### Gorefest - Ed Warby

#### 13/04/06 || Lord K Philipson

Yet another interview in our current “interview the bands we host at the forums” -campaign. Gorefest should be known to all of you. They are responsible for the classic death metal-piece “False”, and some other album or two. Drummer-boy Ed Warby answers the questions.

Global Domination: Some people visiting this site might not have checked you out just yet. Give them a reason as for why they should.

Ed Warby: If you made it to GD you’re probably into heavy shit. There’s a good chance you’ll be into our heavy shit as well, so check it out! You know you want to…

And what exactly are you fuckers playing when it comes to style?

Metal with a capital M! Some would say death metal, some would disagree violently. It’s heavy as fuck, that’s for sure!

List your fave-song with yer band so people know what to listen to for a first impression. And while yer at it, list the one you don’t want people to hear.

“For The Masses”, the opening track on our latest album “La Muerte” has everything that’s good about the Fest, so that’s a good place to start! It’s probably safe to say that if you don’t like that one you won’t like the rest either. None of us are too fond of the “Mindloss” album, so that would be least recommended.

Can you please make a rundown of yer album/albums? Personal thoughts about it/them. Go into as much detail as you want to.

“Mindloss” (1991) – debut album, recorded without me (Ed, drummer) and Boudewijn (guitarist). Basically a re-recording of the infamous “Tangled In Gore” and “Horrors In A Retarded Mind” demo’s with one new song which hints at things to come. The re-issues CD contains the album as well as the demo’s, which rules.

“False” (1992) – the one by which all our future releases would be measured. Our creative juices flowed like wine on this one, and bonecrushing heaviness is what we were after! We had Colin Richardson handling production duties again after “Mindloss”, and this time he got everything right. Well, almost. We still play 5-6 of the 9 songs live, so that should tell you how we feel about it today!

“Erase” (1994) – we wanted to have a more modern metal sound on this one. Unfortunately Colin was too busy so we had to do most of it ourselves, with mixed results. There’s some great songs on it, but in all it’s not the most satisfying GF record to me. It does seem to be a fan-favourite, and several songs still grace our setlist today.

“Soul Survivor” (1996) – our infamous “classic rock” album. You either love it or you hate it with a passion. It was too big a step to take at the time, but we never really cared about those things. We had so many ideas and things we wanted to try, and some worked fabulously while others didn’t. The songs don’t fit too well in our live set nowadays, but they’re worth checking out.

“Chapter 13” (1998) – our swansong, and also our most harmonious and inspired recording experience since “False”. Sadly misunderstood at the time of release, but since then heralded as a much better album than generally assumed. Yes, there’s lots of AC/DC and Motörhead going on here (and since when’s that a bad thing anyway?), but it’s also our heaviest sounding album (before “La Muerte” anyway). A massive tour supporting Judas Priest didn’t boost sales to an acceptable level, which was one of many factors that made us call it quits not too long after. It still sounds great to me!

“La Muerte” (2005) – … aaaand we’re back! Determined to make the heaviest album of our career, and I think we succeeded on all levels. Tue Madsen gave us an absolute sledgehammer-sound, clear yet ultraheavy, and the songs combine the best of our earlier releases into the ultimate GF-style. Maybe in hindsight we should’ve left one or two tracks off, but we were just so happy with the way everything turned out we couldn’t choose!

Are you guys having any side-projects/other bands going? Bands worth of mentioning that is. Plug away and give us the reasons as for why they should even care about them if they don’t really care about yer main-band in the first place.

I have been involved in 2 of Dutch prog-meister Arjen Lucassen’s projects: Ayreon and Star One. The former is known for its huge, sprawling rock opera’s featuring tons of different vocalists (check it out if you’re into that kind of thing), while the latter is more rock-oriented and serves as an ersatz liveband for Ayreon. At the moment he’s busy with yet another project, but I’m sure we’ll work together again in the future.

What makes you guys any different to the shitloads of crap-bands out there? Do you really have anything new to offer?

No we don’t, but that’s not the point. What we do have to offer is actual songs, memorable riffs (a few per song instead of 50 forgettable ones), a groove to fuck to and enough raw power to blow your head clean off!

List some bands that inspired you guys to start playing in the first place.

For me myself that would be the classics: Kiss, Lizzy, Zeppelin, Motörhead, Rainbow, Sabbath etc. Death, Autopsy and Obituary inspired me to start playing death metal around 1990. I guess JC and Frank were influenced most by bands like Carcass, Bolt Thrower and Napalm Death when they first started the Fest.

If yer band was a NHL-team, which one would it be?

Errrrmmm…?

Who would be the most retarded member of the band? Give us a few examples as for why.

That’s a tie between me and Frank, we’re as retarded as they come. Just check out our posts on the forum and on our own site for examples. I get extra points for being a drummer I guess.

Describe the music of yer fucken band with ONE word. All this is to make people understand a little more what you are about, you know.

Massive!

Why are you at our forums in the first place?

Because we were invited, don’t you remember? Oh yeah, and because they dominate of course!

Roughly, how much has/have your album/albums sold? Be honest.

Our most successful album (“False”) probably sold somewhere around 65.000 originally, no idea how much the re-issued version has sold so far. Times have changed vastly since then, so if we sell 20.000 of “La Muerte” I’ll be happy.

Do you guys believe you are bigger than you actually are?

Of course. Don’t we all? We’re fucken huge, gargantuan!!!

Have you ever seen any royalties? What was the biggest cheque for?

We tend to take advances on royalties whenever we do an album, works better that way. Can’t recollect how much the biggest was, but I’ve bought quite a few expensive TV’s in my time, haha!

If people read this and still don’t give a fuck about yer band, is there anything you’d like to add that might peak their interest? Plug yer website(s) as well while yer at it.

If they still don’t give a fuck it’s a lost cause. I don’t think seeing our ugly mugs on www.gorefest.nl is gonna change that!