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INDEX
INTERVIEWS
GUESTBOOK
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BURIED
IN CANADA, EXPLODING IN YOUR FACE!
1. This is introductions time, feel free to begin with a nice face-punching so that our minds are totally awaken and ready for the following! What should the readers know about SLAUGHTER STRIKE before their keep on reading? Should we use a special "Parental advisory explicit music" or "Beware of trannies" sticker?
Greetings, assholes! I'd simply start with some wise words from the past: "Don't look back, you were dead from the beginning". Greetings!
2. The "Slaughter strike" moniker kinda reminds me of something... Is there a link with the old Canadian band SLAUGHTER and the old Speckman outfit DEATH STRIKE? In a way one could see their influences in your most D-beat and raw patterns, even if it might not be as obvious as a big cinderblock in the face...
Slaughter and Deathstrike are definitely lurking around in our sewage, but the name is no conscious evocation of those two old masters. Quite the contrary, the name came about as a completely mindless, zen-like grasp at the essence of death metal.
3. Your music could be described as "thrash death crust grind black stoner sludge core"... So does it sound cool, or isn't it a little too complicated? I'm sorry but I didn't achieve to clearly summarize the whole... So could you do the job? (And you won't even get paid, huh!). To ask another purely original question: Could you also talk about your musical influences?
I’ve always thought we were more Blackened Apokalyptik War Crust but some people seem to hear more of a Morbid Nuclear Doom Thrash tinge to our sound i guess... So few people simply call it "DEATH METAL" these days.
4. In your music, I feel no nostalgic nor ancient mood as it seems primarily focused on the energy and the kick... You might have no particular nostalgia or even worshiping of the old "cults" and might prefer to focus on what's currently alive, the "Live it now, die later"? You also have an emergency that doesn't appear in every Death metal band... Where would you say it comes from? Your daily life? You like risky situations?
We’re definitely firmly rooted in traditions that have come before us but we’re certainly focused on a sense of immediateness and violence as opposed to straight up cryptic morbidity. What can i say? We’re in-your-face wankers that would rather hit our enemies with beer bottles than cast a hex on their households. Maybe this is where our sense of urgency comes from? Our priorities as a band are channeling and catharsis, rather than sculpting some delicate aesthetic. Our urgency probably comes from that drive. Plus we're all fucking pissed.
5. Two guys of the band also used to play in RAMMER, it's not really the same style, but you could share some "Death metal" rawness with the later recordings of the aforementioned. Is there the same composers in the two bands, or are there more wounds contributing in the new one? Why was RAMMER stopped and why was SLAUGHTER STRIKE created? Could one see a logical link between both (Some kind of following) or is it simply two separate entities who don't give a fuck about each others?
I (D.K.) and J.F. were both in Rammer until the bitter end. To make a long and dramatic story short, Rammer became infinitely self-limiting as a band at the same time as it was truly beginning to unfold as a musical entity, so it was natural to simply lower it into the earth. J.F. and I have always been deeply into more deathly stuff than was present in Rammer, so Slaughter Strike formed as a natural outlet for us after the fact to indulge in our lusts for complete, unhinged metal of death. There are some slight (veerry slight) musical similarities, but the two bands are so utterly different, musically and otherwise.
6. Would you rather compare SLAUGHTER STRIKE to a knife under the throat or the undertaker's shovel?
More like a lonesome, ritualistic barrel-in-mouth shotgunning in a desolate, rural woodshed.
7. You seem to have DIY ethics, which is cool in these days of clickadaclickadaclick... What does Do-It-Yourself mean for you? Is it all about copying tapes, making and cutting flyers yourself, or just sending a payment to the printing factory to finally "Do the packages yourself"? The meaning of this word seems to have changed quite a lot the last 10 years, now these 3 letters could almost mean anything as long as you "do" something (I imagine some peoples would think clicking on Facebook or going at the shop to order some bread has a DIY approach ahah). So what, are we trapped in a world of digital madness? What could we do to fight, or eventually reverse this voracious bear trap? Are you still doing some paper snail mail, or did it become too hard to find peoples who bother answering?
