Brutus
Wywiad przeprowadził Tomasz Osuch
There are no borders in extreme music and even if there are some, we can find a few bands which successfully break them and try to make death metal music even more brutal than it is now. There is no doubt that Brutus is one of such bands! They're young, they're talented and they're creative - their debut album shows it all. I hope that the nearest future will bring us more splendid releases just like "Slachtbeest".
Brutus is a historical name. He was a Roman politician, a very popular speaker and a brave personality with his own rules. Why did you decide to name your band like that?
"At first we were called Vleespomp (which ended up as a songtitle on the album) but we wanted a more international sounding bandname that would keep some of the Dutch influences. Brutus was picked because we felt it sounded as cruel and BRUTal as the music should sound. Besides... no other band that we knew of had this genious name. No successful brutal band anyway."
You are yet another European band which plays brutal death metal. The death metal scene is very huge nowadays and sometimes it's hard to be noticed. Do you think that Brutus will have some luck and will be noticed?
"You are right, there are tons of brilliant brutal death metal bands, but a lot of them have forgotten the key element of metal: heaviness! If you ask me our luck started when Unique Leader Records decided our talents were worthy for a release on their label. After a break like that it is hard work and determination that will make a band become noticed. Even though our music only contains blastbeats we feel that by writing good songs you can give the listener that adrenaline-rush all of us crave when we listen to classic stuff like "Tomb..." or "Covenant". A lot of bands take the tempo to new hights but they forget that tight guitar playing is not really possible when a drummer just dominates the sound of a band. Brutus tries to make every song a sort of epic tale musically and lyrically that gives the listener a smack in the face every once in a while. Because we are a very hard working band, on and off the stage, we feel confident that people will notice the murderous atmospheres in the songs. We know that playing live is the only way to fully indoctrinate metalheads so expect our steamroller to hit your country in the near future and we will see if we are noticed."
Brutus musicians were involved and got music experience in bands like Lost Sacrament, Goddess Of Desire, The Mess Age, Pandaemonium, Textures, Razorblade Perversion. All these mentioned bands play other kinds of music from that you play in Brutus today. Why did you set up this band?
"Before the four of us joined forces we had to settle for bands that could not quite give us the satisfaction we needed. When the Plowboss started blasting our heads off we could see the possibility in starting up a Hyper Brutal Metalact that could compete with the national elite. His over-the-top visions of what a death metal band should be about stimulated us to write songs in the vein of Hate Eternal and Deeds of Flesh. 2 years before the birth of Brutus the Plabbes, the Ploert and myself had already jammed in a Deicide-alike band that could never have 
gotten a deal with UL. The bands mentioned in your question gave us the experience we needed to form a quality-band. Most of them were death or thrash and all of these acts had their potential, but in Brutus all of the members could see their vision realised. Besides... have you ever heard Razorblade?? That is even more brutal than Brutus, but because the Bastaerd was not dedicated to get that act a deal all those genious songs are destined for oblivion."
You haven't had too many line up changes in Brutus so far, I guess. I read that only Molestrator was replaced by Ploert from Pandaemonium some time ago. What was the cause of his departure?
"The main reason for replacing Molestrator was the fact that he was bringing women to our rehearsal constantly and eating pussy more than he was playing bass. Because of this he couldn't keep up with the growth of the band. The Ploert was wasting his talents on a band without dedication so it was easy for him to fill up the spot. Recently our guitar wizard Bastaerd decided it was time to grow up and leave the Blastbeatsquad and concentrate on more diverse and commercial music, so right now we are auditioning for a guitarist/vocalist and you can be sure that this new member should have the same commitment to brutality as we do."
You signed a deal with Unique Leader and I think that it is hard to imagine a better label for band like Brutus. Are you satisfied with the cooperation with this label? Being in the same label with such excellent bands as Gorgasm and Deeds Of Flesh is like a distinction, I guess.
