We certainly can’t say Florida death metal veterans Monstrosity are among the most prolific of bands, with only three albums released during the last 22 years, but the quality of their music makes it worthy of the wait. Their new, seventh album, Screams From Beneath The Surface reunites the original rhythm section of the band after thirty years (!) and offers ten fantastic, classic death metal songs. Band drummer, main composer and leader Lee Harrison was kind enough to tell Velvet Thunder all the details.
Hey, Lee, it is so nice to talk to you for the first time, and thank you for calling the Velvet Thunder website. I am starting right away with the questions: First of all, why did the last two Monstrosity albums take so long to be completed?
-Okay, let’s see. Spiritual Apocalypse was released in 2007, and we toured until about 2010. During that time, we did not focus on new material and did not have any new songs ready. 2010 was around the time we started writing for Passage Of Existence. I would say by 2011 or 2012, pretty much everything was written. We started recording guitars around 2014, which were intended to be scratch tracks. They were originally supposed to be the final tracks for the album, but they ended up becoming scratch tracks. Then, in 2015, I took those tracks and we recorded the drums. During that time, Mark English ended up redoing all those guitar tracks. We were supposed to start mixing in September of—let me think—it would have been 2016. We spent some time recording; for example, we had bass tracks where the bass player would come out, do two songs over a weekend, go home, and return a couple of weeks later to do two more songs. That is how we approached it. We were supposed to mix in 2016 because we had the vocals and everything else recorded, but Mark English still was not ready. He was still working on solos and additional parts. The gentleman who mixed the record, Mark Lewis, had to move on because his window of availability was September 2016. He said, ‘Look, I have to keep things moving here,’ as he had Whitechapel or another project scheduled. Consequently, we were pushed back until May. It basically came down to studio problems, scheduling issues, and being very picky—perhaps a little too picky—regarding getting it done.
Then, of course, we had to go back and forth regarding the artwork; there is a long story there. We also had to finalize the record deal, which took about a month or so. Finally, that album was released, which explains the 11-year gap between those two albums. As for the current album, I wrote four of the new songs during the mixing process for the previous record. We were still working on the mix for Passage when I began writing. I wrote Banished To The Skies, The Atrophied, The Thorns, and The Dark Aura for the new album. Those were written during the mixing of the last album to get ahead so that the next record wouldn’t take so long to complete. When the album finally came out around the time COVID hit, I locked myself in a room and finished writing all the songs for the new record. Matt Barnes contributed one song; I wrote nine of the ten, and Matt wrote the tenth. We worked back and forth; Matt Barnes was my right-hand man on this album, so I would send him my songs.
He would take the songs, beef them up, and make them better. We went through a few lineup changes, and as everyone knows, our singer situation slowed things down further. We played more shows and did more touring. I would say the beginning of 2023 is when we started recording the drums for this album. Then we performed at Maryland Deathfest, went to South America, and subsequently recorded the guitars. We spent the rest of 2023 working on the guitar tracks for this record. In 2024, we completed the bass tracks for the first half of the year. During the second half of 2024, I worked on the writing and the lyrics. By 2025, we recorded the vocals, finished the guitar tracks, added more sound, and then sent the mix off, likely in late February or early March of 2025. After getting it back, we completed the mastering, finalized the artwork, and navigated the record deal situation. The album was essentially finished by last April or May.
We delivered the album in June, and it was decided that instead of rushing for a fall release last September or October, we would push it back to March of this year. This provided plenty of time for promotion and manufacturing, ensuring there would be no excuses and allowing us the extra time to do it correctly. This slowed things down slightly, but as mentioned, the album has been finished for almost a year now, and it is finally released.
Lee, you touched on that, but I want to ask you specifically: how did original bassist Mark Van Erp end up in the band once again? Also, please tell us how Ed and Justin ended up joining Monstrosity.
-Regarding Mark, he was in the band for the first album and wrote songs for the second album (Millennium). He remained in the band right up until we recorded the second album. Although he did not play on the second album, he was involved in writing songs such as Manic, Manipulation Strain and Dream Messiah. His presence is felt on that second album. Eventually, he went back to New York to pursue his own interests, but around 2010, we played Mexico City and brought him in for that performance. I do not recall the exact circumstances, but he also joined us for the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise. Our bass player at the time, Mike Poggione, ended up moving to Ukraine. That worked out well while we were touring Europe, as he could easily travel from Ukraine to start the tour. However, when we were booked for one-off shows in America, such as the California Death Fest, it did not make sense for Mike to fly all the way from Ukraine for a single show. Consequently, we brought in Mark Van Erp for those dates and began working with him more frequently. We really appreciate his playing style. He is very excited to be involved again because he missed all those years, and he certainly has a hunger for it. He is an original member and that is always a positive factor that people appreciate.
