INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST SVEN "SVENCHO" DE CALUWÉ BY RIDGE BRIEL
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ver 20 years have passed since Aborted stormed onto the scene with their at-the-time unique blend of wholesome family death metal with the abrasiveness of grindcore, a dash of perversion, and a sprinkle of disgusting. Back in January, they released an EP called Termination Redux as a sort of preview for their April 22 album, Retrogore, both of which were backed by Century Media Records. In reference to their time spent on the scene, vocalist Sven “Svencho” de Caluwé comments, “It’s like the holding of a fantastic pineapple in your hands, right before shoving it up an enormous, lubed up buttock. It’s spiky, sweet, and above all, very tasty. I personally think we should have quit a billion years ago, but I have absolutely no skills in life, so I ended up doing this death metal thing. It’s really weird knowing that the only thing you are good at is annoying the neighbors and scaring little children and old folks. Very satisfying though, nonetheless.” Truly a group who have found a way to make a living working a dream job, Aborted have released many albums that were, and still are, considered death metal classics, such as 2011’s Engineering the Dead and 2008’s Strychnine.213. Planning isn’t the easiest thing to do; such was the case with writing and recording Retrogore. “We are absolute idiots and figured, hey, why not do an EP—to tease the new album, and release it in the year we celebrate our 20th anniversary—that will include songs that won’t make it on the album,” says de Caluwé. “You see, us not being exactly smart, we weren’t ready with the album yet!”
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY LABRINI GOUMA
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In any case, one can always turn to booze to fuel the creative—and other— juices. “Thankfully, after many alcoholic beverages, we pooped out another 13 songs [plus a re-recording of ‘Termination Redux’] to conjure shit demons to and exorcise the happiness out of your lives!” de Caluwé exclaims. It’s a fitting life motto
for the band: Retrogore is an absolute shitfest of an album, in the best way possible. Aborted is one band who have never faltered by changing their dynamic, yet still sound fresh… as fresh a corpse rotting in a sun burial plot. Speaking of corpses, who would Aborted abort if they could? “The Kardashian’s mother Kris Jenner,” says de Caluwé. To play in an intense band like Aborted, one must live the deathgrind lifestyle. What is the deathgrind lifestyle, you ask? Well, as de Caluwé puts it: “We like to be locked up in a moldy basement and dream of masturbation, while we are not allowed to touch each other—that would be wrong. It really brings this ‘je ne sais quoi’ sense of frustration and anger that leads to these fantastically brutal songs that fit in the insane and dark world of Aborted!” So, aspiring musicians, in order to write the best deathgrind in the business, heed these words of advice! Of all the songs in Aborted’s back catalog, why re-record “The Holocaust Incarnate” for the Termination Redux EP? “Quite frankly, it’s the only song from [Engineering the Dead] that we still like and play live a lot and haven’t re-recorded yet, so it was time,” de Caluwé explains. With the recent resurgence of vinyl and desire to own obscure back catalog tracks, will there be a chance the older material might get re-pressed? “Why would we steal bread from the mouths of all those selling our old shit on eBay for retarded prices?” de Caluwé questions. “It’s such a good plot! Honestly, what’s in the past is in the past. Most of the main releases are still in print besides demos, which we really don’t see the need to be re-pressed or re-released at all.” To conclude, uncledaddy de Caluwé offers these words of wisdom: “Eat your cereals, go to school, don’t be a dumbass, and listen to death metal.” And of course, be sure to check out Retrogore, out April 22 on Century Media Records.
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