### Gorefest - Frank Harthoorn

#### 05/01/05 || Global Domination

If you’ve been around the Global Domination forums for more than 30 seconds, you have probably heard me mention the Dutch band Gorefest. Why? Cause they fucken rule, and are one of my all time favorite bands. They broke up about 6 years ago. It made me fucken sad. Well, they recently got back together. I almost shit myself when I heard the news. I got guitarist, founding member and super cool fucker Frank Harthoorn to fill us in.

Interview made by forum member *Tom Ass*.

First off, how the hell are you these days? It’s been a while…

I’m fine, thanks. Drank some beers, gained some weight, but apart from that, nothing’s changed much.

I know you guys had a pretty harsh break up, especially between JC and Boud. Do you wanna fill us in on the events that led up to it?

I don’t think it was really a case of ‘this and that happened, and that’s why we broke up’. It’s more like we got pretty much fed up with each other, and musically we kind of reached the bottom of the barrel. During rehearsal we were just staring at each other, waiting for something to happen. It didn’t, and we just stopped being a band.

Now for the good part. After all that, how did you manage to get back together?

We got offered the chance to do a DVD with old material, and perhaps do some re-releases of the early records. It probably would’ve made us some money, but during talks about these things, JC and Boudewijn patched things up, one thing led to another, and we decided to try and give it another go. We’d already split up anyway, so we really didn’t have much to lose.

Now that you are back together, what can we expect from you guys? Is this a long term thing? Have you set any goals as a band?

No real goals so far, apart from making some frightfully heavy music. Right now we’re having a great time playing old songs, writing new stuff, and just hanging out, so we’ll take it as it comes.

Let’s say you’re approached by a label, what sort of deal are you looking for?

The deal of the century, my friend, the deal of the century. No, as far as record deals go, I’m pretty much as clueless as the next guy. Give us some money to record some songs, put us out on the road, sell our record. That’s basically it, isn’t it?

You guys have agreed to play a few festivals, can you give us any info on that?

Well, so far only the Dynamo-festival has been confirmed, and there’s a few more we’re discussing. It’ll give people a chance to catch up on us, hear some familiar tunes, see if they still like or don’t like us, that sort of thing. I’m really looking forward to these festivals, it’s a very different experience to playing clubs, or some arenas we did supporting Judas Priest.

In the last few years before the breakup, you weren’t playing any songs from “Mindloss” or “False” live. Is it going to be difficult picking a set list for future shows?

No. We decided that if we want to do this, we have to be able to play at least 75% of all our material, including the first two albums. 100% would be ideal, but since we don’t rehearse that much, I’ll be happy if we get that 75% really tight. We’ve already tried a lot of songs, some work, some really don’t anymore, but a setlist won’t be a problem.

You guys had new bands and projects after the break up, with Ed doing Ayreon and studio work, JC with Coldpop Culture and you with The Speedkings. Is there anything worth mentioning about them?

JC and I both quit those bands. I won’t speak for JC, but I thought it wouldn’t really be fair to the other guys in The Hollow Men (formerly The Speedkings) to miss rehearsals or shows because of Gorefest. Ed and Boudewijn have their own Thin Lizzy-tribute band, called Live & Dangerous but I don’t know where that’s heading. Other news concerning Ed can be found on his website, http://www.edwarby.com

In what direction are you guys going with the new material? Any surprises?

I don’t know, whatever album we released, we’ve always been about heavy down-tuned guitars and powerful drums, so there’s bound to be a lot of those. Ed’s going pretty crazy on the double kick-drums, so that might be something people haven’t heard from us in a while. Some songs sound pretty apocalyptic, and there are some very interesting melodies rearing their heads. The Metal is flowing!

Ok, enough with the tough questions, let’s move on to the easy stuff…Now don’t get me wrong, I love the fucken album, but to me the mix on “Erase” is a bit strange, have you ever thought about remixing it?

Yeah, that mix pretty much sucks, doesn’t it? I can hardly listen to that album because of it. A remix would be nice, but that’s really something for bands who have way too much time and money on their hands. We’re not one of those bands.

Metal’s popularity is at an all time high…

I don’t know, is it?

You can pretty much call it a trend.

I had no idea!

What’s your take on metal these days?

I honestly have no idea about metal’s popularity. I certainly don’t discover as much new cool bands as I did, say, 10 years ago, but maybe I’m not looking as much, I don’t know. The few new bands I do hear and like, however, seem to have a lot more qualities, even at their first albums, than some of my favorite bands ever had. It’s probably down to much improved recording techniques or better equipment, but the musicianship and tightness in some cases are pretty staggering. Some of them can’t really cut it live, but still, you know…

The band had minor problems years ago with that midget Euronymous and that fucken douchebag Jon from Dissection, talking shit about you guys. After all is said and done, is there any black metal bands you like?

Can’t say they were problems, really. Euronymous just looked a bit silly, and I’ve never even met the guy from Dissection, so I don’t know what he was on about. I quite like some of their songs, actually. But sure, there’s definitely some BM-bands I really like. Emperor, Anaal Nathrakh, Zyklon, early Darkthrone, recent Enslaved, Akercocke. Don’t know if they all are considered Black Metal, but they all have that same intensity.

Speaking of the old days, Lord K, head fucker of this here site, wanted me to see if you remember (being the nice guys you are) sending some shirts to Sweden in the early 90’s without getting paid first? He swears he paid you.. haha!

