Statist performs kind of ultra-fast grindviolence awesomeness and they are hailing from Ukraine. Make sure to listen to their insane promo online and find all the latest news below with the detailed explanations of the main members, i.e. Old, Ed and Leva!!!



You've recently premiered online your first studio stuff titled as "Promo 2019". My congratulations to you! It contains six songs in the best traditions of grindcore, fastcore & powerviolence. Where did you record it, who produced it and how many days it took for you to complete this ultrashort beast?
Old: Hi Kornel and dear readers! Yes, currently we have a promo version of our debut EP. The EP contains 14 songs and is intended for labels and magazines, thus it has only a part of our stuff there. The whole stuff was recorded at the studio of the Fleshgore band under the supervision of Ihor Lystopad. It took us 5 days in total.
Ed: Thank you for your congratulations Kornel!!! Also big thanks for your interest in our creativity. Pleased to know you're not forgetting about us. Actually, our first finished studio track was the cover of "Kepone Factory" from the legendary punks Dead Kennedys, which we prepared for the blast beat tribute. It was urgently done in a very short time in May. Thanks to Slava Shynkarenko for his patience during the realization of this minor venture. However, for the promo itself we've recorded the drums in the winter, the guitars in the spring and bass and vocals in the summer, in June. As you see, we started it earlier, but finished only later. Everything was recorded rather quickly, but the studio sessions were scattered in time for several reasons. Our path to record this EP was very difficult. Our drummer was in the hospital on the brink of death for a few months, then it was followed by my brutal leg fracture in the first minutes of the New Year. Therefore, the sessions were a little stretched. But I hope it was worth and people will appreciate it.
Did you receive any label offers yet? Will it be released as part of a possible 7" split or you're going to spread it on your own?
Ed: Our promo is still really fresh. Currently, we are extensively spreading it and hope it will please someone's taste. The music is very specific, for brutal labels we're not completely grind and for punk labels we're not quite punk too. But I hope after getting acquainted the labels better with our stuff there will be some interest. And it is going to be an EP of full value, not a split. Although we already have agreements with a number of bands for common split releases, but it will be for the new material, which we plan to record in the future. What we actually have is a preliminary agreement for releasing cassettes in Japan. But we still need to reconcile some of the details yet.
The 4-piece combo features musicians from such well-known underground acts as Mental Demise, Epicrise, Fleshgore, Ezophagotomia and Rapekit, just to name a few. Please introduce them to our readers and tell us what kind of jobs, hobbies or other activities do they actually have?
Old: OK, our drummer is Lev Kurgansky, who has played not only in Fleshgore, Ezophagothomia, but in a bunch of other more or less known bands of different styles. Obviously, playing on drums are his job and hobby at the same time!))) And also collecting stuff from rare Asian brutal bands. Edward Yeremenko is our bassist. He is known, apart from participation in Rapekit, as the owner of Ukragh Productions. Me, Old, – on vocals, of course, hehe))) I work in the field of certification, as for my hobbies – uhhh... many things: history in all its manifestations, Japanese Fencing (Kendo), various bodily practices and beer!))) The situation with guitarists is the following, now they are in process of learning our stuff, because we had to say a farewell to the former one after the festival in Germany...
Ed: Our vocalist already presented who plays what. As for my hobbies, of course, extreme music/anti-music primarily as a fan from the 80s. Then from the beginning of the 90s, not only as a fan, but as an active personality too. Plus, a huge experience of about 25 years in organizing tours, festivals and my label/distro Ukragh Productions that was founded in 1994, which is inactive at the moment. Between 1992-1994 I even issued a fanzine with the hellish naming Icicle In Ass 'zine. At the beginning with friends, later on my own. Well, you're on subject about this for many years, because you've personally been contemplating all that since the ancient times!)))... Long life to Kornel!!!)))... And so the interests are vast and the range of vision is broad. The things that inspire me in the first instance are nature and knowledge in different spheres – history, psychology, management, IT, art, sport and many others. What puts me down is the social sphere and the now prevailing sociopolitical system and all of its shit. Currently, I am working at a national TV channel as a motion designer, doing animation graphics for TV broadcasting.
Leva: Drums and drums once again! A lot of work in various bands, both domestic and from abroad.
The definition of your style is grindviolence. Please describe this determination more detailedly to the readers.
Old: Grindviolence is a rather exotic subgenre in our area. Unlike pv/grind, it appears to be a deeper fusion of grindcore & powerviolence. This style is, however, not so young: it exists since the mid-90s. To have a better understanding, we suggest you to listen to such bands as Ulcer, In Disgust, Benümb, Tension and, of course, the fathers of the style itself Yacøpsæ 2001 & 2007. Also there is a great article explaining the style in details: https://aminoapps.com/c/metal/page/blog/grindviolence-101.
