Interviews

John Gallagher – Dying Fetus 'It Did Well For Us. We Want To Thank South Park For That'

Nov 26, 2025

8 min read

Death metal legends, Dying Fetus are returning to Australia this December with 200 Stab Wounds, it will be a strong, last minute contender for the heaviest and most ferocious tour of the year.

They’re long overdue for an Australian tour, the last time Dying Fetus were here was twelve years ago. They’ll bring two albums worth of new material with songs from 2017’s Wrong One to Fuck With and 2023’s Make Them Beg For Death ready to make their live debuts on Australian soil.

‍Wall Of Sound spoke with founder, driving force and vocalist/guitarist John Gallagher. The Australian tour are their last shows of the year and wraps up in Brisbane on Sunday December 14th. Gallagher’s excited to come to Australia with his wife - who is also the tour manager - and spend a few extra days going to beaches and getting over the jet lag.

‍“We haven't spent much time, just enjoying the land and the sites, so kind of excited for that,” Gallagher shares over Zoom from Virginia. He’s on a short break after finishing their North American tour and will head off after this interview for band practice to prepare for this upcoming Australian tour.

‍“That's a big part of this man, life experience and what have you and we’re just really grateful that we can do such things. It's like a paid vacation kind of, right? So I'm blessed to have this opportunity, man.

We're looking forward to that and the shows of course, I know the shows have been selling well and we're hyped up.

We're stoked up for that. Yeah, we got a good thing going.

‍“It took us a while to come back, it was just to get the proper deal, you know, because the long flight, the logistics. Once you come over once or twice you're like ‘oh I don't want to come back unless we get that kind of like good deal’. Again, it's not about money, but you do have to make it all worth it, you know? Things have picked up for us in the states and then it kind of made it easier just for us to tour around here, concentrate around here because it's not so arduous going over there in a flight situation.

So that was part of like why it took so long. But hey, now we got a good thing going.

It's a different time, different era and we're just excited about coming.”

‍Dying Fetus released their first new music since 2023’s Make Them Beg For Death in the form of new single ‘Into The Cesspool’. It was a six year wait between albums until Make Them Beg For Death was released, so to receive a new standalone single this soon after a full release is an unexpected blessing.

‍“It was something our manager was giving us shit [about], you know basically, ‘you better get something else out’, you know, not to say I didn't want to do it,” Gallagher chuckles.

‍“It was just kind of like yeah let's get a single out. It can eventually work its way on to physical. Which I know it's going to be like a vinyl issue and then also maybe it'll make its way onto the record in the future, but it is a bit of a standalone single just because yes, it takes its time. We want to make it right. It's better maybe to spend time with something and make sure it's a banger as opposed to just kind of winging it and kind of just making it happen and hoping that it all kind of works out. Like I know there's some bands maybe that go in the studio. They write about three or four songs and then they write the rest, like half a record there. Which may turn out well, you never know, it's a gamble, sort of I guess. But there are advantages to getting records out in like a timely fashion of course. Managers like this, record labels like it, it keeps that flow.

‍“But then it's like for us, it's mostly me writing the stuff. Some bands have five or six members and they're all writing and contributing. Every situation, every band has a different scenario, right? You know, with the behind the scenes and the creative process…

With Dying Fetus it's a little more on my shoulders, which is fine but then it takes me a while you know. Not to say the other guys don't contribute but it's mostly on me.

Which I've signed up for that, it’s not like I'm bitching about that now, it's fine. But when you have less of a crew, it just takes more time.”

With this new single done and the first song of a new era released into the world, Gallagher shares that he is beginning to specifically form ideas for a new album.

‍“I have some really good banging riffs and it's like I'm waiting for those next, those partners to come in because sometimes you write a song and you have a couple of banging riffs and then the other songs don't kind of gel with that and it kind of makes the song like sort of average. Whereas if you were like to wait to make sure like all the riffs are like top notch. Then you have the winning recipe, right?

‍“So that's kind of where I'm at, you know, like I have a lot of unfinished ideas going. But they’re really strong ideas at the same time. That's kind of the way it is. It's always been that way even since the beginning you know, like it just takes time to cultivate these, to let it organically process, or some bullshit.

‍“I’ve read things like, Dimebag Darrell, you know, back in the day, like he would kind of laugh at people that are talking like myself and it's like, ‘why the fuck does it take so long. I can write an album with my brother in like fifteen minutes’ or whatever it was. I think they wrote one of those albums; I'm not a huge Pantera fan, but I knew that they wrote material quickly and they had that chemistry, maybe because they're brothers too. They can get in that room and just like enjoy themselves and just bang it out. But as I said before, every scenario is different, you know. My brother's a chef, he didn't want to do this shit.

‍“But before I sign my name to it, I know it has to be good. I just don't want to release any old thing out there. It'll always be a good album as long as I have half a brain left.”

In one of the most unexpected crossover moments, Dying Fetus’ song ‘Second Skin’ appeared in the South Park episode ‘Band In China’. South Park are renowned for putting their episodes together in the eleventh hour and Gallagher was just as surprised as their fans were to see his guttural screams come out of Stan Marsh’s mouth.

‍“No, that was a complete surprise. Again, talking about the vacation stuff. I was with my wife in Greece and got the news of that randomly. I was just like ‘huh?’ It was like a thunderstorm in the middle of the night over there and I get the text like ‘what the fuck, are we on South Park? Oh killer, great news.’ Made the vacation even that much better, I was in a very positive mood.

‍“It did well for us.

We're selling shirts because of that, you know, like a lot of these younger generation fans or whatever, they're coming out and a lot of them have mentioned, ‘we discovered your band through South Park’. It's done well for us.

We want to thank South Park for that, of course and maybe they'll use us again. Please , get a hold of us again and we'll do a full episode. I don't know.”

Interview by Thomas Jackson @thomasjacksonmedia

Dying Fetus kick off their Aussie assault next week on December 5th. Tickets here