BILE OF MAN

PHOTOGRAPHY BY EUGENE MAARTENS
WEBSITE: www.bileofman.com
COUNTRY: South Africa STYLE: Death Metal

WHY DO YOU THINK THAT OUT OF ALL THE MUSIC STYLES IN THE WORLD, DEATH METAL HAS CREATED SUCH A BIG CREATIVE DRIVE IN ALL OF THE BAND MEMBERS TO CREATE THE MUSIC YOU DO?

CHOROZ: As individual band members we're influenced by so many genres it is funny. We're all totally consumed by death metal when it comes to power and expression in music though. We have had so many members and changed so many positions in the band, mostly guitarists. Hopefully with Nicolas, ex-Witchazel, joining we can slough off the burden of interviewing and retraining guitarists. Luckily every line-up change inspires us to up our game.

THE BAND HAS RELEASED TWO NEW TRACKS ONLINE TITLED “WRATH OF THE STILLBORN” AND “DESCENDANT OF DESECRATION”. DO THEY DIFFER MUCH MUSICALLY COMPARED TO OLDER MATERIAL?

CHOROZ: Wrath of the stillborn is our newest complete track and shows our new direction in song writing. Descendant was one of our very first songs that we've played for over 3 years now. It felt good to finally get the material out. Thanks to Mathew Palmer from The Denn.

ARE THESE SONGS PART OF A BIGGER RELEASE COMING OUT AT A LATER STAGE, OR ARE YOU GUYS STICKING TO RELEASING ONE OR TWO SONGS AT REGULAR INTERVALS AND THEN RELEASING EVERYTHING AS ONE PACKAGE?

CHOROZ: We have 9 original songs currently, yet we'll most probably work on another 2 tracks and some multimedia material and then release that as a four song EP at some stage, hopefully before year end. Death metal and deadlines, really eldritch.

WHERE DOES THE BAND DO MOST OF ITS RECORDING, AND DID IT TAKE LONG FOR THE BAND TO DECIDE ON THE SOUND OF THE GUITARS AND THAT SORT OF THING?

CHOROZ: The Denn. Very happy how it turned out.

BENNIE: Because we were working with a great engineer, who understands and has a passion for the music we play, it was fairly easy to get the sound that we have now.

THE PRODUCTION OF THE NEW SONGS ARE VERY GOOD AND IT SEEMS LIKE LOCAL BANDS ARE FINALLY GETTING RID OF THAT “GARAGE” SOUND, BECAUSE IF ONE LISTENS TO THE STUFF THAT HAS BEEN COMING OUT LATELY LOCALLY, THE FUTURE LOOKS REALLY BRIGHT. DO YOU AGREE?

CHOROZ: Very much so, the local scene is insanely vibrant currently.

WHAT GUITAR TUNINGS AND GEAR DOES THE BAND CURRENTLY USE, AND HAVE YOU SEEN ANY GEAR LATELY THAT MADE YOU RUN IN CIRCLES AND SCREAM, “I WANT THAT!”?

BENNIE: We play in Standard B. I guess we always ask ourselves the question: "Is it heavy enough?", but going even lower to lets say A standard, would be foolish, because a lot of the riffs we play would just get muddy and plain ugly if you ask me. But B helps a lot with crunchy, driving riffs for heaviness. We play LTD (Jeff Hanneman signature) and Jackson Roads V, Randall and Crate half stacks and both guitars through the almighty Boss MT-2 distortion pedal.

Guitar wise, I was looking at the Ibanez XPT-700 which pretty much got me sold on it and also the BC Rich BEAST.

BY PLAYING BRUTAL DEATH METAL, I GUESS THE BAND’S MAIN FOCUS IS TO MAKE MUSIC THAT IS AS HEAVY AS POSSIBLE OR IS THERE MORE TO IT THAN SOUNDING HEAVY?

CHOROZ: Well, naturally we'll end up sounding heavy. None of this would be worth it if we didn't have fun times playing it. It's all about the process, enjoying heavy music and also feeding back into that loop. A recent set of gigs to Durban with Contrast the Water, Day Turns Night, and others, were so much fun.

