Having released their punishing debut ‘Conflagration’ in early January, ZT decided to drop in for a chat with Repulsive Aggression vocalist Holter to discuss among other things their first full-length offering and what Repulsive Aggression is all about.
ZT: You recently released your debut, rather aptly titled, ‘Conflagration’ (definition: a large destructive fire) earlier this year, what was the chief inspiration behind its conception?
H: The inspiration for the album is pretty much the same as our reasons for starting the band in the first place. It’s a place for us to do what we like and be free of all the rules and doctrines of metal, and how it should be played to be ‘correct’. We create and play the music that we enjoy.
ZT: ‘Conflagration’ has a very ‘old school’ death metal sound, was that a deliberate thing or did it simply evolve that way?
H: The sound was something that evolved together with the music. As we homed in on what we wanted to do with the music we went for the sound that we felt was the best match. We never set out to make an ‘old school’ sounding album, and we tried a lot of different things on the way there, but in the end it was what brought out the parts of the music we wanted to display.
ZT: Norway is still often more famed for its blackened counterpart, than straight-up death metal (possibly with the exception of early Darkthrone). Do you feel that that view still holds true?
H: It is true that black metal has been the dominant metal genre in Norway for a long time. But the Norwegian metal scene has diversified a lot in the last decade and there are many examples of bands playing other metal styles that have done quite well. So while it still holds its position as the most famous part of the Norwegian metal scene it does not constitute as huge a part of it as it once did.
ZT: You’ve been a band since 2008, why the long wait for your debut?
H: The first years of the bands existence were pretty slow. We were busy with other projects and didn’t have too much time to work on it. Then in late 2011 we decided to step it up and make it a proper band and actually get things going. From then on things flowed pretty well up to this point and the release of the album.
ZT: Are there any plans to tour with the record this year? If so are you visiting UK shores?
H: There is nothing planned at the moment, but we are currently booking gigs for the year so it’s not an impossibility that we will show up.
Repulsive Aggression’s debut ‘Conflagration’ is out now on Schwarzdorn Production.
