Answered BLOODPHEMY.
Translated by Duzl, thank you!
Questions prepared Jakub Asphyx.
Recenze/review - BLOODPHEMY - In Cold Blood (2019):
Ave BLOODPHEMY! I'm just listening to your new album, "In Cold Blood," and I think it's really good. How do you see a evolution from previous album? How did you want the album to sound and how satisfied are you with the result?
Hello Jakub, well we had more time to develop our sound this time. From the restart in 2015 we did write and record the Blood Will Tell ep, Bloodline full lenght and now the In Cold Blood album. Meanwhile we did continue playing live and we became a steady band again. We did some prerecordings for this album and entered well prepared the studio. We wanted to have the album a very heavy but clear sound and it worked out very well in the Soundlodge Studio. Yeah, we are very satisfied with the result.
The band's history dates back to 2000. How did the idea of playing death metal come to your mind? Who were your idols? Think back for us please! How it is to be a death metal band in Holland? If I'm not mistaken, you interrupted your activities between 2003 and 2015, what was a reason?
Well it started for me back then when I heard Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath for the first time. It was creepy and dark music with lotst of energy. We were some smoking and drinking youngsters possesed by metal and were hungry for more extreme music and so we found Kreator,Messiah, Napalm Death, Possessed, Carcass and on and on and we thought we can do that also. So we bought us some instruments and started a band. Meanwhile in our city there were more bands which made extreme music and so there was a little scene born. Soon we noticed there were alot of metal bands in Holland and the Dutch scene was and is still very healthy.
I did quit with Bloodphemy because I was to busy with my main band for that time Pleurisy. They did continue for about a year with Quint Meerbeek (nowadays Bodyfarm) but pulled the plug out of Bloodphemy after some shows.
How was the new material created for "In Cold Blood"? And How BLOODPHEMY usually compose new material?
Normally Winfred ( guitars) writes all the material. He sends me the songs along with a click track and so I can write my drum parts on it. Then we enter our rehearsal room and fine tune the songs with the rest of the band and finnish them with the bass and vocals. Quite easy actually
Death metal sometimes forgets about lyrics. What are the lyrics on the new album about and who is their author? Are you trying to convey some message by them?
No there are no deeper messages behind the lyrics. What we try to create is that we crawl into the mind of very distorted persons and describe their actions.
Both Oliver and me wrote for In Cold Blood. On our previous releases our former bassplayer Wicliff did write the lyrics.
The new album is decorated with a great cover. Who is his author and how did you choose the theme?
Bahrull Marta is the artist. I worked with him for my previous band KhaoZ for which he did the covers for 2 albums. At first Wicliff made the album covers for the Blood Will Tell and the Bloodline releases but when he did leave Bloodphemy we had to find another one. I immediately thought of Bahrull. I found this increbible cool artwork and we all agreed that this should be the albumcover. From the beginning of Bloodphemy we always worked with Wilco van Dijen as our steady photographer and he did shoot the awesome photo's which we used in the layout.
You made a big movement with BLOODPHEMY in the sound again. This is exactly the sound which I really like. Strong, readable, dynamic and "combed and dirty". I think it really fits for you. Where did you record and who is signed under the resulting of mix, etc.?
Yeah thanx man. For the ep we were searching around for a good studio to get the sound we had in mind. We first re recorded Blood For Me and asked mr Harris Johns to do a mix and master. This turned out cool but it was a bit too old school for us. Then we found Jörg Uken and he did the ep Blood Will Tell. For Bloodline we recorded the drums also there and the sound became much better. For In Cold Blood we did record the drums there and took our own gear with us. We did learn from the former releases and that is a bit why this sounds much better.
I think "In Cold Blood" would be cool to release on vinyl. Do you think about it? What is your relationship to gramophone records, their sound? Are you a collector?
With this artwork this has to be released on vinyl! I still sometimes buy vinyl but not that often anymore. Ofcourse the sound is much better and the covers are very cool. When I listen to vinyl it's mostly the Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Jimi Hendrix releases for example
How do you perceive contemporary metal? Do you have any favorite bands? I don't know about you, but lately, it seems to me that everyone is playing faster, crazier, incomprehensible. Then you staying under the podium, shaking your head for a while, watching what kind of super musicians they are and then you don't remember anything. After, you come home and play old good Saxon.
I also listen to bands like Origin, Beyond Creation, Necrophagist for example.Awesome music man. I listen to all kinds of death metal.
I was already blown away by the latest Monstrosity album but I just bought the Vltimas album. Man that is a fucking killer release! Check it out.
You have already played in the Czech Republic - in 2017 on METALGATE CZECH DEATHFEST. Do you still remember how you liked the concert? Are you planning some tour with a new album? And if so, will you also visit our country again?
That was a cool show man! We also did Aggressive Music fest in 2016 and this year we will play on the Brezova Metal fest.
We have no tour planned yet although we are busy with it. We will play some other festivals this summer like Fuck the Commerce( Germany), Goat Hell Metalfest(Croatia), Gothoom Metalfest(Slovakia) and Brezova Metalfest (Czech Republic). We love to play in the CZ so if there is interest please contact me.
We are approaching the end so I would try one more philosophical question. How would you define a style called death metal? What does this music mean for you and why did you choose this style?
I don't know how to define death metal actually. This is just the music style I like the most. I can listen to death metal anytime and I am always searching for new bands. I did not choose for this style of music, when I heard bands like Possessed, Infernal Majesty, Morbid Angel etc I was hooked for the rest of my life
Do you watch the scene, do you like new albums? If so, what was last records which got you attention recently?
Yeah as I said before I still buy and listen to death metal. Well check out the Vltimas album!
What about plans for upcoming months?
3 weeks ago we did shoot some material for a few videoclips so are working hard to get them fixed. We are also preparing for the upcoming festivals and meanwhile we are working on new material for our next album.
Thank you for the interview. I wish you good CD sales, hundreds of mad fans and a ton of good ideas.
Thanx to you man for your support and good luck with Deadly Storm!
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