INTERVIEW WITH CAL FROM NECROSANCT - DEC. 2011

1 - Necrosanct were one of the bands from the original pre-commercial death metal scene.  What were your influences for writing music ?  was tape-trading a big thing for you ?

Yes thats right we were part of the first wave of bands to make extreme deathmetal and grind. We were influenced by many things, like Warhammer, horror films and dark writers like H.P.Lovecraft. There was a certain amount of tape trading went on but it wasn't a big thing for us.  

 
2 - Was coming from Brighton a hinderence to your progress ?  I guess there was no real scene here to speak of ?

There was no other grind or death metal bands in Brighton at first so there was not much of a scene. The first gigs had real poor turn out but it got better when we released 'Incarnate' .  Then when we organised gigs with bands like Unleashed and Cancer to play with us in Brighton it kicked off a bit more and the gigs started to get full.  

 
3 - You recorded your first demo, and then an album - 'Equal in Death'.  The album was not well publicised - did you change direction after that ?  or did you keep on going with the ideas you had when you first started ? 

Yes it was a tiny label and badly publicised so it went unnoticed, the press was not good and they criticised its poor production. It was difficult to record and capture the sound of an extreme band back then, the local studios had no experience of music even close to ours. 
The ideas in the band stayed the same after that, the sound just got more extreme and the playing got a bit heavier and faster.


4 - You later signed to the legendary Black Mark records.  What was the feeling to be on the same label as Bathory ? How was their support ?

Yes, Ant the singer managed to blag us a deal with Black Mark. I think he managed to convince Boss by saying we were 'the most FuckOff band in England', that seemed to do the trick. Being the label of Bathory it all had a very professional side to it and made us feel like it was a bigger thing compared to the previous 'Equal in Death' album. Their support was ok i guess, but they gave priority to some of the other bands.  

 
5 - You went to Sweden to record with 'The Boss' in the producers chair.  How was this experience ?  Did you meet 'Quorthorn' ?  Were you a fan of Bathory ?

Yes twice we went to Sweden and froze our nuts off in January, to Montezuma Studios, with Rex engineering he had just finished Therions album so was a bit tired. Then he had 3 weeks of Necrosanct poor guy, but it was all relaxed and a good laugh really, we all made our parts as best as we could in this rather fancy studio with big speakers. Bit different from the Pink Dog in Worthing.
No i never met Quorthon, wish i had now.  I like the albums i heard, and was gutted he died, he is the type of guy he could have produced so much epic stuff.  

 
6 - Tell us about the two albums ('Incarnate' & 'Desolate') that you recorded with Black Mark ?  How did they differ ?  What was the reaction at the time in the press ?

'Incarnate' is more raw and chaotic, its a completely over the top album. 'Desolate' is more bestial and heavy, it relentlessly pounds grind but with more deathmetal influence. The press was mixed, some reviews were not so great, we got 'worst album of the month' on a few occasions. They would come up with lines like 'vocals sound like a parrot in a liquidiser', or ' a change of tempo might help them out'
I guess for many people back then it was too extreme and ahead of its time, there was not many other bands playing relentless grind for 3 minutes without stopping. We totally floored them.

 
7 - Extreme Metal has become a massive global sub-genre with a large industry (a far cry from the early 90s) - what do you think about this, considering it's roots in a punk ethic ?  Traitors one and all ?

Its inevitable any underground scene that is cool will eventually get more popular, but an underground always remains with many loyal followers. Earlier this year i toured round east europe with Brazilian grind band Cativeiro, its an experience, and its a cool underground scene with great people everywhere. Sure there are few traitors out there but it doesn't concern me what they are doing. 
 
8 - What do you think of the extreme Metal scene since you split in 1994 ?  We have had the commercialisation of Death Metal, the rise of Black Metal - what do you make of this ?

It has good and bad sides. But amongst the crap I still hear some great modern deathmetal and grind these days, so thats all that counts. 

9 - You are currently active with your new project - tell us about this ?  What are the other former members of Necrosanct doing musically these days ?  Are you in touch with them ?

Yeah thats right, some of the spirit of Necrosanct lives on in a mutated form called 'Umbah'. Been going for long time now, its covered a lot of ground mainly in the electronic-metal realms. Its extreme stuff, just in a different way... recently got the first release of the album 'Trilobeth' by an obscure label called 'I, Voidhanger'. 

The other guys don't have bands at the moment.  Unfortunately its rare we catch up in person, cause we are all living far away these days.

  
10 - Any final words ?

Thanks for the interest and the interview, been great to share a few memories with old Necrosanct fans all round the world. 
Suffer Always!!