Interview for MORBID mailorder

When did FLESHLESS start? What was the reason to form a band at that time? What were your musical influences/ favourite bands back them? Did you play in other band before FLESHLESS?

FLESHLESS was borned in summer of '93 when my first band ZVRATOR (we did 2 demos, 1 EP, we existed from '90 till '93) finished , others from ZVRATOR didn't like to continue in music but I still want to make some noise and that's why I start with new band called FLESHLESS with new members from dying band GARBAGE DISPOSAL. And reason??? ha,ha,ha...it's pretty easy I was (and of course I still am...) big metal fan and I adore the bands like SLAYER, NAPALM DEATH, SEPULTURA, CANNIBAL CORPSE, DEATH, SODOM, ASSASSIN, KREATOR, GOREFEST, PESTILENCE, MORBID ANGEL, DEICIDE, BULLDOZER and many more and of course these bands were our first influences too...

Grindcore and Death-Grind seem to be quite popular in your country. There are a lot of grind-bands and the scene seems to be bigger than in other European countries. Can you imagine why? Why do Czech people prefer brutal Death and Grindcore to for example Black Metal or melodic Death in the Gothenburg-style?

Who knows? But I must tell you that back in end of eighties and beginning of nineties we had lots of brutal death and grindcore bands - for example SKIMMED, LUES DE FUNES, SERIOUS MUSIC, RADEGAST and also KRABATHOR, DEBUSTROL, KRYPTOR, MORRIOR etc. so I think it's historical fact and we still like to hear brutal and extreme music...but why??? Maybe that we lived in fuckin' communistic era and that life sucked a lot so maybe for all of us it's the best way, play/hear brutal music...I really don't know...but I can recommend new and really first-rate bands like HYPNOS, GODLESS TRUTH, LANIENA MENTIS, INGROWING, ISACAARUM, LYKATHEA AFLAME, PERVERSIST, MARTYRIUM CHRISTI and it's only a part of our scene so you can imagine that our scene is really strong.

How do you see the worldwide Death-Grind-scene at the moment? Is it better now or back in the Nineties? Which bands are in your opinion best/most important nowadays?

I'm almost sure that scene is much better now than before, we have now great bands that recorded great albums in the best world studios, we have many great extreme labels that support their bands in every way, musicians use better instruments, lost of brutal bands tour in other countries, you can go to see monster brutal festivals like X-MASS fest or NO MERCY fest or also summer festivals like MILWAUKEE, FUCK THE COMMERCE, WACKEN, WITH FULL FORCE and new one's like OHIO DEATH fest or OBSCENE EXTREME fest are here too...And bands??? Too many, did you see show of mighty CRYPTOPSY??? I got orgasm everytime I see them, it's something unbelievable, absolutely professional / excellent show and instead of this very friendly people!!! And great bands of today's scene are DYING FETUS, NILE, DISGORGE (Mex.) , EXHUMED, CEPHALIC CARNAGE, MORTICIAN, REGURGITATE, NASUM, HAEMORRHAGE, DEEDS OF FLESH, ROTTEN SOUND, the best newcomers are in my opinion GOREROTTED, GRONIBARD, FLESHTIZED, ABORTED, DEVOURMENT etc.and of course grandfathers like NAPALM DEATH, MACABRE, VADER, MORBID ANGEL, CANNIBAL CORPSE, SINISTER are still fuckin' great!!! So what a question???

You have a new record out : "Nice To Eat You" . What makes this one different from "Abhorrence Of Cadaveric" and "Grindgod" ?

The most important change is that we definitely have again normal drummer and Vitys really changed sound of drums instead sound of our drummachine on our first attacks. But we still continue in style of our previous recordings - ultra brutal parts versus very melodic and accoustic one's, I mean when you'll hear any of our records you'll know in ten seconds that it's FLESHLESS's music....

"Nice To Eat You" has a very cool groove which in a way reminds me of good old PUNGENT STENCH. Do you like this band (and now the reunion)? have they been an influence for FLESHLESS?

Really??? You're first that asked me this...for many reviewer we are more in US vein bands like DYING FETUS or LIVIDITY. YEEEES, we like PUNGENT STENCH and we are here happy that they are back on the scene with good album but I think that they didn't influence us in any way...We are not band that want to copy music of others, from early beginning we try to go our own way and for us it's very important!!!

