DeMilitia
by Morgan Y. Evans
band photo by Justina Villanueva
black and white photos by Scott Sykora

DeMilitia have been roaring strong out of New York City playing a merciless brand of evil ass, crusty death metal with enough groove to please fans of everything from Amebix to Napalm Death to the modern march of DevilDriver. This band is nothing short of a musical battering ram coming for you at high speeds (or with down tuned impending inevitability). Formed in 2004, the band truly earned their stripes via the good old fashioned art of touring, infusing their life style into every claustrophobic riff and lung bursting scream. The addition of ex-Kittie/Suicide City bassist JennCity in 2010 made the band even more powerful live and the dedication to heavy music as well as the kinship of the group really stands out on their recent, buzz-building 2010 EP entitled AT THE ALTAR OF THE EARTH. With a sound self-described by the band as a “mongrel breed of thrash, death metal, psychedelic and progressive rock”, DeMilitia are making sure that in an age of slick conformity a band with attitude can still be found taking a bite out of The Big Apple.

MORGAN Y. EVANS: How is it going today, Billy? What’s been going on with the band? Seems like you’ve all been really busy. Well, it seems like you are always busy!

BILLY MALONEY (Guitar): Really well, I actually have been pretty busy (laughing). Just came home from job number 1, and after this I have to sit down and learn some songs on guitar for a show coming up. I’m filling in on axe for one show with our good friends in the doom band Eyes of the Sun. They needed a hand and I was more than happy to help them out, learn their set and play with them because I’m a huge, huge, huge fan. It is some crushing, bleak, heavy stuff. But also, all of us in DeMilitia jam, in one way or the other, with other musicians outside our band. It’s important for us to be able to let each other do things like that. Then, when its time for us to get together and jam, there’s a stronger focus on the sound and style we are trying to create. We all have busy schedules mixed with the restrictions of a shared rehearsal space. That forces us to get to the point. Our rehearsal consists of a non-stop, 10-song, 40-50 minute set of all of our songs. We get in, we get out, no fucking about. We’re a true New York band, always in a hurry.
As far as DeMilitia goes, the band has been very active. We just released a 4-track EP titled AT THE ALTAR OF THE EARTH that we are very proud of. We made a limited run of CD versions of the EP with custom cases, stickers and some crazy art from our friend Russ. He’s a pretty twisted dude (Check out his site, www.spitatart.com). We also made the EP available for free download at Bandcamp.com, so if you just search for DeMilitia on Bandcamp, you can download the whole EP for free. We also have cassettes available at the merch table at our shows, that I personally think sound the best. We released the EP on Nov. 22, 2010, and we’ve been promoting, handing out flyers, stickering the clubs and subways trying to get that EP into people’s hands, ears, and hopefully their brains.
We threw two parties to celebrate the release. The first was a filthy basement show at Lit Lounge on the Lower East Side, packed to the ceiling with intoxicated mutants. It was an absolute blast. The second was a hedonistic booze-fest at our favorite bar, Lucky 13 Saloon. We had half-naked go-go girls dancing on the bar; we took turns spinning brutal tunes and gave away our EP and cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon for free. It was a good opportunity to show our appreciation to our friends & fans, who come out and support our noise.

MYE: Can you give a brief history of the band and your initial vision for it years ago when you started it? I know you have diverse influences within the group. How have you felt about the band’s growth up to present day?

BM: Lead guitar player Owen Burley and I went to college together in Buffalo, NY. When I got there the first day, I had just bought a guitar. I couldn’t even tune it. Luckily, Owen lived across the hall from a friend from Brooklyn, and he was nice enough to tune it for me. After 3 years of teaching myself, I asked if he would join this band I was putting together to play some lead guitar. He hadn’t picked up the guitar for a while, so he said yeah, why not? We played around 30 dates in Buffalo over a year’s time as a 3-piece instrumental metal-jam band with a drummer.
Owen and I moved to my hometown of Brooklyn to continue the band in NYC. We then linked up with our current drummer, Chris O’Neal. He responded to our ridiculous 7-paragraph Craigslist ad with “I think I’m what you’re looking for.” We knew he had to be a character and called him up. At that point we had re-started DeMilitia in Brooklyn in September of 2006. After a few line-up changes, we linked up with former Immortal Flesh vocalist, Ralph Reyes, in December 2007. He heard we were looking for a new singer and wanted to jam with us. We ended up tuning down a whole step when Ralph joined the band, he was so brutal. We played shows all over the NYC area, Upstate and Western NY, NJ and PA for four years when, in Feb 2010, our bass player Jason had to leave the band. We put the call out for a new bass player, even doing a few shows without a bass player because we didn’t want to cancel the gigs.



