially, I just remember getting a follow from Maggot Stomp randomly on twitter far before we even sent anything to Maggot Stomp.
"In my head (I think the rest of the band would probably agree), the only label we wanted releasing our stuff at the time was Maggot Stomp and that’s the only label we sent our EP to. If Scott didn’t want to release it, I didn’t really have any other interest or plans in releasing it through anyone else, the plan in the case he didn't want to do it was to self release it.
"Morbid Visionz was never supposed to be a serious band, we just wanted to play a few shows a year locally and maybe a few out of town and just chill. Luckily, Scott took the chance on the band and Maggot Stomp opened a ton of doors for us and still continues to do so. Turns out when you have a platform and people find out about you and like you, you do more stuff [laughs]. We have a ton of gratitude for Scott and appreciate how Maggot Stomp has opened up these opportunities. Even though Scott didn’t come to our show at Chain Reaction, we still fuck with him [laughs]."
READ MORE: Maggot Stomp Founder Scott Magrath: A Chat About His Label, Musical Upbringing & More
Morbid Visionz capped 2024 off by touring with New Orleans riff masters Crowbar, and as much as he loves hitting the road, listening to Evan, it's easy to see how psyched he is about hometown musical community. "Little Rock currently is thriving. We have a lot of younger people rolling out and helping build the scene. There was a huge post-COVID boom that happened, some of those people stuck around, some haven’t. But the ones that did still continue to bring people out to shows and introduce them to what we have going on here.
"We have been doing a fest here, BITRFEST, that myself and our bass player (Ted) are involved in along with Stan from Terminal and a couple of our other buddies. I think it has helped put some eyes on the city and gave some of our local bands a little bit of a platform, which was the goal in the first place. Outside of the fest, we regularly get some cool tours coming through here.
"Little Rock bands you need to check out: Terminal Nation, Death Rattle, Dryer Fire, Chainsnatcher, Bite, Open Kasket, Mazenko, Severe Headwound, First To Burn, Second Life, Peach Blush, PETT, Stressor, XThreatX, Penalty, Zashed, Current Solace, EMS, B.L.A.S.T., Moonmane, Through Blood.
"I’ll also give a few regionally: Primitive Rage, Abnormally Deceased, Ritual Fog, Defense Wound, Ectospire, Final Atomic Battle, Vulgarity, Heldtight, Chrono Wizard, Sawed Off, Necrotic Altar. This covers Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Alabama."
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Remnants of Death is available now via Maggot Stomp Records.
Morbid Visionz on social media: Twitter | Instagram
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