DEATH WHORE - Cleanse Your Soul With Blood (France - Death-Metal/Crust/Sludge - Interview with Fabien).

Hello Fabien ! Can you introduce yourself and tell us how it all began for you - your encounter with this musical universe, what appealed to you, what fascinated you and what made you want to get into music? 
Hi! I'm Fabien, guitarist and singer of Death Whore ; thank you a lot to let me speak with you here, it's a real pleasure! (Shared pleasure - Ed.)
As many people, I guess my first contact with extreme music came from a few bigger bands. I grew up in the country side in the 90s, at the time and place, you'd still have to be real curious to encounter to even find this music, and it's something I kept with me. I love diggin', discovering old and new bands even now, it's a true passion! I think two records in particular pushed me toward what made my tastes, two cover albums: Undisputed Attitude by Slayer, full of hardcore punk songs (TSOL, DI, Minor Threat...), and Garage Inc. by Metallica. Thanks to this last one, I discovered some of my favorites bands which were entries to others things: Misfits, Discharge, Thin Lizzy, Killing Joke... I owe a lot to these two records!



DEATH WHORE isn't your first project - you are/have been involved in many others before. Can you tell us about them ? What memories do you have?
My first real band was Wheelfall, which lasts from 2009 to 2021. It began as a stoner rock band with my closest friends and evolved to something quite unique, very industrial sounding, like Ministry and Godflesh mixed with some Neurosis, with a punk way of thinking! It was a great laboratory and it was really ambitious. Thank to this band I met a lot of people: we recorded all Wheelfall albums with Gorgor, who has a recording studio and was at the time the drummer for Phazm, and had played with Imperial Sodomy, Agressor and many more. I ended up joining Phazm for the recordinf of their reunion album, Scornful of Icons! Wheelfall's double album "Glasrew Point" pusshed me toward dark ambient music, and I released a solo ambient album at the time. Kalevi, the guitarist of Chaos Echoes (and Bloody Sign before that) contacted me following this release to play in his band, and it was the begining of some wonderful years with these guys. Now I have Death Whore as a real band and a solo industrial project as ANLGTRRR!

Tell me about the band DEATH WHORE now... How you met - the current line-up - and above all - WHY the need to form THIS band?
At the time I needed to stop Wheelfall: everything has to come to an end. Chaos Echoes has stopped too not long before, so I finded myself without any live project. I love to create music, so I never stopped, including a short-lived solo-death metal project named Obturate just to challenge to myself (doing everything from writing, recording, mix and mastering the album). But I need to play with people, feeling the air moving when you play with a band, the communication between musicians. It's very important to me. And, as everything takes time, I finally knew what I wanted to play: going back to my first love in extreme music: punk and death metal. Gorgor was very motivated to play together again, and we begun as a 4-piece for a couple of months, with Pat (bass) and Thomas (guitar). Thomas moved to another country and we decided to keep Death Whore as a power trio, which embodied everything I love about live music. The simplicity, the connection, it's raw. Then after the first EP, Pat left and Antoine joined us. And I'm really happy to say that it is the best line-up i've had in a band for years. It's fun, challenging, interesting!

Describe your sound ... In terms of sound, it features old-school death metal, crust punk, hardcore, and sludge.... Do you agree with that? Which bands could you name to guide someone who doesn't know you?
Everything in the band is about death metal and punk. So of course I agree with that! Sludge has strong connections with the hardcore-punk scene, and I listened to a lot of these bands. On the first EP, metallic hardcore was a big influence, but we naturally refined our style. Our first album is a perfect representation of what we are as a band and persons, in my opinion! If you like Morbid Angel, Dystopia, Obituary, Crowbar, Trap Them, Bolt Thrower (first ones), you should like this album, I think.
 
