Last year was an absolute boon for all kinds of metal fans no matter what specific style you may be into, and it was a truly amazing experience for anyone like myself who likes everything from all over the board. Easily, one of my favorite bands that put anything out was Bones and despite not making it on my final Top 30 list by just a hair, it was with “Diseased” that we got several songs of true nasty heaviness that I still find myself listening to on a very regular basis. I was lucky enough to be able to pick the brain of the drummer behind Bones, Jon, who was more than enthusiastic enough to give us insight into one of Chicago’s more voracious bands.

Myself: Thanks so much yet again for agreeing to do this interview with me. “Diseased” is very much a record I’ve gotten a lot of time out of since its release and I find it to be a real gem amongst the stiff competition this year, and it’s become criminally underrated due to that.

1. What was the most important thing you guys wanted to bring to the table with this album? It’s a very brutal and muddy record that doesn’t allow for much breathing room and it excels spectacularly at making the listener feel claustrophobic amongst the constant weight and riffs.

Jon: Howdy!  Thanks for the good words.  We’re a pretty underground band, so we’re not used to getting a lot of attention; so it’s always nice to hear some positive feedback.  We weren’t setting out to do anything on the new album except simply record the songs we had written. We took 4 years writing the album, another year trying to get a label to release it, and another year to actually have it see the light of day.  In the studio, we record very quickly with minimal overdubs or layered studio effects. The idea is to capture the band the way that we sound live. We’re not fans of overproduced albums. We’re a 3 piece band that plays, what I like to call, 3 chord heavy metal.  But for a 3 piece, we make a lot of noise and there’s a push and pull to the sound. We’re not the kind of band that is going to obsess over small details so what you hear is what you get.  

2. Of all the tracks off “Diseased”, it’s “Down” that stands out the most to me because of the very beginning where we see the record in its calmest state. Was that a sound you’d like to see Bones bring more of to the table for atmospheric reasons, just a change of pace, or other reasons?

Jon: We all write the music in Bones.  Sometimes I’ll have a complete song, sometimes Carcass Chris (guitars) will have a complete song or all 3 of us collaborate with different ideas together.  “Down” was a song that Chris had pretty much written all of the music to and showed it to me and Joe Warlord (drums). It’s really cool that it’s your favorite because it’s one of my favorites too.  Chris always brings a counterpoint to each album and his songs are some of my favorite Bones songs. “Down” brings a whole different attitude to the album. It’s not something that we’ve explored before so it was exciting to try this kind of song.  We don’t consider ourselves to be from any one particular genre of heavy metal so if a weird riff presents itself we’re always up the challenge. There might be more riffs like that in the future, or maybe something completely different. I guess we’ll see!

3. The art for “Diseased” is still an absolute mystery to me with it having so much going on but I’m still not able to pick up what exactly it is, despite it being a pulsating mass of whatever that perfectly embodies the sound that Bones brings to the table all throughout. Was that something you guys specifically wanted to show in the cover art or was it because of the artist just clicking really well with the concept of Bones?

Jon: “Putrid” Matt Carr did the album cover.  He did our other two album covers as well.  He’s a sick fucker like us so he understands our vibe.  He lives down the street from me so usually we’ll have him at our practice room to hang out, drink a few beers, smoke some weed and then play him the new tunes.  He also usually gets a cd to listen to at home and then he’ll just wrap himself up in the project and draw whatever comes to mind. He always nails the vibe that we’re doing musically and shows the visual part of it.  

4. What’s the scene like in Chicago nowadays for a band like Bones? I’ve never had the fortune to visit the city nor see any bands from its streets even though I’m sure there are plenty of class acts like yourselves if I looked close enough for long enough.

Jon: Yeah, Chicago has plenty of good bands.  We’re lucky that way. There is always a show happening somewhere.  We don’t play out a lot, not because we can’t, because we’re just not the kind of band that wants to play every weekend.  We usually play once a year and we’ve been really lucky to play with some great bands in Chicago like Macabre, Cianide, Dysphoria, Funeral Nation, Heaven’s Decay, Cardiac Arrest, Professor Black and a hundred others.  We’ve also been able to play with bands from out of town like Coffins, Autopsy, Midnight, Nunslaughter, and even Perturbator. To me, the two best parts of the Chicago scene are that there are so many different bands of every style.  There’s no “Chicago Sound ” because everyone does their own thing. The other one is there are so many options for “non-band” stuff like local record labels, artists, graphic designers, etc. Everyone is a fan of the music here and get involved if they want, however they want.  The bands here are only half of the scene.

