Artist: Toxocara
Genre: Technical Death Metal
Label: Twilight
Band members:
vocals – Niels Feekes
guitar – Vince Zwarts
guitar – Martijn Moes
bass guitar– Barry Geerligs
drums – William Vlierman
Brutal, aggressive and technical high level – this is Toxocara. The Dutchmen are notorious for their great interpretation of death metal, but also for their fantastic live music. This octobre they release their brand new album AtmosFear which again is a blaster. That’s why it’s a special honor to me that the five guys from Toxocara answer some of my questions about them and their new album.
Time for Metal / Hellania:
A warm „hello“ to you and thank you for taking the time for an interview. First of all: congratulations to your terrific new Album! What do you say to the review I wrote?
Toxocara / Barry:
Hello, and thank you for this interview and the perfect review you wrote, we couldn’t agree more with you 😉
As you can imagine we are very proud about this album and, as you, strongly believe in it’s potential. It has all the features we like about metal ourselves, hyperblast drumming with enough variation, brutal and technical riffing with a melodic touch, samples and synth passages and excellent vokills, and finally for me the most important it has a very dark horrific atmosphere. The cd in total is addictive in listening, you want to hear more and more after you’ve played it the first time and that’s the true strength of it.
Time for Metal / Hellania:
The cover of your album is rather unique. It is reminiscent of a bikerclub-emblem. Who had the idea of the cover and what does it mean for you?
Toxocara / Barry:
We didn’t want to have a typical death metal cover as it doesn’t fit our music and the atmosphere we want to create. Martijn came up with the cover and together with a Brazilian artistperfected it into the final cover design. I think it visually describes themusic and the band Toxocara very well; it’s dark and brutal and gives the same impression we want to create with our music and lyrics; based on true historical facts we want the listener to feel the real horror and torture happening in times of war.
Time for Metal / Hellania:
Your music is technical matured and – no question – you’re excellent musicians. Did you always want to play that kind of Death Metal?
Toxocara / Barry:
Everyone in Toxocara has a longhistory of playing in death metal bands, with this experience and skill Toxocara is able to create and perfect its music. Besides that Martijn is amaster in composing real songs with built-up of power and tension. Since I was 15 years old I’ve always wanted to play the music I like the most, so for me it’s an addiction I can’t get rid of……
Time for Metal / Hellania:
Where there other projects you played in before Toxocara? Or do some of the band members also play in another band?
Toxocara / Barry:
As mentioned before every band member has been or still is active in other death metal bands. A shot time ago I still played in a death/thrash metal band called Death Squad, who also released a new LP a while ago. You can check them out on http://www.myspace.com/deathsquadofficial.Martijn recently quit The Monolith Deathcult, and joined Prostitute Disfigurement, I guess both bands don’t need any further introduction. William still plays in Visionary666 , (http://www.myspace.com/visionary666) which is a melodic death metal band growing in popularity in Holland. Niels used to sing in the death metal band Victimizer.
Time for Metal / Hellania:
What means music to you? What significance has it in your life? And how long do you make music?
Toxocara / Barry:
Metal means everything to me. Every day I start with metal and I end it. It’s an addiction, I need to have my daily shot! It’s like an energy boost to me. Since I was a little child I have been listening to metal. I started making music at the age of 15, first as a singer, later on as a bass playerdoing backing vocals as well.
Time for Metal / Hellania:
What are your lyrics about? – Socially critical themes or other themes?
Toxocara / Barry:
Both Martijn and Niels are responsible for the lyrics, so they can tell you all about it. In general it’s about cruelty and torture against humanity in times of war and oppression.
Toxocara / Martijn:
Hi there. All the lyrics are about hystorical facts, “told” by the involved parties the subject is about. For Example Moryty Holodom is about the Holocaust in the Ukraine and Towards the Perpetual Labyrynth tells us about the tunnelrats, US soldiers who fought in the Cu Chi Tunnels in Vietnam. The lyrics are serious and not just about gore and rape.
Time for Metal / Hellania:
How was your fans’ feedback to your album?
Toxocara / Barry:
Untill now the reviews have been very good and at live gigs we see the crowd is really blown away by the music. Live we try to create the same atmosphere as on our recordings, therefore se use a sampler on stage for the several synth and sampler effects. This works very well. Together with the massive sound of the drums and guitars it gives a great live experience.
Time for Metal / Hellania:
You didn’t produce an album for three years. What did the band do in the meantime?
What caused this long pause?
Toxocara / Barry:
I have been with the band for just more than 2 years now. Martijn can tell you all about the struggle to find the right people for Toxocara. Three years ago he was the only one left from the original line-up on ‘The Great Rebellious’. All members left because of personal reasons and/or because of joining other bands.
Toxocara / Martijn:
At one time I was the only member left, but continued writing new songs. Finally I found members that lead to the line up of “AtmosFear”. But offcourse, in the tradition of Toxocara, we have another line-up change! Our former vocalist Kevin Quilligan returns to Toxocara because Niels is too busy and can’t combinte a band and other things he’s doing.
Time for Metal / Hellania:
What are your plans for the future? Maybe a new album?
Toxocara / Barry:
We try to play as much live gigs as possible now to spread the horror of ‘Atmosfear’ and the word of Toxocara. Hopefully this will give Toxocara the true recognition it deserves and stimulate us to write a new album within, I guess, 2 years from now. It depends a lot on the creativity and inspiration of Martijn.
Time for Metal / Hellania:
Are there some concert or festival dates for 2012? Or will there be a tour?
Toxocara / Barry:
We have been booked for a few shows already in January 2012, I guess more will follow in due time.
We’ve been asked for some tours the past year, but this did not turn out to be very interesting for us. When itwill only cost us money, it’s not very encouraging to join a tour, but hopefully something interesting comes across in future time. We are very eager to play outside of The Netherlands. We have played in Germany, UK and Norway last year and these gigs turned out to be the best ones ever.
Time for Metal / Hellania:
What was your best gig? Is there one, who is unforgotten?
Toxocara / Barry:
Wow, that’s a difficult question. For me it was the show in Edinborough in Scotland last year during the UK tour. The crowd totally freaked out on Toxocara, stage diving and banging their heads off, which is the best compliment you can get as a musician. Also the gig at ‘Barther Metal Open Air’ was a very special one to me. Among all the black metal bands Toxocara still stood very strong and we got a lot ofpositive feedback.
Time for Metal / Hellania:
If you could choose a band to perform with, which one would it be?
Toxocara / Barry:
I can name a few, but Morbid Angel stands out by far, despite their last album, which is a bit disappointing.
Toxocara / Martijn:
Suffocation!
Time for Metal / Hellania:
Finally: is there anything, you want to tell our readers?
Toxocara / Barry:
I would like to recommend our new CD ‘Atmosfear’ to all readers. You won’t be disappointed!!! Come see us at a concert when we’re in town and have lots of beers together!
Time for Metal / Hellania:
Thank you very much for giving us so many views of your life and work as band Toxocara. I wish you all the best for the future! Your Hellania!
Toxocara / Barry:
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak out. I wish you all the best as well and hope to see you at a Toxocara-concert in near future!
Toxocara / Martijn:
Thanks for the interview and stay tuned for more Toxoca news!