Houwitser
Wywiad przeprowadził Tomasz Osuch
It's high time you prepared yourself for the new attack from Dutch death metallers Houwitser! Their new album "Damage Assessement" is
ready to unleash and this bomb will go off on the 6th of October. You may have some idea what the new stuff is going to be like but before that read what Theo had to say about the upcoming release. Enjoy!
Blasting Hails Theo!!! You've just finished recording "Damage Assessment" in the famous Dutch Excess Studio. How was the session? Are you satisfied with the results?
"The session went extremely well. It was great working in Excess again. And we are very satisfied with the end result. The sound turned out great. It's a bit different as the previous albums. It's clearer and more variated but still heavy as fuck."
How would you describe "Damage Assessement" in comparison to "Rage Inside The Womb"? A few months ago, you told about a new album that is gonna be 'one fuck all-blistering death metal masterpiece'. Can you give me more details about it?
"The songs on "Damage Assessment" got more technique and variation than "Rage Inside The Womb". The songs are on a higher level, worked out better. But it's still brual as fuck Death Metal, bottom heavy, blasting with a slight groove. Listen yourself. It will be out on October 6th."
What are the differences between the new album and "Rage Inside The Womb", and also comparing them to older albums like "Death But Not Buried" and "Embrace Damnation"? I mean the main differences - in sound, in arrangements, songs...
"The sound became a bit different through the years. The way of songwriting changed, different vocalists on all the albums, the music became more technical, longer tracks. They are little differences on each album. In my opinion we improved on each album concerning technique."
"Death But Not Buried" and "March To Die" were recorded in QSA Studio. The other releases were recorded in Excess Studio. Is this studio better than QSA for Houwitser? Is QSA active nowadays?
"Back then we we're going to QSA because it was the studio of our soundman Vincent Dijkers. He knew our sound and we thought that he was the perfect man to do the debut album althought there were not that much possibilities in the QSA studio. But the sound turned out really cool. Totally raw and 
underground. Later we loose contact with Vincent because he was moving to Norway or something to get married and we decided to record in Excess which was killer. Excess got tons more possibilities and it's a better studio for Houwitser. It's very relax working there too. I don't know if QSA still excists. We don't have any contact with Vincent and I never heard of bands that recorded there lately."
Houwitser's lyrics used to be connected with murders, victims, rapes, etc...what is the main subject on the new album?
"Murdering, raping, porn and a lot of mutilation."
OK :) I'm really looking forward to his cool stuff. As you said, Osmose will release "Damage Assessment" in October. What are your expectations for the new album?
"The release date will be October 6th. I've got very high expectations for the new album. I'm very curious about what the fans are thinking of it."
The last tour you performed was in September, across Europe, together with Monstrosity and Dying Fetus. When I asked Alex after this tour he said he was very happy with this tour, especially because you played with Dying Fetus. What about you? Are you happy with this tour?
"Hell yeah. It was a great tour. We had a lot of fun and the guys in Dying Fetus and Monstrosity are really cool. Also the shows we've done were killer. Dying Fetus kicks ass on stage like Monstrosity does. Also Intervalle Bizzarre from CZ was joining us. Cool guys too."
Before this tour you visited my country in June, and it was the only gig in Poland. I'd like to ask you about Smash Fest: I suppose this fest wasn't the best experience in Houwitser's career. Anyway, the concert was totally great and you had a fuckin' great response from Polish maniacs!!!
"Yeah.. the responses were amazing and we did a good show. I'm glad that the people liked it so much but this festival was a complete joke for me. It was stupid. I have no other words."
You usually play in military clothes, which is connected with Houwitser's name. Simply - death metal commandos!!! Are you interested in military equipment and things like that, or maybe you read history in your leisure time? By the way, what do you do when you have free time, when Houwitser 
isn't on tour or in the studio?
"I'm personally interested in the great tank battles in WW 2. I like to read a bit of it, watching movies and stuff like that. Also I got fasinated by the battles in Normandie.The beaches were the troops were landing are really impressive. Besides the band we all have regular jobs and are hard workers. In our free time we like to lay on the couch doing nothing."
In the past you played in bands like Judgement Day and of course in Thanatos! Is any future Thanatos activity definitely closed for you?
"Yeah Thanatos is over. I had a very cool time in Thanatos but I simply haven't got the time to continue. I have a lot of others things to do and Thanatos was too much."
Houwitser has played as a four-member band since early autumn of last year. Have you thought about Michel's replacement? Do you plan to recruit some new guitarmen?
"Not in the near future. Four members is also working really good and there are no plans to ask a second guitar-player soon."
