Carnal Tomb Interview!

1. Welcome to the lower depths of the RAW WAR crypt!
How goes the work with your upcoming demo 'Ascend'?

- M: well we have two songs up on Youtube, 2 more are almost done. We have to do the vocals and bass for them. Then it’s all going to be mixed and hopefully see daylight in around a month. 

2. What have been the hard parts of the production and what have been smooth? And how would you describe Ascend´s rotten soul?

-  M: Well it was pretty hard getting Carnal Tomb going, Yves and me were in another band together before (Nuclear Penetration) and it took a while to realize I wanted to completely concentrate on my new project, which only had a few riffs at that time. I spent weeks testing with different guitar sounds and it wasn't clear what we were going to call this project. 
Easy would be the wrong word, but it’s all moving forward smoothly. Obviously there are times when you aren't satisfied with something you write or record, but it's all taking form! Well that's it really. We wanted to play some groovy, rotten, dirty death metal.

Y: I think the hardest part is that we don’t have a lot of time to meet up and talk about the songs, improve them and then finally record the instruments and vocals. We both have other duties like University and Work. A lot of communication happens over the internet even though we live really close to each other. Marc is very committed, ambitious and knows what he wants. 
Most of the ideas already stood before I joined in on the project. But I still have the freedom to add anything, change and form the songs according to my taste. This way of working together really benefits the project and we can both identify ourselves with it, even though it’s Marc’s ‚baby‘.   

   3. Describe the bands sound and your background inspirations? 

-  M: Obviously I am huge fan of old (Swedish) death metal. Like many of them, I use the Boss HM-2 Pedal because i feel it gives you the opportunity to create an extremely good guitar sound that works great with this kind of music. 
You could say there is a recipe and this is our attempted at it. We aren't inventing anything new, but why completely change something you like already. Plus I’m not a huge fan of most current metal trends. 

Y: I have to admit, I love the ‘metallic’ bass sound bands like Archspire and Decrepit Birth have. We have tried doing something similar here and there without destroying the old school vibe.

4. May not be easy but to pin-point ONE album which did get your ass into this type of morbid death metal?

- M: Well actually there is in my case. 
I’ve known bands like Dismember for a couple of years now, but never really listened or appreciated them that much. I was more into American, British and Polish bands. But last year when Entrail's 'Raging Death' came out I was totally blown away and really got into that style of death metal. 

Y: I think the first LP that really pulled me into the old school genre was Grave’s ‘’Soulless’’, terrific album! Marc got me going after that as well and Revel in Flesh’s ‘’Deathevocation’’ completed it. I enjoy the extremely deep vocals.
 
 5. I guess your not the same "Carnal Tomb" that splitted in 1995 which released one tape called "Flatulent Edemas of Ejaculation"?

- M: Haha nope, but since they only released one Demo, that we didn't find very good at all we found it shouldn't cause any problems. I actually had something with '..Tomb' as an idea and then found a song by Dismember called 'Carnal Tomb'. 
It's my way of honoring such a great band. A lot of people in metal these days are forgetting their roots, which is really a shame.

 6. How did you meet up with each others? And how did you come to know the dudes of Filthdigger?

- M: Well like I said Yves and I played in a band before, after we recruited him at a concert. But in the unnamed, early stage of Carnal Tomb I quickly realized I didn't want to do this alone. So I asked him if he was interested! Funny story, I found Erik's old Band Dodsgap while researching about the HM-2. We talked ..and he has become somewhat of an unofficial member. 
He listen's to all my ideas and keeps pushing me to make them better. Yves and I are big fans of Filthdigger, I even made his logo (which I hope he still likes!) It's a scandinavian/teutonic death metal alliance!

7. How is the death metal climate in your region? 
Will it be hard to get places to play on when your ready?

- M: Well judging from the fact that we haven't got a full lineup I have to say it's not very good. This is hard to believe when you look at how many people live in Berlin. 
There are huge gaps between the fans and a lot shit talk. But we hope the release of the demo will get us enough attention to get a drummer on board. But finding a place to play won't be hard at all then. We both know a lot of people that organize and host shows.

8. Besides Carnal Tomb have you other music projects in action or do have have some old & buried?

- M: I mentioned Nuclear Penetration and that band basically had to make way for Carnal Tomb. 
I have a few ideas for some Black/Thrash... But that has time. I am totally living CT at the moment. 

Y: Apart from NP, I played bass in a punkrock/punkcore band in 2006 for about a year. 
Nothing wild, we didn’t have any recordings or gigs. But it helped with getting further as a bassist. 
From 2009-2012 I played in a death metal band called “Defective”. It was a lot fun and really helped me progress…Great members, we played a few gigs and recorded 6 songs but we never published them because work pulled the band apart. 
Two of the songs don’t even have vocals, but we thought it would be a shame to let those demos rot forever. So we published them as a free download on our Last.fm page, go check them out [just search: "Defective (Death Metal)"]! 
The band spawned some great friendships like Tobias from “Ensireal” who is now mixing the Carnal Tomb songs.

9. So whats your closets plans now, finish the demo i presume? Will you contact some labels of so which do you have in mind?

 - M: Aye, we are going to finish recording the Demo. 
I'm already writing new material and playing around with the sound again...But 'Ascend' is going to be the first checkpoint. We will send it to some Labels and spread the disease! 
FDA Rekotz is the one where I think we would have the best chances. 

I hope Rico will have a listen!

10. Thanks for your time!

- M/Y: Thank you for the support!