Gorefest has re-formed.

If this Dutch act proved one thing above all others, is that not every
demo band has to remain stuck in the underground. Emerging in late 1989 Dutch death metal combo
Gorefest recorded two underground demo tapes. These recordings led the band to support UK
death/grind forefathers Carcass through out their Belgium and Holland tour. One year later, after
parting ways with a few members the debut "Mindloss" is released and a tour with Revenant ensues.
'92 sees Gorefest acting as the support act for US death metal veterans Deicide on their European tour
and the same year Gorefest opens up for the highly influential Death during their US tour. In the
years that follow the band would release "False" ('93) and their most commonly known effort "Erase"
('94). "Soul Survivor" ('96) - which would ultimately divide their fanbase - and "Chapter 13" ('98)
saw the band returning to its roots, while incorporating their new musical influences. Late '98 the
band dissolved. Now, some six years later, Gorefest is back in the original (read: "False") line-up and
writing new material. Guitarist Frank Harthoorn was prepared to answer our questions.

Thanks for taking the time to answer our interview. How is everything going in the Gorefest
camp lately?
We're all fine, thank you.

The first question, the question that is bound to arise: how did you come around re-forming
Gorefest? From what I've read in interviews prior to this one, Hans of Transmission Records (Epica,
After Forever, Asrai) wanted to re-issue Gorefest's backcatalogue and a DVD. Thus got the whole
thing going. Can you provide us with some insight on how it all went from there on.
In order to talk things over properly, there were some personal problems between us that had
to be resolved. When that was done, it was actually just a small step to saying: well, if we're here
now, we might as well try and have some fun, play some old songs and see if we can salvage
anything from the trainwreck that was Gorefest at the end of '98. Which we did. There were some
doubts here and there, I mean there's quite a difference between jamming some old songs with a
couple of old friends in the rehearsal room, and actually reforming this band. But after a couple of
days it all made much more sense, so we decided to take a shot at it. This meant that the deal with
Transmission was off. If you're in a rehearsal room with your old band, everyone's got the same vibe,
new material will be written. Which you'll want to record and release. Which means you'll want your
backcatalogue in order to have some weight in future dealings with possible record labels. So we kept
those.

After being disbanded for the better part of six years what do you consider the biggest
differences between back then and now? Do you already notice some major improvements this time
around that weren't there previously?
No, not really. Nothing really major, anyway. Communication between us has been a lot
worse at certain times in our past, but apart from that, I can't think of anything. I guess it's early days
yet, ask me this in 8 months and maybe I'll have a better answer.

Was there ever any fear to be alienated from your death metal origins? After all, when
Gorefest dissolved in the late '90s, many went off to tackle quite different musical undertakings. Jan-
Chris De Koeijer, for one, had to endure a lot of bad criticisms with his new wave/gothic band
ColdPop Culture.
No. I think we got 'alienated from our Death Metal origins' along the way, anyway. Some of
those elements we liked, we kept. But as much as some people hate the word, you will evolve, as a
band, because your musical tastes evolve too, as you get older. This is all fine if you've got a couple
of side-projects going on, from which you can pull your different musical needs. But if this is your
only band, and you happen to like this band, and you don't have the luxury of having a lot of free
time on your hands, you are going to have to deal with these differences in musical interests. But I
digress. As for those criticisms, I've never much understood those. JC never made a secret of his
musical tastes, why would it bother anyone else? Playing one kind of music, to me, doesn't
automatically rule out everything else. I think it's actually quite healthy for a musician to do
something completely different. Hell, you might even learn a few things!

Gorefest has always been a stalwart outfit, doing its own unique thing unbound by any trends
of the time. To roughly categorize your records, I'd say: the demo days and "Mindloss" there was the
brutal death metal era, while "False" (which can be considered somewhat a classic death metal
album, together with Pestilence's "Consuming Impulse") and especially "Erase" introduced the more
traditional heavy metal influences. "Soul Survivor" and "Chapter 13" both received mild critics. Are
you still satisfied with all these records?
Pretty much. I don't like the sound on "Erase". "False" sounds kind of flat, especially
compared to "Soul Survivor", which might surprise some people. "Chapter 13" actually got pretty
good reviews, at least the ones I've read on paper and on the Internet. Haven't heard "Mindloss" in a
while, though there's some songs on there I quite like. Obviously, looking back, there are things I
would have liked to see done differently, but that's an inherent characteristic of the whole
songwriting/recording/releasing-process. My favorites are "False" and "Chapter 13", which were both
written in more or less the same spirit. Quite a few similarities between the two.

