Taste of things to come on the 2nd issue of WTI: Rabies interview

(l to r: Rugene,Vic,Jervish,Lex)

If you thrashers have been living under a hermits rock in opposition to the new wave of generic thrash for the past few years or so, living in your own 1986 time bubble, worshipping the extremes of great classic stuff released on that era, you probably haven’t heard of Rabies and you probably will appreciate their music and how they don't follow any retro-thrash trends and repetitive bay area wanking. they are a fairly new thrash/death thrash band from Laguna. 


Being active in the live circuit I have seen them numerous times and even get drunk on the native Lambanog these guys bring to the shows, they released their first demo a few years ago with a catchy name “Radiation Devastation” I felt the demo didn't really do justice to their live crushing sound but just last month (July) they unleashed upon the metal masses a new E.P. of relentless metal havoc on cd-r at a local release show with comrades from Ohmsapien(interview on the works) also with an unveiling of their first demo, both material will surely melt the faces of the false. 

 Read on as We the infected interrogates Victilator(drums)and Jervish.(Axe/Vox) support these maniacs bent on apocalypse or suffer consequences far worse than certain death. You have been warned.

1.Greetings Jervish & Vic! What are you listening too at the moment? hehehe.

Can you please tell us the history of the band and how 

you guys all met and got together? 

Introduce yourselves to the future-fuckers reading this dirty rag!

(Vic blasting away on Cellulust Prods. 2nd anniversary,cavite city)

Vic: do we need to introduce ourselves?? Hehe!! First I want to thank you for giving Rabies a space on your poser crushing zine, we are Rabies a young thrash metal band from San Pablo, Laguna doing some 80’s thrash rabies metal, lately I’ve been listening to angelcorpse, hammer of gods, aura noir – black thrash attack, witchchrist – beheaded, ouroborus, some 80’s punk/thrash and some Rush albums Moving Pictures/Signals(Rush Rules! –pao) etc..well the band started summer of 2009, were all in the cafeteria(tambayan)the 2^nd floor of it is a band rehearsal space, Jervish(guitar/vox) a pathogen sessionist, has also an addiction to oldschool thrash/heavy metal just like me, I ask him about forming  a band, he agreed, that time(until now) I miss my band effluvium/negatron, we ask gelo of the mighty Infestor to join for the 2^nd guitar and rugene on bass, few months later we recorded radiation devastation demo, and soon after jelo quit the band for some reasons, then he was replaced by lex who was jervish bandmate during high school, and now we had recently released Apocalypse Agenda with lex on guitar.

(Jervish & crowd at the Rabies/Ohmsapien E.P. / Demo Release party)

Jervish: first of all thanks for wasting your time interviewing us, we are rabies from san Pablo,laguna playing in your face old school thrash attack.I’m currently listening to some watchtower, coroner thin lizzy and assassin(ger)but my ears into up dharma down and supercell while answering this interview.

2.Hey Jervish thanks again for the demo copy you gave me years back(kalamoganunnakatagal eh hehehe)

How was the bands first demo, Radiation Devastation received locally and overseas?

What's the story behind the first release?

(1st release in question)

Jervish:The 1^st demo contains 3 original and 1 cover song, locally some songs got included in some compilations from Dethrone Records and Lifespan Records, overseas the label Skullfucking Metal Records(canada) release it on cd-r format.

Vic: radiation devastation demo was recorded few months after were formed. Honestly I’m not satisfied about the outcome(production wise) the sound engineer is so stupid and we will never record there again, radiation devastation received multiple awards locally and abroad, it won grand prize in metropop and teen’s choice awards hehehehe!!! the feedback? So far, so good, so what??

(Rugene Marcial on bass shot at the time of the 1st rabies era/line up)

3.Rabies has a new E.P. out, Apocalypse Agenda.

 Can you tell us about it?

what went into its creation and were 

you satisfied with the end result?

Who got in touch w/ whom in regards

 to the Hellhouse666 tape release?

How was it received so far?

Vic: Apocalypse Agenda is our latest offering, it contains 5 songs, it was recorded in less than 5 hours I think, so I was very happy, Dondi of Brimstone in Fire is very easy to work with and such a cool guy we will definitely record there again. About hellhouse666? Ask jervish about it.

