Interview with grind death metal band from Slovakia - ABORTION.
Answered Lepra.
Translated by Markéta, thank you!
Recenze/review - ABORTION - All You Need is Hate (2017)
Translated by Markéta, thank you!
Recenze/review - ABORTION - All You Need is Hate (2017)
Ave ABORTION! You have recently released your new album „All You Need is Hate“. I am listening to it right now and I think to myself that this is how the real death/grind crust metal should sound like. How did you compose your new songs? Who is the author of your music? I am always interested in how a band compose. Who brings the riffs, who has the last word about everything and who is always unsatisfied with the results? How do ABORTION compose?
Lepra: Thank you for those kind words. During years we have changed the process many times. But since the time our guitar player Libor has had his own studio Vomitor sound the recording is so much easier. Just imagine that we had to rehears through the whole year the new songs, then we went to a studio which was very expensive and we had to pay for each hour. So we just had to work as hard as we could no matter in what mood we were or how tired we were. And now, Libor just goes to the rehearsal room, break up his packs and we go for it. This is how we have been doing it since we have had our new drummer Míra. Our music is composed like this – everyone brings ideas (riffs) and we just work on it and put it into one piece. Miro plays his version on the drums. The advantage is that when something does not go well, Libor is able to work on it and fix it. There were times when we recorded something and we find an error at home, so that was not fun. The new album was done with 90% of my riffs and the rest was Libor. Now we have our new guitarist Ondra so he also puts something else in it.
The new album was released in edition. I can see that you worked really hard on the cover. Who did the graphics for your new album and who is the author of the cover? From how many works were you choosing and why did you chose the black and white one? Have you thought about vinyl?
Lepra: Juro Hariň (Slovak Metal army) worked on our graphics but our vinyl are mostly done by Halbi (2scum Grind). And he will also do a vinyl version of “All You Need is Hate” which will be graphically different (but the motive will stay the same). It should be released at the beginning of 2018 in cooperation with like 6 labels from all around the world. The cover was drawn by Radek (the drums, ex-Squash Bowels, Neuropathia, The Dead Goats). Well and why is it black and white – because I really like the BW graphics.
The first thing which surprised me was the sound of the new album – it is cold, breakthrough, raw and animal at the same time. Where did you record it? How did the process go? How long did you recorded and who worked on the final sound?
Lepra: As I said before we recorded in our guitarist Libor´s VOMITOR SOUND studio. But I have to clear something up – it is not a classic studio in a house but it is a studio on wheels. So the studio comes to you and this is how he recorded many bands in Slovakia. But the recording was difficult. We recorded from December 2016 to the autumn 2017. It seemed that all recording Gods were against this album. There were so many factors – technical errors or time-consuming activities and also Libor was very desperate about all of this that he just wanted to delete the recording. But luckily he did not because he is a very strong magician in case of the sound, just like Gandalf the White. So in the end he succeed and brought us this version and we are all very satisfied with it. I think it is different from the previous album “Konvert” and most importantly the bass is different.
Frequently, the lyrics in grind and death metal are underestimated. What are the lyrics on the new album “All You Need is Hate” about? Do you think that lyrics are important?
Lepra: We recorded our first 6 album in English but then it hit me that it does not make any sense to worry about the lyrics when no one understand them. So I started to sing in Slovak so people could understand me. We will probably continue in this system. Take a look on Scandinavian bands they do not care about that and they sing in their native language and they do not put a translation in their booklets. Also Spanish bands. So why should people have a problem about Slovak? What are our texts about? The older we get the more are our text about our lives, feelings and experiences. The title of the album “All You Need is Hate” is a pun and a parody on the hippie hymn by Beatles “All You Need is Love”. Look on this world, how does it look like. People just want hate and snare. In many countries are in the most important places demagogues that only spread hate but they have no idea how to repair roads. They do not have any manuals, no solutions, nothing, they do not know anything they just spread the hate and they just want to steal as much money as they can and enjoy their 15 minutes of fame. You know, when you are nothing in life and you do not know how to succeed in normal real job and craft, go to the government or go to the Church. There will always be some percentage of people who will rely on you then.
When I look at your work, you have gone a long way. I can tell that you work on your skills as a band. How often does ABORTION rehears? Are you a band which rehears regularly or are you more punk and you leave it free?
Lepra: Well, it depends. Sometimes we just meet at concerts but sometimes for example when there is a new member Ondra (guitarist) we rehears every week. Before that we were in the rehearsal room at least two times a week and then once a week. But when you are getting older and have a family, difficult job, it is getting more difficult to work on it. Our band will celebrate its 30th anniversary in two years so sometimes it is good to just slow down, right?
