VOMIT OF LIFE!!!

GERBE OF LIFE

GERBE OF LIFE HAVE A GREAT PASSION FOR THE MUSIC THEY PLAY AND ALSO VERY MATURE THOUGHTS. THESE CARACTERISTICS ARE HIGHLY APPRECIATED FROM ME. I THINK THAT GERBE OF LIFE, BECAUSE OF THE LOVE FOR THEIR MUSIC, WILL HAVE A GREAT FUTURE... BUT ONLY TIME WILL TELL. FOR NOW CHECK THEIR INTERVIEW AND OPEN YOUR MIND TO NEW IDEAS.

1.TELL US IN A FEW WORDS THE MOST IMPORTANT MOMENTS OF THE BAND'S HISTORY. WHICH IS TODAY'S LINE UP?

1.The most important moments are the birth of both the band and of the concept of mixing together several influences of musical styles we appreciate, because we wanted to do this since some years. The first gig and the release of the CD (mostly the release of the CD) was some strongly emotional moments for the band. The actual line up is: Christophe (guitar), Mickael (Vocals), Cédric (Guitars) and myself behing the drumkit.

2.WHAT DOES GERBE OF LIFE MEAN? WHY HAVE YOU CHOSEN THIS BAND NAME AND HOW IMPORTANT DO YOU THINK IS THE CORRECT CHOICE OF A BAND NAME?

2."Gerbe" means the vomit (in french argot), about the choice for the name of the band, we wanted something a bit different from the generality both for it's signification and for the melting of two different languages. For us, it was important to vocally transcibe the musical emotion we express in our compositions with the use of an appropriate band's name.

3.HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR MUSICAL STYLE? WHICH BANDS ARE YOUR INFLUENCES? WHICH BAND OR SONG IN SPECIFIC MADE YOU REALIZE THAT THIS IS WHAT YOU WANTED TO DO (PLAY MUSIC)?

3.To define our style, we'd call it some Grind/ Death/ Black/ Crust/ Indus, admiting that we anyway have a preference for the Grindcore (and mostly the oldschool grind!).The bands that influence us are numerous, it goes from the first Morbid Angel CD, to Suffocation, Napalm Death (all times), Carcass (all times), Terrorizer but also Immortal, Blood duster, Godflesh, Nile. We love all the 90's Death metal bands wave and we're also big fans of Death (R.I.P Chuck).

About the what motivated us to play music, it's not mainly a band or a given track but mostly a musical style: Metal. The power this music expresses, the sound of the guitars, the result that comes out the mix of all instruments... I remember that when I was a young metalhead and when I was listening to bands like Metallica, Nuclear assault , S.O.D, Accept I was quite attentive to the guitars playings (may it be rythmic guitars or lead guitars) and I was quite sensible (and this was the beginning) to the way the drummers played their parts, added some double bass drums (and mostly at which moments they put it). But the individuals that made it really grow stronger on me and that made me feel I'd play drums on day was without any doubts Mick Harris (1st drummer of Napalm Death) because I loved his groove and mid tempo parts, but also his drums' toms' rolls that were a bit staccato and that really added some relief to his drum playing. When I heard "From enslavement to obliteration" for the first time, I was more than fucking killed!! And there was also Pete Sandoval because he fucking shredds! When I heard what he was doing on "Altars of madness" (at the time it was released) I was completely hallucinating. Speaking for myself, I think he's a very complete that's very good with double bass drums, druming surprises, toms' rolls, he's creative in the brutality of his drumplaying an I've always loved his way of blasting (On the Terrorizer CD, he shredds the guts!). It's fast, fluid and powerfull. I've always loved the way he grinds!

4.TELL US SOME GENERAL THINGS ON THE BAND RELEASES. COMPARE THEM. WHAT DO YOU OBSERVE? ARE YOU STILL SATISFIED WITH THEM?

4.It would be hard for us to compare our productions as we have only one release, but we're quite satisfied of the result keeping in mind we hadn't got a lot of money to record it.

5.WHAT ARE YOUR LYRICS TALKING ABOUT? WHAT INSPIRES YOU IN WRITING LYRICS? DO YOU PREFFER THE FANTASY STORIES OR THE STRAIGHT IN YOUR FACE APPROACH? WHY DO YOU SING IN FRENCH? DO YOU THINK YOU CAN EXPRESS THINGS EASIER IN YOUR MOTHER TONGUE?