"You can say that again. UL was on the top of our list and we waited with signing with another label until they had responded to our Promo. I had even scheduled an opening spot for Brutus to play with Deeds of Flesh and Disgorge in Holland so we could pummel their craniums in a live environment. This label could give us the opportunity to confront a lot of death metal connaisseurs with our debut-album and touring was a logical step after the release of the album. Unique delivers quality in the underground and we are proud to be on their roster. The downside was that our album was released a lot later than planned because UL had signed some prime shit ready for release while we were finishing the album. Ah well, because of that our next album can be out a lot sooner!"
"Slachtbeest" is your first album and I suppose you've been waiting for every opinion/review. What was the response to your debut full length album so far? Was anyone disappointed?! :-)
"The reviews we have been getting are insane. It's as though a lot of reviewers have the same vision on heaviness and brutality as we do. Some people find "Slachtbeest" too monotonous and recommend us to slow down once in a while, but that is what a band like Brutus will always be confronted with. We don't like albums that have 6 brutal songs + fillers on it, so we will do everything in our power to convince the 
public that it isn't necessary to slow down to keep the songs interesting. We like reading reviews but we don't get thrown off if we get a bad one once in a while. A reviewer is only 1 deathmetalhead and we are aiming for thousands. The worst review I could find was a 2 out of 5 on a Finnish site... that same reviewer gave Decrepit Birth and Disgorge even worse reviews, so not everybody is gonna like such harsh shit."
In merchandise section on your website I saw that you are preparing coffee mugs and lighters with Brutus logo. Do you think that such elements are necessary in Brutus promo campaign?
"Yes! Merchandising is the key to indoctrinate as many people as possible. If you are a 15 year old Slipknot fan and you see the same brutal logo over and over again you will want to find out what it is. A fan with your shirt on is the best promo you can get because he will be able to tell potential new fans what Brutus is. It all begins with Tshirts... how many lighters have you stolen from their rightful owners??? If it is not too expensive people will want all kinds of different items with a bandlogo on it. We also like to keep things funny and we will probably come up with loads of ridiculous stuff with even more ridiculous slogans."
What does the "Slachtbeest" title mean? Is this word taken from Dutch?
""Slachtbeest" means 'Slaughterbeast'. The lyric deals with a young calf taken away from its loving mother, but we felt it also suited the entire album because of the non-stop slaughter we deliver. All the titles and lyrics are in Dutch. That way we can put in every sick thought without struggling with translation. There has not been a serious Dutch-speaking band that attempted to break through internationally but 'if all those Norwegian Blackmetal bands can give their music a whole new feel with their native language then why can't we?' is what we thought. Dutch is a very angry sounding language so there was no hesitation in our minds. As a matter of fact, the only people that didn't like it were the sceptic Dutch! On the next album we will put translations in the booklet as well so people won't have to email us to find out what our lyrics mean."
Brutus has three vocalists. I remember that a few years ago Nile decided to do the same and it brought amazing effects. It seems to work in your band as well. Was it Nile that influences you?
"I don't think so. When you form a band you build around the possibilities you have. Plabbes wanted at least 7 vocalists and 3 bassplayers and so on... We couldn't find vocalists that were fit enough to front this band and all four of us already had vocalist-experience so we thought: Why not? To bring in another member would have to mean that he can add something to our sound. Up to this point we haven't seen a vocalist that we wanted in the band. Who knows.... maybe we will still bring in a frontman. Right now it just seems very natural for us to have the guitarists do the vocals."
I'm wondering how does the process of making the vocal lines during the rehearsals looks like? Who is the main singer and who usually decides which vocal part should be sing by one man, other one by second etc?
"Uhm... that's different for every song. Sometimes there is a riff that I can't combine with vocals... so Ploert (bass/vox) will have to sing for that one. Normally the vocal lines are combined with an already completed song so we know where the emphasis should be. The one who writes the vocals will divide them over the 3 throats and we just experiment with what sounds best. All 4 of us contribute to all of the songs even if 1 of us comes with a finished product. Especially Ploegbaas and I have clashing egos so sometimes there is a great deal of argueing before a song can be labelled as finished. There is no actual main singer but for the sake of tightness and audibility the 2 guitarists (Basta and myself) do most of the vocals."
