The story of this interview is long and
complicated… and it started in January 2012, when after hearing Escarnium’s
excellent “Rex Verminorum” I decided to interview the band. They said yes, I
got some questions ready for them and then the problems started, as supposedly
due to bad English and busy time in the band that interview was never answered.
I could believe in both reasons, especially as soon later I saw the band
releasing their debut album “Excruciating Existence”. This time Victor asked me
to do the interview one more time, which I did, as I really enjoyed the music
of those Brazilians. Well, it is pity then that the history has repeated. Again
there were no answers from the band, even if I tried to hurry them a little. Sometime
in August Victor sent me the answers on half of the interview, saying that I’ll
get the rest soon… and that was the last time I’ve heard from him. Sadly, as
again I must underline that I like their music a lot. I completely forgot even
about that half of the interview, until this morning I talked through e-mail to
Bart from Hellthrasher, who said he had some problems with Escarnium and that
the band is no more in his label. Then I reminded that I have this half of the
interview somewhere, so… well, I decided to publish it, even if it is only half
of it and it is also terribly outdated… but you know, there’s not much info
about the band anywhere and it would be a waste of time, mine and Victor’s, who
at least did this half of the interview… so, why now… it doesn’t cost me
anything to unveil this short chat… here it is then. Hope you’ll enjoy it, even
if it is so out of date and unfinished…
Hailz to you, Victor!
Great to have an occasion to ask you few questions, mate, as you probably know
I’m quite fond of “Rex Verminorum”. Tell me, what sort of feelings do you have
for this first official CD in Escarnium history and are you happy with the
result of that recording?
Hi there my friend!
First of all sorry for these delayed answers!! And thank you for this
opportunity. So… Yeah! We really liked of the results… “Rex Verminorum” was
cited in many sites as the best death metal release in 2011. Now we are
spreading our new album “Excruciating Existence”.
Let me start this chat
with few questions, which won’t deal with your band… Brazilian scene is
something I would like to ask you about now. Well, first of all I’ve been
reading many times how great and enthusiastic are the fans in your country. All
bands that were playing there were complementing Brazil for vicious and brutal
feedback on gigs. And of course it’s always a pleasure to watch Iron Maiden’s
“Rock In Rio”, great DVD. Tell me something about the Brazilian fans and the
gigs that take place in your country. Which were the gigs you’ve been to
recently or which were the best ones?
Yeah! We have a good
energy on the public. Maybe because of the lack of good gigs here, so when you
have one you need to enjoy it. The last gig I saw was a Grave gig… But my actual
city is totally out of the route of good gigs. I think one of the best gigs I
saw was Iron Maiden, Morbid Angel and Cannibal Corpse when I was living in southeast
of Brazil. And of course I really enjoyed to see the Grave alive. They are one
of the big influences of Escarnium.
Is Escarnium also active live and if so, what
were the gigs you’ve played like? Are the fans in Brazil also dedicated to more
underground bands like yours and support them or do they just like the big,
American or European bands?
Yeah! Escarnium is
totally active! We really like to play live man! We like of the exchange the
energy with the public, meet some new some friends personally, trade materials
etc. Here in our city we have a good underground public, but this is not a
rule. The most part of the public give
more support to European bands etc… This is the reason why every serious band
here in Brazil want to go out and do tour… Because I think in Europe you guys
have more structure to receive the underground bands… In Brazil everything is
more difficult.
When I was starting to
listen to metal in 1991, some of the first bands I’ve got to know were
Sepultura (“Beneath the Remains” and “Arise”) and Sarcofago (“The Laws of
Scourge” and “Rotting”). These bands were BIG and great, but unfortunately the
first one I stopped listening to right after “Arise” LP, while Sarcofago just
vanished. What’s your opinion on both bands? They surely did help to support
the Brazilian scene, right? Do you know maybe about the recent news from
Sarcofago? When so many old bands return (Headhunter DC, Vulcano), maybe they
are also planning to do that?
For me Sepultura and
Sarcofago are legends and their legacy is powerful! But unfortunately this
bands fucked up with their careers. I like to think Sepultura died on “Arise”
or maybe “Chaos Ad”. And Sarcofago died on “The Laws of Scourge”… For sure they
brought thee attention to the Braziianl scene! Headhunter DC never stopped,
they are active! And Vulcano – yes, they return now… I really don’t have hope
to see Sarcofago anymore… To be honest I don’t have idea what this bands are
planning.
