There’s been a few changes since I last interviewed Rob from Dutch HorrorGore Maniaxe Skullhog (formally known as Bile). Heres the lowdown on all the new shit going down and coming up in the Skullhog pigpen, and finally the real story behind the name change.Yo Rob, Hows the ankle dude?? Thanks for doing ANOTHER interview for Vomitose Zine !
Rebecca, thanks for having us again. The ankle is still fucked up. Next week the stitches might be removed and I'll get plaster for about 6 to 8 weeks. After that period I will receive walk-plaster, which I will be allowed to stand on and move around a bit.
So yeah, basically I'm fucked for a good 2 months in total. The metal plate shall remain in my foot along with a cool-ass war scar. Lesson learned? Yeah!! My age, a dance floor and an abundance of alcohol do not mix!!!!
Having that said, I was probably the 'lucky' one that got off with only a broken ankle.
It happened during a Negative approach reunion-show in Antwerp (Belgium) and I'll tell ya....
This was absolutely THE most brutal show I've ever been to. 12 ambulances showed up for a 30 minute set. Broken limbs, slashed faces and even a poor kid that is probably completely paralyzed for life.
Well, I guess we might as well get this question out of the way first up.. RE: The Name Change.
What’s the full story behind all that shit? Its been a while since you changed your name from Bile to Skullhog. Still happy with decision to change the name?? Do you think Skullhog is a better fit for you guys or was it just a matter of choosing something else as quick as possible etc?
Well, douche bags are spreading rumours on the internerd that we've had our name changed because the NY Industrial band BILE was gonna sue us for the name, but this is just a load of crap. I don't even think they know about our existence at all. We've changed the name because people often confused both bands with each other. If you download some of our tracks on-line you will even find our tracks in that other band’s download lists and that's not good for anybody.
We've just wanted to start off fresh with a new name and after a long and painful search we finally settled for SKULLHOG.
So what else is new in the Skullhog pigpen?? What have you guys got coming up in the near future?
As you know we're gonna be dropping about six split releases with bands we like or are friends with (or both) and somewhere in between the release of those splits, we'll be doing a new album for No Escape records.
First up will be split 7"es with REGURGITATE and COFFINS. After that we'll be releasing the looooooooooooong awaited split 10" with Aussie cockslappers BLOODDUSTER and a split CD with Dutch Gore metallers BLOODBASTARD.
After that we'll be doing the new album and give birth to our final splits, a split CD with ACCEPT DEATH and a split 7" with your boys in ROSKOPP.
All of which are gonna be fucking cool and we can't wait to record and release every single one of them......No, we're NOT AGATHOCLES!!
This didn't happen on purpose.
Howd the split with BloodDuster get hooked up? Alot of people seem to have lost interest in their newer material - Do you dig the grind N roll style they seem to be known for these days?? Will this have any influence on the Skullhog side of things??
Didn't we talk about this shit last time? Anyways, we played a few shows together and thought it might be a good idea to do a split 10". No, their 'new' sound does not change things for us at all. I'd have to say we're really digging their Grind 'n' roll stuff to be honest. And even if they played fucking ska or Pop-punk tunes on their side of this split, we'll just do what we always do.
Will you be carrying on with horror themes on these records? Any idea what movies you'll use at this stage?Yeah, we'll keep the Horror/Slasher themes going strong on our upcoming releases. We do have some ideas of what movies to use and have used a particular movie as inspiration for the recordings that are gonna be used on the split with RGTE.
I can't go and spoil the surprise here, so I'm not gonna give away anything at all. You'll dig it though.....No doubt!!
Any truth to the rumour you guys will be covering a Michael-J/Paul McCartney-esque "The Girl is Mine" duet with Roskopp for your upcoming split?
Those ROSKOPP-cats can't keep a secret or what? Who told you about this? I even used some BRONSKI D-BEATS for this track. Fuck this...The surprise is ruined!! Back to the drawing board.