BENNIE: It's not Death Metal if it's not heavy as hell, but we try to keep focus on things also that might be of a "catchy" nature, repeating parts that are recognizable and perhaps parts in the song where you can just go all out and headbang your ass off. Hence, in some of our songs we would name the riff, "The Headbang Riff".

I’VE INTERVIEWED A FEW LOCAL DEATH METAL BANDS THAT SAID THAT THEY WANTED TO MAKE DEATH METAL MUSIC WITH AN “AFRICAN EDGE”. ARE YOU AIMING FOR THE SAME THING AND IF SO, HOW DOES A BAND GO ABOUT DOING THAT WHEN DEATH METAL HAS THE SAME “CORE” SOUND WORLDWIDE?

CHOROZ: Unfortunately I cannot subscribe to the African Renaissance idea. I don't really know what 'African Edge' would mean in this context.

BENNIE: We do not exactly think that xilophones, keyboards or a vuvuzela would fit in with Death Metal. Imagine a Death Metal vuvuzela solo with insane double bass behind it.

DO YOU THINK THAT THE REASON SO MANY DEATH METAL BANDS, (LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL) ARE INCORPORATING OTHER “INFLUENCES” INTO THEIR MUSIC IS BECAUSE EVERYTHING THAT IS POSSIBLE IN THE GENRE HAS ALREADY BEEN DONE?

BENNIE: I think there are many bands out there that get caught in the perception of "Thats already been done and we need something different", that they explore so many different "other influences" like you say, that they don't really have a backbone to work from and then things start sounding like ideas thrown in a basket and randomly drawn and put into the mix. When you have 5 members all contributing to the writing of a song, you are bound to come up with a product that will stick with people and ultimately that's what you want.

I SEE YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE IS FULL OF GREAT COMMENTS ABOUT YOUR LIVE SHOWS. HAS THAT TYPE OF FEEDBACK GIVEN THE BAND CONFIDENCE TO JUST KEEP DOING WHAT YOU’RE DOING AND AIM TO GIVE FANS “BIGGER AND BETTER” SHOWS?

CHOROZ: Fan interaction at live shows are absolutely required. Live symbiosis absolutely. Bring us your energy and we'll amplify it and feed it back to you. We're always striving for better live shows, that's where you sell your concepts to a crowd and where you get the most word of mouth going. 'Can you deliver on-stage?' is a very important question.

We have a good energy in the band, especially since Rehan, the new vocalist, joined. We're energy drink junkies, through and through. Hyper-caffeinated. Keyword there. Coming to think of it, would still like to taste the Vader drink...

DO YOU HAVE CERTAIN SONGS THAT ALWAYS SEEM TO GET A CROWD “FIRED UP” NO MATTER WHERE YOU PERFORM?

CHOROZ: Definitely, 'Tortured till death' always seems to get the pits moving at insane speeds and Seduced to Disembowelment with super slow repetitive riffs (bangable), we often end our shows with this song.

I SEE THE BAND HAS A SHOW COMING UP IN OCTOBER. ARE THERE ANY OTHERS PEOPLE SHOULD LOOK OUT FOR?

BENNIE: We are playing at the Rocktober '09 Fest in Hendrina on the 10th of October, "Devils Night" at Full Moon Lounge on the 30th of October and also Thornfest The Camp 2010 which is an all ages, 4 day camp over event which will be held from 28th -31st January 2010. You can check all these details out on Facebook.

ANY COMMENTS; THINGS FANS SHOULD KNOW OR PEOPLE YOU WOULD LIKE TO THANK?

CHOROZ: Vegetarians are made of meat.

BENNIE: Bile of Man will clean out your fridge, pantry and secret cookie stash.

A great thanks to some people who have helped us massively in some of our past endeavors:

Barry and Delia Drewett for your hospitality and for being such avid supporters of Metal in South Africa, Shay (Elegy) and the Equinox Crew in Secunda, Mutt from The Denn for making us sound so brutal and Brad Hitchin, our manager. And then big ups to these bands we have always had lots of fun with at shows: Architecture of Aggression, All Forlorn, Contrast the Water, Where Martyrs Dare, Tranquil (RIP), Sathern, Haggis and Bong, Erebus, Day Turns Night and Pledge Defiance. Stay Brutal!