This time you did the record with a real drummer of flesh and blood, and it turns out great. So why did you use this drumcomputer in the past? And who is this guy Vitys? Where did you find him? What has he done before FLESHLESS?

Im beginning of FLESHLESS we had a real drummer , he recorded with us demos and first split CD with MASTIC SCUM but he lostinterest about music and in Czech is not so easy find really good, hyper fast drummer (but where is it easy???) so use computer was only way we could continue with FLESHLESS. Vitys played in brutal death band MORTURA that are our friends and we played with them many shows and we could enjoy his excellent drumming...when in 2000 he left this band, we offer to play with us and he was/is really happy to be part of FLESHLESS!!! He is total maniac to music, he moved 200 Km to our town Decin it is crazy, isn't it? His hero and god is mister Flo from CRYPTOPSY and he wants to be like Flo and that's why he practises every day and belive me he is still faster and better!!!

Once more you have a great coverartwork done by Jiri Lhota. But you had some problems getting the cover printed. As I heard two companies didn't want to do it. Why not? have you any general problem with censorship in your country?

Oh yeah...it's really great, brutal and funny cover at all!!! I always think that censorship doens't exist in Czech but what a surprise when our label called me that their printing company Digital Media Lodenice (the biggest Czech company...) doesn't want to support brutal, aggressive cover and music...man after 6 years of very good cooperation, who can understand this??? They always printed Obscene records ( and Obscene has really brutal/controversial CD's/covers like for example last disk of Italian CRIPPLE BASTARDS "ALmost Human"!!!) without any problem and our cover is only funny thing and of course that nobody can think it like reality...I mean that now this company has holder from USA and they go mad!!! Also 2nd company told us "We are no censhorshit, but we will not print this cover" so we had to do this cover in really small printing office...I think that this is really dangerous and it's fuckin' censorshit!!!

What can you tell me about Jiri Lhota.How did you come together? Is he a metalmaniac, too? Is there any homepage/link in the internet where interested people can see more of his brilliant art? Has he published anything besides FLESHLESS? Any book, comicbook, coverartworks for other bands?

I know Jiri Lhota from '92 where he did cover of the EP for my first band ZVRATOR, he lives near my home and of course that he is metalmaniac!!! He is a teacher in artistic school where he educates new talents for brutal artworks. I don't know anything about his net homepage and from time to time we can see his pictures in various art museum, in some horror books...he likes to paint some views of inferno, witches, zombies and more brutal pictures so for him isn't any problem to do coverart for FLESHLESS as we like - brutal, comic and really detailed!!! His covers are for sure something special and like a mark for FLESHLESS.

On the "Abhorrence Of Cadaveric" artwork was a scene from a concentration-camp. As a German I simply have to ask for the reason. So why did you use this picture? What did you want to show/tell people?

This our CD is against fascim/nacism,we have some 56 years after World War II and fascim still has really big support from young fanatics that don't know what suffering our granfathers and grandmothers had to survive...especially our song on this album "Pain Is Domain" is about experiments on humans in concetration-camps, that's why we use so brutal/cold cover for this disk. I think that danger of nacism is still actual and we must stop it!!! Stop the slaughter!!!

The lyrics of the titletrack of "Nice To Eat You" and the artwork deal with cannibalism. Something that seems to fascinate a lot of people all over the world. The internet is full of pages where people fantasize about eating other people or being eaten themselves. What do you think about cannibalism? Something that fascinate you, too? Why did you choose this topic for the record?

I'm not true fan of cannibalism, name of the album is just funny garble of English greeting Nice To Meet You. And the title track is written by bizarre sicko called Chymus (also ISACAARUM singer and webmaster of Obscene prod.) and he is really very interested with all brutal/bizarre/ insane in live. Yes, you're right...cannibal theme almost rules the world and I really hope that people that want to eat other people will eat just insane one's that want to be eaten!!! It could be great balance or not??? ha,ha,ha...

What is the rest of the lyrics about? Propably it's not only gory and bizarre stuff but also some more critic stuff, right? Who writes the lyrics and how important are they for FLESHLESS?

