UN: Maleficus is quite different then most death metal around right now. Instead of trying to be as fast as humanly possible you guys have written actual songs. Do you think that first and foremost it is important to have memorable songs?

Page: That’s the way we’ve always approached things in Vore. We've always strived to make our music dark and heavy with an emphasis on writing solid heavy riffage, which for us possess the most power. We delight in menacing death metal riffs that you can sink your teeth into and that get stuck in your head. We’ve never been interested in speed for the sake of speed.

UN: You guys have been at this for awhile now. Do you consider this to be the band’s best album yet?

Page: Definitely. We’re proud of our past output, but Maleficus is a step forward for us in almost every aspect. From a compositional standpoint Maleficus is a reflection the experience we’ve gained with our years of writing and performing. We also have a new drummer that brings a different approach and more disciplined focus to the band and its material as well as a new bass player. Also, with Maleficus we had a death metal professional playing a huge part in the production of the album. All the way around, Maleficus is a tighter and more refined distillation of the Vore metal essence.

UN: One thing that really stands out is the production of the disc. It has a clean sound but has a nice live quality to it as well. It sounds like a real band. Are you guys happy with the production?

Page: Thanks! We're happy with the production on Maleficus. It's without a doubt the best sounding album we've yet released. We’ve recorded all of our stuff with a guy in Tulsa Oklahoma named Aaron Allen. He’s a friend and has always done good work for us at a generous price. With Maleficus we really wanted to step things up in the production quality aspect. We contacted Colin Davis (of the band Vile) at Imperial Mastering to master the album. We were looking for someone that had experience with death metal and we thought a having a pro in that area with a new set of ears towards the project would be beneficial. When it turned out that Aaron wasn’t going to be able to get the mix done for us, we asked Colin if he could do it. Luckily for us he could and things really turned out for the best as a result. Colin’s a great guy, we’re very glad to have had him work on this album. His mix is killer; nothing's being buried or overpowered. It’s very clear. He engineered the mix for maximum performance at high volumes so when you've got Maleficus in your stereo you should crank it up for the full effect!

UN: I mentioned this earlier. A lot of newer bands are trying to be as heavy and technical as possible and even as gory as possible. Do you think that the gore aspect and speed element are things that you guys have outgrown? I know the longer I listen to death metal the more some of it seems more and more ridiculous.

Page: We’ve pretty much been in the same vein musically and lyrically since we started. Prior to Vore, fellow Vore guitarist/vocalist John Voelker and I were in a band called Mausoleum from 1989 to 1993 that had the standard "gore & graveyards" themed lyrics. When we started Vore in 1994, we made a conscious decision to stay away from many of the death metal clichés of the time as far the name of the band and subject matter. John and I are both into sword & sorcery, high fantasy and horror fiction and we draw inspiration from that to create lyrics that match the mood of our music.

We have great respect for the skills and discipline of the bands that play really fast and technically complex death metal, it’s just not the brand of death metal that Vore chooses to play. We did inject some faster parts on Maleficus, but we’ll never be trying to compete in the same arena with bands like Origin, Cryptopsy or Hate Eternal. We want to kill you slow!

UN: Would you say that there is a prevalent doom influence to the bands sound? You guys definitely aren’t what would be considered fast, and certain sections are very atmospheric creating a creepy of hopeless vibe.

Page: I think we lean more towards the death side but won’t deny the doom presence that runs through much of our material both musically and lyrically. I think a lot of that is our penchant for writing songs that are slower in speed and the foreboding vibe that emanates out of that. As a result we may be too doom-like for some death metal fans and too death-like for some doom metal fans.

UN: Maleficus, if I’m not mistaken, was self released. Are you guys trying to find a record label to call home or are you guys content releasing material yourselves?

Page: We’d really like for the right label to pick us up. We’re going to keep doing as much as we can on our own regardless but there are limits and barriers. Distribution is a serious hurdle for us. We’re sending stuff out and doing trades with many underground metal distros around the world and that’s a great network but we’d really get our album into stores. We talked to one of the bigger metal distributors and they didn’t want to help us out. We’ve been doing good so far selling our cd’s on our website at www.vore.org and we’re up on amazon.com as well. We’ve invested quite a bit into promotion for Maleficus. We were lucky enough to hook up with Earsplit PR and Skateboard Marketing is going to service our album to metal radio this spring, so around March or April you’ll be able to call your local metal station and request some Vore !!

UN: I have to admit that am fairly unfamiliar with the scene in Arkansas. Are there a lot of heavy bands in the state?

Page: There's a few. Rwake is from Little Rock and they recently signed with Relapse. Deadbird is a fellow Fayetteville band and they're signed to Codebreaker which is a subsidiary of Earache. Some other cool Arkansas bands are Rise To Ruin, Omega Red and Onset Of Winter. I'm think all these guys have pages up on Myspace you can hunt down and check out. There are also a lot of younger bands that are really getting their shit together that are just now recording demos and stuff. We have a pretty healthy scene. It’s small but enthusiastic. For the most part we all work together and help each other out. There’s not really any backstabbing or crap like that. Metal in Arkansas is a commodity that isn’t taken for granted.

UN: While I know you guys have played shows with many different bands, have you had the chance to tour extensively with the band? Will you be trying to play as many shows as possible to spread word about Maleficus?

Page: Most of our shows over the years have been regional: Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Kansas. We performed at the Milwaukee Metalfest in 1999. We’re working on our 2006 calendar now and plan to extend our reach as much as possible and play out as much as we can in support of Maleficus. We plan to set up some sort of tour as well. We’re really in our element on stage. We hope to get some digital video recorded and up on our website soon so that people can see what Vore is like live.