Listen to Dying Fetus’ “History Repeats…” EP

Death-metal stalwarts Dying Fetus released their limited-edition covers EP, History Repeats…, this week. Here is your chance to hear that release, in its entirety, right here (the day they embark on the Summer Slaughter tour). It includes covers of songs by Dehumanized, Napalm Death, Broken Hope, Bolt Thrower, Pestilence, and Cannibal Corpse. Vocalist-guitarist John Gallagher fills us in on the album below. Let us know what you think in the comments.

REVOLVER Dying Fetus have covered Napalm Death and Integrity in the past, but you haven’t done that many covers lately. Why did you decide to do a covers EP?
JOHN GALLAGHER Well we don’t want to build a career on doing covers because I think too many covers can start being cheesy. With History Repeats… the band and I wanted to give our fans something special to hold them over to our next full length due to come out in April 2012 And it’s always good to remain active and record as much as possible because each time we record and visit the studio we learn more about refining our sound.

How did you pick the bands and songs that you covered?
We wanted to do some songs that we have listened to and enjoyed over the years. I have always been a fan of Broken Hope so I wanted to do one of their songs and also to commemorate the passing of Joe Placek [the band's singer who committed suicide last year]. “Gorehog” seemed like a suitable cover because of its bruality and slam. “Unchallenged Hate” from Napalm Death has always been a classic to us and fits with our style so I thought that was a suitable selection. The Dehumanized’s “Fade Into Obscurity” cover demonstrates the sound of the mid ’90s New York Slam genre. We used to play alot of New York gigs with these dudes back in the day and had many good times. “Unleashed Upon Mankind” is just a killer death metal song with a memorable main riff so we thought that would be a ripper. The Cannibal Corpse song was recorded in 2001 for a Cannibal Corpse cover album which never came out so we threw that and the Pestilence song on it as a bonus. The Pestilence song was originally on the War of Attrition CD [Dying Fetus' 2007 album] as a Japanese bonus track.

Did any songs “almost make the cut?”
I wanted to do some more hardcore covers from Blood for Blood, Madball, No Innocent Victim, and 25 ta Life, but we didn’t get a large enough recording budget from Relapse to do them all. So I thought it would be best to just go with some good solid death-metal songs. In the future I might approach a hardcore label to do a hardcore tribute album but it’s just a thought at the moment.

What’s your favorite cover another band has done of a Dying Fetus song?
That’s a good question, I’ve heard some good covers of “Kill Your Mother, Rape Your Dog” and “Grotesque Impalement” but I can’t remember the name of the bands who did them. Just kinda ran into them on YouTube and whatnot. It would be cool to see a glam band do a cover of our joke song “North Forest Trolls of Satan” I bet Steel Panther could do a good job with that.