Emerging from Orange County’s fertile underground, Scalp have delivered their most powerful statement yet with NOT WORTHY OF HUMAN COMPASSION, released on July 25 through Closed Casket Activities. This intense, 13-track manifesto—compressed into a relentless 20 minutes—represents the peak of the band’s self-described “West Coast Death Violence” sound, blending death metal, grindcore, d-beat, powerviolence, and hardcore into a unified auditory assault. Below, founding guitarist/vocalist Devan Fuentes discusses the creation and release of the album and much more.
How has the release been going after one week?
Many people are excited about the record, and they love the songs. We’ve been getting a lot of compliments. Of course, a few people say they prefer a previous record, but overall, most people say this is our strongest work. All of these shows and things we’ve been doing around the release have been going really well.
How long have you been working on the tracks for the new album?
Well, there’s one song in there that we’ve been working on for about two-and-a-half years. That’s “ShackleRot.” We had the beginning and the main riff, but then couldn’t figure out where to go with it for the longest time. Nothing felt right. There are songs in there that we wrote in about 20 minutes, just quick, easy, and then one that we’ve been working on for over two years.
Taylor Young does the production work again on this one, correct?
Yeah, that’s right.
What is it that keeps you coming back to that professional relationship?
A lot of his production involves tons of focused and concrete suggestions that, over time, become bigger ideas, like a song ending on a specific beat, for example. He’ll ask us to try it out in a different spot, or ask us to give a pick scratch leading into one song or another, or how a specific riff could be used to fill up some space. He mainly provides excellent guidance on a bunch of little technique approaches that help make the song have more emphasis on what we’re trying to get across.
Not only that, but his amp selection and ability to dial in a tone are really, really impressive. He’s also a complete musician. He knows how to play drums and how to play guitar and bass. He understands music theory. For any musician recording live, when they’re tracking, Taylor has something valuable to offer. He never dismisses himself by saying, “Oh, well, I’m not a singer” or “Oh, well, I’m not a drummer.” He is capable, and he’ll help you navigate each of those roles.
Plus, we know what to expect from each other by now. When we’re in there, a lot of it is just about work. We had a good time, but Taylor’s really good at keeping everything on track and focused. We enjoy working with him.
Zimbardo’s work with the Stanford prison experiment and The Lucifer Effect is key to the album. Could you discuss how Zimbardo’s work influenced this record and highlights aspects of human nature?
Let’s start with the title of the record, Not Worthy of Human Compassion. That’s directly taken from a sentence in the book The Lucifer Effect, written by Philip Zimbardo. In that book, he links the similarities between the Abu Ghraib tortures in 2003 and the Stanford prison experiment of 1971. He describes how the experiment he conducted years ago became a reality, based on the situational factors present in Iraq at the time. He explains that these soldiers were out there in Iraq, basically with no training, given this giant empty, barren, fucked-up facility that was overflowing with piss, feces, and rats. The electricity didn’t work. They were capturing people without knowing whether they were terrorists or not. And they had no training in interrogation.
They didn’t even have enough translators, actually, to conduct the interrogations. So it was just a kind of purposeless, violent, horrible situation where people commit horrific acts in response to the structures they are in. It was an all-encompassing system of dehumanization. Even the guards at Abu Ghraib, during their “days off,” had to stay inside the prison because an active war or insurgency was happening right outside.
Eventually, all the chaos there, the way people coped, and everything that was happening—including the torture and humiliation of prisoners—became overwhelming. There were some CIA incidents where specific individuals were either murdered or tortured to death accidentally, and these events were covered up. Another point to note is that the Department of Justice, about a few months or a year before these things came to light, was basically asked by the Bush Administration and the Military if terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and the Taliban were protected under the Geneva Convention.
Basically, the Department of Justice said no because they’re not officially part of a country and aren’t legally defined as enemy combatants. So, basically, the Geneva Convention doesn’t mean anything.
This allowed them to do anything they wanted to them. And then that was precisely what happened. Zimbardo discusses the situational factors that can lead to misbehavior, often attributing it to someone being a bad person, which is the easiest way to understand it.
What we’re really trying to communicate is that you should keep in mind the situational factors happening in your life. Don’t just think that bad people are out there; people become bad, and bad situations arise.
People are vulnerable. Our minds are only so strong in resisting evil. So that also relates to the fact that all of this is happening and is real. Just talking about it can make you sound like a conspiracy theorist or insane.
Our reality almost feels like some big hallucination. This relates to the messages in the record about madness, conspiracies, and the inability to fully control the opinions, ideas, and propaganda we encounter. Never feel entirely sure that we understand what’s really going on in our reality, whether it’s in our mind or around us.
Are there other themes on the album that you want to make sure people notice? Are there statements you’re trying to emphasize clearly?
Honestly, there’s no real statement, whether it’s ethical or political, that we’re trying to make. This band has always been more about nihilism.
