אמרתם אולד-סקול גריינד, אמרתם Agathocles

Belgian Grind merchants Agathocles are among the forefathers of grind-core, one of the most extreme music genres known to man. On par with such stalwarts as Napalm Death, the band has been spewing forth classic grind albums for more than 20 years. To celebrate the release of the band's latest split album and the upcoming release of their full length- "Mincer", we spoke with the band's Drummer, Roel Tulleneers.

Hi Roel, I'd like to start with current events, what can you tell us about the split album with Permanent Death?

It’s our latest 7” split release. Quiet rare material and limited to 300 copies. The AGX side contain live songs recorded in 1987 and only released on an obscure rare compilation tape called the NO MORE FASCIST ATTITUTES in 1987. So if you want to hear old AGX, that’s your chance! On the other side you may find our noise friends Permanent Death. For those not knowing them: check them, Tony who plays with Jan and me in Fahrenheit AGX plays in that band and also Isaac (ex Leng T’ché).

What about the complete new album, Mincer, when is that out?

Well we finished the recordings and the artwork and now is it in the hands of Displeased Records who will release the album, probably at the end of February. The album will contain 21 songs, the shortest 8 seconds, the longest over 3 minutes, going from oldschool grindcore to some more technical grind and some crust. We also included a song in Japanese. I think it’s album that many people will like.

How does the album sound in comparison with your older stuff?

Well we recorded it in the same studio (Soundshape) as we did we the other recordings. The drums got an analogue recording. So I think we have a more oldschool sound. Like I said the new songs are very different. Some songs (mostly those written by Jan) are in the style of the AGX period of end 80’s begin 90’s, while the songs written by Dirk are more in the style of later AGX. Without any doubt there are also some sing a long songs on it like “Forced To Masturbate” which you can compare with an older song like “A for Arrogance” and the Japanese “Kuroce”.

Can you tell us about your own history with the band?

Well the band has a big history, putting it down here would fill some pages. You can always read the history at our site. Besides that, I play in Agathocles since 2002. Line up now is Jan (since the beginning) on bass and vocals, Dirk (since 1998) guitars and me Roel (since 2002) drums.

Did you know and listen to them before joining?

Well you should now that I was 5 years old when Agathocles started. I know that when I was 13 or 14 years old I was listening to “Metalopis”, a metal program, on the Belgian national radio where they often played Agathocles. That’s how I got introduced to the band. But to be honest, I was more a punk and hardcore kid then a grinder those days. When I went to study in Geel in 1998, I went on rooms and my neighbour there was Dirk. That’s how I got to appreciate them more. That’s how they thought about me when Burt left Agathocles in 2002.

In which bands did you play before that?

Well I played in several bands: Flagelation: we had not more then 1 or 2 rehearsals. It was with Pinnie, he later formed Ekzeema and is lately playing in Rotkop.

Pomterra: my really first band with xKoenx which you may know from the famous Belgian metalcore sensation Chimaera and with another local Neil on bass. Koen and I had a few bands together. This was our first around ’95-’96 and the name was a joke: Pantera was big at that moment and Pomterra is latin for potato. With Pomterra we played only once and it was terrible. There are some rare recordings of that band that’ll probably be released on one of the next Mince Core Histories. Style: raw punk. We had to play live on a local radio. The first song they broadcasted, the second one was total radio silence: they refused to broadcast it. Good also, ‘cause we only had one song, and the second was only improvisation (read: noise).

Basement 666: probably the band in that period I enjoyed most. Period: ’96-’97. Also more punk music with a hardcore touch. We played a few gigs and had crappy songs. But it was big friendship between the members, also with xKoenx and some other friends (Hardy, Erckens, and every week another singer) . We have some recordings recorded diy with a tape recorder, and maybe we release that sooner or later.

Pentagon: 1997 same line up as Basement 666 but with another bass player. Steve Erckens left Basement 666, Filip Cromme entered and Pentagon was born. Style: more melodic metalcore. We did a few shows and it sucked so we stopped.

Disrupt (we did not had an idea that there was another band with that name): again with xKoenx and two Italians on bass and vocals. 1997-1998. I left the band, another drummer joined. The other drummer left, I came back. But I really never liked it. So later I stopped with it. I think we never played live. After Disrupt Koen started One Day, but without me.

Cloud Headed: I played in this band from 1997 till 2000. The band started as a school band with also Steve Erckens (see Basement 666) playing in it, later replaced by xKoenx. First we played some rock and pop covers and won an international price for school bands. We started playing some songs of our own, did a local rock rally but never got the finals. We made some recordings (which I will put on a mince core history some day), but too many ego’s in the band made it difficult to work with, so I left the band in 2000. I think they went on until 2001 to stop then. Elke singing in the band has a great voice, she did some guestvocals on the latest Chimaera album. Check it!

Besides all those I did during my study period some temporary bands mostly playing covers at student parties. The bands had stupid names like Vangelus, Die Waslapfen…

How did you take up grind core drumming?

When Jan and Dirk asked me to join Agathocles, I refused ‘cause I never played grindcore and blast beats seamed impossible to me. They kept asking and I agreed to give it a try. We started with new songs, which gave me the opportunity to make them that way I could play them. Those songs let me grow in my grind drumming. Those songs you can hear on the split 7” with Siviilimurha, the split with The Mad Trashers. Fans liked those recordings ‘cause of the fact that the songs were also shorter and more in the old AGX-style. After making those songs we started playing older songs, and it went quiet well, although you probably can hear I have another background.

How would you describe your live shows? How long are they?

Live shows are exhausting for me, lol. Normally we play +/- 30 songs, so around 1 hour. We try to play a set with old songs and newer material. So a great live show with the necessary preaching of Jan, lol.

Are you involved in any other musical projects outside the band?

Jan and I started with Tony from Permanent Death, a new band called Fahrenheit AGX. It’s a political oldschool hardcore band in the early ‘80s style. Short songs, fast and furious. People who saw and heard the band compare it with Lärm, Deepwound, Infest, Lack Of Interest. Check it out! There’s a split cd out on the Bulgarian Ozz label with Fahrenheit AGX and Agathocles.

What is it about grind core you think differentiates it from other metal genres?

Grindcore has also it’s background in punk. So I think the more socio political and critical views differentiates the genre. We as a band want to try to change the world and try to ‘educate’ our audience, while metal bands (but also many now a days grind bands who don’t know their roots) want to have a good time and only have the ambition to entertain their audience.

What other grind bands do you enjoy listening to?

Grindbands I like: From The Ashes, Cause For Effect, Ekzeema, Toxic Bonkers…

There's seems to be a lot of humour in your lyrical content, do you agree?

We mean everything we say, but sometimes it’s easier to use humour to make your point.

Since the band has been operating in the same musical genre for 20 years, do you see the band also changing or creating different music?

I think the music changes a bit, but not that much. I think the basic idea behind the band is still the same and has to stay the same: bringing socio political music in a DIY way not selling out to mainstream. And then it doesn’t matter if a song has a stupid guitarsolo or not, of if an album is faster then another.

Any last message to the Israeli fans?

Many thanx for your support! Keep supporting Agathocles. Also check our websites. Please buy our coming album MINCER. Besides all that, something political: speak up in your country and try to support in your own way the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians. Mince, not war!