Our
ethics are really just to please ourselves and no one else. Slaughter
Strike’s appeal to the world at large is limited enough so we may
as well operate our band in a way that satisfies our own needs first.
I’m not really sure what DIY means to most people these days;
you’re completely correct in your assertion that some people seem
to think buying their own groceries is DIY. Or more relevantly to
death metal; making a mere 15 tapes so that there’s no effort required
in getting rid of them. I can’t answer how society can do a U turn
on this rotten modern eras useless trappings and can only run my
life and related affairs how i see fit. Locally we pretty much only
play shows we book ourselves; the metal scene around Toronto and
southern Ontario generally has an appallingly low set of standards
which we wish to have no part in at all. We’d rather do it ourselves
as it’s easier and more satisfying.
Our primary focus is on death
metal as a pure genre and the culture that is intrinsically attached
to the pure approach. Our interests are not in tired old vinyl vs
CD debates, message board bitching (either on them or about them)
or bemoaning the death of physical zines. Yes, we absolutely favour
analogue media, but that in and of itself does not encapsulate the
cultural essence or standards we adhere to. Plenty of people treat
death metal as stamp collecting and offer nothing but money. Their
money is welcome; their input on anything else is generally superfluous.
8. It's the minute of paper fanzines: What's your opinion about underground paper publications? Do you still read some and are there quite good ones in Canada? Would you see a difference between the paper zines that were published before and those done after the big use of Internet (Approx 2002): On one hand, at the time it was just the natural thing, the only way to spread underground metal, while some of the new ones are just some kind of nostalgic or "anti-something" manifestations (And so can't have the same reasons and drives behind); On the other hand, I remember some underground publications from the end 90's already were very much into the professional/ promotional system and their appearance on the web didn't change much of their souls..
I
think you're right that Print zines were at one point the only real
means of discussing and discovering Metal music. Some of them were
amazing looking, intelligent and enthusiastic, and some were simply
piss-poor and really contributed nothing worthwhile. The same is
true of the Internet, although the transience of the digital format
has really diluted the art form in general. I dunno.... If you like
metal enough to want to write about it, then why not make the effort
and create something physical and special? Don't be lazy, put some
thought into it and be original. The last thing I need is another
generic "old school" metal zine. Best Canadian zine: Morbid
Tales or Chromium Dioxide.
9. Could retro webzines influenced by the end 80's computers era be any good for you? Would it have a meaning to make a webzine looking like old MSDOS: All texts in white on black background, without mouse to click, just the keyboard with the up and down arrows and the "enter" key?
In the 1980s i exclusively used Sinclair and Commodore products, anything else was false. A ZX Spectrum with internet capabilities is like a Beherit skateboard; a complete and utter travesty. Therefore i consign this idea to the garbage bin
10. Since you play a kind of music to be very guitar based, and could be seen as "integrist" by some, what are your views about electronic music? I'm especially thinking about quite extreme, or dark, genres such as industrial, dark electronic, industrial metal (In their quite old fashioned manners, not the newer goth-dance or hyper-cerebral arty stuffs). Some of these genres share many visions and inner feelings with extreme metal styles such as Grindcore, Death metal, black metal... But the way it's composed, thought, played is quite different... Do you think there are that many links and paths between both, or not? Do you like some of it? Do you think a gig between a Death metal band and an extreme industrial/ Dark electronics one could be a good idea, or should each remain in his own corner?
We
have zero interest in industrial music when it means fat Goths in
fishnet vests with rope in their hair playing bad techno for stupid
children. You’re more likely to find various members of Slaughter
Strike listening to industrial when it refers to SPK (early), Contagious
Orgasm (early), Zoviet France, Controlled Bleeding, Coil, Einsturzende
Neubauten, Lustmord, Piss Horn, Genocide Organ and the likes.
In
the past we’ve played shows with Paranoid Time, The Rita, Zenta
Sustained and other harsh noise acts. It’s not to everyone’s taste
in the band but on some level we all respect the lineage and mental
approach to this style and see the connections with what we’re trying
to achieve.
