Prejudice
Wywiad przeprowadził Tomasz Osuch
The newest Prejudice masterpiece entitled "Dominion Of Chaos" was released about two months ago and despite of some serious problems with the label, they didn't give up at all and still continue the mission of spreading the necksnapping progressive brutal death metal anywhere it's possible. There are many questions you can ask a band like Prejudice and this time I talked to guitarist & band's founder Def. We talked about many different and interesting things, so check it out in your spare time. By the way, it seems this is the longest interview in Masterful so far... if not, for sure one of the longest in this brutal place :-)
A few weeks ago the European tour with Hate Eternal came to an end. I guess that you are really tired after this tour. When we talked in Warsaw you told me that this tour is better than the one which you played with Vader and Krisiun. I wonder why and where the main differences between these tours are?
"No, it goes man but it's always good to be home again with your normal friends and have some days off from band things. Hell yeah, I don't want to offend the tour with Vader, it was also a killer tour but on this 'Dominion over European chaos tour' we all are brutal death metal bands and the package is just killer, don't u think that also? [Yeah, I agree! - T.O] There were more people on the shows now than with Vader and we played also our favorite songs now for what Prejudice stands for nowadays! Brutal tech deathmetal and it was a honour to share the stage with so famous and professional bands!"
15th of January is the importanat date for Prejudice because it was your first time in Poland. Moreover I heard that one of you has Polish origins, is that true? Are you satisfied with this show in Warsaw?
"Yeah man, the 1st time for Prejudice in Poland, we wanted always to play in Poland but the show sucked in a sort of way because we started at 5 PM and that's never good for a support band man, only just a little amout of metalheads was already in and lots of metalheads were just paying their ticked still! Tuni (guitars) & me have Polish blood running true our vains and our former bassplayer Sammy was also from Polish origin! Ah the show in Warsaw could be so much better if we could have played on a normal hour like 8:30 our something? But we hope that we can make it up to come back to Poland because we have to prove our music over there still. Maybe some dates on our European tour with Fleshgore in Sept/Oct who knows?"
Did you have any time to visiting the capital of Poland, taste polish food or stuff like that? hehe... What is your impression from this short visit?
"No not so much because we arrived little late there was only time for loading the backline out and put it on stage and have some food and a shower. I only walked around the complex that was all, nothing more. Shame, next time I hope we arrive a little earlyer because we like to visit the capitals/cities where we play."
During the show in Warsaw and in other cities on your way you played without a bassist. Will it stay like that? Sammy left the band a few months ago - can't you find a new good bass player?
"Who needs a bassplayer anyway :-) We decided to go on further without a bassplayer because we don't find a good replacment for Sa mmy, if it not was before the Six Feet Under tour Sammy was kicked out before the studio recordings because he was not capable anymore to speed up with the new songs! We hope we'll find a new bassplayer real soon because a good groovy bassplayer adds something good to a band, but better no bassplayer then having a bad one in your band that fucks it up on gigs and make the sound blur."
Who is responsible for bass parts on the new album - "Dominion Of Chaos"?
"Tuni did all the great bass work on the new album because we made a agreement who will play the bass on the new album and Tuni came out as the chosen one :-) The things he did on the album with the bass that's what Prejudice expects from a bassplayer, otherwise we don't want one, maybe we are little perfectionists in this matter?"
You recorded at Excess Studio and mastering was done by Robbe from Disavowed. The result is excellent! Before the session you announced the participation of some guest musicians on Prejudice new album. Can you introduce them?
"Thx u Thomas, lots of people saying what u are telling me now and that's great for the band. Yeah, because we didn't have a bassplayer we asked Gerry who's active in Manic Movement, also a metal band from BE, if he could manage the basslines on our new album and he was honoured to do that he told us, we asked him because before he played in Chemical Breath, a technical death metal band back in the 90's and he's a hell of a bassplayer. But even he had some major prob's playing our complex songs! So we reduced the songs for him to only one and it was "Suffer"! On vocals we have Ronald Camonier from Polluted Inheritance, also a fucking good death/trash band from Holland. And we just asked him and he was delight to do it for us and we are very proud of his work on "Unobtrusive Hatebreed"! Killer vocals in my eyes!"