5.Our lyrics are speaking about the newsreals, the distress of the individual and it's evil side. We have always wanted to speak about things that make us shit and against which we unfortunately can't do anything. I think it's better than speaking blah blah about things we find no interest in.

The fact of singing in french has immediately been an evidence for us as I'm convinced a vocalist that sings in his natal tongue will do it with a lot of more rage than if he do this in another language (even if he understand what he says).

6.HOW ARE YOU PLANNING TO PROMOTE YOUR WORK? WHICH SONG OF YOURS DO YOU THINK IS THE MOST IDEAL TO REPRESENT YOUR WORK?

6.Our webmaster deals with all the promo stuffs. He was doing a paper fanzine before and he's now our webmaster. Because of the fact he was doing a zine, he has a good amount of contacts and it has helped us a lot. This is because of him we've found a label to released our next CD.

I take care of the interviews and I answer the paper mails we receive.

7.WHICH WERE THE REACTIONS OF THE FANS AND PRESS ON YOUR LATEST CD?

7.It was quite positive and we had some very good reactions from the foreign countries. It was for us an agrable surprise, a lot of zines were surprised by the brutality and the violence of the CD but also by the fact of finding an old school feeling actualized in our way.

8.HAVE YOU SENT YOUR WORK TO ANY LABELS? WHAT DID THEY TELL YOU?

8.We've sent a few CDs to some french labels who didn't want to take risks with a band that has released only a demo CD. All the more, as our lyrics are committed I think they may have been afraid. Despite of this, Phil Fasciana (Malevolent Creation) was interested in working with us after their european tour, but before the end of this tour we've found a label that has just been created and who wanted to work with us.

9.IF YOU WERE GIVEN ENOUGH MONEY TO MAKE A PROPER VIDEO CLIP, HOW WOULD YOU IMAGINE IT TO BE?

9.To be honnest, I know nothing about it. But it would surely be something unconventionnal

10.WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE UNDERGROUND SCENE OF YOUR COUNTRY? DO YOU FIND IT INTERESTING? CAN YOU SEPERATE AND NAME SOME GOOD BANDS?

10.Some zines rom other countries think the french underground is in a better health than never.

Speaking for myself, I'd also say there are more bands than before, but a good amount of french bands hasn't got enough emotional expression in their music, the riffs aren't always the best, and even if there are good musicians and it's played correctly, tightly and totally in the style... the emotionnal crush isn't present. I can advice you to check out some bands like: Ananda, Agressor( mostly the "symposium of rebirth" album), Blockheads, Disgust, Fate, Kabal...

11.WHICH IS THE WORST AND WHICH IS THE BEST REVIEW YOU'VE EVER RECEIVED?

11.The worst review we had was done by a French magazine, it was also the first one we ever had. it said our lyrics were limited and the music was too much classical/ unoriginal!

Following this review (we must notice it: it was done by one of the most read magazines in France!) we received some mails because the fact we were singing in French has intrigued some peoples... So we sent them the promo and the feedbacks were very positive, some even said they were astonished! The best review we've received... in fact we've received a few excellent reviews (mostly from foreign countries) it said G.O.L was the best french band they had been listening to, the brutality of our compositions is an idea that was often included in the positive reviews. A lot of peoples were pleasantly surprised!

12.WHICH IS THE BEST PART IN YOUR MUSIC AND IN THE BAND IN GENERAL AND WHICH THING DO YOU THINK YOU SHOULD CORRECT? WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU NEED IMPROVEMENT?

12.The positive side of our music? I'd say it's its sincerity and its melting of influences, the positive part of the band is the musical understanding of the bands members between each others : we've got the same feeling of composition, we like the same riffs and we also all like the fact of mixing several extreme metal waves. We're quite satisfied with what we play. We're actually working on adding a more technical side without loosing the efficiency. This technical side brings a new dimension to the music, and it's also an interesting feeling for the musician. In the next tracks, there'll be more technicity and maybe some disjoncted leads in the vein of the first Carcass CD and "Altard of madness" of Morbid Angel. We've worked back the track "Chrétienté démagogie suprême" that's on our CD, it's now even more powerfull and destructive at an emotional point of view. The solo brings a more crazy and violent dimension to the track!

13.IF SOMEDAY YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO MEET THE CREATURE THAT CREATED THE UNIVERSE, WHICH WOULD YOUR BIGGEST QUESTION BE?

