ASPHYX – interview with the singer, Martin Van Drunen

IRON KLUB in Krosno (Poland) is celebrating its 18th anniversary this year and, as a result, the owner invited impressive guest for this occasion. ASPHYX is definitely an established brand on the European death metal scene. They may not be as “famous” as their American colleagues from the same genre, while the Stockholm scene may have been perceived as cult classics. Still, ASPHYX is undoubtedly renowned for their crushing sound both on the records and in live version as well as incredible energy on stage and Martin’s one-of-a-kind vocals. Their concert, preceded by the great show of resurrected Polish band called SACRIVERSUM, left no illusions – the band from the Netherlands are the masters in their category. Whether we listen to the latest songs from “Necroceros” or the classics from “The Rack” and “Last One On Earth”, they always deliver and crush everything on their way – exactly like we love it. Before they showed what they were capable of, I had the chance to talk with vocalist Martin Van Drunen.

Hello Martin, welcome to Krosno and its heavy metal headquarter of the city which is called Iron Klub. The club has been active for 18 years and it hosts dozens of concerts each year with various bands from Poland, including the biggest names from metal genre as well as some from abroad. I guess you spotted some familiar names on posters from previous shows. What are your first impressions from here? Are you ready to rock’n’roll in the evening?

Everything was just fantastic, the reception, the food and friendly happy people. The venue itself is bloody amazing, we are metalheads so when we see the posters and feel the club’s ambience, we know in our guts that this is going to be a great night. We just did the soundcheck and put everything really loud there.

I liked it, when you were headbanging even during the rehearsal…

Yeah, that is because when you are a real metalhead and you love what you do and you do it with passion, you just can’t stand still when you play.

I agree. For the beginning, interesting fact about Krosno is that it is the city where DECAPITATED started their career when they were just teenagers. Thanks to incredible talent they managed to get through with their music and the rest is history. Unfortunately, Vogg is now the only member from the original line up. Did you have the chance to meet him somewhere on the road, on some festivals for example?

No, not yet, but I am surprised that they come from here. Though, it’s cool that they put Krosno on the map in a way. They must be the pride of the city.

Today you will have the fans right in front of you. The strong side of this club is definitely the chance for fans to see the band very close, which in this music and especially the live shows are about those interactions. What is your point of view on that, do you like such shows with stage situated like this in comparison with big festivals.

Those are the best. Sometimes people think that it is better for a band to play huge festivals, but this is not the case for ASPHYX. During the festivals, the people are distanced from you and since the very beginning, ASPHYX was the band that loves to interact with the crowd. The closer they are to you, the better the concert will be. It is natural for us to give them our energy and get the same back from the crowd. Playing here will be like in the good old days – you are close to the people and you smell them sweating, etc. I am sure this is going to be an awesome show today. These are the kinds of shows we actually prefer instead of festivals. We really belong to stages like this. Of course, if we could fill big stadiums, we would not say no.

Yeah, I expected such an answer. Actually, your song “Death… The Brutal Way” has a lot of other metaphors too, but it is also about such interactions with the people. It is the title track from your comeback album from 2009 and the strong statement that you are back stronger than ever. How did it feel like to start again back then?

It felt like coming home again. I had quite a break from any metal band then. Party.San Festival in Germany which is an old school death/black metal festival kept on contacting us to play there, but we were not together then. Suddenly, all the pieces of the puzzle fell together and we decided to do it. From there on it was a rollercoaster that did not stop – we have been playing for 17 years since then.

“Necroceros”, your latest album came out in January 2021 in quite challenging times of covid pandemic. From three years perspective, do you think that it was a good idea to issue it then in the middle of the whole panic and not wait for “better times” in music business?

Yes, it was a good idea. First of all, because we had no concerts so did not have anything else to do as a band. We decided to go into the studio, which was actually illegal too because of the restrictions. Unfortunately, we always organised the release show on which we played the whole new album, but we could not do it. Fortunately, the venue we are in touch with offered us a live stream from this show and it turned out to be very successful. We did it for free, so that the people did not have to pay for it and we could even reach fans in countries like Costa Rica or Ecuador etc. As a result, it was some kind of a trigger for “Necroceros” because the album was quite successful after that. We landed quite high in German charts and even in Dutch charts which was never the case before. This whole corona period was very sad for people in general, but we kind of managed to survive thanks to that album.

As for the live stream you mentioned. Many bands did such live shows and for me it mostly looked that the artists felt weird doing that without the fans…

I felt weird too, fortunately, it is quite a big club and all the lights apart from the stage were out so we could not see the emptiness of the venue. I was standing there and thinking that this is really not ASPHYX style to play without the crowd. However, once you continue and realize that there are people watching it now and banging their heads in different places – on the couch, in the car and wherever else, it felt better. We had to adapt to the demand of modern times. If you asked me if I would like to do it again, I would say no because you just need the crowd and the energy they give us.

Talking about such things, what is your approach to social media and streaming channels? Do you think that ASPHYX got better promotion thanks to that during the pandemic and now?

