1.Can you give us an update on what has been going on with the band since the recording of the new album?
Sfenson: To answer this question I have to briefly describe how non-standard the recording session of „Nihilist” was. First of all, until July of 2014 we had about 8-9 tracks ready for new album and our drummer LukaSS was expecting a son on October. So we got really busy in the summer of 2014 and composed rest of the tracks, mainly riffs, structures and drum parts. After playing a quite important gig on Muszlafest 2014 ( our local festival ) in September 2014 LukaSS recorded his drum parts for “Nihilist”. Than me and Dreadrock focused on learning and practicing the riffs, writing lyrics, arranging vocal parts and from December 2014 till February 2015 we recorded vocals, guitars and bass. In the meantime I had a nose surgery and was unable to play rehearsals or gigs untill April 2015. After that we came back to playing live and decided to show new tracks from “Nihilist” to see how people react to them. In June 2015 after choosing a local INVENT SOUND STUDIO we started to mix the new album. When It was ready we started searching for a polish label that would release our new album. All the previous albums were released by foreign labels, from Russia, Japan, we finally wanted a local label support and scored a deal with polish Selfmadegod. “Nihilist” will be out on 01.02.106.
2.In February you have a new album coming out, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording and also how does it differ from the stuff you have released in the past?
Sfenson: It is definitely our most grindcore album. All the previous LPs had somewhere around 12 tracks, this one has 17. The production is a bit less “bassy”, there is a lot less shredding which is a big feature of brutal death metal. Instead you have more grind/crust type of riffing. But elements of brutal death metal are still present in our music in tracks such as “Vain In Cage’ or “L.A.W. (Lost All Worth)”. Also Screams have definitely become a big factor on this album. Believe it or not, this is the first 100% UNBORN SUFFER album , on all the previous ones we always had some guest appearances, cover songs and/or old songs re-recorded. None of that is present on “Nihilist”, no covers, no guests, no old stuff re-recorded. In the end you have a closing track “Nervous Breakdown Of The System”, I think it’s the slowest thing UNBORN SUFFER ever played, almost no blast beats, clean guitars. You will find a lot of new things in our music but you will also hear that it is still an UNBORN SUFFER album.
3.This is the first full length to be released in 4 years, can you tell us a little bit more about what has been going on during that time span?
Dreadrock: Well… when you’re drinking a lot, then time’s going very fast! That was a very busy time for us. We had several line-up changes during that time – two vocalists in turn left us. Then we started playing as trio with me and Sfenson on vocals. Now - after few years we’re sure that this is the best way for us. During that 4 years we’ve played several dozen gigs across Poland. We’ve also recorded and released two albums: “Live Suffering” (live album) and “Revisited Suffering” (compilation). Composing material for “Nihlist” also took us a lot of time. So, as you can see, we had a lot to do. Of course, 4 years is a quite big break between full-length albums, but playing and releasing heavy music in Poland isn’t easy. You can’t always do whatever you want and however you want. Releasing full LP one time for few years is still better, then doing nothing.
4.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the newer music?
Dreadrock: We like to write and singing about important things. We take lyrics seriously and spend a lot of time and work. There is no room for joking or doing something half-heartedly. Some people think that we have lyrics about dead fetuses, molesting dead bodies and something similar. That’s very far from the truth. We write and sing about condition of today’s society, enslaved by religion, human tragedies, beliefs, rebellions. For example, in our lyrics you can find stories inspired by priests molesting children, people fighting with regime, like Ryszard Siwiec or fighting with lies and slavery, like “Fight Club’s” heroes. Sometimes we also relate to our personal stories. I invite everyone to read our lyrics. It’s hard to understand, when we’re singing them, but it’s definitely worth reading.
5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Unborn Suffer'?
Sfenson: The name is taken from NAPALM DEATH’s track “Twist The Knife (Slowly)”. When we started the band in late 2001 we didn’t have a name yet so one afternoon I sat down with all the cassettes, CD’s of bands I listened to, started to read the lyrics and wrote down any “cool” lyric/word I came across. One of them was UNBORN SUFFER. Co-founder of the band and then-bassist Wojciech Dąbrowski loved that name and drew a logo which looked really badass. That’s how the name UNBORN SUFFER came into existence.
The name has a very dark tone, It means that we simply suffer even before we are born, we suffer because of the life that awaits us after we exit our mother’s womb.
6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
Dreadrock: Our normal concert has 30-40 min. length and it’s consists from 20-30 songs (lol). Our concert are mix of energy and fury. We like to improvise, so you will not find similar shows with some kind of choreography on our gigs. Our priority is sharing our energy and feelings with people. We talk a lot with our audience, inviting them to dancing and fighting near the stage. If you want to fully understand us and our music, than you should see our shows. We’re kind of some “live-band” – you’ll find our biggest values on concerts. We love playing music and I think, that we show that on stage.
