The Deathcore Manifestations of CABAL

Cabal presents a thunderous world of almighty deathcore at it’s most imaginative. Having recently returned from their 4th US tour and after a summer of collaborations across both electronic/industrial (Reworks EP) and rap (Sort Sommer) Cabal are back with their unique blend of industrial tinged deathcore to prove they are Still Cursed. The single features vocalist Aaron Matts of Ten56 and is released to coincide with Cabal’s appearance on the Nordic Invasion tour with Aviana amongst others. Now in the process of creating even more sonic intrigue, Cabal is destined to blast into a brand-New Year! Highwire Daze recently interviewed lead vocalist Andreas Bjulver Paarup to uncover a whole lot more about the deathcore manifestations of Cabal! Read on…

We’re here with Andreas from Cabal. First of all, where is your band based, and what is your local music scene like there?
So, we are based out of Copenhagen, Denmark. The local music scene, I would say, is actually alive and thriving, especially with metal these days, which didn’t always used to be the case. Ten years ago, I’d say that only some niches within the metal scene were doing decently, but now it seems like it’s all firing and doing really well.

We’ve even had Siamese come over here a few times.
That singer is our manager, so we’re very closely tied to them.

Small world, that’s for sure. Speaking of being over in the States, you were recently over here. How did the recent Summer Slaughter Tour go for you, and what were some of the highlights?
It went well for us. I feel like overall, the tour could have done better for Summer Slaughter, but as I’m sure you’ve seen, there’s a lot of drama surrounding it, both with the lineup and regarding some statements from the guy who was running the page. I don’t know if you saw all of that, but that definitely wasn’t great PR. But for us, it was overall a really good tour. We had a lot of fun, played to a lot of people, and we were really happy to be a part of a tour like that. I’d say my highlight is probably Denver. For some reason—I don’t know if it’s the mountain air — people always pull up, they come out early, they go crazy, and they buy a lot of merch. So we love going there.

Denver is beautiful. I’m actually from Los Angeles, and I think you guys played out here at The Wiltern.
We did. We ended up getting changed to some other venue—I can’t remember which one. It was more downtown L.A. Yeah, and downtown L.A. is something else. One of the members from Tallah got chased by a homeless guy with a knife that day. We saw a homeless guy jerking off on the sidewalk. Downtown L.A. is special; it’s something else.

It definitely is something else. You say “special.” Yeah, well, welcome to Los Angeles. Did you get to see anything cool at least?
I’ve been there a handful of times before, so I didn’t feel like doing any of the touristy stuff. We went out, and we got some really, really good Mexican food, so that was pretty good. And we didn’t get chased by any homeless people.

Well, that’s good to know. Yeah, the homeless situation out here is really bad. How is it over in Denmark?
It’s pretty good. The width between rich and poor isn’t that big over here. People, in general, are pretty well off. We have pretty good living standards. We have a pretty good social security net that helps people. Obviously, we do have people who end up on the streets and stuff, but it’s not nearly at the same rate as we see over at your country

You’ve got some upcoming shows with Miss May I in Germany and in the U.K. in December. What are you looking forward to the most about those shows?
I’m really excited to play with Miss May I. I used to listen to them in high school, so actually getting to share the stage with them is going to be fun. They’re playing ‘Apologies Are For The Weak’—something along those lines. It’s been a while, so I’m bad with titles, but they’re playing a good album, the one I grew up on in full, so I’m really excited to actually hear that album.

Were you here in the States when the pandemic hit? And if so, what was that experience like?
We were there in 2020, February, so we were there right when it started going crazy. Nobody really knew what was going on, but we all got really sick, like, really, really sick. And we were like, “Oh, this is weird.” But we just kept on touring, and then we got home, like, a week after everything shut down.

So you probably got COVID before they knew it was COVID.
Yeah, we definitely did. We were so sick. It hit us really hard. The whole tour package was fucked up. Everybody was sicker than they’ve been for years and years and years. And nobody knew what the fuck was going on. So it was a little bit scary. Still a good tour, though.

