AN NCS INTERVIEW: SICK REVIEWS

 

(Our friend and brutal death aficionado Vonlughlio [Blast Family] from the Dominican Republic rejoins us with an interview of the man behind Sick Reviews, a blog devoted to BDM.)

Back in 2014 I was looking for new bands and happened to stumble upon a FB page called “Sick Reviews” that specializes in Brutal Death Metal reviews. Thanks to this page I have found great bands from all over the globe (including Russia, Colombia, and Indonesia). The owner is Mr. Talbot, a rabid collector for more than 20 years and a connoisseur of the genre — and my interview of him follows:

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First, I would like to thank you for taking the time to do this interview for NCS, really appreciate it. As I mentioned, you are a collector and I would like to know from all your years of listening to metal, when and what album started you on your path into this particular genre?

Hi Rafael, first thanks for the interview! The album which have made me start getting into Brutal Death Metal I think was in 1996 with Trading Pieces from Deeds of Flesh, which is for me the first real BDM release to have been made! Before, we had Suffocation, Cryptopsy, and Pyrexia, but I never considered them as Brutal Death Metal. Trading Pieces in my opinion is the album which really created the genre — a bunch of BDM bands appeared after them and the genre was born!

 

How did you get into the Indonesian BDM scene? What chain of events led you to this or to a particular album?

My first Indonesian BDM release was Stench of Your Perversions from Bloody Gore in 2000! I don’t remember on which distro I got it, but the name of the band was announcing something brutal and was a guess from me 15 years ago! Of course, this album is totally cult nowadays, and I would add that Bloody Gore made me addicted to the Indonesian brutality!

 

At what point did you decide to do reviews for BDM, and when that happened did you have the name for the page clearly in your mind?

I started to do reviews for a Canadian printed zine called “Shrine of Echoes” in 2002, but because of a big lack of freedom in the choice of albums reviewed, I decided to stop in 2004. I started Sick Reviews in 2013 with the goal of reviewing the sickest BDM releases and also being totally free in my work. The name was a suggestion from a friend and I think it was natural to choose this.

 

You have a particular way of writing your reviews. Did you envision this from the beginning once you decided to start reviewing or is it something you developed over time?

For Sick Reviews, it’s a concept I had since the beginning, trying to review releases in a basic way, to reach people who have no idea what BDM is. Of course Sick Reviews is doing absurd and funny reviews without being serious, like the genre we are listening to, to make them a little less boring!

 

What are some of the highlights for Sick Reviews since it started? I know you did a t-shirt and stickers.

Sick Reviews was first in a printed magazine called “Fear the Dead Magazine”, but due to the different vision between me and the publisher, I left after one or two issues. After that, SR has been affiliated with many metal blogs from Nepal, Australia, and Indonesia. I have no intention any more to make it part of a magazine, so I can have total freedom with my absurd and blasphemous reviews! Sick Reviews has had three different shirts, and a fourth design with the first SR art is in the works now.  Stickers have been made, and posters/flags are cumming too!

 

Do you get promo copies or do you buy the CDs and then do the reviews? What is your modus operandi?

Sick Reviews buys all of what are reviewed, to have total freedom and also to not have the feeling of owing something to the band. The page has still received some free CDs since 2013, from totally great bands who found it natural to send a free copy for review and never wished SR to pay for it,

 

Your top 5 BDM albums of all time?

For the top 5 BDM abums, it;s really impossible to do, coz of the big number of masterpieces in the genre — but I’m trying with 20 (in alphabetical order)…

Brodequin – Festival of Death
Cerebral Effusion – Violence in Motion
Deeds of Flesh – Trading Pieces
Degrad – Lost Torso Found
Defeated Sanity – Psalms of the Moribund
Disgorge (USA) – She Lay Gutted
Disgorge (Mex) – Forensick
Enmity – Vomit Forth Intestinal Excrement
Excoriation – Excoriation
Fumes of Decay – Devouring the Excavated
Gorgasm – Bleeding Profusely
Internal Suffering – Chaotic Matrix
Inveracity – Circle of Perversion
Necrotic Disgorgement – Suffocated in Shrinkwrap
Orchidectomy – A Prelate’s Attrition
Pustulated – Pathognomonic Purulency
Pyaemia – Cerebral Cereal
Regurgitation – Tales of Necrophilia
Severe Torture – Feasting on Blood
Viscera Infest – Sarcoidosis

 

Again, thank for your time and can’t wait for the next couple of reviews you have lined up.

http://sickreviews666.blogspot.ca/
https://www.facebook.com/SickReviews