Blood Division Talk About Trendslaughter Fest, New Material + More

By Aniruddh ‘Andrew’ Bansal

Singapore-based blackened D-beat trio Blood Division will be the headline act for this year’s Trendslaughter Fest, set to take place at No Limits Pub in Bangalore, India on February 10th. Support will come from Indian bands Dying Embrace, Shepherd, Witchgoat, Necrodeity and Solar Deity. I spoke to the band about their expectations from this gig, the new split album with UK-based band Rotting Blood, amongst various other things. Read the conversation below, and visit Blood Division’s facebook page. And of course, check out Trendslaughter Fest’s facebook landing page to book your tickets and get all the information you need about the festival.

Very soon, you’ll be performing in India, at the Trendslaughter Fest III in Bangalore. How does it feel to be the headlining act at this event, and how are your preparations going? 

We are definitely honoured to be part of Trendslaughter Fest 2013, headlining no less and playing in a part of a world which we have not yet been to yet. Preparations are going strong and visas have been approved, so we are more than ready to spread our aural pestilence in Bangalore.

What’s the update on your drummer situation? I read that you were looking for a session drummer for this gig.

We are already rehearsing with our new drummer H. (DRACONIS INFERNUM, BELLIGERENT INTENT, DIVINE CODEX). Our usual session drummer Z. has commitments of which he is unable to sacrifice for the show, so we got H. to fill in and he fits in well in our ranks.

Trendslaughter Fest has developed a reputation of bringing amazing underground talent to Bangalore. How much aware of the underground scene in India are you, and what kind of a response are you expecting from the crowds here?

Indeed it has. Sandesh (of CYCLOPEAN EYE PRODUCTIONS), Vikram (of the legendary band DYING EMBRACE) and crew have done a stellar annual festival, and we have been aware of it since the first Trendslaughter Festival with ORATOR and the second with ABIGAIL and CAUCHEMAR. As for the Indian scene itself, we have only heard of a few bands and are not very in touch ourselves. However that is what we hope to rectify once we are there.

How often do you get to play shows in Singapore? Is there a similar scope for gigs that promote this kind of music? Also, is there also a conscious effort on your part to deliberately play a lesser number of shows, just to keep yourselves underground and to make sure that people are excited to see you every time you play?

For BLOOD DIVISION we do not play many shows as we want to focus on recording and keeping live shows to a minimum. However when we do play, we choose the show we want to do as it has to suit the general aesthetic of what BLOOD DIVISION is about. Singapore’s Metal scene is pretty dead now, but the Crust scene is still very much alive and we associate ourselves more with the Crust scene than the Metal scene. The Metal scene here has lost touch with the sense of community or the importance of knowing your roots and the music you love. Most of the new kids don’t know anything about the music but wear Metal shirts like a fucking fashion show, behaving like they know everything after learning it all on Wikipedia or Youtube without owning a single record. This is why we do not want to associate ourselves with the Metal scene here as much as we can and the reason why we do not want to waste our time playing live in Singapore to a bunch of spoilt brats who think they run the scene. Call us elitist, we don’t give a fuck.

Coming to your music, so far you’ve released the ‘Grip Of Power’ EP and followed it up with ‘Necrordnance’, which was decidedly faster and more brutal. What direction have you taken your music on the upcoming release ‘Cursed In Rotting Blood’?

‘Cursed in Rotting Blood’ is definitely less straight-forward as compared to ‘Necrordnance’. Definitely darker and more mid-paced and our influences come out very strongly on this EP. We will release a preview on our Bandcamp site very soon and announce the release on our official Facebook page.

This new release is going to be a split album with Rotting Bull, a black metal band from Newcastle, UK.  How did this collaboration come about?

ROTTING BULL is Daniel’s (WINDS OF GENOCIDE) Black Metal project and he approached us with the idea of the split and we agreed upon it. FERROUS VOID PRODUCTIONS will be releasing it on cassette limited to 50 copies worldwide. This split will not be re-pressed again on cassette.

I think split releases are a great idea for underground bands, because that way both bands can get visibility amongst each other’s fans, and it helps even more when the two bands are from different countries. Would you agree with that? 

Yes, absolutely.

You also released Necrordnance on CD recently, as a very limited edition of 50 copies. How’s that doing for you? Are you almost sold out of it or will you have some left for sale at the Bangalore show?

