1) incredible, I know you were existing since the split ep with AGATHOCLES, for a long time ago, but compared with this new absolutely fantastic album, there are eternities between the both releases. Are you considering this album as the return on investissment?:
Steve: Guess this question needs a bit of band history. ET was formed as a side-project of the Death-Metal-Band Aeternum. Up to now, we composed and recorded songs in three sessions. The first one was back in April 2000, all done by ourselves (recording and mixing) as was the second in April 2002. The recording of the third session took place in April 2003 (yeah, there definitely is something to this month!) and the CD contains the bigger part of the songs recorded at Schweinesound Studios. As we composed the first songs we weren't really sure what kind of sound we wanted to make, I guess, only that it's gotta be Grindcore. The songs were composed by Dave and me, in a very short time. We just took all riffs that came to mind. With the second session which I, personally, prefer the most of all three even if the production isn't as good as the one for the CD, we wanted to play some faster songs of course, and also straighter. Also we weren't sure what drummer we would get for the first session, but since Heinz took the part and we knew he could play very fast it was a lot easier to compose faster pieces. This continued on the third session of course. And that just fits us right: Straight fast jump-in-the-face Grinddeath, that's all we want to play.

2) Simply fabulous compos, sound quality from another galaxy, and perfect producing, how did you get in contact with Billy, how did you convince him and what did he do to help the band?:
Steve: Well, as much as Dave told me Billy went to our web-site one day and downloaded a song from the second session and really liked it. So he got in contact with us and asked us if we would like to bring out a CD on his label. Which, of course, was a very great step forward for us! This was back in 2002, so we started to compose some new songs as soon as possible. We got a good amount of CD's for free, and if we can sell them all, this will cover the studio costs for good. So what more can an underground band wish for themselves? As much as I know the label has a good name in the underground, so it just rules! ( Billy helped us a lot. He for instance checked all our lyrics and he wrote lyrics for one or our tracks. Thanks again, Billy!! - Marco)

3) Isn't that too hard, considering that you are working on the scene since so long time and that the good answers are "only" going to begin now?. Or am I totally wrong on that point and you re out of the scene since a while and I just didn't watch you out?
Steve: ET was, as told before, nothing more than a side project of Aeternum. We also did some gigs with Aeternum afterwards the first session, but that stuff never reached the "masses" as did ET. After releasing the Split-7" with Agathocles everything happened very fast and a lot of labels were interested in releasing our stuff. Considering that we never had real success with Aeternum, which at last existed from 1994 to 2001/02, I guess, two years until you get your first full-length CD out besides the promise of a real lot of 7" EPs, that doesn't sound a very long time to me. Also it took us some time until we decided to let go of Aeternum and only concentrate on ET (as you can see, there are about 2 years until we recorded the second session).

4) Being from Swizerland seems to not be as easy as bands from Bialystok, Poland for example. Any ideas about that, are the Swizer guys too closed or shy?. Troubles with the scene, maybe more turned to bands and styles like Black metal or hardcore?:
Steve: I think there aren't that lot of Grindcore-Bands in Switzerland, at least I don't know very much. Most bands play Metal, but there aren't that many labels to bring them out in Switzerland. And I guess, not a lot of them do have contacts to labels out of the country limits. So mostly of the time it's up to themselves to produce their releases (as we did with 2 of our 7"es, the one with Agathocles and the one with Unholy Grave). And, maybe, though Switzerland is a small country, it's more famous for cheese, knifes and neutrality than it's music scene. There are just a few bands with cult status, like Celtic Frost, Messiah, Fear Of God, Samael etc. Maybe it depends also on the fact, that the underground scene is not so wide-spread, lack of events and locations, and a lot of metalheads like to stick to the more famous bands from other countries. But I really can't found on facts.

5) Why the outro on the Cd with german language (soll es meinen, dass Sie nach der deutschen Grenze wohnen?), and all these special "tyrolian" sonorities?. Are you proud to be from swizerland or is there no more "nationalism" in Swizerland like it has been not so long ago?:
Steve: Ah, the outro was delivered by Marco, the vocalist. As much as I know it sounds like taken from a science series on TV because the speaker describes the embalming as the Old Egyptians did it. I guess he couldn't find an English version so we gotta stick to the German version. Of course part of Switzerland speaks and reads German and also watches TV in this language. But the whole thing doesn't have anything to do with nationalism, no one of us is very interested in this kind of politics, not if it comes down to the music. Of course we have some Patriots around here and also some Nazi people (but every nation has that kind of stuff even if they're not called Nazis anywhere), but if I can speak for myself, I love this country because of its mountains and valleys and lakes, just the beauty of the Alps - guess that's nothing that makes me a real patriot, does it?

6) In the meantime, having so much release and nobody to produce you, again, the same topic, how could you explain that suddenly the CD that you are presenting to the audience is gonna kill everything?. Aren't you scare by the the way that the guys like me for example are searchging to catch the other releases and being disappointed by the old releases?:
Steve: I could give you a short answer to this question: Either you love us or you hate us. But, if you've got Internet, you can always go to our Website (www.embalmingtheatre.ch), there's a song ready for download for every release. But I guess if you like our style you won't be too disappointed, but honestly most songs from the second session are a lot faster and better than the ones from the first, and those from the third are of course a progress in recording quality.
But, yeah, just check out the discography section of our site where you can test the releases on.

