Be welcomed on the pages of Tales of the Morbid Butchers ’zine! What’s going on in Belgium nowadays?
Hail!
It’s fucking boring with plenty of shit bands, but there also great things coming out. Starting with POSSESSION! The country politic is kind of boring too, and the weather gets boring as winter is coming. The fries are soft inside as they’re crunchy outside. There are many Hungarian trucks on the highway.
Let’s introduce your band’s current line-up and what kind of transformations was in it since the foundation, please!
It has started in 2008 with Sodomaniak (drums) and R. Ironbitch Desecrator (guitars). A bit later in time Sabathan (bass/vocals) came to join the band, and brutal gigs started. A demo came (Deathlike Invasion) then an already cult EP! (Black Speed Terror). T. Exhumator (guitars) came in 2012, and recorded the next EP with the band “Putrid Invokation”. The band toured a lot, gigs with 2 guitars were extreme! In 2015, Sodomaniak left the drumkit and John Berry replaced him. We realized a third EP “Morbid Re-Incantations”; which is way more old school than ever (it includes older songs we never recorded in the past, and a BATHORY cover).
Now the band has a stable line up and our apparitions are always rough, sweat and fucking loud! We are starting a recording process for a first full length album. The title is kept secret, but it will roar 8 tracks of putrid-death-unholy-thrash-black-vomit from the deepest rotten hell.
The band’s logo is a realization of a ruthlessly sick fantasy! I cannot take my eyes off from it! Who made it?
Yeah it’s one of the coolest logos ever made, after DARKTHRONE. It was drawn by the lord of logos: Christophe Szpajdel. The first demo was designed by Elias Tormentor from Chile; he also modified it into a logo that fits more with the artwork. It’s the logo we have today.
Whose idea was the name of the band? I think it gives the cruelty of your music very well.
R.Ironbitch and Sodomaniak were the ones choosing that name back in the time. It had another logo as well.
Your music is a brutal mix of black and thrash metal. We can even say that is a „black/speed terror”. Haha! Which bands influenced you to choose this path? What inspires you?
We’ve been influenced by old German thrashers, Swedish death metal and the purest of the metal made by BATHORY, HELLHAMMER, HOLY TERROR… Ironbitch Desecrator is the main music writer in the band so far. He’s influenced by Swedish death metal, finish black metal and some more, in such a way that each song has 666 different versions before being finished! About texts, Sabathan is influenced by KING DIAMOND.
Nowadays there are many active and great black/death/thrash hordes all over the world, like for example: WITCHING HOUR, NOCTURNAL WITCH, MANZER or even GOSPEL OF THE HORNS and the line is endless. What do you think about the present extreme metal scene? Which bands do you appreciate?
All the band you quoted are all band we respect. Today there are miscellaneous bands in this style; most of them awesome; some just copy paste a style. Bands we appreciate, I could mention HELLISH CROSSFIRE, GRAVEYARD GHOUL, HEXECUTOR, VENEFIXION, EXTIRPATION… Scrolling down the list sucks, so I’d say “and many more!”
And what about the Belgian underground scene? Can we even talkabout „scene” when it comes to your country?
Which bands would you recommend for the Hungarian fanatics? POSSESSION is playing over here in these days from your country. We know them very well already!
Belgium is definitely not the greatest scene nowadays. We’ve had some big deals back in the 80’s. Then the 90’s killed ‘em all, but fortunately some great black metal acts appeared (ENTHRONED with our vocalist Sabathan as figurehead, also ANCIENT RITES).
Today we’ve got some cool bands around: SAQRA’S CULT, GOAT TORMENT, POX, CATARRHAL, BUTCHER, I’d say the biggest today are POSSESSION for the black and EVIL INVADERS for the speed metal.
Belgium had to offer a lot of cultic bands back in the 80’s. I’m thinking bands like ACID, CROSSFIRE, WARHEAD, KILLER or SCAVENGER. Are the young Belgian bands carrying on that flame and heritage which these old bands started? Do you like these bands?
