Meeting my heroes in the metal world is one of the biggest perks of this job. People often say you shouldn’t meet them, and it’s true that you can never know when you’ll come across a musician that you adore who then turns out to be a bit of an eccentric (read “complete asshole”). Fortunately, this wasn’t the case with Jungle Rot‘s growler and shredder Dave Matrise, who turned out to be a total sweetheart. Read on to find out how Matrise looks at the underground metal scene and how he feels about life on tour, amongst other anecdotes.

GRIMM: I’ll make sure word get around *laughs*. If you don’t mind I’d like to get some more info on the last record. Could you tell me a little more the reason why you self-titled the last album?

That was my idea. I felt like we’d earned it, you know? We did all the great titles like ‘Skin the Living‘, ‘Slaughter the Weak‘, ‘Order Shall Prevail‘, etc. We just hadn’t done a ‘Jungle Rot‘ yet. I think after so many years and after having released ten albums, the name should say it all. It’s the best album for sure. It’s got the most momentum.

GRIMM: The cover art is beautiful too. I felt like this one was like a summary of everything you’d created so far.

The cover is sick as hell. Gyula Havancsák, who designed covers for Kreator and Destruction and designed the covers of our four previous albums, came back for this one. He’s unbelievable; we basically send him a title and he nails it every time. For this one, we told him we would self-title it and he seemed really stoked about it. We were excited to know what he was going to come up with because the last album cover was amazing too. So when he sent it to me I thought “You gotta be kidding me”. The rotting soldier in the water was perfect. He’d just nailed it on the first design again. We always let him do what he wants without getting too much in his way,. It’s what he likes about working with us. Just complete artistic freedom. The results are there anyway.

GRIMM: You’re gonna stick with hm for the next albums?

Oh yeah, definitely. I learnt over the year that if you find people that are good, you should stick with them. Build a relationship, in other words. Chances are the results will be better every time. It creates trust and trust is everything.

GRIMM: Well, Dave, It’s been a real pleasure talking to you, man. I’m already looking forward to your next visit to our welcoming shores.

Pleasure’s all mine, man. Thanks a lot!