EXTERMINATOR
WHEN YOU HEAR THE TERM MELODIC DEATH/THRASH METAL MOST OF YOU WILL THINK THE SWEDISH DEATH METAL SCENE. EXTERMINATOR FROM BELGIUM REALLY MIX DEATH AND THRASH METAL WITH MELODY, BUT IN A VERY DIFFERENT WAY FROM WHAT WE ARE USED TO. THEIR DEBUT ALBUM IS REALLY A KILLER WITH SOME EXCELLENT RIFFS AND MELODIES. THEIR LEADER, JACKY IS A VERY NICE PERSON AND WITH A GOOD TASTE OF HUMOUR. SO HERE YOU READ WHAT HE TOLD US... 

1.FIRST OF ALL GIVE US A SHORT BAND BIO AND INTRODUCE THE BAND MEMBERS.
    Exterminator started out in 1991 with the idea of mixing trash (which was very popular back then) with a deathmetalgrunt as we know it now. It was quite similar to the idea of what "Kreator" did and what "Death" did (before "Death" was known as "deathmetal"). We were just a bunch of friends with the intention to play for fun only and if we had lost the pleasure in playing we should have definitely quitted, but our first demo sold astonishingly well and live we always played for a lot of people on the few concerts there were back then. Later on the idea came to record a CD, because we had some recordcompanies interested in us, so we did in 1993 with the MCD "Forgotten Souls" as one of the first metalbands in Belgium, but it only got released in 1995 due to personal problems of some bandmembers back then. From there the band started to work more serious in music and resulted in many line-up changes. Jacky (guitar, vocals) met Ivan (bass), who knew Kris (guitar), and last year Mark (who hung around a lot at the very first concerts Exterminator ever played) replaced Baruch as drummer 
2.DON'T YOU THINK EXTERMINATOR SOUNDS TYPICAL AS A NAME? DO YOU BELIEVE THAT A BAND NAME SHOULD ALSO WORK AS AN INDICATOR OF THE MUSIC?
    The name really sounds brutal, we still play brutal songs. It's not because we have a ballad or some midtemposongs that we are less metal. With the original line-up we had chosen this name because we liked it, with the present line-up this feeling hasn't changed. 
3.EXTERMINATOR IS A QUITE TROUBLED BAND WITH MANY PROBLEMS AND MANY CHANGES IN THE LINE UP. WHY WAS IT SO DIFFICULT TO MAINTAIN A STEADY LINE UP? DIDN'T YOU SHARE THE SAME VISION?
    Every bandmember combines playing music with work.  If we stop enjoying, we probably quit and if you can’t combine playing music with work, you sometimes have no choice than choose for your work, because you need the money to survive. 
4.SO, IS EXTERMINATOR AN ONE MAN BAND? ARE YOU THE ONLY PERSON RESPONSBLE FOR THE MUSIC OR DO THE OTHERS CONTRIBUTE AS WELL?
    No, Exterminator is Ivan, Kris, Marc and Jacky.  Jacky does the most of the lyrics, but every bandmember contributes to the music. 
5.HOW MANY RELEASES DO YOU HAVE AND TELL US A FEW THINGS REGARDING YOUR LATEST RELEASE. IN WHICH FIELDS HAVE YOU PROGRESSED OR CHANGED AS A BAND AND WHICH PARTS MAINTAINED AS THEY WERE?
    There was only released one official demo, called “Circle Of Violence” in 1991, followed by the mini-CD “Forgotten Souls” in 1995.  In 2000 we released "Mirror Images", which is a professionally produced CD. It’s release resulted in many beautiful things: supporting act for several famous bands on national and international concerts, a lot of airplay, interviews and many, very good reviews.  All albums contain brutal songs, only on “Mirror Images” we experimented with female vocals.  The female vocals can sometime express an emotion better than a grunt can, especially on songs like "Bitter End". It gives you a shiver down your spine!!  Our music can cover a wide range of metalfans.  We only have to look in our fanmail to see that this is true. 
6.WHAT ARE YOUR LYRICS TALKING ABOUT? WHICH THEMES INSPIRE YOU IN WRITING LYRICS? DO YOU PREFER USING METAPHORES OR TELLING WHAT YOU WANT STRAIGHT?
    Jacky did all songwriting on the "Mirror Images"-album. He has a good knowledge of history and religion and he reads a lot of stuff. Exterminator supports the idea of not only singing about blood and gore for deathmetalbands and Satan for blackmetalbands. If everybody sings about something with the necessary feelings, you can reach nice results or efects with the public. Singing about the same all day long, would make metal boring. Some lyrics from Exterminator can actually deal with real-life situations! Every bandmember has it's own opinion on religion. Everyday everyone of us curses God as things go bad, every day people sell their soul for money. Just respect the beliefs of another person and you'll see the world would get further than it is today. Concentration of beliefs in certain regions is never good, so weren't the Crusaders a good idea, or is Osama Bin Laden nowadays.  Sometimes metaphores help express the right feeling of an idea. 
