Rockezine.com interview with Cardinal on Jan 15, 2004

with Manoloxx on Jan 15, 2004

Cardinal surprised me with their debut demo last year. Furious death/grind metal with the typical grunt of former Consolation signer Manoloxx. An interview with yet another promisising Dutch Extreme death metal band
		Hi Manoloxx, could you first copy-paste the Cardinal story from past to present for our beloved readers? Cardinal was founded a little over a year ago with the sole purpose of playing sick, aggressive and extreme music. The band was started by Dennis, Toep and Manoloxx, who know each other from their previous experience in high profile Dutch black metal band Unlord and experimental death/grind band Consolation. The first bass player they tried out was Rein, who also plays in Toep’s other band, the crushingly heavy old school death metal band Putrefied, but Rein wasn’t comfortable with the ultra-furious sound of Cardinal, so he was replaced by Robert-Jan, a friend from the local black metal band Ravening Mist.
		As second guitar player, Patrick, whose former band, the well-known Dutch death metal band Necrology, had split up a few months earlier, was asked. Unfortunately he had to quit because of an injury, but he did recommend another guitarist: his former Necrology bandmate Michiel, who turned out to be a perfect fit for Cardinal.
		Current line-up: Vocals: Manoloxx (ex-Consolation, ex-Bastard, ex-Unlord) Guitars: Dennis (ex-Nembrionic, Consolation, Unlord, Fuckface) Michiel (ex-Necrology, Kringspiertyfus, Fuel) Bass: Robert-Jan (ex-Ravening Mist) Drums: Toep (Putrefied, ex-Consolation, Unlord, Fuckface)
		Did you already ink a record deal to release the full length next year? If yes, which label? Not yet, we are still in doubt about joining a label. We are planning to release our first full length Horrific on Dennis’ label Stageblast. But this can change if we get a great deal
		I know your guitar player Michiel is also active in Kringspiertyfus and Dennis (your other guitar player) in Nembrionic; do the members of Cardinal play in more bands than the ones I mentioned above? Toep also plays in Putrefied who play a low tuned style of death metal. Robert-Jan and I play in Cardinal only, so we can put 100% into the band. Dennis is always busy organising things and does a lot to promote metal in his region.
		Why the name Cardinal? Is there a story behind it or did it just sound cool? The name Cardinal comes from the term Cardinal Sin. We are all very familiar with sin, so we thought it to be a good and brutal name for a death metal band.
		Like I said in the review, it’s good to hear your voice again after Consolation. What have you done, musically after Consolation? Did you sing in other bands? I heard you were part of Unlord but cannot verify it. After Consolation I sang in the death/thrash combo Bastard. We did not gig that much, but the jam sessions during rehearsals were superb! Sadly Bastard broke up late 2000. As for Unlord; I screamed about 50% of the debutalbum Schwarzwald, but quit because I thought it was a one-album project.
My mother still wishes she could lock me up!		I always wondered where the name Manoloxx came from. Does it have something to do with your beautiful long hair, like in Goldilocks, or the fact that your mother used to lock you up when you were younger? Enlighten me please. My mother still wishes she could lock me up! I have been using this name since 1983 or so. A friend of mine had Maddox (we were called Mad Dogs) as a nickname. Since my real name is Manolito it quickly changed to Manoloxx. In Spanish Manolito means small hand, and if you have seen my hands, you know the name is not really fitting, and yes my mother really liked the TV series Bonanza.
		While it is a nice thing to include some rehearsal recordings on the CD, why did you guys include the exact same 6 songs as a bonus and why not include other songs? Baptized in Cum is recorded in Dennis’ homestudio Parkstreet Construction during the hot summer of 2003. We recorded only the songs we thought represented Cardinal at its best. Of each song we recorded 3 to 4 versions. The last 2 songs on the demo are different versions. The raw sounding tracks in between are the same 6 songs as in the beginning, they are there especially for those who miss the rotten underground sound of eighties demo tapes and 7 inch recordings, such as Fear Of God, Impetigo and early Grave rehearsals.
		The tracks “Baptized In Cum” and “First Anal Communion” are aimed at the Catholic church. Why is that such a big issue for you? Is this because of the acts some members of the church commited or do you despise the whole religion? I personally despise any religion whose main principle is to discriminate or decimate other beliefs. So that leaves me only to respect the Buddhists faith. Of course the catholic pedo sexual scandal inspired both lyrics. I am still thinking about putting the lyrics on our site, for they might be misunderstood.
		You described Nile, Inhume and Hate Eternal as your influences, is it fair to include Consolation in this line-up as well? Sure, we even have a bunch of tunes which sounded too much like Conso. Maybe an idea for the future. (I certainly hope so!, Roy)
		The track “Rise Above All We Despise” is the black sheep among the other tracks and could easily be on a Nile or Morbid Angel cd. Is this an experiment or are there plans to include such tracks on the full length also? It is remarkable how people react to this tune. I think it depends on the songs we are going to put on Horrific, whether we will include others like this one.
		Baptised In Cum has been released by Stage Blast Recordings. Is this a label the band created for this release or is this a real label? I can’t seem to find any info on them. Stageblast Recordings was created especially for the promo, but our first full length could well be released on this label.
		Good luck in the future, anything I forgot to ask or that you just want us to know? Support the underground death metal scene, drink beer, enjoy life & thanks for the interview Roy!
		(Roy van den Brink)