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INDEX
INTERVIEWS
GUESTBOOK
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When I heard some news about BRUTALITY and knew they were working on some news stuffs for a new album, I immediately took the opportunity and sent them a bunch of questions (including some asked by friends) to revive some old school Death metal days and know more about their history. Unfortunately, William Sapp couldn’t answer a part of these as he wasn’t involved with some stuffs asked… that makes this interview less interesting than the great one I thought it would be if the interested members had answered the given questions… I tried to contact the given BRUTALITY members, but found nothing… Anyway, cool intie to check out.
QUESTIONS BEING ANSWERED BY MAUSOLUS-FOUNDER OF BRUTALITY AND ASTAROTH
1. You haven't released anything since 6 years now. Can you tell me what you did both at a musical and non musical point of view?
I personally haven’t done anything with Brutality for almost 10 years. I started Astaroth, the material in Astaroth was a continuation of the « Metamorphosis » Demo, very similar in production, but tuned down like the swedish bands do, I love Carnage, old Grave, early Entombed and Edge of sanity. The astaroth recordings are of this style quality.
2. About your band's name BRUTALITY, why did you chose it? Is it only due to the "Brutal" aspect of your music or it there another reason behind this choice?
Jeff chose the name, everybody liked it, so that was it.
3. What made you split the band after 3 CDs and somekind of a cool recognition in the Death metal scene?
I was only
on the first 3 Demos : «Brutality», «Demension
demented» and «Metamorphosis».
I was thrown
out of Brutality, and we’ll leave it at that. I’m so psyched about
being back though.
Jeff simply split the band up because it was
kind of spuddering out. He himself does not like the « In
mourning » album. And I guess the dissatisfaction fot to him-
also growing up takes a lot out of you, it’s hard to raise kids,
keep a job and run a band all at the same time, I would suppose
it just got to him.
4. You've released 3 albums on the big label Nuclear blast. And you're now on Megga rabbit records, that's a smaller label. Did you contact back Nuclear Blast and did another label showed interest in the band?
Mega Rabbit
is my label- we will negociate contracts with any interested labels,
hopefully we’ll sign with a bigger label, if not, we’ll released
it on the Mega Rabbit label.
Mega Rabbit will be doing a compilation
CD of Death/ Speed metal bands in the future, with Brutality on
it of course, and any band interested should contact me.
5. Has your relationship with Nuclear Blast always been very great? I know some bands such as MASTER had some money troubles with them. It sounds like they don't care that much for their bands that aren't the biggest on their catalog...
I was not involved with Nuclear Blast except to inform them that we were reforming. They told me that the contract was expired and I could shop around new material. So that’s what I’m doing. My short experience with them was very pleasant.
6. Your new line up is composed of 7 musicians. Is it easy to play with some many musicians and to understand well each others? Can you tell us in details of which musicians this new formation will be composed of?
Well, right
now we are just a studio band, so not everyone plays at the same
time, I’m the common link. Jeff and I rehearse/ record in the afternoon
about once a week, and Demian(Astaroth) and I record/ rehearse once
a week on Friday or Saturday nights, Ken (Astaroth) will stop by
2 or 3 times a week and we’ll write together.
So we all don’t
jam at the same time. I would love for everyone to show up and jam
at the same time. Also once we do start playing out, if 1 or 2 members
don’t have time for a show, then the abundance of other members
will be good to cover, so we could play out one well with 4 peoples
and the next with 6.
Also having so many to work with is great, I’d like to have some of the other ex Brutality/ Astharoth members in the band, the more members, the more fun. ---- Late note : We got Brian Hipp, the guitarist from the send album
Right now its
me, Jeff, Demian, and Ken. Don Gates lives in New Hamshire but is
in constant contact and has been rehearsing with the demos we send
him. Jim Coker, on the other hand, does not seem to interested-
and has not been a part of the reformation thus far, we’re hopping
he’ll come around though. Mike Garett (Astaroth) seemed interested,
but then got n an accident and hurt his hand, to what extent, I’m
not sure but he has not recorded material yet.
And Scott Regal
has positively responded to the demos he heard and we hope he is
a part of this as well.
Still have not heard from ex members
Brian Hipp, Tony Laureano (ex Astharoth- now in Angel Corpse), Ken
Karg, Jay Fernandez, Dana Walsh, or Pete Sykes.
Since Jim seems
disinterested, we are currently seeking a drummer, either a former
Astharoth or Brutality member, or someone outside the family is
welcome in this case, we have guitarists, bassists, and vocalists
by the truckload in this band, but no permanent drummer- if you
are a drummer and live in the Tampa/ Florida area, we want you to
call us at (813) 933 2312-leave a message and we’ll definately get
back to you.
7. Very often, the bands composed of 7 or more musicians are Black metal bands with keyboards.... Will you still play the Technical Brutal death you played before, or will you include some new elements?
A little of both, I would imagine. Keyboards will definitely be on the new album, but not in a constant instrument form.
Your new line up includes members of ASTAROTH (that's a project of a former BRUTALITY member) also. Will ASTHAROTH be still existing, or maybe the two bands will make only one...
