While true innovators within the grind-core genre are few and far between, those who strike out from the homogenized ocean of copped riffs and gory lyrics will tell you that adversity is a given. Being unique has its personal merits, but unfortunately, it carries more than its weight in consequences. In the case of Tasmania’s Intense Hammer Rage, applying the term «adversity» to their current predicament is a bit of an understatement. As reported here on Deluge, the Australian authorities recently raided I.H.R. headquarters, confiscating large numbers of posters, CDs, artwork, and even bassist/vocalist Chris’ personal computer. Rather than making a lame attempt at covering all the controversy over the group’s latest CD (entitled «Avagoyamugs»), along with a more standard Q&A session, I will turn the forum over to Chris himself, who was kind enough to speak with us on a variety of I.H.R.-related topics. Be it double-amped guitars, suppression of free speech, or South Park, Chris truly went above and beyond to answer all of our questions. In spite of all the bullshit he has had to endure over the past several months (along with drummer A.B. and guitarist Ricey), Chris has somehow retained his characteristic wit, which ensured the success of our discussion.

(Note: This interview was e-mailed to Chris only days before his personal possessions were pillaged by the feds. Hence, question #8 became a sort of cruel irony in light of the circumstances).

- (CA) The first thing I noticed about «Avagoyamugs» is the incredibly disgusting guitar sound. How did Ricey manage to do this (i.e. did he use alternate tunings, effects…)?

- (C) Hey Chris! Cheers for the interview, bro! Yeah, Ricey’s guitar sound is a wall of chunk! That’s the way we like it! He uses a Fender bass amp for bottom end and a Marshall Valvestate for crunch, the overall effect is a total sonic bombardment of extreme bowel loosening, heavyness!! We tune pretty god damn low as well, no effects, just good old distortion.

- (CA) The 3-vocalist approach fits IHR’s style perfectly, although I’d say that your vocals are definitely the most distinct of the three. How did you develop such an ungodly voice? Was it spontaneous, or just the result of gargling drain cleaner one too many times?

- (C) Thanks man, yeah, it’s cool having 3 vokills going on. When we all go for it, it can sound pretty fucking crazy! I’ve been making throat noises since I first got into metal, so I’ve had a bit of practice. A.B. and Ricey only started singing since our «Devogrind…» cd. They’re killer garglers now, and they’re getting better with every recording! It rules! Expect even crazier vox on our new stuff!!

- (CA) I see that the song titles and lyrical content on «Avago…» are even more depraved than on «Devogrindporngorecoreaphile». You even admit in the band bio that at times, you’ve managed to offend yourselves! Do you have to be in a certain state of mind before conceiving such perverse word-play, or do the lyrics just hit you out of nowhere?

- (C) Yeah, the content of «Avagoyamugs» is definitely more perverse than our other stuff!! It’s so offensive it has been banned in our home state, Tasmania!! (see question #8). AB, our drummer, wrote the lyrics for «Avago…» They’re definitely sick, but they’re all written based on something AB has read (he’s a book freak!) or seen on a film or whatever. So in answer to your original question, yeah, we get off our nuts when conceiving our perverse wordplay!!

- (CA) What bands did you grow up listening to? Would you also consider these bands to be your primary influences?

- (C) I first started listening to bands like Obituary, Carcass, Entombed, Grave, Therion, Massacre, Terrorizer, Suffocation, all the old stuff back in the early 90’s, and have been listening to death/grind ever since! I’d have to say these old bands might have influenced us to start a band, and our style to begin with, but I think these days we are influenced by all the fucking killer brutal shit that’s around now!

- (CA) If I were to look through your record collection, would anything surprise me?

- (C) Umm… I dunno, depends on what you were expecting, I guess!! If you’re thinking lots of ultra brutal death/grind with a few golden oldies chucked in, you’d be spot on! There’s also the odd PC game lost somewhere amongst it all!!

- (CA) Which death metal or grindcore releases do you consider to be the most definitive for the genre?

- (C) Is this a trick question? Our new CD of course!!! *lol!*

- (CA) Which death metal or grindcore releases do you consider to be the most disappointing?

- (C) I’d have to say, our first demo tape!! Not that it even deserves to be called a release really!

- (CA) If I were to access Tasmania’s criminal records, what would I discover about each of you?

