War From A Harlots Mouth

War From A Harlots Mouth bracht dit jaar niet alleen een interessante split met Burning Skies uit maar ook hun overdonderende derde album MMX. Daarnaast staat de band samen met Comeback Kid, Parkway Drive en vele anderen op de Never Say Die! Tour. Reden genoeg om met tekstschrijver en gitarist Simon te praten over de situatie waar zijn band zich in bevindt. Want het gaat goed met de Duitsers. “On the other hand it’s getting real busy at the moment. Promoting ‘MMX’ and preparing for Never Say Die! is keeping me and the rest of the pack pretty busy. But we’re pumped for sure…we just want to get going.”

Het tweede album, In Shoals, werd nogal matig ontvangen. Vooral nieuwe zanger Nico werd niet zo gewaardeerd. Was dit erg vervelend voor hem, als nieuweling in de band? “Well, not really, to be honest. I’m not gonna lie…positive feedback is always nice, but on the other hand we’re not writing music for the sake of pleasing someone, but for our very own pleasure in the first place. If you like it, we’re happy, if you don’t, then that’s what it is. You’re never gonna please anyone anyhow. As for the scene and kids out there…I think it divided our fans. Some of them expected a second Transmetropolitan and others appreciated the step forward. We might have lost some fans, but gained new ones with ‘In Shoals’, so it’s all-good. I also think it wasn’t that hard for Nico, because he’s been well-received on live shows and we’ve been digging what he did with his vocals. “

Dat album kwam vorig jaar uit en dit jaar bracht de band zoals gezegd al twee nieuwe schijfjes op de markt. Is dat niet een beetje teveel van het goede? “Maybe, haha. Actually, I don’t take a split release as a full release, it’s more of a gimmick, don’t you think? We just love to write and record music and it’s cool to be able to share this with a band you’re friends with. Also, a split is always good to try something else, do something that’s a little out there. If you’re listening to the split and ‘MMX’ in a row, you will hardly find any similarities. Also, the release of ‘In Shoals’ and ‘MMX’ has a stretch of 1,5 years, which is alright, I think.”

Het coverartwork van MMX wijkt nogal af van het andere werk van de band. “The cover art is a metaphor for social anxiety. The crowd flows like waves of an ocean and the character on the cover is afraid of drowning in it. That relates to the overall lyrics, because those are dealing with different fictitious characters living apart from society, such as an old and lonesome man, a guy with insomnia, another guy suffering from dementia, the usual misanthrope and so on. The title refers to that as well. The idea is, that this is what life today is like for a lot of people. If you’re not part of the establishment, no matter if that’s by your own choice or because you’re having a hard time being accepted and finding your place, you’re on your own nowadays.”

Als ik Simon vraag of de variatie op het nieuwe album een manier is om onder het deathcore imago uit te komen reageert hij wat feller (en terecht want hoewel de band vaak gekarakteriseerd wordt met deathcore is War From a Harlots Mouth toch een ander verhaal). “Well, first and foremost, I don’t think we have to break out of a genre we’re not a part of. The only thing we’re having in common with deathcore are what – Blast Beats? These existed before deathcore and our influences date back to an era before 2006 or so. I mean, really, that stuff didn’t even existed when we started back in 2005. We’ve always been influenced by bands like Botch, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Ion Dissonance, Coalesce, Converge and so on. These bands were playing technical music with blast beats and extreme metal influences, but without genre-limitations in mind. And that did happen long before anyone even thought of the whole deathcore-thing. Also, the few death metal influences I can think of in relation to our music are bands like Gorguts, who didn’t have a huge or even any effect on all those down tuned, grunting metalcore bands out there today. Honestly, we never cared about limits of certain genres, just like our influences. Listen to some old Dillinger records like ‘Calculating Infinity’ and you know where we’re coming from. We just have our own take on how to write music, we don’t think about where to fit in at all. We just do what we want to, we write songs we’d like to listen to and incorporate our influences. That’s the whole story, basically. This time we just wanted to write a more extreme record, after In Shoals, having more of an experimental vibe.”Op MMX is er qua gitaargeluid een duidelijke link met Meshuggah te leggen. “The similarity was not planned, but you almost can’t play an 8-string guitar without sounding like Meshuggah, hahaha. Their drummer is a huge influence to Paul and we dig them generally, but I’d just count them as one band on a huge list of influences and not even a key influence for our song writing. We’ve been getting into 8-string guitars mainly for the sake of having a greater range to work with. I’m a sucker for low tunings, but instead of tuning down a normal guitar and limiting the upper range, you can work all across the range of a standard guitar and way down to bass territory, which is awesome. I think it just added more depth to our sound overall.”

Op MMX staat ook een X-Files verwijzing. Is de hele band fan van deze serie? “We fell in love with the idea way back in the day, when releasing ‘Transmetropolitan’. I’ve always been a huge fan of the X-Files and we’ve been watching season 1 – 6 on tour in the van already. We just have to make it through the last three seasons and we’re done, hahaha. So, everyone is a huge fan today, some of us needed some convincing from my end back in the days, though, hahaha!”

Simon heeft me ook aardig tuk. Als ik hem vraag hoe het opnameproces van de split is gegaan (omdat de bands voor elkaar nummers schreven) lacht hij me uit. “I can’t believe people believe that! Lifeforce and us were bullshitting people with that in the press release. Every band wrote its own songs.”

Dan over de aankomende Never Say Die tour. Wat gaat de band van het nieuwe album spelen? “We’re gonna play the two opening tracks of MMX and ‘The Polyglutamine Pact’ and ‘Recluse MMX’. So. there’s a big difference to the old setlist for sure, as it focuses on the new stuff mainly and the live evergreens on the other hand.”

De band heeft al vrienden gemaakt. “We’ve been touring with Bleeding Through in 2009 and love those guys. They’re great people and a killer live band. I can’t wait to watch them as often as possible. We met Parkway Drive in Russia in 2008 as well and played two crazy shows together and shared a ride in the night train from St. Petersburg to Moscow…most definitely a weird and memorable experience. Tours like Never Say Die! are awesome for a band, because you get to play in front of so many people and most likely a big bunch of people that might haven’t heard of you before. On the other hand you don’t really get to show a lot of what you have to offer in a 25-minute set, but still…these tours are fun!”

Altijd leuk om te vragen wat artiesten zelf voor muziek luisteren. “More recent Deathspell Omega releases mainly, Celtic Frost’s Monotheist, the new Ion Dissonance record, the new Deftones record and Nine Inch Nails’ With Teeth.”Heeft dat ook invloed op zijn eigen band? “Deathspell Omega and Celtic Frost definitely left some footprints, but mostly through the vibe they deliver and just partially in musically.” Dat is vrij divers en afwijkend van bands die je zou verwachten bij een gitarist van War From a Harloths Mouth. Maar Simon heeft nog meer verrassingen in petto. “All of us loved Intronaut. We’ve been touring with them and The Ocean back in 2007 and watched them play every single night. It just didn’t get boring to hear them play…they are such a talented band. There was no band we didn’t get along with yet really. Some of the bands you tour with might not play the music you prefer, but they’re great people. That goes for Carnifex for example. Real cool people and always a pleasure to meet them.”

Afsluitend is het een mooi moment om even reclame te maken. “I’d just like to add that MMX is up for pre-orders @ www.imperial-clothing.com – there’s a limited digipak edition that comes with a DVD and all pre-orders get that collector’s edition. Make sure to check that out and if you want to stay in the loop of updates, check www.wfahm.com or www.facebook.com/wfahm – there are a bunch of contests for free copies of the new record, free guitars and what not at the moment.”

All the best.
Simon