Spotlight: Savage Annihilation

Savage Annihilation

Country of origin: France
Location: Montargis, Centre
Status: Active
Formed in: 2002
Genre: Death Metal
Lyrical themes: Zombies, Cannibals, Heresy, Doom
Current label: Kaotoxin Records
Years active: 2002-present

Members:

Aara: Bass See also: Behind the Hill
Mike: Drums See also: Brennkelt, Defecal of Gerbe
Dave: Vocals, Guitars See also: Brennkelt, Defecal of Gerbe

(THE INTERVIEW - WITH THE WHOLE BAND)

1. Let's talk about your debut album "Cannibalisme, Hérésie Et Autres Sauvageries" which translates to "Cannibalism, Heresy And Other Savageries." What was the recording process like for the disc? Where did you record it? What was the hardest part of that process?

MIKE: Our first album « Cannibalisme, Hérésie et Autre Sauvageries » was recorded in « Garage » at Sens (Fr) by means of Alesk engineering (Darknation’s Guitarist). Everything was recorded from A to Z, sounds, master and mastering at his home, with no problems and quite easy.
As the intro and the interlude, the feminine passage was made at Rv’s home (Defecal of Gerbe’s drummer). We’re really satisfied by the work brought on our music for this first opus, except that we can change few little things.

2. Since I don't understand French very well, I'm not aware of the lyrical content. What I got from rough a rough personal translation would be "The Catacombs Of Abomination, Devouring Of Humanity, The March Of The Dead" and a few that I can only guess to. What inspires these lyrics?

DAVE: I like this evil side, devilish and gore tha we can find in Death Metal, I wanted to send this atmosphere in our words, our music. Our words speaks about the Devil coming on Earth, he’s called by a population disgusted by human race, bringing with him a zombies’ army, ripping any form of life on Earth. We talking about several scenes of this holocaust according to this story. We decided to write in French because it feels much more comfortable and easy, we write these words faster and have more facilities to assimilate them.

3. The musicality of this album is great and it shows that you've gained plenty of experience from playing in other bands. What kind of instruments do you use and how long have you been playing them for? Are there any specific brands or styles of instruments that you swear by?

MIKE: S.A is formed since 2002, it hasn’t been much more time we play together with Dave and we especially turned a lot. Dave and I also played in Defecal of Gerbe (I’m the bassist) and Brennkelt (I’m the drummer) who turned too. We have recorded the first Brennkelt autoprod and the Defecal of Gerbe ‘s album is in preparation. By the way, we play a lot! In my case, I’m using Yamaha Mapple’s drum, “maple is life” for barrel .

DAVE: As said my brother Mike, we play together since our childhood. I think that it created a good alchemy through all this year. In my case, I’m playing guitar on an ESP Horizon (89) tuned in A. I love it, it sounds good and it’s very pleasant to play with it, and I have a Peavey Plus’ head.

AARA: I have to play since I had 14 years old. I began with a group, I’d never held a guitar and I made my first gig one year after. It was rooted and horrible as much for the audience as for me. By the way, I’m playing on Warwick Corvette’s bass, with a small Ashdown Little Giant and an effect processor.

4. How has the album been received since it's release? I personally thought it was a great
 piece of work and gave it high marks. What do you guys think of the debut? Do you think
there are things that could be improved, or do you like it just as it is?

MIKE: We are satisfied with the work made on “ Cannibalisme, Hérésie et Autres Sauvageries”. We had more than 30 columns, more still now, all were quite positive and rather noted well. I think it was rather receive and hope it always be. For the defects, we find always there, we realize it with time and not at the beginning. As for myself, I ‘d push this singing which is too decreasing.

5. What other bands are you guys listening to? Are there any acts out there in France that
you think we should check out?

MIKE: I listen various Metal style: Hard-Rock, Heavy, Thrash, Death, Grind! In France, I deeply recommend you to listen our friends of Impureza (Flamenco brutal death) and Disgraseed who signs their first album soon.

AARA: I wouldn’t like to make advertising for Kaotoxin, it would be out-of-place! But listen Antropofago, Adpatres,Insain, Dehuman, Infected Society, etc. … Bombshell…, but my musical taste and me wants to talk you about Genital Grinder, Disgraseed, Deep Show, Pulmonary Fibrosis, The Bottle Doom Lazy band, A Storm of Light, Omega Masif, Circle take the square, Disembowelment, Hangman’s Chair and so many others…

6. What are the earliest bands you can remember being inspired by? Were there any concerts
that you saw in your youth that made you want to play death metal? And Mike, who inspired
your amazing drumwork?

