METAL PULP AND PAPER: Hallo Els. So glad to be catching up with you. Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions for Metal Pulp And Paper. We appreciate it.
Hoe gaat het met je? How are you? How has your 2017 been so far?
ELS PRINS: Hello, I am fine. 2017 hasn’t been my favorite year but I’ll survive.
MPAP: We’ll talk about your recent big news, the release of Anthology Of Curiosities here in just a moment, but let’s first introduce everyone to your band, especially for the ones that might not have heard of you just yet. Sisters Of Suffocation is a four piece all female band from Eindhoven, Netherlands, a country in Northwestern Europe that first started in 2014. Your music is fast, heavy, and it’s in your face bone-crushing brutality. Something definitely not for the weak at heart, and definitely something you wouldn’t want to hear in a dark alley all alone for fear of your life. Is this an accurate way to define Sisters Of Suffocation and your music? Is there anything else you care to add to this?
ELS: I don’t know haha. I’d listen to it in dark alleys. We make mainly old school Death Metal with influences from modern Death Metal, Black Metal, Thrash Metal, etc. Expect some fast riffing, blast beats and low growls.
MPAP: Is there a band, or even bands, that you can mention that might best describe the Sisters Of Suffocation sound? Make a Frankenstein band together for us? Example, the hands of Morbid Angel here, the head of Behemoth, there, a Cannibal Corpse heart there kind of thing?
ELS: I don’t know which bands would describe our songs, but I can name some musical influences/bands that we really like. That would-be Lamb Of God, Vader, Gorefest, Arch Enemy, Fear Factory, At The Gates, Blood Red Throne, Bloodbath, Cattle Decapitation, Carcass, and Entombed.
MPAP: So back to the big news. Anthology Of Curiosities is your first full-length, which was released back on September 29th on Suburban Records is getting some great reviews. For your diehard fans, their eardrums have been hungry for this since your last EP release, but why should someone new go get Anthology Of Curiosities now? What can you tell us about it?
ELS: For us, Anthology Of Curiosities is a step up from Brutal Queen. We grew as musicians, songwriters and performers since Brutal Queen was released and I think you can really hear that. I think if you like extreme music you should check out our new full-length. We really love the songs that we wrote and are very proud of it. Our fanbase really likes it so far.
MPAP: What is a couple of the songs on it that you can tell us about?
ELS: Uhm, I guess I’ll tell you something about our favorite songs, haha! Simone’s favorite song is "The Hunger", it’s about dermatophagia, which is a compulsion of eating one’s own skin. Pucks favorite song is "Psychosurgery", which is about life after a lobotomy. We had a lot of fun during the recordings of this song because we made a dance to the chorus, which goes like this: ‘Eat, drink, shit and sleep. These are my daily activities’. Ambers favorite song is "I Swear". "I Swear" is about fatal familial insomnia. This is a form of insomnia that often leads to death. This summer our manager/booker Bidi van Drongelen passed away and he really loved that song. We dedicated this song to him. My favorite song is "Our Bodies Will Rot", simply because it was so much fun to record this one. This song reminds me of the awesome time we had in the recording studio. "Our Bodies Will Rot" is about cotard delusion, in this case the person in the song thinks he/she is dead. It’s about zombies and stuff, haha!
MPAP: Is there a message to Anthology Of Curiosities you’re trying to get across to everyone? What does the title mean to you personally?
ELS: Not really. The whole album is about body horror/rare illnesses. It doesn’t really have a deep meaning to it. We just wanted to write songs that we really liked and show them to the world.
MPAP: Going back to the beginning of the Sisters Of Suffocation, you first released a single called "Boundaries" in 2014, only then to finally release an EP called Brutal Queen in 2016. That EP consisted of 5 devastating songs with thundering mayhem and vocals that bring hell to your doorstep and pummel your eardrums. Every note and every beat are a blast of energy like a firecracker in being held in your hand. Brutal Queen is a breath of fresh air needed in the music industry. It’s almost 19 minutes of grab you by the throat and thrashes you around like a child’s doll in a dog’s mouth. How would you say you’ve grown as a singer and a band since that "Boundaries" single has come out?
ELS: Haha well, thank you. When we recorded "Boundaries", we didn’t have a studio or producer. We recorded it ourselves with help from friends because we wanted to get some music out there. I do still really like the song and we re-released it as a bonus track on Anthology Of Curiosities, this time with the right facilities. When we recorded "Boundaries" for the first time I could only growl for a couple of weeks and I wasn’t that good, haha. We grow every week. I really hear a big difference in "Boundaries" and Brutal Queen, and Brutal Queen and Anthology Of Curiosities.
MPAP: When was the pivotal point in your life that you decided you wanted to start a band and why? Did you also always mind set on having it an all-female band at first?
