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ROTTEN SOUND is a very familiar name among those extreme death/grindcore freaks. The band is from Finland and they define themselves as "the most extreme metal band" from this country. They are also very well known for the attachment to the real extreme metal underground, considering the fact that they have released so many vinyls, tapes, etc. for those who cannot afford to buy CDs. The band has just released their latest album entitled "Murderworks" in June, which gave me the opportunity to speak with their vocalist G, in order to present to the Romanian grind freaks the first exclusive ROTTEN SOUND interview for Romania!
Necromantic Art: Hi G and welcome into the pages of NECROMANTIC ART magazine! My first question is: when did you form the band and what were your influences? Also, why did you choose this extreme territory?
G: Hi there! We formed ROTTEN SOUND back in year 1993 as a crust/grind project. There was only me and Q (Guitars) in the original line-up. Our original influences were in Napalm Death, Extreme Noise Terror and Repulsion. ROTTEN SOUND became more serious band in year 1994 when K joined us and brought us his superb drumming skills to create something more unique. I guess that we have stayed extreme because we had earlier a death-metal band called Vomiturition, which turned into melodic death-rock for some strange reason. ROTTEN SOUND has been going to opposite direction: usually our latest release is the most extreme one - at least this applies to "Murderworks".
Necromantic Art: Your sound is a mixture of death/grind but the voice is kind of unusual for this style. It's something similar to some extent to KATAKLYSM's. Why didn't you choose a brutal growling to sustain the insane avalanches of your rhythms? Also, did KATAKLYSM influence you to some extent in the beginning?
G: My vocals are usually varying quite much to keep the music interesting. I have started as a death-vocalist, but that just got too boring for me after few years and I started to use different voices also. I think that my angry-vocal-influences are coming from ENTOMBED and SLAYER. My personal opinion is that we sound better this way than with monotonous grunting.
Necromantic Art: ROTTEN SOUND is a very special band in the actual metal scene. Do you think this success has been brought to you by the originality of your sound or more by the irreproachable manner of execution of your songs?
G: We have our own sound, which makes it quite easy to recognize us. But that's not enough in our opinion: we are always doing the best we can on our playing and production to have the quality level as close to our goals as possible. We also have really many releases out and I guess that our style (cross-over from everything that is extreme) together with many good releases have created some good publicity to us.
Necromantic Art: Why did you want to combine death/grind with some hardcore and black metal elements? Also, on what album this combination succeeded you the best?
G: We wanted to create a sound, which includes everything we like in one package. This mixture is really natural to us because we have (and still are) been in many other bands that are/have been following these styles more strictly. "Murderworks" combines all we have ever wanted to do in one insane package. "Drain" was also a good trial to do that, but we are not really that satisfied with its production and there are also some too "heavy" songs in it.
Necromantic Art: ROTTEN SOUND is also known as a prolific underground band. I have only listened to your CDs but you have also some vinyls released. Tell me shortly about them and also, is this an action to support true underground (I am referring to vinyl releases)?
G: We like to have all of our biggest releases in all requested formats (CD's, Vinyl, Cassettes) to be able to reach as many people as possible. Personally I like CD most because its great sound quality but vinyl is just beating everything else because of its cover dimensions. It feels better to have that instead of some piece of plastic. We also know that CD's are too expensive to buy in some countries and the vinyl/MC are ideal formats for those places. It feels good to hear that we have been demanding these for right reasons.
Necromantic Art: What were the reactions following your excellent debut album? Also, how did you get in touch with REPULSE?
G: We got really good feedback from "Under Pressure" - much better than we expected. That album was created with extremely low budget (recorded and mixed in 4 days) and we also did not even have a publisher for it 3 weeks before the studio. We got in touch with REPULSE when we were looking for a new publisher for the album (original plan was to make it with ANOMIE RECORDS (Ger)) and Dave Rotten really liked our 10" picture disc, "Loosin' Face". He gave us three-album deal, but we were able to move on to NECROPOLIS after two albums.
Necromantic Art: If on your first and second album, among the savage rhythms, there's also a subtle melodic touch, on your "Still Psycho" mini-CD, you gave up this melody. Why?
G: We made a clear decision to stay extreme. Another alternative would have been to develop into a melodic heavy band, but that would not even suite our name so well. I guess that it could have been wise in "marketing" sense to go into more radio-friendly stuff, but that just was not our thing. We are at our best when we are playing as hard as we can! You'll notice that we have gone even further with this extremity decision with "Murderworks".
Necromantic Art: "Still Psycho" is a devastating product. It's more insane than all your albums. But I think it is more into DISMEMBER and ENTOMBED sound (I am referring to the production and the tuning of guitars). Why did you choose to abandon the direction present on your first album to move more into Swedish death/grind sound?
G: We just happen to like the Swedish guitar sound. "Murderworks" is now combining the Swedish guitars into really clear and aggressive drums, which make the sound something like a mixture of Swedish and Finnish band. I'd say that our we are Scandinavian grind-core with the sound we are having nowadays. Tuning has went total 7 semi-steps lower from "Sick Bastard" to "Murderworks". Let's see how low we get with our future releases. [Hell indeed... Ed.]
