Inhumate Interview

1. Can you give us a brief history of the band?

INHUMATE started in the end of 1990 as a death metal band. After few
line up changes, this was stable from 1994 until 2007. During that time
INHUMATE recorded 2 demo tapes (yes, it was before the CDR era) and 4
full length. In the end of 2006 David (guitar since the beginning) left
the band and was replaced by Damien. We did a fifth full length album
titled « The Fifth Season » with him, this album came out in April 2009.
During its life INHUMATE played more than 150 shows almost over all
Europe : in France, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Belgium, Portugal,
Holland, Czech Rep., Austria…

2. How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you
before?

Hum… I usually say that INHUMATE sounds like no other band. We play a
kind of old school grinding death metal. People usually say we are a
grind band, but we don’t think so. We’re all coming from the death metal
scene. Now I think the best thing to answer to anybodyu that would be
interested is to tell him to listen to our myspace : www.myspace.com to
get some tracks from our 5 albums and on our website www.inhumate.com to
get older sound from the demos (1993 and 1995).

3. What is the meaning behind the band's name?

There’s no real meaning. We choose it because it has no particular sense
but was sounding good, ideas or inhuman, hate or such things… For long
time to people asking me I was answering that i twas the symbolization
of the inhumation of hate, because we consider ourselves as a positive
band. But Damien found that « inhumate » was the anagramm of the French
word « humanite » which means « humanity ».And we think that the real
meaning of INHUMATE is this one. To understand why, just have a look a
tour website and check our concept. This one will be complete after 7
albums and deals with Life and time abolition. Life’e eternity.

4. When listening to your music I can tell you are defiantly old school
death/grind, how would you compare your style to the newer death/grind
bands?

We’re not into the modern way of playing grind core, yes we’re an old
school grind / death band. Our goal is not to play as fast as possible,
but to express as much as possible the animal feelings we all have in
ourselves. Best way to express it is this sentence from Dr Johnson « He
who gets a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man ».
5. What releases have you put out so far?

Abstract Suffering (demo tape 4 tracks – 1993)
Grind Your Soul (demo tape 7 tracks – 1995)
Internal Life (CD 18 tracks – 1996)Ex-Pulsion (CD 13 +1 tracks – 1997)
Growth (CD 17 tracks – 2000)
Life (CD 16 tracks – 2004)
The Fifth Season (CD 18+1 tracks – 2009)
And a shitlod of split tapes and EP with no unreleased tracks. We all
keep them for our own releases.

6. How would you describe your musical progress over the years?

We started as a slow mid temp death metal band, then played faster, so i
twas some death / grind. Later we slowly understood that death metal was
good but grind core even more interesting to play, so we call now our
music grind / death. We still have something to see with death metal,
we’re no punk hehe

7. What direction do you see the band heading into during the future?

Following the track we’re on now. Why should we change ? We don’t want
to hide behind the stupid word « evolution » to explain why we’re
playing sofetr, more melodic or anything like this. INHUMATE is here to
play loud, fast and brutal, nothing to care about people that don’t
understand it. We’ have always played some INHUMATE, we will always some
INHUMATE.

8. How would you describe your live show?

Sick as fuck. We try to give the maximum we can. We have very energic
shows (especially Christophe who really becomes sick) because we think
this kind of music has to be listened but also seen. When you go to a
grind core show and see the guys standing like statues, it’s
uninteresting as fuck I think. So, as I told it at question 2 about
music, just check our videos on the Internet (myspace or youtube) to get
an idea of what an INHUMATE sho looks like.

9. Are there any touring plans?

Yes of course. We were in Switzerland last week end, following dates
will bring us to Germany, Holland, France, Russia… As we all have day
jobs it’s hard for us to tour, so we have to make only single dates and
it’s ok for us.

10. What are your main influences music wise or non music wise?

I don’t think we wtill have some influences, INHUMATE sound sliek
noother band I think. But we are till open o all new kinds of extreme
music, we do all listen to many underground bands.

11. What are you listening to nowadays and what are some good bands or
releases that you would recommend?

Last albums I bought were :AGATHOCLES : Grind is protest (very good, I recommend)MISANTHROPE : Irremediable (ok)OJCIEC DYKTATOR : Heresy is fun (very, very good, I recommend)CARNAL DIAFRAGMA : Preparation on the daddy’s steack (ok)RESISTANT CULTURE : All one in struggle (too crust for me)Now if I had to recommend some other bands I think you would liten to
some French grinding acts like TREPAN DEAD, BLOCKHEADS, INFEST, XAROS,
YATTAI, MASSIVE CHARGE, PULMONARY FIBROSIS, UNTAMED and many other.

12. What are some good films or books that you would recommend?

I don’t like cinema and don’t fucking read books.

13. How would you describe the death/grind scene in France?

It’s full of interesting bands, just check the list I gave at question
11. I live close to the German border so overhere it’s not hard to find
places to play and the underground scene is very active. In the same
time on the West side of France, there are aslo some cool band,s
unfortunately they have less opportunities to play and that’s a pity….
So if you have any chance to support our scene, do it, it deserves it !

14. Any final words?

Thanx for according this interview. As independant band, all kind of
promotion is welcome !