THE ROTTED

The king is dead, long life the king!

Previously this interview had to be realized yet in September by the opportunity when these English gentlemen played in Berlin, but a malice of reality effectively disturbed it. We have regretted those circumstances, cause the occasion for a talk with the members of newborn, but partially known to you band could explain to you more earlier what THE ROTTED is. Verifying however the names of few guys playing there and the music style of debut album “Get Dead And Try Dying”, soon can to draw a conclusion, that’s nothing more than a new image of… GOREROTTED, that changing the name decided to keep one’s distance to all of lyrical things created yet under the previous banner, beginning the same a new chapter. Hereby we would like to present you Mr. Ben McCrow, remembered yet probably by the most of bad children as Goreskin.

-Greetings! Probably I won’t be very original, but instead of it that can to be boring, cause maybe you have answered for this question a hundred times, I won’t make you angry, but explain please again, why now THE ROTTED and not GOREROTTED anymore?
GOREROTTED had basically reached it’s natural end. We’d done everything with the band that we wanted, and the whole gore/ horror thing’s become completely boring to us. When we were writing for this new album we really impressed ourselves with how much we’d progressed. It was just obvious that to us that this new stuff wasn’t GOREROTTED, and felt that what I am singing about is so much more relevant because it’s about real life, not made up stuff that I’ve lost interest in over the years. There’s only Tim and me left from GOREROTTED, so we have this new enthusiasm and hunger for what we do. It’s a new beginning, and we’re real happy with how it’s come about.

-Are you tired of answering questions about transforming GOREROTTED into THE ROTTED? Should people just forget about your previous band?
No, it’s our past, and it’s a past I’m very proud of, I had 10 good years touring with that band and making music, I met some amazing people and achieved some amazing things. It’s what shaped us to be who we are. I just don’t feel like it’s a representation of who we are now, but it is a good indication of who and what we were.

-You are not standing against the background definitively, playing at the concerts the tracks from albums released yet under the old name. Understand, that you are satisfied of the previous albums and even in spite of the name’s changing, the old stuff still stays your trademark?
No, it doesn’t stay our trademark, it’s quite separate from what we’re doing now, like I said, this is effectively a new band. We only do a couple of old tracks, just to make the set a bit longer. But of course I am still very proud of all the GOREROTTED albums, because they were good representations of us at the same time we wrote and recorded them, and they took us all over Europe playing some great shows, so I will always cherish our past, it’s just that now I am looking forward.

-Are there any major differences comparing GOREROTTED to THE ROTTED in your opinion? Listening to your newest effort I would say, your music style has also changed a bit and now you are moving more towards mid- tempo death metal encrusted with some black/doom metal elements. How do you respond to this opinion?
There’s a huge difference! GOREROTTED was straight up death/grind with gore and horror lyrics, THE ROTTED is Punk infused Extreme Metal with many more elements to it with very personal, cynical lyrics on life in London. It’s pace changes where necessary, and it’s just so much more varied than standard death metal.

-Do you feel this change can make your music more acceptable and help to broaden your audience?
I don’t know, maybe, but that’s not why we did it. We felt GOREROTTED was limiting to us as musicians, we wanted to allow more of our personal music tastes to come through, as well as our actual personalities! And our personalities have nothing to do with Gore and horror anymore, because we’ve totally lost interest in all that stuff.

-The new stuff is like always brutal and full of sonic violence. Anyway, hearing every of your new recorded albums, have you sometimes the impressions, that something could to do better or maybe to resign of it?
You mean is there anything I’d wanna change about the new album now it’s been out a while? No, I am very satisfied and very proud of it. I honestly believe this blows away everything we did in the past away. It’s like all that old material has lead up to this moment. We’ve already started writing for the next album, so maybe in a few years I will be able to tell you what I might have done differently on this record. But for now, I am still very happy with it.

-What is that what keeps you together and moving in the same direction. What points are accepted by all THE ROTTED members?
We’re all of the opinion that we need to do everything we can with this music while we still have the chance, and that now we have nothing tying us to a certain sub-culture that anything goes for us musically, as long as it comes naturally. To keep things interesting, we have to let our true selves shine through, so nothing will be held back, and we’re going to throw everything we have at it. As soon as any one of us feels they cannot offer the band 100% anymore, and that they cannot help this mission become a reality, we’ve all said we’ll respectfully walk away from it.

-OK, go back to your new album „Get Dead Or Die Trying”. What a nice title!
It sums up what most the songs are about, and it’s about doing things that make life more bearable and enjoyable with no regard to the consequences. Basically it’s about how we have to do things that are bad for our physical and mental wellbeing in order to get through life. It’s about not wanting to be a part of what most people call ‘normal’ society, it’s just destroying your self and enjoying life while you can.