MIKE: I think that S.A is inspired by a lot of Metal “style”, we are big fans of Morbid Angel, Centurian, Deeds Of Flesh and others, we grabs the “Evil style”. These groups tempted me to blast my barrels! Thank them! My main drummers’influence are George Kollias, Steve Asheim, Trey Williams and many others, it comes from here. Then, each drummer have their style and according to their game and evolution: “we like or we don’t like”.

AARA: This question was for Mike no? ok!Out of joke, for my gigs, I didn’t seems tall. The biggest thing which kicked me to plau music was my cousin. I was 12 or 13 year old and I had attended one Blosius’rehearsal (I’m playing Blosius now), they played in a cellar (9 m²) in 5 with a double drum kit 4°C. Brief a slap in my face and it was what I wanted to make and become. He was clearly the brother who replaced the one who bears his name! He “stuck” me my first albums in hands: Deicide, Cryto, Death,… By the way, here we are, thanks to him and Blosius if I am what I am today, even except music.

7. You planning on touring or playing any shows with this album? If so, with who? What are
 some bands that you would like to share the stage with or just to meet in general?

DAVE: Yes, many gigs are planned in February, March, April with our friends of Disgraseed (Brutal death, Fr). We’re waiting for answers from some European Festival and we works on some dates in Germany, we would like to make a tour in Germany, the Metal scene is really interesting. We’ve tried to make some dates with Hour of Penance and Natron (from Italy), but it didn’t become reality. We would like to play on tour with so many groups: Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Krisiun, Deeds of Flesh, Nile, we shall see if it can be true in the future.

AARA: Yes, before some of them dies ^^. My ultimate dream of stage to be shared tightened with Dissection; Mhaaaaa, I would be shitting above the backstage, I probably will be afraid to meet Jon Nödtveidt.

8. What do you guys do when you're not making music? Have you seen any good movies or read
 any good books? What about computer/video games?

DAVE: I like very much watching movies, it inspires me. There are so many good movies I can watch 100 times without getting tired of it. I listen a lot of music too, listening Metal is that I really prefer.
AARA: When I was younger, I read a lot, I spend my time to reading books which I didn’t still understand to be honest. Today, I ‘m lazy, I prefer watching dvd instead of reading a book. I’m a great fan of horror movies, thriller.. Tarantino, Nacho Cerdà and many others. And after watching dvds during 12h, I need to go to the skin of the killer or the monster, I light on my console (my wife cries), take a pack of red bull and it is left to make other 12h on Dead Island, Fear, Far Cry, Doom.

MIKE: Hahaha, except the music, I really have no passion, I don’t play to video games a lot, outside the Metal press, I don’t almost read! My way: listen brutal music, go on concert, play with my groups.

9. I've heard that for the most part, France is a very healthy country. You guys don't eat
the kind of junk food that we have around here, because they don't sell it over there. In
America, we're a country faced with obesity because of junk and fast food. I've also heard
that people are more active and vibrant over there. Is that true? Are people over there
 healthier?

AARA: this question belongs to me!! I like the food, the maid! To be honest I cannot compare with the American food but in France, we begin to see more and more people eating in the streets, more fastfood, more “kebab”. It exist, but not lying, I eat Mc Donald’s or KFC front time to time, it’s fast, not boring. We have so many different cooking in France, a various panel of regional produce, if you can, eat an “andouillette” from Troyes, with real chips and a pepper sauce ;). If you accustoms people to sitting down, eating, watching shitty broadcast on TV, don’t thinking, eating again, sleeping and begin again and again all days, they are not active anymore; And there are sportsmen, no more than somewhere else. Bitter, there are false sportsmen who do sport to lose their weight before holidays ;).

10. What is the definition of metal to you? What is the definition of extreme? Do you think
that when one hears the music of Savage Annihilation, they are getting both those things?
Would you consider your band to be an extreme metal act?

MIKE: For me, Metal is a universe, if you’re not inside a minimum, all groups even most flabby like “neo metal” seems extreme. I think S.A brings brutal musicality to metal people. S.A is an extreme metal group according to his musical brutality and words.

AARA: for me, it’s a way to exteriorizing all that I accumulate (feelings, …) day by day. The Extreme is: You, your thoughts, yours desires, your guts without caring of what the others think about you. The extreme is the nature and the freedom too, the abstraction of social hypocrisy, the essence of all things. S.A is an extreme metal group, in his domain and in the one that people wish to give him. It’s clearly not grind, but doom or sludge can be also violent and extreme as grind group, it’s an extreme as on other one.

11. What do you guys hope for the future of your band? Are you working on new material?

MIKE: We hope to make a maximum date everywhere in France and Europe to promote “Cannibalisme, Hérésie et Autres Sauvageries” as it necessary. Mke discover has all those who don’t know us and broadcast a maximum of t-shirts and cds. We are already composing new titles for the next opus! S.A is thrown and will bring the Apocalypse everywhere.

