Beaten back to pure
Wywiad przeprowadził Bartosz Donarski
Have you ever been beaten? I know you have. If really not, guys of BEATEN BACK TO PURE seem to be the first who throw down the gauntlet. As "Southern Apocalypse" no longer awaits the night stalkers of BBTP won't be a tail-end Charlie in the race for the ultimate crush test. When I got their debut album from Chris of English Retribute I had no idea this smart ass is so deceptive. "Southern Apocalypse" picks off all who dare to listen to it. They simply don't draw in their horns for even a moment. I love this music, for it has nothing to do with usual junks I receive from the majors. I had an opportunity to talk to Ben - riot man from the great South - whose idea for life is just to be true to himself. Hope to meet him one day, cool cowboy without a horse. Ha! Yeah, I know, I should not have messed with you. Fortunately this 'South' is not a stone's throw from where I live. Thank god!
First off, how do you think, who is an average listener of BBTP? And are they normal?
Ben: "Shit that's tough. Asking me to profile our friends and fans. The average listener has probably been forced to listen to us by a friend. Normal? Fuck, I ain't qualified to judge folks like that. I do doubt they sit around in corpsepaint or kill their dog. Our people are more of an underbelly of society type of group. But everyone is invited. Except hippies and the worthless (you know who your are)."
Music you create and play is overwhelmingly anti-commercial. Is this your aim to slay like that?
"When I think of anti-commercial music, I think of bands like Marduk (I'm listening to Panzer Division as I type this). But I guess they are commercial in an underground metal sense. They know they can sell 15-25,000 (I'm guessing) and tour the world. They realize they can only be the biggest fish in the small black metal pond. No top 40 airplay coming soon for them. In that regard, I think we're a lot more palatable because we still retain some rocking riffs and classic song structures. So if you picked two guys on the street who had never even heard of Slayer (they do exist) and played our disc and Panzer Division (for example) back to back, they would probably be able to relate to what we do better, just because it would sound like a real song with a beginning, a middle, maybe a solo and an end. Not that what Marduk does is bad, just that it'd be totally over their heads. They aint gonna run out and buy our shit, but do you see what I'm saying. I hope this
answer holds up in translation. In the underground metal community we are not currently very commercially viable because we are neither black or death metal or pornogrind or whatever new subgenre that the bigger indie lables are signing. We damn sure aint no flowery fucking power metal. We are in an ever growing subgenre of bands that dont fit the above categories. I dig that. We shall have our day when all the trends wash away. Count on it."
You underline your southern origin all the time. I don't get it as European. What's concealed behind this pride. You have a constant beef with people from Alaska or what?
"That's what we're about. In Europe you guys, I've noticed, are very nationalistic. Over here our states are our "countries". The 2 halves of America (North and South) had a bad fucking war about 140 years ago, they burned our fucking cities. Other people let go of shit. Not a true Southern man, we have an entirely different way of doing shit in the south. A little more civil I suppose, a lot slower tempo, we can leave the house unlocked and nobody fucks with nothing. Fucking yankees come from up north and come down here and act like they run the fucking show. Hold up brother, you dont run shit around here but your mouth. And the old rivalry is again heated. Right now after the WTC tragedies, the US is a lot more unified. We need that for now, but deep down we all know the truth. Also the south is more akin to older less liberal political policies. No one around here is for all the free money our government has spread out locally and globally. Give the money to the people that earn it. Everyone else can die homeless in the street and be buried in an unmarked grave. You gotta come over here and experience the hills of Carolina and untainted acres in Tennessee and then look at the shithole known as New Jersey then you'll see where we are coming from."
Is Retribute your label in Europe only? How did you get in touch with Chris, and why is this so far from South?
