EXPERIMENT FEAR
That’s
one of the best death metal bands from
METAL
SIDE: When did you start thinking to form Experiment Fear? What inspired you to
have such brutal band?
EXPERIMENT
FEAR: We formed back in 1989 originally. There have been numerous line-up
changes since then. Our inspiration came mostly from some of the first death/thrash
bands out at the time like Pestilence, Kreator, and Morbid Saint. Besides music, the scene in this area was
starting to heat up so that brought in some motivation.
METAL
SIDE: Tell us please how you started cooperating with Massacre Records, a label
that released your debut CD "Assuming the God Form"?
EXPERIMENT
FEAR: We first dealt with Eric Cerda from DCA (Death Chamber Audio) with the
Assuming recording. Massacre then
licensed the material from DCA and began marketing it after some shopping around.
METAL
SIDE: "Assuming." was produced by Brian Griffin. What can you tell us
about the work with him?
EXPERIMENT
FEAR: Brian was an old high school
friend of a couple of members so the whole recording process was pretty easy
and laid back.
METAL
SIDE: Although "Assuming." was very good album, it was truly underrated
material. At least I think that with such good album recorded, you should have
become much better known band than you were in the mid 90's. Do you have the
same feeling that the promotion of the album could've been stronger?
EXPERIMENT
FEAR: Absolutely, the album was licensed
from DCA to Massacre so we were not signed up with them. Also, almost immediately after the album was
released, the American branch of Massacre closed up. This hurt the distribution and advertising
for the album ultimately. This was also
a point at which the band was experiencing a lot of line-up changes so there was
a lot of down time. Most of the members
were pretty set with jobs and such so touring and playing out was kind of
limited.
METAL
SIDE: In my opinion, another reason why so good band wasn't very popular here
in Europe (I can't talk about States), was the end of death metal era. In early
90's death metal dominated European scene, but in the mid 90's black and doom
metal overshadowed it. Did you observe the same phenomenon in the USA?
EXPERIMENT
FEAR: Overall in the states we saw all
metal taking a downward turn in the mid 90’s.
Black and doom metal were more prevalent, but there were really no live shows
in the Wisconsin area due to a lack of interest and lack of bands. Occasionally a larger Black/death band like
Dimmu Borgir or Cradle would come through, but only in some of our larger
cities.
METAL
SIDE: Why did you disappear after "Assuming."? Maybe I'm wrong but according
to my knowledge your next material was recorded only in 1999, five years after
"Assuming.". What were you doing in the late 90's?
EXPERIMENT
FEAR: Again, there were many line-up changes, break-ups, and general
problems. The motivation was just not
there without a scene in the area.
METAL
SIDE: Another surprise for me is that your Demo 2000 didn't have many reviews
in the underground, at least not so many as such good demo should have. Didn't
you pay enough attention to promote or simply metal press ignored it?
EXPERIMENT
FEAR: There were a lot of breakups that
occurred in the time around the demo.
Some mixed feeling, etc. The demo
was just forgotten during all of this, so there was no promotional copies sent
out, or attempts at review/zines. In
fact, you are the second person to receive a copy for the purposes just
mentioned.
METAL
SIDE: Tell us when we can expect your new album? How many tracks have you
already composed?
EXPERIMENT
FEAR: We are going into the studio in
mid-June to record a four song EP (w/ one live track off the 2000 demo). The title of this release will be “Engender
the Hatred”. We have many new songs
either composed or in the works beyond what will go on the EP. We have completed 3 songs that will not be on
the EP. We are thinking that we will
head back into the studio in the fall of this year to do a full length. By that time we will have enough new material
to set up a great track list. We do want
to put only one or two songs on the full length from previously released stuff.
Depending on the success of the these releases, we are thinking of putting all
of the demos (Choir Invisible (1990), Judgment of the Dead (1992), and the 2000
Demo) on one release with a couple rerecorded versions of some of that
stuff. That would not be until mid to
late 2005 if it does happen.
METAL
SIDE: Are your new compositions in the same vein like the tracks from Demo
2000?
EXPERIMENT
FEAR: Some are and some are not. We really have tried to mix up the styles in
the music so an EP or LP has a lot more variety. It makes listening to it more fun, and you
attract a diverse following. You will hear
some really brutal stuff, some really trash/grindy, and some technical and
melodic. There are now two vocalists
also. Tom Ales was added to the
line-up
on bass and vocals about a year and a half ago.
