Hell-o! You are quite an unknown matter to the Czech Republic, so I would like you to give us a short introduction of your band GRIND INC. Why did you name your band like this and why did you name your album "Executed", why did you use Deather´s painting. why, why, why, I want to know everything about you!
Tom: Wow, what a hell of whys! The band name just evolved some years ago when the band started as a weekend project to create a multiverse of noise. Later on the music focussed much more on the brutality of Death Metal, but we kept the name. It’s a disadvantage that people associate us with Grindcore at first, but an advantage to have a short name people can remember easily. The title “Executed” simply shows the focus of GRIND INC.: raw, brutal, straight in your face bullets of sonic rage. We decided to use Deather’s painting for several reasons. First up of course because he’s a killer artist, secondly because you don’t find his paintings on any Death Metal album that came out in the last few months (like it sometimes happens with good artists if they become “too” famous). And finally because he’s as underground as we are which means that we don’t talk about big dollars (which we don’t have anyway, haha) but about the shared love for extreme but not childish art, musically and optically. Apart from that there’s nothing special about us, we are just five guys who create some good, friendly violence as Exodus said. We decided to canalise our rage through music instead of doing some boring, senseless or grave robbing shit, haha.
Your music is like a hurricane, it blows down everything alive and only a bare plateau remains, yeah! Was it actually your intention to create such an album? There´s no need to discuss the sound because it is truly perfect! What bands inspired GRIND INC., or are you trying to not to absorb influences of others?
Tom: Thanks for the killer description of the music! The only intention was to create really ass kicking brutality. We all play or played in several other bands like Night In Gales, Hate Factor or Coronation, but GRIND INC. is the truly brutal fucker among them. We just went to the rehearsal room, and if the track was brutal enough, it was good for GRIND INC. The recording process was very underground, but due to the great work of the people working on it, we think the sound is quite cool for a debut album. Be sure the next album will sound even sicker and more professional! “Executed” is just the beginning! There will be life after death! We are inspired by a lot of bands so it would be too long to mention them all. Just look out for all these killer bands… we like a lot of several styles from Progressive over Hardcore to Death Metal, but our main influence is Death Metal.
Do you have a classic musical education or are you just teach-yourself people? Is it possible to get a suitable musician for your band for the case that anyone leaves the band? How often do you meet to play together?
Tom: Some of us got some lessons as teenagers, but all in all we are self-teaching. I remember the year 1992 when our drummer Adriano learned his first double bass parts with some Carcass songs which was quite funny at that time. And now he's a fucking whirlwind... We never thought about replacing someone, also because you nearly can't find any drummer or guitar player as good as our own ones in our area at the moment. Of course there are some other good musicians, but they all have their own bands as well. At least we have two singers in case one is ill, haha... We meet about one to two times a week to do some rehearsals. We drink some beers and blast down our set or work on new songs.
What I really like about you is that you are not trying to copy the american brutal scene and seem to have your own way, trying to keep your own face, if you see what I mean. Most of the bands are trying to be like all the overseas bands, but if I listen to GRIND INC., I have the feeling that you have created your own concept of death-grind, trying not to get lost in the sea of all the X-bands. Do you prefer American death metal to European version or vice versa?
Tom: Actually we don't really care about a band's origin. In nearly any country a good Death Metal band can be found. But concerning the styles, we prefer the American sound towards the Swedish. Personally I like the old Stockholm sound a lot. Old Carnage, Entombed, Grave, Dismember rocked, but nothing had such an impact on us like the Florida scene with all its brutal acts. I am glad that you like our style, because you are right, we are not trying to copy a band's style but play just the sound we like. And if people compare us to Cannibal Corpse, Dying Fetus or Malevolent Creation, so what, these are killer bands and of course we like all of them.
I have to confess that when I got your CD, it remained laying on my desk like 10 - 15 minutes. When I cast my eye on your disk, it didn´t catch my interest instantly and I was still postponing listening to it and thought "Ah, another average death metal German band." and it was such a mistake!!! It seems to me that the booklet is fast-made without any idea, deeper thought. even though it does contain all the important information, but. Are you personally satisfied with the booklet?
Tom: Well, actually I did the booklet myself and do understand what you mean. On one hand there was not much time left to create a massive design, but on the other hand I intended to keep the focus on the music. That's also the reason why the cover artwork is very basic, only with Deather’s demon and our logo and title. And of course I used a lot of white spaces because I tried to differ from usual Death Metal records. For the next record I will take more time, but will also stay aside from usual ways of the scene.
When listening to "Executed", it comes to my mind that you had to be damn ready and satisfied with every single riff, right? You´re perfectionists, huh? Are you satisfied with the final result and do you consider Hate studio to be your future project studio, too?