The situation worked out well, and there are no hard feelings with Mike Poggione; we could certainly work together again in the future. However, for the time being, Mark Van Erp is officially in the band, and we are moving forward with him. He did a phenomenal job on the new record, and we are very happy about that. Regarding Ed the vocalist, our previous singer, Mike Hrubovcak, informed us that he was no longer happy with touring and did not want to tour anymore, leading to his departure from the band. This happened right around the time COVID-19 hit. We tried to persuade him to stay, suggesting that since we would not be doing as much, he could stick it out for the next record and we would figure things out later. Since we did not know what was going to happen, we hoped he would stay, but he was simply uninterested in continuing. He more or less forced our hand, and we had to find someone new. There were several younger candidates we considered. The local guys we tried out didn’t have the high screams; it was going to take a little time, maybe, to develop them. In the meantime, I was touring with Inhuman Condition with Terry Butler from Obituary, and Terry recommended Ed. I’ve known Ed forever, but it just didn’t cross my mind. As soon as he mentioned that, it made perfect sense. So when we got back from that tour, I called Ed and he came over, and it’s been going great ever since. He did a great job on the record, too, so he’s turned out to be great. As far as Justin, he’s a little more complicated. He’s a younger guy; he was born in the same month that we formed the band, if that tells you anything, haha. He’s a great player, though – phenomenal. And he did some really great work on the record. He plays with a reggae rock band and he tours pretty consistently with them, doing some bigger tours. Because he kind of fits us into his schedule, it’s not as solid, so we’ve been using Sam Molina.
We brought in Sam; Sam was on the Rise To Power album. Then I worked with him when I did Terrorizer with Pete Sandoval from 2013 to 2020. I’ve known Sam forever and he’s a brother, so it made sense when Justin wasn’t available that we brought in Sam. We’ve been going back and forth between Justin and Sam as far as that fifth member, and we just made a decision to promote the new album as a four-piece, especially regarding the pictures and the lineup on the actual album. Rather than bringing in Justin—as he may not be in the band in the future—even though he played on it, Sam didn’t play on the album, so it doesn’t make sense to put Sam in the pictures. We didn’t know what to do, so we just decided to promote the record as a four-piece, and that’s the whole story in a nutshell.
Lee, you already talked about the long process of the creation of the new album. Anyway, I have to stress that Screams From Beneath The Surface and the band sound really inspired and on fire, despite the fact that you said it took so long to flesh out the album. Do you think that the inclusion of the new members, and the performance in the studio with these new guys, has contributed to this feeling I have about the band?
-I’m sure to agree. I’m so close to it that it’s hard for me to say. To me, it’s just the next evolution, but I’m sure there’s something to that.
Regarding the opening song you mentioned, Banished To The Skies – as far as I remember, you said it was one of the first ones created for the new album. I think it’s easily among your most epic tracks, the most epic Monstrosity songs ever, with some amazing classic heavy metal melodies to top it off. Did you consciously introduce more classic melody lines in songs like this one? Also, I noticed it in The Dark Aura – did that happen naturally?
-It was definitely natural. I didn’t really realize it until I started doing interviews this week that it is not the most obvious opening track. I think people would expect something maybe a little faster. It was the first song written for the album, and I always heard it as the first song, so we kept that vision. It was kind of my baby as far as my songwriting goes, and I just tried to keep it that way. To me, it is like a cousin of Angel’s Venom. If you are familiar with Angel’s Venom, that song features verse parts that are somewhat similar to this track. Even though it is totally different, it still incorporates those specific types of parts into the composition. To me, it is a cousin in a way to Angel’s Venom. As far as The Dark Aura is concerned, that was the fourth song written for the new album. We previously had Fragments Of Resolution off the Millennium album, which was also a slow song. We also did The Pillars Of Drear, which was on In Dark Purity, and it followed the same idea where it is a slower, doom-oriented style of song. It has that specific doom-style element. We have always incorporated doom parts, such as Imperial Doom, which was the first song on our first album. There are doom elements that we have always possessed, and this is just a continuation of that trend. Even though it might seem like it is more of a left-field addition, asking where this is coming from, to us it is a natural progression. That was another song where it was my baby, and I wanted to ensure we kept those cool and essential key parts.
That was something I wanted to achieve because I enjoy it and it sounds good. I think there is enough material like The Colossal Rage, The Atrophied, Spiral, Veil Of Disillusion, Vapors, and even The Thorns. They are all brutal songs, exactly what you would expect from a band like Monstrosity.
