Monday, February 1, 2016

An Interview with Exterminate

Readers should know by now that I love me some Brazilian death metal. In fact, this blog probably wouldn't exist without it. So I was stoked to discover Porto Alegre's Exterminate. In a dry year for all out brutality, their debut Burn Illusion encapsulated all the things that I love about that scene: unrelenting speed, memorable songs, blasphemous intent; take no prisoners, give no fuck death metal. Bassist Marcelo Feijó was gracious enough to answer my questions, with an assist from both sides by Google Translate.



Dreams of Consciousness: Introduce Exterminate - who are you and what kind of music do you make?

Hello, we are the Exterminate - a Brazilian band. Our sound is death metal, performed raw, simple and heavy.

Exterminate has the current lineup:
Adriano Martini - guitar vocal
Rafael Lavandoski - guitar
Marcelo Feijó - bass
Sandro Moreira –drums

DoC: How did Exterminate came into being?

The band was formed in mid-2005 with the purpose of creating extreme death metal. After a few [line-up] formations, in 2009 the band released their first demo, entitled Insane Fate, recorded at Studio Hurricane by Sebastian Carsin.



DoC: The members of Exterminate all served time in Mental Horror. How would you describe the difference between the two bands, musically or otherwise? What does the existence of Exterminate mean for the future of Mental Horror?

Adriano Martini (Mental Horror) joined Exterminate and shared all his experience with us in the formation of the band. Adriano invited us to join Mental Horror, and we accepted. We're all Mental Horror fans, and spent a few years playing with both bands. It was very cool, we gained a lot of experience together. The music between the bands is slightly different, but the quality and technique are the same. Today Mental Horror already have a fixed line-up, and both bands always help [each other] a lot, it's a great friendship.

DoC: Tell me about your debut album Burn Illusion. Where did you record the album? What was your intention for your debut, and what kind of statement were you trying to make?

Burn Illusion was recorded at Studio Hurricane, produced and mixed by Sebastian Carsin. We had good expectations for the album launch because the Insane Fate [demo] had yielded us a good reaction. [For the] recording and composition of the songs, we wanted to record raw and true death metal; we only used triggers on the bass drums, the rest was really natural. The sound came out as we wanted, we did not want the drums to sound electronic. We wanted a sound of our own, and that has been achieved: Death metal in the style of the 90s, things current bands are hardly doing.



DoC: What themes does Burn Illusion explore lyrically?

We did not choose a specific theme for the album. We were making the lyrics as we were creating the songs. We heard the music and already envisioned the lyrics to [them]. But the lyrics have different themes: Religion, war... so that was the result.

DoC: Exterminate keep things brutal, but your songs never get boring or one-dimensional. What's your secret to keeping your music engaging?

The secret is to sound as natural as possible, and not [write] something that we can not play live. We made the songs with an idea of one and the other... we want to hear the music that is [in our] head.  We did the songs as we would like to hear them.

DoC: Brazil has for over 30 years been the source of some of the heaviest, fastest, most unrelenting bands. How would you characterize Brazilian death metal?

Brazil is really a great source of extreme bands. I think the best characterization would be the quality of death metal - just like the bands we are fans of, always wanting to get as close as possible to that recording quality. I think that is the secret of Brazilian bands, that sound quality.

DoC: Your drummer is ridiculously fast. How many sticks does he destroy in a week?

Sandro Moreira has a lot of experience, and has played with many prominent bands, including Rebaelliun, which is a great band... but Sandro practices a lot and has very good physical conditioning. He always breaks some sticks in rehearsal, more than normal. In my opinion he is one of the best in his style.



DoC: What are 5 things about your country that you wish more foreigners knew? 

Brazil today is well-known for corruption of our leaders, which makes us very embarrassed. But the country has its merits: football, beaches, women who are beautiful, our food is very good, and now we can say that Brazil also is known for its extreme music since we have many good bands here.

DoC: What can we look forward to next from Exterminate?

We [recently] released Burn Illusion, which had a good response. We want to work hard in 2016; we already did some shows and we have some more scheduled. We are now working and working. We are already writing for the next album, and already have some music well underway. Expect a lot of news coming out there.

I really want to thank Dreams of Consciousness for this interview, we are very honored by the opportunity for people to listen and hear Burn Illusion. Thank you! Hugs to everyone!

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