Interview with Pompeo from GO! FEST

Today we speak with Pompeo, one of the main people behind the amazing GO! festival in Rome and one of the key people in Italian grindcore scene!

It has been 10 years GO! fest is happening. I have been to one of the first editions and was lucky to play in #8. What is the driving force behind doing it all these years?

Hi everyone!
Yes, everything started 9 years ago and it seems incredible how we improved from the first editions. I think that our main goal (we’re three behind the festival, Daniele, Andrea and me) was to make a festival focused of fast bands. We had and still have plenty of hardcore festival in Italy but no one was dedicated to extreme bands, especially in Rome. We had September To Dismember in Bologna which was definitively a great example for us, but in the latest years I can say we’re the only extreme diy fest in our country together with Born To Be Grind organized by our friend Riki.

I'm sure it's not money right? How do you pay all the bands with such low entry fees? What was your biggest financial loss in history? How do I get rich doing grindcore?

I’m happy to say that it’s impossible to get rich with grindcore 😊 You don’t need money to do it, just rage and some musical skill. Talking about us yes, the entrance at the festival is always really cheap and I’m proud to say that we do it without any help of sponsors. When a band come to play at Go! Fest they do it more for the fun and the atmosphere, they know from the beginning that they are not getting so much money.
We never lost money so far, but we are careful when we organize the festival and all the other shows in the rest of the year

How many other people are behind the fest and what are the names worth a special shout out? Are doing this from the start?

We’re just three guys behind the festival: Daniele and Andrea and me, but every year a few special friends give us a hand and without their help we’d go crazy. A special thanks goes to people at CSOA Spartaco (our main venue), Daniel (our sound guy), Ulderico and Vincent.

Have you ever had any problems because of the fest? Government? Local nazis? Bands too drunk to play?

We’ve been lucky so far, I think the main problem of the last editions was the rain: it doesn’t rain so much in Rome, but you can be quite sure that on the day of Go! Fest there will be water falling from the sky 😊
Local government doesn’t know us and we don’t want to know them and nazis are not so much in the part of the city were we have the festival.
Oh by the way, once some assholes had something to say because we invited a band from Israel (MooM). They thought we hosted a Zionist band but they clearly didn’t know anything about them and about how carefully we choose the bands we invite.

Regardless of tragic covid19 impact to Italy - you are still doing the 10th edition this year, is that right? What are the current restrictions in your country and is there a chance the fest might not actually happen?

At the moment the situation is getting better, and even with some restrictions we decided to have Go! Fest 10, but only with Italian bands. We’re sure it will be a great edition even without internationally famous bands, we have so many great fast bands here after all.
There is still a chance that if the covid-19 spreads again the festival might be cancelled but we try to be positive about that!

What were the venues the fest took place in? Rome is known for it's sunshine and beautiful weather, - ever considered an Open Air edition?

The first edition happened at CSOA Ricomincio dal Faro, then we moved to Bencivenga squat for 3 editions, then we moved again to our actual venue, CSOA Spartaco.
We’d love to make an open air edition but we would need to involve much more people and it was impossible so far. We might try again in the next editions but it would mean asking permissions to local government and a lot of other burocratic stuff, so I’m not sure it would be a good idea.

What is your warmest memory from the history of GO fest?

There are so many. Actually one of the best was meeting you at the festival, you were the first in the audience coming from a far country! Another great memory was when I was on stage with my old band xKATExMOSHx and people started moshing so hard but we were still having the sound check.
The last one is when the guys of a really known band told me that playing at Go! Fest was much better than playing in a festival that is 10 times bigger than ours (I won’t tell you the band and the festival anyway 😉 )

Let's say I'm a small but talented grindcore band with 150 likes from middle of nowhere. What do I have to do to be considered to play GO! ?

If you send me a link and we like what you do we definitively don’t care if you are “big” or not. We just check what are your idea: there’s no space for fascist, racist or intolerant bands in the festival.

Imagine you now have the government support and endless cash. What is your dream line-up for the fest?

Don’t ask me this, I wouldn’t accept any money from the government, even if this would mean to offer a million of euros to make Spazz and Charles Bronson come back together! Ok, maybe I’d think carefully about it 😊

Besides doing the festival you are in like 666 bands. Could you give our reader a brief introduction on each and what is currently active?

Currently I only play in 2 bands: Verano’s Dogs and Taste The Floor. Verano’s Dogs is a mix of old school death metal and grindcore, Taste The Floor play fast thrashcore mainly influenced by Scholastic Deth and DS13.
I miss playing powerviolence as I used to do with xKATExMOSHx but as soon as I have more free time I’m going to found another band like that for sure. I’m getting used to play songs longer than 1-2 minutes and it’s not good at all.

