Listenable Artist Izegrim Interview is up 1/15/2014




1.For those of us new to Izegrim tell us a bit about the band and how it came to be?
Well, looking back at almost 16 years of Izegrim history I tend to split that long period of ancient times in two separate parts. When I started Izegrim (together with our former drummer Joep), the band was, in comparison to today’s status, low-profile and acting on an amateur level. Sure, we had lots of fun, played amazing gigs, but things really started rolling when we signed the deal with Listenable. The four of us (Marloes, Ivo, Bart and I) are a solid line-up for 5 years now. We worked our asses off the past few years to get this far.
Code…” was the first record that was released through Listenable Records (2011), so the attention and feedback we got was way bigger than we’d ever expected and experienced before. We reached more people, some of them even for the first time, in comparison with all our previous releases. It really was a rollercoaster at the time that album got released. We had to do tons of interviews, got a lot of awesome feedback from magazines all around the world. On top of that we played a lot of shows, including a European tour, like you mentioned, with Onslaught and Cripper. All in all, one could say that all the hard work we did, was rewarded with two very good (and busy) years for Izegrim. This year our recorddeal with Listenable got prolonged, first 3 gigs after our new release “Congress of the Insane” were sold out, the new album is embraced with nothing but positive feedback; We are confirmed for the 70.000 Tons of Metal cruise; what more can we wish for.
Marloes: We’ve always been a modest band, but with this record our mission was to punch everyone in the face. We’re back with a killer album and it’s brutal, fierce and ferocious. An artistic evolution I couldn’t be happier with, which also justifies the position we’re in right now.



2. I have to say your album cover freaks me out a bit. It reminds me of the covers of Atrophy a very cool thrash band from the 90s on R/C label. Why the damn creepy clown?
Jeroen: That freaky clown fitted to our concept perfectly ; the whole world seems a gathering of freaks, turning todays society into a global, worldwide ‘Congress of the Insane’ and we are all part of it. With this cover we wanted to express the feeling and atmosphere of those old carnivals and travelling parties where they had all these freaks exposed. When I was searching the internet for reference material (freaks and carnivals),I stumbled upon this artwork from Mariano Villalba and we were immediately blown away by this piece of work by him. We bought the exclusive rights to use this for our cover.



3. Izegrim is a strong mix of heavy thrash, swedish death metal and even some power  metal elements.  How did this mix of sounds come to be. Is this an evolution or was this the sound day one of the band?
Jeroen: Nope, we started the band (ages ago) as a symphonic deathmetalband. Our sound (and qualitity) evolved through the years, to the point where we are now. We’ve always been strong believers that a band should evolve and grow. This record is the ultimate proof that the band matured in every aspect. Not only the music has grown and become more diversified. We’ve also put a lot of effort in finding the right artwork and cooperated with the best photographers. One can notice all the effort we took in the whole package (music, artwork, photos). It’s a good blend of the musical preferences of the individual bandmember (although I doubt we have power metal fanatics in Izegrim), mixed together to what makes Izegrim. Bart is the more technical/skilled guitarplayer, as I tend to deliver the more doomy/death-ish guitarriffs.
4. The female death vox give me chills. They are so powerful. I know so many are going to make the arch enemy reference but I more hear bands like crisis and made out of babies in vocals influence.  Who are you vocal heroes?
Marloes: Aaaah, cool ! Finally no comparison with (just) AE, thanks, haha ! Yeah, I tend to listen to a wide variety of metal. If I had to pick a few names that I’m really inspired by; Jeff Walker (Carcass), Mille (Kreator) and Sabina Classen (Holy Moses). It was absolutely a blast to work together with Sabina on our new record. I also tried more things with my voice on this new record. With all the gigs we had in the past 2 years, I noticed that I could do more with my voice than I apparently thought. I tried a lot of different techniques in our own studio. We always work with pre-production recordings, so I spend a lot of time developing my voice. I want to evolve and this new record reflects all the hard work I put into my vocal duties the past 2 years.



