Doomed Confessionary: Shane Elwell (Excantation)

Excantation is a funeral doom band from San Antonio, Texas, featuring Shane Elwell (Urosepsis, Vaginal Bear Trap, Flesh Consumed, Noisy Neighbors) and Ryan Wilson (Intestinal Disgorge, The Howling Void, Pneuma Hagion, Endless Disease).

The duo dropped their third full-length album »Fleeting In Its Grandeur« on October 4th, 2024 via GS Productions. Written and recorded in the winter of 2023. Recorded at Smoke Break Studios. Mixed and mastered by Mike Garrison at Winter Skies Productions. Physical release by GSP Magazine. Cover artwork by Joseph Wright of Derby.

Can you say a few words about your band?
Excantation is a funeral doom band from San Antonio, Texas, featuring Shane Elwell on vocals, guitar, bass, and drums, and Ryan Wilson on keyboards. Our main inspirations are Mournful Congregation, Esoteric, Abandon, Corrupted, Loss, Hamferd, and Ataraxie. Together, Ryan and I have several other projects, including Pneuma Hagion (blackened death metal), Endless Disease (crusty black metal), Liquid Viscera (goregrind), Intestinal Disgorge (goregrind), and Career Politicians (hardcore punk). Ryan’s other bands include The Howling Void, Ischemic Necrosis, Profundum, and Hordes Of The Morning Star, and my other projects include Noisy Neighbors, Urosepsis, Amateur Podiatry, Enfrenzied, Genitals, Flesh Consumed, Vaginal Bear Trap, and Acid Catheter.

What was the biggest challenge for the band?
The biggest challenge for Excantation is finding new ways to create unique music at such slow tempos. Inspiration tends to strike in bursts that might not happen for years at a time, which explains the time in between releases. It’s also difficult to find label support for such niche music, especially when we are solely a recording band.

What can you be most proud of so far?
I am proudest of our most recent album, »Fleeting In Its Grandeur«. The production on this album sounds exactly how I wanted it to, and the material invokes the emotional response I was aiming for. I believe this is our best material to date.

What was your biggest regret?
My biggest regret is focusing more on music than my personal life or career. As rewarding as creating music can be, it can also feel like a curse at times. Being a musician is isolating at times, and can be taxing to the soul, but it is very hard to stop doing something that you feel like you were born to do.

What was the best concert/tour so far and why?
Although Excantation does not play live, 2 of our other bands (Noisy Neighbors and Intestinal Disgorge) recently played Maryland Death Fest in May of 2024, which has been a dream of mine for more than half my life. Intestinal Disgorge also got to play a sold out show in San Francisco with Mr. Bungle in February of 2020, right before the pandemic.

What was the biggest surprise on the music scene for you?
The biggest surprise in the music scene is something I wish I would have learned sooner; the content or quality of your band matters much less than who you know and network with. A band can simply grease the right axle to get on the best shows, regardless of how unprofessional they are, or how bad the material is. Much like high school, music seems to be more of a popularity contest than a meritocracy.

What is currently in your heavy musical rotation?
Currently, I have been listening to Molested Divinity – »The Primordial«, Vulnus – »Deceitful Entities«, Suffocate Bastard – »Acts Of Contemporary Violence«, The Day Everything Became Nothing – »Brutal«, Cerebral Effusion – »Ominous Flesh Discipline«, Crowbar – »Sonic Excess In Its Purest Form«, Guineapig – »Bacteria«, Morbid Angel – »Covenant«, Pestilence – »Obsideo«, and Mournful Congregation – »The June Frost«.

What was the best advice you’ve ever been given as a musician?
The best advice I have been given is not to change your taste or style to fit someone else’s mold. I create what I like, without regard to what the audience wants to hear. This is important, because you spend your time creating music you enjoy rather than chasing trends that tend to quickly die off. In the end, you have no one to impress but yourself, and no one can ever take away something that you are proud to have made. I’d rather make an album for 3 diehard fans than thousands of people who might passively enjoy a song or two and never listen to your band again.

What are your guilty pleasures?
I wouldn’t call these guilty pleasures, but here is some non-metal music that I enjoy: Steely Dan, Journey, Weather Report, Conway Twitty, George Jones, Keith Whitley, Kool and the Gang, Al Green, Bohren & Der Club of Gore, David Allan Coe, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eagles, Earth Wind & Fire, Grateful Dead, James Taylor, Parliament, and The Doobie Brothers.

Can you say something more about current music scene in San Antonio / Texas?
The music scene in Texas has many great bands, and shows have been better than ever since the end of pandemic restrictions. My only band that regularly plays live is Noisy Neighbors, and we regularly get to play with bands from all over the world.

Where can we see you live this year (concerts/tours)?
Excantation does not play live, but Noisy Neighbors is closing out the year with a show in San Antonio with Pyrexia and Narcotic Wasteland on November 17th, and a show with Cephalotripsy on December 7th in Fort Worth. Noisy Neighbors just finished a new album entitled »Insolvent«, and we are entering the mixing and mastering stages, as well as waiting for artwork by Jasper at Infested Art.

What are your plans for the future as a band?
Excantation just released our most recent album in October of 2024, and will most likely go to the back burner until inspiration strikes to create more funeral doom. There is no time frame on this process, as I believe that you must be in the proper mindset to create certain styles of music. Hopefully another release will follow our most recent album, but even if it doesn’t, I am extremely proud of our catalogue, and the impact it has had on me personally.

How can people best support your band?
The best way to support Excantation is to download our music for free through Bandcamp (excantation.bandcamp.com), and to follow us on Facebook. Please check out all of the projects mentioned throughout this interview, and follow all of our Bandcamp / Instagram / Facebook pages. Streaming our music through any platform, such as spotify, pandora, or apple music, is also extremely helpful, as well as showing our projects to people who you think might enjoy them.

Do you have any message for your listeners?
Thank you to anyone who has ever listened to the music that Ryan and I have created. Creating music is what we were meant to do, and we will never stop being grateful for the opportunity to provide something for an audience to enjoy, no matter how big or small.

Links:
Facebook | Bandcamp | YouTube | Spotify | Apple Music | Deezer

Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well