Brazilian death and
black metal is strong as hell. It’s not just Krisiun (who I think are OK, but
their albums tend to bore me a little, although “The Great Execution” is a
great back to form for me, this album kills), but also Abhorrence, Mental
Horror, Rebaelliun, Nephasth, Impetuous Rage, Grave Desecrator, Darkest Hate
Warfront… These are my favourite bands, but of course there’s plenty more to
mention. Which are your favourite Brazilian hordes? Is there a strong bond
between bands in your country or maybe it’s an opposite to that and there’s
more rivalry?
Unfortunately we have
a lot of rivalry between some bands and in the most of the cases they are
because of stupid things. Brazil has really good scene today. You said a lot of
these names in the questions so now I will say some others: Laconist, Vomepotro,
Violator, RxCxE, Inside Hatred, Incarceration, Cautherization, Whipstriker ,
Farscape, Expurgo, Flesh Grinder, Cold Blood, Mortage, Madness, Funeratus,
Deformity and many others…
You’ve been playing in
Impetuous Rage. I know that after the release of “Inverted Redemption” the band
changed the name to Poisonous. Have you been also a member of Poisonous or have
you left them before the name was changed? If so, what were the reasons for
your split up with the other guys? I must say that I really like “Inverted
Redemption”, it’s hell of a strong album, I wonder then how much of it have you
personally written? Is Poisonous a continuation of Impetuous Rage actually or
is it wholly different band?
I left them before
they changed their name. I left because of some personal reasons and some
conflicts at this time. At this moment each band follows own way… I think they
are better now!
I guess coming from
Brazil must be hard to spread the band’s name in European or American
underground. Somehow though you’ve managed to release an album through a Polish
label, so tell me how did it all happen, how did you contact them and if you’re
happy (or not?!) with everything that Hellthrasher Productions is doing for
Escarnium?
We are happy with that
partnership! They came to us and did the offer for us. And then we accepted it.
We have more good recognition in Europe than in Brazil… Because sometimes
Brazilian public give more respect to old bands. New bands here need to go to
Europe to have good recognition here… This is totally stupid! At this time
things are going better here, because we are returning from the eurotour.
Hahaahah I don t know why. I noticed in Europe they (maniacs) give more support
to new bands with younger musicians… Here in Brazil is like a competition all
the time… So you need to be old to get respect. But some old people here don’t deserve
that respect. Some old guys have stupid behaviours and don’t give a shit to the
local scene.
“Rex Verminorum” is
composed of the new EP and the debut demo, but both materials have been
composed together very well into one album. Tell me why have you decided to put
both recordings on one CD – which I must say was very good decision? I ask that
also because “Covered in Decadence” demo was already released on CDR I think,
and also as a part of a split with Inside Hatred.
Yeah, we don’t see any
problem with this… A lot of people don’t know the demo so when they get the EP
they can check out the demo… And in the most of the cases we have good commentaries
about the songs of the demo.
In my review of “Rex
Verminorum” I underlined how great the songs you’ve putted there are. I really
think that the riffs are just great, the song structures are very solid and the
overall music has dark and obscure atmosphere, so it’s very strong effort and
all those things putted together give an awesome death metal music. I’ve
listened to it several times and don’t think it will end up on the shelf that
quickly. How’s the reaction on your music so far? What would you say were the
main details that you think you’ve focused most when composing the songs?
Thank you man!! Really
I don’t know what to say about this… The reaction of the metalheads and zines is good… I don’t know what I should
do to have a good result in the composition. It’s a natural process. We just
want to do a good death metal.
Change me if I’m
incorrect, but there was a different vocalist on “Covered in Decadence” demo,
right? But on “Rex Verminorum” it’s already you singing and I think it’s your
first time when you’ve been doing vocals as prior to that, also in Impetuous
Rage, you only handled the guitar. So, were you stressed when recording the growlings?
I wonder didn’t you want maybe also re-record the vocals from the demo? Don’t
get me wrong, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with them, it would just maybe
make more consistent listening then?
Yeah! We have Caio
Rohr on the vocals, now he is more into gore grind stuff. And his new awesome band
is called Rotten Cadaveric Execration. For sure I was nervous, but everything
was okay… And on the full length I think my vocal is better. I’m still learning
though… We have plans to record all our old songs with my vocals. On the full
length we have the track “Covered in Decadence” with my vocal. On the second
album I believe we will have the others.
The 4 songs of the demo on the EP is bonus tracks, so I think it’s okay.
And that’s it… the
rest of the questions hasn’t been answered, but I hope that at least you got
some info about Escarnium’s early works from what I have here. I definitely
recommend you getting “Excruciating Existence”, if you haven’t done that yet,
killer album. Available at the Hellthrasher shop all the time!
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