MAURIZIO IACONO Talks KATAKLYSM's Evolution After 35 Years In Death Metal: 'We Always Thought Outside The Box'

By David E. Gehlke

KATAKLYSM's 1995 "Sorcery" and 1996 "Temple Of Knowledge (Kataklysm Part III)" studio albums remain near the peak of death metal extremity and uncontrolled chaos. At the time, the Canadians were fronted by Sylvain Houde, a man whose vocal style bordered on insanity — he had no rhythm nor cadence nor word count, just one crazed bellow or maniacal scream after another. Houde defined early period KATAKLYSM. He sang over nearly every riff and often changed vocal styles mid-song. (One would be hard pressed to find something more radical than his performance on "Beckoning Of The Xul".) A series of personal issues led to the end of Houde's tenure in KATAKLYSM in 1998, when he was replaced by bassist Maurizio Iacono. Knowing they could likely never find someone like Houde, KATAKLYSM almost immediately opted to shift into more groove-oriented and palatable death metal territory, where they've remained ever since.

Today, KATAKLYSM is better known for their run of playing accessible, chorus-oriented death metal than their Houde era. Their career is now anchored by a four-album stretch that started with 2001's "Epic (The Poetry Of War)" , followed by 2002's "Shadows & Dust", 2004's "Serenity In Fire" and 2006's "In The Arms Of Devastation", each of which was promoted with multitudes of tour dates. From there, the Canadians' studio output has remained solid and dependable, promoting a self-described brand of "controlled chaos" that was unthinkable three decades ago. Ahead of their North American trek supporting SIX FEET UNDER, BLABBERMOUTH.NET got Iacono on the line to reflect on their time spent touring the continent, replacing Houde and what's around the corner.

Blabbermouth: Can we go back 26 years, when you did a North American tour with DISMEMBER, KRISIUN and SHADOWS FALL? This was one of the first tours where you were the frontman. What sticks out?

Maurizio: "We did that tour in a minivan. [Laughs] KATAKLYSM, we were spoiled when we first started. Our first tour ever was in Europe, supporting DEICIDE on the 'Legion' tour. There was a tour bus; we had our own bus. I was 19 years old or whatever, and I was like, 'This thing is great!' Then came touring America. That's a different story. [Laughs] We did our first tour with INCANTATION in an Econoline van, like a 1980 van. It survived, and it was tough, and we did it. This tour here, we didn't have the economic situation going on. It was early. We were like, 'Why don't we do it in a minivan? It will be great.' We had one of those things you put on top for your clothes."

Blabbermouth: A car carrier!

Maurizio: "Yes! A car carrier because we didn't have a hitch for a trailer. It was pretty crazy. I remember the guys in KRISIUN going, 'You are touring in a car?' They'd never seen that type of van in Brazil. They thought it was a big car. It was an adventure, but it was a great tour. I'm a huge fan of DISMEMBER and SHADOWS FALL. At the time, they were just coming up. They were opening the tour. KRISIUN, they're still our brothers after all of these years. What a cool tour at the time, right? Now you don't see DISMEMBER that much anymore. They do odd gigs and stuff. For me, that tour was difficult because I wasn't quite molded yet as a singer."

Blabbermouth: Moving out from the bass spot into the frontman role doesn't sound very easy.

Maurizio: "That was a huge challenge because I was filling in big shoes with Sylvain being this crazy singer from outer space that people were kind of ecstatic to see because he was so eclectic and crazy. I'm more of a toned-down, in-your-face kind of guy. We had very different personalities onstage. I had to deal with that, plus I had to deal with, 'What if I lose my voice?' I never thought about that. I was struggling a little bit on that tour. It took me a while. That tour for me was one of the beginnings."

Blabbermouth: Was it a matter of just doing it? It's not like you had any other choice.

Maurizio: "Right. Going from bass to vocals was a simple decision because I was already doing backing vocals. Basically, people would accept that easier than some random dude we were going to try, and if it doesn't work out, we'll be swapping vocalists all the time. I knew that position was too important. If you don't have that voice of the band, it's not going to make it. I understood that. I always had the business side in me. I understood the logical things, so I stepped into that position, and I've been in it since. It worked out."

Blabbermouth: How did you approach some of the songs on "Sorcery" or "Temple Of Knowledge"? You and Sylvain are very different vocalists.

Maurizio: "I would do the ones that had timing that was adaptable. He was not a conventional singer. I do measures; I think he would randomly jump from one rhythm to another; he'd sing over solos, everything. That's what made the band recognizable in the beginning. He was a huge part of the movement in the beginning. When you turn people's heads because it's so crazy and extreme, it gets a lot of attention. That's what got Nuclear Blast's attention and the underground. It was like, 'There's nothing like this band.' But I could do 'Sorcery', 'The Orb Of Uncreation' and 'Mystical Plane Of Evil'. 'Shrine Of Life' was one of the easier ones. Then, 'The Awakener' on 'Temple Of Knowledge'. There were a few tempos that we could swing, but there were some that I could not do."