I don’t want to choose our best shows. I still want to believe, that the best will be in the future. We recalling welcome most of our shows from the past. Both the small and the big ones. Off course, playing with famous bands like Suffocation or Cannabis Corpse was valuable experience but we have also a lot of great shows in smaller cities like Gostynin, Płock, Włocławek where audience was really crazy. Of course, playing in our home city – Bydgoszcz is also very valuable for us. These shows have a specific atmosphere every time. We’re planning to do some special concert here in Bydgoszcz for our 15th anniversary in this year.
7.Do you have any touring or show plans once the new album is released?
Sfenson: Yes, definitely, new concert dates are coming in daily, It’s best to follow us on www.facebook.com/unbornsuffer for new concert dates.
8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your newer music by fans of brutal death metal and grindcore?
Sfenson: I would be more capable of answering this question in, for example, a month time. But what I can tell you now, from few reviews that appeared before album release, and few radio plays of tracks from “Nihilist” that the response is awesome. People are really digging this album, praising the production, the aggression, pre-orders are coming in. everything seems to be going “according to plan”, so to speak.
9.What is going on with some of the other bands or musical projects these days that some of the band members are a part of?
Sfenson: Our drummer LukaSS has released a second album with his other band, grindcore formation NORYLSK, called “Cathlotic Dictatorship” via Selfmadegod on 15.07.2015 and I released a second album with other band I play in, KONTAGION, entitled “[R-!-E]LEN+LESS” on 22.06.2015 via Infernum Media. We play a mixture of industrial, groove and death metal with some djent influences. You can check out both of our bands on www.facebook.com/norylsk and www.facebook.com/kontagion
10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
Sfenson: honestly I don’t know yet. “Nihilist” is just out and we only have one new song written. We haven’t talked yet about what the next album will look like, there is too much going on with “Nihilist” now, we will see, maybe It will come out spontaneously, or maybe we will pre-plan everything from scratch. I personally have two plans in my head for the next album – coming back to our death metal roots from the first albums OR doing even more grindy album then “Nihilist” – 20,25 tracks, 30 minutes. But that’s just my propositions.
11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your newer music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
Dreadrock: There was a many influences from a lot of genres. Most of our favorite bands of course play death metal and grindcore. My riffs and vocals on “Nihlist” were inspired by many different bands, like Dying Fetus, Napalm Death, Celtic Frost, Pig Destroyer, Antigama but also by some other polish bands and few Czech grind bands like Spasm, Pigsty and Gutalax (lol).
Personally I really enjoy different genres. I love electronic music, like house, big beat and trance by Daft Punk, The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim and The Chemical Brothers. On the gym I always listen to Scooter and Paul Oakenfold (lol). From the other side I of course listen to many rock and metal genres. I love classic bands like Led Zeppelin, The Doors but also Limp Bizkit, Korn and Static-X. Lately I was on Suicidal Tendencies and Slipknot concert and they still kick ass. My friends from band are unfortunately not so open minded like me (laugh). They listen mostly to extreme metal, Vader and Iron Maiden.
Sfenson: Well, I have to say he’s right to some extent as far as my person goes. J It’s mostly metal, and the extreme types of music ( thrash, brutal death, grind, a bit of crust), but I really got into grunge and industrial music lately, same with rap and hip hop. I still respect bands like Queen, Genesis or Black Sabbath but I listen to them very rarely. LukaSS mainly listens to black metal and polish metal bands but he also likes Dead Can Dance which, I think, will always be out of reach of my comprehension J
12.What are some of your non musical interests?
Dreadrock: Well, we are pure musicians, so we’re addicted to drugs, sex and alcohol. Sometimes we’re also like to beat our women, but that’s just for sport. But seriously, we’re doing some boring and normal proffesions in our daily life. Besides job and music I like to spend my free time with movies and books. Lately I’m again reading novels from my favorite authors: H.P. Lovecraft and Stanisław Lem. I also like to read some historical books. Last time I also watched new Star Wars (quite good) and really great movies like “Carnage” by Roman Polanski, “Birdman” and “Macbeth” with Michael Fassbender. That was really inspiring experience. I have wide interests so I’m not feeling bored, when I have some time for myself. To be honest, I don’t have enough time to read all the books and to watch all the movies, that I want to.
13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Dreadrock: I have only one motto: do everything what you like or love, but don’t hurt anyone. Unless someone is asshole or stupid. Then you can hurt him… a little bit.
Please support and follow us on facebok.com/unbornsuffer. There will be a lot of new stuff very soon. Please support bands and heavy extreme music in Poland.
