ABNORMYNDEFFECT is a well-known polyrhythmic grindcore / death metal band from Chisinau, Republic of Moldova. These guys are putting out their new record “Curtea Suprema” (“Supreme Court”) tomorrow through Imbecil Entertainment Records and Eclectic Productions from Ukraine!
Their debut album called “Betwin” was released in 2008 through Japan’s Macabre Mementos Records. Since then, the band have shared stages with such bands as NAPALM DEATH, TORTURE KILLER, MUNICIPAL WASTE, DISFEAR and a lot more!
Here’s my recent interview with the band. Let’s get evil! :)
Hey, guys! Thanks for your time. What’s up?
Hi Karol! We’re ready, let’s do it! [smiles]
ABNORMYNDEFFECT looks like a pretty fucked up name, you know? [laughs] But as soon as your brain registers two words, it’s actually not that hard to pronounce it. [laughs] Sell me the story of your name. [smiles]
IDIOTEQ is also quite fucked up [smiles] As we like it. Actually the story is that the initial idea was of ABNORMINDEFFECT (abnor-mind-effect) but we decided to put an “Y” so that it also could be read as abnor-my-N-deffect. We like to play with the way the word is written and the way it sounds, as we did with the first full-length [BETWIN] which actually means [between], totally different senses. It’s some kind of conspiracy cryptology quest [laughs].
Ha! You bet! People often pronounce it “idiotecoo”, not “idioteck” [laughs] Ok, let’s forget about it [smiles].
Did you have a start in heavy music before ABNORMYNDEFFECT?
Before I played with almost the same guys which are ABN now but we changed different names, anyway we were kids and experimented a lot. ‘Butchers’ was a name of ABN right before, we’ve released quite interesting demo EPs with this name in very limited editions, at that time people classified us as jazz-grind [laughs].
Wow, nice one, bro. What other genres are you actively following? Aren’t you tempted to start a side project completely different to what you perform with ABNORMYNDEFFECT? [smiles]
I like many other genres and I follow them. I like hip hop/rap music, oldschool HC/D’n’B, free jazz is also a passion of mine. As I told before we’ve experimented a lot during the years, mostly with our drummer. The
fact that the results weren’t made public doesn’t mean it didn’t exist [smiles] Stefan (drummer) makes excellent rap beats, we’ve recorded several tracks as MC’s [laughs], freestyle flow. Once (2006 I guess) we even played live a hip hop part as an outro with beats, MC and so on. Some of us also have personal electronic projects which aren’t really for wide public, more for personal development and some kind of recreation. We keep these projects open so at one state in time some of them could be spread to the public.
Amazing! What was your first exposure to metal? Tell me about you path to the current style you represent.
My exposure was quite typical for that time and that environment. Copied cassettes, later CD’s. CANNIBAL CORPSE, CRYPTOPSY, MORTICIAN, DEATH, DEICIDE, BLOODY GORE. I think these were my first cassettes of really extreme metal after what I embraced this music and this way of life. About the style we represent now I can’t say that we defined very strictly what we play as many do, death metal, grindcore. We just wanted to make brutal and fast music but in a different manner, combining in some places ethno themes, playing different rhythms simultaneously, that’s why some call it polyrhythmic Grind.
It’s not that you’re the pioneers of that manner, but I wonder.. what’s the justification for naming technical death metal as “jazz”?
Probably because sometimes we use acoustic parts and maybe some short melodies with jazz scales. I don’t think it is enough to call it jazz [laughs]. Offcourse if we don’t speak about freejazz such as NAKED CITY was back in the days going to fucking ultraviolence.
Ok. Tell me… was it hard to surface with such extreme music in Chisinau? Please describe the musical environment in your neighborhood.
Chisinau is the only city (capital) in Moldova where extreme music is played, I mean brutal gigs. We are very friendly between bands here, we always help each other when someone wants to make a concert, playing at it or at least promoting. Still it is not enough for a band to play 3-4 times per year in its hometown, and there are 2 or 3 really active bands going on tours, playing abroad and keep developing, unfortunately other bands often stop playing or change their names and directions every couple of months. In these years we gathered a kind of street team Brutal Basarabia, a community with people coming to shows, helping and promoting gigs, spreading information. We keep developing the scene.
Great to hear that! How do you try to do that?
Helping the young bands, including them in local gigs even if they’re not very good yet, advise them and keeping the spirit and interest alive. Spreading information and outlining the values of this movement. Again – doing gigs, even if sometimes it costs us personal money to do that. This music and this lifestyle is fun, we always have very good time at shows or whenever we meet, no matter if we are 5 people or 300. We also have plans to turn Brutal Basarabia into a record label, we still talk about the way it will work. This small underground music industry is still an industry and it should be managed properly to survive.
Good to know you have such a positive attitude.
You have a new album out! Are you proud of “Curtea Suprema”?
Yes, I like it. It is a new step for our band releasing this album. It contains songs that were never recorded before and is what we’ve composed last few years. We already make new shit so we’re always one step forward. [laughs]
Did you use all the unreleased songs you got?
We used all the songs we’ve recorded and all we had as unreleased at that time. Now we already have something new for the next release, hopefully it won’t take us another 5 years till the next one [laughs].
[smiles] Is Imbecil Entertainment the only channel of distribution for the outing?
Actually there are two labels releasing it, Imbecil Entertainment and Eclectic Productions, both from Ukraine. For the moment it will be a digipack CD available on these 2 labels and us ofcourse. In near future we will also make it available on web-stores as a digital version. There will be trades too, so I hope shortly it will be available in many other distros and stores around the world.
Shoot me some details about the tour in support of the new album.
We are working on an European tour for April 2013 with our Transylvanian friends – SPIRITUAL RAVISHMENT. Hopefully it will include Poland too because we have a lot of friends there and we always have fun there. At the moment we’re booking dates for Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, but it still in process. We will announce it as soon as possible.
What are you planning on for the tour? Any special clothing? Fireworks? [laughs]
We’re not fans of fireworks or outstanding decorations and clothes. For me passion and energy during shows is more important than a shell of costumes to hide in. Give us a drumset, a couple of guitar stations and mics and we’re doing it.
[smiles] What was the craziest show you’ve ever played?
I guess it was one of our first shows in a Moldavian countryside – Donduseni. We played in the center of the small town, right in front a huge statue of Lenin [smiles] and the stage was made of one or two hindcarriages. It was some kind of rock festival, most people probably didn’t know there could be something heavier than AC/DC. There were moms with children, pregnant women just came out to watch what’s going on outside, some people just came from work in the fields having with them shovels and digs. The very first rock experience for that people was a Death Metal experience [smiles].
It was a success, everybody started jumping and moshing in very chaotic way fucking astonished that such music exists.
[laughs] I wish I could see with my own eyes.
Alright, that’s about it, gentlemen. Is there anything that we might have left out that you would like us to discuss?
Thanks Karol for this interview and for supporting the underground scene, this is the only sincere music left and the only chance for music to go forward in creating something really new, avoiding cliches and prejudices.
Thanks!
