Monday 10 February 2014

Incarceration - interview with Daniel!

Old school death metal freaks... let’s gather for another feast of blood and guts! Here is German / Brazilian Incarceration. Daniel has answered my questions, enjoy!

Hi there Daniel! How are you doing? I hope everything is fine. Let’s start with some different than musical topics. First of all, you’re Brazilian, but for some time you live in Germany. Is it a temporary or permanent move? What made you move to Europe? How do you find yourself in the cold European winter hehe? Frozen to death yet hehe?
Hi Marcin, it's cool to have a conversation with you through this interview. One more time metal is connecting people, curva! Yes, I'm Brazilian but years ago I moved to Germany because of my girl. She's German and after some years living in Brazil we decided to move here. So it's permanent. Regarding the winter, well, I like when it's too cold here and I can travel to Brazil haha. 

I wonder how would you compare living here in Europe and in South America, in Brazil? Are there some things, which you appreciate more in one or another places, like climate, food, booze, etc?
Definitely here there are more gigs. I live near of Hamburg and almost every week there are good gigs there, sometimes 3 good gigs on the same week. Needless to say about the metal festivals (Death Metal Overdoses !), and tons of possibilities to play somewhere if you're musician. So for Necromaniacs here is definitely a better place to live metal intensively. Anyway Brazilian food rules and booze? Polish vodka curva !   

Hehe, I see that you’ve had some experience with some Polish maniacs before hehe! Great!
Everyone talks about Brazil now because of the upcoming football world cup and the Olympic games. Well, it probably gives the Brazilians as much prestige as problems… What do you think about organizing two such major events in such a short time? Will it be successful for Brazil as a country and help you fight the poverty?
Brazilians loves to party and these events mean lots of parties. And with the whole world looking for it, right? So, for many people these events mean fun and somehow they are happy with that. But personally me and a few people think Brazil needs quality hospitals, schools and jobs for the population, instead of football stadiums. Unfortunately, education in Brazil is not good and people are not stimulated to develop their critical thinking. Luckily the number of criticising Brazilians is growing, and more and more people are thinking that way, sometimes going to the streets to scream for justice etc. Anyway

I'm not so optimist regarding these events. It's sad but I expect no more than lots of corruption, neverending parties, some tourists making jokes with the Brazilian culture... but deep inside of me I hope that the good tourists will feel welcome, the population will get something positive with these experiences. And it would be fun if Brazil (or Germany) wins the Cup haha ! 

OK, let’s move to music. When and how was Incarceration formed? Did you start it already in Germany or little bit before coming here?
I started it as an one man project in 2010. When I moved to Germany in December 2011 I already had the whole concept, some songs. So in 2012 I began searching for the sickest death metal maniacs over here and after some time I found Björn and Micha.

I think that in the beginning Incarceration was a solo project, am I right? But now you’ve been joined by Michael Koch and Björn Freese. Are they full band members, who also have some responsibility for songwriting and arrangements, or more like live musicians? How have you met them?
You're right. They are full members and they are having more and more responsibilities on the whole band. They are so engaged, I feel very lucky to have met them. I believe that Ronnie James Dio - The Immortal God of Metal - was putting his finger to make it happen. I was asking around for the sickest bassplayer of Hamburg, that's when I found Björn. I sent him one track of Incarceration, he liked it and we went to a Death Metal gig together to know each other. One of the first things he said after he caught a beer was "Fuck, I hate these guys that come to gigs and don't bang their heads” and went directly to the first row and stayed there banging his head as a maniac for almost the whole gig! Micha - I've met him months later at an apartment party of a common friend of ours. He saw my patch of Abhorrence (Bra) and said that he could play that on the drums. Then he told he could play Rebaelliun too. I was thinking 'WTF?' so I asked him if he's into old school Death Metal and he said “Fuck Yeah! You'll Never See!”. On this same night he got so drunk that he was the first to fall asleep, then I thought “he's the guy!”. Now we play together and we all love each other. Awesome brotherhood we developed in such a short time. Only Filet is Real ! 


I wonder how did the recording session for “Sacrifice” looked like. I mean the drums were recorded in Brazil by Escarnium drummer Nestor Carrera and rest of the instruments were recorded in your own studio. But the sound is truly awesome, so I must admit that it makes me wonder how great effect you can get nowadays at home studio. Are you happy with the sound of it?
The good side recording at home, is that it's cheap and you can spend as much time as you want. Listen thousands of times, record again if needed. And the mix / master helped a lot to improve the final quality. So yes, I'm satisfied.

