INTERVIEW WITH FONDLECORPSE

Fondlecorpse, a band that emerged in mid-1996 and remains active with its essence intact to this day, that were unearthed in the horrific caverns of the underworld of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Over the years, Foundlecorpse has developed its own identity in its releases, which stands out and is clearly marked by its haunting sound, where we can melt our eardrums with its putrid melodies.

Presenting a discography that includes two albums, three EPs and several splits where we can discover a very interesting work carried out with total dedication, that allows us to dive into a perverse underworld full of horror, where the sound nightmares are a constant grusome annihilation of the most cadaveric aspects of the purest Dutch Death Metal.

Fondlecorpse is a band that needs no introduction to those who live in the underworld of Death Metal, so let's stick with the interview I had the honor of doing with the rotten brother Silvester The Goregnome and where he will reveal to us a little more about the activities of this band that comes from the depths of the Underground in the Netherlands.

GRUSOME DEATH METAL FULL OF HORROR AND MADNESS

C.N. - HELL-o rotten brother Silvester, first of all I want to welcome you to the perverse underworld of Cadaver- ic Noiseletter. Fondlecorpse is a band that formed in 1996 and to start this interview I would like to ask you to introduce yourself and tell us a little more about your band.
SILVESTER THE GOREGNOME - Hey man, it is good to be here and thank you for taking the time to do an interview with us we appreciate it a lot. I am Silvester the Goregnome the vocalist of Fondlecorpse, a couch potato, recluse, hermit, horror fiend, collector, devourer of movies, and all round mutant muppet. I was in a few bands in the 90s but most just never went outside jamming in a garage and a gig here or there. I played in a band called Moronic and we did a demo and a full lenght CDR in the 90s and some gigs. That was the most prolific one back then. I was in another band with Rogier that had just done a MCD but that band fell apart and so Fondlecorpse got more serious and jamming and recorded some stuff in 1998/1999 i think and put out a two track demo in ‘99 i believe. The name Fondlecorpse comes from a drawing i did which was a funny cartoon since i drew tons of gore/weird stuff for people for their magazines and such. I wrote Fondle- corpse and figured that would be a funny band name. I still think its a funny name that seems to stick in peoples minds and i have been doing the band ever since. What is Fondlecorpse?... I would say we are a bunch of deathmetal creating, horror / b-movie worshipping, old ass geek mutant gorehounds and 80s fiends!

C.N. - Over time Fondlecorpse has maintained a stable lineup as a band, can you introduce us to the band’s cur- rent lineup?
SILVESTER THE GOREGNOME - Although the band was created by me and my highschool buddy Rogier, think the band has had two core line-ups over the years. The first one was me and the Brussaard brothers till around 2012 i believe? but as far as drummers we always had to find session drummers for the most part. After the brothers moved on to big- ger things and toured the globe deservedly with a well known band, i shuttered the band. But within the same year i think my good friend Rogga Johansson offered to help me out and he has been a solid part of the band since and together with Cyco Bill Greenwood on drums. The latest Line-up that recorded is me Silvester “The Goregnome” Koorevaar on Vocals, Rogga Johansson on Guitars, Anung Un Rama on Bass, Brynjar Helgetun on Drums for this release.

C.N. - Although the band was formed in 1996, the first recording of your discography only appeared six years later in 2002, the split made with Inkblack released by Oakking in 7’ vinyl format. What can you tell us about this split?
SILVESTER THE GOREGNOME - That is usually the confusion because online the timelines are usually muddled, the first release was a demo tape from around 1999 that was very limited and only a handful of people even own it and that was later re-released as “The Chronicles of Pain” EP on Escaravelho Records. Which was recorded with Rogier the other original member of FC. We did a gig or two with some help of other musicians but couldn’t find other people into deathmetal around here and eventually he started a family and moved too far away to keep going so that put it on ice for a bit, however soon after i hooked up with the Brothers Brussaard and that is when things really took off. The guys also played in another band so we figured why not put out a release together which became the first EP just to have something out there which became the first split 7”. And the cover was done by Jake Karns a good friend at the time and he did a comic/zine that i helped out on called Tales From Uranus.

