Bob Bagchus (20.II.2013)

 Interview with Bob Bagchus (20.II.2013)

(Questions compiled by 

Cornelius of Encomium and Georgius)

Hail to thee Bob! In 2007 ASPHYX was re-united again and since that time you delivered a lot of awesome stuff to the real Death/Doom Metal maniacs. How do estimate this passed time after your reunion? 

 - Hail there! Well, things are going good for us since the reunion. We did lots of cool shows/festivals, did brutal releases and caught up with old scene friends, which is awesome too!

After the "Live Death Doom" DVD Alwin Zuur replaced Wannes Gubbels on bass. What happened to Wannes? Can you share with us some info about his actual musical activity?

- We had different opinions so we decided to part ways. That was better for ASPHYX and better for Wannes. It was not easy, but it has become a fact. But we still talk and there is no bad blood, luckily. Wannes is a great guy with a great heart for metal. He and PENTACLE just did a split EP.

Last year you crushed us with a brilliant album called "Deathhammer". This one had a lot of good reviews worldwide and you also made a killer video clip for the album's title track. Tell us please about the circumstances of the clip-making.

- Yes, "Deathhammer" really did hit the nail on the head for sure! Well, the videoclip, it was shot in our rehearsalplace and was filmed and edited by Maurice from LEGION OF THE DAMNED who is a long time friend of ours. The clip came out good although I hate making videoclips a lot! I prefer liveclips. But Maurice did a great job and that all in 2 days! 

(Asphyx-signatures with a kind dedication by Martin van Drunen, the signatures brought for me Andrey Misanthrope in June, this year-GF)  

It's really great to see, your good old mate, Eric Daniels' return to Death/Doom Metal again with the debut album of GRAND SUPREME BLOOD COURT and surely with an impressive line-up. As "Deathhammer" this album had and has a plenty of positive reviews as well. What do you think when will you continue to write new tracks for GRAND SUPREME BLOOD COURT?

- Yes, it's good to see my best buddy Eric returning to the metal again, for sure. Yes, we will be writing new material for GRAND SUPREME BLOOD COURT, but not now since the debut just came out. ASPHYX is the next band, we are focusing on for 2014. With GRAND SUPREME BLOOD COURT it was a matter of very short rehearsing and just go into the studio and record the stuff! It came out very good, spontaneous and brutal.

How was the reception of fans at your first live-show with GRAND SUPREME BLOOD COURT? Will you think about the release of a live DVD in the near future?

- That was very cool. The show was in the South of Germany. Unfortunately, MOTÖRHEAD was playing in the area with ANTHRAX, so there were only 250 people at our show, haha! But it was great nevertheless! Great response there and loud as hell. I don't know if GSBC will release a live DVD, but it should be cool anyway. Time will tell.

You played drums in EVOKER together with Theo Loomans (R.I.P.) and also in THRONE in the 90s. Tell us shortly about this period!

- Yes indeed. EVOKER was a total HELLHAMMER/BATHORY tribute, were we also covered "Massacra" from HELLHAMMER on that reh/demo. We also did BATHORY's "Born For Burning", but that was not recorded. Both Theo (RIP) and me were very serious with it, but ASPHYX was the main band, of course. THRONE was a project from A.J. van Drenth (BEYOND BELIEF) and me. We did "The Ultimate Blasphemy" demo in 1995. THRONE was inspired by old MESSIAH/BATHORY/CELTIC FROST. It was cool to do. We still have contact.

What releases were your favorites out of the 2012 year?

- Hmmm, DESASTER - "The Arts of Destruction" and the SERPENTINE PATH debut.

What is your opinion about the Dutch Death/Doom Metal scene nowadays? Any recommendations?

- Our scene is very strong yet again with great new bands such as BODYFARM, NAILGUN MASSACRE, ENTRAPMENT, FUNERAL WHORE, EXTREME COLD WINTER, GRAND SUPREME BLOOD COURT, HAIL OF BULLETS, and the oldies such as SINISTER, ACROSTICHON and of course ASPHYX. It is a healthy scene.

Do you like to watch Formula-1? If yes which racing-driver(s) do you prefer?

- Yes, I am addicted to Formula 1. I also go to races with my wife as well and take my kids to the free practice on Friday. I love the enormous speeds and the ultra brutal sound from the cars. Louder than anything else! I used to prefer Mika Häkkinnen (my youngest son is named after him), also because he drove for McLaren-Mercedes, then after him it was Kimi Raikkönen and now it is Lewis Hamilton. But I am a teamman and not a driverman. I always was fan of McLaren-Mercedes, but since Mercedes has its own team now I support them since I am a fan of their streetcars.

Do you have any favorite movies? Tell us a little bit about your hobbies.

- Yes, I'm a huge horrorfan and with horror I mean the late 70's and 80's kind of horror. My favorite movies are Evil Dead, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre part 1, Zombie Flesheaters, Phenomena, House by the Cemetary, The Beyond, Tenebrae, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, New York Ripper, City of the Living Dead, Intruder, all Friday the 13th 'til part 8, Last House on the Left, etc. My hobbies are Formula 1 and horror movies and take a long walk in the woods with my 2 sons, enjoy the nature and do some fishing in the rivers here with them.

Do you plan some extensive European tour with ASPHYX for the near future? Would be really great to witness live the obscure Death/Doom power for example in Ukraine!