ELS: I don’t know since when I wanted to be in a band. I’ve been in bands since I was a little girl. I really liked making music and writing songs. About the all-female part, as I child I was a huge fan of the band The Runaways. Listening to their music and watching them on Youtube really inspired me to play with girls too. When I met Simone (our guitarist) that urge was still there so I asked her if she wanted to be in an all-girl band with me. Luckily, she wanted to join me, and we found Amber and Puck. I am really happy and lucky to play with my best friends and wouldn’t want it any other way. Nothing against males of course, I’ve always played in bands with men and always really enjoyed it. I just haven’t been with people that I love so much, like the sisters, in a band before and that’s what makes this band so special to me.
MPAP: In your hometown of Eindhoven, do you get anyone that says girls just shouldn’t be in a death metal band? Especially since it’s a genre that’s mainly dominated by males? What do you usually end up saying to them?
ELS: People don’t really say it in our hometown. It’s mostly people on the internet from countries all over the world that say stuff like that. Since I started this band I really found out that metal is a male dominated genre and that girls are still fighting for equality, which is so weird to me. I don’t talk to sexist people, so I don’t say anything. I think it’s pathetic, people are just jealous.
MPAP: Before we bring this interview to a close, just a couple more questions. Will there someday ever be a song done by Sisters Of Suffocation that you might experiment with having clean vocals in between your deep guttural growls? Lamb Of God, White Chapel, and Suicide Silence have recently done it when most weren’t expecting it. Is this something the band would be interested in doing at some point down the road at all?
ELS: We did that in Anthology Of Curiosities, lol.
MPAP: The video for the song "Brutal Queen" shows the band playing live, but then also shows everyone partying in one of the dressing rooms. Is being in Sisters Of Suffocation a constant party, or do you all have your limits on how far you professionally take things being in a band?
ELS: We don’t really party actually. We just wanted to make a fun video with a big fat wink, haha. We are always as professional as we can be. We are on time, eat our vegetables, and mostly don’t drink. Trying to grow as a band is hard work and takes discipline.
MPAP: On behalf of myself and Metal Pulp And Paper, I’d like to thank you, Els, for being a part of this interview. We look forward to what Sisters Of Suffocation does in 2018 and beyond.
Any last words for the readers and all your fans out there?
ELS: Listen to our new album! Haha!
MPAP: Dank u vaarwel Els.
ELS: Thank you! But I wouldn’t say "vaarwel", that’s more like a last goodbye. When you never see somebody again or somebodies died. I would say "tot ziens", which is more like, "talk to you later!"...Haha!
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©metalpulpandpaper
Hoe gaat het met je? How are you? How has your 2017 been so far?
ELS PRINS: Hello, I am fine. 2017 hasn’t been my favorite year but I’ll survive.
MPAP: We’ll talk about your recent big news, the release of Anthology Of Curiosities here in just a moment, but let’s first introduce everyone to your band, especially for the ones that might not have heard of you just yet. Sisters Of Suffocation is a four piece all female band from Eindhoven, Netherlands, a country in Northwestern Europe that first started in 2014. Your music is fast, heavy, and it’s in your face bone-crushing brutality. Something definitely not for the weak at heart, and definitely something you wouldn’t want to hear in a dark alley all alone for fear of your life. Is this an accurate way to define Sisters Of Suffocation and your music? Is there anything else you care to add to this?
ELS: I don’t know haha. I’d listen to it in dark alleys. We make mainly old school Death Metal with influences from modern Death Metal, Black Metal, Thrash Metal, etc. Expect some fast riffing, blast beats and low growls.
MPAP: Is there a band, or even bands, that you can mention that might best describe the Sisters Of Suffocation sound? Make a Frankenstein band together for us? Example, the hands of Morbid Angel here, the head of Behemoth, there, a Cannibal Corpse heart there kind of thing?
ELS: I don’t know which bands would describe our songs, but I can name some musical influences/bands that we really like. That would-be Lamb Of God, Vader, Gorefest, Arch Enemy, Fear Factory, At The Gates, Blood Red Throne, Bloodbath, Cattle Decapitation, Carcass, and Entombed.
MPAP: So back to the big news. Anthology Of Curiosities is your first full-length, which was released back on September 29th on Suburban Records is getting some great reviews. For your diehard fans, their eardrums have been hungry for this since your last EP release, but why should someone new go get Anthology Of Curiosities now? What can you tell us about it?
ELS: For us, Anthology Of Curiosities is a step up from Brutal Queen. We grew as musicians, songwriters and performers since Brutal Queen was released and I think you can really hear that. I think if you like extreme music you should check out our new full-length. We really love the songs that we wrote and are very proud of it. Our fanbase really likes it so far.
MPAP: What is a couple of the songs on it that you can tell us about?