C.N. - In 2003 an EP was released called “Limbless” recorded with programmed drums due to the absence of a drummer at that time. Would you like to talk a little about this release?
SILVESTER THE GOREGNOME - Limbless was our first “full” release being a seven inch ep with six new tracks of our own material. But because deathmetal drummers, especially those who could do double bass were non existent around here, we were inspired by Mortician to just say screw it and program drums and just go wild and get something recorded and released instead of waiting for who knows how long till we could find a drummer. And that is how this seven inch record came to be. It was received pretty well i think and because of our weird tracks about Boglins and the insanity that is Death Through Feedingtube with a great sample from a Fallout Game which to this day still cracks me up and people seemed to dig it a lot too. At the same time we also recorded a track for the Razorback records Horror Hive compilation called “Razor- back Attack” based on the Australian giant killer pig movie Razorback that got released in 2004. And actually that is how me and Billy from Razorback started talking, because i asked him if the name of the label was re- lated to the obscure aussie killer boar movie, which it was and thus we became friends and the rest is history.

C.N. - In 2005, a CD compilation was released called “From Beyond the Crypt” where we can find the first two EPs and an exclusive track for this release. What was the reason for making this compilation instead of pre- senting something fresh and new?
SILVESTER THE GOREGNOME - We got asked by a local label Poser Crusher records together with Oakking Records if we would be interested in releasing our material on CD and also because at that point we only had released our music on vinyl and back then people were more into CD’s then vinyl. Also i ran a little distro and CD’s just traded better too. So we figured why not and combined the two seven inch records, the compilation song and four live tracks we recorded in the rehearsal room as extra’s and released it on CD together. We were hard at work building new songs and figured this would be a cool thing to just have out there while we worked on new material and people who liked CD’s more could get their hands on our material.

C.N. - With plans to do another split that ended up not happening and for that reason in 2007 your MCD was released through Razorback Recordings, entitled “Blood And Popcorn”. What can you tell us about this re- lease?
SILVESTER THE GOREGNOME - The material we had for that split was finished and waiting for a long time to be released and at some point it was clear it would probably never come out and Billy from Razorback said to just say screw it and release it as a MCD and we agreed it was taking too long for it to be released and we didn’t want the material to languish on a shelf forever. By that time we were already hard at work on the full lenght for the label. So we had to get a new cover to replace the one we had and have some artwork redrawn and edited and reshuffled everything and put it out as our first release on Razorback Records and that became the “Blood and Popcorn” MCD. And i am pretty pleased with the MCD it’s a solid little release i think to this day.

C.N. - In 2009, Fondlecorpse’s first album, “Creaturegore”, was released by Razorback Recordings. The sound became wilder than in previous works, while maintaining a perverse essence that makes this album a work of art in your discography. What can you tell us about this magnificent album?
SILVESTER THE GOREGNOME - I think Creaturegore was the pinnacle release of the line-up with the Brussaard brothers, Mathijs with his sol- id wall of Bass and Bas with his wailing guitar ripping it up like nobodies business, we were joined on drums by session drummer Robert Kovacic who was the touring drummer of Belphegor at the time so you know double bass was a piece of cake for him so he laid the solid groundwork. Erwin Harreman doing backing guitar on some tracks and we had a few guest vocalists and a synth intro by Slasher Dave. Also my long time dream of doing a track with Stevo from Impetigo came true on the track “Hideous” based on the Fullmoon movie of the same name. And ofcourse wrapped in the insanity of a cover by Adam Geyer who made the biggest most insane horror, b-movie, cult collage painting imaginable. The cover is a tribute to little rubber monster movies and everything else we loved as is the album itself. We did some cool gigs to support the album and a mini tour in Germany. It did pretty ell and i traveled to the states a few times to hang out with the horror hive which also were good times. The same year we also recorded a cover for the tribute to Repulsion release that came out on F.D.A Rekotz label where we covered the track “Crypt of Terror” with on drums our live drummer at the time Ronald van Kleef.

