Rockezine.com interview with Superior on Jan 29, 2006

with Mark on Jan 29, 2006

More and more metal and hardcore bands are standing up and playing in small places all over Europe. Superior is one of those bands. Time for Rock-e-Zine to have an e-mail conversation with this band.
		Hi there, I don’t think everybody knows you and your band. Can you please introduce yourself to me and the rest of the world? Of course. I am Mark, drummer of Superior. For those who don’t know: Superior is a Dutch band, whose music can be described best as a furious mix of hardcore and metal, lots of breaks and mosh parts. Perhaps it’s better to judge it yourself and listen to some tracks on www.superiorhardcore.com. The band started out somewhere in 1999, when we met each other at high school and discovered that we shared the same passion for heavy music. After some years of musical development, a demo and a line-up change (Paul on vocals), we grow more and more into our own style. Last year this resulted in the release of “You Can’t Deny This”, which was released by Cursed Records from Belgium. Also it resulted into another line-up change as our lead guitar player Rop decided to pursue other goals in life. But we were luck to have our friend Frank to be ready to fill up the gap and to lift us up to a higher musical level again.
		Last year you released an album called “You Can’t Deny This”. Are you guys satisfied with the reactions and the sound of the album? Yip, the album was recorded in June 2004 but due to the interference of Cursed Records and some delays with the artwork we were forced to release the cd in 2005. When we started the recordings we didn’t expect anything. So you can say that we were pleasantly surprised ending up with a label and promotion through all of Europe by Onfire Promotion. The album has got a lot of positive and stimulating reactions through all of Europe. So you can say that for a debut we are satisfied with the album and its sound, but looking forward we can do better because we are still making musical progression.
		What’s your favourite classic album? Is that also the main influence for Superior? Wow that’s hard. We don’t have our own favourite album. Our influences are very broad. Some of us listen to a lot of metal and metal influenced hardcore. While our singer Paul is an old-school freak listening to Slapshot, Champion, Death Bby Stereo and Comeback Kid. So we all have a different taste of bands we listen to. But there is also some similar music flavor within our band. We all love the music of Born From Pain, Merauder, Arkangel, Hatebreed, Cataract, Full Court Press (rip), Zero Mentality, Madball, Evergreen Terrace, Heaven Shall Burn, Caliban and Kickback.
		Who writes the songs? How does a song come to an end? Well that’s simple. Our guitar players make some riffs and then it starts of its own. You just put in some aggressive drums, screaming vocals and a pounding bass. But lately we also try to put our music into another dimension to create more and more of our own sound. Due to our musical development we are not quite fast satisfied so sometimes a song takes months and sometimes a few hours. As long as we think it will rock we will play it. Then comes the important part you test the song during a show. If the test fails, we skip the song or adjust the parts which need to be improved.
		The metalcore scene is getting more popular. How do you feel about that? Well metalcore is not the hype nowadays, but there are still a lot of kids who go completely crazy with metal influenced hardcore. And to be honest we don’t give a fuck about hypes or fashion. We just try to do our own thing that is playing and making music we like. Hardcore shows are often packed with people and everyone seems to know each other. Besides the old and well known faces we see a lot of new and young kids coming to shows, which is of course important to keep the scene alive. And with the amount of shows in local venues and the big events like the European Hardcore Parties and the Eastpack Resistance Tour we may not complain that there are not enough shows around! Shows with big metalcore bands like Hatebreed, Born From Pain, Evergreen Terrace, Kickback, Heaven Shall Burn, Unearth and even Caliban (m/) are very crowded. Also there are a lot of great bands rising from our little country for example BFP, Backfire!, Angel Crew, Enemy Ground, Human Demise, Greyline, Strike First, No Turning Back, and many more. All these bands are more and more introduced to a larger audience. But don’t expect them on your “top 40 chart” cause it always will be underground music.
		What album is currently is your CD/mp3-player? Morda – Azerion Evergreen Terrace - Sincerity Is An Easy Disguise In This Business Agents of Man – Count Your Blessings Angel Crew - One Life, One Sentence
		What was your best concert and what was your worst? Again a hard one. We have had some great shows within The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, but it is always an honour to play in our hometown. For my worst show I have to dig too far in to my mind that is scary what else I am going to find……..
		Does anyone of the band have any side projects? Currently none of us is doing a side project, something we don’t mind. Everybody is just focused on one thing and that’s rocking as hard as possible with Superior.
		What are the future plans for Superior? Future plans are playing as much shows as possible through all of Europe, produce new material and hopefully to hit the studio at the beginning of 2007 to record a new album. For the rest keep your eyes open in de summer of 2006 as we will hit the studio this month to record a new song for a sampler about which I can’t tell you anymore.
		Where do you hope to see Superior five years from now? Well, I always say: “You never know what you will get or what will happen so live your life the way it is but it will never be the way you want it to be.” I don’t have a fucking idea were Superior will be within 5 years as we never expected to come this far. Therefore I hope we still will have the same drive and fun as which we are having now. That’s the only way to achieve something, because if you don’t have fun in what you do, you just won’t make it.
		Do you have any famous last words? Or is there maybe something I forgot? Thank you Jeroen, for having this interview. For the audience which still doesn’t know us I would advice to be sure to check us out, cause I can guarantee you, we will blow you and the stage away. In the meanwhile you can find us at the following sites: www.superiorhardcore.com www.myspace.com/superior www.cursedrecords.be Let us unleash our hatred Superior 2006
(Jeroen Habets)