Dark Juan caught up with Corpsehammer for an email based interview:

 

Hello. Please allow me to introduce myself. I’m Dark Juan, the person responsible for your review and frankly excellent score for your Perversion E.P. on Metal Gods TV. I’m sorry, my keyboard is English and doesn’t have the accents and stuff on it. Which member or members of Corpsehammer am I addressing today?

All members of Corpsehammer are contributing to this one, that’s usually how we handle things.

I really enjoyed the rawness of your record. Was it a conscious decision to stay as lo-fi as possible or was it a question of affordability in the production of the record?

It was definitely a conscious decision. The main reason is that we want to keep our sound raw and dirty. We don’t think you really can achieve that old-school feeling with a fancy studio recording. We also recorded the drums and guitars at the same time to get a dirtier, more “live” feeling.

But of course, affordability is always a reason. We’re not rich guys.

Also, I have to ask about the stage names. I might have been slightly unpleasant about them even though I write under a very silly nom-de-plume. Were they the ideas of each member or were they a collective decision and can you please tell me the stories behind them? Please tell me Midnight Horror is called Dave!

The stage names we use in Corspehammer are meant to be in the vein of the stage names used in the early days of the scene and, like our music, to be a homage to that era. The early bands like Hellhammer and so on. It’s no real story behind them and nothing we thought long and hard about. Midnight Horror is actually called Jorge.

What’s the metal scene in Chile like? Is it vibrant or isolated? The only other Chilean metalhead I can think of is Slayer’s Tom Araya. Is there a scene for metal in Latin America? What forms of metal are popular there? Also, did/ does your obvious love of metal make you an outsider in Latin America?

Chile has actually one of the strongest metal scenes right now. At least when it comes to black and death metal with lots of great bands emerging – bands like Slaughtbbath, Unausprechligen Kulten, Perversor, Oraculum, Invocation Spells and Invincible Force and so on. The scene is hostile and that might be the reason why the music coming from Chile has that wickedness. People over there still believe in the evil force of metal. Guess it is kind of hard to be isolated in the world right now with all the technology. Seems like people enjoy all varieties of metal.

Being a metalhead might make you an outsider, but as a metalhead you usually don’t give a fuck about the rest.

Leading on from Chile – How are you finding releasing a Spanish language record internationally? Is the response positive? I’ll be honest, I was very pleasantly surprised by how well Spanish fits your brand of blackened metal. Before Corpsehammer corrupted my ears in the most horrible and gruesome of fashions (which I am eternally grateful for!) Spanish basically meant holidays in the sun, colossal steaks, San Miguel beer and sangria. I never expected it to be as dark and effective as it was.

So far we have only received positive response for the use of the Spanish language. We have always preferred when bands sing in their native language. Whether it’s the old East European metal scene or French metal scene or Japanese hardcore/punk. It gives the music more character since the different languages have different phrasing and pronunciation.

And it’s always more comfortable to express yourself in your native language.

Sexo & Muerte. Please explain… My Spanish is very poor and I need to know exactly what this song in particular is about. I could work out the others. I’m almost scared to know but curiosity mangled the feline and all that…

Well Sexo & Muerte is a song about life and death, and those wild dark desires hidden inside some modern men, and the yearning for the kingdom of fire.

On to the actual music – who and what are your influences? What makes Corpsehammer hot? What music makes Corpsehammer dance, or at least jerk spasmodically around a room?

We are influenced by old, bleak death and black metal in general and the extreme Australian and South American scenes. If we have to mention any names it’s bands like Hellhammer, Necrovore, Sarcofago, Vulcano, old Sodom, Bathory and that sort of stuff. Also some thrash and death metal bands like Angelscorpse and Sadistic Intent makes us jerk spasmodically.

What memories would you like people to take away from a Corpsehammer show? For me, your record reminded me about everything that is good about metal. You sound hungry, and committed, and most of all, you sound like you are having so much fucking fun it’s not hard to imagine you with massive grins on your faces. Is this what a live show is like for you?

We haven’t played live with Corpsehammer yet but it’s something we want to do in the future. And we want it to be an extreme and intense experience and try to recapture the violent filth from our recordings.

Do you have any advice for a young band starting out or for a young musician thinking about picking up his instrument for the first time? What advice were you given when you first strapped on guitars?

Ah, that’s hard. I (Nekromonger) never took any lessons or anything like that. I started playing guitar (20-25 years ago or) because me and a friend wanted to play black metal. The first time I strapped on the guitar was on the first rehearsal for my first black metal band, and of course it didn’t sound very good.

I guess the advice I can give is to keep rehearsing and to not give up even though it sometimes feels like like you’re not getting anywhere.

Last thing before I let you go off and do other stuff – Is there anything you might like to say to the metal world at large and anyone you might like to thank for their help? Any bands you want to play with that a mention might help with? And please tell us when your shows are so we can all go and see you play live!

Well we want to take the opportunity to thank you for all the support we received, and for this interview as well. We have no shows planned right now but we’re always open for suggestions.

At the moment we’re working on our debut album so keep an eye open for news on that one… it’s going to be violent!

Muchas gracias por tomarse el tiempo para escuchar mis tonterías y por responder mis preguntas. ¡Me encanta tu banda y tu música y no puedo esperar para verte tocar cuando vengas a Francia!

I should point out that that was not me in the above sentence, it was Google Translate. So if it was not grammatically correct, go bother someone in Silicon Valley. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Corpsehammer. They are awesome and they are most worthy of your attention. I managed to get through the whole interview without mentioning that moustache. Talk about professional!

TRACKLIST

Reino Del Sangre
Rito Magia
Sexo & Muerte
Outro

https://www.facebook.com/corpsehammer/

 

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