Interview with KK2 (vocals), Haru (guitar), Ryozy (drums)
The Japanese underground is rife with bands putting their own spin on brutal styles. Kandarivas and Sete Star Sept are both pushing grindcore into wild directions while bands like Kruelty are putting their own spin on death metal. For good old fashioned goregrind, however, look no further than to Fukuoka’s FesterDecay. The band took musical inspiration from early Carcass, Dead Infection and Pharmacist while adding regional inspiration (visually, from the crimes of Issei Sagawa for instance).
After releasing various singles from 2015 onward, the band finally put together a full-course spoiled meal with 2023’s Reality Rotten To The Core, their first full-length record released via Everlasting Spew Records. With the album currently festering in stores, the band now prepare to perform at Japan’s premiere death/gore/grind festival the Asakusa Deathfest. With this in mind, we speak with the members of FesterDecay about all things pathological:
FesterDecay formed in Fukuoka, Kyushu, Japan in 2015 with the aim to revive goregrind the way Carcass did with Reek of Putrefaction. Have you succeeded?
Haru: Compared to 2015, when the band was first formed, I would say that the number of early Carcass style bands has increased and become more successful. At that time there was mostly porno-gore and machine-gore-grind, and I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that there were no new gore-grind bands in the Carcass style. But I don’t think this is our achievement, but rather the achievement of Undergang, who is pushing old school gore grind, and Pharmacist, whose first album was a big hit as soon as it was released. We were very late in releasing our first album, after all.
“Rotten Fester Decay” is your latest single from Reality Rotten to the Core. One noticeable difference is the presence of more melodic guitars. Is this a sign of things to come?
Haru: “Rotten Fester Decay” was the first song we wrote after we formed FesterDecay. But we may have more parts like that in the future. (Haru)
Everlasting Spew Records (Italy) released Reality Rotten to the Core, your first full length, in February. The label is well known in the scene, putting out stuff by Birdflesh, Organ Dealer and so on. How did you get involved with them?
Haru: In April of 2021, I received an offer from the other side, and I accepted it because the conditions were more than enough. I think it is a great label, and the label owner Giorgio Spevo has been a great help to the band in the process of keeping in touch. I think the full album would have been a little later if it wasn’t for him.
“Aborticide” was your previous single. The sound is more refined on this song – is it a sign of things to come?
Haru: At this stage, we don’t intend to intentionally make a recording with poor sound quality, no matter how old-school gore grind it is. I think that has already been done, and I think that the work currently on the market is sufficient. I would like to do gore grind with the approach and meaning of a current band. (Haru)
The Pathological shirt has the image of Issei Sagawa’s victim Renée Hartevelt. His case has always fascinated me, and I’ve often thought about trying to make a movie out of it, even though I’m not a director. What interests you about it?
KK2: As someone who plays in a gore-grind band, I am very interested in the documentation of dead bodies and incidents. The more brutal the case is, the more the body is damaged, the more it stands out. When I found this photo, I thought it would make a great shirt design. But there have been many bands before (at least when I started) that use photos of fresh corpses and accident scenes, and they are mass-produced on a daily basis as one-man projects. We’re not a one-man drum-machine gore-grind project, so we’re thinking about it a lot.
For split releases with overseas bands, I believe it’s always an opportunity to allow the world at large to get a whiff of your pathological stench. Do you find more listeners outside of Japan are discovering the band recently?
Haru: To be honest, I think FesterDecay’s listeners are more overseas. Goregrind is not so popular in Japan. That’s why I want to make the goregrind scene in Japan more exciting.
Tell me about your early work – FesterDecay DEMO and Carcasses Revenge. There are a few differences, with the almost barbaric sound and different logo of the band…
Haru: I didn’t really know how to record back then, so I recorded demos with an engineer who didn’t know much about death metal and pre-production at a studio I was introduced to through a friend (lol). The first band logo was hand-drawn by me or KK2 with a ballpoint pen, I forget which. I don’t remember which one it was, but Masashi-san, who is the vocalist of KNAVE, a darkcore band from Oita, whom I used to work with a lot, designed the original logo for the demo for Carcasses’ Revenge.
What are your biggest aspirations for FesterDecay?
Ryozy: I will take each show seriously and improve myself further. Both as a band and as individuals. Also, I want to make more new songs. Of course, when doing this we cannot lose sight of our worldview. But we will make new suggestions in our songs!
Haru: We hope to play live in various places, including overseas. If possible, we would like to release a split album. We want to keep evolving our goregrind sound so that we don’t become just another Carcass clone.
https://everlastingspewrecords.bandcamp.com/album/reality-rotten-to-the-core