AARA: as for myself, I would like groupies, no? or more drugs, I hesitate !!

12. Finally, if you could look ten or twenty years into the future; what do you think you'd
 see? You think we'll still be here, or do you think we'll all have been annihilated by
then?

MIKE: I think we shall always be there. It will be harder and harder to move forward in the music world, but we shall be there, and I don’t think the world collapses, unless S.A spreads the apocalypse.
AARA: I hope I can’t drag around with these 2 brothers! Out of laugh, you don’t know what I lived with on concert and on tour with them. They get out the hair for whom will rise in a front in car, wants no eating the same things, on take coke and the other take hash (ooh Sorry, they’re both in Hash ^^). I don’t already know what we shall make in 6 months, if I would still bear with them, so imagine in 20 years.

Thanks for making such brutal music and I hope to hear more of it in years to come. If you
haven't heard this disc, I urge you get it. One of the best death metal discs of 2012,
hands down!

DAVE / MIKE / AARA: Thank you very much for this magnificent and interesting interview, thank you for supporting us and the metal scene all around the world.
AND THE ANNIHILATION BEGINS !!!

(THE REVIEW)



Savage Annihilation - Cannibalisme, Hérésie Et Outres Sauvageries (PR2012) - This experimental death metal album from French two piece Savage Annihilation is translated as "Cannibalism, Heresy, And Other Savageries." I don't even know much French, but I was able to translate some of the song titles relatively easy. But you could care less about my French. You're more worried about the album.

Well, it is death metal in the most extreme form. Being that many of the words in the song titles translate to "mound of vermin, The Catacombs Of Abomination Pt.1 & II, The March Of The Dead, Ocean Of Putridity, something Decomposition, and I think I can get the words "tomb" and "blood" from the last track" you soon get the idea that this is blood and guts, brutal death metal. But it's done surprisingly well, with some unique melodies, wonderful drumming and some unforeseen catchiness. "The Catacombs Of Abomination Pt.1 3:33" for example, has this great vocal chorus at the end that stands out rather well, and might make you want to go check out the track again.

The riffs are grisly, the drums are bolstered with blood, and the dual vocal approach of gravel and scowls are just perfect. Yes, we've heard this sort of thing before, but this band does it very well. This is one of those discs that people who were upset with the new Cryptopsy might find some hope in. I'm actually hearing a lot of Flo's style here, but some of you might think that you can hear a little too much of the drums. At times, it sounds like he's pounding on tin drums.

Whatever these guys crafted in 40 minutes, it's put a lot of other death metal bands of the same ilk to shame. I also really like that these guys sound like they're completely insane on the vocals. Sometimes it's that amount of fierce maliciousness on the record that really makes it stick out. You could be sitting in a room with your buddies and all the sudden, you'll say to them, "you want to hear some guys that sound like they're absolutely fucking insane?"

Oh yeah. This is that band. There are definitely bands that fake this type of insanity, but combined with the precision and ADD sense that this death metal has, you're getting a lot of bang for your buck. Even though I'm going to try to promote these guys as best I can, I have a feeling that it'll be awhile before these guys really hit with the rest of the metal scene.

At least give "Dévoré par l'humanité 7:29" a chance. I think that translates to "Devouring Of Humanity 7:29" but whatever the fuck it is, it's absolutely great. They stuffed about a billion different tempos into that one track, and it's fearless on delivery. That's the kind of sheer resilience that I want to hear in death metal. These guys set out to make something that sounds different from the rest of the pack. Not everything is fucking perfect, (Could you speak up on "The March Of The Dead 5:35?) but these two are definitely trying, and are succeeding where bands with more members have failed.

I'm also going to tell you that the production on this release is quite good. I mean, it's not crystal clear, but you'll be able to hear everything perfectly and the mix is great, overall. If you really like drums and originality, I think you'll definitely dig this, and I seriously have to recommend this to fans of Cryptopsy. To tell you the truth, I recommend that Cryptopsy check out these guys.

There's room for improvement, but again... this is just two musicians. Can you and your buddy pull this off? Didn't think so.

You know what? This is a perfect gift. Give this to a teenager in your school who's obsessed with Black Veil Brides, or Asking Alexandria. I think I saw a young man with a shirt of theirs at the mall while I was enjoying a meal on my lunch break. I was tempted to holler in loud retort, "Asking Alexandria is NOT metal!" but I refrained from such childishness.

Regardless, I feel that we have a mission as true metal fans to give this type of music to those who desperately need to hear it. Whitechapel? That's not death metal, is it? Hand them one of these. There you go. Just changed somebody's life.

Highlights: Tracks 3-8 (10 Tracks, 40:00)

9/10