uses this term. Who came up with it?
We came up with the term ourselves when we were discussing what kind of
sound and attitude we had as a band, because we noticed a lot of people
seemed to have a hard time to describe our sound... We´re not a pure
hardcore band musically, nor are we a metal band at all... and we´re
definitely not a "metalcore" band. I´ve seen the term PUNKMETAL being used
before in old magazines when people tried to describe the sound of bands
like the Cro-Mags and Integrity, bands that have influenced us a lot. What
we try to do is fuse the anger, attititude and energy of harcore punk with
the heaviness, darkness and brutality of metal, so that is why we thought
the term PUNKMETAL was fitting!
In contrary to the term you have a heavy hardcore base in your sound.
Which bands are your main influence? What do you think of today´s HC-scene
in contrast to the old scene from the end 80´s?
We definitely have a lot of hardcore in our sound, and we are all hardcore
kids who have been around for quite a while in this scene. Some of the bands
that have influenced us are bands like Integrity, Ringworm, Entombed, Celtic
Frost, Black Flag, Cro-Mags, Leeway, Slayer and many more actually. I wasn´t
around in the late 80´s as I´m only 25 years old, but I love a lot of bands
from that era of hardcore. However, there are a lot of great true hardcore
bands around now too, like Dead Stop, Justice, Restless Youth, Violent
Minds, Set To Explode, Iron Boots etc so hardcore is definitely in good
shape in 2006.
Why did you choose "Into Oblivion" as the title of your new album?
We picked "Into Oblivion" as the title because we liked the way it sounded
and also because of the whole feeling describes the vibe of album well.
What are the lyrics about? Is it somehow a concept-album?
It is definitely not a concept album, but a lot of the songs deal with
themes that go together... that´s because the lyrics are all based on my
experiences in life, what I see in the world around me and things that go on
in my every day life... that´s what inspires me. It´s honest, raw emotion
translated into lyrics. Some of the things the lyrics deal with are not
being afraid to be who you want to be, despite what the outcrowd thinks or
what you are expected to do, the struggle for true individuality and
independent thinking, overcoming obstacles and darker days in life, the
importance of honesty, passion and vigor and more.
Where did you record "Into Oblivion”? Are you satisfied with the sound? I think it has
a sound similar to the "Lowest Of The Low" EP by Terror... was that intentional?
We recorded at CCR Studio in Zulte, Belgium. The engineer there, Kris, is an
awesome dude with great ears and a lot of drive. He has worked with a
variety of bands, from Aborted´s death metal to Fifty Foot Combo´s surfrock.
Our friend Vince from the band Amen Ra was there to produce the whole thing
and he also flew to America to mix our recordings at God City Studio with
Kurt Ballou from Converge, who has worked with a lot of great bands too. The
sound was not inspired by Terror´s "Lowest Of The Low", even though I think
that is a great sounding record. I know that record was recorded at Mars
Studio in Cleveland, where also Integrity and Ringworm recorded so I can
kinda see how you link that record´s sound to ours. We wanted to go for a
raw, crushing, energetic and "real" sound, that would sound like we sound
live. We didn´t want a dry and polished sounding record, and I think we
succeeded so we are really happy with how the record sounds.
Did you enter the studio having all songs complete?
Nearly everything was written and finished when we entered the studio, I
believe we only needed to work out the ending of "Lost Among The Lost".
Knowing your songs well and rehearsing them over and over really helps a lot
if you want to save time while recording.
How does songwriting takes place? Do you jam together at the rehearsal
room or does everybody works for his own at home?
Our guitarist Cedric plays guitar nearly all the time and most of the time
he´ll come to rehearsal with a bunch of new riffs or half a song and we´ll
work on the song together. Everyone in the band has their input. Sometimes
we finish a new song straight away, and sometimes it´ll take us months to
rearrange a song and work on it until it´s finished, like the song "Stakes
Is High" on our new CD.
You will tour Europe with Doomriders pretty soon. What do you expect of
the tour? Is there a US-tour planned?
Yes, we are excited to hit the road again. We all love Doomriders and I´m
looking forward to seeing them every day for 2 weeks. I expect the tour to
be a lot of fun and hopefully it´ll expose to a lot of people who haven´t
heard or seen us before. It´ll be a Punkmetal Crusade throughout Europe.
"Into Oblivion" will be released in March in the US by Deathwish and in
Japan by Alliance Trax so we hope to tour both those places later on this
year too. No solid plans yet but we´re working on it.
How many shows did you play so far? Which had been your best one,
personally speaking?
I don´t really keep track but I think we´ve probably played around 250 shows
so far in the nearly 3 years that we´ve been playing live. My favourite
shows so far: Light The Fuse Fest 2005 in Hengelo, Holland, the record
release show for "Into Oblibion" in our hometown Gent a month ago, Ninja
Fest in October 2004 in London and our show with Converge in Hasselt,
Belgium in March 2005.
After a guy died after a wall of death at the Pressure Fest last year, the
HC-scene got a lot of attention by the media, escpecially the pit with wall
of death, crowdsurfing etc. What do you think of it? Do you accept and
welcome crowdsurfer and a heavy pit?
I thought the guy at Pressure Fest died because of heart failure? [Yeah, but do the media care about the difference? - lh] But you´re right, every time something like that happens it´s all over the news and the same old discussions re-appear. I don´t mind people dancing hard and stage diving cause after all it´s energetic music that feeds off the crowd response and participation. When you´re playing live and kids are going nuts, singing along and stage diving that is the best shit there is you know... as long as people use their heads and respect everyone else, there´s no problem. A couple of bruises have never killed anyone.
I´m always impressed by the active scene in Belgium. Such a small
country having such an active scene is awesome. Do you have a explanation
for it?
I think the fact that Belgium is such a small country that easily gets
overlooked also kinda motivates people to get off their asses and do good
bands. Other than that, the cool thing here is that everyone does their own
thing and works hard for their band. We´ve got a variety of bands that do
really well, from the early 80´s styled hardcore Dead Stop brings, to the
heavy, doomy post hardcore Amen Ra does. There´s a lot of shows and due to
the high quality of the bands, people like going to shows to see them play.
Do the bands in Belgium work together or is there a lot competition?
Of course not everyone is friends with everyone else, and I think seeing
other bands do well and tour and put out good records stimulates people to
work hard for their own band too, so there´s a little competition if you
look at it that way. Generally though, most people get along well and we
play a lot of shows with a lot of bands with various styles.
Will you records another split EP this year? Which band would be your
favourite partner for it?
I don´t think we´ll be doing a split EP this year, maybe an EP, we don´t
know yet. If we would do a split EP however, I´d like to do it with either
Justice or Slayer!
And some final words?
Thanks for the interview. Stay punk. Support independent and underground
music, be it hardcore or metal. Check www.riseandfall.org for showdates and
news.