“Sacrifice” has been pressed on all possible formats, including vinyl. How have you got in touch with all these labels? Especially F.D.A. Rekotz seems to be like a best label for German old school death metal bands, so I wonder if they will be the ones, who you see as a potential label to release a full length album?
I was in touch with all of them before recording it. So after having it done, I just sent it to them, they liked and released it. Yes, F.D.A. Rekotz is a very good label to work with. And usually they have stands on the coolest festivals over here, and Rico, the owner, always brings some beers with him and give us some. So it couldn't be better haha! Need to mention Dawnbreed Records who released the vinyl and CD of “Sacrifice” and did an awesome job in all senses. They even did a patch for the first
copies of the vinyl, so it was amazing, especially when you're beginning as a band and have just three songs in hand. Misanthropic Records also is doing an awesome work there in Brazil and hopefully soon we will announce other releases over the world. By the way, they have tons of cool stuff on their catalogue, check it out: www.fda-rekotz.com (Germany), www.dawnbreed.com (The Netherlands), www.misanthropic.com.br (Brazil).

The music is damn intense, violent and aggressive, I am quite thrilled how furiously energetic these songs are. What were, do you think, your main musical influences, which led you to compose and result in something so uncompromising, old school and obscure? Are these only old, classic bands, or also some newer ones?
Both. I listen “Reign in Blood” everyday, so it's from far my main influence. I can't get enough with Hanneman riffs and all I do is to try to make riffs so aggressive, venomous and intense as their riffs. Then you put the fastest riffs of old Sepultura, Repugnant, Nihilist, Repulsion, Sadistic Intent as influences and you will understand our influences.

Yeap, they are pretty obvious. You’ve been a member of couple of Brazilian band Mortificy. I think you had your brother Mauricio on vocals. Is this band still active, if you’re away from Brazil?
Mortificy was my first official band with releases, gigs etc. Fucking brutal Death Metal, full of blasting beats insanity on the vein of Abhorrence, Rebaelliun, Ophiolatry and other Brazilian acts. Mauricio? Who is Mauricio? The correct name of my brother is Marcelo haha! And yes he's the vocalist. The band is on hold now, but we have an EP recorded to be released. It's not easy when you're living so far away and with other projects going on.

Yeah, who the fuck is Mauricio hehe? I didn’t realize, but I have “Brutal Instinct of Retaliation” demo released on the split “4 Tormenting Ways to Death” released by Polish Gruft Records. Hehe, haven’t listened to this CD for many years now! Do you remember how did it happen it was released by Gruft?
Ha, ha it's a crazy story, let's go back in the 2000's. I had sent the demo to be reviewed around the world and somehow Mephisto from Gruft invited us to the 4-way. For some reason we lost contact, so I didn't receive our copies. Then many years later, in 2012, I was travelling over Poland with Escarnium and at a gig in Poznan I've met a guy selling some records there. We haven't known each other, then he asked me where I came from and after I said "I'm from Brazil", he said "Cool, my first release was a 4 way with one Brazilian band". So I asked "Which band?" and he answered "The band is called Mortificy". I was like "FUCK! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?", "hummm, no?", "I AM DANIEL, FROM MORTIFICY!!!", "FUUUUCK!!!" and after that, it was so great man! It was Mephisto. He gave me tons of CDs, hugs, vodkas (curva!) and me and Escarnium guys even slept at his place that night. Metal sometimes bring so crazy moments, fuck. :)

And what about “Burn and Suffer”? Can you tell me something more about this album? Is it available anywhere? How would you compare it musically to the previous Mortificy materials, but also to Incarceration? Feels like Mortificy is way more brutal.
So far I know it's sold out. But I think that if you search you can find it somewhere. Humm… Mortificy and Incarceration are totally different in my opinion. Mortificy is full of blasting beats, growls and brutality and Incarceration is on the very old thrash / death way, full of screams and 'tupa tupa tupa tupa tupa' you know? And I advanced in the art of riffing. So with Incarceration I try to write killer songs while with Mortificy, as you said, we wrote brutal ones.

How do you view the Brazilian death metal? From one hand it is considered to be cult with classics albums of bands like Sepultura, Sacrofago, Chakal, Volcano, Headhunter DC and so on and on, but also we have many newer bands, which created something different - fast as hell and technical bands like Krisiun, Rebaelliun, Nephasth, Ophiolatry. Of course there are many, many more great bands. So, what do you think of your native scene? Which is your favourite Brazilian LP of all time?
It's so great to hear about these bands, Marcin! We need to drink some Polish vodkas and Brazilian cachaças someday and listen to them curva! \m/ I love Brazilian bands and, especially the brutal ones you mentioned. I can't say just one Brazilian LP, but “And the Sky Turns to Black”, “Burn the Promised Land” and “Evoking the Abomination” makes me crazy. I fucking go insane with them, fuck! Need to listen to them right now, curva ! 

