Polluted Inheritance – “…but on the other hand you can’t create your own style, because then they will say it won’t sell enough!”

One of the best bands (if not the best band) in our little country is without doubt Polluted Inheritance. They developed their own extremely technical Death Metal style and it’s time that people start to notice this great band! I stalked singer/guitarist Ronald and sent this too long interview to him. Fortunately, he answered all the questions. Read all about one of the most interesting bands in the Death Metal scene!

Recently, you’ve released your 3rd album called ‘Into darkness’ and you did it yourself. Were the labels so deaf to hear the quality music you offer, or were they afraid that your music is too much for many people?
I really don’t know what the labels these days are looking for in (Death Metal) music!
You can’t sound like, for example Death, or Morbid Angel, because then you’re a copy, but on the other hand you can’t create your own style, because then they will say it won’t sell enough! I understand labels have to sell to make money, but we offered them a completely finished product. They didn’t have to pay one cent for it. All they had to do was try to sell it, so I don’t know why they didn’t dare to take the “risk”!

How are the reactions so far? I think that this album is your best album so far. You also proved that a band does not really need a label to release an album. The production is extremely good (in contrast to the production of ‘Betrayed’ which was overproduced) and the artwork and packaging of the album is very good too. Did you arrange a deal with the studio to be able to pay for the production? I mean normally bands aren’t able to pay for a decent production (or at least they say so) but you pulled it off.
The reactions so far are very very good! Just read the reviews on our site and you can see for your self. This album is for sure our best album yet! It’s a perfect mixture of our first two albums. We paid for this album all by ourselves, (as we did with ‘Betrayed’, for those who didn’t know), and it has cost us a lot of money to get this result. Having a label to finance you is a lot easier, I tell you! We found a small studio in our neighbourhood who told us he could do the job. We believed in him and as you can hear…he did a great job! It is indeed very expensive to get a really good production. Luckily we found this “not so expensive” studio.

In the booklet I saw several interesting piece of a programming part. A lot of terms on quantum are mentioned, as well as some, to my field related, terms like for instance Turing machine. Is one of you guys a professional programmer or studied physics?
The booklet is made by a friend of us, Danny van Nes, who has also made the ‘Ecocide’ booklet, and the Betrayed booklet. He is a graphic-something and is also in computers. Whenever we ask him to make a cover for us he gets total artistic freedom. There is most of the time a hidden message in his artwork, for example: when you open the booklet you have to “read” it from right to left. You see the ball with all the “nerves” coming out, this means BIRTH, you can read the word if you look close. Then you see one “nerve” in the middle of the page and the letters DK (read: decay), and at the end, as it gets darker you can find the word DEATH (look very good!). There is also on the front of the cover a message written (in black letters!), see if you can find that one!

You didn’t order your songs by numbers but you used the letters of the alphabet to indicate the song order. Is there a deeper meaning to this or is it just to draw attention or make a difference from the usual?
There’s no deeper meaning in that one, just to do something different than the rest. This was also the artist’s idea.

Who came up with the album title? Does it represent the lyrics? You don’t write about gore topics or other ‘usual’ subjects for Death Metal bands (although “Final fantasy” could be seen as a typical lyric). What topics interest you to write a lyric about? Are the lyrics an important aspect of Polluted Inheritance?
At first Danny, the artist, came up with a title (God bug), but we didn’t like that one. It was not very “Polluted”. Then Menno came up with Into Darkness and we liked that one. The title is from a sentence from the song ‘Broken’ (the opening song), and, yes now I think about it, you can say it represents the lyrics from the album, as well as the Artwork of the album. The lyrics are usually about things that are real in life (Final Fantasy is a TRUE story! you can read this on our site). Some things are even autobiographic, about how I felt in some period of time (Inner peace, Growing distance). But the most songs are about what is happening in the world, for example: Angels Masquerade is about children used for sex tourism in Asian countries, Divine Capture is about people who are in a depression and then suddenly see “the light”, that kind of stuff. The lyrics are not the most important thing in our music, but they have to mean something to me.

You signed to DSFA Records for the release of ‘Betrayed’ but you left them a couple of years ago. Probably, because you weren’t satisfied with their work and promotion for you, right? You’re not the first band leaving them dissatisfied, Callenish Circle had the same experience. Don’t DSFA Records realize that they should put more work in the bands?
I don’t want to talk about that too much. At the moment he’s doing great with Within Temptation, so you can’t say he’s not doing a good job. Maybe he’s just a bit too selective in what band he should put his energy in, I don’t know. We had a deal for one record at that time, we did that one and that’s it.

