Toxocara pour l'album "The Great Rebellious"

Goede morgen Martijn and Kevin, I'm Keyser from French webzine Thrashocore. Alles Goed?

Kevin: Hi! Everything is fine here. You're learning Dutch I see? Hehe.


Unfortunately, Toxocara is not very famous in France so if you could introduce your band to our ignorant readers, I'd be eternally grateful!

Kevin: Luckily things can change fast enough, so we might be famous in France before you know ;-).
Toxocara is a Deathmetal band from Holland. The main influences are deathmetal bands like: Suffocation, Obituary and Dying Fetus. The difference between Toxocara and those bands is that we always try to mix those influences with other stuff, to get a real Toxocara-like song.
So basically we always put our own touch to the songs and that always evolves in something that is pure death metal, but with extra attention for structures of riffs, vocal lines, drums etc. That makes Toxocara stand above other US-style Deathmetal bands in my opinion.


What do you think you have that makes your band better or more interesting than the 3, 123, 987 (I counted on Metal-Archives!) other brutal bands?

Kevin: I bet there are even more bands out there then all the bands on Metal-Archives! One thing that really makes Toxocara stand out is the very intense live performances, it's a big aspect of playing in Toxocara. And the motivation of all the musicians in Toxocara is very mutual, we are all good friends on a personal level. That makes it easy to know what's going on between members and making sure that everyone is going in the same direction with this band. Other than that I think interest is always something personal. So the question would be whether you or anyone else finds Toxocara more interesting than other bands. I sure as hell do!


Your new album "The Great Rebellious" was released a few weeks ago. What can we expect from it compared to the "Imminent Repulsion" release? And what is the meaning behind the title?

Kevin: The biggest difference between "Imminent Repulsion" and "The Great Rebellious" is that the latter is a big step forward for us, musically. Every song on "The Great Rebellious" has been worked out in every detail we could think of. I find this album more mature and professional than "Imminent Repulsion". We've spent a lot more time on guitars and vocal lines, in order to make this album everything we wanted it to be. I think it worked!


All your lyrics deal with war it seems. Did you choose that concept only because it is brutal and fits the aggressiveness/intensity of your music or are you really interested in wars, history and other army related stuff? Who writes them by the way?

Kevin: Martijn writes the biggest part of the lyrics, I wrote the lyrics for two songs on "The Great Rebellious". Me and Martijn have always been interested in historical events. Of course it fits the intensity, but we try to really recreate the events with our music, that's more important to us. We never pick a side, but try to write the lyrics in a dialogue between two sides. This makes the lyrics story-like, and that's the feeling behind it as well. Like you are listening to a story being told.


Do you consider yourself as a political band or are the lyrics totally neutral?

Kevin: No we do not consider ourselves political. Personally, I try not to mix my political opinions with music. I think it differs too much to combine the two. We are not a protesting band.


So Toxocara…quite a strange name, isn't it? I think it's some kind of a parasite, am I right? Anyway, it has nothing to do with war so I was wondering why you didn't give your band a name that would have fitted the lyrical content...

Kevin: Well, what's most important about a band name, is that it sticks and sounds awesome. I think the name Toxocara does both. It's true that it doesn't have anything to do with war, but to me that doesn't create a problem if the band name is catchy enough.

Martijn: The name Toxocara has been made up by Niels who already left Toxocara. We could have chosen another name, but that was in the time that things started rolling for Toxocara so we decided to keep our original name.


Is there a tour planned to promote the new album. Some French dates?

Kevin: As always, there are all kinds of plans. Until now we haven't discussed any French dates. Hellfest would be fucking nice to play though hehe.


Do you guys know some French bands?

Kevin: Benighted! Great band, very brutal stuff. Anorexia Nervosa is a French band also isn't it? That's about it I guess.


Now let me check if you are true death metal warriors or just emo fags who found out about death metal last month by asking you your all time top 5! By the way, what bands have the most influence on your writing?


Kevin: The 5 best death metal bands in my opinion and in no particular order:
1.Cannibal Corpse
2.Nile
3.Dying Fetus
4.Vader
5.Origin

Martijn:
1.Obituary
2.Napalm Death
3.Suffocation
4.Cannibal Corpse
5.Toxocara

There is no band that has very much influence on our writing process. The most that has influenced us, is the experience we all have gained by playing in other bands (Erebus, Monolith Deathcult, Prostitute Disfigurement). Put that together and you'll get Toxocara.


The Dutch death metal scene is the best in Europe in my opinion. What do you guys think about your national scene? How do you explain so small a country can be so big when it comes to death metal?