Tom: We try to give our best, but we are not perfectionists. We try to keep a spontaneous and somehow live attitude which you can hopefully hear on the record. This for example includes that the lyrics for the track “40 Incisions” were created in an improvised way while recording, haha. We think the final result is okay and kick ass enough for a debut, but we will do an even better job with the next record. We're not sure yet if we stay with Hate Studio as it is way too underground. We will use it for a pre-production of the next album, but maybe we will also check a different studio for the final recordings. Anyway, we are happy that we got such a cool sound for our first record.
I wonder if you can perform LIVE "Executed" with such a perfection, spark and drive with which it was recorded in studio? Looking at the summer festivals flyers, I can see your name on none of them! Do you think that "less is sometimes more"?
Tom: We are a live band! It's been rather hard to transport our live energy to the recording studio, so expect nothing but an intoxicating live performance when you have the chance to see us on stage. As the album has just been released and we're still a newcomer, it's kinda hard to get on a bigger festival. I guess Obscene Extreme should be working for next year. Apart from that we were ripped by Fuck The Commerce as I had a personal confirmation for this year, but nothing happened. Anyway, we will play some shows with acts like Cephalic Carnage and Gorerotted now, so that's a good point to start spreading the word about GRIND “fucking” INC. And you are also right, that sometimes less is more. We used to play any telephone booth with our old bands, but will concentrate on the bigger shows in the future.
Germany is famous for its summer festivals such as SUMMER BREEZE, FUCK THE COMMERCE, WITH FULL FORCE, PARTY SAN, etc. How do you consider them from the point of view of a person living in Germany? For a common Czech, it is rather a unique occasion to visit such an event. Do you ever go to such festivals or are you the type of person who prefers to listen to a CD at home with all the comfort than be constrained somewhere on a concert?
Tom: I used to visit Dynamo Open Air in the Netherlands since 1992 and have been at Wacken and other smaller festivals several times. But these days I don't have that much time for festivals, so in recent time, I have only been at Rock Hard Festival. Apart from that I like festivals but we have too much of them so there's nothing special about it anymore as it would be for you.
Germany. OBSCENITY, NECROPHAGIST, DESPONDENCY, MORSGATT and now GRIND INC., who belong to the best matters of your country. Do you have any other hot candidates that you could recommend?
Tom: Thanks for the words... :) Well, there are a lot of cool bands out there so I feel a bit queasy to mention only some of them. Just for a small example, check out C.B.T., Resurrected, Ravage or Infecdead.
You have set in at German MORBID RECORDS. How did you get in touch with them, did you send them some promo CDs, did you have any other offerings from another labels, too? What do you expect from your co-work, what do they offer to you? They usually arrange a European tour for their bands, so how probable it is that I could see you here? Are you willing to travel even to make only one concert in the particular country?
Tom: I used to do some work for them and gave them a demo. They liked it, got us on the Morbide Festspiele festival and liked our show as well, so we got the deal. If they would not have taken us, we would have signed with Remission Records who like our stuff as well. Morbid are doing a good job and help us getting the name established in the scene. No infos about a full tour yet, but skip to the last question to get some previews. :) Of course we would travel to a country for a single show, but it should be reasonable. Means that we need to have our expenses and/or another show on the way to keep costs low. Or some cheap flight tickets as driving thousands of kilometers is boring as hell, haha... especially if you have to listen to the same CD over and over again. Since our trip to the Depth Of Winter Festival last year we are diehard fans of Decrepit Birth, haha. The funny thing was that some weeks later we got to know one of the Decrepit guys because he also plays in Suffocation.
What is your occupation? Are you satisfied with your job and earnings? Is it possible to live like a musician on the loose or with the social benefit in Germany, or is this just a mere vision?
Tom: Damn, what a personal question, haha... actually I am responsbile for sales and marketing in a company that manufactures computer cases, power supplies and multimedia systems. I am very satisfied with my job but not with my earnings because it's a Chinese company and I am the new guy. But I think this problem will be solved in some months. Anyway, it is possible not to work in Germany and have a good living – but to be honest, I don't like people who plan to live from social benefit on purpose. In my opinion social benefit is abused way too often, it should be for people in affliction. If you are healthy, go out and earn your own fucking money to live on! I don't like to get up every morning and do my job, but I have a responsibility for my family, so I do what has to be done. Hey, everyday life offers you a lot of inspiration to unleash the blasting death metal beast at night...
So. good luck with your future projects and before we end up this interview, could you reveal a bit of plans of GRIND INC.? Thanks a lot for your time!
Tom: As said we are playing several shows, mainly on the weekend but maybe in autumn also a tour with our buddies from Resurrected or with our labelmates Death Reality. Looks like later on we will also play with Deadsoil and our drinking partners Night In Gales as our drummer is related to these fuckers as well. Apart from that we will create some new fucking killer songs and record them by the end of the year. Fuck, fuck, fuck, hell yeah... :) Lukas, thanks for taking the time for this cool interview – whenever we destroy your local stage, I want to see you diving off the stage the old school way! Cheerz, Tom & GRIND INC. www.grindinc666.de www.morbidrecords.de
