A really great band are the Spanish SCENT OF DEATH. With their latest recorded "Woven In The Book Of Hate" they released a really crushing mixture of old MORBID ANGEL meets IMMOLATION and they managed it to get a great raw and brutal sound. It's time to let Jorge (guitars) introduce his band!

Hi Jorge! What's up in Spain? Everything all right in the SCENT OF DEATH camp?
Hell-o from Spain, my friend, here Jorge, guitar of Scent of death ready for the interview. Everything goes well in the band. Yesterday the label tells me that we will play in may whit Dismenber in Vigo, so you can suppose that was a great notice for the band. We are anxious to play whit this legendary group, it will be great!!!!but we must work very hard for this gig, hehehe...

What's up with your drummer Alfred? Did he left the band? So, he was only mentioned as session drummer in the info sheet...
As you said, Alfred is a session drummer for the album and some gigs. Is a excellent drummer, but he lives in Girona (1000 km away from Ourense), and it's makes impossible the frequency in the rehearsals. It's a fucking situation, because he is one of the best drummers in Spain (his work in the recording is incredible), and the distance is a
handicap for the band. He only makes five or six rehearsals with us, and all was ready for the recording. We send him the songs with the drums patterns a month before the rehearsals. He played without any problem this patterns, but in his style, giving us a lesson of brutality and elegance in the art of drums, hehehe. We will try to play with in all the concerts we can, it's a difficult situation, but if he can't play with us in some concert, we will use our drum programming. We had spent a lot of hours of work in front of a PC in the composition of the drums patterns, trying to imitate the Alfred's style and we had obtained an excellent result, the programming sounds cool and very real. As I said in the first question, we will make some rehearsals with a new drummer in February, time will tell if he will be a part of SCENT OF DEATH. Till now the drum programming is a good substitute of a real drummer, we had make a lot of gigs to show our music whit this drums and the result is amazing, we destroy the stage, be sure!

Ok, let's start with a little introduction in your band. You were formed in 1998 and some members played in bands like SUFFER AGE or OSMOSIS. What kind of music played the bands and how did you start with SCENT OF DEATH?
Well, both bands were in a more melodic vein. Osmosis was the previous band of our bass player (carlos), they made a good Death-Doom influenced by the nordic style. They recorded a demo, but before this the band comes to an end for personal problems between their menbers. The same personal and musical diferences were the end of Suffer Age (the previous band the other guitar, Jorge). Scent of Death begins with the union of the sick minds of Jorge and Carlos...they wants to play more brutal stuff, more speed and intensity in a new band...They hired a rehearsal room and few months later, I began to work in this project...

In 1992 you released your first MCD "Entangled In Hate". How were the music on this record? Did you also played in the same stilll as on your actual longplayer? How many copies are around from this record and is it still available?
Yes, our first edition was "Entangled In Hate" a self-produced MCD. We are very proud of this piece of brutality. This Mcd was the result of four years of work, four years of personal searching of musical personality. The tracks (four songs of pure death metal, and two instrumentals) are a prelude of the material included in "Woven...". The MCD is formed by six songs, for a total time of almost 20 minutes. Four pieces of this "Entangled..." are fast and brutal Death Metal, and there are two short instrumental songs, one in the half part of the MCD called "Perpetual" with a acoustic guitar and a guitar solo, and all this is mixed with the sea sound from below. The second one is the sixth track, as it was an Outro, with acoustic guitars and a violin solo, for a total time of one minute.
We still are playing some of this songs in our live shows, and we are thinking in make a re-recording of the song called "Feeling The Fear" for our new record. Time will tell... We edit over 600 copies of this MCD (and a ton of promo-CDs) and now this edition is sold out. "Entangled..." was a good vehicle to achieve a place in the underground scene, as I said before, we are proud of this musical beginnings...