Why did he decide to leave Houwitser?! If I remember correctly, he played in the band almost from the beginning! By the way, what's he doing now?
"Michel got fed up with the music scene. He didn't like to go on tour and things like that so he decided to quit which was also the best thing to do for the band. Right now he's married and father. That's all I know."
Recently I thought about something... Michel was a Sinister bassplayer in the past, and your previous vocalist - Mike - was a singer in Sinister. Your current drummer, Add from Sinister, is a Houwitser's founder and also Alex from Sinister plays in Houwitser from some time, but he plays the guitar. It's like a tradition, some kind of connection between both bands. Maybe you should recruit Bart (who left Sinister last year) to Houwitser on the second guitar.
"Yeah...it's an good idea but with Bart it's almost the same as with Michel. He got much other things on his mind and right now there's no place for playing in a band but I think we will hear from Bart again in the future."
As we said, in the past you had line-up changes in Houwitser. Nowadays, together with Alex, Add and Stan you made a great functionable death metal machine! It seems that Stan is a young guy...what was Stan doing before he joined Houwitser?
"Uhm...let me think...he was playing in some band from which I can't remember the name. They had the same rehearsal room as we got and that's how we found him. Of course he's now only vocalist in Houwitser."
Let's go back to Sinister for a moment...I suppose you've listened to the newest Sinister album called "Savage Or Grace". Do you like it? Do you agree with opinion that their new album is a mixture of "Cross The Styx" atmosphere, groove like on "Hate" and "Cross The Styx" and speed like on "Creative Killings"?
"Savage or Grace" is a really good album. In my opinion it's a Thrash metal album with Death Metal vocals."
I'd like to ask you about some things connected with Houwitser's past releases. After you released "Embrace Damnation" you changed your label to the bigger Osmose Productions. Why did you leave Displeased Records? Are you satisfied with Osmose's work for Houwitser?
"We got a 2 album deal with Displeased and after our 2nd cd "Embrace Damnation" we liked to see if there were more possibilities for Houwitser and there were. Osmose offered us a great deal and we decided to sign it. We are very satisfied with Osmose's work for the band. We got lots of merchandising, tours, big promotion through magazines, fanzines, radio stations. Maybe things in the U.S. could be better but I know they are working on that."
Some time ago Osmose lost bands like Immortal and Marduk. It seems that Houwitser, Impaled Nazarene, Enslaved, Exmortem are nowadays very important for Herve!
"I hope so....I can tell you that he's doing more than his best for Houwitser so Houwitser is an important band for him I guess."
There are some sound bites from movies in your music. On "Embrace Damnation" there are also samples from the famous 'Cobra' movie where Stallone played the main role. Do you like films with him, and movies like that?
"'Cobra' is a killer movie but the most other movies were Stallone is playing in sucks!!!!"
And there are also intros from horrors and documentaries movies. Do you like to watch horror movies?
"Hell yeah....my favorites are 'Dawn of the Dead' and 'Day of the Dead' both from George A. Romero."
Houwitser's first two albums "Death But Not Buried" and "Embarce Damnation" are hard to get now. The only way to buy them is through the distros and your website. Do you plan any re-editions of these releases? Maybe Osmose would release both these cds and finally it would be distributed better.
"Yeah...That's what we want too but the rights of both albums are at Displeased and they don't want to sell that or for too much money so that's a problem which we can't solve. Only Displeased can do with the recordings what they want."
You said you have no ambitions. It's said that most musicians usually have some ambitions, a lot of personal plans, and try do develop their abilities. Do you really have no ambitions?! I can't believe that!
"No I have no ambitions concerning the music and band. Right now things are going great and Houwitser will never be a band like Morbid Angel. I'm too long in the scene to know that and bands who are thinking that they will be the second Morbid Angel can fuck off. No things are cool for me right now. I'll see what happen in the future. I have a lot of personal and privat plans but that's not important for outsiders."
"Damage Assessment" will see daylight in October. Are you going to start any fuckin' extreme tour late this year or maybe later, in the beginning of 2004? I hope I'll see you again in Poland?!
"We got an offer to tour with Hate Eternal, Dying Fetus and Deeds of Flesh for a tour of 40 shows in January/February but we're not sure if this fits in our personal schedules. We also got plans to do the No Mercy festivals in April. We really hope to play in Poland too."
Those are all my questions! Thanx for this intie and I'm awaiting your show in my country!
"Thanks Tomasz for this really great interview and support. You rule man!!! Good luck with all your activities. Stay focused on www.houwitser.com for the latest Houwitser news. Hope to see all you Polish maniacs next year and check out "DAMAGE ASSESSMENT"."