After the release of ‘Betrayed’ you did a Dutch tour with Ministry Of Terror and Threnody in 1996 (I think it was). I saw you perform in Sittard, and I was the only one really enjoying your performance, and was banging my head. How did you experience this tour?
The tour was actually with Orphanage (Sorry, I have this condition…(Saldiac)). We have also did a gig with Threnody but we did not tour with them. The tour with Orphanage was great. We have seen a lot of stages with them and met a lot of people. I can imagine that people didn’t understand our music at that time, and couldn’t enjoy the show as you did. It is a very complex album (‘Betrayed’) and you really have to listen to that album several times to understand what is going on.
But the tour was great.

It became quiet around the band and as we (being Ricardo, Berry and me) started an underground magazine back in ’97, I decided to check up with the band whether it was still alive. As a result I did an interview with Menno. It appears to me that you did not play at many concerts in the last few years (am I wrong about this?). However, I did see your name at a few concert billings of gigs in Belgium. Did you build up a fan base there?
Because we live so close to the Belgian border we have more gigs in that country than in Holland, that’s why we are a little more popular over there. We haven’t played a lot the last few years, that’s a fact, but we are going to try to play a bit more, now that the new album is going to be released.

When I found out that you released the new album I sent an e-mail to Menno’s e-mail address. However, you told me that he wasn’t in the band anymore. Tell us why, did he leave or did you threw him out? His replacement is Steven Vrieswijk, who is also handling the guitar in the reunited Burial. Did Steven play in another band prior to Polluted Inheritance and Burial? How did you run into him, was he a friend of the band already or did someone recommend him to you?
Menno has stopped playing in Polluted after 12 fine years. We did not throw him out, it was his own decision. There was no hate involved, we parted as friends. His last gig was in April in De Piek in Vlissingen. Steven Vrieswijk has played the bass in a project where Friso played drums (El Nino), that’s how we met him. He is actually a guitar player but when we asked him if he wanted to play bass in Polluted he immediately said yes! He is working really hard to get the songs in his head (and fingers)…Polluted is not the easiest music to play. He’ll manage!

It’s obvious that you really dig technical stuff. Your music is without doubt some of the most technical stuff played. Is it a challenge to play as technical as possible without loosing the grip on the songs? You must realize that playing at this high technical level makes it a lot harder for the band to appeal to many people. Although I must admit that the current scene has several bands that play at a very high technical level too (e.g. Nile). You deserve respect to continue your own mission, but wouldn’t you like to make a record that will increase your popularity and result in a high selling rate? In other words, would you be prepared to write a more ‘commercial’ album to reach more people or become more popular? Probably not, as you would have done this already if you would have wanted this.
The first album we did was more straight ahead Death Metal. For the second we wanted to make it a little harder for ourselves, so we made the songs a little more complex. This was for most people a little bit too complex. With ‘Into Darkness’ we think we have found the perfect balance between the first two albums. It’s, for us, still interesting to play and for the people easier to listen to. I think we will continue making music this way. Making music is something from the heart. You don’t make music for other people, you make music for yourself. If other people like that music, then that’s great. If you start making music that you know people are going to like (even if you don’t like it) you will never last!

I already, very shortly, mentioned that the current Death Metal scene has reached a very high level of musical skills. Bands like Cryptopsy, Nile, Aurora Borealis and Dying Fetus all play very technical stuff but are also able to write some great songs and still sound brutal. Do you think that there is a limit to how technical a brutal Death Metal band can play?
I don’t think there is a limit to that. As long as you really know how to handle your instrument. You gave the examples yourself (you forgot Morbid Angel!) (Oops, my condition again (Saldiac)). They all play at a very high technical level, but they sound absolutely brutal!

One of the main differences between you and other brutal technical Death Metal bands, is that you seem to have no “need for speed”. That is you don’t have the urge to play fast. Why not? Is it because the fast stuff or blast beats tend to bore you?
Our speed is mainly in the bass-drums. Most of the time, when you hear bands playing this ultra fast music, they all sound alike. There are a few bands I like to listen to (mainly Morbid Angel) but most bands do bore me after a while. Don’t get me wrong… It’s technically very difficult to play the drums that way! But we just don’t like to make that kind of music.