Your music is influenced by classic grind and Nordic, mostly Swedish, bands who played the raw death metal in the 90s. Do you still listen to them now? Do you have any idols who made you play grind/death metal?
Lepra: Well, about the influence it is different. I grew up on the early work by EARACHE RECORDS. But that is not that uncommon with people in my age. I still listen to death metal, thrash, grincore, HC, punk, Crust, Noise and I enjoy discovering new unknown bands, unknown sounds. And other band members have different idols, it makes sense because they are 10 years younger than me. Those bands are now funny more than interesting for those guys. They do not like the inaccuracies there, the imperfection in the sound, the rawness and I have been fascinated by that through my whole life! I cannot tell what influenced us because there is so much. Libor grew up on the mechanically perfect music like FEAR FACTORY, Miro (drums) listened to more experimental grind and death metal and our new guitarist Ondro is a fan of the maddest music out there.
You have been on this scene for a while now, you go on concerts and you are a very active band. Are you sometimes sick of each other? I cannot really imagine a group of guys who are together all the time. Do you sometimes just go on a beer? Just to talk? And what about families? Your partners have to be very patient with you.
Lepra: I know that a band and relationships do not go together. I am divorced and the other guys have not got married yet just in case. It is true that we all have our own relationships, our partners have to get used to the fact that we have this hobby. We do not get sick of each other we rather enjoy our company. I follow the rule – better less but in quality. We do not have that many concerts and we do not play on every concerts and every festival. We do not need to prove anything, so we just enjoy it.
People often forget about people who make a band going and they help it. Drivers, organizers, etc. Do you have someone around you who you want to thank to? How many people are there in ABORTION?
Lepra: Well, our partners but we do not have any team. We do everything by ourselves in case of concerts and everything around it. This is the best way because you cannot be mad at someone else when something goes wrong. In case of releasing and label, there are more people. But we try to do everything “by ourselves”.
You are from Nitra which is quite far from the “main” events in Bratislava or Prague. I often see that Slovak bands do not play in the Czech Republic very often and Czech bands do not really play in our country. Well, just going through the half of the republic when there is only a few people on the concert. That is not fun at all. But Poland is closer to you. Where is the best place to play for your, where are the best fans and where do you always like to return? What about you and abroad concerts?
Lepra: you will not believe but we like to play in the Czech Republic but we play there 70% of our concerts. We play there so often that German people think that we are a Czech band because 3 of our albums were released by the label Obscene Productions. At the beginning, we did not have a chance to just jump into a car and drive to a concert. We went by buses or trains. And that was very difficult because when you missed the last bus you just slept with your guitar on a train station. It was also not common to receive money for the journey. Also the food was not common for bands. Bands were always the last in the concert chain. The first people who ate was the sound master, people, organizers and the last food was split among 6 bands. Haha, there are some places where this is happening now. You talked about Poland but we have never played there, we had our European tour and we played in Russia, Romania, and Hungary but never in Poland. There is a lot of our friends, I will tell you honestly that there is nothing which attracts us.
In summer, I saw you perform on the great NICE TO EAT YOU festival in Libchava. I admit that you totally smashed me. How did you enjoy the festival? What did you thing about the fans?
Lepra: Well, we were there like a shit on a cake. This festival is focused on slam and tupa tupa and other music but Vláďa is our friend so he wanted us to go there and it is also good from time to time to play on a different festival. And reactions? Most of the fans had already seen us like a thousand times before but those who saw us for the first time said something like “Finally something else…!” hahaha. It is a great festival in a great and nice town. Continue with this work Vláďa!
What are ABORTION´s plans for the next few months? Will you play a concert in the Czech Republic? Do you want to do a tour to follow the album?
Lepra: well, we play in the Czech Republic on 21st of January in Šumperk in H Club and I think that we play in Brno on the 20th of April in Kabinet Múz on the Power Grindcore festival. We might do some weekend session with our German friends PER CAPITA. In 2018 we should have the vinyl of “All You Need is Hate” and now at the end of the year we are recording some songs for the split 7”EP with PER CAPITA and there should be a released of 5”EP with your friends SEDEM MINÚT STRACHU.
Thank you so much for the interview. I wish your new album a great sell and in case of your personal life I wish you the best. And I am looking forward to see you on some concerts!
Thank you and we hope we will see each other soon!
Recenze/review - ABORTION - All You Need is Hate (2017)
Recenze/review - ABORTION - All You Need is Hate (2017)
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