Necromantic Art: Why did you leave REPULSE and why did you choose NECROPOLIS?
G: REPULSE was a great label to start with, but NECROPOLIS is giving us more support in all areas. The best thing in this change is that NECROPOLIS is able to get us on tours and that they managed to get European marketing and Distribution with CENTURY MEDIA for "Murderworks". There're just much bigger resources in everything we do with these two labels.
Necromantic Art: Can you tell me where did you find K? Many compare him to master PETE SANDOVAL, what is your opinion?
G: K is just awesome drummer. I think that he's even much better in real-life than on our recordings except for "Murderworks", which finally made his playing sound as good as it really does sound. K has quite different style from Pete Sandoval, but I guess there are some similarities also. One thing is for sure: ROTTEN SOUND would not be the same without K playing with us (like Morbid Angel would not be same without Pete Sandoval). [Hell indeed... Ed.]
Necromantic Art: Why was necessary to record a CARCASS cover and why REEK OF PUTREFACTION?
G: NECROPOLIS was doing the CARCASS tribute and we just liked our "Reek of Putrefaction"-version so much that we wanted to put it on "Still Psycho" as well. We have recorded also "Dead Shall Rise" on "8 Hours of Lobotomy"-Split-CD (with UNHOLY GRAVE, JPN). We like to play one cover song on our live shows and CARCASS is just one of them. We have plaid also "Dead Shall Rise", "Walking Corpse" (BRUTAL TRUTH), "Out of Hand" (ENTOMBED) [Yeah, this one rules for sure! Ed.], "Police Bastards" (DOOM), "Murder" (EXTREME NOISE TERROR) and "Scream Bloody Gore" (DEATH).
Necromantic Art: Tell me what is in your opinion the difference between the first and your second album?
G: The main difference was that we dropped crust element almost totally and started getting into metallic approach. I guess that we also were experimenting more with "Drain" and "Under Pressure" was something like a combination of all precious releases we had made before that.
Necromantic Art: Who is the main composer of the band?
G: Our guitarist (Q) is composing almost all songs nowadays. I am writing almost all of the lyrics.
Necromantic Art: Did the fact that you have a new bass player determine you to abandon the direction on your "Still Psycho" into a more brutal one?
G: No. H had nothing to do with that, because he was not really affecting our music in "Still Psycho" session after being just three months in the band. The decision to do really aggressive Mini-CD and even more aggressive CD after that was done by all of us together. And that was the best decision we have ever done! [I can but totally agree... Ed.]
Necromantic Art: I saw on your web page that you had a new album. Why has it taken you so long to come out with a new one? Tell me more about it?
G: We did not want to rush it with the new album. "Still Psycho" was recorded 1, 5 years before "Murderworks" and that was just the right time to make this album - at least for us. I guess that people are also more like waiting for the new album to come out instead of just noticing that it's time for the annual ROTTEN SOUND release. We created the songs for the new album during summer and autumn of 2001 and it was recorded in December 2001 at Soundlab. "Murderworks" was produced by Mieszko Talarczyk of NASUM (who is also the sound engineer and co-owner of Soundlab). It consists of 14 tracks of grind-core with influences from many places. The new album will be out in June 4th (U.S) and June 18th (Europe).
Necromantic Art: What do you listen at home, G?
G: I listen to varying stuff: melodic death (IN FLAMES), non-melodic grind (NASUM, NAPALM DEATH, REGURGITATE), more trendy stuff (KORN&SLIPKNOT) [what?!? Ed.], older bands (SLAYER, TESTAMENT, ENTOMBED), stoner (KYUSS, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE), black metal (DIMMU BORGIR, EMPEROR, DARK FUNERAL) and many more.
Necromantic Art: What subjects do you have for the lyrics?
G: Anti-violence, anti-religion (that's close to anti-violence), anti-stupidity, anti-depression, anti-ignorance and some inner feelings are also reflected in some songs. I am usually putting some additional "aggression" into the message to make the lyrics even bit ironic at some points. I think that there must space for laughter in all serious subjects I am writing about because life is just too short to take everything so uptight. [It's for the countless time when you are right. Ed.]
Necromantic Art: What is in your opinion the place ROTTEN SOUND has in the Finnish metal scene? And speaking of scene, how do you see it?
G: We are the most extreme band in Finland (at least for now). I think that DEEPRED are getting close with their great U.S.-style death-metal, but right now we hold that seat in this country. People have recognized us really well during past two years and we are starting to have really crowded shows in Finland nowadays. Usually smaller places are sold-out and bigger venues with us as a headliner are getting 300-500 people. Finnish scene is quite mainstream oriented [and not only the Finnish one... Ed.] and I think that the main reason for that is that in such a small country there just is not enough audience for some new extreme band. I guess that we have been doing something right with our success over here, but that has required also over 100 live shows during 8 years.
Necromantic Art: How do you see the future of extreme metal, G?
G: The future of extreme metal is really open now when black-metal is fading out. Maybe it's time for death-metal and grind-core to take over again... [Hell indeed... Ed.]
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