Lyrics for "Nice To Eat You" are from me and because I'm lazy bastard also from my friends like Chymus...Of course that lyrics are very important for us, fans can acquaint with our kind of black humor or also with some more important thoughts....

Can you please tell me a bit more about the lyrics of "Red Stars Hypocrisy"? Obviously a political song. And it sounds quite pissed-off! So what is it about? The old communists in the former Soviet Union or the old Czech communists?

This text is from me and it's about communistic sickness that in history of 70 years killed hundreds millions people in all world. What do you want to hear more from me??? Maybe that for me is really very funny when I see rich/young aristocrats or children of very rich people from West that want to be communists, they don't know anything about this, of course theoretic part of this idea is great but man I lived in this bullshit long time and I know exactly how people mutilate good ideas!!! And one more important thing, I'm very dissapointed that after 13 years of "democracy" in my country nobody wasn't to punish for all previous crimes...it's really very sad, isn't it?? I hate communistists!!!

Would you see FLESHLESS in a way as kind of political band?

I'm sure that not, we don't want to be political band...of course we can use some political problems for our lyrics but it's all.

You did coverversions of ROOT and (on the last record) of OLYMPIC. Both bands as far as I know are very popular in Czech republic but not in the rest of Europe. So you want to promote them a little bit in the rest of the world? Or are those songs just old favourites?

Both bands are our very favourite bands from our juvenile time, for example ROOT is one of the first metal band that I could see live back in '87 and I loved them and his song "Hrbitov" is totally cult song in Czech underground and I'm sure that almost everybody knows this great song...OLYMPIC is oldest Czech rock band, in this october they will celebrate their 40th birthday!!! Nobody can't ignorate them, we like to hear their old fantastic tracks!!! And I think that great thing is that we can draw their music to you that don't know them and live outside of Czech.

Another coverversion - "Slaughterhouse" from MORTICIAN - is on the CZECH ASSAULT compilation. Are those 4 songs the newest stuff you recorded? (What/when will you record next?) And what do you think about this compilation in general? Are the five featured bands representative for the Czech Death and Grindcore scene? Or would you have chosen some other bands?

The stuff for Relapse compilation was recorded some 4 months before new "Nice To Eat You" album, we did this especially for Relapse and for this compilation (2 tracks are from newest CD, 1 track from "Abhorrence..." with real drummer and cover of MORTICIAN is recorded only for this compilation). I think that CZECH ASSAULT is great promotion for Czech underground scene but I really don't know if only 5 of this bands can represent our extreme scene when we have so many brutal/extreme/great bands but Tom of Relapse told me that they will do maybe part 2 of this compilation 'coz they really adore our scene!!!

You played more than 350 concerts, which is quite impressing? So which shows were the best/most impressing ones? (Maybe in Milwaukee) And what was the worst concert you ever did?

One of the best our show was opening show for Alarm! club in Zwickau where we supported thrash metal gods SODOM, it was back in 2000. 500 total headbangers that maked from our show something like dream!!! Next great show is show in Teplice with NASUM/NAPALM DEATH, our 2 gigs on interesting island Malta, Obscene Extreme festivals and of course also cult Milwaukee Metal fest where we played in the best time on Relapse stage , our support were mighty CEPHALIC CARNAGE that did great job for us and fans on this our show was in trans - absolutely insane maniacs!!! Also great experience was the chance to see live many cool bands like KING DIAMOND, DESTRUCTION, DYING FETUS, IMMOLATION etc., our special thank goes to mister Curby from our label that organize this our trip to USA. Also we like to remember our US tour with LIVIDITY or European one with VOMIT REMNANTS...too many great shows bro...ha,ha,ha...And the worst? Believe or not but the worst shows were our live concert in East Germany sometimes in '97 when we played with black metal bands and fans supported just black metal and they didn't like brutal stuff...now is everything very different, in end of last year we played great shows in Dresden, Zittau - 200 hundreds fans that supported us like headliner, thank you brothers in brutality, I hope to see you again soon!!!

Are members of FLESHLESS also involved in other bands or projects?

No, no, no...we have just only FLESHLESS and we concentrate all our power to the band!!! Thank you bro for awesome interview!!! Go to check our web page http://go.to/fleshless and visit our live shows!!! Vladimir of FLESHLESS

Vláďa z FLESHLESS, ptal se Andreas Stappert / Rockhard