5. The underground of metal has become a truly diverse landscape more so in recent years more than ever before. What’s a style that you find yourself visiting more often to find a really interesting band with some peculiar material that should be heard more of? Personally, it’s the depths of what doom can provide that gets me digging more often than not.

Jon: I think it’s great that there aren’t that many barriers anymore around what heavy metal “should” or “shouldn’t” sound like.  I remember back in the 80s and 90s there were only a few subgenres that were “acceptable” and anything outside of those defined parameters was considered “poser” territory.  Now there’s a lot more acceptance to all different styles of underground metal, which I think can only be a good thing. But, like you, I’ve been vibing on doom lately. More of the classic doom than much brand new stuff.  I’m still bummed that Gates of Slumber didn’t survive. But it’s hard to have more fun than smoking a joint and zoning out to Candlemass….

6. And speaking of oddities in the underground – what are some bands that you feel deserve more attention or acts that you feel are not given enough credit? Other than Bones, of course, ha.

Jon: We’re very comfortable being a deep underground band.  Miles underground! Haha. I always thought the band Ptahil has been severely unnoticed.  They’re so fucking weird it’s unbelievable. I caught them in Chicago maybe 6-7 years ago and they blew up my brain.  I guess they could be filed in the black metal category, which is not usually my favorite music, but they seem to fuck it up somehow in a way that’s brilliant to my ears. From Chicago, I think Heaven’s Decay is a band that needs to be heard and, more importantly, seen live.  Great stuff….

7. Death metal has had plenty of ups and downs over the decades with recent iterations truly being all over the place with new bands doing their best to keep the old school sound alive, bringing new flavors to the table in the form of melody-enriched material that takes the style to a much brighter landscape, or making it exceedingly weird but awesome like what we’ve gotten from Blood Incantation and Howls of Ebb just to name two. Do you feel like this diversity is for better or worse in such a normally harsh and unforgiving style?

Jon: I think it’s for the better.  Adapt or die! For an old death metal guy like myself, I’m always going to compare everything to Slayer, Possessed, Autopsy, Unleashed, Pestilence…you get the idea.  But if every band kept copying Obituary as much as they did in the 90s things would be so boring. It’s essential to hear how people who were born after the “golden age of death metal” are influenced by the original bands and reinterpret it and find a new way to play heavy fucking music in a new way.

8. Of all the things that you’ve brought to the table with “Diseased”, what’s the thing you’re most proud of or even something you’d have liked to have done slightly differently for whatever reason?

Jon: It sounds generic but I’m proud of the album as a whole.  I think it sounds exactly like the band sounded when we recorded it.  There are always small things you would want to “fix” when you listen back to an album: try a different vocal, change a bassline, stretch out on a solo.  But those wouldn’t really make a huge difference to the whole album. We honestly feel like this is the best album we could’ve done at the time. Right now we’re about halfway done writing the next album and we can tell that it’s going to be a little different and a little better than “Diseased”.   It’s what keeps us going.

9. “Diseased” will absolutely be named as one of my favorite albums of 2019 whether it be in my Top 30 or an extremely honorable mention I haven’t decided yet given the stiff competition that this year has brought with it. What are ten albums from this year that you just can’t get enough of? They don’t need to be in order in any way, but you’re more than free to go through that struggle!

Jon: Honestly, we’ve been so busy writing new Bones material that I haven’t listened to much brand new metal in 2019.  I try not to get obsessed by new releases when I’m in writing mode otherwise some of those other band’s ideas will filter into our new material by osmosis.  Haha.

10. As you know, this decade will come to end in just a few days at the time that I’m typing this. What are Bones’ plans for 2020 or even the decade as a whole? Any new material will certainly be a boon that many of us won’t be able to help from eating right up upon its arrival.

Jon: We ended 2019 by playing a show with Nunslaughter. Could’ve been worse! Haha. Hopefully, we’ll record at least half of a new Bones record in 2020.  The new material is flowing fast and furious right now. I’m sure we’ll play a few shows along the way.  As for the decade….more of the same! We’ve got plenty of jet fuel left so we’re gonna keep doing what we do as long as we’re alive.  There’s no changing our minds at this point….

Myself: Yet again, thank you so very much for taking the time to answer these questions. Hopefully, time will be kind to “Diseased” and Bones such that you get the recognition you deserve, and I truly can’t wait to hear what else you guys can throw down! 

Thanks! Jon-Necromancer

LISTEN to “Diseased” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Bones on Facebook here.