Robex Lundgren virkblogg.

What’s the name of your band? The band is called GAMMOTH. Before you ask: no, it doesn't mean anything, it just sounded heavy enough.

How was the band formed? Back in 1998, the two brothers Thales (guitars) and Ulysses (bass & vocals) spent their free time composing a few Death Metal riffs and songs. The year of 2001 was the last year of a band called Dr. Rock, in which Ivan played drums and Thales played the guitar. During a barbecue, Ivan got drunk and invited the two brothers to form GAMMOTH, and they saw a chance to use the riffs they already had and to compose more stuff. Carlinhos Eigenheer was soon invited to join the group, getting in the band a couple of months before the first rehearsals actually started.

Where are all band members from? Who does what in the band? We are all from a city called Leme, in the country side of Sao Paulo state, Brazil. This city has a certain popularity in the underground for having a high rate of metal bands in comparison with other cities of the same size in the country. Ulysses Carvalho is the bass player and vocal frontman. Thales Carvalho plays guitar along with Carlinhos Eigenheer, and Renato Fialho is the newest member that plays the drums – he joined the band in the beginning of 2014. In the past, GAMMOTH had two other drummers: Ivan, started with the band and stayed with us until 2005; and Amaury, who replaced him until Renato's arrival.

What were the ambitions of the band when you started? Each member always had their personal and individual expectations regarding the band, but in a nutshell we can affirm that everyone always pursued the recognition for offering original, strong and extreme music and for creating a particular style within the Death Metal genre.

Could you explain your music to someone that hasn’t heard you? Traditional Death Metal music, with an approach to a more dark and obscure sounding, and a little influence from Thrash and Black Metal.

Where was your first gig? In the city of Leme, birthpace of GAMMOTH, in February, 2002.

Where was the latest gig? November 15^th, 2014 – at Sacrilégio’s (a Headbanger Biker's Club), during their Anniversary Meeting in Porto Ferreira, a city 40 km far from Leme, same region.

Who writes your songs?/Who writes the music who writes lyrics? Ulysses (vocals) is responsible for practically all lyrics. Thales (guitar) creates most of the guitar riffs and songs, but the structure of the songs and their arrangement are always finished by all members.

Who has the best sense of humor in the band? This is actually hard to tell. Everyone says a lot of stupid bullshit all the time, but depends on the mood. Ulysses has a creative mind to speak nonsense, but it is very common to find him upset or frustrated with something in the band.

What's good/bad with the band?/What genre do you feel you are? The most important quality we find in the band is the fact that we are all friends outside the rehearsal, studio, etc. It would be unbearable to play with people you can't even go out for a drink with. The other good things we consider in this band are the song compositions, the live shows and the renewed energy that Renato brought to the band when he joined. Things are more brutal now, and that's the way we always wanted to have it. The bad thing is that we take too long – toooo fuck’ng loooooooong – to finalize songs and get inside a studio to record to record them!
Why did you pick that particular style?/What are your songs about? Death Metal is the preferred heavy music style for everyone in the band. The lyrics are inspired basically in two main concepts: Deconstruction, which points to war, death, violence and disease (religion included); and Construction, depicting the horror masterpieces from Literature, or the indignation for what injures mankind, and defending the self-preservation of the individual.

Do you write your own material or mainly covers? The band was founded to create original material, so we write and play our own stuff. However, we always liked to fit into the setlist one or two cover songs. This stirs things up. It is always interesting to see the reaction of people listening to us whenever we throw a classic in the setlist; because as recognizable as “Pleasure of Molestation” may be, it's not like we're playing a popular cover as “Fear of the Dark” or “Paranoid”, you know? Nothing wrong with these ones, but it's always cool to look at the raging crowd and get that look from a guy in the middle, as he would like to say “Wow, you’re playing THAT one!” right before he goes berserk. Some covers we already have played are “Roswell 47”, from Hypocrisy, “No Salvation” (Malevolent Creation), “Rapture” (Morbid Angel), and “Greed Killing” and “Next On The List”  from Napalm Death. Actually, Napalm Death is kind of an exception to us because it is the only band we recorded a cover in studio, during the sessions for Blunt Force Trauma album.

