Masterful Magazine - Death Metal and Black Metal Magazine

Disavowed

Wywiad przeprowadził - Wouter Roemers

Dutch brutal death metal combo Disavowed finally return after a lengthy 6 year absence with an impressive new album on a new label. "Stagnated Existence" starts where their strong Unique Leader debut "Perceptive Deception" left off and then some. With lethal amounts of brutality, groove and impeccable technical skills the record is sure to move the band further up the echelons of the genre. After almost 2 months on the road through Europe with US genre veterans Cannibal Corpse we were able to catch up Disavowed guitarist Daniel van den Broek to talk about their incredible new album, their new recording deal with Neurotic Records and what led to the band's unexpected 6 year hiatus.

What is presently going on with the band? What new things are happening for Disavowed right now?

Well, there are not exactly new things happening on this very moment. We're just trying to write new songs and produce a next album quicker than the last one. Gerben already wrote a pretty sick song, so we're on the roll. Expect a new album next year!

Tell me about the making of the new album, the writing, the music etc.

Maybe it's a too long story to tell (lots of things happened the last 6 years), if you consider that it took us so long. The fact is that more than half of the songs were pretty old when we recorded it. Some material is almost as old as the time "Perceptive Deception" was released. In the end, I ended up with 4 songs for "Stagnated Existence" and Gerben 6, but it still sounds like it came all together from one source, I think. Writing songs in the style of Disavowed has proved more difficult for me than expected, but I'm quite pleased with the end results. Like I said, it took us too long because we were unfortunate in a lot of things. I'm glad it got there in the end.

How do you decide which producer/engineer/studio to use and why these particulars?

Budget-wise we had to do a lot ourselves, so we didn't have a lot of choices in picking a producer or studio or whatsoever. Robbe K is the most experienced producer in our mids, so it was quite obvious that he would take a great deal in producing this album.

When working on "Stagnated Existence", were there any elements from your debut album that you wanted to keep and were there any particular things you were looking to improve?

For me personally, I wanted to honour the style of Disavowed. I that way I kinda adjusted my type of song writing. "Perceptive Deception" (and Disavowed) has a very recognisable style with lots of catchy stuff. I wanted to keep that in as much as possible. Of course, as a musician you evolve, so you will try new things and techniques. In that way it sounds more mature than "Perceptive Deception", but it's still our style.

The new material is the band's most technical and grooviest to date. Did you have a preconceived notion of how you wanted "Stagnated Existence" to turn out or do you think it was simply a natural progression of technically skilled and experienced musicians?

Haha, yeah I think so. Funny example is the fourth song on the album, ‘Restricted Conceptions'. When I wrote that song, I thought it was one of the more simplistic songs, compared to ‘Masses Conformed'. In the end it became a bastard to play. I kinda misjudged the technical aspects in that song while playing it on a ridiculous speed Romain was used to produce. That's the real fuck up of this album. Like I said, a lot of songs were pretty old when we wrote it. They were written on the speed we were used to with Robbe V. Romain is a lot faster, so the older songs became way more difficult to play then expected, haha. Maybe that's why they sound more technical?

The record is a pretty dense affair with increased levels of technicality on about every aspect. Musically, how would you say you've progressed compared to the previous album?

The songs and guitar parts became more mature (more diversity in riffing and song writing), the drums are faster. You can finally hear the bass guitar now and Robbe K finally sounds like he should! For us it has become an improvement, but of course some will say otherwise and you'll have to respect that. It's just a personal point of view, I guess.

Unfortunately I do not have any lyrics in front of me, so I would like to tell us a few words about the themes and subjects you treat in "Stagnated Existence". It's good to see bands move away from the usual gore - and anti-religious topics.

The Disavowed lyrics were always very personal to Robbe K. It's just written in such an abstract way, people don't quite get it (including me). He writes lyrics about common things and the problems occurring in daily life(?)

The album features some great cover art by Pär Olofsson. How was it working with him different than working with the artist you worked with for your debut?

It was pretty ok. He made a sketch, we said hell yeah, and it was done!

Did your new album "Stagnated Existence" turn out the way you envisioned?

Not exactly, but I'm glad it's there and that people dig it.

Let's talk about atmosphere a bit, because it's what most bands don't have or can't make. Death metal hasn't been so brilliantly dark for quite some time. Is it something that comes spontaneously with you guys?