"Well Retribute is our label period. He has distribution in most every country I can think of. He's done an amazing job on everything so far and we plan on working with him again in the not to distant future. You see the loot he shelled out for ads in Terrorizer, Metal Rules, Unrestrained? Plus a lot of promos are out there for a variety of zines. One of the bigger webzines (digitalmetal.com) did my favorite review of "S.A." so far. Go there and read that if you're considering buying the disc. That dude truly "gets it". We havent gotten a negative review yet, the closest thing to it would be in Terrorizer with that 6.5 bullshit. Kerrang were dicks too with a 3 out of 5 and the write up sounded more like a 2. Maybe our label doesn't spend enough money at their mag to warrant good reviews. I think it's some sort of "You wash my hands and I'll wash yours" type of scam. Chris got in touch with us after he heard our demo on MP3.com, it's still there for anyone who wants to check it out, our the new disc blows it to shit, but it's still a good representation of where we were at in March of 2000, and I guess he liked what he heard and offered up a project on the spot. He is an honorary southern brother. We don't just pass that out."
"Southern Apocalypse" was produced by TITD mastermind - Steve Austin. Is he a friend of yours?
"Yeah Steve is cool. We worked together on the CD, I guess I cant go so far as to call us friends, but it was a cool working relationship. We had to pack the whole session into 2 days and shit got a little testy from time to time, I guess that's the way of the walk. He layed the tracks down great. No complaints. We had an outside set of ears at Leadbelly Studios in Atlanta GA give it a great mastering job, we are thinking of going there next time. We really like the sound he got for bands like Mastodon and Leechmilk, and this time we want to do a proper 4 or 5 days type of deal with a gig in Atlanta at the end of the session, we'll see though. That's our current plan of attack. Back to the question though, Steve is cool and working with him taught us ALOT, it's a 11 to 13 hour drive to Atlanta or Massachusetts (Steve's place), We're gonna make a whole thing out of it this time hopefully."
What's on the cover? You ex-girlfriend that did not like you music?
"Our music is exactly "for the ladies", but no that doesn't have shit to do with it. We had an original sketch (it ended up on the disc itself) and Chris thought I should get in touch with Ralf Burkart from Daredevil.de (webzine) and Calamus (stoner band) in Germany and see what he could whip up. We met Ralf and partied when they last toured the US with Angel Rot, and have remained tight ever since. Within 8 hours he got back with his idea for the cover and I knew that it was perfect right away. I think it's a rather eye-catching cover and am grateful for his last minute support. We'll see what he can come up with next time I;m sure. He's fucking good at that shit. It's got all the ingredients, firearms, blood, suicide, confederate flag all in the wretched filth of a shitty bathroom.
It also adds some mystery because you don't see the head, but look at what's coming out from under the door. Whatever is on the other side ain't pretty. It's a real police photo, so whoever that is, her memory goes on."
Have you ever played in any other bands apart from BBTP? BBTP is kinda fresh to me anyway.
"No, not me. Nothing that got out of the rehearsal room anyway. Vince and me did something called Ebola like 4 years back. Nothing to serious, Chuck and Eric were in a local band called Jim's Fault. Slam was in many bands, he even auditioned for Metallica back in 1987 and then Flotsam shortly thereafter. I think his longest running group was local called Afterbirth or Afterlife or something. I don't remember them. The name(BBTP) is taking awhile to spread, now that the disc is out and we have something in almost every mag and webzine, maybe folks will notice. Much like you did my friend. See how that works. Otherwise I mail stickers and shit and try to spread the poison gospel anyway I can think to. Get in touch about stickers and we should have more shirts very soon."
Can you agree if I state that BBTP plays death metal with stoner rock stigmata?
"Maybe, that sounds pretty good actually. I usually call it Dirt Metal or Drunkard Rock. I'm not 100% on the definition of "stigmata", I've heard the word in the underground for years but never really looked into it. If it means "elements", then you may have it pretty close. The only deathish thing though are my vocals while riffs are more of a sludge/doom/rawk and roll type of thing. Whatever you wanna call it's well played music, I truly believe in the guys behind me on the instruments, they come up with great shit. Some new shit we've written is really fucking wild. Some acoustic passages. An entire DOOM song. More or less. I sing clean about 15% or the time to contrast the other shit. I think it'll be a little more of an adventurous release. Make no mistake it's still gonna be metal right between the fucking eyes, but with even more dynamic shit. I cant wait to record it."