I think certain connections can be made but i wouldn’t
try and make too many links as the world of noise and the world
of metal do have distinctly different approaches and aims. Too often
when metal people try their hands at noise or industrial it ends
up sounding like a failed extended intro to a Nocturnus album.
11. What's currently the most extreme kind of music in your opinion? To judge about the "extremism" of a given genre, should we quantify the amount of noise and aggression, or the intensity and disease contained by the feelings? In the later cases, some of the music to be considered as the "softer" could be quite more extreme than some of the "harder" (average) ones, because it sometimes contains so much intense feelings (Such as Sorrow)…
I
think that once you settle into your genre of choice the initial
exoticism of raw sound, ultra speed (or lack of), confrontational
vocals and lyrics mean less and it just signifies how music is supposed
to sound to you.
Any band whose primary intent is merely to be
‘extreme’, whatever that means, has zero passion for their craft
and it just becomes gimmicky bullshit. It becomes who’s faster,
who’s more satanic/ racist/ evil/ whatever, who sounds shittier
etc etc and it completely misses the point. I’d rather people had
integrity and followed their creative path because they felt drawn
to it rather than pushed down it. And really, the world does not
need another shitty «old school Swedish» death metal band with a
Boss Heavy Metal pedal cranked on full as their only merit. Black
and death metal have nothing to do with guitar tone or tempo alone.
Extremity
would be a DJ mixing Der Sturmer with Public Enemy and who would
even want to listen to that?
12. Concerning releases, do you believe in limitations? Don't you think some labels listen too much to the collectors’ greedy needs, and shouldn't limit their releases to less than 200 copies (In case of tapes) or 500 (In cases of CDs or Lps), as long as there’s reasonable demand? After all, the goal of music is to be heard and circulate, not to become "cult", hard to find in only few months, and to create frustration...
We only ever try to press our releases in quantities we think are realistic. Our first demo was initially done in 150 copies because really, would more than that many people on earth give a fuck about a morbid death metal band's completely off the radar debut release? But more needed to be made so we carried on until we gave up at around 5 or 600 or something. Pressing releases in ultra limited numbers that can easily sell more is just moronic and self-limiting.
13.
Give us a few thoughts about:
-Life metal: If we accept that
planet earth is overrun with worthless human beings then we must
accept that some of these worthless human beings will unfortunately
gravitate towards things we hold in high esteem.
-Hardcore and grind bands who use more and more black metal influences: I’m not sure that i’ve really seen this. Maybe there’s some weak reverb drenched screaming and shitty tremolo riffs here and there that’s being passed off as a black metal influence? I’d take it on a case by case basis but on a highly simplified level I’ve always felt that hardcore aspires to promote a group agenda and black metal is more concerned with individual experience.
-The come back of old Punk/Hc and Death metal bands 15 or 20 years after: I guess culture has become incredibly retroactively cannibalistic. You can easily see the same tail-chasing in the current film, fashion, design, etc industry. With regards to death metal and HC, I guess when (with some exceptions) you've reached such a void of creativity or viability as we saw in the late 90's/early 2000's, it was only natural that the "scenes" would begin retreating into the past.
-Toronto as music scene: Generally useless and laughable, with just barely enough people who "get it" to make it bearable.
-Toronto as a city: Hah, where do I begin? A city I truly enjoy marred by a vast index of shortcomings.
-The snow and storms in Canada: A fact of life here. And a good excuse to indulge in one's hibernation instinct.
14. What should our morbid readers expect from SLAUGHTER STRIKE in the future? Are there special plans, upcoming merchandising, terrifying tours... Or are you rather doing things on a spontaneous way and doesn't like to plan everything as a business targeted company? This is the final question, feel free to add what's needed to fully inform the morbid readers.
Our original guitarist, B.E.'s trial is set to begin in Bermuda this spring, so we shall see how that pans out. We expect to have a full length album out in 2011 which will be co-released by Profound Lore and 20 Buck Spin. Also in 2011: Ultra-bestial American morbid slut-ripping tour of deathfagostation tour. Or whatever. We're going to play death metal in America.
Fuck off.
Web page: http://www.myspace.com/slaughterstrike
