UMBILICUS, the new project featuring drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz (CANNIBAL CORPSE),guitarist Taylor Nordberg (DEICIDE, INHUMAN CONDITION),bassist Vernon Blake (ANARCHUS) and vocalist Brian Stephenson (FORE, OLD JAMES),has released its first single, “Hello Future”. The track is taken from UMBILICUS‘s upcoming debut album, “Path Of 1000 Suns”, due later in the year. The LP was recorded in 2021 at Smoke & Mirrors Productions, and mixed/mastered by Nordberg in 2022.
Stephenson says: “Hello Future! Here we are, we did it! It’s time for the world to hear what we’ve been putting our time and efforts into. We could not be more stoked for this first single and the album! Real down and dirty, simple, straight forward, in-your-face rock ‘n’ roll for the people. It’s been a labor of love on all counts and a real trip from conception to birth. Here it is kicking and screaming in all its glory! Me and my brothers Taylor, Paul and Vern‘s hearts could not be filled with more joy for you all to experience this with us. We are UMBILICUS and we play rock ‘n’ roll. Dig it! Much love and peace to you all past, present, and future!”
Regarding how UMBILICUS came together, Mazurkiewicz told Extreminal in a 2021 interview: “20 years ago when [Jack Owen] was still in [CANNIBAL CORPSE], literally 20 years ago, he and I started a side project and we wrote some original songs and we played two shows here in Tampa in a small bar. The name of the band was PATH OF MAN. And we wrote about 15 songs, we made a couple of demo tapes. But we didn’t really do anything with it. We played two shows and then the band fell apart. It was three of us. We had a singer, another friend of ours, a friend of mine, Vernon Blake. That was 20 years ago. It lasted a year maybe. [It was] a lot of fun and [then it] fell apart. Right around May or June [of 2020], I said, ‘You know what? Now is the time to [do it] if I wanna do this again. Now is the time to do it because CANNIBAL CORPSE is finished recording the new record.’ I had some time on my hands. So I called my friend Vern who played bass on that project and I said, ‘Hey, you wanna start a project back up again? Let’s do this.'”
As for the musical direction of UMBILICUS, Paul said: “[It is] a total kind of hard rock project. More of a rock and roll, hard rock kind of stuff. Stuff that I was grew up with — the late ’60s, early ’70s kinda stuff.”
On the topic of how he found the other musicians for UMBILICUS, Paul said: “Jack wasn’t gonna get involved in this. He doesn’t live in Florida anymore, so we had to start fresh. We’re, like, ‘Let’s start fresh,’ Vern and I. ‘Let’s find a guitar player.’ And we found a guitar player. He’s the guitar player that plays in THE ABSENCE right now and INHUMAN CONDITION. They just released a CD, a smaller band, but his name is Taylor Nordberg. He is playing the guitar with us right now. We’re trying to make this project go a little farther than we did the last one.”
Mazurkiewicz went on to say that UMBILICUS had “10 songs written. Our plan is to get this music out to the masses,” he said. “We definitely wanna get it known. We wanna get something out there to see what can happen.”
When UMBILICUS‘s formation was first announced last December, Mazurkiewicz said in a statement: “UMBILICUS was formed in the summer of 2020 and driven by our love of rock and roll from the late ’60s, ’70s and early ’80s.
“I’ve been listening to well-known bands like GRAND FUNK [RAILROAD], BAD COMPANY and STEPPENWOLF and not-so-well-known bands like SIR LORD BALTIMORE and LUCIFER’S FRIEND for the last 20 years or so now. The more I listened to these bands, the more I wanted to play music like this. It is just so much fun to sit back and groove out and play by complete feel without beating my body down. To just play some pure hard rock!
“We composed 10 very cool songs throughout 2020 but the one piece of the puzzle was missing: an awesome voice to tie it all together. Enter Brian Stephenson! An amazing vocalist and lyricist that completed the lineup!
“I am so proud of what we have written and I can’t wait for the world to hear what we have to offer!”
UMBILICUS is:
Brian Stephenson – vocals
Paul Mazurkiewicz – drums
Vernon Blake – bass
Taylor Nordberg – guitar
Band photo by Deidra Kling