Thank you very much for the interview.
Sfenson: To answer this question I have to briefly describe how non-standard the recording session of „Nihilist” was. First of all, until July of 2014 we had about 8-9 tracks ready for new album and our drummer LukaSS was expecting a son on October. So we got really busy in the summer of 2014 and composed rest of the tracks, mainly riffs, structures and drum parts. After playing a quite important gig on Muszlafest 2014 ( our local festival ) in September 2014 LukaSS recorded his drum parts for “Nihilist”. Than me and Dreadrock focused on learning and practicing the riffs, writing lyrics, arranging vocal parts and from December 2014 till February 2015 we recorded vocals, guitars and bass. In the meantime I had a nose surgery and was unable to play rehearsals or gigs untill April 2015. After that we came back to playing live and decided to show new tracks from “Nihilist” to see how people react to them. In June 2015 after choosing a local INVENT SOUND STUDIO we started to mix the new album. When It was ready we started searching for a polish label that would release our new album. All the previous albums were released by foreign labels, from Russia, Japan, we finally wanted a local label support and scored a deal with polish Selfmadegod. “Nihilist” will be out on 01.02.106.
2.In February you have a new album coming out, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording and also how does it differ from the stuff you have released in the past?
Sfenson: It is definitely our most grindcore album. All the previous LPs had somewhere around 12 tracks, this one has 17. The production is a bit less “bassy”, there is a lot less shredding which is a big feature of brutal death metal. Instead you have more grind/crust type of riffing. But elements of brutal death metal are still present in our music in tracks such as “Vain In Cage’ or “L.A.W. (Lost All Worth)”. Also Screams have definitely become a big factor on this album. Believe it or not, this is the first 100% UNBORN SUFFER album , on all the previous ones we always had some guest appearances, cover songs and/or old songs re-recorded. None of that is present on “Nihilist”, no covers, no guests, no old stuff re-recorded. In the end you have a closing track “Nervous Breakdown Of The System”, I think it’s the slowest thing UNBORN SUFFER ever played, almost no blast beats, clean guitars. You will find a lot of new things in our music but you will also hear that it is still an UNBORN SUFFER album.
3.This is the first full length to be released in 4 years, can you tell us a little bit more about what has been going on during that time span?
Dreadrock: Well… when you’re drinking a lot, then time’s going very fast! That was a very busy time for us. We had several line-up changes during that time – two vocalists in turn left us. Then we started playing as trio with me and Sfenson on vocals. Now - after few years we’re sure that this is the best way for us. During that 4 years we’ve played several dozen gigs across Poland. We’ve also recorded and released two albums: “Live Suffering” (live album) and “Revisited Suffering” (compilation). Composing material for “Nihlist” also took us a lot of time. So, as you can see, we had a lot to do. Of course, 4 years is a quite big break between full-length albums, but playing and releasing heavy music in Poland isn’t easy. You can’t always do whatever you want and however you want. Releasing full LP one time for few years is still better, then doing nothing.
4.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the newer music?
Dreadrock: We like to write and singing about important things. We take lyrics seriously and spend a lot of time and work. There is no room for joking or doing something half-heartedly. Some people think that we have lyrics about dead fetuses, molesting dead bodies and something similar. That’s very far from the truth. We write and sing about condition of today’s society, enslaved by religion, human tragedies, beliefs, rebellions. For example, in our lyrics you can find stories inspired by priests molesting children, people fighting with regime, like Ryszard Siwiec or fighting with lies and slavery, like “Fight Club’s” heroes. Sometimes we also relate to our personal stories. I invite everyone to read our lyrics. It’s hard to understand, when we’re singing them, but it’s definitely worth reading.
5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Unborn Suffer'?
Sfenson: The name is taken from NAPALM DEATH’s track “Twist The Knife (Slowly)”. When we started the band in late 2001 we didn’t have a name yet so one afternoon I sat down with all the cassettes, CD’s of bands I listened to, started to read the lyrics and wrote down any “cool” lyric/word I came across. One of them was UNBORN SUFFER. Co-founder of the band and then-bassist Wojciech Dąbrowski loved that name and drew a logo which looked really badass. That’s how the name UNBORN SUFFER came into existence.
The name has a very dark tone, It means that we simply suffer even before we are born, we suffer because of the life that awaits us after we exit our mother’s womb.
6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
Dreadrock: Our normal concert has 30-40 min. length and it’s consists from 20-30 songs (lol). Our concert are mix of energy and fury. We like to improvise, so you will not find similar shows with some kind of choreography on our gigs. Our priority is sharing our energy and feelings with people. We talk a lot with our audience, inviting them to dancing and fighting near the stage. If you want to fully understand us and our music, than you should see our shows. We’re kind of some “live-band” – you’ll find our biggest values on concerts. We love playing music and I think, that we show that on stage.
