CANNIBAL CORPSE

This interview was planned to be done on the 12th of October, 2004 in Kyiv, but as all you might know the Kyiv show was cancelled due to the Belarus customs, while the Minsk show due to the Belarus government. We couldn't leave it unanswered and decided to go to Szeged (Hungary). It was a hard trip for us, but at the same time very worth, so to say. We caught Cannibal Corpse in Szeged on the 15th of October. And after their ultra-killer death metal set we managed to talk with George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher about the band's latest record "The Wretched Spawn", the sad Belarus incident as well as about some personal things. Enough said, the corpse has spoken!



George 'Corpsegrinder' Fisher (Click on the image to enlarge)
First of all, I would like to ask what you think about the actual tour?
- Oh, it's been good, except the problems with the border. We couldn't play the show in Belarus and Ukraine. Belarus was just banned by the government. I guess you know. And because of the problems we had at the border we missed the show in Ukraine. That really sucks! We were there, in Belarus, and we were ready to play and they shut it down. We already played there, so we were like: "Wait a minute, we played here a few years ago. Why can't we play now?". And because of all that and having problems with different shows, the borders and stuff we missed Ukraine. We almost missed Serbia yesterday, but we made it. We got there too late, but our crew did a great job, they've got the stuff up and we played all tired. It's been crazy for 3-4 days, you know. I feel better for other fans, because the other ones can caught us in the middle, you know. Not even in the middle, because we don't have any problem with anybody we wanna play wherever, but it's just the government of Belarus. What can we do? I mean, it's out of the hand, you know. It's like in Germany, we can't play any songs from the first 3 albums, but at the same time they've been talked in the Belarus: "Hey, we don't care. You can still play!". We can't though play in Germany. Yes, right! The fans say: "You can play, you used to play "Hammer Smashed Face" in Germany, they won't know". Look, if we do, we can probably get banned there and never be ever to play there again. At least we can still play some songs. Well, in Belarus now I guess we can never go back there, we got banned I suppose, they began reveal us as spy.
Alex Webster (Click on the image to enlarge)
"The Wretched Spawn" became more sophisticated, more technical in the guitar riffing style. Was it spontaneous or it's just kind of a natural progression?
- That's about a question for like Alex and Pat, 'cause they write the stuff. I don't think they intentionally changed things. Everybody has started to write and don't keep in mind to vary the songs and rehashing old songs or take a partial song for the most part. I don't think we all sit down and say: "OK, let's do a record like this". Everyone just writes, you know, they go home, they forge tracks and they pick up what they think sounds good, what sounds brutal and they use that. Sometimes it will be more technical and sometimes is not, you know. It just depends how the songs come when they writing them. I think the next record might be even a little bit more technical, because Jack won't write songs. I like Jack's songs, but his songs more straightforward. They were really technical or really crazy. They are brutal, but they were just straightforward. Pat, of course, is amazing, you know, his riffs... Alex is always like a mixture. So I think the next record will be a little more technical. But I can't say that for sure. But I think that now Pat and Alex will be doing all the writing, the next record I think might be little more technical. But who knows, I can't say that for sure.
Jeremy Turner (Click on the image to enlarge)
After Jack left, how came in picture Jeremy Turner from Origin?
- We only had 3 weeks before we had to go to fuckin' Mexico. Alex have been talking Erik Rutan (Hate Eternal) and Erik said I can't, call this guy help you. Well, Erik was saying he wanna done it if no one could have. If we couldn't get anybody Erik would been here playing with us. Possibly he was busy with Hate Eternal, but he suggested Jeremy and we knew who Origin. And we've known who Origin was before we've seen them playing in Tampa, Florida. So we called him up, we had to calm down, of course, and learn the songs and he picked everything up pretty quick, the whole set. It just came about, because Alex was talking Erik and it was just kind of thing who gonna get known completely our songs, because older songs aren't so technical, but some of the new ones are pretty challenging, you know. He's been doing a good job. I think you can tell the difference between him and Jack when you watch both of them on stage. Jeremy is death metal. He's into it. And Jack do whatever and did, you know, like that festival (it's about the Nephilim Festival 2000 in Gyõr, Hungary – Ed.). On that festival he was completely drunk. I don't say rag on Jack. I just think he wasn't really into it. And Jeremy is into it. I think you can tell the difference see them both. You see Jack, you see Jeremy. Jeremy is much more interested in death metal than Jack was.
Pat O'Brien (Click on the image to enlarge)
So by now Jeremy is a full-time member of Cannibal Corpse or...
