Live-Metal.Net - Interviews: Gorefest

Their name says it all--Gorefest. Gorefest is a long-running Dutch death metal band that plays death metal they way it used to be played. Chock full of grooves, dynamics and memorable lyrics, their new album, Rise to Ruin (review), is about as brutal and heavy as it gets and makes all these newer genre-bending bands seem almost insignificant after one listen.

Forming in the Netherlands way back in 1989, Gorefest had a strong run of death metal releases before shifting styles and eventually parting ways in 1999. Luckily for the metal world, the band--vocalist/bassist Jan-Chris De Koeijer, guitarist Boudewijn Bonebakker, guitarist Frank Harthoorn and drummer Ed Warby--reunited in 2004 and have released two more albums, returning to their original brutal style of no-nonsense death metal. Jeff Maki of Live-Metal.net talked with Frank Harthoorn about the new album, the band's break-up and reformation, and all things death metal.

Hey Frank, this is Jeff of Live-Metal.net. I believe your new album, Rise to Ruin, is death metal the way death metal is supposed to be—back to basics, strong song structure and it just plain rips. What was the band's mindset when you went to record Rise to Ruin?

Frank Harthoorn: I think we more or less went into this just trying to do what we're good at, and not trying to be anything we're not. And that, basically, is writing the kind of stuff we started out with, and what made us into a band. We've experimented with a lot of different stuff in the past, and while we still use a lot of things we learned from those albums in our current songwriting, we've gotten most of the more outlandish experiments out of our system. That kind of brought us back to writing what this band is best at.

I guess you could say it's death metal, with the sense and sensibility of songwriting we picked up on our late-'90s work.

It's mankind's inevitable rise into an earthbound, self-created hell. Yeah, we're a joyful bunch.

The sample in the opening track “Revolt” is a rather strong political statement, saying that political leaders were drug out onto the streets and shot. Judging by this, you have a strong distaste for current politics in the world. Can you shed a little light on this?

No, I don't think I can. It's JC's creation, and I really don't want to speak for him. Personally, I think it's rather naive to think that by having all political leaders shot, you'd solve everything, or anything. They'd just be replaced by other people with the same interests. I'm sure JC is aware of that as well, but just wanted to let off some steam with those words. It does make for a nice and potent sample though. Works well, it stirs shit up.

We recorded it at Excess Studios in Rotterdam, and JC did his vocals at Tue Madsen's Antfarm in Denmark.

GOREFEST - RISE TO RUIN

Tue wasn't there during the actual recording of the songs, we can take care of those things ourselves. He did come over the first couple of days to set up some drum sounds, since he'd be mixing the whole thing, and wanted to make sure he knew what he'd be working with. He did a great job coaching JC on his vocals though, and his mixing abilities are second to none. I'm glad we still could afford him.

Jacob from Hatesphere lends a few screams on the album, correct? How did that happen?

I think Tue thought it might be cool to have some backing screaming in one or two songs, and since Jacob lives just around the corner from Tue's, he was an easy victim, I guess. Worked out pretty well, I think.

What are the upcoming touring plans for Gorefest? Will there be a U.S. tour?

We just got back from three weeks worth of European touring. A U.S. tour I don't see happening in the next months. We've all got our daytime jobs, and won't be giving them up anytime soon--we're following up on the wise advice of many, many people over the years--and a U.S. tour is not something we could afford at this point in time. We'd love to come over, but if we will, it'll probably be for a week or two, nothing too extensive.

This is now the second album since the band reformed. How is everything going internally and do you see Gorefest staying together well into the future?

Internally, we've never been better, I think. We've all come to our senses a bit, and know what we want, and how we want it. It all makes for a much better appreciation of what we're doing, and what role we're willing to give this band in our lives. In short, we're all enjoying this a lot, and will keep on doing it until the enjoyment fades.

Tell us about the band breaking up and then reforming for those who don't know the entire story.

We broke up, and, after six years, we reformed. There's really not that much to tell about it. Everything has its end, and in '98 we felt we had reached ours. In '04, we had a few drinks, and thought it might be fun to play some songs in the old rehearsal room. We did, had a great time, and now we're two CDs further.

What led to the much-criticized style shift for your albums Soul Survivor and Chapter 13? How pivotal were these albums in the band originally parting ways?

We were just writing what we were into around that time. This was our only band for all of us, so any musical experimenting was going to be done within this band. That's what we did. Lots of people hated, and still hate us for it. That's fine, you can't please everyone, and we certainly never have tried to do so. Pleasing ourselves is difficult enough as it is. It didn't really have anything to do with us breaking up though; we were just tired of each other, to put it mildly. Those albums, and particularly the things we learned from them, HAVE been pivotal in our approach to our music and songwriting. I'd even go as far in saying we could never have written the last two albums without having done either Soul Survivor or Chapter 13. Chapter 13 being, I think for most of us, our favorite pre-split album, as well.

Gorefest is reaching the point where you are becoming true veterans in the death metal scene. I'm sure many bands have cited you as an influence in fact.

Actually, I've only ever seen two or three bands citing us as an influence. And even that was around our second album.

I don't know, the true veterans to me are bands like Celtic Frost, Obituary, Napalm Death, Necrophagia, Entombed, Bolt Thrower, Morbid Angel and such. The bands that inspired us to form our own band, the bands that were already on the road when we were still in school. I could never see ourselves in that same league.

What do you think of the current crop of death metal acts? Which bands stand out right now?

I still swear by the early bands in death metal, like the ones I mentioned before, along with Possessed, Carcass, Carnage, Autopsy, Asphyx, Pestilence and of course Death. I'm not too impressed by more recent developments in DM, though that might have more to do with me being a cantankerous old crackpot. There are exceptions though. I like Torture Killer, Bloodbath, God Among Insects, Vomitory, The Ravenous, Zyklon, and most of Arch Enemy's stuff. Then there's even newer bands like Death Breath, Hail of Bullets or Massive Assault. Mostly bands that don't stare themselves silly on technical prowess, or speed for speed's sake. That stuff just doesn't have enough weight.

Do older people ever give you strange looks when you tell them that you're in a band named “Gorefest”?

Older people give me strange looks when I just walk past them. Besides, where we come from, most people have no idea what the name means anyway. We do get the odd remark from U.K. and U.S. people, but I can't worry about that too much. It might not be the world's best band name, in fact it's probably one of the worst, but at the very least it's catchy and pronounceable. We just see it as a title under which the four of us write and perform our songs. We won't be mistaken for a reggae band, that's for sure.

Not that I'm aware of. Soul Survivor might have sparked some debate, but we were too busy touring to really take notice.

What's the strangest encounter or situation that has ever happened to the band?

Being bombed in Stockholm, Sweden was definitely something we'd never expected.

I think we've said all that's currently on our minds to people who are interested in this band with Rise to Ruin. Try and give it a listen, you might be pleasantly surprised.

Thank you very much for your time Frank. And thanks for flying the flag of true death metal with Rise to Ruin!