Somehow we hope to keep burning the infernal flame set by CROSSFIRE, ACID,…. We’ve got one song dedicated to all these bands on the first demo “Deathlike Invasion”. It was written by Sodomaniak when he used to worship this first wave of Belgian heavy metal. Our song “Demon” on the first EP is a tribute to a song from BARBARIAN ; very first satanic Belgian band!
There is a TERRORIZER cover on the first two demo, the classic „Dead Shall Rise”. Their genre is far from yours. Why did you choose this song?
We’ve chosen this song because it’s fucking brutal! Sodomaniak wanted to play a cover from that band for a while. Maybe it’s not that far from our style?
Your first EP came out in 2013, called „Black Speed Terror”. Could we consider this title as the band’s arspoetica? Haha!
That’s indeed an anthem somehow. It’s quite intense and easy to stick in your head. It always slays when we play it live. I think the future songs will remain powerful, but they’ll also switch into something darker… In the original version R. Ironbitch was playing the solo; but now on stage both guitarists play a solo simultaneity. Which can now be called a “duo”? It’s quite of an epic “Maidenish” moment!
This material came out on vinyl format only. Why only vinyl? How did this whole thing come about? Who made the cover art?
We wanted to keep it into an old school vibe, it’s why the 2 first Eps came on vinyl. The last one also exists as a cd.
Also, we plan to release a compilation of all the demos/eps on cd format. It might also include some mysterious unrealized track and maybe some live extracts…
How should we imagine you in the studio? Do you usually become an alcohol consuming machine to preserve your music’s authentic atmosphere, or take everything seriously?
For the recording of the latest EP Morbid Re-incantations, it has been very rough drinking indeed. Terrible times, we recorded like retards, drank all nights without a sleep. As now we are recording a full length, we are trying not to drink during the session, but just after that. Then we just pay with a hangover, but we are able to pretend playing some riffs!
I have the same question about your rehearsals. How much those occasions turn into alcoholocausts?
The room is a haunted attic, in Sabathan’s house. As you imagine it has porn posters, mounts of empty beers, and broken drumsticks and spiders everywhere. You can also find old school underground magazines, old ENTHRONED items, bullet belts … About booze, we rarely go over the top, the weekly rehearsal is simply a moment to drink some bottles, and sweat like demons. Egészségedre!!!
How often do you drink alcohol and, do you even have limits? Which is your favorite „liver-sweller” liquid? Haha!
We are usually drinking a lot of beer when we are on tour. Some band members aren’t afraid to drink like hell before and during the show.
We like good Belgian beer, bad beer, whiskey and Gin. But we are open to anything you’ll serve us!
The second strike came out in 2014, which was the „Putrid Invocation” EP. How did the fans welcome this release?
As for Black Speed Terror, it a great feedback of this one. I helped us to reach some shows among great bands. It has been sold correctly as well. It was just hard to keep in touch, and deal with the label…
This and the next release, the „Morbid Re-Incantations” came out by Goat Kult Symphonies. Why did you change label? Wasn’t you satisfied with Demonhood Productions?
We were not very satisfied of Demonhood, and I think he stopped the activities now. Putrid Invokation was made by Goatkult and Gofuckyourself, and Morbid Re-incantations was with Goatkult and Morbid King of Devastation Records. Now we want something bigger, more professional for the full length.
Your EPs released only vinyls, except „Morbid Re-Incantations” because it’s came out on CD as well, but neither released on tape format. What is the reason of this? The „Morbid Re-Incantations” should have been released on tape if I saw it correctly on itsflyer. Why did you cancel that idea after all?
We never talked about a tape here. Since the beginning Morbid… was supposed to come as a LP. We just decided to follow the label’s advices and released a Cd.
The LP has also its “limited version”: with a printed layout, 2 posters.
You guys play a lot of shows. Where did you play till now? Which was your most unforgettable concert?