I really like "Slachtbeest". This is brutal and fresh death metal where it's easy to hear that the band has its own ideas. You know how to play brutal music and you are creative in this genre. How long did it take to write the music?
"Thanx for your euphoric response man. To be seen as creative is a great compliment... eventhough this is only the start. The songs on the debut album were written in a little over a year and a half. Some songs were finished by one man but most of them are jammed together in rehearsals. This takes a lot more time but it was a lot more fun because we were a starting band and we had to get to know eachother. This was a great learning process that took at least 10 hours of practice a week. At one point we were rehearsing every day just to get the endurance and the feel of the band. Now that we have gained a certain ammount of experience playing with Brutus we can afford to write all the songs outside of the jamming-shack. Nowadays we build our material with drumcomputer so we can reflect on a finished song much sooner."
I also like the cover… but I'm not sure if I understand it hee-hee… What is painted there? Is it a dried, rotting body?!
"You are correct. We wanted a simple, dusty, grim, unclear but memorable layout on this one. You can basically only judge us by listening to the album but you can tell from the cover that Brutus play DEATHMETAL! The cover is also the main reason why the album got released so late. We had somebody else do the cover for us but a communication-flaw was the reason we had to do it all ourselves when the album was already mixxed. Bastaerd did a great job on the total lay-out but we will certainly please the gore-lovers on the next album with much more extensive artwork and images!!"
A few months ago you played your first tour in Europe, and you did it with Macabre and Cephalic Carnage. The first ever tour is always an important event in every band's career. What is your impression?
"Dude... that is why we wanted to play in a band all of our lives. Every night you get to play in front of 200+ people that are not familiar with your music. Our album was only just out so this was their first opportunity to see us and buy the album. The reactions were great allover. I hope this was the first of many tours. I know we'll do everything in our power to cross over every continent and play all countries we had to skip on this one. We have learned a lot especially on how to behave around hardrock/country&western-loving rockstars! Haha. After the tour was over a couple of people tried to badmouth us. But I think that the flame we have for performing was envied by those folks. The fact that 
we were really lucky with a tour like this one (: a popular headliner, ultra-luxurious tourbus, free food and drinks everywhere and a soundcheck every night because Macabre didn' t feel the need to utilise that privilege) doesn't mean we wont drive across the globe ourselves. I hope we will get the opportunity to play a real deathmetal-tour next time where brutal death IS allowed in the cd-player!! "
"Slachtbeest" was recorded more than a year ago and I think you have some new material ready yet. Can you say something more about it? When can we expect the next album from Brutus?
"I can't say too much about that yet man, sorry. I can tell you that the new songs form a whole story about the obstacles life will provide and how that can form a man... even destroy him. The album will be called "Murwgebeukt" which can also mean more than one thing if you put it into context. Of course there will be some people that will like our debut more than any other album that we will ever release, but in this case those people don't know what they're talking about! All the songs we have so far absolutely CRUSH the older material and this time we are going all the way as far as lay-out and promotional campaign is concerned. Until then we will be playing as much as possible and we hope that "Slachtbeest" will please a lot of people and will make them interested in our li'l band!"
These were all my questions bro. Thanks for the answers. Summer time is coming soon – do you have any holiday plans? Will you lie on the beach and relax with girl & beer or will you spend this time in the rehearsal room making new songs?
"Holidays always consist of festivals and writing more music. Girls and beer are mandatory but Brutus gives at least as much satisfaction. The sun shines bright but we'll be closing the shades to ensure the fans that we are feeling as grim as possible so we can introduce our Downtuned Depressed Death by the first snowfall. Thanx for the interview dude and see you when we come to annihilate Poland! Cheerz."
