The Rotted – Getting Rotten
Hi Tim! Let's start at the top, what's currently going on with The Rotted?
Things are good. Just got back from 4 weeks in Europe with Grave and Misery Index, a cool tour and we had a blast! We’ve got some great festivals coming up in summer 2011 and we are writing and rehearsing the new album and we hit the studio January 2011.
What can you let us about your latest release, the Anarchogram EP, first – what's the meaning of the title, and why an EP?
The Anarchogram is a symbol invented by our vocalist Ben McCrow. It’s an inverted pentagram and an anarchy ‘A’ mixed together. I think it looks cool, like something from a book of archaic magic, its very old school heavy metal style! It’s a way to link together metal and punk under one symbol. Some of the guys in the band have it tattooed and also some fans too. Anyone wanting to get it done should go to a good tattoo artist and it will look great on the arm, leg, chest or the palm of the hand, anywhere your mother will disapprove of is good with us. As for the EP its 6 tracks of old school UK d-beat death metal. We wanted to do something fun as a taster for the new album so we choose an EP, check it out.
Why did you choose to cover the songs that you did?
Each member of The Rotted picked a band and song that inspired them to play metal. Its all classic stuff we choose, Entombed, Mayhem, Motorhead and Sepultura, all great bands. Maybe some younger fans of The Rotted will hear these tracks and check out the originals.
There have been some line up changes since "Get Dead.." can you tell us what where they and why did they happen?
When people don’t fit into a band or its philosophy and way of life they have to go. When people think they are better or bigger than the others guys in the band then they have to go. That is just the way it is. New people join and this time we were really lucky to have our good friend Rev. Trudgill come in and join on bass. We are now a four piece band which is the classic metal and punk way to do things. Drum, vocals, guitar and bass, that’s the sound and style of the band these days, we like it and it will stay this way.
The EP was self-released, why not through Metal Blade, as the debut album?
Its because we wanted to do something DIY on our own label. It’s a way for us to connect with the fans and not have to deal with labels and their schedules. We can just put it out when we like, with whatever songs we like, with whatever artwork we want and at a good price that the fans can afford. We can connect with people direct and have more control. On top of that its just really good fun to do something like this once in a while.
Can you give us a short re-cap of your activities since "Get Dead" was released?
Apart from the obvious EP release we have been touring and playing as many shows as possible. We did some big festivals like Wacken, Summer Breeze, Hammerfest and Bloodstock and some great tours across the UK and Europe. I like to play as many places as possible so it’s the best part of being in a band for me.
Lyrically there seems to be a serious change from your days as "Gorerotted", what caused that change, and what subjects do you deal in these days? What do songs such as "Drink Myself to Death" or "Dawn Of a New Error" speak off?
Both those tracks from the EP are about the downfall of modern society and about people removing themselves from the rat race and the modern bullshit of the 9-5 lifestyle. They are about thinking for yourself and not being drawn into the mono culture world of celebrity, bullshit TV shit and other destructive forces. I don’t want to live in a world where we all eat the same food, talk the same language, listen to the same music and have no identity or separate cultures. The new stuff we are writing for the album follows some of these themes but also has some fun stuff going on, it can’t all be serious all the time.
Regarding your live shows, are they as violent as your music? Any experiences from recent live shows that are more memorable than others?
Sometimes they are pretty violent, we like people to go mental. The last London show was great, we did a free gig and a big mix of metal heads and punks came. People were crashing into the stage, knocking down monitors and microphones and bashing into the guitars!! These are the best shows for energy and fun for us and the audience!
Grind-core is one of the last truly extreme metal genres that are originally British, how much did the legacy of Napalm Death, Carcass and others influence you and your music?
It is so hard for us to escape the influence of Napalm Death, Discharge, ENT, Carcass, Bolt Thrower, Benediction and others. The thing is we are happy if people like those bands and hear some influence in our music. We have a very British sound. The new album will have all those influences mixed with Motorhead, Black Sabbath and other older UK bands. Its something that I think is important for a band, a band should remember where they come from, I want a Swedish band to sound Swedish, a Germany band to sound German and etc. I don’t want to hear millions of bands trying to sound like they come from Miami or LA or Florida when they live in a small rainy town in England. Too many bands forget their own countries musical heritage and try to sound like whatever is popular at the moment, which I think it sad and a loss to music.
You have an Israeli in your midst – Nate, how does him being an Israeli sit in with your British guys? Any cultural differences that seemed odd to you when you first started working together?
The thing is no matter where you come from in the world you understand a fist in the face or a boot up the arse. So when dealing with drummers you often have to use a fist to explain the parts to him and a boot to tell him when to stop, in this case culture doesn’t matter, he will understand!! Also Nate grew up with British TV and Radio like the Goons, Monty Python and Douglas Adams and so he shares the same humour as us.
This scene explains The Rotted and what our music is about https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78b67l_yxUc
Nate understands this way of life and can join in with musical distruction.
Nate gets it, The British people I know can generally out-drink any Israeli, how did he fit with that? Did he prove your equal?
Nah we can drink more than him any day of the week. We have had a LOT more time to practice living in the UK with its big drinking culture. But then maybe this isn’t such a good thing, haha!!
How did you come in contact with our local Metalheads – The Fading?
The guys played directly before us at Wacken 2008 on the same stage. Nate heard them talking in Hebrew after their show and introduced himself. Later in the evening when we were getting drunk Nate met them again and asked them to join us for some drinks. Then he stayed in contact with them and things grew from there!
Why did you decide on joining them for an Israeli tour?
The guys in The Fading came up with the plan to do some shows in the UK and Israel together and we thought it sounded like a great idea. Like I say we like to play as many places as possible, so to come to Israel for a week and play 3 shows is a real good experience for us!
What do you plan from a live setting point of view? What can we expect from your shows over here?
As we have never been to Israel before we will play as much material as possible. We are plan to play songs from both ‘Get Dead..’ and ‘Anarchogram’ and we will also play some old Gorerotted material, songs that haven’t been played live for 2-3 years at least! Should be great fun to do it as we have already heard from some old fans that they want to hear these songs! See you guys at the shows!!
