22/09/2015 11:22
Interview Eternal Mortification
By Bonno Zwaan
⦁ You’ve just released your first demo/ep. How does it feel to present your music to the outer world?
It feels great! It sound’s a bit joking, but I’ve always felt that death metal was dying in some sort of way, so it feels good to bring it back!
⦁ So when did EM began the journey in the Dutch metalscene?
Eternal Mortification’s journey began at Baroeg Open Air 2014, me and Bob had just met each other and we started noticing that we shared the love and passion for bands like Gorefest, Dissect and many others. We began talking about playing in a band (neither of us had played in a band before) and so we decided to start a band!
⦁ You guys are young and ambitious, but how are you going to combine gigs and recording with school or jobs that you all have (I assume)?
We are indeed occupied with school/jobs but we try to get as much time in the band as we possibly can.
At the moment we’re doing this for fun, but we don’t know where this road will take us yet. If we can eventually make a living out of this, we will make this our full-time job (this doesn’t mean that we’re in it for the money, but it would be really cool if we could make this our job).
⦁ From the sound of EM I can figure it out that there are a lot of influences of early Gorefest and Dissect. Is this the sound you all are looking for or are there going to be a lot of other influences?
We’re not trying to sound exactly like a band, but it is the main focus of the band to keep it old school. We’re lucky enough to have a lot of different influences, Bob for example is a huge fan of black metal, while I’m a big Dio fan, this means that we’ve got an enormous range of influences and styles to choose from. Combine those and add a teaspoon of osdm and you get the music we write!
⦁ The biggest places in the Netherlands where you have to be for metal are Tilburg and Amsterdam, how is the metalscene in Rotterdam?
The metalscene in Rotterdam is more alive than you’d expect it to be. Sure, in Amsterdam you’ve got the Ziggodome, Heineken Music Hall and Melkweg, but in Rotterdam we’ve got Baroeg! It might not be as well known as the ones mentioned before, but it is there, and it is slowly bringing back the metal into Rotterdam and since we are stationed in Rotterdam, we try to help as much as possible.
⦁ There was a lot of controversy about the artwork of the demo/ep you’ve released, why is that?
About the artwork.. There were quite some people that thought we’d just got it from Google or something like that and so they thought we were lame for doing so, but that actually isn’t the case.
Our good friend and producer Arco actually purchased the rights for this piece of artwork for us to use, since we were in quite a hurry (we had to send it in to enter the Battle 4 BOA) and weren’t able to get someone else to make a completely original piece of art.
So, one last time; We are authorized to use this artwork, it isn’t just some random picture found on Google, it is ours.
⦁ Are there current Dutch (underground) bands that you like to see live and hear on cd/vinyl?
There are a couple of bands indeed, Shade of Hatred for example. We’ve had 2 shows with these guys and they’re amazing! They’re a bunch of great guys!
Deamension is another band which I’d like to see and hear live and I want to give a shoutout to Burning Hatred. These guys have been amazingly supportive and they’re a great band as well!
⦁ Last question, what is the next release going to sound? More like the demo/ep or a whole different sound?
The next release might possibly be a full-length and it will have a similar sound, but with much more groovy and thrashy riffs.
We’re in the midst of writing songs for the album, but it’s coming together quite awesome, we truly can’t wait to present the new songs to the masses!
In short: You can expect much more technical riffs, much faster riffs, and much groovier riffs.
We’ll be playing some of the new material at our gig in Vriezenveen (November 7th), we’ll be supporting Burning Hatred together with the guys of The Heritance, so if any of you readers got a chance to see us there, get your asses over there, drink a beer with us and enjoy our new material!
Morrison Roor, guitarist/vocalist in Eternal Mortification.