ELS: Uhm, I guess I’ll tell you something about our favorite songs, haha! Simone’s favorite song is "The Hunger", it’s about dermatophagia, which is a compulsion of eating one’s own skin. Pucks favorite song is "Psychosurgery", which is about life after a lobotomy. We had a lot of fun during the recordings of this song because we made a dance to the chorus, which goes like this: ‘Eat, drink, shit and sleep. These are my daily activities’. Ambers favorite song is "I Swear". "I Swear" is about fatal familial insomnia. This is a form of insomnia that often leads to death. This summer our manager/booker Bidi van Drongelen passed away and he really loved that song. We dedicated this song to him. My favorite song is "Our Bodies Will Rot", simply because it was so much fun to record this one. This song reminds me of the awesome time we had in the recording studio. "Our Bodies Will Rot" is about cotard delusion, in this case the person in the song thinks he/she is dead. It’s about zombies and stuff, haha!
MPAP: Is there a message to Anthology Of Curiosities you’re trying to get across to everyone? What does the title mean to you personally?
ELS: Not really. The whole album is about body horror/rare illnesses. It doesn’t really have a deep meaning to it. We just wanted to write songs that we really liked and show them to the world.
MPAP: Going back to the beginning of the Sisters Of Suffocation, you first released a single called "Boundaries" in 2014, only then to finally release an EP called Brutal Queen in 2016. That EP consisted of 5 devastating songs with thundering mayhem and vocals that bring hell to your doorstep and pummel your eardrums. Every note and every beat are a blast of energy like a firecracker in being held in your hand. Brutal Queen is a breath of fresh air needed in the music industry. It’s almost 19 minutes of grab you by the throat and thrashes you around like a child’s doll in a dog’s mouth. How would you say you’ve grown as a singer and a band since that "Boundaries" single has come out?
ELS: Haha well, thank you. When we recorded "Boundaries", we didn’t have a studio or producer. We recorded it ourselves with help from friends because we wanted to get some music out there. I do still really like the song and we re-released it as a bonus track on Anthology Of Curiosities, this time with the right facilities. When we recorded "Boundaries" for the first time I could only growl for a couple of weeks and I wasn’t that good, haha. We grow every week. I really hear a big difference in "Boundaries" and Brutal Queen, and Brutal Queen and Anthology Of Curiosities.
MPAP: When was the pivotal point in your life that you decided you wanted to start a band and why? Did you also always mind set on having it an all-female band at first?
ELS: I don’t know since when I wanted to be in a band. I’ve been in bands since I was a little girl. I really liked making music and writing songs. About the all-female part, as I child I was a huge fan of the band The Runaways. Listening to their music and watching them on Youtube really inspired me to play with girls too. When I met Simone (our guitarist) that urge was still there so I asked her if she wanted to be in an all-girl band with me. Luckily, she wanted to join me, and we found Amber and Puck. I am really happy and lucky to play with my best friends and wouldn’t want it any other way. Nothing against males of course, I’ve always played in bands with men and always really enjoyed it. I just haven’t been with people that I love so much, like the sisters, in a band before and that’s what makes this band so special to me.
MPAP: In your hometown of Eindhoven, do you get anyone that says girls just shouldn’t be in a death metal band? Especially since it’s a genre that’s mainly dominated by males? What do you usually end up saying to them?
ELS: People don’t really say it in our hometown. It’s mostly people on the internet from countries all over the world that say stuff like that. Since I started this band I really found out that metal is a male dominated genre and that girls are still fighting for equality, which is so weird to me. I don’t talk to sexist people, so I don’t say anything. I think it’s pathetic, people are just jealous.
MPAP: Before we bring this interview to a close, just a couple more questions. Will there someday ever be a song done by Sisters Of Suffocation that you might experiment with having clean vocals in between your deep guttural growls? Lamb Of God, White Chapel, and Suicide Silence have recently done it when most weren’t expecting it. Is this something the band would be interested in doing at some point down the road at all?
ELS: We did that in Anthology Of Curiosities, lol.
MPAP: The video for the song "Brutal Queen" shows the band playing live, but then also shows everyone partying in one of the dressing rooms. Is being in Sisters Of Suffocation a constant party, or do you all have your limits on how far you professionally take things being in a band?
ELS: We don’t really party actually. We just wanted to make a fun video with a big fat wink, haha. We are always as professional as we can be. We are on time, eat our vegetables, and mostly don’t drink. Trying to grow as a band is hard work and takes discipline.
MPAP: On behalf of myself and Metal Pulp And Paper, I’d like to thank you, Els, for being a part of this interview. We look forward to what Sisters Of Suffocation does in 2018 and beyond.
Any last words for the readers and all your fans out there?
ELS: Listen to our new album! Haha!
MPAP: Dank u vaarwel Els.
ELS: Thank you! But I wouldn’t say "vaarwel", that’s more like a last goodbye. When you never see somebody again or somebodies died. I would say "tot ziens", which is more like, "talk to you later!"...Haha!
©metalpulpandpaper