Интервю с Jonas (RESISTANCE)

Hello Jonas! How are you doing?
I’m good thx, with our album finally coming out, I’m more than well 🙂

First of all please introduce yourself.
Well, I’m Jonas Sanders, drummer playing for Resistance since 2009, two other Belgian bands (Emptiness – Komah) and NYC band, PRO-PAIN since last October.

Some of the Bulgarian metal heads knows Resistance like one of the support bands of Death Angel’s gig in Sofia (17.032011). Please tell more about Resistance to those who weren’t on that show.
Resistance was created in 2004 by Ben (Bass). After three full albums, several European tours with bands such as All Shall Perish, Kataklysm, Pro-Pain, Misery Index, Death Angel, the band is releasing its 4th cd entitled “To Judge and Enslave”. (see a review here)

You play extreme deathcore. How did you decide to combine these deathcore “screams” and the guttural vox?
It is a combination of the music we listen to and from our influences we wanted to create something even more extreme than ever heard before. The base of songs lies in the music itself and the vocals on top of this shape the song as one. The two distinct parts of the song together characterize our style. Xerus’ unique voice seals the identity of Resistance.

You just released your fourth full-length album called “To Judge And Enslave”. Tell us more about it – the whole concept of the album and who made that kickass cover?
Lyrics are about salvation, desperation, the fear of judgments, how prays or will can be ignored etc etc. It’s pretty dark and depressing actually 🙂
The music was meant to be darker and deeper than previously. The lyrics, vocals and music appeared to match naturally during the writings.
The cover was made by Olve/Neraath (Enthroned, Emptiness) in the Blackout Multimedia Studio in Brussels, Belgium. We know him for couple of years and in a way we always wanted to work together one day. His work fitted perfectly with what we imagined as artwork for this album and we were stunned by the result. He understood everything and his talent turned our album into a real work of art.  Thanks to him!

I love the first track “The Descent” which is actually an instrumental, but not a typical melodic one. How did you decide to make it with such heavy sound?
We wanted an intro for this album since we first thought of it. This track was written in the middle of the whole album process and we wanted it to relate to global mood of the album.
Combine the speed and heaviness Resistance has always used with the will we had to make our music more technical, evolved and interesting.

The fifth track is called “E.n.s.l.a.v.e.d.”. Why there are dots? Is there any special meaning behind every single letter?
Each letter is a word beginning a sentence in the lyrics.
Eradicate
Nailed
Slaves
Loathe
Abused
Vicious
Eradicate
Destruction

The track also contains the guest vox of Leif Jensen (Dew-Scented). Whose idea was that?
We always had guests on our albums so it was sort of missing at one point. Oli saw the perfect spot on „E.n.s.l.a.v.e.d.“for one guest vocalist.

And why exactly him and this track?
We know Leif for a long time as Oli worked with him in the past and we shared the stage with Dew-Scented couple of times. We wrote „E.n.s.l.a.v.e.d.“ and we had sort of thrashy part in it and what a better thrash voice than Leif’s! He had couple of listens of the track and one month later he sent us what is now on the cd. This was what we wanted.

The best part of the album (for me) is exactly your one – the drums. You are pretty good drummer!
Thanks a lot, it’s really appreciated!

I really love the blast beats! Do you have any special technique? Please say some words to the young drummers out there.
Special techniques, not really, I just use the same as every other drummer. I try to constantly renew my play by playing drums every day and listening to nearly everything.

You are from Belgium. Tell us more about the underground scene there. Any good death metal bands that are not so famous (yet)…
Belgian has a pretty big metal scene. We are small but we have too many bands! Not many deserve attention but, some are really good. To name a few, we have Aborted which is pretty big in the international scene for couple of years now, Leng Tch’e is also touring Europe for quiet a long time, In-Quest one of the best Belgian band according to me and also Pestifer highly mentionable, a young but really good band from Liege (French part of BE). (Pestifer was one of the support bands of Kataklysm concert in Sofia, 22.05.2011)

So, do you remember that gig in Sofia? Did you like it here?
It was a good gig for us, the merch had its success and the place was packed. Of course, it was a bit rough because the bill was headlined by Death Angel a thrash metal band but we got great feedbacks and the audience seemed to have enjoyed our performance.

Would you come back to Bulgaria some time?
Nothing is planned in Bulgaria for now, but hopefully we’ll have a chance to come back there one day. We’d like that.

A new year just started, new album is out… What’s next for Resistance? Any new tours around Europe/The Balkans?
We have couple of exclusive Belgian shows planned between now and the end of February and in March we headline 2 shows in Czech Republic and 1 in Slovakia before joining Vader on the next BLITZKRIEG TOUR (Massive Music).
We are currently booking festivals too and we plan to join a big tour by September – October.

Thanks for your time and the nice interview. Please say some final words to our readers…
Thanks a lot for your interest in the band. Hope you will all enjoy our new album. Keep supporting metal!

We wish Resistance all the best and hope to see you again on our land!

Some places you can find Resistance:

Resistance @ Facebook
Resistance @ MySpace
Resistance @ YouTube