- Everything was recorded sometime last year by Carlos and Carolina, I think it was finished around summertime with 11 songs total. The majority of everything was recorded, mixed and mastered in Ohio by Noah Buchanan at Mercinary Studios (Midnight/Embalmer/Nunslaughter, etc.). The vocals and bass were recorded in our home studios. I live in New Jersey unfortunately and Mike Poggione my old bandmate from Monstrosity/Vile lives in Florida, so he had to send his files in as well. Noah did a great job though making everything sound great and coherent and I'm happy with how it came out.

- I think Carlos the main man would be happy with that comparison, as he loves Kreator as well. I think his riffs are awesome and I love the old-school approach. I can't speak for him since I'm only the vocalist, but I think these songs are a step above from the previous albums and only getting better as far as the song writing. They're catchy, memorable, and brutal at the same time. Not too much slam, not too much melody, just a perfect mix of everything that keeps the songs interesting and keeps you headbanging.

- Yes, definitely, we've been talking about doing a music video, I think "Pathway to Charon" would make a good video, the song is super dark, it's more mid-paced than the other songs, but it's catchy and memorable. Visually though it would be challenging to represent the supernatural lyrics on that song, so we were also thinking "Agonized Asphyxia", which is more straight-forward death metal about killing and suffocating your enemy with a black plastic trash bag over his head in a back alley. I think something like that would be easier to pull off visually, haha.

- Yes, his artwork is killer. All the lyrics I handled myself and sent Daemorph the concept of what I was envisioning, and he brought it to life perfectly. The cover artwork idea was created from the lyrics for the song "Scorched and Skinned", it touches on the idea of rebellion and defiance for what you believe is right, even if it means bleeding, suffering, and dying for it. As far as inspiration for the lyrics, it comes from different things: old horror movies, historical events and real-life murder cases etc., mixed with my anger at the current climate of censorship in the world and the silencing of creditable scientific sources by the powers that be. (The normalization of controlling the narrative through defamation, slander and the removal of opposing voices altogether from the internet is getting way out of hand and is the digital equivalent to book burning in my opinion.) Along with the lyrics, here is the actual idea I sent to Daemorph to inspire him to create the artwork from: "I'm envisioning the main focus being a guy who is being laid on the torture rack in a public square back in the day. (His body is badly burned and skinned in places from previous torture.) I'm envisioning 1700's era British fashion, perhaps British judges and politicians looking on in scorn. This is not religious persecution but rather political persecution, like the guy had discovered a conspiracy amongst the elites and was being publicly tortured for speaking out against them and exposing their lies. Visually I'm thinking for it to be in the style of the 70's cult horror movie "Mark of the Devil" but instead of priests burning witches, it's politicians and a tortured town rebel/whistleblower".

- Yes, Ryan was brought on board to contribute his killer solos as well and he had played live with us before and clicked great with everyone and we all get along as friends, so it seems only natural. If anyone is interested in booking Hypoxia for a festival or tour you can contact: hypoxiaofficialnyc@gmail.com.

- Yes, Carolina has since moved to Ohio, Carlos is still in NY, I'm in NJ, Ryan's in PA and Poggione is in Florida. Things are a lot different these days though when it comes to being in a band. Back in the 80s/90s everyone had to be from the same town, but that's not the case with today's technologies. We're all seasoned professionals though, so practicing on our own and just getting together once or twice before a show is not a problem. As long as everyone does their homework, we have enough live experience that we could just jump on stage and be ready to rock and everything clicks no problem.

- Yes, all the demos have been recorded and mapped out already, there's 10 songs total. Ryan and I are entering Nightsky Studios in Maryland this weekend to start recording the real guitar tracks, so I'm excited about that. It's been too long and I'm anxious to get the guitars done, so we can have Kelly Conlon finish his bass parts and then move onto the vocals and the mix, etc. Pete Johansen (The Sins of Thy Beloved) has already recorded his violins, drums were already recorded by Mike Heller, and I had some guest vocals done from Anna Murphy (Eluveitie/Cellar Darling) that came out great as well. I have a few guest solos coming in from some prominent guitarists too that still need to be placed in. Musically it's a bit more straightforward and darker and heavier than the previous albums. More progressive black death than experimental this time I think. Still crazy shit as usual, but maybe more focused and darker. I can't wait to finally bring it all together.

- There's a handful of good bands around here, and we have Dingbatz Bar and The Wellmont Theater close by that have some good shows and fests, but other than that it's pretty dead here. Technically I'm like 20 minutes outside NYC, but with the insane congestion of the northeast it takes like 2 hours in bumper to bumper rush hour traffic to get to any shows in the city now. I used to travel all the time to Brooklyn or Queens and Philly, but things have gotten bad and it takes twice as long, with twice as many tolls, zero parking and it's a real headache, so I've gotten somewhat sick of it. Plus, the shows there are overcrowded, and shoulder to shoulder. The last time I saw King Diamond and Mayhem in the city you could barely move, (with dudes with giant teddie bear back patches and chicks dancing sexy to Mayhem like they're at a goth rave or something), It's just kind of disillusioning for me since I remember seeing these bands with like 30 people at the shows back in the day, but now it seems like every single show is sold out. I guess I'm just getting old, but I prefer to go to the local shows out in the burbs where there's less people, haha. The last few shows I went to were Suffocation, Decrepit Birth, Pathology, Overkill, Hypocrisy, and I'm looking forward to Malignancy and Cannibal Corpse coming up as well.

- I would say 75% of what I listen to is black/death/doom, 15% classic thrash and traditional metal, the other 10% is stuff like Dead Can Dance, Wardruna, Lycia, Laibach, some industrial and trance, horror movie soundtracks, etc. I really like the new Tetragrammacide album, and love everything Akhlys is doing. I recently pre-ordered the new Merrimack and Dusk albums. Also digging the latest Revulsed, Fulci, Sadus and Thy Catafalque and Djevel. Really looking forward to the new Mörk Gryning and Skeletal Remains that's in the works as well. I have to give props to Undeath too for doing the old-school justice for being a newer younger band that's been killing it these days.

- Thank you for the interview and for keeping the old school underground real by publishing a killer physical zine, that people can hold and read and collect and own and revisit years in the future. Everyone these days are just doing video zoom calls or online podcasts that people just scroll past and click onto the next post kinda thing, in a sea of fleeting streams (that may be taken down one day for whatever reason). Physical print forces you to sit down and immerse yourself into it, much like physical music and can't be taken away from you. If you want to support any of the bands in this zine, please buy their physical albums if you can! HAILS!