- Pretty much right now, but that could change. We don't have any plans right now. Just because we just wanna get the tour start. We've been so busy this year that we haven't had time to think about like OK, what we'll gonna be do. We coming out from this tour and then we have 9 days off. And then we'll do the US tour with Napalm Death. So it's like we don't have any time to sit back and assess the situation. I mean, everything is been good, there's no problem at all. He's cool guy, he can play the stuff, he looks brutal on stage. And everything that we can want. But right now, we just could not this way to say. After the tour is over, my wife is gonna have a baby in December. So I'll be busy with the baby and Alex's wife, you know, and Paul's girlfriend is want spend time with us, 'cause we just spent. The most time we had off this year home. Since we did the first tour in February. The most time we had off was 3 weeks, maybe a month, close to. And that's it, the whole year. So we had maybe a month off. We had combined a couple of months. OK, we did February like in US then we had 3 weeks off and then we did Europe and we had 2-3 weeks off, because Jack quit. Then we went to Mexico, had 2 days off, went to Brazil. You know, we went to Mexico for 5 shows and 7 days, went to Brazil for 8 shows and like 12 days. We only had 2 days off between those and after Brazil we only had like... fuck man, a couple of days off and we did the Canadian tour, then Wacken I think. It was kind of crazy. We've been quite busy. And after this we had no time to think about anything, you know. Tour, tour, tour, we just happy to be at home with our ladies. Take a shower, your own shower and shitting around your toilet. A tour is kind of crazy man, you know, everybody shares the toilet and stuff. I just much when I am home, I can just sit there, read magazine. No one's nag: "Hey, come on man I gotta go, you'll gotta go. Come on hurry up in the shower, you going to use the half of the water". Fuck off, you know. When I first get home and I take the first shower in my back home and I sit in fucking shower four hours, like "Aaaaaa". Nobody is rushing me. Yes!
George 'Corpsegrinder' Fisher (Click on the image to enlarge)
What do you think about Spawn of Possession's achievement on your tour as a support band?
- Oh, really killer! We brutally glad to have them with us, you know. They brutally killer players and their music's killer and brutal. So we are really happy that they were ready to do this tour. At some point it was looking like they might not be able to do it. So we had to do something make sure they can be on the tour. So it's great! They are cool guys, party and have fun.
Are you going to take young but promising bands as support on your tours furtherly?
- Of course! I mean, we took up Severed Savior and we took up Vile. Not many people know who these bands are. And we had a big following. We know the people was see them and we know they're good bands. We wanted else to see them. That's why we take bands to take up. We always wanna take up bands that aren't this well-known, because we know that helps them out. And we think: "Hey, these guys are good, they gonna get bigger!". Hopefully they can do this tour and do a few more tours. People remember them from when they sought them with us. Actually we wanna help bands to get bigger. We had a voice and we can speak, you know.
Metal Blade is your record label for a very long time. What kind of contract you did with them? I mean for how many albums, first of all.
- I think we have one more or two more due for them, I'm not sure exactly how many. And then we'll see what happens, you know.
Are you going to work with them afterwards?
- Oh, yeah! I mean, we would like to. Everything is been going great. We'll just see what happens when the contract's out, you know.
What is the difference in your opinion between the European and US Metal scenes? Where the fans treat you better?
- I think all the fans treat us very well in both places, you know. There are differences, but not very much. I mean, metalheads are metalheads. Especially like in Germany, you see more like people in the old days with jacket over a leather, patches, rings, pins, spikes and shit. You see less of them in America. Especially now, because with all the stuff with terrorism and shit. You see all the people come to the shows without bullet-belts and stuff anymore, because they search everybody coming in. You see people like that, but not as much as over here. Over here in Europe you see a lot more people looking still like in the 80s, which is cool. We love it! But everyone still cool here, everyone's cool there. I wouldn't say one's better than the other. I mean there's pluses and minuses, we know. Of course, America – we from there, it's easier for us, we know the country, we know over there everything, we point a few places, like pubs and stuff at the same time over and over again. And that makes easier, consider more familiar. But I wouldn't say what's better, they both have advantages and disadvantages.
What kind of bands do you prefer to listen to lately? More death or more thrash metal bands.
- Oh, I listen to everything if you look at my CD collection in the bus. With me right now I have Vile, Terrorizer, Infernäl Mäjesty, Razor, old Slayer, Deicide. So I have like a mix, I love everything. I even got some country music with me now, not a lot just old country music stuff. It's mostly metal what I listen to. Whatever kind it is, you know. It depends, old death metal, new death metal like Spawn of Possession, Vile or Severed Savior. All they killer! So it's definitely a mix.