After the MCD you had an three years release break. Why did you take so long to record new stuff? Did you make some other songs in the meantime, which aren't on the "Woven..." record?
Well, we have a lot of problems during this three years. The economical difficulties, the expulsion of our previous drummer, the experimentation with the drum programming, a lot of fucking factors that means a big delay in the edition of our first CD. All this situations makes us strongest, we work in a project and no-one fuck us!!! We don't had another songs for "Woven..." we put all that we had in this recording, hehehe! Now we have new brand songs ("A Simple Twist Of Fate", "The
Sleeper Must Awake", "Man Kills, God Too" and "The Father's Sins"), fucking god stuff!!! You can await a masterpiece from us in the new record!!!

Your latest release is the brillant "Woven In The Book Of Hate" CD. I fuckin' love that record. Very deep and atmosperic death metal in the vein of IMMOLATION, with some hints of MORBID ANGEL or INCANTATION. What do you think?
Thanks for your words, my friend... Yeah, you have named two of the fucking masters of Death Metal... all in the band love both bands (IMMOLATION and MORBID ANGEL) and they are a big influence for us, we admire their music and their attitude. Other influences for us? Bands like HATE ETERNAL, UNNATURAL, ORIGIN, DISINCARNATE, SUFFOCATION, BEHEMOTH, DEATH, GORGUTS, DECAPITATED, GORGASM...

The record were released on Blood Prod. The guy of the label Dani also make a fanzine, is it right? Do you appreciate the work of him?
Man, Dani is a fucking god of the underground Scene... as you said, he makes a fanzine (Bloody Zine), one of the older fanzines in our country (he is working in this zine since 1998)... Bloody Productions is a young label in Spain, but with a great vision of future and tons of underground contacts for a band like us. We are making together a great promotion, We are very satisfied with their work, the value of his help is inappreciable. If you want to know more about this label, check this webpage (www.bloodyprod.cjb.net) were you find all the necesary information about future releases, concerts, news, and a great online shop with tons of underground stuff for good prices.

Next to the reviews and interviews on your homepage, you got many great reactions. How many copies did you spread of the CD?
We have spread about 1600 copies and tons of promotional CDs... we spend a lot of money in the post office, hehehe...

You also covered "Day Of Suffering" from MORBID ANGEL. It's a very good cover, in deed, but hey it would be great to hear a IMMOLATION cover from you. I think it will be a real killer to hear a covertune from you!
Hehehe...you can be sure that in the next record you can hear a IMMOLATION version, we are working on the song "Father, You're Not A Father" and I hope that this song appears on our next work... pure musical sickness!!!

Your lyrics are most of it about antireligious topics. Why did you choose this kind of lyrics and what do you want to say with them? I think most of you got a Christian education, cause the fuckin' church is still really big in Spain...
Yes, it's true, Spain is a fucking catholic country, the church is very strong here, they have a lot of political and economic contacts... they are everywere trying to control the people, but I think that they are losing this control very slowly, because the actual government of Spain doesn't give
enough support... All the people suffers a christian education, of course, but the actual generations don't give a fuck for this doctrine, I think... We are against all form of religion, but we attack the catholical dogmas in special because this is the nearest religious doctrine for ourselves, full of hypocrisy and degeneration. We think that every person is a free entity, a god in him/herself, the people must live his life now and here, it's stupid to live a existence of sadness and represion for the promise of a "future life" or a christian "salvation"...

The productions is really great. I like the rough and not that overdubbed sounding stuff, you created. Is the GonSound studio a famous studio in your surrounding? Why did you choose another studio for the drum tracks?
"Well, "Woven In The Book Of Hate" was recorded in two studios. The drums were recorded in the Tribal Art Music studios in Girona and the rest was recorded in the Gonsound Studios (www.gonsound.com) in Vigo. The sound technician was "Gonso Pedrido, one of the best producers of extreme music in Galicia and a great guy, too. We are very interested in this technician for our work, because we knew a good number of recordings of Metal which were produced by him (UNNATURAL, EMBRACE ME OCEAN, SOK, DISMAL...) and all this stuff really sounds cool... He is a very qualificated professional and we learn a lot of things in his studio. The album was recorded in March 2005, during the weekends, and the mood of ourselves during the recordings was great, we are anxious to record our music, to make our first full-length CD. The process of recording was very intense, but the final product is very good, we are proud of our CD and our perseverance... We used two studios because Alfred said to us that he prefers to make the drum recording in the studio of BAALPHEGOR (his band).

