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Interview with Robert, vocalist and guitarist, of the Spanish Brutal Death Metal band FERMENTO
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Diabolical Conquest (Kunal Choksi): Hello again Robert! How are things in Spain? What have you been up to these days? Fermento (Robert): Cold and rain, this is the north of the country where fog is our dazzling sun. I have been closed and isolated like always hahahaha, you know here in this small town between the mountains there are less people so less problems and less nausea.
F: Yes, great. Well, Sevared and I talked before but nothing serious. This time Ricky told me that Barrett would like to release the CD there soon and I saw he really wanted to do it so I accepted. The labels are underground and we are grateful for the great support the U.S.A labels have always given us. I don't think there will be changes in the CD because I think it is like the original one and the original one is a “rarity” hahaha, yes, I think very few people in the world have the Spanish original edition of it. Now it is like the CD is releasing for the first time! About the video, it is a well made video but it was our first time in front of the camera and we don't like posing so I am not really satisfied with my scenes but I don't care too much. The production wasn't so great but the dude who filmed it was a professional.
DC: How did you end up getting signed to a primarily black metal label Die Todesrune Records in the first place? Were you aware that signing to them would limit your album's distribution and exposure and make it difficult for the brutalheads in particular to acquire it? Do you think they did justice to your release? Do you have any regrets in that regard? F: I don't understand why people get surprised if a death metal band is signed to a black metal label or a black metal band is signed to a death metal label. Do you think they have different scenes? I don't think so, both are extreme forms of music and very similar in look and songs. I care about true people, closed and with values, I don't care if it is black or death. About Die Todesrune it was because that label is active since years, yes, for about more than 12 years, and with such a label offering to work with us, we were not really sure about whether to accept the offer or not but finally we decided to give him an opportunity, that's all. We have no regrets about it but we are not satisfied. We had a feeling that Die Todesrune would fail but there is no drama because we knew that sooner or later some other label would re-release the CD as it has always happened. Sevared records, Burning Dogma and Brute records just re-released it, like I predicted haha.
F: Personally I don't care what other bands do or believe because experience tells me most of them use trends or polemic things. It can be gore or just the most sexist thing with impaled women. People allowed all of that because they think that is not serious but they really think politics is serious and that's really funny, because bands can play about be a sexist murderer but they can't play to be a badass Nazi. I don't really believe most of those bands are 100% into Nazism, like I said I think it is just a trend, the imagery and all the taboo things.
I believe in the hard side of the way, values, sacrifice, discipline, everything is live is a test, real people should be straight and face everything with courage, my principles are like a rational misanthropist, rational because I am not going to kill everyone I see and misanthropist because I see human as a big failure and most of them can't offer me any thing interesting. People don't use their minds and don't use their spirit, yes, I say spirit. I am not a simple cold son of a bitch, I can be the most hatred-filled motherfucker but everything I do is with the sense of my inner blood and passion and that's why people mistake my attitude with stupid politics because they think it is fanaticism through others ideas but I always wrote about my own ideas, always! I told a thousand times I don't believe in human politics, I believe in philosophy and values. About the German soldier from the Insignia CD, I agree I used a stereotype. To me it was easy to take that picture but man I like that picture! The determination of his eyes showed discipline and bravery, it is just a soldier not a politician, why German you ask? Why not? Why to choose an American? People will then say that we are pro-Yankees. If we chose a Russian soldier, people will say we are communists. If we chose a Spanish soldier, people will say we are nationalists. You see there can be a problem with everything. I don't have any such admiration for the German country, I just take my “mystical” view of a country which thought they can conquer the planet and be the new gods with excuses like we are the best race and we deserve the glory, it is really interesting see how that thing happened just 70 years ago! About the military strategies and discipline, I like some of it but I can say the same about the Spartans or the Spanish conquerors who dominated a big part of Europe, most of America , north of Africa and part of Asia. I can't be blamed for people's ignorance. I wrote about elitism, anti system, individualist ideologies and not about NS. People must learn that the individualist is not only Satanist or NS – those are weak human sides of it – I have my own personality, which is far more complex than the limitations of a Satanist or NS fan.
DC: ‘Recipe for Cremation' was released after a gap of five years. Why the delay? F: No, Recipe was recorded in the summer of 2008, but there was a big delay because in the factory was an error with the file format of the song. I think someone made a mistake when asked about what type of sound format the factory uses. Some months passed before the CD could be released in the right format.
DC: Aha! That explains how I ended up getting a few of those PC format copies from the label as promos haha! In the liner notes of ‘Recipe for Cremation' it is specially mentioned: “This CD has been released thanks to Sonia Albor. For her help, understanding & authenticity.” Can you elaborate on that please? F: Sonia is our female drummer, indeed I can say probably the best and fastest female one in the scene. She played death metal before in a well known Spanish band called Unnatural, but she left that band many years ago and then didn't play any more for a long time. She had the courage and willingness to sacrifice a few things in order to return in the music with Fermento, and man we play very fast and she helped us in many ways with her professionalism and comfort in playing with a well measured tempo. Authenticity because she played brutal music since the beginning and because she refused an offer to play in a commercial pop/rock band getting money. Most of the people don't do that.
