Interview with death metal band from Spain - DECAPITATED CHRIST.
Answered Ghorth (guitars) and Cold (bass), thank you!
Translated Petra, thank you!
Questions prepared Jakub Asphyx.
Recenze/review - DECAPITATED CHRIST - Glorious Tyrannizing of Human Rats (2023):
Ave DECAPITATED CHRIST! Greetings to the Spannish underground. I hope everything is fine with you. It should be because this year you have released a fifth long-play full-length album in your band's career. I have to admit it has literally blown my mind. It is dark, energic and as if it cuts by the sharp edge of the knife. I can hear from the record you did a really good job and you added a big portion of the talent, too. How do you perceive the new album in comparison to the previous recordings? Where did you want to move and in what are these two records different?
Ghorth: Ave, Jakub... thanks so much for having us in this interview and horns up, glad our new opus made your ears supurate with blood, pus and dirt!
Well, it’s Metal’s biggest cliché, as always... the last records is always the best because the long years we have been standing in the Metal world have contributed to lead us to this fifth opus. It’s a compendium of all of the experiences we have lived in the history of our band so, it’s a true document on what has going on and where we are now.
We did not want to move anywhere, really... just create a bunch of new anthems representing the band and the current situation where we are... times are more aggressive than ever now... you know, the pandemic, war in Ucraine, all the political correctness shit going on now... you cannot even express your own oppinion right now because otherwise you are being neglected, judged and ignored by the new Weak Snowflake World Order. Honestly, I don’t give a fucking smelly stinky shit if we offend anybody because of their religious, economic, political, sexual or whatever beliefs... as my old friend Bastard of Graveyard always says: „when did metal stop being dangerous“? Fuck this and fuck everything, you all little whiny cocksuckers... instead of listening to metal, you better go to your mommy and ask her to prepare some chocolate and cookies before dressing up in your lousy Winnie The Pooh Pijamas and heading to your little twinkle star cradles in the safety of your daddy’s house!!!! Don’t want your shitty pestilent feelings get hurt!!!!
Cold: Hey Jakub, first of all thanx for the interview. I think this is by far our best recording, even though I still like a lot our previous ones but there's a huge step forward here. Somehow it may be because the album came after a long hiatus and it spawned a bit spontaneously, we didn't record anything stressed or felt a big urge of composing upon a deadline. It just happened when the time was right and sounds a bit angrier and more aggressive to me. Not that we lacked aggression or anger on the other records, but when I listen to „Glorious...“, you can notice a big "middle finger" to nowadays tamed extreme metal scene.
„Glorious Tyrannizing of Human Rats“ includes all attributes of good death. For me personally, it represents the record, which I really like to listen to. How did you produce it? How look the writing process of new material in the case of DECAPITATED CHRIST?
Ghorth: Well, the writing happened actually during the whole Covid-19 pandemic. We got fed up of all that hypocrisy and political correctness going on. So, we started demoing tracks and recording them with Bastard at his own place (Moontower2) and we had the feeling that we still had something to say in today’s putrid world.
Honestly, first thing we thought about was if Decapitated Christ was still relevant in a world where Metal has gone down the drain, with sweetened messages and litlle mellow funny tunes to amuse the general flock. And we decided that maybe yes, we still had something to say here.
Cold:It was during the pandemic lockdown that Ghorth started sending me some ideas and demos. We were bored as fuck and rehearsed at our places. Funny enought we never rehearsed together, got to Moontower when the restrictions lessed a bit and surprinsgly enough we recorded it quite fast. Didn't take much time compared to other records. We went straight to the point!
Also it was great recording with Markus (NalghaLord) for the first time, he joined the band 9 years ago as a live vocalist and finally we have a record with his hellish vocals.
I found out that Javi Bastard is the recording engineer and Dan Swanö is the mastering engineer. I have to confirm that the sound literally kills. It keeps making me turn up the volume on the hi-fi tower. Both gentlemen have given you a sound that is harsh, raw and at the same time dark and animalistic. How did you find working with them and why them? What studio did you record in and how did everything go?
