In a recent interview conducted by Francisco Zamudio of KNAC.COM, DEICIDE frontman Glen Benton discussed some of the primary musical inspirations from his formative years that propelled him into the realm of extreme metal.
Glen said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth): “Ever since I was a little kid, man, I remember, I even have it in my files upstairs in my boxes. I was asked as a small child, man, like when I was 11, 12 years old, whatever, they asked me what I wanted to be. And I put down exactly what the hell I am right now. So I had a long-term goal, man. Even when I was a little kid, it’s what I wanted to do. I grew up, man, watching bands and listening to all kinds of music. I was exposed to music at a really young age.
“My uncle was a drummer. He had guitars hiding in the closet all the time, and I was around that a lot. And not that dad did it for me, but when I was a little kid and I heard [BLACK] SABBATH the first time, it was all over — it really was all over, man. I remember being at the breakfast table 7:30 in the morning with my boombox blasting ‘Paranoid’ at my mother… I was a huge SABBATH, huge [Ronnie James] Dio fan, man, and that era of metal, when they had [JUDAS] PRIEST and all that stuff from that era, man.”
Expressing dissatisfaction with the current state of the metal scene in 2024, Benton remarked: “Metal was metal back then. Metal right now — you have so many subcategories of metal now, it’s ridiculous. I understand individualism and that, and we can really use a lot more frontmen like that, like Ozzy [Osbourne] and Ronnie and all them people, Lemmy and that. We don’t have that anymore.
All we have is a bunch of wannabe-WEEZER-looking dudes trying to play metal,” he continued. “Everybody’s sporting black-frame glasses and wearing trucker caps. Nobody gives a s**t about imagery anymore, looking the part of metal and that. I walk around 24 hours a day looking [like I do]. I can’t shake it, man. I’m never gonna fall into that. I’ve always been that way, too, about the guys on stage, man. You’re not gonna come out there wearing a f**king plaid shirt and white tennis shoes. It’s not happening.”
DEICIDE released their latest studio album, Banished By Sin, on April 26 via Reigning Phoenix Music.