Have you decided what track you guys will cover for the Iron Monkey Tribute? Can you give us some info about this release?
Of course we have. It's already recorded and mixed. It will be send over to Justin (IRON MONKEY) this month. We've chosen the song 'Fink dial' from their debut album since that's what started it all. To this day they are still one of my favourite bands and I'm stoked Justin asked us to participate. This tribute album will be packed with solid and brutal Doom/Sludge bands.........And us. Wehehehehehe!! Can't really give away any of the other bands yet because I dunno how 'secret' the line-up still is. More about this one later. I think the tribute album will be released around July. Oh yeah!! I'm doing the cover artwork for this one as well. It's looking ace so far.
Your newest song "Dead Stare" for the upcoming Regurgitate split sees a bit of a variation in style for you guys, particularly with the use of Pitchshifter.. What made you guys decide to cut down on using shifted vocals?? Hows the reaction been to the change? Do you think youll end up not using them at all?
We've ended up throwing out the pitchshifter on this one and the split with COFFINS, because we wanna show a different side of us. It's kind of our FUCK YOU to the abundance of Porn/Gore-bands out there and the kindergarten scene that surrounds it. Reactions have been very good overall, besides a few whining Gore-dorks that can't seem to get over themselves. They can eat me. On our upcoming releases we'll be bringing back the pitchshifter and combine it with 'clean' vocals. Like a 50-50 kinda thing. The songs on both mentioned split 7"s don't need the pitch at all. They're brutal enough!!
Camp Blood' is due to be released on LP this year. How did this get hooked up?
Well, we thought it was about time the thing was released on vinyl to give the amazing painted artwork the credit it deserves. And let's face it; this shit will come across way better on LP cover format. Can't wait to have it in my hands. I'll probably frame it and hang it on a wall. There was this label that showed interest and we were like : ' yeah, why not?'.That's that basically.
What’s the recording process been like now that you guys are doing it 'DIY' style? What are the pros and cons of doing it this way vs in a professional studio?
Nah, it's been totally exciting to finally do things ourselves for a change. No rush, no bullshit time-schedule and no fucking clowns breathing down your neck.
Well, except for the other band members that is. We've done 2 recording sessions so far and shit came out really good. And the best part, shit will get better and better with each session since it's a learning process for us to do everything ourselves. We really should have made this choice a long time ago.
Tell us about the recent tour of Finland and Russia. Seems like you guys had a blast over there...
Oh yezzzzzzzzzzzz!! This was by far the best organised tour we've done and it was a total blast.
The few that might be slightly interested in the entire story can check out a full-scale tour report on our MySpace profile. www.myspace.com/skullhog - There's also a bunch of drunk-ass pics on there to give a little taster of the ambience and atmosphere. We wanna go back there as soon as we can!! Fuck the States, this is where it's at.
Any upcoming tour plans/ for downunder??
Sigh............Uhm, yeah. We're still waiting for our little trip downunder and hopefully combine it with a few Japan-dates along with COFFINS. Whenever we're welcome we'll fucking be there. No doubt.
I've been asking this question alot lately, but what’s your take on goregrind as of late? Do you get into any of these pornonoise one man bedroom drum machine bands that seem to be popping up everywhere lately?
As far as Goregrind goes, we're down with the 'Old school' bands in that genre. For the rest I think that the whole Porn/Gore-thing really ruined it for everybody. The juvenile porn-samples, pathetic band names, homophobic attitude and utterly moronic album-sleeves........That's not brutal, it's flat out sad. Only one band can pull off Porngrind and be funny about it and that's ROMPEPROP. They don't give a fuck and admit it's all a big joke, plus they're cool cats.
Also kinda on the same subject - Bile/Skullhog never used/use any Porn or female degradation themes. Do you have an actual aversion to these concepts? Or is it just something that doesn't interest you guys much?