What are current Italian bands we must invite to play to Lithuania?

There are lots of great bands all around Italy, even if most of them maybe never tour abroad. My favorites now are LULU from Milano, ANF from Palermo, Failure, and Scheletro from Roma.

Does all this grindcore activity clash with your family life / work in any way? Anything else you want to do but have no time?

It’s not easy but I try to spend most of my free time with my 4 years old son. Since he’s born I never left home for long tours with my bands but all the time spent with him is gold for me. Plus, he’s starting to enjoy the music I love and currently his favorite songs are from Repulsion and Municipal Waste!
The only thing I’ve been really missing for years is sleeping, but doing a lot of different things means going late to bed!

Can you share a thought that comforts or motivates you during some tough times?

I say thank you my friend! I’m not the best at motivating people but sometimes I remember that my music teacher used to say that I was her worst student in all her life and after a few years I made quite a few records, I toured around all Europe and there’s someone that enjoy the songs I made with my bands. But probably she didn’t know the word grindcore.


Grazie tante mio caro, I wish we can travel freely very soon and I can come hug you in person and have 48 beers together again xx

See you soon!

MAKE SURE TO CHECK OUT POMPEO's BANDS !!!!

VERANO'S DOGS:
https://veranosdogs-map.bandcamp.com/

TASTE THE FLOOR:
https://tastethefloor.bandcamp.com/album/taste-the-floor

xKATExMOSHx:
https://xkatexmoshx.bandcamp.com/

FOLLOW GO FEST ON FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/gofestgrindcore 

MANACLES - Kol dar čia [2020]

Yet, another review of a local Lithuanian band is here! This time it’s a debut album “Kol dar čia” by Manacles, a new local hardcore punk band, which consists of members from ZLPGNR, SLØGA, and Crucial Features. Lithuanian underground scene definitely lacks this kind of hardcore punk bands – straight forward, fast, without any “macho” elements or other subgenres mixed in the music.

All of their songs are in Lithuanian and the lyrics cover important political and social problems, that are very relevant in the present time. Despite the fact, that at times those lyrics seem a bit cringy or cheesy, very important topics are being explored – the way it's supposed to be in punk rock! Also, the vocals do not sound harsh enough for my taste in the album, but while listening to them live it’s a completely different experience. The vocals sound great, a few local mosh enthusiasts (including me) are having fun in front of the stage, but it would be way cooler if there was some movement on the stage from the musicians themselves.

20 minutes of honest and angry, “punky” vibe, simple punk beats and crusty d-beat parts go by fast and after the first few listens you get the urge to replay the album, but after a while it gets old (but what else could you think of in this genre?). The highlight of this album is those catchy riffs that keep playing in your head after a while (like an annoying earworm). While I prefer way faster hardcore punk, I feel like this is a huge step towards the right direction, regarding straight forward hardcore punk music in Lithuania. I hope to hear even faster stuff from them in the future!

You can find this album on Bandcamp!

https://manacles.bandcamp.com/releases

...and Spotify!

PILORI - À Nos Morts [2020]

Another extreme outfit from a culturally rich country of France, this time - rather heavy than fast: "À Nos Morts" a debut LP by Pilori released on June 26 in LP, CD and cassette.
 It's a gloomy, atmospheric hardcore album with significant metalcore and sludge influences. Reminds me a lot of our local heroes Erdve.

Eerie compositions and dissonant riffs (especially on the interlude-like title track) that seem to come out of Silent Hill rather than this world are mixed with some mid-tempo beats and almost inhuman like vocals. As a vocalist I am not sure how exactly this effect is achieved, but it sounds unique for sure.

The guitars in the mix sound very heavy and it resonates well with the overall atmosphere, but it can be a bit too much if you like to re-play the same album few times at one take and I don't mean it as a bad thing.

If you miss soaking in autumn rain and seek for something fresh, but charged with strong, sulky emotions - definitely give it a spin. Not much happiness to be found on this one.
It's streaming on Spotify and you can buy physical at https://pilori.bandcamp.com/album/nos-morts

Bain de Sang - Sacrified For a Load of Filth and Lies [2020]

A second, co-release album on multiple labels, from Paris' explosive grindcore blood bath - Bain de Sang. Was never lucky to see them live (yet), but hearing this, I can imagine the moshpit would hurt. It's raw, it's super fast, almost no slow parts (except for the finishing track "31G" and saying "slow" here would be... generous) but you can also hear these guys know how to play their instruments and some variations feel really creative. This means a lot of hard work and sweat in the practice room. 8 minutes of pure, angry energy followed by 3 minute noise outro makes it a perfect length modern grind album. Zero bullshit and you can tell immediately. Though I would love 20 more minutes of this.