We are totally sold out. CYCLOPEAN EYE PRODUCTIONS might do a limited run for Bangalore but that is not confirmed as of yet. However we will have the new EP (‘Cursed in Rotting Blood’) for sale in Bangalore, limited press of 50 copies from HAXANHAUS MEDIA AND DISTRIBUTION smeared in the blood of pigs by all three of us.

For ‘Grip Of Power’, I believe you’re not putting out a CD and it’s only on cassette tape. I miss the days of listening to cassette tapes. I loved how handy they were in size, and the listening experience was entirely different to that of a CD. Were you also big fans of cassettes, back in the days when cassette-playing devices were much easier to find?

‘Grip of Power’ is our cassette demo EP. It will remain a cassette release and we have limited copies left which will sell out very quickly. Once it’s sold out, it’s sold out and we have no intention of ever re-pressing it again unless it is on a compilation. We are still big fans of cassettes and still collect them. Listening to bands like SODOM, DESTRUCTION, DARK ANGEL, ENTOMBED, IMPALED NAZARENE, CELTIC FROST, DEMOLITION HAMMER, MERCYFUL FATE or BATHORY on cassette or vinyl is just absolutely killer. We still have our tape decks and turntables to enjoy the masters of old.

Another analog form that has caught on in the metal world is the vinyl. Have you considered releasing any of your material on vinyl?

Metal on vinyl isn’t a new ‘trend’ or ‘fad’. It has always been around. Metal records still fetch as highly back in the day till now. SARCOFAGO on COGUMELO RECORDS, BLASPHEMY on WILD RAGS RECORDS, KREATOR or CELTIC FROST on NOISE RECORDS, etc still fetch good prices as well as bands on extinct labels such as PAVEMENT, NECROPOLIS, JL AMERICA/TURBO USA, WRONG AGAIN, etc due to their rarity. However many old records are starting to get re-pressed especially by labels such as BACK ON BLACK, HIGHROLLER, NUCLEAR WAR NOW, etc. As for BLOOD DIVISION, we will be releasing ‘Necrordnance’ on 7” vinyl very soon (within this year) and ‘Cursed in Rotting Blood’ might see a 7” release as well.

Coming back to the music itself, you play a very raw, unabated style of blackened D-beat. Is it important for you to maintain the black metal element or do you just let your creativity come through in whatever way it unfolds?

The Black Metal element is always present, be it in the riffs or the vibe that the songs have. We are a very primal band and we do not see the need to have a technical flair or have a progressive approach. We write it all in the base of what Metal is. The raw emotion that seeps into your heart and freezes it cold.

You’ve all been in other bands before starting in Blood Division. How different is this music to anything you’ve played in other bands previously?

This music form is very primal as mentioned earlier. The material we play in our other bands are more influenced by the later part of extreme music. BLOOD DIVISION is very influenced by the early part of it; proto-Black Metal such as BATHORY, HELLHAMMER, VENOM and MERCYFUL FATE as well as early Crust Punk like DISCHARGE, DOOM, DISRUPT, AMEBIX, etc. We also are influenced by second-wave bands from the Black and Thrash scenes.

Your fellow Singaporeans Wormrot have made quite a name for themselves recently, touring all over the world, and I see no reason why you won’t achieve the same heights. With the release of ‘Necrordnance’ and ‘Grip Of Power’ on Riff Raff Records in North America, are you expecting to tour that continent soon?

Yes, WORMROT made it big signing with EARACHE and touring extensively. We are no strangers to touring overseas as well as we have done it with our own respective bands aside from BLOOD DIVISION. RIFF RAFF RECORDS are distributing our releases over in Canada/North America however a tour will not be feasible now as we have not planned or established a base over there properly as of yet. We will concentrate around Asia first, and then take the rest of the world by force.

And finally I’d like to ask you, what are some of the bands that have influenced and inspired you to create this kind of music?

We are mainly influenced by bands such as BATHORY, HELLHAMMER, CELTIC FROST, DARKTHRONE, MAYHEM, IMPALED NAZARENE, DOOM, DISCHARGE, AMEBIX, CRO-MAGS, SODOM, KREATOR, SLAYER, MISFITS, SAMHAIN, WOLFPACK, SKITSYSTEM, GISM, etc.

Interviews with the rest of the Trendslaughter Fest lineup:
Dying Embrace | Necrodeity | Shepherd | Solar Deity | Witchgoat

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