His vocals have a wide range but the majority is in a mid range. Both Tom and Phil take the leads on different
songs, but either way we have worked in some really cool backups to bring up
the aggression.
METAL
SIDE: Could you compare death metal scene from the mid 90's with the current
one? Which of them seems stronger?
EXPERIMENT
FEAR: Currently, we are seeing a strong
following developing in our area. A lot
of the real young kids that were brought up on mainstream metal like Limp
Bizkit and Linkin Park are now starting to realize how much better and more
aggressive the death/grind scene is. I
think there is also a draw to it for them because of how underground it
is. In all I would have to say the scene
back in the day was much stronger due to how new death metal was at the
time. Now, some of the classic bands are
still around, but the scene and style has been pretty raked over as far as
originality. But much of the older stuff
sounds dated to newer listeners so most of the current bands still catch some
ears. There is also the fact that my perception
of the scene back in the early 90’s is probably skewed a bit. I was like 15 years old, so if you got a
couple hundred people in a local venue it seemed like a really big turn
out. Recently we played a show with Dying
Fetus, one of our co-scene bands (Eternal Silence) managed to book them in our
area. The turn out for that show was
around 500-600 people. That is when I knew that there is definitely a metal
storm brewing the states and our area again.
METAL
SIDE: What bands from your state could you recommend us?
EXPERIMENT
FEAR: As mentioned Eternal Silence is an
old school band from this area that really is into promoting the scene and
putting on great shows. Their info/merch
can be found at <www.eternaldeath.com>.
Another band of younger guys that are up and coming are Earth Dies
Screaming. They currently don’t have a
website or releases. They are straight
up grind/brutal metal. We also have a
very melodic band with a female vocalist that is up and coming in this
area. They are called A Dawn
Within. They are brand-spanking new so
there will be some time before they have any releases.
METAL
SIDE: Are Experiment Fear's members involved in other projects? Could you
introduce us your current line-up?
EXPERIMENT
FEAR: Currently, only Tom Ales
(vocalist/bass) is in a pop punk project band called the Leptons. The rest of the Experiment Fear line-up’s primary
focus is this band. Many of the members
are the same as the Assuming line-up.
Scott Ebbens is on Guitars/Lead. He
is one of the original members from back in the real early days. Joe Schermitzler is now on drums, as you
might have noticed from the 2000 demo. He
switched his place from bass to drums in between Assuming and the Demo. And Phil DesLauriers is still on
Vocals/Guitar/Lead.
METAL
SIDE: How often do you play the gigs? Where can the fans know when and where
you play?
EXPERIMENT
FEAR: We just had our first show in
seven years back in March; that was the one with Dying Fetus I mentioned
earlier. We are trying for some other
local shows in June and July. What we
don’t want to do is saturate our immediate area with us so no one comes out to
see us so we only want to play locally every few months. Once we get this EP out, and get to know some
bands from other Midwest (or further) areas, we will definitely be playing out
of state shows. I wish I had a better
answer for you, but we just revived everything not too long ago so it is going
to take us a little bit to get back on our feet. Also, Jim from Eternal Silence is working on a
website for us. It is planned to be up
and live in late June early July. We will post all show and release information
on the site for fans to view @ www.experimentfear.com.
METAL
SIDE: Experiment Fear is a band with long history. I wonder how much you have
changed during all these years as musicians taking into consideration your
strongest influences, what most important for you is when you compose your
music.
EXPERIMENT
FEAR: I think it still boils down to the
simple fact that we need to listen to what we play and enjoy it. Look at it form the outside and say, “This is
a band that I would listen to and that we really get into.” When we compose, everyone has input and
everyone has diverse tastes so it keeps things interesting. The ordering of our parts in songs is never traditional
and rarely ever used twice (as far as newer compositions). That really adds to
the listening experience and avoids the cookie cutter songs (i.e.
verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus).
We also try to make it technical where it fits, straight forward where
it sounds right, and all out aggressive as much as possible.
METAL
SIDE: Thanks for the interview!
EXPERIMENT
FEAR: Thank you for the interest in our
band. It is people like you Damian that
keep the scenes informed and energized about this genre of music. We appreciate the opportunity to participate
and we especially appreciate your dedication to the underground. Keep up the good fight!
Experiment
Fear:
Tom
Ales
1120
Grassy Plains Dr.
Neenah,
WI 54956
May
04