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Interview with Ben McCrow of
The Rotted
December 7th 2008 by James Young |
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Gorerotted were one of London’s filthiest
grinding death metal acts, and rising out of their bloodied ashes
come a new force, which is set to become an even greater force in
extreme metal. The Rotted’s debut album, Get Dead Or Die Trying, is
a lethal mix of death metal, punk intensity, and other elements
which we could only find out from the cockney boys themselves. I
managed to track down vocalist Ben McCrow before their ‘Season’s
Beatings’ show in Camden to ask what the secret ingredients were, as
well as other issues. It soon became clear that the band see
themselves as an entirely new entity, and that they are more than
willing to let sleeping corpses lie…
Hi, thanks for taking the time out to talk to Live4Metal. How does
the new album, Get Dead Or Die Trying, sound different from the
previous albums?
I think it’s a lot freer than the last albums. The last albums were
written by different writers, younger kids. With this we could let
our barriers down and just fucking do exactly what we wanted. We
lost all the constraints of being a gore-orientated band and let
whatever we wanted come out. It’s just taken what we knew to a whole
new level and it’s improved on it a thousand times.
So what were these ‘things’ that came out?
We just got into the studio, wrote, and just fucking jammed - just
five mates in a room jamming basically. I would say there’s a much
larger punk influence (I’m talking 80’s UK punk here), thrash
influence, a bit more of a black metal influence, it’s all mixed up.
There’s even a couple of industrial moments in there which you have
to listen for. It’s just a big mix - we’re not going to be boxed in
by any fucking subgenre.
Is the album name, Get Dead Or Die Trying,
based on the 50 Cent album?
No. A lot of people say that, but ‘get whatever or die trying’ is
quite a common phrase, whether it’s ‘get rich’ or whatever. The
whole idea of the album is about doing things to enjoy life which
are ultimately bad for you. Most of the lyrics on the album are
about that.
The members of the band have been fluctuating
constantly. When did you decide to change the band name, and were
you writing the album when these people were leaving?
When we realised that me and Tim [Carley, guitar] were the only
people left from the first album, and we sounded so much different,
we thought fuck off Gorerotted, you’re always going to be
pigeonholed, let’s just fucking do a new band - let’s make our band.
We had ten or eleven good years as Gorerotted - we loved doing it
and we’re proud of it, but let’s just move on and start something
new, and it gave us a newfound energy and life-force that wasn’t
there before.
Were these new members your friends
beforehand?
Yeah, Trudgill [bass] we’ve known many years, Nate [Gould, drums]
Moved over when he was in contact with Trudgill and Tim ages ago. He
left the army and came over to England to play the drums. Gian
[Pyres, guitar] we knew - he lives just up the road from Tim. They
were obvious choices, in terms of commitment, song-writing ability
and what they bring to the table.
Did they bring any new influences? One was
from Cradle of Filth, and two of them were in Screamin’ Daemon, who
I would have described as a black metal Gorerotted.
Yeah, definitely. Obviously Gian’s from a different musical
background to Tim and I. He’s obviously quite well known for his
work with Cradle of Filth and he’s brought lots of new melodies and
killer riffs to us. Trudgill plays bass like a fucking old-school
bassist - he plays with the drums. A lot of bassists in extreme
metal try and play with the guitars - Trudgill goes with the drums
so it’s more like the classic way of doing it. Nate is just very
diverse and experimental, pushing himself to be the best he can. It
just worked great on all fucking levels.
So is the name change more because of the
members or the sound changing, or is it both?
It’s a combination. You can get away with keeping your name if just
the sound’s different, or if just your band members change. But if
the band members have changed, and the sound’s changed, and you’re
sick of doing shitty gigs with bands called ‘Impaled…Foetus…Vaginal…Cockvomit’
or whatever, you just move on. You just say ‘alright, see you later
guys’ and that’s what we’ve done. |
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What concepts do you deal with on the new
album?
Just life, you know. Drugs, police troubles, legal problems, the way
I see things through my eyes, tour stories, injustices, the way the
world is. There’s a lot more to say now than there used to be. It’s
all very well singing about zombies and horror and serial killers,
but you can’t really put your whole heart into it. You don’t believe
in it, if you know what I mean.
So could you give an example of a song which
has been influenced from life?
‘Return To Insolence’ is quite relevant to the situation now, you
know. People panicking over the credit crunch bollocks, panicking
over whether they can afford this, that, and the other. I’m just
thinking ‘fuck off, mate, just fucking deal with it -toughen up,
deal with it’. I just sit back, watch these cunts, laughing at them,
having a drink, having a smoke, having a line, whatever - fucking
deal with it!