No Astaroth is on hold and we’re using some of the songs/members that would have been Astaroth songs… As long as I’m in Brutality, I’d say Astharoth will remain Dormant.
8.What are the differences between ASTHAROTH, the old BRUTALITY and the actual BRUTALITY?
Not much, they are both professional Death metal bands, both are heavy as hell – Astaroth has a little more hell in its as it’s on the antichristian side.
9. The guitarist/ vocalist of the original BRUTALITY line up is back in the band. We'd like to know his opinion about the 3 BRUTALITY albums as he may haven't be responsible for a great part of the compositions...
I like the
first album a lot, as I feel that some of my influences kind of
still there.
The second is cool, don’t care for the 3rd one
though. To keep my spirit high, I’m concentrating on the forthcoming
album to blow away everything preceding it.
10. Of the 3 albums you released, your third one "In mourning" was the best for me as some tracks were totally excellent with some pure crushing and deeply emotional riffs. So my question is: did something special happened at this moment of your existence to influence your musical writing?
I wasn't in the band...sorry
11. You released a CD with 2 of your old demos METAMORPHOSIS and DIMENSION DEMENTED this year. Was it important for you to make the extreme metal fans able to ear some of your previous recordings?
I own all the copyrights to the metamorphosis demo and everything preceding it. The demand was so big that I’d be a fool not to release it. We pressed 1000 copies and they just fly out of there. At this rate these pressings will be gone by the end of the year- I even had a few distributors buying in bulk. I personally get a lot of thank you mail for releasing both demos on 1 disc- everything was remastered from the original masters so the sound is as clean as the day we did them.
12. Since the creation of the band, you must have played in a lot of several countries around the world. From which country in which you toured do you keep the best remembrances? Did you count how many gigs you did since the creation of the band?
Unfortunately I was not a part of the band at the time they went around the world, I hope to be a part of Brutality from now on and visit as many of you peoples reading this as possible.
13. Did you get some complains about Jim Cockers' drumming style? Some guys say on the first album his drumming style isn't very great compared to some other Death metal drummer...
No, I think Jim is a great drummer. He’s devoted his entire life to music and I respect that immensely , even if he’s not a part of this project right now.
14. Your vocalist Scott Reigel isn't the main writer of the lyrics. Is it always easy for him to sing with conviction some texts he didn't write? Do you speak with each other to all understand deeply the meanings of these lyrics, or has he got to find his own representation and understanding of the texts?
We still have yet to work together, but I’m looking forward to it.
15. Now lets talk about albums covers. Your 2 first albums covers were in a quite classical/ painted Death metal kind of albums covers, while on your third album it's just different: a dark collage of photos with a dirty touch... plus on this album you didn't use anymore your previous logo. At this time, were you bored of somekind of a classical Death metal thing?...
16. It seems to me this is the same guy that did the covers of your Demo'92 and first album, plus we can see the painting of your Demo'92 in the background of your first CD. Can you give us more infos about his works and tell us who the guy is?
15 & 16...Again I wasn’t there… Sorry, Jeff is quite busy with raising the family and Jim isn’t here at all, so I can’t help you here.
17. MALIGNANCY's cover side on their split CD with INTERVALLE BIZARRE reminds me of your first CD's layout: "Screams of anguish". Do you know this band (they're also from U.S.A) and did you see their cover?
No, I’ve never met them and I’ve never seen the album cover.
18. You album are all more than 40 minutes long, is it important for you to offer to the listener a quite long album compared to some bands as DEICIDE? Will you one day include some shorter songs in your set (I'd be speaking about 1 minutes grindcore like long tracks, for the length but not for the style...)
Yes, I write
in a radical style and if the song is done… it’s done, doesn’t matter
if it’s 1 minute or 1 hour. I would think that the coming album
and others after it will be around 35-50 mins ling total.
Also,
I write more in an anti-christian style-more brutal hatred. Hail
the dark side.
19. Did you see on the web some sites such as DEATH METAL GODZ that includes a tribute to yer band with lots of old photos, reviews and stuffs? How do you feel when you see this pages on the web?
Honored.... simply. It’s so cool that other people take time out and like us enough to do such great things.
20. Are you still into the underground and which actual bands attracted your attention? did you enjoy some more "new" scenes such as the kind of atmospheric black metal and the nu métal, or did you remain in your death metal deliria?
I love "DAEMON" and "SHADOW". I keep in touch with a lot of the old guys in the underground from the mid-late-80’s – Ben, Dave, Ronnie and « Nasty Savage » have reformed as well- when we start playing out, I hope to get a gig with the Nastys.
21. Do you regret the epoch of badly printed fanzines, or do you prefer the fast food underground metal webzines?
I loved it all it all, some of the worst looking fanzines got me in contact with some of the best bands.
22. Do you know something from the French extreme metal scene?
No, no anything
23. What are the important points of BRUTALITY's music evolution since day one?
Musical progression, heaviness and production. Right now all those points are in place, just being better than last year and always learning something new.
24. What are your future plans with BRUTALITY? These last words are yours!
To stay in this band til I die, and release an album every year or 2. As long as cool people like yourselves want Brutality, we’ll give it to them. We need a drummer !!!!!!!HELP!!!!
WEBSITE: http://originalbrutality.tripod.com