Jervish: The E.P. was recorded on November 2010 at Noiseworkz Studio, the studio has a nice atmosphere so the recording went well and D.B.(brimstone and fire) treated us with some booze after the recording sessions, so we went home very drunk, about the hellhouse666 release, I got to know that label because of the negatron release, so I decided to contact them, luckily they responded and deal was made, unfortunately the label is still not sending us some copies they promise, he said he will send us 2 months after the release so were still waiting, but , I really trust those guys, so hopefully by September we will received those copies.

(Lex Garcia on geehtahrs)

4.How'd you guys first get interested in music?

Jervish: I got interested in music during my elementary days, rage against the machine was very popular back then and my older cousins always play it in their stereo I remember banging my head by some of their tracks, and completely blown away by the guitar playing,but its during my highschool days when I decided to play the guitar, I remember during my sophomore year I saw those pathogen guys rehearsing, after that my life changed and the rest was history. 

Vic: My older brother used to listen to, you know the usual suspects metallica, megadeth, slayer etc. so I was exposed and really got affected since I was a kid and then the rest was history..

5.It must've been hard writing all these songs when a litre of

authenticLambanog is just a sari sari store away he hehe.

How do you guys go through the song writing process?

Can you Walk us through how a typical rehersal for you guys goes?

Jervish: As much as possible we try to rehears once every week, I always comes first at the rehearsal studio vic is the usual second placer and the third and last place is always a tight race between lex and rugene(haha!!) I’ll present some riffs to vic and he will try to insert some drumlines and the other members will try to add some extra ideas or riffs until the song is completed.

Vic: the usual way, jervish comes with a riff and lyrics, I have input in arranging and transitions, all 4 of us works during rehearsals giving their thoughts/comments, still a team effort. No one man is behind it.

(Earliest Rabies Line up, saving Philippines from trendy shite)

6.What's the ideology,objective and main driving force behind Rabies?

what are you trying to achieve musically?

Jervish: we will save Philippines from deathcore, screamo, coverbands, brutal death and nu metal gay shit and any forms of trendy unintelligent music!!that I think is our objective.

( do not entry or you will be burned and died! -pao)

Vic: we all love (aggressive/loud) thrash metal music, that I think is the diving force for rabies and to give justice to oldschool thrash, we formed to achieve nothing, we just want to give everyone what thrash metal is all about, just enjoying every moment when we play and have fun..

7.I saw pictures of you guys going up the mountains, looks like fun. 

What do you guys do over there?

Jervish:The mountain is mt. banahaw which is some kilometers away form san Pablo, every (un)holy week people gather to that mountain to repent for their sins, but were different we come to that mountain to get drunk and wasted, basically its just 3 days and 2 nights of blasphemy in banahaw.

Vic: we go there every year just for fun, and visit Erwin’s (pathogen)relatives. He is a mountain goat sodomizer.

8.Lets talk influences wether metal or non metal. 

where do the band, as a whole draw their influences from? 

how about personally as an individual? D'ya Like any new bands?

How would you best describe the sound of your band to someone who has never heard your music? 

Vic: as band we draw inspirations from 80’s thrash/punk and some death metal, history, war movies etc.. as for myself oldschool metal/punk in general, non-metal it woul be lambanog, pussy, everyday struggles, and to someone who has never heard of our music, I would say Fuck off and die asshole!!

Jervish: I’m not limiting my ears to metal music, I’m open to any forms of music as long as it is has this creative and intelligent songwriting and passes my ears criteria, new bands?? I like toxic holocaust, municipal waste, violator and all these new wave of thrash metal bands, non-metal influences will always be porn, video games, anime, random documentaries, war films and etc..

9.Are you counting on SaayaIrie to do AV's when she becomes 18?

thanks for that fucking awesome link btw! Your Top 5 JAV IDOLS?

 

I don’t wanna fucking wait she should do some AV’s right now even she’s underaged. As for the top 5, damm it’s a pretty hard question this list is partial and always changing but here are my current top 5

5. hatsune minori

4. aino kishi

3. cocomi sakura

2. rio

1. asami yuma

10.How does this musically incestious relationship w/ Pathogen and Infestor affect you guys?

Do one bands sound unintentionally find its way to another?

Vic: in some way I guess, I play drums for pathogen and rabies sometimes I do session for infestor, and also play drums for boxwagon as a drummer, I want to make my style different from each band so it challenges me as a musician.

11.My first encounter with a Mesopotamian Demon was when 

Pazuzu possessed Regan in The Exorcist,such an awesome film.

What's the song Mesopotamian Demon about and what lyrical themes do you tackle?