Haha, well, I guess so then. We are just trying to write brutal music and not stand still with the fact to throw in some (dark) atmospheric riffing. If we like a riff or an idea, we just use it for a song. No deeper things involved in that, I can tell you.

How does this new cd compare to your 2001 Unique Leader debut "Perceptive Deception"?

Maybe "Perceptive Deception" is more "clean". Personally I consider "Stagnated Existence" as a more spontaneous album. It has more ups and downs in it than the straight forward feeling of "Perceptive Deception".

Your debut dates back from 2001. Besides, Robbe Vrijenhoek's well-documented wrist injury and the line-up changes that ensued; what else contributed to the lengthy absence of Disavowed?

I think a serious wrist injury can do more to a band than you can imagine. Don't misjudge the fact that Robbe V is a very close friend. Not someone you put aside because he can't play anymore. No, I think we all had pretty good hopes that he would recover sometime, so we were patient with him. Unfortunately, it took a long time to realise that there was no hope anymore for the near future. That hope brought us into a period of "absence", which took a long time. I admit that.

Death metal is often associated with rather superficial and misogynist lyrics. How important are lyrics in the overall picture for a band like Disavowed?

I think Disavowed has a certain style of lyrics because of Robbe K's vision on the world and its society. Personally, I don't really prefer any type of lyrics, as long as the music is brutal and the vocals deep and guttural. But I think this suits us quite well.

"Perceptive Deception" was released through Unique Leader and this album comes to us by way of Neurotic Records. Have you noticed any differences between both labels so far?

Both labels have put lots of efforts putting us on the map and that's very important.

How has the label been accommodating the band's needs?

Pretty ok I guess. Unique Leader and Neurotic have put us both on great tours so far, so what else do you need?

With half of the band's members also playing in Arsebreed and your drummer being German. How difficult is it to properly arrange regular rehearsals and write new material?

Well, right now I have to lay my priorities with Arsebreed a little more, because we're planning to record a new album this year. I have to write songs for that album, so when finished with that I can fully focus on Disavowed again. It has always been that way, and it works quite well. The same for the other guys, they anticipate in other bands and projects, but you'll always figure a way out to combine it without causing any problems.

What's your view on the current state of death metal? How much do you identify with the rest of the underground scene? Is the Internet both a curse and a blessing to underground music?

Death metal has many sideways nowadays. I prefer the underground scene, because of its hidden talent. Does Internet help? For me personally not. I like to discover new bands playing live. Then you will get a clearer view on the quality of a band. Of course, sites like YouTube and MySpace help promoting underground bands, but I will never actively seek new bands on Internet.

With the increasing number of good death metal bands in the genre right now, do you ever feel like you're in competition with anyone?

Bands with an attitude like that (being competitive) make me sick. They will get no support or whatsoever from me.

What current death metal bands do you feel are worthy of being listened to?

Well, I really like Despondency, Infected Malignity (incredibly young Japanese guys that release pure mayhem!), Viral Load (made an absolutely crushing impact on me the last time I saw Shawn play), Hell I don't know, I guess there's so much to discover right now.

You recently spent a most of February and March on the road through Europe with US genre veterans Cannibal Corpse. Tell us something about that.

It was a good tour and we really needed that. You could notice our descent in the scene the last years, so hopefully this will get us back up. We had a great time, although it was the toughest tour we did so far, I think. For me it was a very good thing. It proved me that death metal is still very much alive. Shortly before the tour I had my doubts, I must confess. So many people that showed up, every show sold out (has something to do with Cannibal Corpse, of course) but the reactions we received were overwhelming. So, for us it was a success!

Besides touring, what else is on the platter for Disavowed for the remainder of the year?

Couple of weekend shows in Germany, Switzerland, France, Holland, you name it. No big tours again this year though, considering Gerben is too busy with being a surgeon, Nils with his political career, Robbe K being a father now, Romain being busy teaching at the drum school and me, writing new Arsebreed songs, haha!

Thanks a lot for your time! Good luck with Disavowed - if there's anything else you want to add to conclude the interview, here's the place!

Thanx for this interview. Horns up!

Booking: info@disavowed.nl

Disavowed

Wywiad przeprowadził - Wouter Roemers

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