INTERVIEW with KÖRGULL THE EXTERMINATOR

KÖRGULL THE EXTERMINATOR ARE BATTLING FIERCELY AND WITHOUT REST SINCE 2004. WITH TWO RELEASES IN 2013 AND ALL THAT IS YET TO COME THEY SEEM TO HAVE AN UNQUENCHABLE THIRST FOR CONQUEST...   

What motivated you to form a band like Körgul The Exterminatorl?, did you had clear from the start that you wanted to play this style of music?

Joe- I started K.T.E. As a side-project apart from my main one man band Akerbeltz because I wanted to do something different, I had this songs composed and I thought that they weren't the style I wanted for Akerbeltz or some of my other side-projects and in fact they didn't sound like Black Metal in the way I understand it, so I decided the four tracks where very good and deserved a band name...

Körgull The Exterminator  as band name, is a perfect homage to a great band and a great song, how did you came up with this idea and what was the first reaction of the rest of the members?

Joe- At the beginning I was the only member, so no one could say nothing about the name (he,he). Since I first heard Voivod I wanted to be in a band called Korgüll the exterminator but nobody I played with did seem to like the name, so this decision was finally in my hand and I didn't doubt in using the name; it was an homage to the band, and I also changed the “¨” and put it in top of the O as an homage to Motörhead.

The band was born in 2004 but you didn´t record anything until 2008, were you focused in rehearsing and playing live during that period?

Joe-That was quite funny, I had this guitar player that was all interested in the project and I showed him the songs and he was all excited about it and when I said I was ready to record the tracks he sought of disappeared.... So I found another “great” guitar player, he was also very excited and we were going to be something in the history of metal and so and so.... I recorded the drum part and when I went to give him the tracks in audio he didn't fucking come! I had to go about 80Km. With my son that was only a toddler and he only had to get the bloody tube and the bastard didn't dare to come!

I was very pissed about this and decided that K.T.E. Would not exist in the end, so I kept the tracks and carried on with my one man band doing all my things; after four years I sought of jumped out of the drawer and became the band I always dreamed about!

Your first release was the split 7" with Morbid Yell in 2008, what memories do you have of that recording?

Mark- Well, drum parts were recorded three or so years before… And also Joe guitar parts, as He was also playing one of the guitars in that release. I rehearsed with him a couple of times and learned the four songs of that split before recording them on our own rehearsal room. That was my first recording ever so I remember I was a bit nervous, hehe. Anyway it was a very “cold” recording session as we were only supposed to record that tracks and fuck up the band. During rehearsals some new tunes were coming and we ended up rehearsing new stuff every fucking week. That’s when we became a real band with Steel’s addition as bass duties.

After the 7" debut, you have been releasing  material every year, would you say that is it important for you to be active and creative?

Mark- The debut was a CD Split actually, hehehe (yes indeed! I don´t know why I´m always thinking about vinyl hehe! -ed) We rehearse every fucking weekend so we are always playing new stuff Joe and I work at home and constantly creating new songs… Only if we have a lot of gigs coming on we use to stop new stuff and concentrate on rehearsing set-list ones. Anyway we don’t have any kind of pressure to make new songs so we never get anxious about coming up with something new. The day we think new stuff isn’t good enough or don’t feel creative we’ll take things more calm. We don’t want to release anything we don’t believe it’s good!

How many  gigs have you played so far? any concert that you remember for a special reason?

Mark- Wow… Don’t fucking know man! Haha Maybe 50 or 60… Can’t remember! There has been really good show experiences, like playing Live Evil fest in London and other shows outwards our country. But also we have great memories here at home, Barcelona, specially one with Cruel Force and Nocturnal where crowd was fucking crazy or specially the three we have done in Madrid. People there always has a great response with us! Also I must admit that there has been a huge amount of shows that I was so extremely drunk that I can remember anything!!! There is one that I can even remember going up onstage… But people told us it was a great show so I’ll have to believe it… haha 

How was the experience of recording a live album (War Over Genova), do you think live albums are important to show the band´s live strength and energy? 

Joel- I think that live albums are quite old school and that people nowadays don't have the guts to release them because they depend too much on technology, so that's another battle we have won.

Lilith, when I listened to your voice for the first time it reminded me of Sabina from Holy Moses, not saying that you sound alike, but it reminded me that rough and raw style of singing, far from the more guttural “Angela Gossow style" that most of the female death metal  singers try to reach nowadays ( except for a few ones) Do you agree?. Which female and/or male  voices have inspired you to sing this way?

Lilith- To tell the truth, the singers that have inspired me to sing this way are Chronos, Becerra or Quorthon.  I do admire singers such as Cadaveria (Opera IX), Wendy O'Williams, Lory (Nuclear Death) or Noctuaria (Nebrus).

I think that nowadays most singers (male and female) try to sing gutural. The problem is that singing that way they loose strength and feeling, and they all sound the same. There is actually a music academy in Barcelona that teach classes of gutural singing!!!! (que cojjjones!!!, I mean, what the ffffuck!!!??? - ed)

You have worked with black metal bands, Akerbeltz, Harridan and Beheaded Lamb, and you played drums for the latest two. What´s your opinion about nowadays black metal scene? Do you miss playing drums?