Jervish: that song is about the gulf war that happen during the early 90’s in the middle east, I was watching this documentary and I decided to write a song about that, lyrical themes its all about wars and the stupid humanity, but I will try to write a ballad for the next release(hahaha!!)

12.Why'd you guys decide to cover the effluvium/negatron song Chernobyl?

(old rabies pic w/ a 16yo. me in attendance)

Vic: as I said earlier, I miss my old band..

Jervish: effluvium/negatron is still one of favorite local bands, and it is also one of the reasons I’m playing thrash metal, vic(drums) is the one who suggested to cover that song and I think that songs fits on the demo so we decided to record that, and it is one of our favorite live songs because the crowd always goes nuts when we play it

13.Theres seems to be a local group of people focused on NSBM that has been getting some attention recently, what 

is the band's stand on Nazism and hate breeding like this?

Jervish: its ok to me as long as they are not taking it to extremes like killing someone they think inferior to them, as long as its for the sake of music and not for some hypocrite propaganda or just a flavor of the month.

Vic: I’d rather not comment on this one, I just hope that band to last long enough.

14.Most local gigs happen in the Quezon City/Manila area and you guys live a good distance away..

Does this affect the band in anyway? anything good stuff happening in Laguna, music wise?

Vic: yes it helps us in some way or another, It keeps us away from manila mainstream metal bands and some stupid assholes also think that we are an elite type of band hahaha!! And another thing is that some people will recognize us as a metal band that came from a place where metal doesn’t exist so it makes us very proud, no more good stuff here, we only have lambanog, pathogen, rabies, infestor, boxwagon and morkhgrat.

Jervish: If there’s a good thing happening here in laguna maybe we don’t need to  play in manila anymore, but honestly nothings happening here musically no metal or any underground gigs only this shit battle of the bands where playing metal is prohibited and this showbands who cover songs for the rest of their life always win.

15.Speaking of Local gigs, What do you think of the Filipino u/g scene in general? 

If you could change things about it what would it be?

Vic: I think the underground scene is still the same, more rockstars are coming but theres a few who remain true to the underground, the others wants to be famous and only play for their circus of stars(production) hahahaha!!

Jervish: I think its getting stronger many new bands including us just starts popping but the problem is their not into releasing/composing songs, they are happy by just doing covers, but as katon of hirax said “the ones that last are the few and the proud” its all about being true to the underground and not just a trendy loser only the true and dedicated will survive.

16.Whats the most fucked up thing to happen to you guys ever at gigs?

Jervish: during gigs nothing, but when going home or going to the venue I’ll tell you that’s when a lot of fucked up things happen, I remember when I was doing session with pathogen, desecravity(japan) is playing here and pathogen is opening for them, going home there was a typhoon and its raining like hell and the bus needs to stop because of the flood and I’m drunk and vomiting all over the bus. Another is the gig at dayo bar I think somewhere in quezon city, this ancient warlord guys got on a commotion with the security guard and the guard starts calling the police, and its just a nerve-wrecking experience to see a lot of police taking over the bar.

Vic: there’s a lot of weird things happen especially with my band pathogen and effluvium/negatron, there’s this gig in Marikina when Demisor(grindcore) came here, negatron wasn’t able to play because the organizer let the other band play in between sets, so we just decided to just watch the gig, most of the bands were crusties, but we still enjoy that gig, there’s also this gig in lucena that we hitch hike back home, I tell you there’s a lot and will all remains in our memory forever.

17.You guys have really awesomely improved so much over the short amount of time that has passed, fucking awesome.(seriously..)

What's next for Rabies?

Vic: do you think we improved?hehe! now we are composing some new songs, our bassist is now missing in action but we got one doing some session, rabies will continue no matter what.

Jervish: our bass player got abducted by aliens maybe he will be a test subject for some extraterrestrial experiments, but we already got a new session player and it’s a secret who was that guy(hehe!)( I can guess on who it will be! -carlos), were still writing some songs for the next release, plans are still plans hopefully all plans came to reality.

I guess that is all! fuck! Thanks for taking some time out of your sched and answering these stupid questions

man. 

The last words are yours to abuse! 

Vic: You’re welcum, I enjoy answering yor shits man, to all readers and comrades keep thrashing till death!!

Jervish: thanks for all the thrashing support!! The new E.P. Apocalypse Agenda is out just contact us, if you want the cassette tape format contact the hellhouse666 productions!!bands(for splits),zines,label(for release) don’t hesitate to drop us a line.

jervish456@yahoo.com