Javi Bastard is one of our oldest friends in this scene. We know each other since our first album we recorded with him at his Moontower Studios back in 2005. We played with Graveyard a couple of killer gigs and also did an awesome tour some years ago so, the choice was more than obvious. He is a hell of a producer and sound engineer besides of a good friend. We all got fatter in these years, lost our hair, got divorced, we eat like pigs, drink, smoke, burp, fart and listen to 80’s heavy metal as well as pretty much all kinds of music... excepting that mysoginist elephant’s crap like „trap“ or „reaggeton“ and all that donkey bray vomited by retarded uneducated gang wannabees who cannot even talk like proper human beings, but burping out senseless words without even knowing how to speak them out. Fucking bunch of pink grandma underwear wearing mentally retarded idiots. So again: choice was more than obvious.
Everything was done at his Moontower Studios and you can feel that all the hate and aggression is still there. Even more so, it has grown by 2000% !!!!!
An integral part and a kind of extra bonus for fans today is the CD. You have released it on F.D.A. Records and it comes with a deadpan cover. It was written by César Valladares Fernández How did you choose the theme and how does it relate to the music on the release?
Ghorth: Cesar is our bassplayer and he is probably the most retarded and sick individual of all of us... this guy is fucking insane... he likes to masturbate and sticking a Staedler pen up his ass while sitting in a boat and fishing in some lost lakes filled with nuclear waste and retarded human scum around the country. That’s where he probably ends up having this sick ideas for covers!!!
Cold: Huh, yeah pretty much that's it, haha. I quit illustrating for bands some time ago, my daily life is way too busy right now, but would feel weird to ask someone else to do the cover artwork. I wanted something different than my usual black and white designs. Back in the day when I designed the first album cover I had no idea of painting, the result (to me) was an amateurish piece of crap. I redesigned the band logo, to match the music, and tought about a full color design that rendered our main themes: Satanic stuff, war, anger towards what mankind have turned into. I think it fits quite well to our music and what the band represents nowadays.
I have been wandering the underground for over thirty years and I still go to Spain for music with certainty. I think we have a similar nature and taste when it comes to metal. I like your bands a lot and I monitor your scene carefully. Maybe I envy you a little, because we only have a few death metal bands that are worth it. How do you explain that death metal are doing so well in your country? How do you perceive your scene, fans, labels?
Ghorth: Probably is has to do because the regular spaniard is a guy filled with hatred and envy. The spaniard hates more than he loves, that’s for sure... and this ill state of mind reflects on the music, of course. And it’s good!!!
Lots of good bands are still very active and pumping pestilence and pus upon mankind: Körgull the Exterminator, Graveyard, Ered, Barbarian Swords, Redimoni, Balmog, Omission, Devotion and the likes. And it better be that way, pal.
So, I guess our country is still healthy musical wise as long as there still are bunches of hateful individuals out there. Plus, we always have been proud and violent and we don’t like ourselves being taught by anybody.
Cold: Even though I'm not a much involved into the scene as I was til some years ago, I think there are really interesting bands that popped out during the last years.
In the last six years death metal gigs are held almost weekly for local underground bands, on the big frame, the big thing is mainstream big cash „black metal“. 90% of the people are not into the underground, and are more interested in posing and looking cool on Instagram.
I don't listen much to new stuff but I would like to recommend the readers some of the most exciting bands from Spain right now: Trollcave, Cruz, Necroracle, Horripilant, Avern, Leprophiliac, Sanctuarium, Jade, Apparition and Orthodoxy.
You play death metal influenced by, among other things, the old school. Today, the band can't avoid comparisons, but I would like to know how the idea to start DECAPITATED CHRIST was born, who was and is your metal idol? Where do you want to move your band? Are you attracted to large foreign festivals, for example, are you willing to go on tour with a more famous band?
Ghorth: Well, we started back in 2005... the scene was boiling at that time. Over the years, lots of bands have softened their sound but still there’s all the old farts throwing fists in the air and raising hell down here like the bands mentioned in my previous answer.
