Ill Fares The Land
Wywiad przeprowadził Tomash & Olo
Most metalheads associate Belgian metal with only few bands like Agathocles, Enthroned, Ancient Rites or Aborted . But we can see many new great bands coming like Prejudice, Leng T'che and many others being just a top of an iceberg there! Ill Fares The Land is definately one of the most interesting in this company so be sure to check their mcd "Nonetity". Maybe those guys are not workaholics - they do exist for 6 or even 7 years and this is their first official effort, but, in my humble opinion, quality, not quantity should be a target of priority."Nonentity" has been available for a few months and it seems that the response has been really great so far! I read a few reviews of this MCD on your website and I think that Ill Fares The Land's music is appreaciated on extreme metal scene, especially in Belgium ...
Yeah, the response has been really great! Like you say, the Belgian scene gave us great comments, but also from other countries we got some nice reviews. For instance, your review (thanks!), Spain, Holland, Germany, Greece, England... We are very pleased with the reactions. 
When we recorded the mcd we thought that we had some nice songs, so we were glad that Dirk from the studio understood how he could record the songs like we wanted it. We are very satisfied with the result. But we were curious how the reactions of the people and press would be. We didn't expect such nice comments. Great!
Ill Fares The Land have recently parted ways with Filip who was the bass player. What was the reason? By the way, is he still a member of Gorath?
Yeah, that was a bummer. Filip joined the band and after a month he decided to leave us again. Things didn't work out like he expected they would. Too bad because he is a good bass player and a fun guy to hang with. He got us some gigs and we thank him for that.
And yes, he is still in Gorath. But that isn't really a band, it's more of a project. He told me last weekend that he got some offerings to release his stuff through a label. I wish him all the best and check out his site get.to/gorath
Did you find a new one?
No, unfortunatly we didn't. But for now we can continue to play shows without a bass player.
MCD "Nonentity" was released through a small label Uxicon Records. You signed a deal with them only for this release. Are you satisfied with the cooperation between them and your band? Are you going to extend the deal with Uxicon in the future?
We signed the deal with them for this mcd, but with an option to release more when we will be ready. We were very glad to hear that a label was intersted in our band. And we were even more excited by the fact that UXICON is the label that discovered ABORTED. We're satisfied with the cooperation. We payed the recording costs and he did the reproduction of the cd's, artwork and promo. If we are offered a better deal by another label, we're free to go, else their is great chance that we will work with Uxicon for the next release. Unfortunatly we work very slow on new songs (it took us two years to finish the six songs of the mini!)...
The recordings have been done at De Studio in Belgium. I listened to a few albums which were recorded there and their sound isn't very good. "Nonentity" however has a clear sound, but of course it's still a death metal production. Maybe sometimes it's too typical, but I have to say that I listen to "Nonentity" with great pleasure! How was the athmosphere during recording time? Are you going to enter De Studio again?
First of all thanks for the great comments! I don't know what cd's you listened from Dé Studio. We heard In Obscure Depths from Panchrysia and we were convinced. Also Crawlspace (a death metalband from the neighbourhood) recorded their cd there and I like that sound too. We are satisfied with our sond, but we got some remarks that there is too less bass. You see, we payed the recording costs ourselves and we couldn't permit ourselves weeks in the studio. For the invested time I think we have a good sound. Hopefully we will improve the sound for our next recordings.
Dirk from Dé Studio is a great guy and he knows what he is doing. He listens to a band and asks what THEY want. Other producers want to give the recordings their own thouch, but not Dirk. He turns the buttons like we wanted it. Mattias did the recordings. He is a very quiet guy and fun to work with. He's very de-stressing :-). I think that we will enter that studio again when we are ready.
On the front cover of the "Nonentity", there is a picture of Jesus. Can you explain us what does it mean? It seems that Ill Fares The Land's MCD contains an antichristian concept in the lyrics. Could you tell us something more about it?
Roel and Bart did the lay-out. They found the picture on the net and contacted the artist (Michael Michaelson) to ask if we could use his piece of art. Luckily he gave us his permission. The explanation of the painting is something I don't know, but it has a dark feel to it and it fits Roels lyrics. Roel likes to sing about the more dark things on earth... The lyrics Bart V. writes are more fantasy stories, quite sick sometimes...
I heard you play Morbid angel's "God of emptyness" alive - which Morbid Angel's era influence you the most? How strong influence it is?
I like their albums since 'Covenant' the best. Covenant is a superb record in my opinion. We covered God of Emptiness because we all like that song very much and it's not a typical Morbid Angel song. It is also slow, which is good for the variation in our set, which is mostly rather fast.
You also point Eric Rutan from Hate Eternal as your favourite guitar player. Do you think that Morbid Angel have a chance for rising up without Rutan in the line-up? What is your opinion?
Yeah, I like to see that guy perform. He is a real animal. Unfortunatly I read in a magazine a while ago that their tourbus got into an accident and that he was severly injured. But on their site is mentionned that he is released 
from the hospital. Hopefully he'll get better quick. Sure I think Morbid Angel will be able to rise without Rutan, Morbid Angel has always been the band of Trey, so I think he will pull it off. I will miss Eric's superb solo's though! I'm very curious for the record that will be released in september, or so I'm told
Your music is quite brutal but it consists also some melodious moments - for many people it might make your music unacceptable. How will this part of your music evoluate in the future?
Well, we make the music that we like. You can't blame someone because he doesn't have the same taste as you. We don't put melodical parts in every song on purpose. Sometimes we think a song just needs a melodical part and then we try to find something suitable. But we don't like cheezy or poppy melodical riffs. It has to be agressive.