Ed: Old, like a mastermind, like a professor approaches this issue and I completely trust him))... but I think everything is simpler... It is extremely intense, dirty-noisy, but laconic bullshit (music/anti-music – the crossed note), with sharp tempo changes without smooth and snotty harmonic links, often with micro pauses between parts in the songs, which varies from hardcore punk, through powerviolence, sludge, crust/d-beat, thrash, fastcore to brutal grind. And in any combinations and order of the specified chain. In short – just crazy shit))) and we like it))
You've also recorded a cover of "Kepone Factory" for the Dead Kennedys tribute album. When and which label is going to release it? How did it happen that Anton Subbotin from Etsykh recorded the guitar parts for it?
Ed: The tribute was officially released on 31st of August by The Hills Are Dead Records. Anton is our mutual friend for many years. Since we parted ways with our guitarist, we invited to participate a respected person and an excellent experienced guitar player. And he kindly accepted. Many thanks to him for this. Respect and kudos. By the way, since this kind of experience turned out to be positive, we will practice such an approach in the future too. We will invite friendly guitarists to record covers. We all approved such an idea within the band. In a few days we are going to record a cover of the song called "Life?" for yet another tribute album, which is dedicated to the cultic and mega extreme album of Napalm Death, namely "Scum".
Old: Lev suggested to invite a guest guitarist to record the cover and we all agreed, because we know Anton for a long time and he is a pro in this business! I think, inviting guest guitarists from friendly bands will become sort of a "specialty" of ours in the future)))
Besides the recently released EP there was a rehearsal demo "Tape One MMXVIII" released in the end of 2018. It was scattered to the underground masses in the form of cassettes and was limited to 40 pieces. Don't you plan to re-record at least those 5 tracks out of the 8 in a professional way for some possible future release?
Ed: It was insisted by our obsessed underground maniac, Lev))) He will tell you more.
Leva: Yeah, the idea of publishing a rehearsal demo on a cassette has appeared quite because our music greatly fits the DIY definition. We had to clearly show our direction and to declare about us for a start))) We shall not re-record the demo: all those songs have been already re-recorded with a studio quality for our debut EP. But to prepare more copies of it – we plan. This time – on transparent cassettes: let the white ones remain "rare", ahah!
Let's talk a little bit about your lyrics and your vision onto the actual situation in the world. What do you want to say or propagate to the people through the works of Statist?
Old: The lyrics of Statist deal with maliciously-cheerful satire, as the "malice of the day" and various nuances of surrounding reality: from curious details of everyday life to global socio-historical phenomena of humanity as a whole. The songs are rather short, thus the lyrics always require a maximum conciseness and clarity. The songs are abundantly filled with obscene expressions, which simplifies the task of "conciseness and clarity", haha!))) What do I want to tell the people? Hmm, there is really nothing new for them there... I might say I'm writing mostly for myself)))
Ed: Also we would like to distinguish our position. We do not participate in or support any political or religious movements. Fuck all politics!!! Fuck all religions!!! It sucks!!! We absolutely don't give a fuck about it. We appreciate freedom, nature, universal human values, positive and friendly people, underground, humor, communication, personal development and recklessness. There is so much bullshit around, beginning with odd and amusing occurrences, dorky tendencies in society's development, up to hopeless human stupidity that for Old there are no difficulties to write texts at all. But in the songs we do not appeal anybody to do anything in any ways. We are rather a mirror of this reality with all its oddities and banters. It is the core of our lyrics, which Old is responsible for.
You've been formed not long ago, but already managed to play a few shows in Ukraine and one in Germany. How those live shows turned out from your point of view and what was the fans' reaction? When and where can we expect to see you playing live next time?
Old: Well, we've played only three shows so far: two in Kyiv and one at a festival in Germany. We are rather "targeting" now... The fans' reaction was very positive! Since we already have some experience on the stage, we can give our concentrated energy out. Nevertheless, we still have to improve our stage performances in the future. At least, we have never played live with bass yet and there will be new guitarists too – so we'll see...)))
Ed: The next gig of Statist will be on the 12th of October in Kyiv at the 10th anniversary of Grand Çàºá³ñü Party. It is a small club fest, which me and my colleague Darynka stir up in the capital since 2015 for 2-3-4 times annually. As it comes. Plus, in addition to this event we've teamed up with very cool guests from Ostrava (Czech Republic) and veterans of the grind scene – Purulent Spermcanal. Since it's not very convenient for them to visit us with one show, I've decided to arrange a mini-tour of 3-4 dates in Ukraine. And Statist is going to support them in this upcoming tour.
Besides that, we've already received invites to play in some cities of Ukraine. They actively suggested us to play, but due to the temporary absence of a guitarist, we were forced to refuse all invites. But in the future, having prepared well and with the full line-up, we are sure to catch up the missed opportunities.
