Hi, CRASH SYNDROM. Greetings from Iron Backstage team. What are you up to these days?
Hi!
Even though pandemic caused quite big impact for usual band activity, we keep working on some new tunes as well as finishing some ongoing release! Otherwise it's just a regular daily routine.
Would you please introduce your band to our readers who are not aware of your band and music?
Well, we are death and grind band, originally formed in Ukraine in 2004. After about 10 years hiatus, we reformed in Japan and had multiple releases with some local tours. We are playing some old school grind/death, inspired by old Carcass and tons of other bands following that path. Current line-up is me (Stefan) on guitars/vocals, Tomo on bass and Okada on drums.
Give us a little insight into the formation of the band. When and how did it happen?
It started around high school, when me and my brother decided to make some noise. We rehearsed in our room with quite surprised grandpa in the other room.. We didn't know the heck about scene, labels etc, it was time and place when you could not simply get many info about your favourite bands. So we just did how it felt right.
At what age did you guys start playing instruments? Since when are you into metal music?
I started playing guitar around 12 y.o. I guess. I didn't want to play guitar at first, if I remember correctly, my brother convinced me to try. I actually started with classic guitar lessons, with music sheets and all that package...
When my teacher left, each time I switched to something more heavy. But I didn't have an actual electric guitar first, so I practiced some Slayer on classic acoustic ))
It was around same year I discovered some metal bands, thrash, then death and grind, it elevated very fast..
By 15, I already was into Dead Infection, LDOH and Pathologist... Had to throw away my Metallica posters!
CRASH SYNDROM is about to release the split with FESTERDECAY. Tell us something about it. Walk us through all the tracks' lyrics and meaning.
This is very special release for CS, we've been working on the material for a year, even though it's just 3 songs. We spent way more time on mixing process, polishing all the details, exhausting ourselves and engineer. It took long time, some money, but at least we feel more confident with the content.
We've done some more simple and straight to the face material previously, of course we could do something similar, it would take a couple of days to write those kind of songs... But it is much more interesting to try push some directions, that makes you want to play guitar more while writing those songs.
From sound production to the material, it is more death metal orientated style, and it worked out good. As for the lyrics, I wanted to make also something new that will fit to the material, make it more blur and grotesue in epithets. First track "Cardiac" is the short instrumental, flowing into "Fascinations", which is about fascinated inner state weaving into decomposition phase processes. Closing "Purgatorial Restoration" is about making the mannequin from pieces of cadavers.
When and where did you play your first gig? How was the experience of going live for the first time?
The very first gig was back in 2005 in Ukraine, it was the only gig we did over there... We invited tons of our friends, it was huge place, something like theatre or palace of culture with high roof and wide scene. We had really great time, really many beers and music with great company.
What, according to you, is the secret behind band’s success?
The success is a controversial word in metal underground. For me, having a stable income, while having opportunity to play live, record and release my music is kind of a huge success already. I couldn't tell anything about making living out of it, but of course it is tremendous work behind it.
Ever had an epic fail moment during a gig?
There are many, but maybe most confusing for myself was when I kept passing out for a moment-two during the whole setlist.
When you play during singing, it's important to have breath control and never forget about it ))
If asked to differentiate CRASH SYNDROM from other bands in your country, how would you like to respond to it?
I think we are known as Japanese Carcass worship act, I wouldn't say for sure it makes us any unique ahaha.
But we have quite divirse members - someone into black metal, someone has more technical death-metal roots. Maybe it helps to have a final mixture more flexible in genre meaning. Also we are very active for releases, last year - counting very small releases, we had 4.
And we are always working on some stuff.
Which bands/ artists do you draw your influences from? Which are your favorite local bands?
Saying as influence for our material, old school grind as Carcass is the main I guess, at least for now. But as for inspiration, the list is endless of course.
Locally here are many great all acts from Obliteration Records (but not only) roster are great and nice guys. It is hard to pick up just a few, all bands have their style, position and vibe.
How do you guys manage jobs and gigs? Also how often do you guys gathering altogether just to fun?
We are mostly active on weekends and vacations, for rehearsals, gigs and recording. All other stuff like writing material, preparing releases etc, is after work. It works fine, if there is some drive and motivation, you'd find reason to do this, instead of finding reason not to do.
Before virus situation, we used to gather around twice a month to rehears, and for gigs on weekends. As for now, most of things are done remotely/at home.
Of course some day we manage to gather to have some tea.
CRASH SYNDROM is very promising formation. Talking of your future, 2 years from now, where do you see yourself?
Well definetely finishing second full-length! We've been working on recording for some time already, and there is still a huge chunk to do, but things are coming up gradually. Having second guitar would be great too, but we don't have any real expectations.
We are happy asses about what we have, of course if our music will find more people who will enjoy it, that will be great too.
Well, that’s it. Thanks a lot for your time. Speak out to all your fans and supporters.
Thank for the questions and interest! We will have some more news coming up, stay safe!