Blabbermouth: How do you follow what Sylvain was even singing?

Maurizio: "It was too crazy. I couldn't follow the rhythm. There was no rhythm. There was a tempo to follow, but it was all in his mind that brought these lyrics to life. Then there were the starts and stops. At the time, we had 60 riffs in a song. It was non-stop, stop-and-go, and shit. It's not that we didn't like it. We liked it, but when he left and when we decided to continue the band in a different direction, to change the structure of the band a little bit, I believed that we couldn't do another 'Temple Of Knowledge'. For me, that record was iconic. It was a milestone, and I don't think we could have beaten it, especially not without him. There was no point in us continuing in that direction. We took a step back, reexamined the band and restructured it in a way we felt more comfortable, especially me with my timing. I couldn't do that stuff. That was his world. I don't think I would have given it justice anyway."

Blabbermouth: When did you start to hit your stride as a vocalist? Around "Epic" or "Shadows & Dust"?

Maurizio: "I think, rhythm-wise, 'Shadows & Dust' was something I was comfortable with. There was a song called 'Manipulator Of Souls' on 'Epic' where I start the song. I was like, 'How can we divert ourselves from everyone else? Let's start a song with the vocals, with the chorus.' Everyone was like, 'What?' I went into that, and then we started doing a lot of these things, and I was doing it with Sylvain in the band back then. 'The Awakener' started with an acoustic bass, then went into this complete chaos, which had never been done before in death metal. That influence came from '(Anesthesia)-Pulling Teeth' from METALLICA, with Cliff. Cliff Burton was like, 'Wow! He's controlling everything with his bass.' He was doing solos, so I was like, 'I need to do that in death metal. I never saw that before.' We were really thinking outside the box at the time. We took some of that outside-the-box, crazy-thinking measures and all that and turned it into controlled chaos. KATAKLYSM became controlled chaos, structured songs that you can remember, with choruses and stop-and-go sections. Even 'In Shadows & Dust' starts the song, then goes 'In shadows and dust!' You didn't hear that a lot. We were always thinking of doing things in that direction. I find that my groove as a vocalist, where I was getting good partners and competing with other vocalists, was 'In The Arms Of Devastation'. You could tell it was the one that broke. 'Shadows & Dust' opened the doors, but 'In The Arms' or 'Serenity In Fire' are the ones that stuck. Those are the one, two, three records that bands need to stay around for a while. [Laughs] Then 'Prevail' came, and we started to repeat ourselves, so we decided to move into different directions and try new things with more melodies. We experimented a lot on those records."

Blabbermouth: You toured all the time after these records came out. Why was that?

Maurizio: "We believed in the idea that if you're going to put a record out, you have to go support it. You have to play live. I'm still a believer in this. Concerts and touring are the best ways to communicate with your fans and gain new ones. I understand the social media thing. Look, for KATAKLYSM, the internet was a fax machine. [Laughs] There was no internet! There was no social media. We were waiting for Metal Maniacs, Kerrang! , Hit Parader, all the rock or metal magazines. If they mentioned your name, it was like, 'Yeah, we made it!' 'KATAKLYSM has a new record coming out.' We did it. We were in that world where we waited a month for information. Now, the information is here, but you have a circus going on. It's too much. I still believe that concerts are the way to go. That was from the band's beginning to now. We never stopped. We never, 'Okay, let's take five years off.' KATAKLYSM has always been a machine, running and running for 20-something years. I'm losing count!"

Blabbermouth: For the sake of reference, "In The Arms Of Devastation" is now 20 years old.

Maurizio: "It's crazy. It's a time when I still remember writing 'Crippled And Broken' and writing some of these songs on that record that now people sing along to. It's weird to see that in death metal, but they do. KATAKLYSM went from that crazy band you couldn't understand the lyrics to singing along. It's a weird evolution that we've had."

Blabbermouth: Do you think some of that could be attributed to the fact you're from Montreal, which is a very European city? And singalongs are a very European thing?

Maurizio: "A lot of people don't attribute that to KATAKLYSM. KATAKLYSM has always been a hybrid band with diverse influences. We can go up to some of these really crazy, extreme death metal bands on certain records, like 'Waiting For The End To Come'. At the same time, we can go out with HATEBREED or LAMB OF GOD and hold our own. We have that thing. That's why you always see lists for the 'classic death metal bands.' You're not going to see KATAKLYSM in the top 10 or even the top 50. You're always seeing CANNIBAL [CORPSE] or MORBID ANGEL, and they are our brothers and friends, but we're a hybrid, like groove-oriented death metal that is melodic."

Blabbermouth: Don't forget the hyperblast, or, more specifically, the "Northern Hyperblast".

Maurizio: "Right. It's all branding. We were like, 'Let's do something different.' We always thought outside of the box. We concentrated more on writing songs that are memorable. We also realized that when you start pushing 50, you don't want to be trying to compete with these young guys coming up who are 20 years old and are like machines. I think memorable songs, and we can show we can do it, but it's not something we're interested in at this period of our careers to continue to try to be CRYPTOPSY, for example. We used to be their biggest rivals at the beginning. We were the extreme bands, head-to-head from Quebec. We're now bros. We play together; we hang out. It's cool, but we're not in the same world anymore. We can still tour together. That's the cool thing about all of this."