Idols? Come on!!! There’s hundreds to choose: King Diamond, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Saxon, Agent Steel, Black Sabbath, Whitesnake, Camilo Sesto, Rick Astley, Nino Bravo, David Hasselhoff, Rush, Pink Floyd, Genesis, The Police, Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe, Mercyful Fate, Diamond Head, Tygers of Pan Tang, Mekong Delta, Europe, Fates Warning, Queensrÿche, Omen, Frank Sinatra, Hans Zimmer, Helloween, Accept, Iced Earth, Iron Angel, Manowar, Megadeth, Michael Schenker, Scorpions, Ozzy Osbourne, Pretty Maids, Queen, Psychotic Waltz, Riot, Modern Talking, Samantha Fox... too many to mention, pal!!!
Festivals, tours, etc... honestly, no idea... if we get invited to some cool gigs, festivals or whatever, of course we will consider and it would be very cool. But honestly, I’m not loosing my sleep here. If people like it as much as to come and see us live, the better, of course. If not, it does not worry me more than the colour of the shit of my dogs. Honestly speaking now: we all have our lives, our daily jobs, our families and we are all in our late 40’s... we’d love to play live, obviously, but if it does not happen for some reason, it’s perfectly fine. The scene has evolved a lot in the past 3 years: and it has evolved to much worse than it was 10 years ago so...
Cold : Haha, OK, I'm not into Camilo Sesto or cheesy stuff like Ghorth does, sorry. I will avoid naming hundreds of bands, the older I become the more I get back to the classics, but if I would need to mention just 5 bands they would be Motörhead, Mercyful Fate, Carnivore, Autopsy and Bathory I guess.
I have no urge for playing live, we decided not to play in Barcelona pubs for 20 people as we did before, nor tours as they take too much of our free time and we are too busy in our jobs for that. Festivals would be cool, and of course wild gigs like the one we played at Praguein 2015!!!
When I started my blog six years ago, I had a vision that I would try to support bands that are not so much popular, or they are lost in underground. To let the world knows about them. I think I'm doing quite well, at least according to the responses. How do you approach the promotion of your music? Do you rely upon the label or do you send the CDs for various reviews by yourself? For example, I buy albums that I really enjoy. What about you? Are you also fans who often support your colleagues? Do you go to concerts?
Ghorth: We’re all followers of your blog and enjoy reading your reviews, watch your pictures when going to gigs and to see that you still feel that passion that goes beyond the poser attitude lots of wannabees sport today.
Definitely yes!!! We still love attending gigs and we all still buy our music, tshirt, fanzines, etc... We all still dress like in our early 20’s and we still love it. We love to discover new worthy bands, we still like to listen to new albums and support all of our friends... we’re still in touch with a lot of people in the metal world... this is what drives us, right?
Cold:
FDA and Defying Danger take care of everything promotion-wise, they are super professional and that's great cause we are lazy as fuck. We don't even spend any time on our social media profiles, haha, of course we keep in touch with long-time friends of zines and blogs.
About gigs, as I said, I was a bit outta the local scene for a while, lot of stupidity incoming some years ago, metal „tourists“, young „Metal Archives students“ who had no idea bout anything and now they think they are gurus of this or that genre. The percentage of morons on the scene was increasing to the point I needed a time to „detox“ from all that.
On the other hand, I have a lot of responsabilities now and I can't help attending a live show without drinking like a beast, hangovers hit hard on me nowadays haha
I'm currently attending more and more gigs, underground ones, I'm not interested on any big names, even though I keep listening to old bands, when they play on huge crowded venues I skip those gigs.
On the one hand, today the new band has a lot of opportunities to make themselves more known, but on the other hand, there are a huge number of groups and the fans are getting lost in this big metal sea. A lot of people just download mp3s from the internet and instead of to visit the concert they prefer to spit poisonous saliva on Facebook. How do modern technologies affect you as DECAPITATED CHRIST? What do you think about downloading music, google metalists, streaming music, etc.?
