The force of fire !
Fireforce is a Belgian combat metal formation. As a thrash adept, I always prefer bands who bring metal, rich in energy, and with an important role for the drums. They just make me feel happy. No wonder I was delighted when the people from Fireforce contacted me to interview them. Not because of a new tour or some new work, but because they changed their line-up. A substantial change… We meet in my hometown, even in my favorite place. The locally world-famous „Keeskafee”. The guys seem to feel at home between the skull-withhorns on the wall, and the fortified doors of the coolers. Jokes start being made, and decorating plans are made for home.
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Jacky and Blacky !
Guys… The past. How did Fireforce start? Erwin (Guitar): In 2008, Flype and I left „Double Diamond”. We started Fireforce in september of that year. In March 2009, we had our first live-performance. We chose to start with
a bang, because we wanted to show we weren’t to be taken lightly. We wanted to show the world we are as we play. Hard, fast and loud. Indeed, that shows in your style today. You call your style „combat metal”. Is that a statement? Erwin: You could see it that way, however, it’s not our first intention. We just want to bring good music. Music that entertains, but at the same time, tells you about history. The history of combats. Can you link the combat to your military heritage? Are there fighting men in your ranks? Flype (Vocals): Two of the band members are military. Both Geert and myself still serve. Geert (Bass): And two of our crew are military as well. Koen and Rob help us as stagecrew, and they both fight the fight. Flype: So that makes four active military-man in our team. Your songs tell the story of great battles… Erwin: …Combats, but also Greek mythology. That’s also part of our lyrics. That’s also part of the history we try to bring. How do you translate the military heritage to the musical aspect of the band?
Geert: I think that the strong drive, the pace of our music, relates to the military aspect. We bring up-tempo metal. There’s a lot of double-base in the drum lines. Erwin: The rumble of a tank rolling through a brick wall at full speed. Geert: And off-course the shows we bring are clearly inspired by the army. Our stage is always a war-trench littered with shells and fortifications. Erwin: We want our stage to be a strong image. You can go see 101 different metalbands. Most of them play in the same worn out jeans and leather jacket. When you come see Fireforce, you will remember us because of the way our stage is build. We are dressed accordingly. Last time in Hamme, I noticed something that wasn’t there so prominent in previous shows. Those creatures in the top corners of the stage. What are they? Erwin: That’s our „dogs of war”: „Jacky and Blacky”. Actually, they are the „Hellhounds” that were on the albumcover of „Deathbringer”. They are the companions of death itself. The deadbringer is the creature that delivers death on the battlefields. His hounds rip the throats of the dying soldiers, thus delivering their grim task. On our stage, they overview our trench-of-war. They are the enemy we are fighting on stage. The hounds try to kill us, but mostly, they don’t succeed.
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Thierry and Patrick ! Over the last year, Fireforce had a few members leaving the band. They had to be replaced. Flype, Erwin and Geert remained.
Geert: I’m with the band since August 2011. In the mean time you guys were joined by Thierry on guitar and Patrick on drums. How did u guys end up with Fireforce? Thierry (Guitar): Last year in may, after not playing for around five years for personal reasons (everybody needs to build a family) I wanted to start playing again. I contacted Debby (Erwin’s wife, SWM) who I consider almost family. I knew Erwin was part of Fireforce, and has his contacts in the metal scene. So, may last year, I gave him a ring to ask if he knew a band that was looking for a guitar player. Just a small band, to get started again, to get the feeling with the instrument again. His answer was quick and short: „We are looking”. I must have been quite for about a minute, trying to collect my jaw again, that had dropped to the floor. Apparently, the night before, their lead guitarist for that time, Yves, resigned from the band. It seemed like fait had brought us together. I couldn’t resist this great opportunity, and joined the forces immediately. In those days, the guys gave me their entire setlist to learn. With my fingers being stiff from not playing all those years, that was a big task. I asked them for the tablature of all the songs. And again his answer was rather to the point: „Say what? We don’t use those. Real musicians don’t
need tablature”. So for the next few weeks, I’ve been playing guitar almost 24/7. It took blood, sweet and tears, but I think I managed to play the songs in a reasonable way in a rather short time. I think I made them my own in about six weeks, before the show at Kamikaze in Mechelen. You’ve been playing live a lot since last year. How are your finger these days? Do they still bleed? Thierry: I’ve got my old fingers back I guess. They don’t bleed anymore, and the skin has gotten harder again. Have you got the feeling you just had to copy your predecessor, or could you bring in your own accents? Thierry: Yves had the freedom to play in his own style. So do I. There’s already two albums in the stores. The fans know the albums, and know the sound of Fireforce. I try to keep that sound of the albums. Especially the solo’s were a bit hard to
learn. As always with solo’s someone else wrote in the first place. I think I got them by now. I guess I can play them for 95 % the same. The rest is my own creativity. On tour, one of the guitarists that played on the „Deadbringer” CD, told me he was impressed with how I bring his solo. So that’s great to hear of course. For the future, there will be a lot more chances to bring my own playing style into the work we bring. Flype: You have made some changes in our current work as well. Thierry: There have been some slight changes in the guitar play, but the solo’s remained. I guess, iff anything, the main riffs are a bit more melodically these days. These changes don’t change the songs, they just give them a bit more dept.