Do you have jobs besides Cannibal Corpse?
- The band is pretty much our job, yeah. We couldn't do all the tour if we had jobs. We just so much fucking tour. We aren't reach by any means, but we make enough to live on. I have a house for my wife. She works too. We're not super reach by any means, but we don't have to have day jobs. I mean, there's no way we can have jobs and live for this long and expect to come home from a job.
Alex Webster (Click on the image to enlarge)
Well, how old are you?
- 34.
And the others?
- Fuck it's hard. Paul's like 35, Alex is 34, Jeremy just turned 30 and Pat 39.
What are you like to do in your free time besides the music?
- I play video games.
What kind of video games?
- Let's put it this way. I have two PlayStation 2's. I have a Nintendo game cube. I have a Nintendo 64 and I have an old thing Genesis. I have all PlayStation. I have a Game Boy 1 with me. I have Game Boy 1's SP. I got my fucking Game Boy 1's here with me right now (showing the video game in his bag – Ed.). I like to go fishing too. I go fishing, watch the American football in TV, drink beer. I am so in the video games. I have subscription to like 4 different magazines. Yeah, I got one here, let me see: Electronic Game. I am a total geek when comes to the video games. That's a big part of my heart. That's wanna my big hobbies. I go shop with my wife. She goes to like cloth-stores, you know, looks a cloth. I gonna like electronic stores and looking video games, record stores and CDs. I got a few different hobbies. Probably, like I said, my biggest hobby is video games. Most of my time is spent playing video games, when I am home.
What is your wife's opinion about death metal and Cannibal Corpse's music in general? She's a metal fan?
- She's more like watch TV. She likes to watch like comedy shows, crime investigations, detectives. She doesn't listen to music too much. She listens to pretty lame stuff, like Poison and Mötley Crüe. She likes all that shit. That's garbage! I mean, she knows our songs and she knows what I do and everything. She knows some other bands. I mean I can play some death metal bands and show another Deicide. She hears some, she knows the music, but she might doesn't sit around at home and listen to music, like I will. She'll be watch the TV. I make dinner, observe my dinner have ready, I go my room, play video games like some football or baseball or something.
What kind of films you watching? Your favorites? (Asks my friend Victor – Ed.)
- Horror movies! I like comic books too. I like all the comic movies like Spiderman, Hulk, The Punisher, Daredevil and stuff like that. My DVDs I got some with me, I got Axeman, I got The Hulk, I got a bunch of different kinds of CDs and DVDs. Horror movies are great! When I go home I wanna buy the Star Wars on DVD.
Finish the interview with your last cannibalistic words to the Ukrainian fans.
- Sorry that we missed the show. It wasn't our fault. I hope everyone understands that it wasn't our fault. We wanted to play, we were ready to play, we were at the border, we were waiting to get in and it didn't work out. We are sorry that we couldn't play, we know that there were waiting for us. We really pretty sorry to people that we missed the show.
George 'Corpsegrinder' Fisher (Click on the image to enlarge)
Hey, we still continue asking... In your next European tour, you should include Ukraine again and definitely ignore the Belarus customs! What you think?
- It's sucks. We don't wanna ignore Belarus. We wanna play there, but it's the government. We were in Belarus, we were there. We were ready to play and the government won't let us play. With Ukraine we just missed, because the border problems. We had problems with the border. That was it. We wanted to play there too. We'll see what happens in the future. But definitely I would just say that we are sorry we couldn't make it. We wanted to be there, we wanted to play. And hopefully everyone understands it wasn't our fault, because it wasn't.
By the way, was it exciting to play in circus in Belarus?
- It was wild man! It was different. I mean the crowd was so far away from us. Wow, we are playing. It was crazy. It was definitely different.
Do you know any death metal bands from Russia, from Ukraine?
- We probably would have met some. We probably hung out with some guys and got some CDs. But we couldn't get to the shows, you know. Not really. We got fucked over. The government fucked us in Belarus and the border is fucked us when we tried to go to Ukraine. We will see what happens. I mean Belarus is out of the hand. With Ukraine we can try to sort something out the next time and try to play. Maybe we should come over flying air plane. At the beginning of this tour we flew to Russia, played 2 shows. We flew to Moscow took a train to St. Petersburg. Flew back to Moscow by plane from St. Petersburg, played the Moscow. Maybe we can do something like that. Because it will probably be easier than driving all way there. We'll see.
OK, thank you very much for the interview. See you next time.
- Thank you man! Thanks a lot!


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