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 !
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