Yeah, I do remember something like that. I have no recollection of him paying us, but I’m sure he did, being the stand-up underground guy he was in those days. I’ll make sure I’ll check this with JC though, he has a lot better memory than I have.

( Ofcourse we paid those 2 shirts and I remember so clearly how fucken suprised we were that you guys actually sent us those shirts in advance as we badly wanted them but didn’t have any money at the time and were afraid they would run out of stock. I also remember wearing that particular shirt in alot of photos with my band at the time. How’s that for a “thank you”? / The Lord )

Do you remember his fanzine Hypnosia?

I’m sure I’ve read it, but there where so many mags in those days, I really don’t remember ‘em all by name. Hope he gave us some good reviews in return for those shirts, ha!

( Those shirts had nothing to do with me raving about you guys. I loved the band and I still remember meeting you guys in Stockholm, getting that advance-tape of “False” from one of you. Not to forget you were also interviewed in my magazine, haha… / The Lord )

Are you still in touch with any bands or people from way back in the “glory” (as I like to call em’) days of death metal?

Well, ‘in touch’ would really be calling it too much, but yeah, you send or receive the odd e-mail now and then. Mostly you run into people at shows or festivals, which is cool. If I happen to stumble on someone’s site I usually leave a message or something. That’s about it, and that’s cool. As long as I can have a couple of beers with him or her every once in a while, there’s really no need for intense e-mail conversations.

Personally, I think a co-headlining tour featuring you and Entombed, with Disharmonic Orchestra and Night In Gales opening would be amazing. Tell me I’m fucken retarded and let us know who would be on your ideal tour package.

That’s not such a bad package is it? Entombed are awesome. Haven’t heard Disharmonic in a while, and I really have no idea what Night In Gales is, I’ll check them out! There’s loads of different combinations I can think of which would make me really happy. Let’s see, something along the lines of Mastodon, Arch Enemy, Strapping Young Lad and a Metallica greatest hits show. With Devin Townsend doing an afterparty show each night, doing all his non-Strapping stuff. A reunited Carcass in there would be the greatest, ofcourse. And an early Paradise Lost. And let’s throw in Black Label Society as well. And Wolf!

What are you listening to these days?

I just told you! But in addition to those, there’s lots, lots more. Morbid Angel, Possessed, Obituary, Death ofcourse. Lots of NWOBHM-bands, something of a hobby of mine. Older bands like Thin Lizzy, UFO, Scorpions, Sabbath, Zeppelin, early Ozzy. Then there’s the non-Metal stuff. Floyd, Allman Bros., Bob Mould, Tom Waits, Kate Bush, Foo Fighters, Lush, Ben Folds, Damien Rice, The Gathering, Fugazi, The Jam, Hope Sandoval. Classical, Country, Motown. Shit, there’s tons of stuff!

Now give us your all time favorites.

Raven – Wiped Out Carcass – Symphonies/Necroticism Bob Mould – Workbook Tori Amos – Little Earthquakes Bad Religion – Suffer/No Control Sugar – Copper Blue/Beaster Hundreds.

Have you had the chance to check out this site?

Yes. Yes I have. It’s all just a joke to you guys isn’t it? Just one big fucking joke. Well, excuse me for not laughing. The Nightwish-stuff is hilarious though, I’ll grant you that!

( A joke? We are as serious as a fucken bad Gorefest-tune, bastard, haha… / The Lord )

I do have to say, this site hosts the forums of some pretty fucken awesome bands. I actually like all the site’s featured bands (and I’m a picky bastard) Once you guys get going, is there any chance I can talk you into putting up an official forum here?

It looks like we’d be in good company. I’m sure we can work something out.

Best Dutch beer?

Probably Grolsch or Dommelsch. Both’ll get you there.

Favorite beer?

Jupiler. If that’s not around, anything else. The cheapest stuff in the store usually works for me.

I know you guys are all big movie fans, seen anything good lately?

Sure! I don’t really go to the multiplex that often, but I work in a small club/arthouse cinema, and I get to see interesting stuff each week. Twentynine Palms was, eer, peculiar. Shaun Of The Dead was cool. The Dreamers, Gegen Die Wand, Infernal Affairs, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, all pretty wonderful. Really looking forward to Oldboy, Der Untergang and Maria Full Of Grace. Hellboy was really cool as well.Besides all that, Ed & me are addicted to DVD, so I watch a lot of those as well. Some latest buys: Slacker, Short Cuts, King Of New York, The Office Collection. Good stuff.

All time favorite movie?

The Exorcist, Blue Velvet, Casino, Die Blechtrommel, Suspiria, Videodrome, The Big Lebowski. As with music: hundreds.

Give us a typical day in the life of Frank Harthoorn.

Hm. Get up at around 10:00, check email, eat, shower. Get to work. Work. Get some shopping in at around 17:00. Eat. Hang around in bars, or play Doom3. Watch movie, do the internet thing. Probably some masturbation in-between there somewhere. Repeat until around 03:00. Sleep.

And finally, do you have any funny stories or anything exciting in closing?

No man, I’m beat.

Thanks a lot for doing this interview, hopefully the questions weren’t too fucken retarded for you. I can’t wait to hear the new stuff!! I get an advance copy right? Haha! Save some shirts for me too!

Will do Tom, thanks for the interest!