I don’t want to choose our best shows. I still want to believe, that the best will be in the future. We recalling welcome most of our shows from the past. Both the small and the big ones. Off course, playing with famous bands like Suffocation or Cannabis Corpse was valuable experience but we have also a lot of great shows in smaller cities like Gostynin, Płock, Włocławek where audience was really crazy. Of course, playing in our home city – Bydgoszcz is also very valuable for us. These shows have a specific atmosphere every time. We’re planning to do some special concert here in Bydgoszcz for our 15th anniversary in this year.
7.Do you have any touring or show plans once the new album is released?
Sfenson: Yes, definitely, new concert dates are coming in daily, It’s best to follow us on www.facebook.com/unbornsuffer for new concert dates.
8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your newer music by fans of brutal death metal and grindcore?
Sfenson: I would be more capable of answering this question in, for example, a month time. But what I can tell you now, from few reviews that appeared before album release, and few radio plays of tracks from “Nihilist” that the response is awesome. People are really digging this album, praising the production, the aggression, pre-orders are coming in. everything seems to be going “according to plan”, so to speak.
9.What is going on with some of the other bands or musical projects these days that some of the band members are a part of?
Sfenson: Our drummer LukaSS has released a second album with his other band, grindcore formation NORYLSK, called “Cathlotic Dictatorship” via Selfmadegod on 15.07.2015 and I released a second album with other band I play in, KONTAGION, entitled “[R-!-E]LEN+LESS” on 22.06.2015 via Infernum Media. We play a mixture of industrial, groove and death metal with some djent influences. You can check out both of our bands on www.facebook.com/norylsk and www.facebook.com/kontagion
10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
Sfenson: honestly I don’t know yet. “Nihilist” is just out and we only have one new song written. We haven’t talked yet about what the next album will look like, there is too much going on with “Nihilist” now, we will see, maybe It will come out spontaneously, or maybe we will pre-plan everything from scratch. I personally have two plans in my head for the next album – coming back to our death metal roots from the first albums OR doing even more grindy album then “Nihilist” – 20,25 tracks, 30 minutes. But that’s just my propositions.
11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your newer music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
Dreadrock: There was a many influences from a lot of genres. Most of our favorite bands of course play death metal and grindcore. My riffs and vocals on “Nihlist” were inspired by many different bands, like Dying Fetus, Napalm Death, Celtic Frost, Pig Destroyer, Antigama but also by some other polish bands and few Czech grind bands like Spasm, Pigsty and Gutalax (lol).
Personally I really enjoy different genres. I love electronic music, like house, big beat and trance by Daft Punk, The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim and The Chemical Brothers. On the gym I always listen to Scooter and Paul Oakenfold (lol). From the other side I of course listen to many rock and metal genres. I love classic bands like Led Zeppelin, The Doors but also Limp Bizkit, Korn and Static-X. Lately I was on Suicidal Tendencies and Slipknot concert and they still kick ass. My friends from band are unfortunately not so open minded like me (laugh). They listen mostly to extreme metal, Vader and Iron Maiden.
Sfenson: Well, I have to say he’s right to some extent as far as my person goes. J It’s mostly metal, and the extreme types of music ( thrash, brutal death, grind, a bit of crust), but I really got into grunge and industrial music lately, same with rap and hip hop. I still respect bands like Queen, Genesis or Black Sabbath but I listen to them very rarely. LukaSS mainly listens to black metal and polish metal bands but he also likes Dead Can Dance which, I think, will always be out of reach of my comprehension J
12.What are some of your non musical interests?
Dreadrock: Well, we are pure musicians, so we’re addicted to drugs, sex and alcohol. Sometimes we’re also like to beat our women, but that’s just for sport. But seriously, we’re doing some boring and normal proffesions in our daily life. Besides job and music I like to spend my free time with movies and books. Lately I’m again reading novels from my favorite authors: H.P. Lovecraft and Stanisław Lem. I also like to read some historical books. Last time I also watched new Star Wars (quite good) and really great movies like “Carnage” by Roman Polanski, “Birdman” and “Macbeth” with Michael Fassbender. That was really inspiring experience. I have wide interests so I’m not feeling bored, when I have some time for myself. To be honest, I don’t have enough time to read all the books and to watch all the movies, that I want to.
13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Dreadrock: I have only one motto: do everything what you like or love, but don’t hurt anyone. Unless someone is asshole or stupid. Then you can hurt him… a little bit.
Please support and follow us on facebok.com/unbornsuffer. There will be a lot of new stuff very soon. Please support bands and heavy extreme music in Poland.
Thank you very much for the interview.
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