"Dominion Of Chaos" is a really different album from the previous one entitled "Reality". I can now say that Prejudice isn't the same band as in the past! I don't know if you read the review in our magazine, but I wrote that I didn't even dream of such an amazing stuff! How did you do that?!
"We are the same band band but with other priorities about songs and arrangements in the songs! The new songs are the shit that we wanted to play for several years now but we didn't found the perfect guitarplayer for it and in Tuni we found a master mind in brutality, with him I can work out excellent riffs and tunes because he can play everything what u ask him, we fill each others voids on the points were we are weaker :-) Thx for the adorment for our new album "Dominion Of Chaos"! We just do our stuff on guitar and we don't want to bore ourselfs with repeating of riffs and chorus material, that's original about Prejudice, we never use chorus and leadparts in our songs not even on the lyrical part! Btw; we love the review that u did for Masterful Magazine... We don't really know how we do that man, it's just our way of writing brutal death metal in combination with the scills that we know on guitars and drums I guess?"
It is nothing new that artists are angry and disappointed when they hear negative reactions to music they composed. It is something obvious for me that negative and positive opinion must be justified because only then can it be objective. Can you react objectively to opinion about your music? Do you appreciate and respect what people have to say about Prejudice?
"Ach, u know it's the opinion from 1 person and everyone has an other taste of music and sometimes your album will be reviewed by the wrong people like someone who is for melodic death metal and have to review a brutal death metal bands, yeah u guess the review will not be as good because it's not his taste of music. I love critic on our music even it's bad if the critics are justified I don't have probs with, only if it isn't based on lies and no knowledge about this kind of music style."
Do reviews and opinion of others have any influence on music you create? Some musicians usually say that they play music only for their own pleasure and don't care about fans. This is unfortunately a little bit embarrassing because bands without fans and their support are not going to "live" long...
"Not at all, we play and do just what we want! Everything we do we do it 1st for us and then for the listeners! We have to play this shit 4 several years in a row and if u don't play it straight from the heart u will not hold on to this way of touring or making music for other people. We care about fans, without fans u will not sell cd's, merch and u are not able to do tours! They are the reason of an existance of a band. If u try to do it professional I mean ah. There are bands they do it just to have something to do in their free time and never tour so they also have no intention to have fans. We need fans to do all this crazy touring and stuff :-)"
What is it with the dominion of chaos in the title of your newest album? Does it refer to Christian religion in any way?
"It reflex not on any topic at all. It means everything is in chaos in this fucked up world, we give the people the chance to have their own opinion about the title of our new breed and also some times people say we are chaos and that's also why we call this album "Dominion Of Chaos" because we controlled this album in our writing process."
The cover art was done by Sven from Aborted, is it his job? I'd like to admit that I'm not sure if I understand this picture very well, so can you explain it? The cover is done in similar colors as the cover of your previous album...
"No, he likes to make sick gore artwork and he want to make layouts for bands. All our merch is by the dand of Sven! It reflex that we all are some experiment of a higher kind than humanity, and also that some people have sick minded thoughts and on the album they try to do mind controll, it's something futuristic. It's not so similar but maybe u have some point, we just wanted a color shape that would attract the attention if the album is installed in some store or mailorder."
You recorded quite a groovy, brutal stuff. I know that you listen to bands like Suffocation, Meshuggah, Dying Fetus, Cryptopsy... and here and there I can hear some influences from them. Who is the main composer in Prejudice?
"Well we are with 2 guitarists so we are the main composers in the band and then the drums will be added to the riff structure to make it more interesting for us and the fans. Those bands that u mention, are just great and we had to opportunity to tour with DF. It was like a dream come true for the band. We use the groove because we like Meshuggah very much, those guys are the gods of groove and that makes our music also more interesting for the listeners."
Can you reveal who is the author of this really original sentence - necksnapping progressive brutal death metal? By the way, it's a cool definition of your music.
"Thx U. It came from me (Def). We play brutal and technical death metal, tech freaks and also groove freaks can listen to our music and u can bang your head off on our music but don't snap your neck with it haha..."