Litith- Actually I also played drums in Akerbeltz, in Countess and Enkidu. I do miss playing drums but it wasn't my choice to give up playing drums, it's due to tendinitis. I also had to give up playing bass guitar.  The true Black metal flame burnt during the 90's, because it was fresh, new and full of energy. Nowadays there are still good bands but they've lost the black flame. You had to live the 90's to understand it.(yeah I Know what you mean, I have the same feeling too. -ed)

Is there any chance to see you recording with them again? Are those bands still active?

Lilith- Akerbeltz is still active but I don't collaborate any longer and all the other bands are long dead.

Let´s speak about your latest releases, Metal Fist Destroyer was released early this year, how was the reaction in the international scene compared to 2010s War of the Voivodes?

Mark- It’s still soon but everybody seems to think it’s our best release up to date!!! We are proud of every fucking one, but this one has been the one with more effort behind. Musicwise I can’t really see any important differences with our previous stuff. Maybe it’s a bit more elaborated but the essence keeps the same. We have the formula and we know what we want so don’t expect any changes in the future.

Now you just released 4 new songs in the shape of a split album with Graveyard. What can you tell about this songs?

Mark- We recorded them in the same sessions while Metal Fist Destroyer and were composed exactly at the same time so it continues with our sound. You can find a couple of new songs, one Graveyard cover (as the did also one of ours) and a song that has become some kind of “classic” in our shows from our first Split completely re-recorded with the sound we have nowadays. Really cool release with a brother band!

Tell me how this idea of a split LP was developed, how was the contact with Doomentia records?

Mark- Graveyard and us are really close friends, as bands but also in a personal way so as far as I remember we came up with the idea of making a Split together during a drunkard party… We also came with the idea of covering each other band and making it something special. Lukas from Doomentia had worked in the past with Graveyard and also will work with us in the near future so we have with him a constant relation via e-mail. We asked him about the idea and he was completely excited about it. 

Mark,  you also play guitars in Graveyard, so it must be cool for you to be on the LP with both bands.

Mark- Yeah, I’m with them from last year and half and I can say I’m really happy with that as I was a “fan” (and friend) of that bastards from the very beginning. The fact is that when we came up with the idea of the Split and took the picture and all of that I didn’t know I would end up playing with them! Hahaha And Also Javi Bastard from Graveyard plays nowadays the bass with Körgull The Exterminator, so it seems that Split was some kind of premonition!!! hahaha

Besides K.T.E.  and Graveyard you also recorded guitar on the demo “Flagellator” of the Italian band Infektor, are you still involved with them?  How do you manage to work with three bands?

Mark- Well Infektor is a cool project I have with Cris from Italian band Satanika. I composed a bunch of songs for that project and it has to be unleashed this 2.014. It really don’t take any of my time nowadays so I can concentrate on Körgull and Graveyard. It’s not difficult to work with both of us as we schedule activities thinking of all the rest of the members! Everybody is playing in more than a band so it isn’t different with me.

How important is the lyrical side for the band? What message do you want to express through the songs?

Mark- Lilith’s the one behind the major part of the lyrics, but also Joe has written three or four. Lyricwise we use them as a complement for our music. It keeps on with the violence we play, and believe that Lilith is able to write some of the most violent lyrics I’ve heard… Don’t look any message through them, just violence!

Is there any new band that has impressed you lately and you would recommend?

Joe- I  have to mention Nebrus, I'm quite impressed about them, they are very dark and fast and there's a female singer in the style of Cadaveria from Opera IX....

Please name at least 5 or more of your all time fave albums.

Joe- Welcome to Hell, the return, Pure holocaust, De mysteriis dom sathanas,To megatherion and Nefarious dismal orations.

Lilith- Seven churches, Raining blood, Welcome to hell, Transilvanina hunger and Blood, fire, death.

Mark- Impossible to answer… But Running Wild’s Death or Glory would be the first one! haha

Have you ever imagined yourself playing in the 80s? imagine this… World War III Festival …Voivod, Celtic Frost, Possessed, Destruction, Nasty Savage and...Körgull The Exterminator!!!

Joe- It would have been very good... But we also have some very powerful bands nowadays and we are proud to share the stage with them, I mean, not only the old bands are the good ones....

What´s the strangest place and the most shocking place you have been?

Joe- For me the most shocking place was playing at the Puerto Hurraco in BCN, it was a squat house and I had to get into this door sideways because my shoulders didn't fit in, I loved it!

Ok, so what are the next steps for the band and what do you expect for 2014!

Mark- We’re now preparing a special underground release recorded again in our rehearsal room ready to be released at first as a very limited tape.  It’ll be a split with Akerbeltz where every band will play two new songs and then cover the two songs of the other completely adapted in each other style… hahaha Freak! We’re also coming up with new shit for our fourth full-length to record it hopefully at the fall of the year…  Also we’re near to announce that Doomentia Records will release our second full-length “War Of The Voivodes” on vinyl on a special double LP with four songs professionally recorded live and a couple of covers as bonus tracks. You’re the first one to know about it! haha (Cool hehe! -ed)

Would you like to add anything to end this interview?

Mark- Thank you very much for your support, man… And to all your readers keep your ears into Metal Fist Destroyer! We’re Körgull The Exterminator… and we are here to stay!!!!

Now you know, this metal beast takeS no prisosers!!  To the Death!!!