It's not that often, that I hear really killer death metal from Spain. Next to bands like AVULSED, CEREBRAL EFFUSION, WORMED and you, I can't hear really good death metal (shame on me). Let me know, which other bands are great from Spain?!
We have a growing scene in Spain... Bands like KATHAARSIS (Black/death), ECZEMA (Death) XERION (Black), BAALPHEGOR (brutal Death), CAUSTIC (brutal Death), MACHETAZO (Grind), UNREAL OVERFLOWS (technical Death), LA MATANZA (brutal Death), ERED (Black-Death)... are only a few examples of great Metal bands from Spain. I recommend all these groups, you won't be disappointed, my friend!!!

Do you have good fanzines in Spain or are there also too much online mags as anywhere?
We have a good number of zines (BLOODY ZINE, ERA DEL METAL ZINE, MANDRAGORA ZINE, EL ULTIMO ABISMO, BLEAK ZINE, VAMPIRIA ZINE, ORFISMO ZINE, FRIEDHOF WEBZINE...) and labels (VOLIAC RECORDS, BLOODY PRODUCTIONS, NIGRA MORS, HECATOMBE RECORDS, NECROMANCE RECORDS, INDAR PRODUCTIONS...), but we have to work a lot to put the Spanish scene in the place that it deserves. I think that the Spanish scene is very infravalorated, and we have very good stuff to offer...

What about gigs? Did you play many gigs in Spain? Will you get the chance to play a small tour or something else outside of Spain?
Well, the idea of a tour is something very difficult, because all in the band have to work and the factor time is very important for planning a tour, we are very busy, hehehe...Till now, we have played with bands like UNREAL OVERFLOWNS, HAMLET, IMPERIOUS MALEVOLENCE, THERIOMORPHIC, VS77, MACHETAZO, CAUSTIC, EPHEMERAL, NECROSE, GOLDENPYRE, CHAMBER OF SHRED... We often play in Portugal, on festivals like the "Barroselas Metalfest" , "Fuck The Drummers" or "Buthery At Christmas time"...

Ok, I think that's it till now. At last let me know which sounds you appreciate at home and which recordings are your most favourite ones?
Each member of SCENT OF DEATH have a lot of bands between his favourites. For example, Carlos is a maniac of SLAYER (the old stuff, of course, hehehe), I like a lot the classic music and bands like OPETH and similar, Luis is a great fan of the old gods as VENOM, DESTRUCTION, POSSESSED and many more, Bernardo, the other guitar likes some guitar players as Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and the classic Heavy Metal as IRON MAIDEN, JUDAS PRIEST, but we have in common one point: our love for the Brutal Death Metal. This is really the kind of music we like to play, so bands as CRYPTOPSY, GORGASM, IMMOLATION, MORBID ANGEL are constantly in our CD players, hehehe. Only brutality shall prevail!!!
I think that the "ten commandments" for the metal are this recordings:
IMMOLATION - "Unholy Cult", MORBID ANGEL - "Domination", ORIGIN - "Informis Infinitas Inhumanitas", CRYPTOPSY - "And Then You'll Beg", DEVILYN - "Artefact", BEHEMOTH - "Zoskia Kultus", CANNIBAL CORPSE - "The Bleeding", SUFFOCATION - Pierced From Within", HATE ETERNAL - "I, Monarch" and ZYKLON - "World Ov Worms"

Thanks Jorge for your time. Hope you get it to Germany soon! Cheerz.
I think is enough and I hope not to bore anybody with my answers. Thank you very much for this killer interview. I hope this interview will introduce a little bit more to maniacs into the world of SCENT OF DEATH. And to you, metal head, if you want a copy of our stuff or some other question to do, you can write us per email. Check out our recently online website and write some blasphemies in our Hatebook, hehehe!
SMELL THE SCENT OF DEATH!!!!

Contact:
info@scentofdeath.com
www.scentofdeath.com
www.bloodyprod.cjb.net

Interview: Leif (March 2006)