Have you made any albums?/If yes what are they? We released Blunt Force Trauma (2005), our debut full album and the Caro Data Vermibus (2013) EP. The EP is available online, and you can download the music and artwork (done by Carlinhos) online at http://www.portaldoinferno.com.br/noticias/5819-gammoth-banda-disponibiliza-novo-ep-para-download.html The band is about to get in studio to record the next album in the first half of 2015. It's going to be brutal, so brace yourselves.

Do you have any clips on YouTube?

Yes, the only official video-clip so far is for a song called Possible/Improbable and can be found on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ2QlGradRw

You can also find some other live stuff in our channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0ZEpN_xmr8JZebD5uo3Sbg

How old are you? Carlinhos is 42 years old, Thales is 35, Ulysses 33 and Renato 23.

What got you started in music? We don't have a clue…

At what age did you start playing? Everyone started playing pretty close to their 15 years old.

Where have you played from then ‘till now?

We played mostly on cities within Sao Paulo state. We might say that our biggest gig so far was as one of the opening acts for Candlemass, when they came to Sao Paulo city.

We are planning to get back on the road after the new album come out and we hope to reach farther places and get more people to know us and listen to our noise.

Have you had any bigger tours from start to now?

The years that we have played more frequently were back in 2004 and 2005. We played on several shows here and there, but never got to that “four-stinky-guys-in-a-van-for-months” kind of tour. We stayed “out of business” from 2009 and 2013 and now we are re-starting the whole thing.

Nowadays in Brazil, the Metal scene doesn't have the same strength that it had back in the beginning of 2000, but the real Brazilian metalheads are still very loyal to the style. We are currently aiming to get our shit together and try to re-ignite the scene along with good friends from brethren bands that have the same goal… GAMMOTH is even helping to organize some shows in Leme.

How big crowds do you usually play for? Most of the gigs have close to 300 people. However, we already played for big local underground festivals which united more than 1000 people.

What are the plans for the rest of the year? Get inside the studio on the first half of 2015 to record a new full album!
Besides your own music, what genres and bands do you listen to? We listen to almost every sub-genre inside heavy music and even to some crap that it's better not to mention... hahaha! The main bands we listen to and which also give inspiration for our songs are Morbid Angel, Malevolent Creation, Ulcerate, Strapping Young Lad, Ihsahn, Emperor, Decapitated and Napalm Death. The Brazilian bands we currently listen to are Claustrofobia, Krisiun, Desdominus, Mordeth, Ratos do Porão, Sepultura and Dorsal Atlântica.

How often do you rehearse? We have rehearsals together once in a week but most of the members use to play alone one or two times more in a week. Having our daily jobs and living apart from each other takes its toll (Carlinhos and Renato are in Leme, which is 200 km far from Sao Paulo, where Thales lives and 600 km away from Curitiba, where Ulysses lives).

Where do you rehearse? Leme city. We rehearse frequently inside “dB Studio”, which is owned and run by Daniel Bonfogo, from Claustrofobia.

Name 2 of your own songs you like at the moment? We should name “Atheistical” and “Caro Data Vermibus” from the older stuff. We could name newer stuff but they are still are expected to be released by the end of 2015. So let us revisit this question once the album comes out, shall we?

Do you have any webpages? People can find us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/GammothBand and on Bancamp: http://gammoth.bandcamp.com

Which instruments the band members use?

Renato plays with a Pearl Export drumset, Vic Firth drum sticks, and Paiste 2002 and Sabian AAX cymbals.

Ulysses is always changing his basses now and then, but mostly uses either an Epiphone Gothic Firebird or an Ibanez with active pickups.

Carlinhos plays with an Epiphone Les Paul with Seymour Duncan Invader pickup, Boss Metal Zone distortion and with an old and powerful tube amp head called “Gianinni Tremendão”, made on the 70’s by a Brazilian manufacturer.

Thales uses a Gibson Flying V with a Rocktron Piranha distortion through another Brazilian tube amp from the 70’s, CSound. He will soon change his guitar to a new custom made baritone guitar that still is under construction.

What is your favorite crappy instrument? Carlinhos would say that his favorite crappy instrument is his guitar made from a Brazilian manufacturer called Golden.