Interview

Guitarist/Vocalist Thoroughly Enjoys Stripping Bones Of His Fans

When not defiling graves and taking the lives of their native Creepsylvania inhabitants as they sleep, Ghoul creates thrashing grindcore songs about the mayhem that occurs in their pathetic, pit-of-Eastern-Europe town. Whether it's battling marauding bikers, opposing Commandant Dobrunkum's dictoral decree against rock ‘n roll or just songs about grave robbing and consuming the succulent flesh of humans, Ghoul writes hilarious songs with catchy rifsf that skaters dig. These above-the-catacombs dramas play out on stage, too, in a Gwar-like-blood-spewing fashion.

The hooded miscreants once again arose from their tombs and took a barge to North America, Count Dracula-style, to join up with blackened thrash titans Skeletonwitch and NYBM force Black Anvil. In order to bring you the following interview, I had to lead the guitarist/vocalist Digestor into the closest thing to his catacombs, a rat-and-roach-infested alleyway. He felt more at home in that environment.

Rex_84: How is your tour going with Skeletonwitch and Black Anvil? Being a flesh-eating ghoul, how do you find the strength not to eat your tour mates?

Digestor: Our tour mates are absolutely disgusting! They stink like rotting feet tallow. They are just repulsive, so it’s kind of hard not to eat them. We find a lot of sustenance in the audience. We kill them nightly and have a fresh stock of meat in our van. It keeps us sated. The tour is going great. The whole tour has been killer every single show.

Rex_84: Besides eating audience members, what else can we expect from a ghoul performance?

Digestor: Decapitations, eviscerations, a lot of blood, some mild Vaudevillian comedy. And songs, I guess we play some songs, but that’s not really that important.

Rex_84: Is it true that Ghoul has an expensive drug habit?

Digestor: It would be if we paid for drugs, but we don’t.

Rex_84: Well you get money from merch. If you don’t spend it on drugs, then what do you spend your money on?

Digestor: More merch. It’s a never-ending cycle. Sell the merch to make the merch. It’s like having a cocaine habit, really.

Rex_84: I understand you made it over to our country stashed in a pickle barrels on a tramp steamer. Is this your preferred mode of travelling?

Digestor: Every time we come here we end up being stowed away on a tramp steamer to come here. It’s the best way to travel.

Rex_84: Is it always in pickle barrels?

Digestor: No, sometimes it’s pickled herring or something like that.

Rex_84: “Hang Ten” was released in April. How do you feel about this album?

Digestor: It’s great! It’s a tour de force. I can’t recommend it enough. Everyone should buy it!

Rex_84: How did you come together to create this album?

Digestor: There was an infestation of biker gangs in Creepslyvania. Basically, everything had broken down there and the whole town was run by these rival biker gangs. They were tearing the shit out of the place. It turned into this gigantic brawl where a bunch of people were killed. We were hiding out in the catacombs the whole time, but we felt it would be a good time to document the non-Ghoul related stuff going on in Creepslyvania.

Rex_84: Because it is an extreme metal version of a 60s beach film it is quite different from the rest of your albums. Where does it fit in your discography?

Digestor: It’s kind of a weird one-off. It’s not that we haven’t done music like that before; we just haven’t done just music like that before on a release, so it’s kind of a weird thing, a stand-out, an oddity. We’ve been talking about doing something like that for a long time, so it seemed like the right time to do it.

Rex_84: The first song is titled “The Midnight Ride of the Cannibals MC.” Is that the biker gang that took over?

Digestor: Yeah, the Cannibals MC. They were the most feared biker gang in Creepslyvania until their leader Kreeg was decapitated in the town square.

Rex_84: Skulls, hanging bodies, a pack of ghoul bikers--what’s going on with the artwork created by Sean Aaberg of Pork Magazine? How do you feel about his art?

Digestor: We absolutely love Sean Aaberg’s artwork! He’s got a real throwback kind of style. Basil Wolverton type of thing going. It fits with the concept and fits with the music really well, so we are very happy with what he did. He’s one of the only people we’ve worked with that we don’t want to murder. Lucky him.

Rex_84: You also released the “Splatterhash” split with Cannabis Corpse via Tankcrimes back in January. You toured with Iron Reagan, which also features Phil Hall of Cannabis Corpse. What is your relationship with the Municipal Waste crew? Are you friends with the band?

Digestor: Yeah, we’ve been friends with them for a long time. A long time ago I got their first album “Waste ‘Em All” and I sent them some stuff in the mail. This was back when they were still playing tiny clubs. We’ve known them for a long time and have a really good relationship with those guys. We’re friends.

Rex_84: You played the second edition of Oakland’s Brainsqueeze festival in April put on by your label, Tank Crimes. Among the lineup was your Municipal Waste connected pals in Iron Reagan, Cannabis Corpse and Bat. How was the festival?

Digestor: It was amazing! All the bands were great. Negative Approach played and the whole place went absolute BANANAS! It was very violent. It was like the most violent pit I have ever seen. It was a great two days. Tankcrimes puts on a good show. This was the second Brainsqueeze they did and it was just awesome!

Rex_84: You’re also friends with Gwar. Gwar has major ragers like the Gwar BBQ and parties humans aren’t even privy to unless we’re on the spit being roasted. What do your bands like to do when you get together to party?

Digestor: Usually, they’re forcing us to filate them or buff the pimples off their asses. Shine their hooves. Or we could just bro down and have a couple of Impaled Ales once in a while. There is a lot of forced anal sex when we hang out with them. It’s not all completely unwanted on our end. Not all of it, some it, I mean, those guys have some monster cocks!

Rex_84: Not only does Ghoul talk to the press, you also answer questions in the Burning Questions You-Tube series. What is the craziest question you’ve gotten?

Digestor: Well, most of the questions are unintelligible because most of our fans are glue sniffers or drug addicts of some kind, so we get a lot of questions that just don’t make any sense at all. Sometimes we can piece them together for questions that we can answer. We might even make up questions we can answer, but I can’t think of a whole lot of super crazy ones.

Rex_84: There was a clip of a polka band at the start of Burning Questions episode 2. Does Ghoul like Polka music?

Digestor: No, that’s traditional Creepsylvanian music and I’m not really into it. But in Creepslyvania, they banned everything except traditional music and surf rock. I have no idea why. We don’t listen to that polka shit. That’s just for the rabble in town.

Rex_84: Where does Ghoul go next after the end of this tour?

Digestor: Next we’re recording a new album. All sorts of shit has gone down in Creepsylvania since the Cannibals got killed by the Accolades. We have a whole, big story. We’re going to record that next year, probably have it ready for Maryland Deathfest. We’ll probably be touring around there, back here in the United States. That’s pretty much what we have planned.