You write most of the songs, even though in the end, I know that everyone in the band contributes their ideas and touches... In your opinion,  which bands have had the biggest impact on you and influenced significantly your songwriting?
Indeed, I compose almost all the songs, but Gorgor and Antoine can do anything they want for their part. Everyone expresses themselves, we like that. And I write all the lyrics after the songs are finished. It's a hard question, as I listened to a lot of bands and music that can have an influence on me! Morbid Angel is the obvious one, I am an absolute fan: the unique riffs, the incredible slow parts, the energy, the craziness of it. I think I have to cite Cathedral, because it's one my favorite bands and the songwriting here is perfection, and with a lot of fun and inventive riffs. They keep things interesting, even if they play the same chords for 2min, it's never the same. Especially on an album like Ethereal Mirror of Forest of Equilibrium! And I absolutely love Misfits (with Glen Danzig), they keep things real simple and raw, but incredibly memorable.

Lyrical inspirations/influences...  How important are the lyrics for you ? Are there any specific messages or thoughts you try to develop and share through your lyrics ? 
Lyrics are important, but it's ok if someone doesn't care about it. Nobody complains about Slowly we Rot! As my roots are in punk, I feel the need to talk about real things that appen in our lives, mainly talking about the counterculture, anarchism and class war. But, as in real life, I have a certain sense of humor so I can't stop myself to include some absurd or over the top lyrics about life and death too! My two main influences for writing things are Samuel Beckett, who is the king of weird absurdism, twisted dark humor, and Morrissey (both with The Smiths and solo) who is in my opinion one the best songwriter ever. Even if the guy seems out of touch with ignorant ideas in real life, his songs touched me so many times, in the silly songs or the most dark ones.

About the band's discography... Imagine someone who doesn't know your band at all and wants to get interested in.. Which release would you recommend to start with, and why? 
Start with the first album! We gave us some time to find ourselves as a band with the two first EP, so the first album can really be us. But on the EP, there's some good songs we continue to play live, so...

About your latest release... How did the process of creating the album begin ? Did you have a clear idea of where you wanted to go, or was it more the result of multiple joint experiments?
As I said, after the two EP, we knew where we wanted to go, what we wanted to be. So it was a really simple album to make, in my opinion. 10 songs and an interlude, keep things simple, loud, full of riffs, entertaining, but if you want to dig deeper, there's a lot to find too. It's a good audio photography of what were were at that time!

Tell me about the recording... where and when? With whom? It seems to me that here too, there's still a lot of “DIY”... You do a lot yourselves without much outside intervention... Why did you choose to do it this way? Lack of financial resources? Need to better control the process from A to Z? Or simply that good old punk ethic that's ingrained in you?
We have the opportunity to record by ourselves, as we rehearse in Gorgor studio. He mix our songs, sometimes master them, so we have this DIY thing I really like too. It's liberating and educative to do things by ourselves, know that WE CAN do it! Without big structures, big money and everything. If we collaborate with someone, it's because we want to, not because we have to. So for the album, we collaborate with Ethan for the artwork, which is the singer of Primitive Man and Vermin Womb, and for the mastering we went for James Plotkin, who play with Khanate, Scorn, and mastered a lot of my favorite bands' album!

Ultimately, the production of “Blood Washes Everything Away” is... surprising... massive, immersive... dirty... it reminds me of a lot of death metal productions from the early 90s that knew how to be brutal, overwhelming, suffocating... is that what you were aiming for? Would you say you're satisfied with the result?
I'm VERY statisfied with the result indeed! First of all, it matches our live sound, which is important. And as you understood, we like our music raw, true, we want the listener to know that we are for real. Real amps, real players, minimum editing, trying to do our best. The punk ethics is to be heard too. And yes, you nailed it with the early 90's sound! Speaking of which, I write these word listening to the only diSEMBOWELMENT album, a masterpiece.
I LOVE slow riffs as much as I love ultra fast songs. But slow riffs, with extremely big fat and dirty sound, full of bass... it's orgasmic. Rippikoulu, Coffins, Anatomia, Decomposed, Cianide, Methdrinker, Grief... so many great bands in this realm!