In my review of Sceptic (a technical Polish Death Metal band) I make a difference between technical bands that play music that is more kind of accessible to many people, and bands that are hard to understand for most people. Some examples I gave were Death and Pestilence for the first sort of bands, and Cynic and Atheist as examples for the second sort of bands. Would you agree with this distinction?
Yes I agree. The second sort of band is what I call “musicians music”.

In the album review of ‘Into darkness’ I make a rather insane comparison of Bolt Thrower meets Watchtower to describe your music. Can you see some truth in this comparison or was I momentarily in a state of insanity?
It is indeed a strange comparison but I don’t care. As long as you like the music, it’s fine by me!

To what music do the band members listen to, is it mainly metal or also stuff like jazz or classical music (which can be very complex and technical too)?
Steven is the only member of Polluted who only listens to Metal, and keeps track with every new album or band that is released. Erwin, Friso and I are listening mainly to other kind of music, like Jazz, Guitar music (Steve Vai, Alan Holsworth, Mike Keneally, Frank Zappa) Friso is the only one who listens to classical music (The more modern composers like Edgar Varese). We don’t know anything about the new Metal bands that are around these days.

There are various technical metal bands that left their mark on the metal scene. Would you care to give your opinion on them? I have enlisted just some of them, or else the list would be endless.
-Atheist: One of the bands that really inspired us to play technical music.
-Pestilence: This band is one of the best bands the Netherlands have ever had (I mean only the first two albums)
-Cynic: Like the music but I’m not really fond of the vocals.
-Death: I have seen Death (and I really mean Chuck) a few times and he is my greatest inspirer. Seeing this man perform is brilliant.
-Meshuggah: Real brutal
-Queensrÿche: I only know them from the early beginning, just the first album, so I can’t give an opinion on that one.

Some of these bands (Atheist, Nocturnus, Watchtower) have reunited and Pestilence are trying to reunite too. It seems that the reunion virus has really infected the metal scene. What’s your opinion on this? Even bands that might be better off laid to rest, reunite, let’s hope the virus will stop soon. Particularly because there already are so many bands around, and we used to think that the scene was overcrowded in the early 90-ties. How could we have known?
If the music is still good, I don’t care if they reunite.

You told me that there was interest from a Canadian label to sign the band. Tell some more about it. Will they do a worldwide distribution?
The company is called GWN-recs.(Great White North) and has just started an office in Holland this year. The album is going to be distributed worldwide. Two Dutch bands have already signed at GWN…C of E and Necrology. We contacted GWN a few months ago. In Canada they said it was a “KILLER ALBUM”, and they wanted to distribute the album. GWN was the only company who dared to take the “risk”.

You’ve just released the album, but have you written any new stuff yet? Will it take another 5 years before you release a new album??
We are writing new material, and we hope we can release these songs a bit sooner. The reason why it took so long to record this album was mainly because of the finance.

What touring plans are currently being developed? Will you try to do an European tour as a support act for a bigger act? If you had the possibility to play anywhere you want to and with any band you want to, where would you go to and with which bands would you like to perform?
There are no plans at this moment, but who knows maybe with the help of GWN, we can do a tour someday. We are doing gigs here and there, mostly in Belgium (one gig coming up in Germany). If I could choose to play with someone, it would be Chuck Schuldiner (who isn’t doing very well at this time) (Yes, Chuck health suddenly went downhill again and he needs another operation to save his life, some fucked-up shit, let’s all hope he’ll survive…(Saldiac)).

You also have a website (http://rocking.to/polluted), so you must like this new media format. Do you think that it’s a new and improved version of the older underground thing like magazines and tapetrading?
This Internet and E-mail thing is much better than the tapetrading we did years ago! It’s not necessary to go and buy stamps and envelopes, or to buy magazines…one click and you’re there, download a song in a few minutes and you directly hear how a band sounds. No more waiting, much faster and easier.

What’s your opinion on programs like Napster (which is crap nowadays) and it’s better alternative Audio Galaxy? Can you understand that fans can’t resist the temptation to download an album before it’s finally released?
I did that too with several albums, and I don’t blame anyone doing this if you look at the prices you have to pay for buying a CD nowadays!

I though that it would be a short interview, but as it turned out, I kept on making new questions. But here’s, finally, the last question. Comments, stuff I forgot, contact address on so on. Cheers!
I really hope that people will take the time to listen to our ‘Into Darkness’ album! It’s worth it! And please visit our site and leave us a message. (http://rocking.to/polluted) Hope to hear from you all….p.s spread the word: POLLUTED RULEZZZ…