5. You last 2 releases have come out on listenable . How is the label to work with?  They seem to be really promoting the band.
Jeroen: Since we signed a pact with Listenable Records things are going tremendous fast for us. It felt like a new start, a turning-point in our careers. The exposure Izegrim is getting is absolutely amazing. It feels like we’ve been playing in some amateur football-club for years and finally we are playing in the Premiere League nowadays. We are in almost every big magazine in Europe, playing with awesome bands like Accept, Sabaton, Death Angel, toured with Onslaught, going on the 70.000 Tons of Metal etc etc. Things we worked for really hard, and finally all that hard work is rewarded with great feedback and superb gigs accross Europe. The cooperation with Laurent and his team is superb. We meet each other quite often at festivals accross Europe and always have a great time when we meet. They put a lot of time and effort in supporting our music, it’s great to see their support and trust in Izegrim.  



6. Being from the Netherlands. There is a rich metal history what bands from there were the ones that made you want to start this band?
Jeroen: The market seems to be flooded with all these new type of ‘old-school’ bands. I mean, the recent revival of Asphyx and Pestilence over here in Holland, Bodyfarm is battling on the deathmetal-front too (great band). I have to be honest:There wasn’t a Dutch band in particular that got me into metal. My first encounters with “metal” started in the mid 80’s with Scorpions, Europe, Bon Jovi, later some Pantera, Metal Church, Laaz Rocket etc etc.
7. Is there a running theme or a story on Congress of the insane?
Marloes: Correct, , it’s not a real concept album where we tell a story from A to Z, but it features the concept based on the evil in the deceiving human nature. Everyone seems normal, until you get to know them. There are so many freaks amongst us, one cannot open a newspaper or watch the latest news on television, without being confronted with gruesome acts of crime. Some shit is seriously horrible and one has to be really sick to even think about those crimes we see on the daily news. What disturbs and fascinates me the most is the fact, that most of these people (for instance Breivik) could be your neighbour. Apparently you cannot trust anyone these days.
8. How are live shows different then the recorded material?
Jeroen: Not much actually. Sure, you miss the interaction with the adience when you’re in the studio, but we tried to capture the energy we always have when we are on stage. You can definately hear that on the new cd, when you compare it to our previous works. Our main goal was to capture the energy we get on stage. I think this mission is accomplished with this new record. On stage we use the exact same gear as you can hear on our cd. No fancy effects during mixing, so we are able to contruct this sound at a live-situation as well.

9. What are the members of Izegrim listening to currently.? It tells more then you know...
Jeroen: my recent purchase include Annihilator, Death Angel, Hail of Bullets, the new live-dvd from Kreator. Guess that pretty much shows my main interest in music, haha.
10.  Being a band with a lenghty past are you fans of the digital age or do you miss print zines, tape trading and traditional radio?
Jeroen: Hahaha, yes ! I’m an oldy and remember the tape-trading scene. It was really awesome to be part of that scene, discovering new bands from around the world, by sending oldschool letters through the post. It absolutely had it charms to receive a tape from somewhere around the world, the excitement when opening the package. Nowadays it’s just ‘too easy’ to discover new bands. On the other hand, you can spread the word about your band pretty easy nowadays. You don’t have to go to the local copyshop to reproduce your handmade flyers, haha.
11. Will there be  any dvds or long form videos coming at you seem to have many releases to choose from.
Jeroen: at the moment we have recently released one ‘live’ video for “Relic of the Past”. To produce a full-length live-dvd is (at this moment) too expensive for us. I really want high quality stuff we release, so I guess you’ll have to be patient for a full blown live-dvd.
12. Where do you see the sound of the band moving , any leaps in style for future releases?
Jeroen: We just started new material for the new record, unfortunately it’s in a too early stage to say if we will dramatically change our style. I don’t think so, at least we don’t have any plans to record an R&B-album.
13. Thank you for the time any closing thoughts here...
Well, thank you Clint for this interview and we hope we (and your readers) can drink a few beers soon at one of our shows ! Cheers !





Comments