BORN FROM PAIN

Requiem for sons of a dying world

This well known Dutch metalcore crew continues it's musical campaing for social revolt. And even if in my opinion it's hard to believe that extreme music may change the world and the system that we're all stuck in, without any doubts I must appreciate their passion and dedication to what BFP is all about. And what is of course most important the quality of the Limburg based band's work. Although their fifth full-lenght effort shows a very little signs of progress it's still good enough to satisfy both metal and hard core maniacs. So let's lift the veil of secrecy and face the truth about the art of survival.

- Hi Guys! Since the "War" was released in 2006 you've gone through some serious line-up changes. Could you be so nice and explain the reasons of Che's and Roel's departure? Does the new album's title refer in any way to those events?
Karl Fieldhouse: Well, the reasons for departure for Che and Roel were quite simple. Che had had enough of playing in a band and wanted to move along with his life by having a career etc, which we understood and supported. Roel had an injury to his arms, he had some nerve damage and was unable to drum. He decided to take sometime off from the band to give it rest so that hopefully he wouldn’t have to have surgery, but unfortunately things didn’t get better for him and so he was forced by his injury to leave the band, which was a shame cos Roel was an awesome drummer and good person.
Fortunately Roy who was filling in for him was able to stay on with us and we have an excellent repalcement. The new album “Survival” isn’t a direct reference to any of the line-up changes although people sometimes view it that way, which is understandable. Survival is more of a reference to that you have to survive the world today. All the bullshit that is happening in the world because of governments, corporations etc and the poverty, disease, hard times people have to go through and survive is more of a direct reference. But yeah, I can see why people think its about the line-up changes.

-I think that it was particularly important to find a new vocalist who would fulfill your expectations with his vocal skills and stage attitude. Was Rob your first choice or did you try other solutions, too?
K: Totally, and luckily we found that person in Rob, which was great, because Rob’s voice is awesome, more diverse than Che’s and somethigg a little different for us. It also made sense because Rob has always been the main face of the band and he also writes all the lyrics for the band, plus we love his stage presence. The weird thing was that it wasn’t the first or obvious choice. We did have a few other people in mind before Rob and those people didn’t want to commit to playing in a band that was such a full-time kinda band. Although we did have a vocalist for a few months before Rob which was Kevin Otto from END OF DAYS. That didn’t really workout in the end though because of his throat problems. But soon the perfect solution presented itself with Rob and that is soemthing we’re all really happy about.

-Please lift the veil of secrecy and tell our readers a few words about the creating process of new songs? How long did it take you to write the whole stuff? Did this work differ from those from previous albums?
K: Hahaha, there isn’t much of a veil of secrecy sadly and the way we wrote for “Survival” is how we’ve written all along really. The basic premiss is that Dom and I will sit at home and try and come up with songs. We bring those songs to practice and they get worked on until it clicks or until we realise it isn’t good enough and we decide to ditch the riffs. Once those ideas are exhausted, which for some reason usually ends up only leaving 3 – 4 songs if we’re lucky, we start practicing like crazy doing 2 or 3 days a week 8 hours a day. In that time we basically bounce ideas off one another, have some very spontaneous song writing sessions and try and get the remainder of the album written. For some reason this method works for us and usually yields great results. I don’t think it is a process that will change anytime soon to be honest. Once the songs are written, Rob writes lyrics for them and sometimes we change things in the structure or the riff based on what Rob comes up with.

-Did you write any songs that aren't included on the regular album and you'ce decided to use them for example on limited editions of "Survival"?
K: Unfortunately not. We were hoping to do something like that, but it didn’t quite work out sadly. Maybe next time. I think “In Love With The End” is the only album that has something like that. The Japanese release and vinyl release of that abum featured a song called “World Murder”.

-In my opinion "Survival" is little more hard core oriented then it's precedessor. However of course there's a lot of metal power in those tracks, too. Was it conscious decision to go little further in that direction?
K: I’m not sure how much of a concious decision it was actually, in the sense that we didn’t set out to do it that way. We were concious of course that songs hard a more hardcore vibe to them once we’d finished writing them, but we didn’t have that as a set goal when writing. I mean, there is a lot of metal in those songs too and I think the return to slightly simpler song structures with “Survival” compared to “War” makes the songs sound a little more hardcore too. But the metal influences are stills trong I think.

-I'd like to ask you about your metal inspirations. In guitar riffs department I smell a little influence of bands like: SLAYER, ENTOMBED, BOLT THROWER and GOREFEST. Are those bands particularly important for you?
K: Well, we’re all fans of the bands you just mentioned and BOLT THROWER has always been a major influence for this band and SLAYER and ENTOMBED also have a place for us, but when it comes to metal our main influences other than BOLT THROWER would be bands like TESTAMNET, OBITUARY and a lot of thrash metal ha.

- 9 of new 11 songs last no longer then three minutes. In one of the interviews after releasing "Utopia Banished" Barney of NAPALM DEATH said that two minutes and half is a perfect time for heavy and extreme song - because it's not too short and too long at the same time. Would you agree with him?
K: I would definitely agree with Barney and to be honest that was one of our goals. We wanted to write songs that were easy to get into that didn’t drag on too much and that kicked you in the face. For example, with “War”, as much as I love that album, when I listen back to it, I think some of the songs could have been a touch shorter and that was something we were concious of when writing “Survival”. But yeah, Barney has a good point for sure.

-Could you be so nice and explain the meaning of the symbol that you've used on the front cover of new album?
Rob Franssen: The symbol we’ve used on the front of the album are all symbols used by conspirative organizations. These organizations decide over who is in power and try to control humanity. These are people that are corrupt, powerdrunk and cold hearted. These symbols stand for the enemies of humanity and we want to clearly state what it is we need to survive and fight.

-So how important is the lyrical content for you? Is it as important as music? Btw was the current economic - credit crunch and global downturn - and political situation source of inspiration for your new lyrics?
R: The message is at least as important as the music. We have a clear view of what we stand for and what it is that is controlling our lives, the economic system and who enforces it. These are all threats to humanity that cannot be ignored since they are showing ever more clearly from year to year. In fact, the credit crunch and all that came with it accidentally coincided with us writing this album. Obviously it is an overwhelming proof, once again, to how fucked up this system and it’s directors are.