"Dominion Of Chaos" was released through Painkiller Records. Why did you decide to sign a deal with this label? It's hard to believe man that there weren't any other labels interested in Prejudice!
"Fuck that label man, we have so many prob's with our label and its making us fucking pissed because of this fucked up person who's running the label the No Mercy tour for us is canceled! We are a live and touring band and if u fuck with our life performance u will bleed! We don't want to work anymore with Painkiller because he's a fucking ripp off label! On the contract everything is cool but he just don't forefill his dudies from the contract! We have some offers but we can't tell something serious about it, u will hear it when we have some really official papers in our hands. U know all the illigal downloading from internet isn't good for new bands like us because labels don't want to invest in it because they will not get there money back! That's a shame all this internet crap..."
"We don't deal anymore with PK, for us this label does not exist anymore because he fucked us with everything from the beginning on! And this No Mercy thing made it clear for us, he don't support us so we don't want to do buissnes with him again! Prejudice is a live band and we love touring.. It's a shame because the line-up is killer."
Your second album - "Reality" was released via D&F Agency - label owned by Frank, your drummer. Is D&F taking care on any other bands or is this just like a management for Prejudice now?
"No only Prejudice but not anymore because Prejudice cost more money now haha, touring and making a good record with good production cost handsfull of money. He's bussy with signing more little bands! But he will release some logo TS for us in the future?!"
Prejudice is one of the most active bands in Europe. In the last two years you played a couple of tours, lots of single shows, participated in festivals, recorded two albums, and you promote Prejudice name yourself. Is it easy to achieve it all without any support from a label? One thing in this matter changed, I mean you signed recently a deal with Metallysee Agency, so there should be no problem with booking future shows in Europe ...
"That's right man, we are crazy :-) U are right we did all this without the help from any label and we are proud that we all did this on the do it yourself way! The more shows the more we want to play, crazy not? We didn't sign a contract but he books shows for us now and then, and yes all the tours are via Metallysee and that's a good thing for us! But at this moment we are dealing with a managament for the band, I hope I have more news about this in the near future."
Do you have any time for anything else than Prejudice? Are you a man who has an intense lifestyle all the time?
"Some free time we have yeah, just had one week off afther the Hate Eternal tour. I live very intence and that's also a reason I can keep up with the crazy shedule of Prejudice! Metal is not just a thing its a lifestyle... Some people ask me when will u grow up and life a normal live? I don't fucking know, I have the time of my life now and I don't want to miss something from it."
Def, you are the only one from original Prejudice line-up, you are actually the one who set it up. How can you sum up everything what you did with the band during these 10 years? Don't you feel a little bit tired and bored, and don't you want to give it up sometimes?
"Yep, that right. I'm not bored at all because we keep on going, if we would only rehearse and play little shows a year I would have quite the band ages ago, I want to make progress and we did that everytime with a new album! But playing in Prejudice it's like an unknown adventure, u never know where u will wake up next week haha... I can clearly imagine my 1st day with Prejudice I was a rookie like hell! 
But Prejudice learned me a lot about the music buissnes and all the sharkes out there that want to fuck with your band! We have met so many bands and played so many fests and I don't want to give up that!"
I would like to know your opinion about new Morbid Angel album "Heretic" is. You wear their t-shirt very often, so you are fan of MA. There are different opinions about this album, what is yours? For me this album is a little bit shitty and for sure the worst album in their discography...
"I don't know that album well, but there are 4 good songs on the new album but I'm not a big fan of Morbid Angel, the TS I bought years ago! I wear lots of TS on shows not only one haha. I mostly wear TS from an underground band because they need the exposure and not the old rotten in the buissnes :-) My fav album of Morbid Angel is "Domination" it rocks like hell..."
These were all my questions. Thank you for the interview and I have one more question at the end. I heard that you are planning some tour in U.S. What is the response to your music in States?
"Yeah we will invade the US normally in the end of this year but nothing is surtain now so I can't tell much about it. We get great response from the US but when we would have played there we would get more known their! Here we come US prepare for total devastation."
"THX Thomas for the intie and support to Prejudice. Prejudice we'll be back in Poland, to snap your neck with brutal devastation. CHEERS and keep it sick and BRUTAL."