7.YOU'VE DONE QUITE MANY LIVE SHOWS WITH MANY FAMOUS BANDS. WHICH ONE DO YOU REMEMBER THE MOST. WHICH BAND WAS THE FRIENDLIEST AND WHICH HELPED YOU THE MOST? DO YOU REMEMBER ANY FUNNY OR WEIRD INCIDENTS?
    We have played a lot of shows already.  I remember Dave Ingram (then with Benediction) saying nice things about our music, when we shared the stage in ’97 (I believe it was).  We also have a good friendship with all Belgian bands.  Oh, I almost forgot to say that Abbath of Immortal came asking for a signature on our bandfoto when we played with them in 2000.  We are still laughing about it!!!  Immortal really are nice guys! 
8.WHICH ARE YOU PLANS FOR THE FUTURE?
    Exterminator follows no plan.  At this moment we are concentrating on new songs and hopefully a new release at the end of this year. 
9.YOU HAD ONE RECORD DEAL IN THE PAST FROM A GERMAN LABEL IF I AM NOT MISTAKEN THAT YOU DECLINED. SO, WHAT ARE YOU SEARCHING IN A RECORD LABEL? WHICH THINGS DO YOU "DEMAND" FROM THEM?
    About the labels: they all should care about the money, but also about the bands. Every band puts in a lot of time in their work, labels sometimes seem to forget this. They have troubled times too as you look at the speed that cd-copiers sell and the decrease of CD-sellings. It doesn't make it easier for the music business to survive.  The German label offered us only a huge investment in the recording of a demo, of which it hoped to sell a lot.  The profit was theirs.  If this profit was big enough, a CD could be recorded.  So, we don’t call that a deal for example. 
10.YOU HAVE DONE A VIDEO CLIP FOR "HYSTERON PROTERON". WHY DID YOU LEAVE IT ASIDE? COULDN'T YOU CORRECT THE PROBLEMS? WAS IT THAT BAD?
    The synchronisation of music and image was bad.  Also the lighting was not that good, but it was a project of a friend of ours and we couldn’t invest a lot of money in it, so corrections were never made.  Now we have had other drummers to since the recording of that clip, which is another reason for not releasing it now. 
11.WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WEREN'T ABLE TO COMPOSE MUSIC?
    Who knows?  You can have an accident every minute of the day, we don’t think about that.  We would all be a bunch of lazy bums, probably. 
12.IF SUDDENLY ELECTRICITY CEASED TO EXIST WHAT DO YOU THINK WOULD HAPPEN TO HEAVY METAL? WOULD IT BE FORGOTTEN OR TRANSFORMED? WHAT DO YOU THINK WOULD HAPPEN TO EXTREME METAL?
    Metal never dies!!!  If electricity stops flowing, we must sing the songs a-capella and beat on wood, slap strings on acoustic guitars and bang our heads!!!  Meanwhile we can search for an alternative powersource. 
13.NAME SOME OF THE BAND'S INFLUENCES AND SOME OF YOUR MOST BELOVED ALBUMS.
    Kris likes “King Diamond” and “Slayer” a lot, but also “Adam and The Ants”.  Ivan favorites are “Death”, “Kreator” and “Dark Tranquillity”, Mark prefers bands like “Sepultura”, “Fear Factory”.  Jacky likes “Death” and “Slayer” but also “Dead Kennedies” and “DRI”. 
14.HEAVY METAL MUSIC IS MAINLY UNDERGROUND. HOWEVER, ALMOST ALL BANDS HAVE MANAGERS. DO YOU THINK THAT THIS IS IMPORTANT? CAN'T A BAND SUCCEED WITH THE USE OF GOOD MANAGEMENT?
    This only depends on what you want to achieve with your band.  It’s not always a fact that a band succeeds with a good management.  In the other way: if the band is ok and has enough potential in managing their own affairs, it could succeed also.  Some bands like the underground and would like to stay there.  But I think once you tasted succes, you’re not eager to let it go. 
15.IF YOUR MUSIC WAS AN EMOTION, WHAT WOULD IT BE? IF IT WAS A PAINTING WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?
    In our opinion, music is emotion.  It could be aggressive, sad, happy, fearsome, ...  If music was a painting it would be a mirror of life featuring all emotion which can be expressed in it. 
16.WHAT TITLE WOULD YOU LIKE THIS INTERVIEW TO HAVE?
    ”What you need to know about Exterminator and how to survive the underground”, but it won’t have as much succes as “Read this and have a chance in winning 1.000.000”. 
17.THANK YOU! HAVE I FORGOTTEN TO ASK YOU ANYTHING AND YOU'D LIKE TO ADD?
    Well, we need to discuss how to survive in the Underground.  The bottomline is to stay true to yourself and in the beliefs you have in your music.  Stay tough but keep all your friends in mind. Thanx to all people for being patient, supporting us and buying our music.  Keep the faith, we won’t let you down! 

    Christine  Parastatidou

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