F: Well, the guy from Burning Dogma records always had contact with me and he moved everything about that mastering, indeed now in the Sevared records/Burning Dogma and Brute records re-release of Recipe for cremation, he again did a new mastering. I think it is a very good idea to re-release an album with better things like mastering or something.
DC: Oh I wasn't aware of that. I guess our readers could now ignore my criticism about the production and just go ahead and buy the new CD! Listening to your early songs from 1992 and 1993 I can't help but be amazed at how ‘brutal' they sound. Fermento could easily be one of the pioneers of this sub-genre along with Suffocation, Internal Bleeding, Pyrexia and other US bands; if not pioneers then at least they are definitely one of the earliest to play in this brutal style. And yet no one ever credits them for that. What are your thoughts on this? Which bands influenced Fermento when you guys started off? F: Really, I didn't talk much about it but the truth is that we started making a music that few bands made in those years, our music was indeed not at all commercial in our country and many people never understood us. Our music didn't have much audience out of our country because in those years the Spanish scene was rare and unknown to most people outside of the country. I don't remember which bands influenced us but surely I was only listening to the most extreme ones. I had thousand of the rarest brutal demos and 7 inch EPs. I always liked to play fast and I can say I played guitar very, very fast all the time since the beginning.
F: We didn't tone down anything, I think the sound of Recipe is more dirty and dark and that's because you think we downtoned the guitars. Everybody can't be satisfied. I always said I can't do a CD in exactly the same way twice. If I did 8 songs in a specific way of music for a CD why I should do the same for the next CD? If the music is fast, dark and brutal, if the music is underground then why to make exactly the same thing? People and any type of organism improve why a musician can't improve in his own way? Otherwise I don't mind much how listeners prefer because every one of them has a different favourite CD, I don't make music for their tastes, I didn't make Fermento to please others. About Recipe well it was made to do something straight like a punch, you know extreme and brutal death.
DC: Yeah, Recipe for Cremation was definitely was more straightforward than the twisted Insignia. I also wasn't very happy with the production. Though it is rough and heavy, which is good for death metal, it could have been better in terms of clarity and darkness. You mentioned to me that you spent a low amount on the recording and got it done in a very short time too; considering that, it didn't turn out to be too bad. F: Like I said our environment is underground too. I think it is unethical to spend big money on production. I am talking about people who are focused, people who understand the meaning of being anti commercial. I am a person who doesn't believe in the slavery to buy what the media sells. Everything is business. I hate the business in music, I only believe in the dignity of the musician and their beliefs but most of musicians don't have any dignity or brains ha ha. Otherwise we never spent much money on the recording just because the label paid, but if the label decides to spend big money it is not my ethical dilemma.
F: I am a little bit shocked at how the underground does not seem as real or good for the scene these days, how most of the “extreme heads” have become more trendy and poser like never before! For me most of the scene is just poor egomaniacs pretending to be famous, punks that just want to drink and burp or just fake people to show a false image as violent asocial interesting rebel ones, false because after all they are social, open/ass minded and probably too much hippie attitude for a serious misanthropy vision of life. For me underground is coherence, be out of the society's processes such as business and having that attitude or be cool to be accepted as a good musician and person. Every person in this so called Brutal/Black and Death metal but they forget that the meaning of these forms of music is a fighting attitude and intolerance. That's why the battle is lost because today people are more commercial and global as ever before. You said Fermento are impractical to be known in the scene or get more recognition, you are right. We are the most impractical band on earth. Next year it is going to be 20 years since we started as a band and we aren't superstars as Behemoth, Nile , Cannibal Corpse or Suffocation but we feel we are pure as nobody, pure inside as the most pure coherent extreme underground band in the fucking planet. Tell me how many bands with 20 years talk and make facts like us, then call it honour or dignity, call it impractical or whatever you want but we are the truest in our own eyes and man, that's extremely important for a person (the band is in the second position after the person), be pure, real 110%, that has no price. Now you can understand why I don't take seriously most of bands around and why I think people are really weak. I don't criticize a band for not making brutal stuff, if they are coherent and real, if they don't fall in the society business or the so much urgently need to be famous, indeed I think there are underground non brutal bands, maybe more coherent than the extreme “metal” ones. One of the good things that is a part of a marginal movement is that the people in it can be very coherent with it, you see, custom bikers don´t support racing Japanese bikers, and of course there weren't any black people in the Ku Klux clan but in death/black movement there are no laws or principles and if you are coherent with it maybe somebody say you are a fucking haughty closed minded called “true”.
F: All the genres are bastardized, now black metal is most a comedy than a hate genre, grind is missing and commercial mixtures are the trend now. About brutal death there are too many boring bands with no feelings and nothing that can make you listen to it twice. People are very simple and need categories to locate their tastes. I can't create a new fashion name for a new genre that Fermento plays. Bands make ridiculous names such as post apocalyptic futuristic techno brutal afternoon brutal grind core death. The only thing I don't like is how some ignorant people can name our stuff as grind. How can anybody say Insignia or Symbols are grind albums?!
