Summon: How did the band get started?
Pedro: The band Festering started in 92 as a side project of some members of the Portuguese Death Metal band Extreme Unction. They were into Grind-Core style bands like Carcass and Napalm Death. Currently, only Koja remains as a founding member of the band.
Summon: What kind of music do you play?
João: Traditional and Old School Death Metal like: Entombed, Dismember, Death, Pestilence, Bolt Thrower, etc. and keeping the old Grind influences too.
Summon: How has the fan response been?
João: Until now the response has been great from the people who have listened to our music and we have had good reviews from magazines and radios.
Summon: Where did the band name come from?
Koja: The band name came from our old Gore influences.
Summon: Introduce the band members and what they do in the band.
Pedro: Pedro Gonçalves (vocals), João Galego (guitars), Koja Mutilator (bass & backing vocals) and Beto Arrais (drums).
Summon: Who writes the music? Lyrics?
João: Pedro and Koja usually write the lyrics. The music is a joint effort, the concepts for the songs usually start with Koja, but we compose all the songs together and we all have creative input. In this demo all the songs were recorded, produce and mastered by us in our studio.
Summon: And where do the lyric ideas come from?
Pedro: The lyrics came from everything, from the book that we are reading at the time, mythology… But always with gore overtones.
Summon: What is your view in Satanism and Occultism?
Pedro: Personally I was into Satanism for many years and occultism also, and in my opinion is that is a way of life it’s a way to see things in a different perspective to cultivate a new persona a stronger persona.
João: Satanism is interesting as a philosophy, but I’m an atheist. I have no interest in occultism.
Koja: I am Christian, my ideology is contrary to Satanism. In relation to occultism, I have some interest in matters purely cultural and curiosity.
Summon: How many albums / CD’s have you released?
Koja: We released a split-tape with other band called Morbid Simphony in 1992, by Infected Records. This year our second release came out, a demo-tape: “From the grave” by War Productions.
Summon: Tell me about some the songs on the latest CD?
Koja: We started with a few riffs that Koja had been working on that were waiting for a project like this. Soon the songs began to take shape in a more fluent way, helped by the fact that we already had a lot of experience working together in Extreme Unction. We have slightly different tracks, some fast and simple, like “The myth of creation” and “Bloodline”. Others are more elaborate and with more intricate structure and composition, like “Ascent of the Blessed” and “Infected”. The demo also includes a remake of “Proliferation of infected leucocytes”, from our 1992 release. The structure varies a lot from song to song, and reflects our diverse influences. A mix of very fast and aggressive, fast and rhythmic, slow and melodic riffs.
Summon: Do you have any side projects?
João: At this moment we don’t have any other projects, Festering is our only band.
Summon: Who are some of your musical influences?
João: Currently I’m really into Melodic Death Metal, and I also listen to a lot of other genres outside of Metal.
Pedro: My musical influences are without any doubts is Swedish Death Metal, but also other grind oddities. I’m not jailed to a particular style of metal… I like Metal! That’s my way to see things. But I don’t see myself singing in a Heavy Metal or Hard Rock band, because I don’t have the voice or the feeling for it.
Koja: I hear all kinds of music just do not appreciate electronic music or dance music. I do not like happy music; my inclination is more depressing music, melodic and more violent. Metal is undoubtedly my thing, especially Death Metal. But I also hear and I love Heavy Metal (old), Gothic music, Doom Metal, Grindcore…
Summon: Which current bands?
João: Insomnium, Hypocrisy, Sentenced, Dark Tranquility, Amorphis, Megadeth, Arch Enemy, Ozzy, Pink Floyd, etc.
Pedro: For me there are many bands that influence my way to see music like Entombed, Dismember, Autopsy, Death, Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse, Napalm Death, Sore Throat, My Dying Bride, Draconian, Swallow the Sun and many others.
Koja: Of the bands that influenced me in my way of playing and making music, I can highlight: Iron Maiden (Gods of Metal), Slayer, Death, Carcass, Entombed, My Dying Bride, Bolt Thrower, Paradise Lost (old) Napalm Death, Fields of the Nephilim, Pestilence…
Summon: What is the band like when you play live?
Koja: The band didn’t play live yet. We are still at an early stage, but we are already preparing a set of songs and soon we will be playing live.
Summon: Have you guys ever played in another country?
João: No, not yet.
Summon: How big of crowd shows up at shows usually?
João: We didn’t play live yet.
Summon: How is the crowd response when you play?
Koja: Hope it will be very passionate…
Summon: What do you think of the US Black Metal/Death Metal scene?
Pedro: The US Death Metal scene was really important at end of the 90s. There was a lot happening there and Europe was more into Black Metal. We really respect bands as Suffocation and Cannibal Corpse that kept it alive for the rest of us. As for Black Metal I’m not into that much Black Metal but Profanatica rules.
Koja: Personally, my thing is Death Metal and bands like Death, Obituary, Autopsy, Master, Massacre… they continue to be a reference and inspiration for me. But I’m also very fond of bands like Exhumed, Impaled and Mortician.
Summon: What do you think of the Overseas scenes?
Pedro: Portugal has a great metal scene, there are a lot of good bands emerged and their quality has increased a lot. I think that Europe is trying to return to the origins into a more heavy rock oriented but I also see that there is an explosion of Brutal Death Metal bands that play fast and ultra-technical stuff.
Summon: What are some of new favorite black metal/death metal bands?
Pedro: There are great bands emerging but I’m still very much into to the old ones and for me for example Asphyx or Obituary still school everyone.
Summon: When do you guys plan on writing any new material?
Koja: We are writing new more songs, two of them will be released on a seven inch single. The rest are for a future album, hopefully.
Summon: What does the future hold for the band??
João: Our immediate future is to start playing live and we hope to release a full-length album.
Contact them at:
http://www.facebook.com/festering.band
https://www.reverbnation.com/festeringpt
