Occult without all sort of frills

interview with Occult

Occult is a striking appearance in the Dutch metal scene. Not only are they known as ’the band with the longest hair’, With the departure of Leon on guitars, the music has changed. We want to go down the fast and heavy road. Just banging from the beginning to the end. More simple, without solo's and all sorts of frills, but most of all heavier.

interview with Maurice (vocalist) on 19-3-2002

Please give us a short introduction of yourself?
Myself? I am just an ordinary guy who tries to survive in this society, hehe

Do you think the name Occult still fits the band?
Yes, why not!?

Decribe the evolution of the band in a few lines?
There is not much to say, we are still the same. at where your examples to start the band long time ago? Well, the bands that are still our main influence, old Kreator, Sodom, Pestilence.

What band drove you into the metal world?
I started with Kreator, Possessed and Slayer in 1987, I was 14.

Did you let your hair grow from then on?
No, that was early 90's

What was the reason to add Rachel to the band as grunt? Because she was not a member from the beginning.
No, she got thrown out of her own band, so we decided to try two kinds of vocals, and fitted well.

Do you have a feeling to be back like in the beginning now Rachel has left the band?
NOT AT ALL!!

Do you have difficulties with labels? Four albums on three labels?
HAHA, no we were not satisfied with Foundation 2000 ourselves and Massacre threw us out since they had a massive reorganisation, and we are happy with that, Massacre didn't do anything for us

Ever thought of self releasing the albums?
No never, and we will never!

Any other activities in the metal world?
I did two magazines in the early 90's, and right now I do metalvideos.

What is your fav job if it paid enough?
I don't need to be rich or anything, I just hope I can make metalvideos every day and earn a little so that I can do that for a living

And what is your job in the real world? Big difference?
I am unemployed since 6 months right now, but I have my hands full of doing other things like editing

How do you learn the lyric by head? And if you forget some lines during shows, what then?
If you practise enough, you will learn by it self.

Which country is good for touring? And why?
Countries where not enough gigs are happening such as Czech or Poland.

Can you combine the touring with your job? Ever had to cancel beause you had no more free days?
No, never, there is always a chance! And right now I am unemployed

Do you take a souvenir back home from the visited countries?
No, there is no time to search for such things

Has Occult penetrated the US market? Ever wanna tour overthere?
NO! I saw a few shows when I was in NYC, its not fun playing there I think, or atleast touring, if we can do a few shows, that would be OK though, but its always such trouble with visa and all that, if you play there, they see it as working, so they start making trouble

Who do you wanna penetrate if possible? And why?
Penetrate? You mean like a girl? Or the US market? haha

Why is the website not updated?
The guy is still working on it, and we don't have time either, so maybe we give it to someone else to update it, I don't know

Think internet can help the band with promotion?
Yeah I think so, internet is a great media

Your change to promote Occult.
Change? Or chance? What do you mean here? If you mean change, we finally got all kinds of promotion stuff right now such as posters and all that, so we kind of changed the way we promote Occult, Massacre and Foundation never did that for us

Last rites?
Unleash your rage!
Band:
Interviewer: twansibon
Mar 19, 2002

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