DC: This is mentioned on Fermento's page on Metal Archives: “Rumors says that Roberto was a member (bassist) of Rotting Christ during a short time. Sakis and Themis travelled to Madrid and stayed at his home during some time, they rehearsed and even played a gig. This happened shortly after the release of 'Passage To Arcturo'.” Is there any truth in that, sir? F: Yes, Passage to Arcturo was very dark and atmospheric demo. In those years I had a very long contact with my pen pal Sakis, that band at that time was a very underground one. After some time they were in my home, I don't remember how much time they lived with us but it was very long, I remember they didn't want return to their country haha, really! At that time we had a gig and I played a whole concert as a bass player, indeed it was easy to me learn all the songs because I had them in my mind before. DC: Your lyrics deal with discipline, self-control, conquering your challenges, triumph, etc. Those happen to be prerequisites for spiritual advancement as well, except that in your case you have misanthropic views. Funny, isn't it? Is there a place for morals and ethics in your principles? F: Of course, there is a place for ethics because there are values. I think people can't imagine that there is not just the silly teenager rebel misanthropic that show frustrated people that are full of hate because the society hurts them. There are a one more advanced and spiritual ones, the serious, the coherent ones. It is a fact you can't kill every stupid in the world, there are others ways, you can hate system and the big lay of society but if you hate so much and waste your time and efforts far from yourself to focus on fucking every single person, insignificant unknown person to you in your life then you lose time to know who you are, and the most important thing to you and your circle is to be pure, strong, coherent, to be a warranty. I am not a son of a bitch, I am very sarcastic with a great sense of humour too much, maybe I see too many inconsistencies around and most of people are too much limited, lack of true feelings or weak attitudes, it is very difficult to me know interesting people, I think I am aside from them. I think I have a high concept of justice, maybe not the same as others or maybe in another pure form, who knows but at least I can explain things that most of people didn't think about.
DC: Ever tried to join the military Robert? It was something you said you were interested in since childhood. Which do you think are the greatest battles ever fought in history? F: I was always interested in battles. I think when I was twelve years old I had one of the biggest collection of World War II books and scale models of every type of Panzer and Luftwaffe planes. I was making every one of them in scale and painted them too, Junkers, Focke-Wulfs, Messerschmitt, Heinkels, I don't know why but English or U.S armoury weren't so attractive for a child like me otherwise I made spitfires and other models too. I had a fascination of the iron discipline and martial obsession that I thought the German army had, I valued the class and distinction of people that make the war for some mystical or crazy ideas, otherwise I never think in political aspects of anything. The battles with some moral or ethic beliefs were the most fascinating to study, like the crusaders, liberal against conservative like the US civil war or just the Spanish civil one, etc and not the most of them for territory or power. I think every battle is a big drama and then humans made incredible sacrifices and craziness. I didn't join the military because I can't sell myself to the enemy, the system. The same as Special Forces, police etc, the most important thing is that I can't live in a community with other people. I wouldn't fight for their war, I will fight for my own war. Another thing is that since years ago the military makes just humanity missions, sacrifices for your country? Am I so proud of any country to sacrifice myself? Impossible, a misanthropic spiritual view can´t take that! Misanthropic because it is elitist, refuses the masses, against impersonality and “spiritual” because you search to grow inside by values and are always thinking to avoid failures, trying to have the dignity of a pure “not only a man”.
DC: What can we expect from Fermento in the future? Any stylistic changes – more twisted and dark music than ‘Recipe for Cremation'? I guess another album this soon would be out of the question. How about some tours then? Unites States perhaps? F: We are Fermento and we play brutal stuff but with darkness not just noise or grind, we have a solid credibility that what we have made is pure in dark feelings and brutality. It doesn't matter if we play faster or slower or if we become very technical or simplistic, Fermento make the music that we feel. We can play every type of death or black metal but we choose to play what our blood wants. We don't have any problems to do tours anywhere but we should trust in the promoter.
DC: Thanks you very much Robert for your patience and for doing an interview with me again. I hope this will help get Fermento the attention they really deserve – they are after all one of the best brutal bands in the scene today, with ‘Insignia' being their masterwork. Best of luck to the band. Your last words go here. F: Your interviews are always a pleasure. You have info and know how to make interesting questions. Thank you for your interest and support. www.myspace.com/fermento
Important Discography -
[Fermento Website] [Fermento Myspace] [Fermento - Insignia REVIEW] [Fermento - Recipe for Cremation REVIEW]
- Interview conducted by Kunal N. Choksi
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The most ridiculous thing is calling us Nazis. I know foreign people who can't read Spanish didn't read all my interviews and my ideology posted in our MySpace blogs but they should understand that we are not another wannabe badass band who need promotion and I always explained my beliefs. 