Patrick, you are the most recent member in Fireforce. Patrick (Drums): Since a couple of months, I’ve been in and out some small upstarting metalbands. None of them seemed really promising. So I dropped an announcement on the web. A few days later, I’ve received a mail from Erwin, wich set things in motion. What’s your past looking like? Patrick: For the last ten years, I’ve been playing symphonic metal. But I’ve been part of the metal scene almost all my life. I used to play in bands that were staring up, or didn’t break through at that time. More the underground scene u could say. Starting 2015, things turned around a bit. Since a couple of weeks, I’m rehearsing with Fireforce. So you’re still trying to make their music, your own; Their music, especially the drum lines can be rather technical, and pretty fast. How do you cope with that? Patrick: The double base in the drum lines is some serious stuff. That takes some training and some adapting for me. I can play stuff like that. But the thing is, there’s no brakes. It keeps going and going. And you just have to be able to keep up with that. Flype: And it will keep going on… (Band bursts in laughing.) Patrick, do you play with both pedals on one bass drum, or with two bass drums? Patrick: I use double kick on one bass. Thierry: One of the reasons is the size of the drum. With two bass drums, the drum is significantly larger. That’s no problem in large venues, but it can be on small stages. Have you been performing with the band already? Patrick: For now, we are still rehearsing. Next month, may 23th at „Spring Madness Metal Fest”, I will perform live with Fireforce for the first time. Flype: And that will be a headline show. So we’ll drop him in the lion’s pit from the start. For now, you only had two rehearsals with the band. How did the other band members feel those rehearsals went? Erwin: You never know what to expect with a new guy. When Patrick auditioned for the position, he played the songs we gave him almost without fault. I was very pleased. The next rehearsal, he played the next songs completely without fault, so that’s really promising. Flype: That’s one of the reasons he got the position of drummer.
Erwin: Clearly, he’s a great musician. He performed with a lot of enthusiasm. What more can we expect?
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Co-writing ! What will the future bring for Fireforce? Almost half of the band has changed over the last year. What does that mean for the sound of Fireforce? Thierry: I don’t think so. Erwin: The band is bigger than the guys playing the music. We have a strong concept that guarantees the sound of the band for the future. The concept is what it is, the fans know us for it. And they like it apparently. The same goes for the people we work with behind the scenes. The same people will be producing our work, so I don’t expect much to change there. People expect us to bring a certain kind of show, a certain kind of music. Changing that, would risk us dropping in popularity. In the 80’s, some bands have tried to change their style, hoping for a bigger crowd. That hardly ever worked out for the best. You have to give the crowd what they
come for. And that’s our concept that has proven to work in the past. So the old Fireforce lives on. Where will the fans see you in 2015? Geert: There will be SOS Fest in Manchester, we will play in Switzerland later this year, and we are planning a „Deathbringer” tour later on. Our manager, Guy D’Haeseleer, is working hard to put all that together as we speak. Over the next few weeks, many dates will be confirmed. But for now, we can tell you we’ll be playing „Musicon” in The Hague in the Netherlands, on august 29th. August 30th we’ll play „Bambigallore” in Germany. We are trying to play in France as well. You’re a Belgian band that’s been around Europe. You’ve played Germany, Cyprus, The Netherlands… Where is your strongest fan base? Flype: Mostly outside Belgium actually. The turnout in Cyprus was amazing. Thierry: I remember Athens. We were drinking a coffee in a bar. The waitresses came asking for guitar pics, they wanted our autograph and pictures. That’s something we don’t usually experience in Belgium. With the new line-up, we have been a bit careful in booking new shows. But for next year, we will go all out again. And of course, we will play live
in 2015 in quite some shows. Don’t think you’ll risk forgetting about us. Erwin: There’s a reason we had to start looking for other musicians. The reason is not important, but that is part of why we were a bit cautious with booking. And off course, we are working on some new stuff. Who knows, maybe a new record for 2016. How serious are these plans? Thierry: There’s rumors. (Band laughs wildly) Flype: Interesting, being interviewed like this. Your always learn new stuff about your band. Erwin: I can confirm, there’s at least one new song, that’s ready to be recorded. So at least, we could make a new single. Flype: Every CD starts with one song. Erwin: One of these days, I’ll make some time to start writing again. Unlike the past, where I wrote the entire songs, I’ll ask for the other guys to join in. As soon as the idea is born, they will have their own input. (A debate about writing, the essence of a song and co-writing band members starts. Interesting as it may have been, the point is: Fireforce will start writing again very soon, and they definitely have the spirit and the craftsmanship to deliver some great work, SWM) Thierry: I’ve already sent in a load of new riffs Erwin can use in the new work. But in the end,
he’s the most experienced in writing, and he’s the one that build up the concept of the band. So he’s definitely the main writer in Fireforce. This seems the best time to end the interview. The guys are clearly ready for a new episode in the bands existence. They have loads of fun when they are together, and they will have loads of fun on stage. They will keep bringing you the Fireforce you know. But maybe, the older fans, may also notice some small changes.
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I’m looking forward to see what the future of Fireforce will look like. And I know you should to. The pictures on these and next pages, are taken shortly after the interview. The joking around never seemed to stop.
! Wim Op de beeck - Shutterwall Magazine. !
This article has been released as a preview for the upcoming fourth issue of Shutterwall Magazine.
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