C.N. - It was in 2012 that I discovered Fondlecorpse when I got your “Chronicles of Pain” released by Escaravel- ho Records. Since then, I started researching more about what you had already released and it was also when I started paying more attention to your activities. What do you want to tell us about this EP?
SILVESTER THE GOREGNOME - Basically João of Escaravelho Records knew of the two old tracks and asked me if he could re-release them on vinyl. The songs were from like the late 90s and only were ever on a very limited cassette tape and are the only Fondlecorpse songs with Rogier the other original member of Fondlecorpse with whom i created the band and he is also responsible for designing the logo of the band. So i agreed to it and the 7” is probably the only way to ever get your hands on these tracks because i don’t plan on re-releasing them ever again. They will be special to this 7 inch record. The sound was way more death/grind like stuff back then though.

C.N. - In 2013, another split was released, this time with Embalming Theatre. I must say that this split is a mas- terpiece of sonic brutality, but I would like you to tell us a little more about this split, what do you have to say?
SILVESTER THE GOREGNOME - We were asked by the brilliant maniacs of Embalming Theatre if we wanted to join their B.E.A.S.T. series of 7” records where each letter of the word was a split 7” record and all the covers would link up into one big piece of art. Ofcourse we were psyched to do a release with those madmen so with Rogga kicking my ass back in action i went into the studio and we recorded two brand new tracks, and with some help of Cyco Bill Greenwood and help on bass by Fester which Jill from Razorback records hooked us up with to help us out. And it got released on Power it Up records.

C.N. - It was still 2013 when another independently released EP appeared in your discography, entitled “Set the Drill to Kill”. What can you tell us about this excellent work?
SILVESTER THE GOREGNOME - Well the Drill to Kill Single is just our side of the split as a single. On the 7” there was no room for the full songs with samples so on the cd they could be unleashed complete. The art we used for the split 7” and this single was from a portrait series of horror movies by Adam Geyer who did most of our artwork for albums. I was talking to him about the new release and he showed me the Driller Killer art he had done and i always loved that movie about a tortured artist so it fit and so i wrote a song about the Driller Killer and a track about Tobe Hoopers Funhouse so we put it out ourselves with the help of Jill Girardi of then Deadbeat Media and J.R. Torina of Slaughterhouse Records as a single to go with the 7” records we sold.

C.N. - Now it’s time to talk about another split entitled “BEA(S).T. (The Box)” released in a special box with five 7’EP, where we can find bands like Mesrine, Dead, Embalming Theatre and FUBAR. This release is a relic where excellent bands are present that transform this release into something special. Tell us now about this amazing split?
SILVESTER THE GOREGNOME - This boxed set i think was a box with the complete B.E.A.S.T. series, so it collects all the loose vinyls in one set of white vinyl records and i think had a picture disc with new material by Embalming Theatre and a Poster of the complete artwork of all the combined 7” covers. So a must for any Embalming Theatre Fan and limited to 100 copies i believe also on Power It Up Records.

C.N. - Your second album would only be released in 2017 by Angry Couch Potato Hermit Records where the brutality presented remains very present in the insane sound mutations that you try to leave well marked in your sound. Tell us about this album too?
SILVESTER THE GOREGNOME - I generally try and figure out a subgenre with every album, for this one i mainly grabbed space horror as the focus mostly and Sci-Fi movies. So that was the loose framework for this “Dark Contagion” album and then Adam Geyer did the art that tied it all together. And i must say he outdid himself again and made some awe- some artwork for this whole album. The cd has a song about a cool RPG called Mutant Chronicles, a track with influences from the PC game Dead Space and the Thing, and Horror movies like Dark Side of the Moon, Leviathan (1989), Terrorvision, Aliens, Predator and Split Second a great movie with Rutger Hauer set in a semi flooded London. Soundwise me and Rogga were just sparring about what it should be and i figured i felt like just doing stripped down solid chainsaw ripping in your face deathmetal and we continued the style we started on the split with Embalming Theatre. I think it all came together pretty sick and i still like looking at the release and all the art.