From "False" on Gorefest not only matured a lot musically, there also was the abandonment of
the splatter/gore/horror content in the lyrics, which from then on became more personal and realistic in
its social-critic approach. Do you feel you should have done this earlier on?
No, JC and I had a lot of fun coming up with those early lyrics. It's just where we were at that
time. Watching horror movies and listening to Autopsy, Death and Carcass all day - that's what you'll
write about. But gradually, we started realizing bands like Cannibal Corpse and Obituary did this so
much better, and after touring with Carcass… Well, when it comes to gore, you just can't beat the
masters. Carcass took the whole gore-thing to such a completely different level, from the vernacular
to the great sense of humour throughout all of it, that we just said "Fuck it, let's do something else".

While blastbeat centered death metal has been hard to get away from the last 5 years, do you
feel veterans like yourself still have some added value in the international death metal scene today -
which is oversaturated with all these mediocre bands whose technical skills and mind numbing
brutality prevail over their actual songwriting skills?
I have no idea. I do feel we have very different goals in the songwriting dept. to a lot of other
bands, and that hasn't changed much in 15 years. Added value? I really don't care, that's not why we
reformed, and it's not why we write music the way we do.

Which leads me on to the next question. A lot of so-called "old school" death metal bands
have been re-grouping and re-forming over the last year. Vital Remains released "Dechristianize"
with Glen Benton (Deicide) on vocals, Suffocation re-formed and released "Souls to Deny", Obituary
got back together and toured through out Europe for a month not all that long ago. What are your
thoughts on the current wave of veteran bands all returning to the scene?
 That's what Metalbands do, isn't it? They split up and reform, split up and reform. I don't
know, I guess most of us come to realize the best time they have is playing Metal in a band. That and
realizing being unemployed or having a shitty job isn't all that great either, or finding out Metal is the
only thing you're actually not completely screwing up. I really regret missing Obituary on that
recent tour, heard they did a really good show.

The original idea was to keep the Gorefest reunion a secret for a longer period of time, I
presume? Fate however decided otherwise, as on the Internet the news quickly spread all over the
international metal community. Would you liked to have seen it otherwise?
No, not really, I mean it's hardly we went out of our way to keep it secret, we just didn't want
to make a lot of fuss about it. We were hardly sure ourselves we wanted to reform or not. You don't
want to go: 'Hey, we're back everybody!' and couple of weeks later: 'nah, that didn't really work out,
did it?' We only really decided to get back together again after a couple of days jamming.

Like any band in the re-forming process, new material is being written and rehearsed. How
would you describe the material that is currently finished? Down the line of which past album should
the new tracks sound? A band statement mentioned "dark" and "brutal" to name a thing.
Dark and brutal? Where did you read this? We haven't used the word brutal in at least 10
years, I think, and we're not about to either. I know JC said something about dark and very hard, but
that's just, you know, semantics. You can't really say anything about material that's not been written
yet. The songs we do have, however, can be described as loud and louder. Heavy guitars, drums, the
works. Nothing 'loudest' yet, but we're getting there.

In Vampire Magazine was stated that Jan-Chris had vocal problems at the end of Gorefest's
first decade. Now that rehearsals are in full progress, does he still suffer from these problems with his
voice? If so, what repercussions/restrictions will this have on the writing process of the new material?
I have no idea, he hasn't really sung yet, hahaha! As I said in the Vampire interview, it'll be
interesting to see what he comes up with, since he hasn't used his metal-voice in quite a while.

Looking back upon being part of Dutch - and international death metal history, what do you
consider your personal and the band's collective highlights and lowpoints? Touring with such genre
defining acts as Death, Carcass, Revenant and Judas Priest must be a dream for any serious
metalhead.
You bet your headbanging, airguitar playing, slamdancing, stagediving, beer drinking, Satan
worshipping, groupie fucking ASS it was. Apart from that, I'm immensely proud being part of and
contributing to, a style of music I've been eating, breathing and living for the better part of 25 years.
Even if it might be only a footnote. As a band, our highlights, as our lowpoints, are numerous, though
those tours you mentioned were great experiences!

Alright, that sums it up for the time being. I hope to interview you again once the new record
hits the shelves. Feel free to leave us with some parting wisdom. Cheers!
Thanks for the interview, the interest is appreciated. Keep the Metal flowing!

Site: www.gorefest.nl
Info/booking: info@gorefest.nl