GOLGOTHAN REMAINS (AUS) – Interview – 04/06/2018

– Versión en castellano aquí –

GOLGOTHAN REMAINS is one of the newest promises of the always prolific australian obscure death metal scene. As a fan of this kind of sound, when I found by accident their excellent Perverse offerings to the void I knew I had to give them all the difussion I could. The effort of searching new music and make it known are worth it when the band responds with complete honesty and excitement.

Subterráneo Webzine: Can you tell us something from the band’s origins? How you got the band formed, your main influences…?

GOLGOTHAN REMAINS: We formed out of the ashes of various bands, and went through a number of years working on material, but cycling through members. Only really the last few years we’ve been able to lock down a steady line-up which has helped us focus, release our debut album and play some shows.

Subterráneo Webzine: For me, you have some things in common with other great australian bands, like PORTAL, GRAVE UPHEAVAL or IGNIVOMOUS, but perhaps you’re a little bit more traditional, not so dense. You remind me of FUNEBRARUM, AETERNUS and of course INCANTATION. Bands with a great dose of darkness but still relatively easy to listen. Do you agree with that? How can it be possible that so many dark death metal bands have come out of Australia? Not to mention a great black metal scene…

GOLGOTHAN REMAINS: You’ve certainly hit the nail on the head. We certainly look to combine the atmospheric passages of bands like ULCERATE, DEATHSPELL OMEGA, INQUISITION and the like with the more straight up approach of the older calibre of death metal, producing our own blend of dark, obscure death metal!

Australia has produced a number of killer bands over the years. People here play by their own rules so it makes for a more dynamic and interesting spread of sounds. There is no point trying to domesticate the real dingoes.

Subterráneo Webzine: There is something curious about your name, at first I thought that it came from Golgotha, the place where the crucifixion of Jesus took place. But then I discovered that Golgothan was literally a demon made of shit, which appeared in a Kevin Smith film, so, really, what’s the real source of your name?

GOLGOTHAN REMAINS: Let’s just say you were right the first time. We wanted a dark name that matched the nature of our music. So the blood, the bones, the decrepit ruins, the remains of Golgotha suited that perfectly!

Subterráneo Webzine: It caught my attention that you decided to release your debut album in every format available: CD, vinyl and cassette. Not all the underground bands do that, they might just release on CD, or vinyl, even just cassette. I can understand the purpose on release on vinyl and CD. But why on cassette? I know that in the recent years it’s gaining popularity once again, but in terms of quality it wasn’t the best format.

GOLGOTHAN REMAINS: Cassette has its charm. Some of us are collectors and we were approached to release it as such. When the offer is there to spread the tendrils, and we feel it’s a genuine endeavour, then the question is: why not?

Subterráneo Webzine: About the cover art, how did came out? It’s quite difficult to decipher as it’s full of details, for example the hand with the stigmata. What do you guys what to transmit?

GOLGOTHAN REMAINS: Morkh from over at Nether Temple Design has done a wonderful job on this piece. We stumbled across it at one point and knew almost immediately that it would be the perfect cover piece for the album. It’s very detailed and has a lot going on, I can’t count the number of times I’ve lost myself examining all the finer details.

Subterráneo Webzine: As far as I know reading the titles of the lyrics (as I don’t have the booklet of the album), it seems that you don’t write the typical death metal stuff, like: kill, eviscerate, destroy…  It goes beyond that. Where you take from inspiration for writing?

GOLGOTHAN REMAINS: Most of the inspiration comes from tangible horror, the concepts are varied but mostly rooted in the depths of the human psych. A lot of the songs are allegorical, relating to the triumph of hatred, destruction and terror. Of course they are all represented as dark tales, but they are not to preach or present any set beliefs. In this way they are akin to what we believe is the way for death metal. The best of which will tell stories that can be interpreted personally without hiding behind pseudo-religious notions or some ironic blood and gore nonsense.

Subterráneo Webzine: «Void» is an interlude between «Phantom earth» and «Timeless eradicator», was it placed there to give the listener some rest between so much death metal discharge? Does it have another purpose?

GOLGOTHAN REMAINS: While it wasn’t written with the intention of being an interlude, once we had it there it just worked really comfortably in the middle of this record. The idea was to split the album and it was a perfect little piece to bridge between the two sides of chaos.

Subterráneo Webzine: With just half an hour of music, we can assume that you went straight to the point, but is there any leftover in this album? A track that wasn’t finished when you entered the studio, a song which wasn’t good enough…

GOLGOTHAN REMAINS: As mentioned earlier, the songs have been crafted over a number of years, so over time we definitely scrapped some parts and a few of the older songs. But by the time we entered the studio we had exactly what we wanted to represent our Perverse offerings.

Subterráneo Webzine: Besides Aled, your drummer, everyone else has no affiliation in another bands. Does it mean that GOLGOTHAN REMAINS is now your primary band, where you put all your efforts?

GOLGOTHAN REMAINS: GOLGOTHAN REMAINS is certainly our primary focus, and we have many plans to continue on the path of death.

Subterráneo Webzine: The album was recorded in the Adversary Studios, in New South Wales, and it was recorded and mixed by Aaron Worboys. How was the experience? Why did you chose him?

GOLGOTHAN REMAINS: Aaron is a good friend of ours and we knew he could get the best sound for us due to his professionality and experience. We use his studio to rehearse so it was a natural choice and a familiar environment. He understands the approach we have and gave us enough control to execute things effectively as we saw fit.

Subterráneo Webzine: Up to this point the reaction towards Perverse offerings has been pretty positive, I’ve not seen yet a negative comment upon it, and some people even say that it’s one of the best albums of 2018 so far (I include myself on this). Did you expect that?

GOLGOTHAN REMAINS: We never really knew what to expect to be honest, but it has certainly gone beyond what little expectations we had. The response thus far has been incredibly humbling and it’s great to see so many people from all over the globe enjoying the album!

Subterráneo Webzine: Right now you are independent, besides some deals you have made with some labels to distribute your stuff: Impure Sounds handles off the 12’’ vinyl version and Till You Fukkin Bleed does it with the tape. But would you like to be in the future with a label or rather still as independent?

GOLGOTHAN REMAINS: We will see what the future holds. We will definitely look at labels for any future releases and if the right fit becomes a possibility we will certainly look into that as a possible option.

Subterráneo Webzine: At last but not least, I would like you to recommend some Aussie bands, whatever the genre they play. Thanks for your time.

GOLGOTHAN REMAINS: Firstly, thanks very much for the interview, and we send out our thanks to all the people that have supported us so far. This won’t be the last you hear of us.

You mentioned some killer Australian bands earlier but to add to those, we have to mention the likes of SPIRE, GRAVEIR, CONVULSING, ALTARS, BACKYARD MORTUARY, INNSMOUTH… and all the bands that gave us inspiration in our youth, ARMOURED ANGEL, DESTRUKTOR, GRENADE, SADISTIK EXEKUTION etc.