We had several insane and devilish concerts indeed! In places such as France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Italy, UK … and more. I’d say Poland was quite an awesome show, with crazy maniacs! Anywhere we play it’s great. As we always get a damn feedback from the crowd as we send an intense fucking wall of mayhem on their fuckin’ faces!
I saw you at Black Silesia Fest, in Poland this year, where you massacred the audience! That was an amazing madness! How do you remember of that fucked up night?
Precisely! Poland! We really loved it, crazy audience. Unfortunately we were amputated from a guitarist so you must imagine when the lineup is complete is 666x more destructive! It was an awesome fest also, with a great after party in the finest polish style!
You were going to some places with VIOLENTOR after that fest. How did those parties go?
Our stinky Italian friends, this band really rules, man! It was before Gliwice, we had played in Nurnberg and Prague. Both nights were great with classic alcohol face crushing. Special mention to Nurnberg where our mates from GOATH drowned us in liquor.
You use corpsepaint and sometimes props on the stage. Why is it important to you?
You can see us with black bat eyes on stage. This is not corpsepaint, it’s our real ugly fucking faces. We are the corpses! When we hit the stage we come back from death, our faces turn black and our cocks like brimstone during 50’ of horror.
When will the first full-length come out? Do you have any plans for the future?
We don’t know yet about the album. We finished with songs writing, and even started a recording process with Mersus (GOSPEL OF THE HORNS, ZARATHUSTRA). There’s still a lot of sober work to do but trust me it will open wide the gates of a hellish fucking hell!
We plan to realize a compilation of all the demos/Eps including some bonus (unreleased tracks, live extracts and more). This should come out as a CD, and also as a fancy tape box.
You all also play in different bands. Would you introduce them briefly?
Sabathan plays in a heavy metal band called HORACLE. He also played in many killer (and some worse) bands as you must know!
John Berry has GAE BOLGA (thrash) and BURIAL GROUND (death).
R.I.Desecrator has a secret foggy black metal project in the veins of the purest finish vodka.
And The Exhumator plays in a black’n’roll band called SPERMAFROST and a MOTORHEAD coverband from Lithuania called MURDER ONE.
All the bands quoted before are quite slow lately, and don’t play that much. Slaughtering the Messiah is the real deal today!
As for you guys, what does this metal lifestyle give you which you couldn’t live without? What do you like the most in this whole thing?
Sabathan and John Berry have given their souls to the dark art for many years and the two guitarists are younger and worship the horns too.
What we like the most is the pouring chaos, the hammering whiskey, the aphotic loud riffs, the tormenting guitar solos and the nasty girls wearing our shirts with high heels – stockings – red lipstick. These are the reasons of our crusade.
Is there any subgenre in metal which you really hate? Are there any bands which you want to burn down together with their instruments?
We disapprove Disney metal: Vikings were not sexy, pirates are not wearing kilts (they’re black and have riot guns), and knights were a mafia fighting for the cross. We also dislike all the popular core stuff, which could be called “heavy plastic”.
Do you pay attention to mainstream labels or bands?
Not really, they can suck the balls of the goat.
Do you know Hungarian bands or labels?
AVE TORMENTOR.
These days everything is done with computers. Robots and softwares control the world nearly. Everything is digitalized. What does this speeded up and modernized age bring to the humanity in your opinion? It has got positive side of course, but is it worth while against the negative side?
Without giving an opinion, here’s a short story: Exhumator met recently a guy in Bulgaria that was programmer for virtual reality. This kind of mask with a screen that brings you into a virtual world you can see all around you in 3D, it’s very immersive.
Than man said he has a client in an Asian country that wanted to order plenty of these gadgets. The client asked if it’s possible to design a prototype, a program that would illustrate hell for the user; for some religious purposes on children. Isn’t it fucking scary? Then he wanted to order an unmovable version which would scenery a prison cell…This should be a fresh text for a future song of us.
Thank you to answering my questions! The last words are yours!
Thanks for the interest! We hope to visit and play in Hungary soon, to present our damn bloody album!!!
Interview by Sz.