Kevin: I think the Dutch death metal scene is pretty good. There are a lot of excellent death metal bands from our small country, most of them are also friends of ours and/or well-respected musicians. I don't think the size of the country matters to the quality of death metal. Maybe it's because the Dutch like hard ass music. You have a lot of Hardcore (not hardcore metal, but the house music) here as well as a lot of metal bands, both scenes are pretty huge!

Martijn: Yep, must be the genes hehehe.


I heard Prostitute Disfigurement, your drummer's other band, split up. Is that true?


Kevin: That is not a matter for us to discuss I'm afraid. What happens in Prostitute, is their business. So I'm not going into long stories about it, if you want to know what happens within Prostitute Disfigurement, I suggest you go and interview them as well ;-)


What about The Monolith Deathcult, your other band Martijn? I heard the two new songs on MySpace and was surprised by the big change. It's less brutal and intense than the previous releases, with electronic elements. Less brutal death metal in other words. Were you guys tired of the comparison with Nile and decided to take another direction musically speaking?

Martijn: To be compared with Nile is a compliment hehehe, come on, say it again! The style of TMDC indeed changed, but more about that in TMDC interviews!


As you know, this interview is conducted for a webzine. What do think of the Internet, webzines and downloading?

Kevin: It's a good medium to keep track of what's happening in the metal world. I like to keep myself up to date on bands I like, or new bands I discover. As for downloading, I would be lying if I say I never download anything, but I buy a lot of original stuff too. Especially when it's stuff from bands I really like. And once in a while I purchase a cd by a band I've never heard of. If it sounds really good to me.


I'd like to have your opinion on your country. I mean, not music-wise, but economically and socially. How is it to live there? It seems Holland is really ahead concerning social matters but in the other hand it looks like it suffers from laxness. What do you think?

Kevin: I like living in Holland. And as for the good and bad things about it, I guess you have that kind of stuff in every country. I think that is a better answer than to pull of a 5 page report about the issues and positive points about Holland.


Now, a very serious question so I want your honest opinion. I work with Dutch people and I came to the following conclusion: Dutch is a very ugly language, isn't it haha?

Kevin: Hahaha I wouldn't know man, I only speak English aside of Dutch. I think German sounds a lot nastier personally. It always sounds a bit harsh, that doesn't mean that they only say bad things of course. What makes the Dutch language recognisable is a hard G in words. I understand if that sounds very strange to people outside of Holland. But in my opinion that doesn't make it ugly. It's again a matter of taste.

Martijn: Just because it's too difficult for the French to speak Dutch, is doesn't mean it's an ugly language. Try Chinese, that's ugly hehe


I heard Dutch people like to ride bikes and paint mills while eating some Gouda in tulip fields (did I forget something haha?)…

Kevin: Yeah, we wear wooden shoes all day long aswell… hehe.

Martijn: And when we're all doing this, we're of course constantly blowing and eating XTC like soup.


I think you agree if I say French cheese is way better than Dutch cheese? Haha!

Kevin: No way, not for me that is. I love Dutch cheese, the more the better!

Martijn: I like French cheese, but Dutch cheese is better. Why do you think they call us “Kaaskopppen” translated, “Cheeseheads”?


I'm sure death metallers who speak about gore or wars like you are more than just brutal and don't take themselves too seriously. So can you prove me right by telling me a good joke haha?

Kevin: I hate to disappoint you, but musically we take ourselves very serious. Apart from that, we just like having a good time! It's always a big party with Toxocara. I only know jokes about French people, and since I don't want to offend anyone, I'll skip the joke part ;-)

Martijn: You definitely didn't read the lyrics hehe. We absolutely do not write about gore, I hate lyrics about murdered women split up with a wooden knife and later on swept through mud and puke, before being spit under by sperm. We take lyrics very seriously, and they are based on stories that really happened. You should read the lyrics of “Godking” on our cd “The Great Rebellious”, that's about Lodewijk XIV, King of France (1638-1715) Roi du soleil, “L'état, c' est moi”. You should know that hehe.


Looks like I'm running out of questions haha! I let you conclude (in Dutch please)! Thanks for your time, hope to see you live some day, cheers guys! Prettige dag verder!

Kevin: Dankjewel voor dit interview, en we hopen dat we snel naar Frankrijk kunnen komen! Translation-mode: Thanks for this interview, and I hope we get a chance to play in France soon!

Martijn: Bedankt voor het interview en je toch wat vage vragen af en toe maar we hebben ons weer vermaakt! Translation-mode: You translate it yourself, you know a little Dutch! Thanks! Keep checking www.toxocara.com and http://myspace.com/toxocara !