A wile ago, we finished a new song which is the most varied IFTL-song until now. It has all kinds of tempo's in it, going from slow over midtempo to fast. That song has almost no melody in it. We have only one rule when we write songs: all four of us must like every part of it. And the songs always turn out to be rather agressive.
I would like to talk about your band's past. You started as a melalcore band named Heretic. Shortly later Heretic changed its name to Ill Fares The Land. Why did you decide to change both the name and the music style? Was it a natural evolution of the band?
Well, the music didn't change from one day on the other. It smoothly changed because of line-up changes and changes in musical taste. The original members were into metalcore, but now only Heyde (drums) remains from that line-up. We also devellopped our musical and songwriting skills.
We changed our name to Ill Fares the Land because apparently there was a Dutch black metal band with the same name. The threathened to take legal action if we didn't change our name, because they claimed to have the rights on that name. Luckely we were kind of bored with that typical bandname so we started looking for something more original. The result is ILL FARES THE LAND, which is quite original if you ask me.
Before the "Nonentity" MCD you recorded a demo-tape entitled "Souls Aground On The Reefs Of Sin". How can you describe this stuff?
On this recording you can hear a mix between metalcore and midtempo death metal. The demo consists of five songs and an instrumental outro. It was the best we could do at that time, but we don't play the songs of that tape anymore. 
Instead we've put two songs together and changed the drums. We did this because a lot of people kept asking uw to play some old songs. Now it is much faster and more brutal. We only play this live, but we don't have the intention to record this song.
You've been playing live with Polish Vader in famous Frontline club. What are your memories about this gig? How was Vader's show, and what kind of guys they did appear to you?
Well, to be honest. I don't know. The gig we did was good, but because I had exams at that time, I had to leave immediatly after the show. The other guys told me afterwards that the Vader gig was incredible. We had seen Vader quite a lot of times, but the Frontline is a pretty small venue. It is always much cooler to see a big band in such a small venue because it had a special feel to it. The same with Malevolent Creation. They kicked major ass in the Frontline, but on a bigger stage they couldn't impress me as much as they did in the frontline.
I guess the guys from Vader are cool, but because of the reason I already told you, I wasn't able to meet them.
Is that true Frontline is going to stop organize metal gigs?
A while a go I received an email that indeed the Frontline would cease to exist. The house where the Frontline was located would be turned into a theater or something. But luckely Hendrik decided to go on with the Frontline on an other place. Christine still organises shows there, but she didn't want to do the pub anymore.
Last weekend we performed in the new frontline. There are some pictures of that gig online at www.stillonline.be. And the website from the frontline has recently changed to www.thefrontline.be. Check it out!
You have very strong metal scene in Belgium, which is not very known. We don't know too many metal webmagazines from your country. We know of course very famous www.deathmetal.be site, but could you tell us where can we read more information about your scene? Or maybe would you like to say something about it? Could you recommend us some metal pages from your country?
Well, we have quite a lot of great bands. ABORTED is probably the most well known and best band at this moment. PREDJUDICE has also toured a lot in Europe and I think they deserve more respect than they get. They signed a recorddeal recently and they will record a new fullcd this summer I believe. Other bands emerging from the underground are WELKIN, PANCHRYSIA, CULPABLE HOMICIDE, DEVOURED... and now I'm forgetting a lot of great bands. I would recommend the WWW.DEATHMETAL.BE-portal for all info about the Belgian scene. They have a news-section, a distro, reviews, interviews, a forum... That is thé site for the Belgian underground. Cheers to those fanatic death metalfreaks!
Ill Fares The Land's logo was designed by Christophe Szpajdel, who did a lot of famous logos in the past, e.g. Emperor, Borknagar or Old Man's Child. Did you have any other offers from other logo designers? How did it happen Christophe designed the logo for IFTL??
At first I've drawn a logo myself, but that sucked major ass. Luckely I got Szpajdel's email adress. I mailed him and asked if he could draw us a logo. I believe that two weeks afferwards I got the logo in the mail. We were very satisfied with the result and decided to use it. We got also a logo-design from Gerrit Deschodt (www.throneofabsence.tk). It was cool, but it was a bit too typical. It was more a grind-logo.
You told me about your girlfriend - how is it she knows Polish? Is she, or any of her parents from Poland?
She is studying 'eastern european sciences' or something like that. And she has to study Polish because of that. But the most importand part of the study is history and policy of Eastern Europe. Two years ago she went to Poland for a month and when she came back she told me that it was a very cool country. She wants to go on holidays to Poland in the future. Maybe there is a chance for us to meet then, hehe.
What can we expect from Ill Fares The Land in the nearest future? Are you planning a full lenght debut album for this year? What can you say about the new songs?
We have now completed only two songs unfortunatly, so it will take a while before we will be able to record a full length. The new songs are more varied. I like them better than the old songs, luckely :-). In the very near future www.deathmetal.be will release their first edition of a compilation. We are one of the lucky bands who got a spot on it. Other bands are Aborted, Suhrim, Fleshmould, gorath... and many many more interesting bands. The compilation will be sold at shows and through their website for about 5 euro I guess. If you really want to know what the Belgian scene has to offer, this is a must-have! I believe that's all I have to say. For more info you can always check www.illfares.com. There are 2 songs from NONENTITY to download. If you like what you heard you can order the mcd via www.deathmetal.be or straight from us.
Cheers and keep up the good work with Masterful and thanks for the interview.
Thank you too Bjorn!
Tomash & Olo
