It’s Monday and Mondays suck, so let’s grind it out with an interview with Makkmat and premiere of Beina Brenner.
If you haven’t heard of Makkmat, that’s because there’s not much out there on them. Yet. The Arno, Norway trio is a newly formed entity that makes grinding down the house their business. Decibel premiered their music video “Burning Cop” back in February as well as their cover of Siege’s “Drop Dead.” Now we’re here with the whole package. And what a damn beast this is.
Over thirteen-tracks the trio blister and burn through some deliciously old school grind. Yeah, it’s only a little over fifteen minutes of pure pulverization, but Makkmat is something that a lot of bands aren’t: they’re organically fun while also being devastatingly brutal. Start to finish, Beina Brenner is ground to perfection. Oh, it begins simply enough with “Sjeikelandet” and some spoken bits, but then it gets to the goods and the album is like a jackhammer with a grudge. Punk and speed ooze out of every track. Pretty sure the physical copies of this record can cut concrete.
Before wrapping this up, we decided to have a word with the new Norwegian grinders on the foundation of Makkmat, surprising future splits/punk business synergy, and exactly what kind of kaiju one should associate with the band.
Monday Grind: There's not a lot of info out there on Makkmat. Tell us about the band. How'd you form? And what's the band name mean?
Øyvind : Hola, this is Øyvind from Makkmat. Makkmat is the sound that comes when you slap rotten pieces of human flesh together. Basically, it implies that something is totally fucked. As an added bonus the pronunciation sounds good in Czech and Polish as well. Come to think of it, that might be the main reason we picked the band name.
We are only three guys in this band; drums, guitar and bass. For different reasons our previous bands split up, were put on hold, or people moved to other cities and so on, making it hard to meet on a regular basis. But it’s no option to stop grinding, right? So we had to start something new, and that became Makkmat. We hang out a lot, band feels very much alive, and we’re constantly churning out new stuff.
MG: As far as I can find, there's only Beina Brenner to your discography. Did you decide to just not release any demos or EPs? Or is a b-sides/demos release something we can look forward to later?
Øyvind: Beina Brenner is in fact our demos. We wrote the whole album quickly and recorded it ourselves straight away. The process of mixing, getting album art done, pressing the album took a lot longer. But in that process we also wrote a bunch of new tunes. So now we’ve just gotta get summer touring out of the way, and then around August we are set to record the second 12” album. We have all the songs, including lyrics for most of it by now. So yes, there is a second full length release coming up. And it fucking rips, too. Rotten flesh all over the place.
MG: You play an old school style of grind. Punk really dominants the sound, and the recording is cutting and relentless. Was this the intent from the start or was it just the natural sound the band came into?
Øyvind: Thanks! Well, we’re punks, but we didn’t want to do another d-beat or crust band. We wanted intense and fast, but we didn’t want it to turn into a metal band either. But at the end of the day I guess you just sound how you do. The songwriting defines everything. And I have to say that our new songs are even more focused, more purely distilled than ever, so there’s plenty of madness coming.
MG: Norway is mostly known for its black metal scene these days. Is there a grind/hardcore/punk scene in Norway that goes unnoticed?
Øyvind: Ah yes, black metal. It has really infused the music scene here with a satanic temperament. Our death metal is mostly of the blackened sound too, and hardcore kids play hardcore with an occult edge. But the punk scene is thriving, and apparently a lot more is happening in Trondheim again (after the local squat burned down some years ago). In Oslo there are tons of shows, and one of the squats was finally formalized and legalized as true tenants with legal rights (yey!). But there is not much grind here, to be honest.
MG: You're on this year's Obscene Extreme line up. Is there pressure to perform or is it just another chance to spread the gospel?
Øyvind: Nope. None whatsoever. We still haven’t played a single show (not on purpose, we had to cancel a few for varying personal reasons) but finally in May we are doing a short stint in Germany, and then in July we are hitting the road throughout Europe. So we will be in great shape. Robert and I also have played and toured together for the last 10 years and our drummer Rune is a beast so will be tight.
It speaks volumes of Curby and Obscene Extreme, though. I just love the way his mind works. He liked it, and though the crowd at OEF would appreciate it. So he booked it. And this was in January or something, when we hadn’t even dropped a single tune anywhere. Best attitude ever!
MG: Let's talk splits. A lot of grindcore bands do loads of splits (e.g.: Suffering Mind, Agathocles), are there any split plans in the future? Or any band you really wanna do a split with?
Øyvind: We are planning a 12” split with Napalm Death, Repulsion, Siege and Makkmat. Will be great. The other bands don’t know yet, but don’t worry, it will happen. We are also resurrecting Warsore and Denak for a similar project.
We love splits and have done many in the past with our previous bands. So I am sure we will release splits, yes. And we have music already, so it’s too easy. But it needs to be with bands we care about, or that we share something with. So we look forward to talking punk business and planning marketing strategies with friends’ bands this summer. Together we will maximize profit and “exposure” through cost-sharing and cooperative logistical solutions in the punk scene. Do It Together.
MG: Your press release says "Mankind is going to extinction ending the consumption era. The world we know will fall. Nature forming species will survive." So, let's say Makkmat survives. Will you still play grindcore and how will it evolve with the new era?
Øyvind: Makkmat will survive, even in a putrified zombie condition. We will use intestines to play bass chords, severed heads for bongo drums, and amplify the gentle sound of a flame thrower as lead guitar. The apocalypse will grind.
MG: How many cops could one set fire to during the duration of this record? I wanna know if this was field tested.
Øyvind: Preferably all of them! Punk assisted simultaneous cluster-burning. Or maybe grindcore induced internal cop combustion.
MG: If Makkmat was a kaiju, which one would it be? You don't gotta confine yourself to the Godzilla universe.
Øyvind: It would have to be Mechagodzilla, probably. Because it has so many insane fucking weapons. Missiles on his fingers, seriously! Also, it ties in nicely with the cover art that Nesha of Doomsday Graphics made for us, with the robotic hell horse/tank thing. Totally awesome, that artwork. Ok, thanks for the interview Chris, hope to see you on the road! Cheers!
Upcoming Tour Dates:
30.05 – Reil78 – Halle, DE – w/ TBA
31.05 – Tommyhaus – Berlin, DE – w/ Warcollapse, Neverending Winter ++
01.06 – In Trümmern V – Radebeul, DE – w/ Neverending Winter, Zerum ++
02.07 – Modra Vopice – Prague, CZ – w/ Herida Profunda, Cruel Face
- 07 – TBA – Vienna, AT 04.07 – OEF (day off)
05.07 – OEF (day off) 06.07 – Obscene Extreme Festival – Trutnov, CZ – w/ Repulsion, Siege ++
07.07 – TBA – Prague, CZ – w/ Cryptic Void, Suppression ++
08.07 – TBA – Cottbus, DE
09.07 – TBA – Potsdam, DE
10.07 – TBA – Chemnitz, DE
11.07 – TBA – Munich, DE
12.07 – TBA – Gyor, HU
13.07 – TBA – Budapest, HU
Links to store for:
CD: http://www.everydayhate.com/makkmat-beina-brenner-cd
LP: http://www.everydayhate.com/makkmat-beina-brenner-12-lp-2
MC: http://www.everydayhate.com/makkmat-beina-brenner-mc
