Interview with Sean Hynes and Lyn Jeffs of Ingested
Interview and Photos by: George Archibald

​Fresh off the release of A Level Above Human, Ingested are on the road with the Devastion on the Nation Tour alongside Aborted,Psycroptic, Disentomb, Venom Prison, and Arkaik. Known as being the kings of slam, Ingested has a sound that is a very abrasive, in your face punch of heavy death metal that is packed full of breakdowns. These Slamchester natives are finally returning to the US since their last appearance on the Summer Slaughter Tour 2 years ago. I was able to speak with guitarist Sean Hynes and drummer Lyn Jeffs about the new album, the new tour and their thoughts on current music.
GA: Devastation on the Nation just kicked off about 4 days ago, is there any places you are anticipating on hitting on tour?
LJ: Looking to hit them all. Montreal was cool.
SH: Most of the places we have already been to before.
LJ: I am looking forward to hitting Salt Lake City because there is a burritos place around the corner from the venue I like. Denver as well is always a good stop.
GA: The last time Ingested was in the states was on The Summer Slaughter Tour where I got to interview Jason Evans, he was so excited to be touring with such memorable bands. What is it like for you guys to be touring with the likes of Aborted and Psycroptic?
LJ: It has been pretty good. There a lot of cool guys on this tour. Everyone seems to have made good friends with each other over the last three days. It makes for a really good start to tour.
GA: Ingested dropped its 8th album, The Level Above Human in April, how has the reaction been to the album?
SH: It is the best we have had so far. We hit the Billboard charts in a time where music sales are down, so it means something to us. It has been received quite well, and we have gained more fans from it. I can’t be happier.
GA: Can you tell me a little more about the themes of the album, and it’s writing process?
LJ: The themes have more to do with what Jason has been writing. They are mainly metaphorical.
SH: We write lyrics where you can read them in your own way and take from them what you will. As far as the writing process goes, I write most of the music. The thing that I have done more of recently, is focus more on the structure of the songs; as opposed to writing to fill a three to four-minute song and trying to make it as chaotic as possible. This time around we lowered the riff countdown a bit, structured the songs better, and made them a bit catchier.
LJ: We took the live show in mind as well, trying to make it so people can feed back on it live. I think we’ve noticed that with a lot of bands over the years. As they start to get slightly older, and into their fourth or fifth album, they start to think more about their live show.
GA: Who did you work with to put this album together?
SH: Christian Donaldson of Cryptopsy did the mix and mastering. We have used him the last two times for the EP and for Architect of Extinction our last album. For the artwork we used Lordigan, Pedro Sena from Portugal. He has done work for a lot of brutal bands, so we thought to give him a go.
GA: The new thing in metal now is everything is Slam. This new style of metal to me is reminiscent of the old school grind-core and death metal of the late nineties with bands like Napalm Death and Morbid Angel experimenting with quick paced barre chords and technical patterns. Then it had a bit of a reemergence in the mid-2000s with bands like Celphalic Carnage, Disfiguring the Goddess, and Annotations of An Autopsy bringing that sludgy styled guitar playing into the mix. What are your thoughts on Slam and the current state of this style of music?
SH: It is strange that it has come back again.
LJ: It has had a bit of a resurgence.
SH: Its like where the fuck have you been the past twelve years. Its like now we’re popular, where were you ten years ago (laughs).
LJ: I think it is like with everything, like music or cloths. It gets popular then goes away and comes back again full circle. I think it has come back around at the right time.
GA: The band also made a live video for the song ‘Invidious’, can you tell me more about the process behind making the video and is there any things you enjoy about the video making process?
LJ: It was a little bit off the cuff. For the video we didn’t have anything in mind, we knew who we wanted to work with. We worked with Loki, a video producer from the UK. We didn’t have any ideas for the video. We had the location we wanted, which is a place that is closed now in Manchester. So, we mainly let Loki take free reign on what he wanted to do. He is a talented guy, so we let him do his thing.
GA: Can you tell me what you are using for your live rigs? Any endorsements please mention?
LJ: I use Paiste cymbals, Vic Firth drumsticks, and I just got an endorsement with Vratim drum shoes.
SH: I use ESP guitars, and Peavey electronics.
GA: What makes touring America different from touring in the UK?
LJ: The drives.
SH: I think the shows are generally bigger, depending on the types of tour packages you are a part of. There is a bigger market over here.
GA: When I got to speak with Jason, we talked about the music video the band did for the song ‘Narcissistic Apathy’ he mentioned that some of the band members work in the food industry. Do you guys work in the food industry still?
SH: Nope, we all quit our jobs, Ingested is our full-time job now. We all left our jobs in April, so we could tour. Please come out to a show, buy our records, buy our merch because this is our job now.
GA: What is next for the band for 2018 after this tour wraps?
LJ: When we finish this tour, we have nine days off. Then we have three shows in the UK around the time of Techfest. Then we have three weeks off then we go on a five-week tour of Europe.
SH: All to be revealed soon.
LJ: We have a tour with Crowbar coming up in September. Then we will be looking to come back to the states hopefully.
GA: Where can people keep up to date with the band on social media and if they want to buy merchandise from you online?
LJ: Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ingesteduk/) is always the best, we are also on Instagram (@Ingested). For merch in the UK we have our own BigCartel (www.ingested.bigcartel.com ) store. Then for America for merch we have an IndieMerch (https://www.indiemerch.com/ingested ) store. We will be opening a new store in the UK here soon. When we go on tour we shut it down since we manage it, so we are looking to put up something new that will be fulltime.
GA: Anything else you would like to add?
LJ: Come out to a show, this tour has been great so far. Thank you for buying the record.

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George Archibald

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