Modern death metal torch bearers 200 Stab Wound (Cleveland, Ohio) continue to take over the heavy metal world with their raw intense professional musicianship! Because 200 Stab Wounds have the heavy music strength to leave fans sonically battered and bruised, but feeling more alive than ever before! Due to the bands hellish controlled music chaos that will keep metal fans of all types headbanging aggressively until their necks snap off their own bodies!

Currently, 200 Stab Wounds are hard at work finishing up their untitled full-length Metal Blade Records debut. And we here at Faygoluvers.net are for damn certain that the next 200 Stab Wounds record will set the underworld of death metal ablaze for years to come! Please enjoy this informative Faygoluvers.net interview with 200 Stab Wounds frontman Steve Buhl, below!

Please support 200 Stab Wounds via Metal Blade Records here: https://metalblade.indiemerch.com/

200 Stab Wounds Current Line-up
Raymond MacDonald- guitars
Steve Buhl – vocals, guitars
Ezra Cook – bass
Owen Pooley – drums

200 Stab Wound Group Photo Credits: Stephanie Cabral  Live Photo Credit:  Shearwater Visuals

Chad Thomas Carsten: Faygoluvers.net here with Steve Buhl of 200 Stab Wounds. The Torchbearers of modern death metal! Can you define death metal in your own words?

Steve Buhl: The heaviest shit around. About as simple as that. It’s like, it’s cool what’s going on right now too, especially because every band, especially like Tribal Gaze or like Frozen Soul, Sanguisugabogg, all those bands, we all sound different. There’s no one trying to copy anyone else. It’s all super original. And I think that’s another reason why those bands in particular are the ones that stick out to people, I think. So, it’s sick.

CTC: Which five Florida death metal albums would you say are the most influential to you and why? I know that’s a hard question, but being that you’re on tour with Obituary right now, we figured we’d ask.

SB: Definitely Obituary’s “Cause of Death” is one of my top ones. “Covenant” from Morbid Angel. “The Bleeding” and “Butchered at Birth” from Cannibal Corpse. And I’m going to throw in Obituary’s “Slowly We Rot” as well.

CTC: A classic (Slowly We Rot) 1989 Obituary release. you know, that’s celebrating its 35th anniversary next year?! It’s crazy!

SB: Wow, I wasn’t even born yet.

CTC: I was in diapers, I’ll say that. 1988. But yes, you know, growing up in Ohio, the Rust Belt. I grew up in Flint, Michigan, so I get it. But how did being surrounded by the urban decay and the crime; how did that influence your music in general, if it did?

SB: I don’t really— So, for me personally, it really doesn’t influence it at all, I guess. It’s more like our bass player, Ezra, he kind of writes lyrically based off of shit like that, like more real-life kind of shit. So, for me, it really doesn’t influence me at all. And I’m also like kind of like outside Cleveland a little bit. And I’ve been there since I was like born, so there’s not really too much that goes on there. You know what I mean? So, it really doesn’t influence my aspect of writing at all. I just try to write fun shit, not play like a million miles an hour all the time and shit, you know? More groovy, fun shit. I think that’s why a lot of people hate us, like the death metal purists. But yeah, no, the only thing that influences me is just taking what I like and kind of putting my own spin on it, really.

CTC: I was just curious, because being from those areas, it’s more run-down and there’s more abandoned buildings and crime in those Rust Belt states.

SB: Yeah, I mean, it definitely gives you some shit to get into, for sure. But as far as influencing our music on my aspect at all, not really.

CTC: Are you able to recall the very first live 200 Stab Wounds show and how that specific show helped you improve your own live performances?

SB: Oh yeah, so our first show was in Devin Swank’s (Sanguisugabogg) house. He was living in a firehouse at the time. It was weird, it was like a firehouse connected to an apartment building, I guess you’d call it, like a house or something. But that was our first show. It was right after— Well, kind of still during the COVID shit, kind of still during, but near the end. But that was our first show, and it definitely helped me improve, especially as a singer, because I never wanted to sing in this band. I was kind of just thrown into it. But it was cool, though, because I was super fucking nervous because people actually showed up, and I didn’t expect that, because no one else— Like any other bands I used to play in, no one ever came. It was just like 20 people.