Like I said earlier, fuck all that homophobic and female degrading crap. What's the point? It's not offensive; it just comes across really childish. Don't get me wrong here. I really dig offensive and provocative subject-matter in lyrics, I just don't see the point of bashing gays and women in lyrics and making it your sole purpose as a band. If I wanna listen to some quality offensive lyrics, I'll put on some AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED or EYEHATEGOD.
They're black belts in offending good Christians. .........Fuck, I think I used this exact line in another interview...Whatever.
After the release of Camp Blood last year, it seemed as though Bile copped alot of shit for 'ripping off horror themes'. What’s your opinion on this bullshit?As far as the internerd bullshit-rumourmill goes, we get heaps of shit for supposedly 'ripping off' Horror/Slasher flicks. Dorks crying on messageboards and what not. Well, first of all - We're a Horror/Slasher-tribute band. This is what we do. We don't rip shit off and try to keep stuff original and use every sample and lyric based on a movie with utter respect. Samples are selected very carefully and we try to put every single piece of the puzzle together to create a fitting 'tribute'. That word says it all really. Fuck all y'all haters out there, we just do what we do and that's that!! I don't get the big deal. We're not the first and surely not the last band that is inspired by movies.
I know your personally pretty influenced by Hardcore and Sludge.. What are some of your favourite bands from these genres?
As far as SKULLHOG is concerned, this is not a Hardcore-influenced band and never will be.
I grew up on HC/Punk and Old school Metal/Grind at the same time really.
The Sludge-thing has been influential since we started out though. The dirty, slow and heavy negative vibes of that genre really go hand in hoof with what we set out to do as a band in the first place, so I'm really happy about incorporating slow passages in our stuff from the get go.
Although I'm mainly influenced by Sludge, most of our slow parts can also be traced back to HELLHAMMER, early FROST and AUTOPSY. Bands that have been essential for all three of us.
The main goal was to mix classic Goregrind with the Old school-vibes of SLAUGHTER, HELLHAMMER and AUTOPSY. So Sludge-influences are always welcome as well.
But to answer your original question here. Some of my favourite Hardcore-bands (old and new) are probably:
NEGATIVE APPROACH, REPROACH, CITIZENS PATROL, SIEGE, INFEST, GEHENNA, HAYMAKER, IRON LUNG and MIND ERASER.
Favourite Sludge-bands (old and new) are:
IRON MONKEY, GRIEF, BUZZOV'EN, NOOTHGRUSH, CORRUPTED, EYEHATEGOD, WEEDEATER, MOHO and GRAVES AT SEA.
What side projects do you guys have going at the moment? Any more Insult reunion shows planned or was that just a one off thing?
Me and Loek have a full-on Sludge-project (what a surprise) going on called TANKSLAPPER.
This band consists out of 2 bassplayers and me playing the drums and doing some vocals here and there. We might actually get a frontman to do vocals on the record and live-shows, but we'll see about that. Musically it's just extremely heavy and dirty sounding. It sounds quite original and we've been influenced by the likes of WEEDEATER and MAN IS THE BASTARD. But do we sound like them? No......We sound like TANKSLAPPER.
We were about to record our first album within the next few weeks, but my fucking broken ankle shattered that dream for now. It will take at least 2 months till I can do fuck all, let alone play the drums decent. So we'll just have to wait and see when we can start recording this album. We're also thinking and planning some other projects including a band called HELLPENIS, which will be full-on CROSSED OUT/ NEANDERTHAL-style Power violence.
As far as INSULT is concerned....Power it up records (Ger.) will be releasing our 'Emobashing Fastcore Pimps' Discography CD on vinyl in August and he might expect us to do some sort of reunion-show, so we'll just have to see about that.
Well Cheers Rob! Hope you feel better soon, its always a pleasure to have you in Vomitose! Take care and feel free to drop more Rocky quotes below..
Thank you once again for the exposure and interest Rebecca. Always a pleasure!!Rocky quotes? ADRIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!
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