7) Let's explain the cover art I really don't understand at all?? What the hell is this girl with his walking dog skeleton doing here?. The colour red is greatly printed and nicely made, but why?:
Marco: You really hate it, don't you? Well, let me explain that cover artwork. The woman is a part of our track "we ate daddy". She was a butcher from down under and she hacked up her husband and fed him to his kids. So this is definitely not a dog skeleton. She is also presenting the sweet part of the title. Leatherface (TCM) loves the saw too, so I decided to create a cover that fits for both tracks (we ate daddy / sweet chainsaw melodies).

8) Covering Exulceraiton was just great and your version is more punchy than theirs. Anyway at that time the split cd with Putrid Offal was enormous and I still have some nostalgic moments and feelings when I m listening to it. But: why not a FEAR OF GOD song to cover for example?. You're from the grind scene and them too; hard contacts with these guys? Too underground?:
Steve: Ehehe. Yeah, take a guess, we DID a cover of a Fear Of God Song with our third recording session!!! It's "I've seen" and will be released on a FOG-tribute-CD, you gotta check out the FOG-Site to get more infos. I know two folks of the original set-up personally, Osi and Tschösi (the latter one the vocalist on the first two Messiah-albums), Osi lives in the same village as I does and he was one of the few people that influenced my growing into extreme music! Dave is in contact with Erich, the vocalist, and FOG are currently searching for a drummer to get a little reunion. (reunion is complete and they found a drummer! -Dave)
We also covered a song by Cryptic Slaughter and one by G-Anx in the same session, but those will be released later. We didn't want to have too much coverversions on the CD, one was enough.

9) What are the next steps for EMBLAMING THEATRE?. Some tours, gigs, splits to be announced?. I have seen on your website this is incredible the number of releases that are gonna be produced this year under your name!!! And it seems that the relations with the other bands of razorback are cool too: split with FRIGHTMARE for example.. Are you the Birdflesh from swizerland?:
Steve: We will compose some new songs to the end of the year, that will be about twenty to thirty more songs, some of them of course for the Split with Frightmare, the rest for other releases. About some of the upcoming of the 7"es I have to say that all of them contain material from the first two sessions which took a bit more time to be released - we don't have much influences on the dates there, of course, it all depends to the labels. But, yeah, I guess we are very productive. Ehehe. Uh, and, erm, to my shame I got to say I don't know nothing about Birdflesh but the name. (but I know and love their releases. Great sense of humour!!! - Marco; me too - Dave) But I guess the idea of bringing out a lot of 7"es was coming in first from Dave, because he is a big fan of Agathocles and owns all (or almost all) (I have them all!!! - Dave) stuff they released. Ow, but I'm really eager on the Split with Frightmare, because I like their stuff a lot.

10) Ok, usual question nowadays, but what are you thinking of the reforming trend of old references, names here are not needed so grandpas of the underground scene you are too:
Steve: Well, I don't really dispute a lot about that. I mean, I'm listening to what I like, and with some bands it's great that they reunite, but if they do it only for profit and not because they still like the extremes in their music, it lacks mostly of, searching for the word, ah, like enthusiasm, then they'll just be boring. But I didn't observe the scene that closely in the past months/years, so I guess I don't have what you would call an opinion to it. Or maybe I even got the question wrong, excuse me… guess I'm a little disoriented to the end of the interview, ehehe. (what the hell are u asking about….grandpas?!… I startet my activities back in 1988 in the
underground scene. So am I a granddad? :- ) By the way, my old band Damnatory is back… what was your question about? Hihi - Marco)

11) I have always wanted to ask you the thing but why the hell did you choose this name for a grind core band?.I mean, there are tons of excellent and nuice funny ideas in your titles' names and for the main stuff , this is a common thing, that has with assurance a meaning you re gonna develop us but which means an explanation before being sure to understand. Nothing to do with Ghoul for example or Exhumed; so?:
Steve: We first wanted to call the project Anthropophagus, originating from the splatter-horror-movie by Joe d'Amato. But there was this Italian band that already used this name so we let it fall. Marco at last came up with Embalming Theatre which is the nickname given by english students to their autopsy rooms. Since most of the lyrics are based on deaths that really happened and also have a touch of the macabre I guess the name fits just right.

12) All, in all, could you say that 2003 is your year?:
Steve: Uhm, I don't know. Up to now it is, of course, we just released our first CD which seems to get good reactions, and that should make anyone of us happy. It looks like a good start and wakes a lot of hopes, of course. But we will see.

13) Anything else to add or promote for a local band?. Thanx again and use the blank space for what you want to:
Steve: Yeah, thanks a lot for the interview! I like answering questions, though I didn't get to funny this time, I guess. Ehehe. But anyway, as always: Don't take life too serious, it's too short for that!

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