C.N. - “The Temple of Elemental Evil” is the title of your latest work, a 7’ EP that features two new tracks. I know that this release was also released in a special edition by Escaravelho Records. What can you tell us about this new release?
SILVESTER THE GOREGNOME - This is our newest offering after quite a while, the last few years i was consumed between my job and being a caregiver to my old man who had a bad stroke so a lot of time was spent in hospitals and physical rehabilia- tion places. While i always have kept working on something or another, time just passes and there was never time it felt like to actually put stuff out and most of the time i was exhausted. During this time we did write new tracks, i wrote lyrics and half finished lyrics and worked on concepts, had some art made and the loose parts are there but have yet to be put together and be released. Hopefully this one is the start to work on the other ones of these releases and will come out this year 2025 finally... fingers crossed i just need to finish the lyrics and record and mix vocals and it will be done. The release i wanted to be about something i enjoyed and had good memories off, which was playing Dun- geons and Dragons in the always fun Satanic Panic years. And one song is about a famous TOEE Module from the Gygax era. The amazing art was done by an artist called @Kalmahul and feels like it could be the cover of a module or sourcebook. I have to say having these songs and working on it on and off kept me sane and going during some tough years and it is also a tribute now to my deceased father who sadly passed last year. So it is a special release to me. We released the vinyl together with our good friend João who has helped us out also over the many years and while we released the tape together with Jill Girardi and Deadbeat Media and the gold and orange marbled vinyl versions. Escaravelho Records released the blue/grey color vinyl for his label.

C.N. - After reviewing Fondlecorpse’s discography, where we can find an interesting underworld of gore and horror with your covers and lyrics, I would also like to ask you to let us know a little better about the message you intend to convey with your lyrics?
SILVESTER THE GOREGNOME - Fondlecorpse has always been a vehicle for showing my love for horror movies and B-movies and whatever else i love. Growing up in the 80s was great because of all the weird ass things companies could get away with that warped my brain and the horror was glorious. The stuff on tv was full on metal, creatures, mutants and all kinds of awesome oddball characters. It was the age of the splatter movies the video nasty lists, the gross outs, the VHS boom, and the cheesy fantastic era of creatures and monsters. Back then even the cartoons were littered with monsters and mutants and such, Jace and the Wheeled war- riors, Inhumanoids, Blackstar, He-man, Mighty Max, Thundercats the list is endless! How could any kid growing up in that time not be influenced by such greatness and have their minds warped to worship at the altar of horror, nastiness, mutants and all round weirdness! I collect tons of weird mutant/creature action figures, comics and old horror comics, 2000AD, old RPG’s, miniature game stuff (currently i am immersing myself into Necromunda again) you name it it all swirls in my brain and ends up as Fondlecorpse songs or concepts. It is like what is in my brain and all my passions splattered over deathmetal riffs. FC is a musical representation of whats in my head and in my room. I am surrounded by all the stuff i write about. So the songs will always be horror / b-movie / Mutant / Creature weird shit worship. I am being a champion for the outcast the creatures and the mutants of society. Also Creatures and monsters are my preferred tools to eradicate humanity with and are the heroes in my world. I hate people mostly so i don’t want to have them in songs as the protagonist too much, i rather have a horde of maniacal little crea- tures or animals fucking shit up and eradicating mankind. That sort of stuff makes me smile. Some people get it, some people don’t. I just want to make weird ass Deathmetal and enjoy myself.

C.N. - I know that you are quite active in the musical underworld, do you want to talk a little more about that? Tell us about your label and a little more about the graphic work you have done that you think is relevant to mention?
SILVESTER THE GOREGNOME - Well “my label” is just because i always was very DIY for the most part and like to keep things in my own hands so i can make sure it is the quality i want it to be, no label is crazy enough to sink in the amounts of money into a release that i do really, but it gets made the best it can be so that is why i do it. And it is cool to have a direct line to the people who support the stuff and get feedback. As for graphic work at this point in my life i must have worked on hundreds of releases be it CDs, LPs or Tapes for tons of labels and bands and any other merch item you can imagine, shirts, zines, catalogs, adver- tisements, websites, stickers you name it i probably worked on some of that stuff. It also is a problem because i should have said no more so i could actually put more of my own stuff out over the years because there is only so much time in the day. You help everybody else get their releases out and have no time left to work on your own things. Still to this day every weekend ill be working on something metal related. Some projects i worked semi recently on was restoring and touching up old zines in photoshop for the zine book layouts i did of Uniforce Magazine the collection book from Mark from Impetigo and the recently released SCAB MAG book a collection of zines from Steveggs that were put out by Evilspeak Productions. I am glad they are done and out though because that restoring stuff took months and months to complete. Did some work for Necroharmonic who is putting out some sick stuff soon, finished some Massacre layouts for my buddy Kam, a cool shirt for Paganizer. Helped Jill from Razorback/Kandisha Press on her cool book design for a book she released with her friend called “We’re not ourselves today” which is a cool bundle of horror stories they wrote with awesome art by Corlenscope on the cover. And probably a stack of crap i am forgetting. I am always busy on something for someone in the underground.

