Born out of the dingy London back streets, THE ROTTED have risen up and established themselves as one of the UK’s leading extreme metal acts.
Though proud to be spawned in the death and extreme metal scene, the boys’ influences aren't just the ones normally associated with the style of music they create. THE ROTTED’s take on the genre comes from a completely different angle; It’s not the genre or style, it’s the attitude and delivery. As fans of classic rock, hardcore, punk, death, thrash and black metal, musical inspiration for ‘Get Dead Or Die Trying’ can be found in pretty much any decent guitar-based band of the last 30 years.
Altsounds had a sit own with Ben about all things The Rotted:
Altsounds: Lyrically what's inspired this album?
The Rotted [Ben]: Our lives, (mine in particular as I write the lyrics) but it’s basically about how none of us want or feel we have a part to play in what’s considered ‘normal society’. It’s about killing yourself with things that are bad for your mental and physical health in order to live a fruitful life (hence the album title). There’s crazy stories from the road. It’s just about the way we see the world in general, but with the cynical, more subtle sense of humour that was present in the later Gorerotted stuff. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, and we’re able to laugh at ourselves, so it’s not all doom and gloom!
Altsounds: Was it easier releasing "get dead or die trying "than say "a new dawn for the dead"?
The Rotted [Ben]: Well, I guess at the time of New Dawn… in the Gorerotted days, the cracks were beginning to show, we just didn’t know it then. We’d lost interest in a lot of what Gorerotted was about, and we were a bit lost.
Most of us had lost interest in the basic blasting death metal that we’d been lumped in with for so long, the whole gore part had got VERY tired, and we’d all been through some pretty hard times personally, so although there were some very good ideas on that album, some of them weren’t followed through properly.
This album has a totally different line-up, we’ve re-invented ourselves as a new band and all the limitations Gorerotted had placed on us have been lifted. We’ve got our buzz and our fight back! So there’s a lot of new energy and new ideas, and this is the album that we were the most stoked we’ve ever been to release. I can honestly say that my many years in Gorerotted have been merely a preparation for what’s to come with The Rotted!
Altsounds: What's changed the band since the days of "only tools and corpses"?
The Rotted [Ben]: Progression and band members! We’ve never been a band to stand still and over 6 years or however long it’s been since Only Tools... came out, we have done constant touring, practising and al the writing has given us new sounds and styles in the music. You just take what you know and build on it.
This is a new band, there’s only Tim and me left from that album. Even when we play a couple of songs off that album live, they sound very different, my vocals have evolved from those days, Nate’s style of drumming is completely different to Jon’s, the guitar work’s totally different, and it’s basically as if we’ve thrown a few cover songs into our set!
Altsounds: What's The Rotted currently up to?
The Rotted [Ben]: We’re waiting for confirmation on a couple of tours, it’s taken us a while to find suitable tours because I’m not sure what bands we even fit in with any more, but a lot of what we were offered was totally wrong for us. If all this comes together it’ll be a big deal for us and you’ll be hearing a lot more from us soon!
Altsounds: Although the release of "Get Dead or Die Trying" is still pretty fresh is their any new material in progress?
The Rotted [Ben]: Yeah, the guys have started writing music and I’m coming up with lyrical themes I want to explore. There’s a LOT of new sounds coming through now. As I said earlier, we’ve not limited ourselves the way that Gorerotted had limited us, so we’re looking forward to getting more experimental again, and most importantly, more free with the next album. Nothing will be held back, we’re not confined to a particular genre or fan base, we just stay true to ourselves and let the music do what it does.
Altsounds: How have Gorerotted fans taken to the new sound of the Rotted do you think?
The Rotted [Ben]: It’s been kinda mixed I guess, the vast majority of what I’ve heard has been really positive which is great. There are a few people who feel like we’ve betrayed them somehow! They don’t seem to understand the whole re-naming thing was precisely for people like them that wanted a gore band while we moved on to what we wanted to do. They can keep those albums, I’m proud I was a part of them, but they were then, and this is now. We’ve moved on. We also got people coming up to us saying they never liked Gorerotted but that they’re loving the new stuff because it has so much more rage, variation and fire to it.
Altsounds: In the song "Return to Insolence" the lyrics are "here we are again, only this time we have something to say", what is that something?
The Rotted [Ben]: I guess that line in particular is a direct reference to how in the past, my lyrics have been meaningless, they’ve been based on horror films, serial killers and other stuff that’s got nothing to do with me personally. Now I DO have something to say, and I’ve found my voice, ya know?
That song in particular is very much about the current climate of economical problems, the manipulation of the media, advertising, the idea of conforming to the “perfect” images that dumb fucking celebrity gossip and fashion magazines force onto people who are too fucking stupid to think for themselves. While the human race is panicking and running round like a bunch of ants being fried by kids with magnifying glasses, we’re looking in with nothing to do with any of it, just laying back, doing our own thing and living our lives as decent people that think for ourselves.
Altsounds: Since the release of your latest album you've played quite a few large scale festivals, how was it coming back to all that from the break you guys had?
The Rotted [Ben]: Well we never really stopped, every year was getting bigger and bigger for us. We’ve always played summer festivals and obviously since Wacken we’ve been a part of the biggest metal festival on the planet! The weirdest thing that happened I would say was when we almost went back to 2002 a few months back. We played a German fest with loads of straight up death metal and grindcore bands. Stuff I don’t really listen to any more and I really don’t know how we fit in with all that. Most of those crowds just want fast and ultra brutal stuff. For the last couple of years we’ve been playing on diverse bills with hardcore bands, black metal bands, thrash bands, punk bands, drone type bands, anything really. I much prefer doing that kinda stuff, because how someone can spend an evening or weekend watching a bunch of bands that all sound the same is beyond me!
Altsounds: What's the bands plans for the New Year?
The Rotted [Ben]: Touring, writing and living! On a personal note I’m leaving London and moving to a small harbour town in Somerset to get away from all this shit that I hate seeing every day. I’m going to spend my days walking in the hills, drinking cider and forgetting all the crap this city’s got going on. We’re just going to continue to live our lives the way we do and write the music the way we do.
Altsounds: Since the departure of bassist Wilson how has Reverend Trudgill taking the hectic lifestyle that the rotted has come to live by?
The Rotted [Ben]: Haha, you’re obviously not too familiar with Trudgill! We’re talking about a modern day Aleister Crowley here! He’s quite the eccentric, he lives alone in a weird house full of leather chairs, old clocks and taxidermy, he tattoos people, he runs his own fucked up religion that has a strange underground following, he’s a drug fiend and a total deviant!
It’s great to have him with us, he’s been a good friend for many years and he brings his own uniqueness to the band.
Altsounds: Please use this space to promote whatever you want.
The Rotted [Ben]: Cheers for getting in touch, our album “Get Dead Or Die Trying“ is out on Metal Blade now, you should be able to get it in most decent record shops as well as online stores. Check our stuff at
http://myspace.com/therotted we’re going to have quite a bit going on in 2009 so come on out to the shows!
You’re all welcome, there’s no uniform, we ain't about haircuts or anti-haircuts, or what t-shirt you want to wear. We just play the fucking music. No gimmicks and no bullshit! See ya on the road.
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Say No More interview 18/4/08
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The Rotted Q&A Interview with Ben
