Satan's Son or Poppa Bear? Deicide's Glen Benton

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AS THE BASSIST, singer and figurehead of Deicide — one of the longest running and most influential death metal bands of all time — Glen Benton cuts a striking figure, from his imposing glare to the inverted cross that's scarred into his forehead. And for the past 20-plus years, Benton's irritated parents, metalheads, animal lovers, Satanists, bands, ex-wives, record labels, religious fanatics — and pretty much anyone else who's come across his path.

But as it turns out, Benton's also disarmingly funny, strikingly honest and extremely down to earth.

After a prolonged custody battle for his now 7-year-old son, an older and wiser but still witty and wicked Benton is back out on the road with Deicide. Ostensibly, the tour is to support "Till Death Do Us Part," the group's last album for Earache, but Deicide's also riding high with its recent signing to another indie-metal powerhouse label, Century Media.

Express spoke to Benton about the stresses of being in a band, balancing fatherhood and demonic sainthood, the use of Deicide's music as an instrument of torture, and whether he'd go crazy listening to his own music for 12 hours straight.

» EXPRESS: Even though you put out "Till Death Do Us Part" last year, this is the first time Decide's toured for it. Why the delay?
» BENTON: We haven't been touring for the last couple of years because I was going through a really bitter divorce and custody battle the past couple of years. ... I went for custody of my son, which I did win, but I had to take a little hiatus so the courts couldn't use it against me.

» EXPRESS: Did they try to use any of your music against you?
» BENTON: I got a really good attorney, and I told him from the get-go, if this is going to be an issue, let me know and I'll get the ACLU involved. The courts are pretty good about that, I have to say — they tried to introduce T-shirts and crap like that, and tried to use what I do against me, and the judge didn't want to hear it. The facts spoke to themselves.

» EXPRESS: Did you think about ending Deicide during that time?
» BENTON: At that time, I really didn't think I'd be back doing it again. But we took a couple years off, and now we're just doing exclusive shows. I've been doing this for 20 years, and when you play every little town, it kind of cheapens things and can make for bad turnouts. Now we're just hitting major markets and stuff like that. ... Not playing for a while, you miss it. I got to that point where I was missing it . ... I've been keeping the tours down to a couple of weeks. ... You go out for two weeks, and that's just enough time to start hating it ... after a couple weeks of deli trays and love drives. .... Doing four week and six week tours, it's not that productive for myself.

» EXPRESS: You have an older son, too — is he a musician?
» BENTON: He's a guitar player, too. He wants to come out on the road with me. He actually called me about a month ago and got all lippy with me because I wouldn't take his band. I said, "Look, man, you're 17; you have school to finish, your mom's not going to be into this." He said, "You're Glen Benton; you can do whatever you want." I'm like, "The bill's been booked; I can't go adding bands, man." ... He's got a couple more years of growing up before — it's a hard life on the road. People think it's all parties and fun, but it's a lot of work, driving, and it's like living like a carnival worker or somebody in a circus. I always say it's like going on a car ride with mom and dad that's gone horribly wrong. Where you go on a trip for a couple of days — and it just don't stop. In two, four, six weeks, it finally stops, but when you get home you're mentally and physically exhausted. It's totally like a "Vacation" movie — from the dog being tied to the back of the car, you never know what's going to happen. Now, I just keep myself away from all the antics as possible; I don't need the trouble. I just want to go out and entertain the kids and come home. Because I'm 100 percent alcohol and drug free, so I'm not into the partying thing at all. So, me sitting back there looking like an old fart in the backstage area, it's not good for morale. So, I just wait in my hotel room to go out and do my thing.

» EXPRESS: Is it to tough to switch from being a loving daddy to being the Lord God of the Satanic Metal Underworld?
» BENTON: Stephen King writes what Stephen King writes — it doesn't make Stephen King a knuckle-dragging heathen of Satan. It's the same for anyone in the arts — if you write movies or books, or are an artist who draws that kind of stuff, you're expressing your art form, but that doesn't make you bad or define you as a human being. I can sing about what I sing about, and there's a ring of truth to it, but at the same time it's not me as a human being. I don't burn churches or persecute Christians, or do raping and pillaging. It's an art form. Do I look the part? Pfft, yeah. I've always looked the part, ever since I was little kid. I can't see myself working at Checkers or flipping burgers someplace — I don't fit. I just have that look, and that pretty much defines what I do. People look at me as the head of the church — and I'm just Glen. I'm a father; I get up in the morning and take my son to school. I make his lunch. Man, right now I'm doing laundry! I'm not sitting on a throne in the middle of a castle somewhere.

» EXPRESS: How long do you think you'll still be playing extreme music?
» BENTON: I'm 41, and I think I got another 10 good years in me. It just depends. I never thought 20 years or so ago I'd still be doing this. I didn't think I'd be doing it for five years when we put the first album out. I've outlived a lot of musical styles. ... And for some reason, our form of music is still a desired commodity. It's like that movie [says] — they keep pulling me back in. There's no getting out of it; you are who you are. When I come home, I hang up the Glen Benton Deicide hat at the front door, and I come in and be myself, but there's no escaping it.

» EXPRESS: What's the status of your next album?
» BENTON: The new record is already recorded; the only thing left is for me to go in an do vocals and my bass tracks. ... [Drummer and composer] Steve [Asheim] had all that [music] done within about six or seven months of the last record being turned into Earache. He writes stuff quickly. It's a little bit different from what we've done. It's a little less melodic, a little more blast-beat, chaotic-sounding stuff. ... Until I sit down and start writing, to me it's just a bunch of noise until I start separating it with vocal lines and stuff. I have to listen to the stuff over and over and over to figure out how to put the vocal parts on it. ... When I write, I can't go anywhere or do anything. I just sit there in front of my laptop with my headphones on and just write.

» EXPRESS: Finally, what do you think of Deicide's music being used as torture devices?
» BENTON: They say the song 'Fuck Your God' was used. And I've met a lot of military guys, and I get a lot of letters from the guys in Iraq and stuff, and they put that stuff on in their tanks and go blow shit up to my music. I can't imagine you'd be out there listening to Barry Manilow when you're blowing shit up; you're gonna want to listen to stuff that's pretty aggressive. ... Years ago, when Noriega was all holed up in Panama, I hear they blasted 'Dead by Dawn' at the church. And they're not blasting it because it's a great work by one of the great composers of this world; you have to take it for what it's worth — it's irritating. It's just like blasting it at home and mom and dad get pissed off. The song that used to get my old man up in arms was "Pussywhipped" by S.O.D. ... There's certain songs that hit certain nerves, and fortunately for me, my songs have hit certain nerves. ... If you have people who are overly religious — whether they're Muslims or whatever -- well, God is a pretty general word, so it could be their God or anybody's God, and I imagine having that blasted at you for 12 hours straight, that would tend to make me wanna go nuts.

» Jaxx, 6355 Rolling Rd., Springfield, Va.; with Vital Remains, Adrift, Order of Ennead, Wed., Feb. 11, 6 p.m., $23; 703-569-5940.

UPDATE:
Below is a video from the Jaxx concert. A caustic and funny Benton did a Q+A mid-show and discussed the alleged bombing at a club in Sweden, meeting Mayhem's Euronymous, evangelist Bob Larson, and how many times he's burned the cross into his forehead.