Ghorth: Yeah, you’re right on this and I do totally agree. In fact, there are even some idiots out there who write directly to the bands telling them that they just uploaded their latest album for free and they even send the link to the download to the bands. I mean, can you imagine: how fucking retarded of a piece of human shit can you be to act like this? It’s pretty obvious that almost none of us do this to make a living out of death/black metal and that every small help from the supporters/zines/promoters/labels is something huge for every underground band. Why the fukken Christ do you call yourself a supported and then fuck bands doing this?
But on the other hand, again... none of us wants to make a living out of this and probably a couple of hundred downloads won’t affect the economic outcome of this in any way. People who like the music and like bands will probably continue buying albums and spend a decent amount of their money in improving their music collection, right? At least that’s what most of us do, if you are really into the music and really supporting the scene.
Cold: I mentioned that on my last answer, most part of the so-called scene sucks big time right now. Posers and internet warriors everywhere. Goddammit, I even know people who buy records just to post a picture on Instagram or whatever social media platform and never listen to it, just to look cool. The „metal poser race“ is absolute nuts, they spend lots of money on bootleg Tshirts and Discogs to look „true“ but barely support bands. All this makes me puke, man.
I don't think that would affect us, anyway, we don't have a huge fan base, most of our listeners are old farts that probably don't know what Bandcamp is haha
I like to ask the musicians what death metal means to them. How would they define it, whether it is more the philosophy and lifestyle thing for them or "just" relaxation? What does it mean for you? How do you perceive and experience it?
Ghorth: Well, after 35 years listening to music, collecting cd’s, lp’s, ep’s, t-shirts, magazines, etc.. We cannot think in other terms than metal in general. I wouldn’t go that far as separating it into subgenres, because all of us listen do heavy metal, speed, thrash, death, black, etc... right?
Personally, I still am a hard rock and heavy metal freak, and love almost all of the subgenres, but it’s true that certain approaches in life are somehow influenced by the music and lifestyle we have been enjoying for such a long time. In these past 35 years a lot of things have happened, but metal has always been there, no matter what. And our love of playing death metal is still intact after all these years. To us, it’s the most aggressive, brutal, dark and Infernal music there is, and it’s the perfect vehicle to spread our message, our beliefs and our vision.
Cold: For me death, doom and black metal have been an cornerstone in my life since my teens, I have many interests but I wouldn't be able to live without extreme metal and the underground feeling.
I can't think of any other music that means that much to me or makes me pump. I do listen to other genres but as much as I strive to like them the way I like metal, thy just don't click on me the same way.
Of course I'm not one of these guys who go to work like it's Halloween every day and raise horns when they salute the neighbours at the supermarket, I like to keep my „metal dedication“ to myself. Wherever my life leads I'm sure I will keep digging into the underground, may it be buying and listening to music, reading zines or playing metal myself til the end of my days.
Finally, a classic but important question. What is DECAPITATED CHRIST planning in the upcoming months? Where can we see you at the stage?
Ghorth: This will of course depend on the acceptance of this new album and on the promoters. The album was just released a week ago and it’s still a bit soon to talk about gigs or even tours. We’re of course open to play as it is what comes after each new release so, we’ll have our ears open and see if we can do some cool shows soon. Stay tuned!
Cold: Hopefully some gigs or fests out of Spain! I would love to play in Germany, France, Italy or Czech Republic again.
Thank you so much for the interview. I wish a lot of success to the new album and let the number of your fans expand as much as possible. I will look forward to seeing you somewhere live again. I wish you a lot of success both musically and personally. I'm going to push „Glorious Tyrannizing of Human Rats“ into my head again!
Ghorth: Thanks a lot to you for having us here again. It’s always a great pleasure to talk to a die-hard metalhead!!! Push it down the throats of every living being, Jakub!!!!
Cold: Thanks for your questions, buddy, and we hope to meet you again and drink some beers soon at some venue!
Recenze/review - DECAPITATED CHRIST - Glorious Tyrannizing of Human Rats (2023):
Report, foto, video – GRAVEYARD, DECAPITATED CHRIST, BRUTALLY DECEASED – club Modrá Vopice – Prague – 29.6.2015:
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