So, I thought the same thing was going to happen with that. I showed up, the fucking place was packed. I was like, “What the fuck?!” I never sang in front of people before, never did that shit. But people were fucking going off, so it definitely made it a little easier on me. Even when we first started coming out and doing tours and shows and shit, pretty much all the first shows were like that. So sometimes when you play, like last night, it was kind of like a tamer show. But I can kind of deal with that type of situation now because we’ve done so much touring, I know how to deal with a crowd like that. Instead of just being all nervous and shit, I still get nervous, but I can deal with it better now.

CTC: How did the mosh pit shape who you are as a musician? Like going to shows and how the wall of death and the mosh pit influenced your own sounds and your own heaviness.

SB: Well, definitely. So, when I’m writing shit, like certain riffs, I’ll know, I can picture in my mind what it’s going to do to a crowd sometimes, depending on the crowd. But yeah, it definitely helps me write more fun, interesting stuff, I think, for sure. It’s like, there’s certain parts that I think are fucking sick, and then they don’t get a reaction, but then the parts I never really even liked, that gets the reaction more than anything. So, it’s kind of done intentionally and unintentionally sometimes. But yeah, definitely crowd reaction definitely is more of an influence on our music, for sure.

CTC: And speaking of that classic mosh pit sound. Was there any particular extreme metal album that may have scared you upon first listening? Or like maybe just kind of creeped you out because you’ve never had that type of music experience before?

SB: Yeah. I’m going to go with Slayer, “Hell Awaits”, because it just sounds terrifying, even though people are going to say it’s not death metal. I think that’s one of the first death metal records. That’s what I think. No one’s going to agree with that, or maybe a lot of people won’t agree with it, but I’m going to go with that record. That record scared the shit out of me when I first heard it.

CTC: I feel you, man. Slayer’s pretty intense during your first time listening, especially, you know, your parents walking in like, “What the fuck is this?” *Laughs*

SB: Oh yeah!

CTC: Can we dive into the creation of your debut EP, “Piles of Festering Decomposition”?  And the main goal upon its release? What did you guys set out to conquer musically at that time?

SB: Nothing. It was supposed to be a— This band was supposed to be like a side project. That was it when we put that out, because I had wrote those— Well, now it’s five songs with the two bonus shits or whatever, but originally when it first came out on tape, it was only three songs. I was playing in like a thrash, speed metal type band at the time, and I had wrote those three songs for that band, because I was like, “I just want to write something super heavy.” So, I down tuned, wrote those, and I was like, “This is way too fucking heavy for this band”. Started this shit, and really the whole intention was just like— We weren’t even trying to get on a label or anything.

We just put a clip up of one of the songs, and Devin from Bogg shared it, and that’s how Maggot Stomp found us. Scott Magrath, he saw the clip or whatever, and then he reached out, and we started working together. But when it came out we couldn’t do anything because of the pandemic and shit, but when we finally started touring, we were like, “Well, people are coming, so might as well just do this”.

CTC: Makes sense. Perfect scheme to get further into the metal world. Speaking of bonus tracks. 200 Stab Wounds covered the classic Carcass track “Ruptured in Purulence”. How challenging was it to pay homage to the melodic death metal legends like that?

SB: Well, it was definitely really hard to learn, because the recording of that song isn’t the best. It’s not very clear to where you can hear it, and be like, “Oh, this is what they’re playing here”. You have to kind of dissect it yourself. I had to watch a lot of fucking YouTube videos to figure out how to play the fucking thing. It wasn’t really hard necessarily, though, to do it justice, just because we wanted to do our own thing with it. I think it turned out sick, though.

CTC: Fans love it, man. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying this to get in your good grace or anything, but I feel because of the cleaner sound, you guys gave it a more intense feel to it with being able to hear everything. I think I like it a little bit more. I like the opening of the original with the drumming and the slow stylish guitar build up before it goes full on goregrind. But you guys brought your own flavor to the table, and it’s exciting!

