Rockezine.com interview with Occult on Apr 13, 2004

with Maurice Swinkels on Apr 13, 2004

Occult released another thrash metal bomb that will desintegrate all in its way. in their long history Occult have had its ups and downs and singer Maurice was kind enough to answer some of my questions about that and other things
		First of all, congratulations on the new album, did everything in the studio work out as you planned? Thanks and yes it did. This is actually the first time we are fully satisfied with the recording!!
		Elegy For The Weak was supposed to be released by Painkiller Records a long time ago. Why is it going to be released by Karmageddon Media now? Did you decide to drop the deal or did Painkiller? Painkiller had some financial problems and was not able to release the album. I think we made the right decision to leave Painkiller and sign with a label that can release the album without any further delay.
		I was really surprised by the aggressive atmosphere on Elegy For The Weak, every track is fast as hell and Maurice sounds like he`s ready to kill.
		How do you manage to keep this level of intensity after 13 years, it seems you`re getting more extreme with each following record. Haha, I think that the growth of power and intensity in our music comes from the way we feel. We have finally managed to leave all the negative things behind and the 4 of us feel stronger and more vigorous now than we felt back when we were in our early 20s. Also, Andy Classen of Studio One, where we recorded Elegy For The Weak, understood what sound we were looking for. Really, this time at last everything worked out great.
		Given the fact that you play ‘old-fashioned’ metal, which band or bands are you compared to most of the times? Slayer, Testament, another band? Mainly early releases of Slayer, Pestilence, Destruction, Sodom and Kreator.
		Is it true that you already booked a studio for September to record the follow up to Elegy For The Weak? Yes, we did. As you know this album (Elegy…) was recorded in July 2003. We were already working on our new material at that time. By September we will have more than enough stuff for a new album, which should be out sometime in 2005. This puts enough time between the two albums.
		In the past, you haven`t exactly been lucky in your relationships with labels. Is this time everything as it should be, in terms of promotion and distribution? We just signed to Karmageddon Media recently, so it’s hard to say, although they have promoted us in this short time more than all 3 other record companies did in the past 10 years.
		You have been described as a black metal band, a death metal band, a thrash metal band and all sorts of combinations of those genres. How would you describe your style of metal? We like thrash and old school death metal, and these two styles are reflected in our music. I also like old black metal a lot, which was apparent during our beginning when I wore corpse paint. I would still like to wear it but it wouldn’t go with the music that we make now. Further, when Rachel joined us, she used death grunts and some people started to associate us with death metal. Meanwhile our music was never purely death metal, or thrash or black metal. But I don`t really care how people categorize us.
I don`t think that we have any new and noticeable bands that started in the new millennium.		What do you think of the metal scene in the Netherlands nowadays? Is it as good (or as bad) as in the nineties? We do have some strong acts like Thanatos, Pentacle, Callenish Circle, Flesh Made Sin, Deadhead, Houwitser... but most of the bands are around since the 90`s, I don`t think that we have any new and noticeable bands that started in the new millennium. I am curious though how the new band of Martin van Drunen (Pestilence) called Death By Dawn sounds like....
		Did the up rise of the internet change your attitude towards the scene? In the past the underground was really underground, these days every band has a website, a few mp3`s to download and a trillion ezines to review their work.
		Is this a change for the better of does it kill the underground? Being forced to go through hell just to hear some band or buy a record, gave you a type of gratification that you don’t get these days, since everything is ready and available on the Internet. Some people feel nostalgic and miss the times when it was really hard to release an album and unlike today it felt that the stuff that came out at least most of it was special in one or another way. Today if you cannot get your music released you start your own label and release it yourself haha. Undoubtedly there is more crap out now than there was before but I don’t think that the easy exposure can kill the underground. The underground will exist as long as there are people who are drawn to the darker side of life. Internet is making the underground music more accessible and therefore less gratifying but it is not killing its essence. I like having the ability to download mp3s and see how the band sounds before I buy their CD and then get pissed about it later. Internet is the ultimate convenience store with lots of free stuff… but in the end everything comes with a price…
		What gives Occult more satisfaction? Recording a new album or performing on stage? It’s hard to say, since I enjoyed recording our last album very much, while playing life can become very stressful when things are not arranged well. We do like to play life but like I said, it can only be enjoyable when everything is arranged the right way. If you need to worry about transportation or your gear being stolen you cannot give 100% on stage, if you know what I mean.
		After 13 years in the metal scene and experiencing the highs and lows of it, what do you hope to accomplice with Occult? Is it an after-job pastime or a serious endeavor to become a world famous band? Occult is certainly NOT our life and we would never try to turn it into our career. How underground would that be? We all have our jobs and we do the music as a hobby. This way no one is going to tell us what to change about our music and our image to sell more records. We would not be able to continue in that way.
Occult is certainly NOT our life and we would never try to turn it into our career.		Thanks for the interview, if you guys have anything left to say, you have unlimited room to do it now. Thanks Roy for the interview, and check out our DVD "To Be Thrashed…". (hehe, I already did, check the review HERE (Roy))
(Roy van den Brink)