Interview with Dennis Lamb of Prayer For Cleansing/Azazel

Rev: Hey Dennis, great to have you here! 

Dennis: Thanks, glad to be here!

R: First off, how did Prayer For Cleansing start? 

D: I think in 1996, Dave and Will were in a band called Dreadseed, and when they broke up, these two started PFC with a guy named John  Latta on guitar, I’m pretty sure Will was playing guitar as well, and a guy named Gavin on drums. Gavin soon left, then Will switched over to drums, Paul joined on 2nd guitar, and a guy named Eric (nicknamed Phase One) joined as a  2nd singer. Eric and John left at various points, and I joined in late 1997. 

 

R: What was the "vision" you were trying to achieve with PFC? Any particular sound or 

emotions you wanted to capture?

D: I don’t think PFC had a coherent vision at that time, although one eventually formed. At

the beginning it was just writing fast songs using influences that weren’t that common in hardcore. 

R: What are your influences for PFC? Any differences between your inspirations for the full

length and "The Tragedy”?

D: I was personally very into Carcass’ Heartwork, which fit well with Paul’s love for Iron  Maiden. All the dual harmonised guitar stuff, from Thin Lizzy to the solos in Hotel California,  gets me going. At the time we were also very influenced by stuff like Cradle of Filth,  Suffocation,  Cryptopsy, Meshuggah. As far as the Tragedy goes, the only song I would have had any remote part in was The Closet, as that was an older song reworked for the version on the EP. The guys really did an awesome job taking the version we stopped playing in '98 and making it into a sincerely awesome song.

A: The "Salvation" cover was an interesting choice for the EP; how did you make it sound like a PFC song while still retaining the original song structure?

D: That’s all from after I was out of the band, and I’m honestly not sure who put the most work into making it that way, but they did a great job. It’s a fun song to play.

R: If you can recall, how many times has PFC toured? What was your favorite show you 

played with PFC? Any shows that particularly sucked?

D: Ugh, tough question. When I was in the band we never really toured, it was mainly just a

show here or there every month. After I left the band, I’m pretty sure they went on 1-2 smaller

tours, learning quickly that touring in general can really suck. As far as favourite shows go, we

played a pre-halloween show at the Duke Coffeehouse on October 30th, 1998. We wore

corpse paint, and I had the grand idea of chewing an old blood capsule during the first song. 

The blood capsule had long expired, and made me almost puke while retching on stage. A 

friend said afterwards that it looked cool. No shows really stand out as being particularly bad,

but we had the idea of trading off guitar solos during our intro song for a few shows. Paul,  being the person he is, practiced and put together a few cool ideas. Me being the ADHD  wonder, I decided to improvise on the spot, not really paying attention to the key the song was in. If you’re into music, I was mainly playing D Phrygian over a D natural minor riff, which meant that there were a bunch of times I hit a horribly bad note. 

R: Which bands did you enjoy playing with the most? Any current bands in hardcore/metal

that you dig?

D: I always enjoyed playing with Undying. They always had a passion that moved me. As far as modern stuff goes, I really don’t listen to too much hardcore or metal. 

R: Was there a motive behind the name change from "A World Of Flowers Dead" to "The 

Rain In Endless Fall"? Why did you guys decide to go with a Gustave Doré piece as the cover art?

D: I don’t think I even knew there was a name change until the past couple of years. I don’t even remember if we had a working title when I was still in the band, during the initial recording. I  think the decision to go with the Dore piece was very unspectacular. At the time a lot of cool bands from Norway were using Dore, and I think we just tried to follow. 

R: What was your guitar and recording setup for PFC records, if you can recall? Where/how

were the records recorded? The Crate guitar tone has definitely become an iconic feature of early Metalcore.

D: We recorded at a small studio in Raleigh, Grooveworks. We went there because Undying had recorded there, and were satisfied working with Ian. Initially, we had Paul’s Crate amp in a small closet, and my Mesa Boogie in the main room, but the band was very unhappy with the lack of balance between the two amps, and for whatever reason, decided I should rerecord everything using Paul’s Crate. In hindsight, this was the right decision, for various reasons. At the time, recording heavy guitars wasn’t the same art as it is today, and so many studios were not as knowledgeable about how to get a good guitar sound. 

R: Any funny/interesting stories regarding PFC?  

D: Nothing that comes to mind. It’s all so long ago. 

R: Regarding Azazel, did your musical influences differ? If so, what bands did you take from?

D: Azazel was a very different animal than PFC, more visceral, less perfectionistic. The guys 

there were into a lot of different bands, Neurosis, Today is the Day, Converge, Slayer. 

R: Who did most of the writing for Azazel?

D: I think initially it was mainly the bass player, Mike, and James from Codeseven, who I replaced. 

R: What were the themes Azazel explored? Both sonically and thematically.

D: Sonically, I changed the band up a bit when I joined by tuning our guitars down to B. At the time that was a radical act, not everyone had baritone guitars tuned to F, so it was a bit of a chore to get our guitars set up right. We wanted to be a band that had crushing heaviness,  and scared the crap out of you when we played live. We had a very primitive light show, and always had as little light as possible. Thematically, it was very anti-religion. Anything that tells you to not be yourself in order to appease a higher power is a bad thing. 

R: Do you plan on recording/writing anything new for Azazel or PFC? 

D: At the moment, no. I’d love to do both, but it’s really hard to revisit the mindset we were in 

20+ years ago. I have a kind of “metal core” project I wrote for a project with Paul Genet of 

Azazel, but I don’t think it’d be right to put it out under the name Azazel. There are of course, 

aspects of this project that are similar to both bands, but it’s still not the same. 

R: When and how did you become vegan/edge?

D: I’ve never been vegan. I was vegetarian for a while, but never really advertised it. Being edge was easy. I never had the desire to get drunk or smoke, and a few skater friends of mine said that I was de facto edge. I still don’t drink or smoke. It just doesn’t interest me.

R: Any thoughts on people reselling PFC/Azazel shirts for hundreds of dollars? 

D: I mean, if that’s what you want to do with your money, feel free. I don’t get it, but whatever. What I think is dumb, are the guys doing bootleg shirts and charging 30-40 dollars for them. They’re not paying any bands, and probably aren’t paying more than 10 dollars a shirt, so it’s just stupid greed. 

R: At the time of writing, Hellphyra has just been announced with PFC headlining. I'm  seeing a lot of people ecstatic about that. Any shows/tours planned after that?

D: There are no real tour plans at the moment. We all have very different lives, and touring isn’t very attractive on the level we’d be playing at. I love playing shows, and get excited by every offer, but personally, I’m not sure how long my health will ensure that I can play many more shows. 

R: Any closing thoughts/shouts you'd like to say?

D: It still blows my mind that people out there are in any way interested in us, and I’m very 

thankful for that. Feel free to find us on Instagram and give us a follow. Take care!