13.If I met him, I would ask him why he has created the universe! And also why he created the life with all the engenders

14.IF TIME TRAVEL WAS POSSIBLE, WHICH HISTORICAL PERIOD WOULD YOU LIKE TO VISIT AND WHY? WHAT WOULD YOU MISS THE MOST FROM OUR TIME?

14.People always think life was easier in another epoch. For myself, I'd say each epoch has got his positive and negative points. For exemple, a few centuries ago there was no pollution but one could die of the flu. And if you think well about a lot of given examples, you've got to learn to live with your time even if you see your epoch as a difficult one. I think in each epoch, from the older to the nearer of our time, there has always been problems caracterized by this epoch.

15.WHAT PROLOGUE AND TITLE WOULD YOU LIKE THIS INTERVIEW TO HAVE?

15.It's you to choose it as it's your interview

16.IF YOU WEREN'T ABLE TO COMPOSE MUSIC, WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

16.I'd try to find something that would make me thrill and that I could share with others, because this is also good to make discover music to others. When somebody tells you it moves in his guts when he listens to your CD, it's very gratifying, I think it's the best thing one could say to a band.

17.WHICH OTHER METAL BRANCHES DO YOU FIND INTERESTING? CAN YOU LIST SOME OF YOUR MOST BELOVED ALBUMS?

17.For me, there is not a metal style that would be more interesting than the others. I think there are good and bad bands in every style. There are also some good bands that do some less good or uninteresting albums at a given moment of their musical career... it's also a matter of epoch, creativity... but also somekind of randomizing of personality. At this timen I'm listening to the last System of a down (good mix of influences), the last Immortal CD (Their previous one "Damned in black" was mediocre because their was an obvious lack of inspiration at the level of the compositions. The last one contains riffs that are fully emotional and crushing, all the more the guitars and drums sound are excellent). The last Gorguts is also very good. The new school grind scene doesn't please me so much, I prefer the old school grind scene. In fact, I think a lot of albums contains only 40% or 50% of musical quality, for exemple I could quote the albums of Hate Eternal or Severe Torture: a part of the album is correct and includes some good riffs while another part of the album contains cliché tracks with riffs that are played in the style but remains emotionally flat! I even do not speak anymore of bands like Cannibal Corpse that in fact did some quality albums until "The bleeding"! I really prefer all the albums that were released around the 90's, these albums were totally good from the beginning to the end, and there was a fucking feeling of composition it's quite hard to find back on the nowadays releases. Since sometimes, the bands are always playing hyper fast stuffs! It's boring, the quality riffs aren't only done in a fast way! There are still a few bands like Nile, Napalm Death (I find their last album excellent, mainly at the level of the rythm guitars) who still know how to record an album that is of quality in its whole. It's a shame a lot of bands doesn't pay more of themselves to do some albums that would be correct in their globality. Listen to the last Morbid Angel album (but also the previous one), but I'm a very big fan of Morbid Angel: the fast riffs are really mediocre while Azagtoth released some masterpieces in the past. I also think, as a whole, the heavy tracks of the two last Morbid Angel albums are really better than the fast songs! Why do they keep on writing fast tracks of they haven't got the feeling to do so? Carcass achieved to evolve while not playing as fast because they've always remained sincere to themselves and to their music. There are very few bands that could say so!

18.IF YOU WERE GIVEN THE ABILITY TO CHANGE SOMETHING IN THE WORLD, WHAT WOULD THAT BE?

18.I would change the inequality between the human beings.

19.MANY EXTREME METAL BANDS EXPRESS RACISTIC IDEOLOGIES. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ON THAT?

19.I think some people have forgotten that there is an only race on this earth: it's the human race. Most of the people get differences with their lores, the colours of their skins, religions.

If a black skinned guy cuts his hand, he bleeds, and this is the same for a white skinned man.

If a guy coming from Asia looses his father or his mother he'll be sad, and this will be the same for a Norvegian guy. I think ignorance, precariousness, the fear and the hatred of the stranger feeds all this. The fasist or homophobic guy should better think for 5 minutes!

20.THANK YOU!HAVE I FORGOT TO ASK YOU ANYTHING AND YOU'D LIKE TO MENTION?

20. No, nothing in particular. Your interview was the most interesting I answered, because it included some quite pertinent questions about the band but also some questions I'd call as being more philosophical and human (I've had a lot of pleasure to answer these).

I thank your for showing some interest in what the band is doing but mostly to have interrogated us on what we were thinking about the extreme music and it's scene (as whole).

Keep on doing your good work!

Nick "William_Kidd" Parastatidis

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