For those who have no idea I want to find a comparison and a band that comes to my head is Sayyadina, but some cleverly calculated hardcore moments with high pitched, lungs-out vocals even reminds me of Converge a lot, which can not be a bad thing by any means. I don't have much else to say to be honest, this is the kinda shit I really like so this should serve more like a recommendation from me. These guys deserve more attention, I see they have t-shirts, tapes and vinyls on their bandcamp, go support, drop a like and tell your mom!

MUSTASUO - Katharsis [Off Records, 2020]

K: Fresh new hardcore wind from the cold city of Oulu in Finland. D-beat, some blasts, and a lot of slow parts with painful echoing black metal vocals (also, Keijo Niinimaa from Rotten Sound appears in the album as the guest vocalist!). Much more serious and sad towards the second part of the album, but I somehow still see it as a hardcore record. No uplifting riffs in major key to be found here and this kind of music always talks to me. Would love to see these guys live someday when this bullshit pandemic finally goes away.

L: Their second full-length album Katharsis is a nice mixture of hardcore, crust and black metal. Instant tempo changes in between tracks from a slow and atmospheric black metal track to a hard and fast crust tune always surprises you. Melodic, but still chaotic riffs set the dark tone quite perfectly. Although In the beginning, I thought that there are too many slow black metal tracks and the album seemed too long, after a few listening sessions the album started making perfect sense. Everything they did, all the elements are like perfectly fitting puzzle pieces creating one amazing album. Cannot wait to hear what they will do in the future!

Favourite track: Turhuuksia

And here is their Bandcamp page! https://mustasuo.bandcamp.com/

Interview with Stijn from Reproach [2020]

People who are into this specific genre probably heard of the Belgian experts of fastcore, called Reproach. For me, it was the "gateway drug" into the genre while I was still a teenager, when I discovered them during the Bloodshed fest in Eindhoven, in 2014. Reproach is the biggest influence on my music taste and they set the bar so high for other bands, that I haven't found anything as good since!

When we started this blog, we decided, that we wanted to spread the word and help others to discover the bands that really deserve their attention, and Reproach was the first band that came to my mind and I decided, that I should interview them as the last interview was quite a long time ago, so here it is - an interview with Stijn, the vocalist of an amazing hardcore punk band from Ghent, Belgium - Reproach!

So, guys, how are you doing during this weird and fucked up period of time? What have you been up to?

Hey! All of us are still in good health, that’s what’s most important. Davy got his first kid a few days ago so that’s his main focus now. Tim is working from home and sporting a lot, he’s in the best shape of his life right now. Thanks to Covid-19 he was forced to work from home and thus saved him several hours of commuting every single day, he’s also busy getting better at French since he lives in Paris now. Myself, I been sporting a lot too (weights, running, yoga, biking,…), writing some lyrics, Playstation games, and working remotely. A huge concrete skatepark in Gent is opening next month so I’m pretty stoked about that too! Frank had a few weeks off work due to Covid which give him some extra time to spend with his kid. He is back to working full time now. Gotta keep your mind and body busy during these times.

What is your approach to writing music? Are all of you contributing to lyrics, pitching ideas for guitar riffs, etc. or are you creating different parts on your own and then putting them together so it would work?

Usually, Tim comes up with a riff, jams it with Davy to create the groundwork of the song. Frank also puts ideas in there and then it just turns into a song. When every one of us likes the music, I put lyrics to it and that’s it. It’s all just very organic for us.

In your early work, a lot of songs were about skateboarding. Why, in your opinion, is skateboarding and punk subcultures are so connected? And do you guys skate or is it something you just appreciate when someone else does?

Even though I haven’t skated in a long time, I still consider myself a skateboarder. Tim and Davy also used to skate at one point but don’t anymore. Skateboarding and punk to me are definitely intertwined, the rebellious spirit, the DIY attitude, the aggression, and energy,…

The first few Reproach albums had more songs about skateboarding than nowadays, as the dominating lyrics in newer stuff are more nihilistic. Do you think that the civilization started falling apart recently or did you get a new perspective on everything and humanity was always on a downward spiral?

The main reason is that I was skateboarding less than during the earlier Reproach stuff, I always had a bleak outlook on where the world is heading.