That is the standard, and it is important for me to stress in this interview the perfect way you combine the more melodic parts with technicality and brutality. Brutality and old-school death metal have been a Monstrosity trademark, and they are also present all over the new songs. It seems to me that you found the perfect amalgam of technicality and catchiness this particular time. So, is it important for death metal to also be ear-grabbing and hummable?
-That is what I like. Even though we are a death metal band, at the same time, I am a musician first rather than just a death metal person. I like music and I listen to all kinds of music. I understand that what we are doing and the kind of music that we are playing is death metal, but at the same time, I do not necessarily want to make everything simple. I do not want to dumb down the parts just to make sure a certain listener is happy. I do not want to simplify it just to satisfy a Venom fan. We have to police ourselves at the same time. Our music has always grown from the tree of rock and roll and 1970s rock; it is always from that foundation no matter what. Even though we do not try to incorporate dance music or necessarily jazz, though you could argue some of the technical stuff uses odd time signatures, it is really not jazz. We always try to come from the root of rock and roll music. This remains true even though we are playing death metal.
In recent years, there were some fantastic new albums released by genre veterans like Obituary, Immolation, Deicide, Unleashed, Benediction, Cannibal Corpse, and now Monstrosity as well. What is it, in your opinion, that makes all these classic bands—of which you are also a part—release some of the best material in your respective careers?
-I cannot personally speak for what other bands do, but I believe that everyone wants to step up their efforts and improve their overall game. Regarding our own band, I never want to simply go through the motions. I have observed various arguments where certain larger bands – perhaps not the ‘big four’ of thrash, but certainly within the top tier of that bracket – are bound by record contracts requiring them to release an album on a specific date. This leads to them feeling obligated to rush the artistic process. We have never truly operated under those conditions. As you are well aware, we have not really adhered to strict deadlines. We cannot be convinced to rush things. For us, the internal discussion exists because we have had this debate in the past with Mark English, our previous guitar player. His writing style involves creating a song, tearing it apart, removing sections, and writing new parts. Once that is established, he would rewrite it again several times. The ultimate goal is to craft the song to make it a better piece of music, though the inherent problem is that this process takes a significant amount of time.
If you apply that meticulous process to every single song and take forever, then you are never going to release an album. The opposite approach is simply writing and releasing the first thing you create, and we obviously want to avoid that. It is about finding the proper balance of not taking an eternity just for the sake of rewriting, which does not make sense to me. If a song truly requires that much work, then it is acceptable. At the same time, I frequently dedicate a large amount of my time to the music. Much of the death metal and general metal I listen to is Monstrosity, primarily because those are the songs I am working on at the time. I will create a mix CD, usually containing four to six songs currently in progress. For the remainder of the CD, I include a mix of new and classic bands, ranging from old rock and roll and Black Sabbath to Destruction. I keep this in my car because I drive quite often, whether I am traveling south or elsewhere. During these drives, I frequently work on the lyrics or simply listen to the songs repeatedly. Eventually, you realize that certain parts might not be as effective after listening to them thirty times. This allows me to identify and remove the weaker sections to improve them. Consequently, a significant portion of the work I do, including the lyrics and even the album titles, is developed while I am driving around in my car. Those ideas come to me while I am driving around. That is essentially how the process works regarding finding the balance between not rushing the creation but still properly crafting the songs without going overboard or taking an excessive amount of time to finish.
Lee, I have only two more questions. First, I want to take this opportunity to ask you something many people likely know: aside from being a terrific drummer, you are also a guitar player. Notably, you played on the 2018 Terrorizer album, Caustic Attack. What are your memories from that period, and how did that collaboration come about?
-I have always played guitar and written many of the riffs for Monstrosity, even as far back as Imperial Doom. Typically, every song contains at least one guitar riff that I contributed. Over time, on albums like In Dark Purity, Millennium and Rise To Power, there are songs that were written entirely by me on the guitar. In 2007, I worked on a project with Midnight from Crimson Glory where, on some tracks, I performed as the entire band, playing bass and keyboards as well. Between guitar and other songs, I would play drums, or on another song, I would just play guitar. It varied like that. I was working with Matt LaPorte, who was in Jon Oliva’s Pain – the Savatage singer he was playing with. Matt brought me in on the Tardy Brothers project with Obituary. Unfortunately, Matt passed away, but those guys accepted me as a guitar player. It was a cool little thing we did, where Donald, the drummer for Obituary would jump up and play guitar on a couple of songs, and I would play drums, and then we would switch and vice versa; I was playing guitar and he was playing drums. That was how that thing happened. Then I ended up filling in with Obituary. I did a show in Mexico City and a tour of South America. I played some really great shows and phenomenal festivals down there. It was a really fun time playing with those guys. That was in 2012 when I did that, and after I got back from that they ended up getting Kenny back. Kenny was a real lead player; he was the guy they needed. I was just filling in for a period. But I ran into Pete Sandoval at a local show. He had been in Spain and I hadn’t seen him in a long time. It was like, ‘Oh, Pete’s here, cool.’ He was sober and clear-headed; it was good to see him. I had learned World Downfall back in ’94, just sitting around the house because I wanted to play those songs.