Let’s talk about the new single, Still Cursed. Is there any overall story or concept behind that single?
I think it’s just about still struggling with mental health and depression, like still feeling cursed. We had an old song called ‘Cursed’. It was kind of about that. So I was like, “Oh, now it’s like 8 years later, but I still feel this way. It’s still something I struggle with. So might as well just call it ‘Still Cursed’ and write something about that.”

Kind of a sequel in a way.
Yeah. Just a follow-up. Like, “Oh, still here. Still feeling cursed.”

You also recently released another song called ‘Sort Sommer’, which is done entirely in Danish. Tell me a little about that song.
So that song was like an idea. The band we did it with is a Danish band called Fabräk, who is kind of a weird amalgamation of hip-hop, punk, and pop music. Our bass player is their guitarist, and all of the guys are from the scene, we all know them from playing in bands together. Back in the day, I lived with one of the singers, she had a flat, and we were just like, “Oh, wouldn’t it be kind of like fun if we did a song together?” The more people listening to them are probably more the people who listen to radio, and people who listen to us probably wouldn’t like something they did. So we were like, “Oh, if we make a song together, we’d probably make a lot of people really mad. So let’s do that.”

Going to go back to ‘Still Cursed’. I forgot to ask you this—Aaron Matts from Ten56. How did that come about?
We’ve been friends for a while. We were on the same management, we played at a festival together, and ended up hanging out the whole night with him and became really good friends. And then we ran into each other in different locations. We did the Summer Slaughter together, and so it was just a no-brainer because he’s a really talented vocalist. We’re all good friends. So it just made a lot of sense to get him on.

Let’s talk about the Magno Interitus Reworks EP, and how that idea came about.
That was basically just because we were like, “Oh, it’s going to be a little while until we could start releasing stuff for the new album. We still want to do something creative and fun.” A lot of us really like electronic music. So we’re like, “What would our music sound like if it was like electronic and not like metal in the traditional sense?” And the Reworks EP is the answer to that. I wanted to make something that was like, “Oh, this should be able to be played at some like dingy techno nightclub that’s open until like 12:00 a.m. the next day.”

What was it like working with Matt Heafy of Trivium on a song from your last album Drag Me Down, and do you still keep in touch with Matt?
Yeah. Every now and then. It was really cool working with Matt. Trivium is obviously a band I grew up listening to. So it felt kind of surreal having him on a song with us. We’ll keep in touch every now and then. I’ll come out when they play in Copenhagen. Every time we’ve had to get our visas done, he will write a letter of recommendation for us. So he’s just been helping us out. And it’s really, really awesome.

Have you had a chance to play Bitter Friend with Matt live at all?
No, we haven’t yet. We haven’t made that happen yet. We’re going to make it happen someday.

How close are you to writing and recording a new album?
We might be very close. I can’t say too much right now.

That’s very ominous. We might be very close. Cool.
I’m an ominous guy. (Much laughter).

I checked online, and it looks like you have collabed with other musicians and bands on other songs. What has that experience been like? And if someone wants to collab with you, how would they get a hold of you?
It’s always fun. If I say yes to work on something, it’s because I think it’s sick. I think the best way, if you want me, is just send me a DM, and we can talk. Then I can check out the project and see if it’s something I would like to get involved with.

Do you have any messages for your fans out here in the States who are reading this now?
Keep listening to Cabal, please. I think that’s it. Come out to a show next time we come by a city near you. Pick up a t-shirt so I can pay my bills.

And hopefully, you get out here to the US again, where there’s no drama on a tour, and where you don’t catch COVID.
Oh, that would be sick.

Yeah, that would be sick, but don’t get sick.
Exactly. Prefer not to.

Editor’s Note: At Press Time, Cabal announced April 11, 2025 as the release date of their next album Everything Rots via Nuclear Blast Records!

(Interview by Ken Morton)

https://cabalcult.com/