I remember there was a photo of Stijn wearing Ash’s costume for Halloween and the song “Dead by Dawn” is an obvious reference to Evil Dead. Are there any other horror movies that influenced your music?

Dead by Dawn is one of my favorite movies ever and one of the first horror movies I ever saw. It really left an impression on me when I saw it as a 11 year old kid. I love horror movies, gore, blood, guts, and just fucked up movies. I also wanted to write a song about The Thing, but Municipal Waste beat me to it haha!

I feel like the current punk is dominated by “macho” hardcore bands and the fast hardcore punk/fastcore bands are not getting enough love. What are the current fastcore bands, that you think are underrated and should get more attention?

Not really underrated, but I’d say give Crippled Fox, Hetze, Gewoon Fucking Raggen, and Azijnpisser a listen if you like fast thrashing hardcore!

Do you have a “dream” band that you would love to make a split or play a show with?

Lack of Interest! That band still is harder than most other bands out there.

Considering that Stijn is busy with Raw Peace and Blind to Faith, Tim is playing with Lifespite, do you guys still have time to make new music for a new Reproach album? What's next for the band?

Time is always a problem, and me living in Gent and Tim in Paris while Frank and Davy live on the other side of Belgium isn’t helping either. At this point, we haven’t rehearsed in months, but we do have some songs ready to record. Our last recording was for the split tape with Toxic Shock and we want to record those songs again and the extra songs that we have currently ready for a new release. We also wanted to do a 20-year Reproach show but that didn’t happen due to a global pandemic, so hopefully, we can pull that off in 2021! 

Thanks to Reproach for a great interview!

P.S. Here is an amazing music video of theirs.
Enjoy!

FEASTEM - Graveyard Earth [Lixiviat Records, 2020]

You might have seen this band in Lithuania a few times or even in the last edition of In Feast festival. Feastem is a not only a professional, self-disciplined band but also very nice people to hang out with, we went on tour with them few years ago and it has been an experience I will remember until I'm no longer on this graveyard earth so it was very exciting to finally get a copy of their new long awaited full lenght CD in black & white cover.

Graveyard earth throws you into a cold shower of blastbeats from the first moment, but very soon surprises you with some melodic riffs and classic Feastem almost-Black-metal-like sharp guitar sound that pierces your ears and drills your brain throughout the whole thing. As with every Feastem record this also sounds very clean, when you can hear every instrument, but it does not lose the brutality. Some call it "northern" sound, some call it a "good mix", I like to call this style "sterile". No judging, it's a question of taste, but some like it more... "dirty" you know ;)

Perfect, precise drumming of a handsome machine gun named Patrik does not stop and along with relentless hardcore vocals (singalongs included!) and catchy riffs paints a very nice picture all the way from the fists-in-the-air metal anthem Sortovalta to an uncannily prophetic In isolation we die to "I wonder what is this one about" Mouths of others and a harsh noise outro that ends right on time. Fast and beautiful.

We had a long drive with my wife yesterday and after convincing her to listen to some grindcore I played Graveyard Earth. So cool it's on Spotify, there is a serious lack of underground music there. So my wife said "If all your stupid bands were playing like that - I would consider going to Obscene Extreme with you" which I think is a perfect compliment.

DISFORIJA - Priverstinis Gydymas [The hills are dead, 2020]

After 10 years of silence the legendary Lithuanian noise/grind/whatever/core band returns with the new full length "Priverstinis gydymas" on tape, CD and online streaming by Portugal's THE HILLS ARE DEAD Records. Seems Disforija is no longer trying to be funny and goes for more serious old school grindcore sound.

I really like what was done with the sound of this record in the mixing process as there is no guitar (bass only) but it still sounds really brutal, especially when I listen to it while driving with lows up on the EQ haha.

As for the structure it's quite simple and straight forward, songs are about 1-2 mins long and the whole thing barely exceeds 20mins. Not a fan of the long and slow intro but once the blastbeats start it's a quite raw, relentless and brutal attack throughout the whole thing. There are a few very catchy riffs, love the final song especially and there is actually a professionally shot music video on youtube which is cool.

Maybe as a bass-only album it would be interesting to hear some high-pitch shrieking vocals, but vocalists' death metal growling style gives record a feel of brutality, which you can not resist to love after a few spins. Not groundbreaking, but definitely a solid addition to the narrow Lithuania's grindcore history!

https://thehillsaredead.bandcamp.com/album/priverstinis-gydymas

https://youtu.be/UgzsxuSee_A