I knew the songs, though I had forgotten the whole album, I definitely remembered some of them. So I said, ‘Hey Pete,’ because I had always wanted to do that. I wanted to come over and jam World Downfall just for fun. I wasn’t trying to create the band necessarily; I just wanted to do it for fun. He said, ‘Yeah man, cool. I’m not doing anything.’ He didn’t even really have his drums set up. He had a little electronic kit set up, so I came over and we started jamming. It was fun. We asked, ‘What are you doing next week?’ So the next week we went over and we brushed up on a few more of the songs. That was June of 2013, so by July and August of 2013, we had things going pretty well. We got the idea to bring in Sam Molina – Pete didn’t know Sam at the time – but I brought in Sam Molina to play bass and sing. Since there are no solos in Terrorizer, we really only needed one guitar player. We decided to keep it a three-piece and make it easy that way. We played a backyard party as our first show, and then the next thing we knew, we were contacted by New Jersey Death Fest. They wanted to bring us up, and they were the ones pushing to call it Terrorizer. Originally we called it Sandoval, Harrison, and Molina—that was the original title of the project—but the guys in Jersey Death Fest said, ‘It is Terrorizer, can we put Terrorizer on the event t-shirt’, so they pushed Pete into it. Pete had a lineup out in California, but the story with that guy is he couldn’t get his passport, so he was always limited with him. I don’t think he liked going out to California to do everything because he had to ride a bike to the store and he didn’t have a place to live necessarily. He was staying in the warehouse and it was just difficult.
It wasn’t really working out for him with those guys, I don’t think. The next thing we knew, we got Gunter Ford – who manages Morbid Angel and Nile – and he offered to manage Pete for Terrorizer. From there things took off; we ended up starting to get some bigger tours and many requests to do festivals and stuff. Eventually, we got that record deal with The End Records and we made that album. I am very proud of that record; I put a lot of effort into it, and he was very supportive of my ideas and helped me. In working with me, I was pushing him. For me, it was kind of a cool thing because I am a drummer and I know what I want to see out of a drummer, so I could push him to become a better drummer. He was working with me as far as that; we would sit around and do rudiments on a pad, just sitting there and working together. I could show him things and he would show me things, of course. It was just a cool collaboration. My only regret with the whole thing is that I wish we didn’t actually get two drum sets and play together a lot more than we did. We did it one time, but we didn’t really get to do it more. I wish we would have done that more as that would have been fun, but nonetheless, it was a good experience. It was great for my creativity personally as a musician.
Thank you so much for the answers, Lee. I think it was a really nice chat, and most importantly, congratulations for the fantastic new album. I really think that it is among the best releases from Monstrosity, and really a top release in the genre so far this year. The album is really good. Your tour in Europe is starting in exactly two months from now.
-Yeah, awesome. Thank you for the interview, and we will hopefully we will see you sometime.
Screams From Beneath The Surface will be out on March 13th, via Metal Blade Records, and can be ordered from HERE
Screams Across Europe Tour 2026
MONSTROSITY
+ Bio Cancer
+ Reject The Sickness
+ Deadwood
April 18, 2026 SWITZERLAND Luzern – Metalstorm Festival
April 19, 2026 AUSTRIA Salzburg – Rockhouse
April 21, 2026 CROATIA Zagreb – Vintage Industrial Bar
April 22, 2026 ITALY Bologna – Alchemica Music Club
April 23, 2026 SWITZERLAND Geneva – L’Usine
April 25, 2026 FRANCE Saint Omer – Brutal Swamp
April 28, 2026 BELGIUM Kotrijk – DVG
April 29, 2026 HOLLAND Tilburg – Hall of Fame
April 30, 2026 HOLLAND Amersfoort – Fluor
May 01, 2026 GERMANY Essen – Turock
May 02, 2026 GERMANY Jena – F Haus
May 03, 2026 POLAND Swidnica – Bolko
May 05, 2026 POLAND Krakow – Zaścianek
May 06, 2026 POLAND Bielsko Biala – Rude Boy
May 07, 2026 SLOVAKIA Bratislava – Pink Whale
May 08, 2026 CZECH REPUBLIC Jablunkov – Rock Cafe
May 09, 2026 SLOVAKIA Kosice – Collosseum
May 10, 2026 POLAND Lublin – Fabryka Kultury Zgrzyt
More dates will be announced!!
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