- (C) Well, hopefully nothing, but ask me again in a few months time and things might be different. A couple of months ago we got a nice early morning wake up call from the police and customs officials bashing on our doors wanting to search our houses for offensive material related to our new CD «Avagoyamugs». Customs had seized a package of 197 CDs that Razorback had sent us, and weren’t too impressed by our taste in subject matter! They then proceeded to tear apart our houses, take my computer, all our lyrics & artwork and heaps of videos, CD’s, tapes and loads of other shit. We then had to go to the cop station to get video-interviewed, it sucked big time! They asked us heaps of stupid questions and thought we were totally sick for writing about the shit we do. I think they expected to find a massive pedophile ring going on or something, but they spun out when we were just 3 normal guys playing an extreme form of music. They still reckon we will be charged, but we still don’t know with what, or when we will find out. I’ve got my computer back now, but they still have all the other shit they took from our houses. It’s a total bullshit situation really, now our CD has been banned in Tasmania and possibly Australia, which makes trades and stuff a bit hard. We might be able to get the actual discs back they siezed, but not the covers, so it’s possible we will do up a censored version for sale in Australia, we don’t know yet if we’ll get them back at all!!

- (CA) What is the scene like in Tasmania? Is it difficult to get gigs?

- (C) The scene in Tassie is pretty dodgy really, it is starting to pick up a bit now, but a few years back it was full on, heaps of cool gigs all the time, but then it died in the ass. We haven’t played a gig for awhile now, but we’ll be getting back into it soon! It’s not really difficult to get a gig, it’s just a matter of getting people to show up.

- (CA) Have you played any shows on the mainland (Australia) yet?

- (C) No, not yet, but hopefully later this year we will get over to the mainland to play a few gigs with some of the sickos from over there like Omnium Gatherum, Miscreation, Sickness, Filthy Maggotty Cunt, Volatile. The scene on the mainland of Australia is going totally sick, we can’t wait to get over there and grind it up!

- (CA) Tell us about Flesh Feast productions.

- (C) Flesh Feast is a killer label from Spain run by Mike Morabito. They’ve released some brutal stuff like Morgue, Infected Pussy/Mucuprulent, Teratoma and they’ve been cool enough to repress our «Gory B.» recording onto CD, with the «Massive Sphinta Release» demo as bonus tracks. It’s got a sick new layout with killer art by Ricey. Hopefully it will be available in about a month or so.

- (CA) The new t-shirt designs look killer. When can we expect them to be available?

- (C) Cheers, man! Fuck yeah, I totally dig the designs. Once again our resident art freak Ricey drew the art for them, actually they feature art from the new «Gory B.» CD! Flesh Feast from Spain are also printing the shirts up for us and they should be out at the same time as the «Gory B.» repress, hopefully in about a month.

- (CA) Please tell us what sources you used for the following samples: a) «The Third of Five to Have Her Alive»; b) «I’d Rather be Retarded»; c) «The Corpse In Question Didn’t Say No».

- (C) The sample on «The Third of Five to Have Her Alive» is from an old Aussie jail flick called «Ghosts of the Civil Dead». The funny as fuck speach at the start of «I’d Rather be Retarded» is from a TV show called «Strangers with Candy». «The Corpse In Question Didn’t Say No» sample is from South Park, if I remeber correctly.

- (CA) I don’t recall which track this is from, but I remember there being a sample on «Devogrind…» where this guy says something about gay people’s poisonous sperm clogging their brains, or something to that effect. Can you tell us where the sample was taken from?

- (C) That sample was taken from an episode of South Park. The track it’s from is «Addicted to the Splatter» from «Devogrind…», and actually has nothing to do with the subject matter of the song.

- (CA) Does this sample represent the band’s stance on homosexuality, or was it all done in fun?

- (C) We would have used it because it was extreme and controversial, and funny as fuck of course!! All our shit has a humorous side to it! We seem to like using stuff that will piss someone off and get us in trouble, ha-ha!

- (CA) What are your favorite films of all time?

- (C) Hmm… shit, there are heaps I could list but a few off the top off my head are Evil Dead 1&2, From Beyond, Reanimator, Braindead, Predator, The Thing, Aliens, Star Wars, Day of the Dead, Cheech and Chong movies rule, The Matrix, umm… does the Simpsons count? We get into all kinds of shit really, we’re all movie/cartoon/comic fans in IHR.

- (CA) Your final words?

- (C) Ok, bro, thanks heaps for the interview! Watch out for a brand new I.H.R. 6 song mini-CD, out on the killer label Life Fluid Distro & Prod. from our home state of Tasmania, due later this year!! Stay sick and fuck censorship!!!

- (CA) Thank you for the interview, we at Deluge wish you to get rid of the censorship problems ASAP, good luck guys, see ya!

Visit official Intense Hammer Rage site @ http://clix.to/IHR

E-mail Intense Hammer Rage @ chris_ihr[AT]hotmail.com

All death/gore/grind freaks, write to Intense Hammer Rage:
IHR
6 Devon Street
Burnie, Tasmania,
Australia,
7320

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