Definitely Daniel, definitely. You are absolutely right. But what the hell is cachaças? Escarnium seems to be your brother band, you share some members for live playing in Brazil with them and had that digital split EP released together. I love their “Excruciating Existence” album, it is a very strong and killer stuff! What do you think of this band? How was that tour you played together? Was it exciting for you?
Escarnium? They are a bunch of Filets, filets da puta (motherfuckers) haha!! Love that guys Marcin, they live in my heart. I'm so fucking thankful to them. Nestor recorded the drums of “Sacrifice” EP, he and Victor played some gigs on our tour. It was so funny, we had never rehearsed before, so in Milan I said before the gig "Hi everybody, we never rehearsed before so maybe this gig will be a shit, but let’s begin the ritual!!" and BOOM! They kicked all asses over there, it was insane! Big pleasure. I already did 2 tours with them. Micha and Björn also had very good times with them on the first gigs of our tour together. We all are strongly connected. Only Filets are Real. \m/

OK, back to Incarceration. I would like to ask you about the lyrics for “Cemetery of Lies”. It is quite a horror story, with a priest raping a child and revenge taken by the father… Now there’s a lot of talk about the pedophile priests and the public is more and more making a pressure on Vatican to stop this hypocrisy and cut the pedophilia in the church once and for all. I think that obviously it is very sad what happens to these children, but from the other hand it only fastens the fall of christianity, people really have enough of them. But Brazil is still deeply religious, right? Probably just as much as Poland hehe! We’re still in Middle Ages kind of he!
There are so many churches in Brazil, you can't believe. (I suppose I can, as it probably is just as normal part of the landscape as it is here in Poland hehe – P666) A fucking lot, everywhere you look you see churches over there. And most of them earn money asking 10% of people's income. They call it 'dízimo', and they say stupid things like that when you pay your dizimo, you are building your house in heaven. It's so fucking stupid and sad to see an infinite amount of poor people being brainwashed
and giving 10% of their very short money for these institutions. And now the small churches from before are growing so fast there, they are becoming strong in the politics, in the strong media such as television. Their moral, their values are so fucking conservative and stupid, I fucking hate them! Hate them! Let's go there Marcin, kill these bastards of Christ and burn them all into their Cemetery of Lies!!!! Uh!

Just like in the good old Deicide song, ha? I think there are some killer gigs confirmed for Incarceration, like the gigs with Necrowretch and Morbus Chron or with Unaussprechlichen Kulten. What expectations do you have from these gigs? And also, what about the concerts, which you already gave? What were they like? Which were your favourite and gave you the best memories? Share some thoughts with us!
Yes, it's awesome to have a band in north Germany. This week we confirmed another gig with Nunslaughter and Demonical in Hamburg, it will be another memorable night. It's still a bit surreal for a guy who had a band for so long time in Amazon / Brazil, far away from everything. With Unaussprechlichen Kulten we are going to tour together in September actually, also together with the Mexican maniacs of Zombiefication. I'm looking forward to it. This year we are playing at Party San Open Air, Grind the Nazi Scum Festival, Nocturnal Fest in Berlin, it's amazing. Talking about Berlin, last time we played there it was fucking insane. Morbid Catacombs Festival was the name, we played together with our mates of Funeral Whore, Krypts, Slaughterday, Undead Creep, among others. Try to imagine a fucking HUGE squat, full of graffiti, artworks, punks, crusts, death metal heads, all together sharing a Death Metal night into something like an immense basement. When we started our gig it was so fucking insane, that kind of gig full of stage diving, insane first row with people being pushed to the stage, cable of the bass being disconnected lots of times! I'll Never forget of Kellie (Funeral Whore) having fun with the gig, going to the stage with her mini-handbag and reconnecting the cable of the bass that was being disconnected by the insane bangers while we were playing as fast we could! At some moment I was screaming as a maniac, then I looked to my side and I saw FIVE guys laying down over the stage, between me and Björn, one above each other. They were pushed to the stage, total chaos, fuck! Insane night! Would love to play there again! After that we were dead and in the end, me and Micha partied till 8am. When we leaved the 'catacombs' the light of the sun almost burned our eyes and skin, it was so bright, we felt like vampires going out from the cave. Crazy Berlin! 

Hehehehe! And new material… what will it be and when? Thanks for your answers, Daniel!!!!!!!
The challenge now is to write the full album and record / release it as soon as possible. The thing is that we need time to write killer songs, but we are working hard to have it done soon. We are quite satisfied with the new songs we have like “Infernal Suffering”, “Chaos and Blasphemy”, among others. We plan to write something short and intense, “Reign in Blood” is our highest reference. Let's see what will come. Hope that Satan and Hannemann will keep inspiring our riffs and Dio will keep putting his finger on our Death Metal story while we walk through the left hand path ha, ha! Thank you for this interview Marcin, hope to meet you soon and share some night of metal insanity! Then will be your time to tell us your stories haha ! Death Metal 'till Death! Uh!

No comments:

Post a Comment