Interview - VOORHEES - No messages, no politics, no advice, just death-metal and gore.

Interview with death metal band from France - VOORHEES.

Answered Chris and Fred, thank you!

Translated Petra, thank you!

Questions prepared Jakub Asphyx.

Recenze/review - VOORHEES - Chapter Two (2020):

https://deadly-storm.blogspot.com/2020/03/recenzereview-voorhees-chapter-two-2020.html

Ave VOORHEES! I haven’t found any interview in the Czech language with you, yet. So please, first introduce the band to our readers who don’t know you. You could start from the early beginnings and describe the whole VOORHEES history. 

Chris: Voorhees was born in April 2017. I had this project in my mind for many years : combining death-metal and old horror movies, like the first death-metal albums such as „Scream Bloody Gore“ or „Slowly We Rot“. Coming back to the roots of this music was the main goal for me. No messages, no politics, no advice, just death-metal and gore. 

Today, Voorhees is Seb on lead guitars, Will on drums & backing vocals, Fred on bass and me on guitar & vocals.

I’m just listening to your new record „Chapter Two“ and I feel like as if I am closed in some tomb together with JUNGLE ROT, BOLT THROWER, MEMORIAM, BODYFARM, GRAVE, ASPHYX. The record has a great dark sound. Where did you record it and how satisfied you are with it? Did you have the "last word" concerning the resulting sound? 

Fred: Well, the album was recorded and mastered by our drummer Will, then it was mastered by Dan Swanö (Edge of Sanity, Bloodbath...). We are totally satisfied with the job they did. We had the last word, but there was nothing to say. 

Chris: Will, our drummer, is a fucking great sound engineer and has a home studio. It was very nice to record our album ourselves with no delay or pressure. We took the time we needed. Will did a great job, and Dan Swanö finalized this record, giving it the old school sound we wanted.

How was the new material for album „Chapter Two“ created? How exactly VOORHEES writes the music? 

Chris : Each member writes music. Sometimes a complete song, sometimes somes riffs. Except for Fred, we work on „Cubase“, it‘s easier to propose songs to each person. Fred prefers to work on „Guitar Pro“, I have 3 or 4 dozens of his files which are on my hard disk !! lol He can write a song a day !!! But we work together on rehearsal to give life to the songs.

„Chapter Two“ has dark cover art. Who is an author? I really like his work. How did you actually choose the idea of the cover and what exactly illustrates? 

Chris : Fabrice ROMO (www.fabriceromo.fr) is the author. He‘s a very good friend. We work with him since the begining of this adventure. He drew the logo, the „Chapter One“ cover, the T-shirts designs, all about Voorhees visuals. We trust him, he‘s a complete member of the band. He‘s our Ed Repka or Dan Seagrave lol. 

Could you reveal us who is an author of the lyrics and what is their background? Where did you take inspiration for certain topics? 

Fred: Chris writes the lyrics. Generally, he writes about horror films from the 1980s, but he is sometimes inspired by serial killers. 

Chris: Yes, horror movies from the 70‘s to the 90‘s are the best movies in my opinion. Hellraiser, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street… VOORHEES does not speak only about „Friday the 13th“ movies. But when I thought about this death-metal project, I wanted a name that could remind people about all this period. I know that this name VOORHEES means nothing to some people but in general people who love old school death-metal know the character of Jason Voorhees. 

I write the lyrics and Fred corrects them. He’s an English teacher, it’s a plus!!!

You play music as old as death metal itself. How do you perceive new directions in the death metal? I mean mixing with death core or technical death metal? Do you have any favourite bands in “modern metal”? 

Fred: I do not listen to „modern“ metal, all the bands I listen to are rather old. 

Chris: Me too. New bands I listen are still bands playing old school death-metal like SKELETAL REMAINS or SENTIENT HORROR, I really love these bands. I am a METALLICA fan since 1984 too. I don‘t like all the „core“ metal excepted the real hardcore such as AGNOSTIC FRONT, TERROR, VERBAL ABUSE or PRO-PAIN even if I don‘t regularly listen to these bands, their music talks to my mind. But my favourite bands remain DEATH, DEICIDE, OBITUARY, ASPHYX or BOLT THROWER (and many many more…) 

Seb also likes bands such as OBSCURA or BEYOND CREATION, and he‘s a great CARCASS fan.

Will likes old school death-metal too and especially Swedish bands but also some american bands like DEATH, DEICIDE & OBITUARY too. As you can see, all musicians are rooted in the old school.

What about VOORHEES and concerts? Do you play a lot? Are you going on tour or you are choosing only bigger festivals? And what about touring over Europe? 

Fred: As we all have a job, we only play at weekends, that's why we can't tour : it would be too complicated to organize. 

Chris: We prefer to play less but better. And we‘re not afraid to travel to play. We‘re looking for nice clubs or festivals (small or big, we don‘t care).

Can you recommend some new albums, which impressed you at the latest time? 

Fred: I recommend „Ballistic Sadistic“ from Annihilator and „Titans of Creation“ from Testament, even if I have not listened to it yet, I'm confident : an album with Steve Di'Giorgio and Gene Hoglan can be nothing but awesome! 

Chris: SENTIENT HORROR „Morbid Realms“. Old school forever !!! 

Do you know and listen to some metal bands from the Czech Republic? 

Fred: I listened to Krabathor, but I don't know if it still exists. Are there any bands you could advise us? 

Chris: I know SURGERY for some months and their music is fucking great !!

We are slowly approaching the end of the interview so I would like to ask one more philosophical question. How would you define the death metal style? What represents this music for you and why did you choose exactly this genre? 

Fred: death metal is a shock I had when I was a teenager : I listened to Iron Maiden, Joe Satriani, Slayer, Kreator, … and then I discovered Cannibal Corpse, Death, Asphyx, Obituary, Carcass … Check the videos of „The End Complete“, „Corporal Jigsore Quandary“ or „Lack of Comprehension“, listen to „I Cum Blood“, you will understand. At the time, it was so huge, each band had its own personality, it was dark, powerful, mysterious, a little frightening, almost dangerous. I don't know if I chose the genre or if the genre chose me. With thrash metal, death metal represents my whole life. 

Chris: I bought my first death-metal album in 1987, it was „Scream Bloody Gore“… it was a fucking revelation !! This music combines all I like in metal. Dark voice, nice music, horror lyrics. I've been listening to hard rock since Hell‘s Bells in 1980, 40 years… And death-metal for 33 years, almost all my life.

What VOORHEES is planning for the next few months? 

Fred: Composing Chapter III and having fun with the band. 

Chris: Having fun with my VOORHEES friends, their families, on stage and in life. Writing Chapter 3. 

Thank you for the interview and I wish you a lot of sold CDs, hundreds of crazy fans and tons of great ideas. 

Thank you very much Jakub for your support. It was a great pleasure to answer your questions, for our first Slovakian interview. We hope one day we will play in your beautiful country.

Stay fuckin‘ brutal !!

https://voorhees.bandcamp.com/album/chapter-two-out-in-march-2020
https://www.facebook.com/voorhees.deathmetal/
https://www.greatdanerecs.com/eshop/web/

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