As for future plans, we have a lot of offers from all over Europe, both from organizers and from friendly bands to tour together. From Macedonia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia to Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, etc. I hope we'll begin actively touring starting from the 2020 year. We are in a thrill to travel in a maximum number of countries and we are ready to play in any village, in front of a couple of fans))... The main thing is about the active communication with people and making new friends around the world. Underground rules! We also hope that with your help we can play in Uzhgorod several times too!!!)))
You are located in Kyiv. How the grindcore scene looks like there? Is there any grindcore movement we can talk about?
Ed: I don't think that there's a powerful grind scene in Ukraine. The bands can be counted on the fingers. There are several bands in Kyiv, but I wouldn't talk about a strong grind scene at all. We have to build it, organize maximum number of concerts in different cities of the country, improve the promotion of the events and support the bands. Otherwise everything will disappear. And that's what I am trying to do by organizing the aforementioned Grand Çàºá³ñü Party with my colleague. From the grind bands of Kyiv, I can mention Warningfog, Rapekit (in which I play the guitar), Anal Fissure, Çîìá³ ¯äÿòü Ìî¿õ Ñóñ³ä³â, the recently formed Revomit and Freshcut (although they are nominally citizens of Kyiv, but originally it is a band from Luhansk that was forced to leave their hometown, because of the war and occupation over there).
Old: Yeah, I absolutely agree with Ed: at a certain point the well-developed grind scene in Ukraine simply collapsed. This happened around the 2010-2011 years. Prior to this, there was "Zverovision", which stimulated the appearance of new bands of the genre and helped its development. We really hope that the Ukrainian grindcore movement and everything connected with it will get a "second breath"!
What bands do you currently listening to? Feel free to add your Top 10 grindcore releases of all time.
Old: As usually, it's a tough question))) Music, it is always depending from the actual "mood". I can listen from dark ambient to Last Days Of Humanity! It all depends from the spiritual state. As for grind – well, let's try:
1. Napalm Death "Mentally Murdered" (1989)
2. Terrorizer "World Downfall" (1989)
3. Repulsion "Horrified" (1989)
4. Blood "Mental Conflicts" (1994)
5. Nasum "Inhale/Exhale" (1998)
6. Brutal Truth "Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses" (1992)
7. Gods Of Emptiness "Disobedience" (1998)
8. Assück "Anticapital/Blindspot/+3" (1994)
9. Yacøpsæ "Einstweilige Vernichtung" (2001)
10. COMA "Canal of Mash Addle" (2018)
Ed: I can't say that I am crazy now on a particular band. Every day I listen to tons of music of various directions. Of course, it is mostly grindcore, goregrind, powerviolence, grindviolence, hardcore/punk, crust/d-beat. Among the latest I have discovered and it thrilled me – Wreck, Failure, BadXMouth, Boak, Egocentrash, Cruel, XSPIG, Junko Furuta, Christcrusher...
My Top 10 in grind, although I would rather announce Top 30)))... A lot did not fit, so I had to painfully choose. Well, at least so...
1. Righteous Pigs "Stress Related" (1990)
2. Terrorizer "World Downfall" (1989)
3. Impetigo "Ultimo Mondo Cannibale" (1990)
4. Very, Very Dead & Gory "A Veritable Paragon of Wholesome Family Entertainment" (1994)
5. Napalm Death "Mass Appeal Madness" (1991)
6. Blood "Impulse to Destroy" (1989)
7. Pungent Stench "For God Your Soul... For Me Your Flesh" (1990)
8. Carcass "Symphonies of Sickness" (1989)
9. Regurgitate "Effortless Regurgitation of Bright Red Blood" (1994)
10. Brutal Truth "Kill Trend Suicide" (1996)
Leva:
1. Siege "Drop Dead" (1984)
2. Napalm Death "Scum" (1987)
3. Carcass "Reek of Putrefaction" (1988)
4. Pungent Stench "For God Your Soul... For Me Your Flesh" (1990)
5. Terrorizer "World Downfall" (1989)
6. Brutal Truth "Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses" (1992)
7. Anal Cunt "Morbid Florist" (1993)
8. Assück "Anticapital" (1991)
9. Neuro-Visceral Exhumation "Naked Dead Bitches/Mass Murder Festival" (2002)
10. Repulsion "Horrified" (1989)
OK, that's all I had in my mind for you. Finish the interview by sending your greetings to all the grind freaks of our globe.
Old: Huge thanks to you, Kornel, for the questions and to all Encomium readers for reading! Listen to good music, take care and see you at concerts!
Ed: Kornel, old fellow! First of all, tons of thanks to you for the support and interest to Statist! Good luck with your 'zine and in your hard, but interesting creative activity. And most importantly – health and strength!!!
I'd also like to thank Old and Lev for being here!!! You are the best and I hope we will do a lot together in Statist for many years.
To all the fans worldwide, be curious and find us online, to see what we are like. Hope you will like our shit))) Enjoy & support underground! Be true to yourself, think with your own head and do not enter into any herd like organizations or movements!!! See you at concerts.
Leva: Peace and all the best to everybody!)))


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