So it’s not so much about the horror films
anymore, but you still included the soundtrack to 28 Days (or was it
Weeks) Later?
I think both, actually.
What influenced that?
Well, this album is still about horror, but in a sense it’s about
life’s horror rather than made up horror. It’s about the horrors we
experience, and I’m sure everyone throughout their lives experience
it. That soundtrack came up for it because we demoed it for a zombie
porn film called Zombie Muff Divers, and we thought it sounded so
cool it would be an ultimate epic closer to a fucking great album.
So is Zombie Muff Divers out yet?
No, it’s still in a very early stage. It’s difficult to get a film
together, get all the fucking funding, get all the actors - it’s so
hard. I’m moving soon as well, me and the missus, so even harder.
Porn Of The Dead also has you on the
soundtrack. How did this come about?
Yeah, Gorerotted. It was Rob Rotten who got in touch with the label
and asked if the guys wanted to be on the film, and we were like
‘yeah, obviously’.
I’ve seen pictures, and I’d like to get hold
of it.
It’s good, I’d recommend it. Very cool.
I’ve heard you say in the past that you
weren’t happy with the vocal performance on the last album, A New
Dawn For The Dead. Were you happy with the new album?
Yeah, it’s better. I’ve just bought a new mic and it sounds even
louder now. The problem with a lot of death metal vocalists is that
they think the best way to be the most aggressive and extreme is to
do it deeply, and it just sounds quiet and lifeless. Brutal vocals,
you have to shout your fucking bollocks off - it’s not just
murmuring fucking gibberish.
Do you think Gorerotted were peaking in
popularity at the time you decided to call it quits?
I dunno, every year always got better for Gorerotted. We were
becoming better known, doing bigger festivals…
You were announced for Wacken…
The Rotted played at Wacken. Gorerotted were on the bill but we just
changed it. We did Waldrock Festival with Celtic Frost, Meshuggah,
Dropkick Murphys - wicked festival. We did Brutal Assault festival
with Satyricon, Enslaved, Mad Ball - all these cool bands - and it
was about that time when you realise your days of playing deathfests
are a bit numbered, because you don’t get a lot out of that sort of
thing. But when you can honestly stand by the side of the stage
enjoying every band that you’re watching, you know that’s what you
want to do.
So do you still play the old stuff live? I saw
you play ‘Only Tools And Corpses’ at Napalm Death the other day…
Honestly, it would depend on the gig. If we’re headlining the show,
we’ll fucking put some old stuff in there, because we’ll make our
setlist longer, and people will come and see us who will be familiar
with the old stuff.
So what will you play tonight?
Well, you’ll see… You’ll get a couple of songs from the first album.
When we’re supporting the bigger bands, and we’ve only got a limited
time slot, I don’t see the point in playing old stuff when we’re
trying to promote the new album to these kids who might not know us.
They don’t need to know about that - they can find out later. |
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I noticed that you were doing more of the
high-pitched scream yourself now rather than just the grunts. Wilson
used to do those, and Mr. Gore before that. Why are you doing them
now, when you have Trudgill who screamed for Screamin’ Daemon?
Well, on the new albums I do all the vocals. Wilson did a bit but
wanted to concentrate on bass on the last album, so I did everything
on there and I like to vary it. I don’t want monotonous vocals, and
different parts of the song need different vocals, so I just do what
feels right, really. Now live I do the vocals and my boys do the odd
backing shout and help me out to keep in time. With the old stuff,
Trudgill helps out a bit.
What do you think of the current UK death
metal scene? You haven’t slammed it, but you say you’re sick of
playing with some of the bands.
I’m not sick of it, but I just don’t feel a part of it really. And
I’m sure they don’t want us to be a part of their scene - I don’t
really know what they think of us to be honest. There are new bands
coming out, and some of them are pretty cool, but I think a lot of
bands are just too scared to think outside the box. They want to
stick to the rules and give death metal fans what they want, whereas
what they should be doing is playing what they want. And if that is
what they want, good luck to them. They can do their shows and we do
ours. I don’t know if they’ve got a problem with us or not, but each
to their own basically.
Thanks for your time. Do you have any final
words for the readers of Live4Metal?
You know, I hope that people listen to this album how I listen to an
album, and that is: forget what they’ve done in the past, listen to
what they’re doing now. Listen to it with an open mind. Don’t expect
songs about zombies anymore. Don’t expect generic death / grind
riffs. We’re gonna experiment. And I just hope that if you enjoy it,
come out and see us - it’s everyone’s party. Anyone’s welcome to our
shows, so let’s get out there and tear it up!
Don’t be rotten - check out The Rotted’s latest album at
www.myspace.com/therotted and
www.metalblade.de |
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