SB: For sure. And it’s also kind of difficult to do that too when you’re a death metal band covering a death metal band. But that’s why we chose that song, that record, because back then they were more like— They were death metal, but they were more grindcore influenced. I don’t think we’re that at all. People say we are, but I don’t really see it. So, it wasn’t really hard at all. We just played it the way we played it, and the way we sound, and it came out great. And it still sounds different than the original. That’s why we never have covered Cannibal Corpse, because it would sound exactly the fucking same as what they do. You know what I mean? It doesn’t make sense.

CTC: How satisfied are you with your debut LP, “Slave to the Scalpel”?

SB: I’m satisfied with it. I wish my vocals were a little better. But that’s like anything, though. Every time we put out a release, you think it sounds great because you’re stoked on it, but then time passes, and you write new shit, you record new shit, and it’s like, “Oh, this sounds better than that” which is great. So right now, our new record’s done, I heard that, and now I’m like, “okay, this is way better than the EP we just put out, or the two songs”. And when that came out, I thought it was better than “Slave to the Scalpel”. Every time we record something, I think it just gets better and better. I’m satisfied with it. There’s things I wish we would have done different, but I also kind of like it because it’s like—

CTC: The rawness to it?

SB: Yeah, it’s like a time stamp. That’s what we sounded like then. And we also recorded that before we ever played a show, which is crazy.

CTC: How has the fan reception been with performing “Masters of Morbidity” live?

SB: Great. It’s great, because that song’s more like— Not like technical, but it’s more like there’s more parts to it. It’s longer. It’s like, not so— What’s the word? It’s not so simple and straightforward. There’s a lot of shit going on. Choruses, kind of, and shit like that. So, it’s been good.

CTC: When can fans expect your full-length Metal Blade Records debut? Are there any tentative titles?

SB: No, we don’t have any titles. But probably either the end of this year or early next year. I think it just depends on when we get the final master and shit, but we don’t really know yet.

CTC: Are there any touring stories you’d like to share? In regards to being on the road with Obituary?

SB: We just got wasted all the time. It was pretty sick. That’s about it. No, they’re all super nice. I was saying this yesterday at the show when we were playing. Every time we get a chance to do something with them, it’s really cool because they don’t have like that— They’re obviously legends, but they don’t really act like that. They’re just super nice to all the younger bands that take care of us and shit. Let us do what we need to do on stage and shit. No restrictions, so it’s cool.

CTC: Obituary knows you guys are the future of this death metal craziness. So, I got a few more questions. This one might put you on the spot a little bit. It’s a deeper question. But if you had one hour left to live, which album would you choose to listen to during your final hour?

SB: Slayer, “Hell Awaits”.

CTC: Any specific reason? Just the creepiness of “Hell Awaits”?

SB: It’s just heavy as fuck.

CTC: And it’s the very first album you really got into?

SB: Yeah. And when I bought that record on vinyl, I used to do a lot of acid and I would sit there and just listen to it, and just read the lyrics, and freaking the fuck out!

CTC: For the final question. What’s your main goal you want to set out to accomplish in the next five years as a new band?

SB: Just play shows. Put out sick records. It’d be cool to do more festivals, because we don’t really get asked to do festivals. But other than that, I would just play shows, do our tours, and hopefully do really good with Metal Blade. But we haven’t put anything out with them except for the EP, but just do that, do well as a band, you know?

CTC: You’ve got a bright future ahead of you. Thank you for doing this interview, Steve. Stay safe on the road!

SB: Thanks, dude. Appreciate it!

Don’t miss 200 Stab Wounds this Fall on the USA “Assimila” tour w/ Frozen Soul, Judiciary and Tribal Gaze! And in Europe for almost all of March 2024 with Cattle Decapitation, Vomit Forth and Signs of the Swarm via the “Terrasite Over Europe” 2024 tour!