Underground death metal legend Kam Lee (BONE GNAWER, DENIAL FIEND, ex-MASSACRE) spoke with Fangoria.com recently about the horror film genre and its impact on his music. Here are a few excerpts from the chat:

Fang: Were you more influenced by horror for the fear factor or for the gore, or was it both?

Lee: "I think it’s a bit of both—the unknown darkness and mystery of classic films and stories, the ominous presence of evil and dark tones were things I always found interesting in both film and literature. But with movies like the original Friday The 13th and Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and Day Of The Dead—all the early Tom Savini effects stuff—that was when the visual/gore aspects hit me. I appreciated the realism that the effects could capture."

Fang: Are you into the occult at all, and if so did you find horror to be the inspiration?

Lee: "I’m personally atheistic, yet I’ve read volumes and volumes on the occult, books on the supernatural and paranormal, theology, ancient civilizations and myths—Greek, Sumerian, Babylonian mythology. A lot of study on angels and demons, and ancient culture. I find there’s an underlining dark tone in all of mankind’s history in both myths and legends.

I like anything to do with monsters, so the Greek myths as well as the Sumerian ones always interest me. I’m more inspired, however, by classic horror fiction writers like H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe more than by the occult. I tend to find the “real occult” stuff to be a bunch of bunk, actually."

Fang: As a youth, did you take any shit for being obsessed with horror from your family, peers, school, etc.?

Lee: "Not at all. My parents let me collect those old Aurora monster models and express my love of horror by putting up posters and pages out of FANGORIA all over my walls. Hell, my dad was the one who taught me to make fake blood with corn syrup and red food dye, and my mom got me the subscription to FANGORIA when it first came out, and I had the first issue with Godzilla on the cover. So my family always understood; ironically, they have less understanding of it now. I guess because they thought I would have grown out of it by now! [Laughs] Sure, my peers thought I was a freak, but I always thought that was a good thing. I’m a horror fan, after all, and aren’t we all just a bunch of freaks anyhow?!

Read more here.