We don’t discuss politics or ethics, nor do we strive for a single, solid consensus on any opinion. We’ve always focused more on making art, establishing a theme, and trying to communicate a feeling or an idea. Feelings and ideas are far more critical than simply sharing your personal opinion on something.
After “Bottomless” ends, there’s a pause, and I’m transported back to 1991, smoking a joint, listening to Nirvana’s Nevermind, discovering the secret track “Endless, Nameless.” Now, in 2025, I finish listening to NOT WORTH OF HUMAN COMPASSION. Feedback fades into silence, then an unlisted cover of Nirvana’s “tourette’s” appears. Talk about the decision to include that song.
You definitely noticed the influence we have from Nirvana. That’s something we haven’t talked about much in interviews or in response to people’s questions. So it’s cool that you recognize it—Some don’t realize it’s “tourette’s” by Nirvana.
It’s worth noting here that “Endless, Nameless” was a significant influence on the ending of our track “BOTTOMLESS.” That song, as well as on a lot of Weekend Nachos tracks, is just super extended with tons of space between each tiny hit. Still, it just makes it sound super tough. We also have other types of influence from Nirvana—They’re why we use a chorus pedal between certain parts. There’s a chorus pedal on the bass, or at the end of “ShackleRot.” We use a lot of chorus and feedback, sometimes between songs, and for certain accents and stuff.
Yeah, Nirvana was huge for me.
I think the decision to go in that direction was when we decided to cover Tourette’s live, which was a significant moment. We chose to do that because it’s not only one of the hardest Nirvana songs, but we also wanted to do a song with a completely different style that would still work for us. Plus, we didn’t want to cover a band that’s just like us or another hardcore metal band.
We wanted to take someone else’s song and genre and make it our own. It turned out to be cool. We played that song on a tour last year in every city, and people really enjoyed it. It was our closing song, and the crowd would just fill up because people were two-stepping.
They’re jumping off the stage. It’s a little release, and it’s fun. We’d say to the crowd, “This is a fun one. Come on up, just jump off the stage. Don’t be scared.”
Weekend Nachos make an appearance on this album. Yes?
Yeah, once. “80AcresofHell”.
Talk to me about your ability to use compositional economy with short tunes to get your point across.
Well, I mean, there are plenty of bands we’ve taken influence from that have that short and punchy approach. My writing style has never been very chorus-verse, chorus-verse, bridge-outro style. I’ve always started with a riff and then felt like, let’s go here. Let’s come back to it much slower.
It’s like a roller coaster, and you can’t stay on a roller coaster forever. We want to get everything out and just finish it. In the end, there might only be two parts in a song if that’s all it needs. The main point is what we’re trying to get to, and we won’t do anything else beyond that.
Do you have plans to do more touring for the rest of 2025 or into 2026?
Yeah. We’re considering a trip to Chicago. We might head to the East Coast, but everything’s still up in the air right now. So, there’s nothing we can make public yet, but we’ll definitely have plans to leave the state.
What’s the biggest obstacle you’ve had to overcome as a band?
Our biggest obstacle is getting out of California, despite having plenty of offers to do so. I mean, like he was saying, getting all the guys together is tough sometimes. When we were younger, it was like, yeah, let’s all meet up for band practice every week. We’ll drink beer, write music, and get some food.
Now we have time to just go through the set. I gotta get home to my kids. So, there have been different obstacles that have kept us from taking the opportunities we’ve had in the past.
We’ve received offers to go all over the world and every part of the country. However, we haven’t been able to accept them, since we can’t do a large run or be out of town for too long. Things are looking better, but that has been our biggest obstacle.
People ask, “Why haven’t you been out of California more?” We’re like, “Because that’s what we can do.” So that’s been our biggest obstacle.
Tell me about something you’re proud of regarding the band or something that you’re satisfied with regarding the band.
Something I’m most proud of with the band is the whole surprise of it—maybe either becoming successful or gaining popularity. I think everyone’s surprised by that. It’s a surprise.
No one writes a demo and goes, yeah, that’s going to be the next fucking Led Zeppelin, dude, right? I KNOW it. Something we’re all really proud of is that, despite being influenced by many bands, we’ve proudly created our own sound.
Have we created our own genre? No. But we’ve crafted something original, and I definitely take pride in that.
Is there anything we haven’t discussed that you want included in the interview or article?
I want to make sure everyone knows that we’re going to be playing CY Fest in March of 2026. It’s a pretty awesome festival in LA. We have EYEHATEGOD, Subhumans, Ghoul, Pig Destroyer, and tons of influential powerviolence that you probably forgot you wanted to see, or are thinking, “Fuck, I can’t miss them.” It’s a mix of metal, punk, grindcore, powerviolence, and doom.
So it’s everything dark, grimy, punk, hardcore, extreme music has to offer, but designed for a festival. I can’t remember if I’ve ever seen anything like it, but it finally has a home, and it’s CY Fest now.
I’m the production manager for that festival. I’m really looking forward to it. Trust me, that festival is going to keep growing after this one.
Band Photo by Oscar Rodrigues / Courtesy of Scalp