C.N. - What are the plans for the future and what can we expect from Fondlecorpse?
SILVESTER THE GOREGNOME - I am hoping to finish two releases that have been on the shelf for the last few years, we finished the musical side and the instruments are mixed and just waiting on the vocals to be laid down and i have to get over this brainfog and general burn out and finish the lyrics and record vocals so we can put those out. On the list are a split or two/three and then work on a fresh album. But first i need to get these two old records out the door and sorted. Also there might be re-releases of the old Razorback material in the works for the near future hopefully and get those back in print? we will see.

C.N. - Now let’s talk a little more about the current underground scene, which is very different in many ways from what it used to be. What do you think is positive and negative about it now, and in your opinion, where will this shit going with all this current nonsense?
SILVESTER THE GOREGNOME - Positive is probably the internet and making it very easy to find things and connect to people and have the world at your finger tips, it’s easy to do more yourself these days with the ways technology has improved especially in recording stuff and if you want something you can find it easier then having to find the right paper catalogue to order stuff from and find out who released something pre-internet days. Some would say streaming and such is great but i guess that is a preference. I will always be more into the physical side of things myself though. Negative well... it feels like a lot of the infrastructure we used to have offline is gone and somehow the un- derground scene feels smaller and the underground feels less connected which is weird since everything is available online. Postage and bullshit import taxes are some of the big killers of the old ways that wiped out a whole ton of distro’s and small labels doing the more obscure fun stuff, killed a lot of trading and just send- ing stuff around the globe. Because we did love to trade anything and everything when it was still affordable. Less flyers, less xeroxed zines, paper catalogs the fun things that are missed. The Camaraderie seems to be less these days and people not helping eachother out as much it feels like. I feel like in the snailmail days the con- nection to things was more real, everything had stories attached to it of how and where you got something or befriended someone, xeroxing flyers at the local supermarket or copyshop and be more hands on with stuff. Then again i am a misanthropic hermit so who knows i would like to be wrong about this, so please prove me wrong and plug me into the new underground kids get gramps some killer new stuff and let me know where the new hangouts are with brutal stuff.

C.N. - Now speaking about the Death Metal scene here in the Netherlands, this being a country where great names and references of Death Metal emerged in the past, do you think it is better or worse? How do you see it now and what bands would you like to suggest to us?
SILVESTER THE GOREGNOME - Well i live around Rotterdam and the city council have done their best to eradicate most venues and cool hangouts here. Almost all the places i used to go to and trash my head off do not exist anymore. One of the last venues is the Baroeg but they have been trying to close that down for a long time. They are now demol- ishing the old building to build a modern new venue. We will see if that is a good thing, or the death of it being venue for the underground. Only takes one big company like Mojo concerts to get their hands on it and then it will be dead. Also a lot of practise spots are gone, the studios we had here are gone since we used to have Studio Excess here where many a classic DM record was recorded, i miss that place. To me it feels a lot of the infrastructure we had has disappeared locally. On the whole though we have some people still doing festivals like Grindhoven and Bloodshedfest and they are being set up by dedicated under- ground people. So things still happen in that respect for the real underground. And maybe stuff happening in city squats but i am not tapped into that vein anymore these days. Hopefully the kids have cool shit to go to still. As far as bands one band that also inspired FC back in the day was the dutch band Dissect with the Swallow Swouming Mass cd that shit still rips to this day. Most stuff i would list is old shit everybody already knows to be honest.

C.N. - Before I end this interview, I would like to thank you for taking the time to answer the questions and for letting us know a little more about Fondlecorpse. Now, I would like to leave this space open so that you can leave a note here of anything you think is important that was not covered in this interview. You can also thank me or simply tell whoever you want to fuck off, the space is all yours...
SILVESTER THE GOREGNOME - Well first all thank you for the interview it is very appreciated. And if anybody wants to find us check the socials at instagram, bandcamp and Facebook.

Interview made by Danihell Slaughter.