Blabbermouth: How much do you think the perception of Canadian metal being inherently "weird" has hurt KATAKLYSM? You mention CRYPTOPSY. You can't have this discussion without VOIVOD and GORGUTS as well.

Maurizio: "Unfortunately, Canada has always had this kind of stigma of being second to the United States. It's just that you're next to a superpower that is creating industries. The Florida scene; the New York scene, you had big bands there. When record labels were signing bands at the time, they were like, 'Why would I sign a SUFFOCATION rip-off or imitation when I can go into the U.S., and I'm going to sign something that they influence?' We were kind of dealing with that in the beginning of death metal, like all of these bands that sounded the same. I think the Canadian bands were forced to be different. It forced us to come up and be weird. All of the bands are like that, even STRAPPING YOUNG LAD or Devin Townsend. They're all different. OBLIVEON is another one. Even KATAKLYSM, when we came out, if we were trying to be what we are now, I'm not sure we would have gotten signed. We got signed because we were crazier than everybody. [Laughs] That's the interesting thing about it. I remember when Nuclear Blast wanted to sign KATAKLYSM, the entire office was like, 'You can't sign this garbage. It's not music.' But the owner was like, 'No, this is the craziest thing I have heard.' [Nuclear Blast founder/owner] Markus Staiger signed the band off the demo that I sent him. I sent it to a bunch of labels, and it ended up on his desk; he listened to it, went crazy over it and signed us. We had printed 800 demos. I took 600 and shipped them out. A lot of bands wanted to sell them to recoup their costs; I just wanted to ship them out. He wanted that EP [1993's 'The Mystical Gate Of Reincarnation'] on the CD. He said, 'We're doing this. Give me a bonus track, give me 'The Orb'. That EP came out and was the biggest-selling EP on Nuclear Blast for a long time, until AMORPHIS released an EP. That one topped us. It's very commercial compared to what we do. Still, it said a lot about where it was going. Those were crazy times. That evolution kept coming, and we're still in that movement right now of changing it up."

Blabbermouth: You've been on Nuclear Blast forever.

Maurizio: "We are the longest-standing band on the label. They want us to release a record to mark the label's 40th anniversary. Dude, I've outlasted the owners. [Laughs] Markus is gone."

Blabbermouth: And think of how many offices you've outlasted here in the States.

Maurizio: "From the Florida one to the Pennsylvania one. Look, I think that relationship, some bands do not as good, then they get dropped. For us, we were so consistent across our career that we were a sure bet. Some bands do this, but KATAKLYSM was always a slow burner, going up and up while staying steady. It never went all the way up, but never all the way down. We had strong markets like Germany, and we did extremely well in Europe. The U.S. has been a ride; 'Arms' and 'Shadows' have sold lots of records, and lately, 'Of Ghosts And Gods' and 'Goliath' broke a lot of ground for us. There are so many bands. That's the thing. It's become difficult, and I think there are too many bands and it's hard to get somebody's attention. We come from a time where we're established. That's played a big part in our evolution right now because we've got that advantage of coming from the time we came. It's getting tough. I manage bands, so I see it, and it's tough. You have to come up with ideas. I manage a band called WIND ROSE. I grabbed them from the bottom, and now they're very big, but we have a whole social media going, like the ideas, and now everyone rips you off. It takes two seconds, and the ideas are everywhere. That's the thing: Thinking ahead, but I'm believing more and more that good music needs to be done. That's what's going to be memorable. It's always been the same kind of root cause of success."

Blabbermouth: "Goliath" is now three years old. Where are you guys on the next album?

Maurizio: "KATAKLYSM is going to go back and do something we haven't done in a long time, which is get together and write the entire record together. We haven't done it because of technology. J-F [Dagenais, guitar] is in Texas. Stéph [Barbe, bass] lives in Canada and James [Payne, drums] is in L.A., and I'm in Florida, so it's always been 'Send me your files and let's see what we can do.' Then we get online and talk to each other. Now, I have a property out here in Florida that I bought that's an acre of land with a chalet, like a cabin. I built the studio in the back, and we'll spend two months there. In the fall, we're starting. We're going to do this like we used to jam. We're going to jam, and from there, we're going to get all of our ideas the same way we used to do it. To me, that's missing right now. The organic thing where it's, 'Hey, what about this idea? If I changed this on the spot,' and you have the guitar, bass player and drummer there. We're going to do something different and stream some of it. We're going to bring the fans in with us. Whoever is interested can see the way we do it. We're going to jam and start writing some stuff while the people are there. We want to do something different and have an immersive experience with our fans. Of course, it might be boring as fuck with us drinking beers. [Laughs] But we're going to do a couple of hours a day. That will be at the end of the year, with hopefully a record coming out at the end of next year. We'll see how it goes."