And it was also released... not on ONE, but on several labels that pooled their resources... Once again... what prompted you to make this choice? What advantages do you see in it? Among these labels, you have to tell us about No Good To Anyone Productions... at least a few words 😉
Yes, the album was released by Specific Recordings, Duality Records, Crypt of Dr Gore, Hecatombe Records, and No Good To Anyone which is my own label. The idea is we wanted to work with people that are passionnate about their scene and who loved our album! it's easier for everyone to produce and promote an album when there are multiple labels. And everyone has its own contacts and public, so we reach a lot more people! We all share the same passion and activism about the scene. No Good To Anyone Productions is a label I created to release principally my bands. I helped release some other bands from time to time, but it takes a lot to promote each one ; I don't want to do things by halves, so right now I keep the label to for my own projects! I like to participated in the promotion and production of my bands, this label permits me to do it.

Since its release... what have the reactions been like? Both in the media and at your concerts?
The reactions are awesome!! The public seems to really like what we are doing and how we are doing it, and I can't thank them enough! At the concerts it's crazy! People knowing our lyrics by heart, moshing everywhere, it's so good!

Speaking of concerts... What is a DEATH WHORE concert like? Is it important for DEATH WHORE to play live?
It's of course really important because it's where we really connect with people who love our music. We play, but we can speak togeter after. Our music doesn't exist without the people who listen to it. So... We play loud, we have real fun on stage, we sweat a lot, we give our best! We played with a lot of different bands, from death metal to hardcore bands, black metal, grindcore, and each time everyone is thrilled!

Still about concerts, what was your BEST & WORST concert — and why?
I think our best concert was maybe the one we did in a small club, at Nirvana in our hometown for our release show of our album! It was like these 90's live video of Obituary, Sepultura, Morbid Angel where everyone is there to have a good time, slamming, moshing... The place was sold out, it was sweaty, people getting onstage and everything. Perfect! We shot a music video on the song "Motorthroat'79" at this occasion!
As for the worst concert... I don't really remember.

And in this group life, what aspects do you prefer? Some musicians prefer the composition stage, others the studio... others live performances... what about you?
I live to create music, so the answer is simple for me. For others it can be making puzzles, playing video games, playing sports... I just like to create music! It's fun, you express yourself to make something new. Maybe it's bad, maybe it's good, that's not important. The act of creating is everything. Playing live with people you like is awesome, feeling the high volume of an amp behind me is exhilarating, and share a unique moment with everyone in the room is an awesome experience! I don't want to spend too much time in the studio, I like that a record is a photograph of the best we can do. It's not perfect and I don't want it to be. Charm is in the flaws. 

What are your current & future plans ? 
Right now, I am writing a lot of songs, as we want to record a new album soon! I have a lot of ideas, more noisy, more extreme, pushing everything to 11. I hope we'll release some split single/ep too ; I really like these formats where several bands collaborate, sometimes not even in the same genre! I find really cool that sometimes, one of the best song of a band is on a release that is not on an album! And it's pretty cool to discover an awesome B-Side somewhere, on a compilation or else. So, new material, and of course, live gigs. Because playing loud is awesome.

Your most insane dream with the band would be ?
Honestly... I can't think of anything right now! I suppose my dream with this band is that I'll keep doing and release music with these guys as long as possible.

Ok, your next live-appearance(s) ? When & where can we catch you live ?
In april we have 3 gigs: in Paris (le Klub), saturday 11, then friday 24 in Orléans and sunday 26 near our hometown Chez Paulette! We can have all infos on our social medias and official website.

Some words on your local scene - bands you're friends with and you'd like to name ?
Locally, we have a lot of very good band here, in the north-east of France! Nowadays, I can cite Mortuary, in which Gorgor plays too, Illegal Corpse, Aabode, Discordance, Blockheads, Warkunt, Proudhon, Whoresnation, Peine Kapitale, Inhumate (rip)... and so much more! There's so many bands, and less and less places to play. In our hometown, Nancy, we used to have a lot of underground places for culture, now it's very difficult. It's a real shame. But it motivates us to do more, and act locally for a better future.

Thank you - Last word is yours.. 
Thank you a lot, both you Fabien, and to you, who read these lines! Hope to see you live, keep music alive, support your favorite bands!