Ingested’s Jason Evans Interview: “We Wanted To Be The Fastest & The Most Brutal”

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Ingested have kept busy during the pandemic releasing a new album titled ‘Where Only Gods May Tread’ and a complete re-recording of their album ‘The Surreption’, so it’s no surprise that fans of the band have been chomping at the bit for the band to return to a venue near them. I’ve had the privilege of getting to catch up with Jason Evans before they took to the stage to support Bleed From Within at The Dome.

Jason: I’m doing great man, just glad to be back out on tour!

I bet. What’s it been like finally getting to go back out on tour?

Jason: It’s amazing, We’ve been waiting for what feels like forever but in reality, it’s only been like 2 years, actually we counted it. It’s been 613 days between the last show we played which was faces of death at the ULU and after that, we had to drop off the tour because our drummer lives in Milyorker and with them closing the borders, Lyn was like “Boys, I gotta go home or I’m not getting home” so yeah. We dropped off the tour and the tour ended up only lasting one more show anyways so everyone had to go home in the end.

Well that was the thing, wasn’t it? It was such a sudden shutdown of normality.

Jason: Yeah, it was so weird. A bit like 28 days later.

You rerecorded ‘The Surreption’ during the lockdown but other than that, how was the lockdown for the band.

Jason: It was hard man, It was hard. Financially it was hard because touring is our bread and butter. The band is our job full-time ’cause if you don’t take it full-time you’ll never reach where you want to get to so we basically gave up all our jobs. Jumped all in with the band and then the pandemic happened so it kinda put us on our arse, but we did release ‘Where Only Gods May Tread’ in August of 2020 which was obviously still in the pandemic but that did really well, and then we did a Halloween Livestream called dominion where we played at Manchester Academy 1 which is like a 3000 cap venue yet no one was in there which was so weird, but it was such good fun. We just tried to keep busy. We always wanted to re-release our second album ‘The Surreption’ but we planned on giving it a remix and a remaster because we were never really happy with how it sounded. We always thought it sounded a bit flat so we wanted to just give it a bit of spit and polish and release it but we couldn’t get hold of the stems – and we really tried everywhere to get hold of them – but we just couldn’t get them so we just said “Yknow what, Fuck it. Lets just fucking re-record it” so that’s exactly what we did. On top of that, we remixed and re-recorded our very first recording which was ‘Stinking Cesspool of Liquified Human Remants’ and released that back in February. So yeah, we tried to stay busy with releases and stuff and then not so long ago we got the call from Metal Blade so I think it all paid off.

It certainly seems like it. Speaking about Metal Blade, what’s it been like working under them?

Jason: I can’t really say too much about what we’ve been doing but it’s been good. We still have a good relationship with our old label Unique Leader Records. We always have had a great relationship with them so it wasn’t like we left on bad terms but ever since we’ve signed to metal blade it feels right y’know. They are great to work with.

That sounds greats. So you’re finally back out on tour, and you’re touring with Bleed From Within. What’s the tour been like so far?

Jason: Amazing! Fantastic! Basically, Ingested and Bleed From Within have grown up together in the UK metal scene. We both started around the same time and we’ve always been good friends, and we have always crossed paths at festivals and stuff, but we’ve never toured together despite both of us saying we need to tour together. The stars just never aligned but it only took a whole pandemic to make them finally align. Mental init?

Well looking into the future a bit now and you have your headliner tour set for next year, what can fans expect from these shows?

Jason: Well we are going to play a lot of new stuff because we never got a chance to tour ‘Where Only Gods May Tread’ so there will be a lot off of that, and maybe some more new stuff as well that’s yet to come. For now, we’ve kinda retired the older songs just because it’s hard to fit it all in now. Plus we did the anniversary tour of ‘Surrpassing The Boundaries’ where we played the entire album from start to finish and the reason why we did that was that we knew the newer songs would be getting more of the spotlight. They won’t be gone forever but just for a while. I remember after that tour we were all in pieces. We played it in America, the UK and Europe and those songs are like 300 BPM and back when we released the album, we wanted to be the fastest and the most brutal, but over time as a band, we’ve developed our talents and we have got better at songwriting so not everything has to be a machine gun, A chainsaw or a sledgehammer. We have an entire toolbox of stuff to play with now.

I think you see that with a lot of bands now, starting out as the fast and brutal band then transitioning into more technical music and I think the best example of that recently has to be Whitechapel.

Jason: Yeah, I think it’s that you always want to develop. Develop as musicians, Develop as songwriters and as a band. I know there’s a section of our fans that want us to do something like a ‘Surpassing The Boundaries Part 2’ Or something like that and I get that and I do appreciate it but it’s not going to disappear. You’re always going to be able to listen to it and it will always be a part of our history but I don’t like re-treading old ground. I want every album that we put out to be a progression. It doesn’t always need to be in the same direction, It can be in any direction but as long as it’s moving forward. I don’t want to stay still and I don’t want to move sideways I either want to move up or forward. At the end of the day, The most beautiful thing about being in a band is that you get to make the exact music you want to hear. For me, if someone asks me who’s your favourite band, It’s my band because if it’s not your band then you’re doing something wrong. Everyone’s band should be their favourite band.

I think that’s a lovely way to end this. Thank you so much for your time today!

Jason: It’s been my pleasure.

Check out OUR review of Bleed From Within at The Dome – supported by Ingested – here.