Interview with Sten from Ecocide!

This interview is with guitarist and singer Sten from the death metal group Ecocide. They hail from the Netherlands and put out a wicked debut record last year! Enjoy!

SFM: Hi guys! Let’s start by talking about your debut full-length record, “Eye of Wicked Sight”. The album was initially released independently. Did you receive a lot of label interest after it was released

Sten: Yes, after the release we got a lot of interest from labels who wanted to re-release the album on vinyl or CD. The Vinyl was done by Supreme Chaos Records and the Re-issue on CD was done by Disharmonic records.

SFM: When Disharmonic Records picked up the album, there was a new cover art. The art still reflects the title but is quite a bit different. Did the label insist on new artwork? Do you guys like the new art?

Sten: Well we came up with new artwork for the vinyl release because we thought that the new art would look cooler on vinyl. When Disharmonic contacted us we thought let’s use the new art and keep the old one as a sort of 1^st press artwork.

SFM: Even though there are a lot of bands playing old-school heavy metal these days (whether traditional or thrash or death metal), few of them nail the production like you guys did. “Eye of Wicked Sight” sounds like it’s straight from the early 90’s. How did you achieve this production sound? Are you guys happy with the end result?

Sten: Well we recorded with Fredde form Dirty bird studios and also known from bands like Massive Assault and Sledgehammer Nosejob. Fredde had done some great Dutch old school Death metal bands and we thought that this was the right guy for us ! We think the album turned out great !

SFM: Your lyrical approach is different from most death metal bands that go the gore or Satan route. What draws you to sci-fi oriented lyrics?

Sten: Well we are all interested in sci-fi stuff and we thought why not write some lyrics about it! It’s still gory and evil but with a different twist. I have also thought about writing some lyrics about other stuff but we will see about that in the future!

SFM: You have done a lot of gigs in the last couple of years. What are your favourite songs to play from the album? What songs are the fan favourites?

Sten: I love to play Crawling From The Crypt and Terror From Beyond because they are really fast heavy songs and the fans go crazy on those ones. I also think Planet Eater is one of the more popular songs amongst fans because it has this catchy , groovy tone to it and it’s also the first song on the record.

SFM: This year in particular, you’ve had some great support slots including opening for Gorguts and Malevolent Creation. Are you guys trying to get on a major death metal tour, or looking to play some summer festivals next year?

Sten: We would love to do a cool Death Metal tour with band’s like that and we would also love to play on festivals like Partysan, Stonehenge and Neurotic Deathfest 

SFM: Are you guys working on new material? If so, when can we expect a new Ecocide album, and will it sound similar to the debut?

Sten: Yes we are working on new stuff only it has been hard for me to come up with new things because I had some problems with my personal life and I didn’t feel that well most of this year. But we are working very hard on some new songs now and we hope to release it by the end of this year or in the beginning of 2015. I think it will be a bit similar to “Eye” but I think I will keep some of the  lyrics more down to earth this time haha!

SFM: Do you think that death metal needs to continue to evolve to be interesting, or can bands simply come up with similar sounding fans to keep fans happy?

Sten: Well I like experimental stuff and bands can always change their sound but there is nothing wrong with some good old school death metal. A lot of bands put different things in their music but it’s still old school death metal and it’s still great music.

SFM: A lot of new death metal bands really favour Incantation’s sound. You guys seem to be more rooted in Floridian death metal (Massacre, Nocturnus, Death). Do you think there are too few bands playing the Floridian style of death metal?  

Sten: Yes, But I think that’s also the reason why we are so different form other Old school Death Metal bands.  You have a few Florida style Death metal bands out there like Skeletal Remains, Morfin and Gruesome. The reason we play it is because we love bands like Death/Massacre and Obituary but we also try to involve some of our own ideas.

SFM: Any last words for the fans out there?

Sten: We Love you all! Thanks for the support and stay tuned for the new album! 

Be sure to check out and like Ecocide on Facebook!