- No, ASPHYX does not do any tours anymore. We did 2 great tours in the past, 1991 with ENTOMBED and in 1992 with BOLT THROWER and BENEDICTION. Today the day we only do single shows and sometimes 2 in a row, or 3 like Extreme Fest last year with EXODUS and SUFFOCATION, but that's about it. But as a matter of fact, our booker from TMR Promotion was talking about a possible ASPHYX show in the Ukraine indeed. So we might do there a show in the future. I really hope so!!

Bedankt Bob, wishing you all the best with ASPHYX and GRAND SUPREME BLOOD COURT! As Grand Magistrate Bagchus please send a message to the readers of Encomium...

Ah, you know a little bit Dutch, eh? Great! So I say "Geen dank,graag gedaan". To all readers of Encomium, thanx for support, keep supporting and hopefully see you in the Ukraine sometime!  

(Bob's letter his 'Godlist'  and signature 06.XII.1996 -GF)

A.J. van Drenth

Interview with A.J. van Drenth
(Temple, Extreme Cold Winter)

Hail A.J. van Drenth! Temple crushed the Death metal maniacs with an excellent album, called "Structures in Chaos" in 2012. What are the latest news with Temple (new full-length, concerts, any future plans?

- I’m totally into writing a new album, recorded about 7 tracks now, so things coming close. There’s more black metal influences and some technical stuff, but all comes with blast-beats! On this point I just started writing lyrics. Hell man, It takes a lot of time to complete a whole album by myself. Besides that, our drummer Eric is touring the U.S. with Warfather this moment, so I think Eric is hitting the studio early next year. After that I can start record the vocal parts.  I'm already looking for a cd cover and title. I can give you some working titles for the new tracks like "3rd Degree Possession", "Shalom Elysium" and "Blessed Ritual Suicide". Some lyrics will deal about biblical events like the exodus, the ark of the covenant.

We just did one live show last year at the famous Stonehenge festival. I have no further plans for new shows because lack of time. 

How many guest famous musicians have been on Temple’s debut? Please tell us about lyrical conceptualism of Temple also!

 - There are just some small vocal parts by guests on the album, like Stephan from Hail of Bullets and Marloes of Izegrim. "Structures in Chaos" has no real concept but the lyrics are dark and vague, the way I like them. They talk about other lives in other worlds! I agree that I maybe used a bit too much vocalists. On the next album only Marloes will do some guest vocal parts. 

As far as I know, with Bob Bagchus (Soulburn/Grand Supreme Blood Court, ex-Asphyx) you had a death/doom band in ’90-s, called Throne. Please share with readers some information about that horde! Do you have any plans to release in the future Throne-demos? (it would be awesome!)

- Ages ago I used to play in the Dutch Doom/Death metal band BEYOND BELIEF. I was already a friend of Bob, we both wanted to do a project in the Messiah, Hellhammer, Slaughter style, so we wrote some tracks and recorded a rehearsal tape, which was received well in the underground, tape-traders scene, Bob and I where both intense tape-traders with people all over the world. Soon after the rehearsal tape we recorded the 4-track recording tape,“The Ultimate Blasphemy”.

The tape contains some real old school black metal. Maybe one day we’ll release the recording on CD. We have some far future plans to do something like Throne again!

You are playing in another awesome Dutch death/doom band, Extreme Cold Winter, with a lot of great Dutch musicians. Tell to the readers, please, all the important things about this horde.

- There’s just the three of us, Seth from Severe Torture on drums and Pim Blankenstein of Officium Triste on vocals and me on guitars and all the songwriting., this is also just an recording project. We recorded a 4 track MCD “Paradise Ends Here”, but it takes too long to being released, Ossuary Industries from the Texas area will release it soon I hope. The next, full length album is almost completely written, can’t wait to do the recordings.

Which Dutch hordes can you recommend to the readers?

- We do have a lot of Death Metal bands around here, in my area there is Apophys, a great new band with some well-known members. Also watch out for Neo Ceasar, a new band with old Sinister members, and there's Dictated,  they just released their album "The Deceived" through Metal Blade.

Do You have any hobbies? What are your favourite books and movies? 

- The Bible! Which I studied and still do, for over decades, it's like an organic book, there's still new things to discover. In the past I used to read/practiced lots of occult stuff but I stepped out of that because the dangers which comes with it. I truly experienced the horrors of the dark side. Further I don't have much hobbies, I think writing music takes most of the time. Besides that I'll try to tour as much as possible, mostly as a driver/roadie. Did tours with Origin, Psycroptic, The Monolith Deathcult. Next tour will be with Funerus from US through Europe. Well, be touring also in Hungary, so hit me up if you can! I don't watch movies that much but to mention one it sure will be Gladiator!

What are your all time favourite albums? 

- Messiah-Hymn to Abra Melin, Extreme Cold Weather, Asphyx - The Rack, Dissection-Storm of the Lights Bane, Reinkaos, Morbid Angel-Gateway's to Annihilation.

What is your opinion about social networks and about downloads? 

- Well, I don't like social networks at all but it can be useful, I'm not a person, who's online constantly but most of my contacts go through these social networks. Even I don't use social networking a lot, I only use this facebook net, which helped me a lot with organizing options in the music scene. I rather keep staying in the shadows. I have no problems with people who download the music, there's still a lot of people buying CD-s and lately vinyl, which is a good movement.

Official facebook pages:

Temple: facebook.com/TempleDeathmetal?fref=ts

Extreme Cold Winter: facebook.com/Extreme.Cold.Winter?fref=ts

Throne: facebook.com/Throne-698691953587246/?fref=ts

Beyond Belief: facebook.com/BeyondBeliefDoom/?fref=ts