THE GROTESQUERY – I Hate It

THE GROTESQUERY er et helt nytt band bestående av et par kjente karer. Bandet spiller horror death metal med tekster inspirert av H. P. Lovecraft (1890 – 1937) og E. A. Poe (1809 – 1849) og de 2 kjente personene er den tidligere Massacre vokalisten Kam Lee og Edge of Sanity bossen Rogga Johansson. Bandet består videre av en svenske på bass (Johan Berglund) og en nordmann på trommer (Brynjar Helgeton) og de slipper sitt debutalbum 22. januar. Eternal Terror tok kontakt med Kam Lee for å høre litt om hans tanker rundt Lovecraft og Poe i tillegg til hans samarbeide med Rogga og hans personlige syn på overgangen fra CD til nedlastinger fra nettet.

You aren't the first to use the works of Lovecraft and Poe and you will probably not be the last. What is it with their works that makes so many musicians using their writings when writing lyrics?

There's a 'mystery' to their writings… not everything is a 'spoiler'- and not everything is so blatant – they have a way that makes the reader not only use their own imagination, but also forces the reader to come to their own conclusions with out being forced.

Yet, Lovecraft and Poe are two different types of writers. Poe is more elegant with the English language, while Lovecraft can set a mood with just mere words. Poe will usually express the 'monsters' are really the humans in his stories, when Lovecraft most of the time has some sort of monster from man's own folly. With Lovecraft one goes snooping around in dark places one shouldn't be looking – or reading some forbidden writings or book, and will most likely run into some foul hideous creature in the shadows from these foolish act. Poe on the other hand – he invites you in- sends out an invitation and welcomes you into the creatures' lair. But honestly – it's the gothic horror – the time when these stories were written. It's the sense of when the world was still a mystery. When it had undiscovered regions and dark forbidden places in it – when there was still a veil of secrecy over the planet… and a sense of overwhelming dread and danger lurking around every dark corner. When the worlds collided… the past and the future – the time era… this is what I think intreges most readers… the feeling of something grand and mysterious about to be discovered, but never truelly revieled within these stories. There are the modern day 'Greek mythology' – stories with monsters and morals.

Did you ever consider using these songs as the follow up on the Bone Gnawer debut album or did the lyrical themes not fit Bone Gnawer?

No… Because the lyrics and concepts for THE GROTESQUERY are on a completely different level then the lyrics for BONE GNAWER. BONE GNAWER has a more tongue-in-cheek dark humor/black comedy side to it with themes that deal with cannibalism and human butchery – alot of which is based from horror and gore films with those same themes. THE GROTESQUERY is more or less a gothic horror occult story on a more serious level and darker tone. It's all based off of a story I had been working on since about 2003. I started to draft notes and ideas to write a graphic novel or a possible movie script with these ideas that is the story of the TALES OF THE COFFIN BORN. That was my original idea at first, but eventually I found that it would fit better as an audio horror tale all done around the music.

Besides, musically each is band is different. BONE GNAWER differs from THE GROTESQUERY musically. With BONE GNAWER we wanted to represent the early Swedish death metal style that has that certain groove and hook elements to it, with that raw buzz saw guitar sound – that early 90's style of Swedish Stockholm style bands such as ENTOMBED and GRAVE, but retain that early 90's US/Floridian hook and catchiness with the lyrics.

With THE GROTESQUERY we wanted to have some of that same influences of style, but also have the 90's style death metal influences from such bands like BOLT THROWER – GOREFEST and even MASSACRE. And with the tone of the music being more avant garde and experimental – with slight touches of mournful emmotional content with-in the riffs. To suggest an overwhelming feeling of dread and despair as well as the horror and terror.

I have plans to continue with both BONE GNAWER and THE GROTESQUERY, and hopefully fans will be able to discern the difference with each band.

I'm not trying to just be one-sided in my music endeavours as well. I have many sides to myself, and my music taste. Although – everything I do has a dark tone and based in horror some way.

Still – I want to be able to express those different sides thru the bands I'm involved in. This is why I not only have BONE GNAWER and THE GROTESQUERY, but several other "projects" in the works at the moment. I just finished up recording a MCD with Noel Kemper of the bands ALTER OF GIALLO and GRUESOME STUFF RELISH on a band we are calling BROKEN GRAVESTONES. And I have plans to work with both Mark and Mike Riddick on a project called GRAVE WAX coming soon. I also appear as guest vocalist on the new SIGH album just released. As well as doing some guest vocals for the band BONE SAW on their "SAWTOPSY" CD.

Also I do a 'horror punk band' called CRYPTIDZ and we just finished up recording a 4 track demo, and did a music video for a track that ties into a horror movie short film called 2:22.

You and Rogga also work together in Bone Gnawer and it seems like you two guys really enjoy working together. I guess we can say that you two really have found each other.

How did you guys meet and what made you two decide you wanted to work together?

We meet back in 2008… over the internet when together at first we had plans to work on another band together. However, I ended up not working on that project, but later decided with Rogga to work together on BONE GNAWER.

I knew of Roggas early work with EDGE OF SANITY as well as his band PAGANIZER and RIBSPREADER. And I have always been a fan of the Swedish style Death Metal. So when I got the opportunity to be able to start speaking to Rogga online, we found that we shared a lot of the same ideas and feeling of music. And we decided to work together on a band. And it was great to be able to work together with him because working with Rogga truly gave me back the chance to do the type and style of death meta that I really wanted to return to doing.

How do you work together when composing new material?

Rogga pretty much has the freedom to create the music and the feeling and structure of the songs. I am giving the freedom to work on the lyrics the themes and concepts for the songs. This freedom works out for the best… because we trust in each others abilities to do the best for each band and the integrity of the music all together.

Working with these Swedes and the Norwegian Brynjar, do you learn the languages or at least some Scandinavian words?

Nope… I have trouble enough with English… let alone Swedish. Haha! I do know that my name – KAM – sounds like the Swedish way to say – comb. But I learned that years ago from the members of GRAVE.

When you released your first albums with Massacre back in 1991, the only way the fans could hear the album was to buy or lend the physical CD. Today we have the internet where everybody can listen to it online and for free. How do you see this development and what are the most positive and negative aspects as you see it?

Personally – I hate it! It's killing record and CD sales, and it's sad. But what can one do in this modern world? Everyone wants stuff for 'free'- so it's hard to fight a system that allows everyone to do 'free downloads'. I hate it… but what can we do? There is only those very very few people out there with an integrity and any honour to actually support a band 100% – to actually purchase the bands CDs and merchandise. And besides… everyone is all about computers… i-pods… i-phones.. and little pocket gadgets. No one wants cool collections anymore… because the CDs take up too much house space… and such and such. Everything is about condensing and small and compact.

Have you ever downloaded music illegal yourself?

No! I feel in order to really support a band… one must really buy their "music" or their "merchandise".  I don't even own an i-pod.

Do you think there will be a future for CD's again or is it all lost to technology?

I feel it's sadly going away… but hopefully there will still be some kind of a market for it. Like with vinyl… but it will be very limited to just the collectors. I still think there are some people out there that prefer to actually hold a product in their hands… and people that still will support bands by purchasing this format. But I also feel it's going to become something of a rare – collectors item type thing.

http://www.myspace.com/thegrotesquery