Do you try to hand down anything by your lyrics? Peace and love, I guess?
"General unpleasantness and a wake up call for anyone who needs it. There are plenty of love songs on this earth and I ain't gonna write another one, there are plenty of satanic and porno gore songs also, so I won't add to their totals. One specific message. Not really. I hope you like them some people seem to. I like that. I'm not to fucking wordy either, there's a few bands that try to pack as many fucking words into a song as possible to get some stupid story told or their point across. That sucks. Let the song breathe. Nobody gives a shit about your fucking opinion anyway. If they were great lyric writers it'd be one thing. I have to say, with some hesitation, I think Dani Filth is the best lyricist going. Good stories cleverly written, black humor all sorts of shit. I''m not on the anti-COF bandwagon, I find the lyric sheet engrossing. On "Dusk and Her Embrace" he fell victim to singing too much. No parts to let the instruments (which don't appear to be their strongest point) loose without the yelping over top of it. He's gotten better the last 2 albums (not counting that new EP or whatever it is, the remade versions of songs from Principle...completely suck). I'm not up to that caliber and I go by the motto that sometimes less is more. Leave something to the imagination."
Is this true that you're a leader of Southern Flower Power Organization? I heard you was caught with a flower in you hear walking the streets of Norfolk.
"Yeah, I'm right there at the head of the line. I pierced my cock and stuck a flower there too. I actually align myself with the queer nation. Ha. Not on your fucking life, fuck those pro-life, pro-fag, organizations with the lousy fucking hippies running the show and smelling up the place with their assanine thought process."
What's the next musical step you'll take in the future?
"Well, shit I think I covered most of that earlier so I wont bore you with the details again suffice it to say by April of 02 new shit will hit, probably on Retribute again. Keep your eyes peeled for that. For now just blow out your brains listening to Southern Apocalypse. I think it's a very cool release, and enjoy listening to it myself honestly. I think we're gonna get a track on the next Terrorizer issue comp CD. We'll see."
Have any tour or gigs been schemed to promote "Southern Apocalypse"?
"Unfortunately not as much as you might expect or hope. We all have the dreaded day jobs and would need something to really be worth our while to split for a month or something. We want to get a couple of more well known bands together and do a 2 week deal up the coast. Otherwise we'd be playing in front of the bartender and the ashtrays. We can make better use of our time by just doing something like the Milwaukee Metalfest. That's on the agenda. I've tried to get a couple of bigger more tour savvy bands to drag us out with them, but they ain't doing it now. We play the obligatory local shows and have a decent fan base. As far as promotion for this disc is concerned we're counting on some positive word of mouth and cool mags like yours to help us a little Things are going well currently, anyway. That's always good to know."
Ok. Spread some hate for the end and leave in peace! Ha!
"As I like to say, there's no peace in hell. Get in touch with me at beatenbacktopure@aol.com check out or site provided by Ralf of Calamus fame, it's totally out of date but it's got some old photos and such. It's addy is www.stoner-rock.de/bbtp/ . Check that out and keep your ear to the ground for upcoming shit. I think we're gonna be on a comp on Shifty Records out of Ohio and we do have a compilation exclusive track on the South Of Hell comp on Berserker Records. That's a good CD. Get it. Basically just get in touch and we can get you straightened out. If you want some hate, here goes, Death to the following groups: the homeless, welfare recipients, the lazy, those terrorist fucks, hippies and generally filthy junkies with no rhyme or reason for their continuing existence. Fuck em and feed em fish. Thanks brother, next time I'm in Poland, I'll check you out. Yeah, don't hold your breathe. Take it easy man."
"We may be doing a split CD (EP or full length, I ain't sure) with a band called Blessing the Hogs from San Francisco. BTH have famed producer Billy Anderson (Melvins, Neurosis, Sleep, etc..) playing guitar and are fucking heavy. A guy from the label Catastrophic Sound just got in touch about it. So when we record next we're gonna have to do like 10 or 12 songs. For a full length, a split and a comp track. It shouldn't be a problem. This project is at the infant stages so I don't know to much yet, but I hope it
comes through. Keep an eye out for it."