That’s when our favorite bartender, Melody Henry of Lucky 13 Saloon, told us that Ms. JennCity was currently available because Suicide City had gone on hiatus. We knew she was a phenomenal bass player and we thought she would be a great addition to DeMilitia. I remember quite a few bands had approached her at the time, but luckily she had come out to one of our shows recently and she really dug what we were about. I got her number and gave her a call. She came down to our rehearsal space and ripped through 4 of our songs without being shown one riff. Needless to say, we went out and celebrated her officially joining the band in March 2010.
Everyone in this band comes from a different “school” of musical tastes. That’s why I think it was a natural transition for JennCity joining the band. Everyone adds his or her own style to the mix and we all just happen to be playing at the same time. JennCity is playing bass the way only JennCity can play the bass. Ralph is singing the way only Ralph can sing. I think that was the idea when Owen and I first started. Everyone just shut up, be who you are, turn up and lets see what happens. We haven’t really deviated from that philosophy. The songs have gotten darker, faster, heavier, and we have definitely matured writing music together.

MYE: I love the live presence of the group. You hit the stage with serious intensity. What is the best part about playing live? Can you describe the energy to any music fans out there who don’t play in a band themselves? Any live albums that affected you as a teenager and made you want to go out and try to play shows? I remember I used to listen to a tape of SHOW by the Jesus Lizard over and over wanting to be in a loud ass band and injure myself.

BM: Thank you. We really put our heart and soul into our live show. It sounds corny, but we feel that is the most important thing we can deliver to our fans and friends. We get to enjoy that adrenaline rush for 35 minutes and ride it out after the show. I think we come across so intense because everyone of us is so passionate about his or her role in the sound that DeMilitia makes. It only works when all five pieces of the machine are working in tandem.
The best part about playing live is looking out and seeing someone genuinely digging your music. Whether they’re circle-banging to that heavy groove you’re throwing down or they’re grabbing change in the pit, you know you’ve made a connection to that person’s primal spirit. Nothing beats that. I can only describe it as a modern day tribal dance around the fire. Beating chests, screaming at the sky and moving/dancing without restraint or inhibitions. It’s a true mutual release if you’ve made that connection when playing a live show.
I’m a huge fan of live albums. Some people hate them. I think they are a true testament to the band’s ability to throw it down. To say, hell yeah we can play the shit out of these songs, and here, we can prove it. Judas Priest’s UNLEASHED IN THE EAST is amazing. Pantera: LIVE 101 PROOF is probably one my favorite live albums of all time. However the most influential was Iron Maiden’s LIVE AT CASTLE DONINGTON. It definitely had the biggest effect on me. I was just getting into metal and I bought it out of the blue because I thought the cover was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. “Number of the Beast” was the first track. This was my first time ever hearing an Iron Maiden song. That first long scream of Bruce Dickinson changed my path forever.

MYE: Speaking of impressive opening song moments, your song “At The Altar Of The Earth” has a stupendously evil sounding opening riff. All of your material, but especially recently, seems to get more and more punishing yet is not unpalatable even when drenched in death and grind. It’s kind of addictive. What was it like writing the songs for the recent EP with JennCity in the band?

BM: Thanks man, that riff was actually one of mine. I believe it was over a different riff that Owen eventually scrapped and came up with the one he plays over it now. We have certainly been trying to “brutal things up” lately. The new songs we’ve been writing are some of our fastest and most raw to date. I think it’s because we’re pretty pissed off people. It’s tough living in New York City. The rent is too damn high! Everyone in the band is juggling so many things trying to get by and pay the bills. This band is an important stress reliever in our lives, so we’ve naturally been coming up with darker, more vicious songs just getting that bad energy out of us and into the music. The new songs we’ve written since JennCity joined are some pretty ruthless tracks. We’ve also incorporated doom, some black metal and psychedelic rock in with our standard menu of thrash, grind, and chuggery.

MYE: Can you continue to talk about New York City these days? What do you think about the state of East Coast metal? What bands do you enjoy playing with and why? Any cool stories? You play a lot of live shows and stay engaged in the scene. You can tell following the band that you all really care and aren’t just doing it to try to “look cool”.

