Originally published in ‘zine issue #3, 1991
Pestilence, containing three death metalers from Holland and one from the USA, has come out with a new album following the departure of former bassist/vocalist Martin van Drunen to Asphyx. Guitarist Patrick Mameli subsequently took over the vocal chores, and Cynic’s Tony Choy filled in for Martin on Testimony of the Ancients and on the road, but the focus of the following interview is drummer Marco Foddis.
D.U.: What are you going to do for a permanent bassist? Tony Choy is still on loan, right?
Marco: Well, you know, we’re not really looking for anything like permanent bass player at the moment. We have a European tour coming up and all that and he’s all gonna do that, so we’re pretty much sure till, I dunno.
Until it comes up?
Yeah, till something interfere with his plans and all that.
In Holland, do you pay attention to politics at all? Does it interest you?
Yeah, well, in a way it should interest everyone. Uh, well, they talk about different stuff than they talk about over here, you know. No, I haven’t been home for the past month or so, so I don’t really know what’s going on there.
What kind of research did you do to come up with the concept and the lyrics for the album?
Well, actually, there’s no kind of research on anything. I just started to write lyrics for this album, and just turn out the way they are now. And when I had couple lyrics written down, then—they all have similar kind of stuff that interests me, you know—so that’s when the idea came of to making it a concept album. It wasn’t, like, planned before to turn out a concept album. I knew pretty much what I was going to write about.
Concerning the quest for the truth of existence, what answer did you come up with?
There is no answer. That’s the whole thing. You can ask. It fascinates me to write, you know, books, like studies of occult philosophy and all that. The where, the why, the wherefore and all that shit. But when you read those books and all that, there is all kinds of, like, group or sects or whatever you wanna call them that have their own theories about all that stuff, you know?
What’s that painting on the cover of the new album supposed to be, then? The machine hanging in the air, what is that?
Yeah, um, I dunno really how to explain that [pause] to find the right words in English. It’s kind of like, the ball could be taken as symbol of God. It’s mechanical, and everything mechanical is made by man, so it’s kind of like, God is made by man and all that shit. [pause] I mean, it’s not like everyone has kind of their own idea to it or something like that.
Do you think that you lost any fans from the last album, because the new one is different?
It is different, but I think it’s kind of early to say. It’s not long enough on the market. As for the reviews in magazines and all that, they’ve all been pretty good, excellent. I dunno about here, though. In Europe, everyone’s into it and all that.
Do you have a last comment that you want to make?
Um, well, to all the readers, I hope if some people are here, they enjoy the show, you know? That’s about it. Stay yourself. ■
Photo: Pestilence (courtesy Roadrunner)