You could not deny it, especially during the pandemic. If you do not adapt to this with your band, you will lose. What is more, the record company will kick your butts too if you do not use it as the promotion. They need to promote your album as a label, but you have to do your job too. In the old days, there was only printed press and videos in some metal programs, while now this whole PR circus has extended enormously. After you release an album, the whole publicity campaign is way more intense than it used to be. You just have to adapt to it as a band, if not, you are gone.

I asked the above question, because I noticed that the video to “Deathhammer” and “Death … The Brutal Way” each has over 1mln views on Century Media You Tube channel. That is an impressive amount as for slamming death metal songs, don’t you think?

We play them everyday on a loop that is why… (laugh) Yes, it is indeed very impressive.

They are a little more “catchy” than your other tracks if we can call them like that, but still…

That is why we chose them for the videos. It does not make any sense to make a video for example to “Death: The Only Immortal” because nobody will watch 9 minute song … (laugh)

Apart from the trademark ASPHYX death metal sound and tempo, you also keep the “tradition” of putting some songs in doom metal style into all your albums since the very beginning. Did you consider to make a full doom album as APSHYX or as a separate project? What do you think about such idea?

We were joking in the band that as we already made the song called “Deathhammer” we should now make “Doomhammer”. We actually played on one London show as well as on the festival called Hammer Of Doom in Germany where we played the set that consisted of doom songs only. If there was such idea, maybe we would make a double album – one with death metal songs and the other one with doom tracks, but this just my crazy idea.

What are your favourite doom bands that you can list?

WINTER for sure, BLACK SABBATH with Ozzy and with Ronnie James Dio, who I think was better; SAINT VITUS, CANDLEMASS. There are a lot of great doom bands. However, I do not like so called funeral doom which I think is too slow.

As we just spoke, three years have passed since the release of last album. Are there any plans for new album yet?

Paul (Baayens – guitarist) is full of ideas and he cannot wait to present them. In fact, the most difficult part is already done and this is the title track, which is usually the song that you finish at the end. This time, it is already done. I think it is not a big thing to create the rest.

Do you think you will manage to issue it still in 2024?

No not this year, it will probably be in 2025, but no later than that.

You are wearing the blouse of GRAND SUPREME BLOOD COURT. What is the status of this band? I saw that it is not active. Your first and only full album “Bow Down Before The Blood Court” is over 10 years old. Do you have any plans with that band, maybe some live shows?

It is a funny thing that you are asking about that, because we just released that album on the cassette as a limited edition. Alwin (Zuur – current bass player) is way too busy with his other band BERZERKER LEGION, Eric (Daniels former ASPHYX guitarist) is doing well with SOULBURN. I do not think Bob (Bagchus – former ASPHYX drummer) is ready to participate at all, so I think is not very probable. We never said never, but I think it will not happen.

I was going to ask about Bob and Eric, because they are former ASPHYX members. It is great to see that there is no bad blood between you and as a result, former members are playing again with current ASPHYX members, namely you and Alwin.

No, absolutely no bad blood, we are all good friends. We keep contact very often. Eric is actually one of my best friends.

You released your first full album with ROTTEN CASKET in 2023. I did not find any concerts for this year so far, do you have any plans for the future?

There is nothing planned yet.

Is it more like a studio project then?

No, it was not the intention to make it only a studio project, but for example Yorck is very busy with SODOM. Husky (Stefan Hüskens – ASPHYX drummer) together with his job, our band and other private matters is also busy. It rolls the way it rolls – if we got a lot of offers and we could match them in between our other things, we would not say no. For sure, it does not have the priority.

Do you notice any interesting bands from The Netherlands that you can recommend?

I think that our scene is in very good condition. Of course, there are still a lot of bands from the past like MASSIVE ASSAULT or ENTRAPMENT. GRACELESS has also got very strong, Eric with SOULBURN do well. There is also a band we played with called NECROTESQUE. There are a lot bands from the Netherlands and I am glad about it.

When you play around the world, do you see many young faces in the front row? Do you see the future of heavy music in young generation of fans and musicians?

Yes, I definitely see them there and as you say – they are the future of this music. The kids are usually at the front rows and older guys like me are at the back. Some of those guys bring their kids, others do not have that luck and are raised with rap music … (laugh)

What would be your dream line up of musicians who you would like to join for the project and create the album with them?

Paul Baayens, Stefan Hüskens and Alvin Zuur … (laugh)

I mean your heroes and to make it easier, they can be alive or not…

It would be Lemmy on bass of course, and Fast Eddie Clark on guitars also from old MOTÖRHEAD lineup. Maybe Abaddon from VENOM on drums. Cronos with his bass guitar would be great too. Complete VENOM lineup with those two and Mantas with me singing would be awesome and we could do some of their tracks then.

Martin, thank you very much for the interview. Do you have any final words for the readers of Metal Centre?

Yeah, hopefully there will be a lot of people in the evening. Thank you for the constant support that we have got from Poland, because every time we get here, we have great time. We really like coming to your country. Hopefully we will make fantastic death metal party tonight!

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