BM: New York City is New York City. There’s a million venues, a million bands playing every night of the week. The scene is spread out into little cliques and there is not much unity. We go out and try to promote and get on shows as local support for headlining bands but there are a lot of closed-minded people here. I feel unless you’re conforming to a certain style or sound or look, people won’t even give you a chance. I know what you’re thinking. This is New York City, the birthplace of fuckin’ Punk Rock. Pure non-conformity. The sad part is the city is riddled with crooked, jaded, greedy promoters looking to make money off of hard working band’s sweat. We prefer to put shows together ourselves with a diverse line-up of musical styles on our own terms and have been doing so successfully thus far. There are a few promoters that are doing the right thing and keeping the money in the hands of musicians, not the club owners. People like Curran Reynolds who runs Precious Metal on Monday nights at Lit Lounge or Melody Henry who runs the Devilution shows. These people help bring different crowds together. That is what needs to happen to make this scene stronger!
There are quite a few insanely talented bands out there hustling in New York City. The flip side of having such a big city and so many bands is that you definitely have your pick from a wide array of musical genres. I’m a big fan of the deafening doom/sludge bands we have here in NYC like Eyes of the Sun, Hull, My Uncle the Wolf, Flaming Tusk, and Dead Corpse. I also dig the blackened, speed, grindy, thrash stuff too like Atakke, Mutilation Rites, Concussion, Prostitution, Mutant Supremacy, Headsnatcher and my favorite, Ashes Within. Some great bands right here that I go and see live whenever I get a chance. They all are great at what they do and I think share the same ideals we have for what a scene should be here in NYC.
East Coast metal has a lot of talent. Bands like Revocation (PA), Magrudergrind (DC), Cleric (PA), Dead By Wednesday (CT), Hive Smasher (MA), Waking the Cadaver (NJ) and Architect (NY) are out there tearing it up. The East Coast certainly holds it down. I’m glad Most Precious Blood got back together. Some badass vegan/vegetarians right there!
We’ve been all over the tri-state area playing shows lately and linking up with some killer bands. Gloominous Doom from Reading (pronounced Shredding), Pennsylvania were on tour with us in support of Sworn Enemy and it was an absolute pleasure to see those guys play every night. They are this Thrash/Surf/Reggae/Death Metal band and they are out of this world. Different setlist every night written out on ripped-out hardcore porno magazine pages and to top it all off our Owen drank beer out of their singer’s prosthetic leg on stage. They were a blast.
We went out to Ohio in August and played this outdoor festival on a closed off street with our Brooklyn buddies in Eyes of the Sun. We didn’t even know what we were getting into. We ended up playing on a big outdoor stage in front of a couple hundred kids and were on the front page of Ohio’s The Vindicator newspaper the next day. We always seize the opportunity to go out and play in front of different people, and because of that we have met some great friends in talented bands doing the same thing we are doing.

MYE: I remember you guys posted something online awhile ago on one of your feeds about how you played a show and the younger “metal” crowd didn’t even know Pantera? Is this correct? That was you guys, right? That is really bad. Do you think there is any hope that the next generation of metal heads will ever know who Terry Glaze is? I probably sound silly, but it always seems like more of the type of fly by night people who just go to shows to start fights and leave after one band seem to get regurgitated year after year and the people that really care shrinks. Is this too jaded? Thankfully Most Precious Blood has reunited.

BM: Yeah, that was us. It was just weird, an almost twilight zone feeling. We were in Allentown, PA on a bill opening for Periphery, Veil of Maya and Darkest Hour. We had just finished our set, packed our equipment and went up front towards the stage to see our friends from NY/NJ in Slam One Down. About half way through the set they break into the opening riff of “Becoming” by Pantera. Slam One Down are a very talented band, Bobby, J.R., Shane and Roach just dominate their respective instruments. They are playing the song perfect. I look around and the only ones screaming their guts out are JennCity and myself. The 14-17 year old kids there to see Veil of Maya and Periphery looked like they had never heard the song in their life. What made me sad was that maybe it was true. Maybe these kids have never heard a Pantera song. I would think that in an era of limitless information at our finger tips, I would hope some 15 year old metal head should have stumbled upon Pantera by now.
When I was 15 and getting deep into music, the Internet was slow as slow could be. I couldn’t download anything, let alone burn a CD. So I hunted, I asked around, I thirsted for heavier music, weirder music and there was no turning back. That was all part of me becoming the music fan that I am. Finding things on the way, hearing about bands second hand, and reading heavy metal magazines cover to cover. It is all part of the quest that I feel the Internet has made all too easy for kids today. Why climb the mountain when I can take the helicopter to exactly where I want to go? Because it is about the journey. I wouldn’t say you are jaded when you say that, more frustrated than anything. I see that all the time. I even see other bands doing it. People show up for one band and leave as soon as they are done. It happens. I think that despite that, the people that care will always be around. Bands that support bands, fans that support the bands and bands that make sure their fans are getting their loyalty rewarded with a great night out at a show. If you build that sense of community, a scene can easily come together.

MYE: Off the subject of music, but this has been on my mind and I know your band is opinionated (in a good way) about different social topics. I don’t smoke cigarettes (well, maybe 2 or 3 a year) but I got in a pseudo-argument with my girlfriend last night about Bloomberg’s outlawing of smoking outside and on beaches and parks. I know some states won’t let you smoke in your own car. I agree that many cigarette companies are deeply unethical, but it seems to me that advertising responsibility and maybe better regulation to get less additives in the cigarettes is a more fair step. Some people want to smoke. Aspertame has side effects and also sugar is highly addictive but we don’t ban that. Is it really that bad to be outside in open air and have smoke go by for half a second while you walk past a smoker? I mean, I get the restaurant thing, though it still didn’t bother me when they had their own section. It seems to me that eating meat and other things are more cancer causing and that it is the additives and dioxin more than organic tobacco that do the most harm. Again, I don’t even really smoke cigarettes. I think we should have better education about drugs or cigarettes in general and people would be more responsible.

BM: I personally don’t smoke cigarettes. I was glad they banned them in bars and restaurants. I used to bartend and would come home reeking of smoke. However, if any of my friends or roommates wanted to smoke in the house, in the car, or around me outside, I never had a problem with it. Bloomberg is out for the cash, plain and simple. Parking tickets, summonses have doubled, towing cars, it has really gotten unreal down here. Our favorite metal bar, Lucky 13 Saloon, got thousands of dollars in fines and legal fees because of these surprise visits to local bars from the FDNY, Dept. of Health, DEP, and a host of more with decibel readers, handing out violations left and right. All to bang out small business owners for some extra money for the city. The bar got huge fines for stuff like a lime wedge on the floor of the bar at midnight on a Saturday, or cigarette butts in the corner of the basement. Mayor Bloomberg is trying to suck the people of this city dry! Cost of living has gone way up with no increase in most people’s wages. So, yeah, I think all the cigarette legislation is a scheme to rip people off. Good luck enforcing it! Smokers are going to smoke. Period. They prove that every day by paying $12.00 in NYC for a pack of cigarettes. Brutality.

MYE: JennCity recently won a contest for the best tattoos in metal, right? Can you tell us about it? I remember hearing about that a little while ago. Is Suicide City back together?

BM: Yeah, she kicked ass. It was this Internet tiered, one on one, battle royale voting contest. She made it through several rounds all the way to the end and won the whole thing. She is inked up big time. Pretty awesome. My favorite tattoos of hers are these tiny bass clef and Ace of Spades symbols she has on her fingers. We’ve had many dance contests listening to Motorhead while on the road with DeMilitia.
Yes, Suicide City is getting back together to do a show on Feb 11th at Highline Ballroom. JennCity, Karl, A.J. and Danny are getting together to throw down two sets at a wild fashion show with scantly clad models and all types of goodness. You’d have to ask them what their plans are, but I’m glad she reconnected with those guys to throw down with them again She’s very excited and we’re pumped for her. It’s a different side of her then the one we see windmill circle-banging in DeMilitia. In Suicide City she sings, does harmonies, and is all over the stage like super-fly TNT. I can’t wait to see her from the audience rather than crushing right next to me.

MYE: What is something you love and hate about the other members in your band (without starting any drama). This is meant to be fun, unless you do wanna be mean to them (laughing).

BM: Aww, I love those 4 mutants. I love that my scary looking drummer Chris has a dog the size of a G.I. Joe doll and it eats boogers out of his nose every time I’m at his apartment. I love that my lead singer Ralph is working his way up the corporate ladder at the local cemetery to be a full-time gravedigger. I love that even if JennCity is the DJ at a packed 80’s Glam Rock party, if I drunkenly stumble to the DJ booth and request Behemoth, she will play it the next song. Then, there’s Owen Burley, exceptional beard. Fantastic.

MYE: When you are writing new material do you ever all talk about what the songs are about and “agree” on topics?

BM: A lot of our songs stem from drunken or blazed conversations we have. Conspiracy theories, apocalyptic predictions, utter disgust for human society, thoughts on the after life, consciousness, death, these are all things we usually shoot the shit about when we are hanging out. So depending upon the mood of the song we come up with, we usually reach a general consensus about what the song will be about pretty quickly. We’ll demo the song on our 4-track, then Ralph takes it from there and does his thing. We’re all pretty much on the same level in terms of political beliefs, economic class, living in a high cost, high volume, high speed, high stress area of one of the biggest cities in the world. So we all share many opinions about what is going on in this world, in our lives and in our time. That’s where we’re coming from with our music. It is about the struggle, the horror, the pain that is life and what it is to be a human being on this planet right now. It is something we are all going to have to face.


MYE: THANKS, dude! Hope to get y’all upstate again sometime.

BM: Man, we would love to come back to your town and rock with you guys. That was a great time. Kingston, NY gets down. Komondor! Morgan, thanks!