“A real crust as fuck existence” – Interview with Jos (Last Legion Alive, Silence Means Death, Feed the Tumor, ecc)

Some time ago I got in touch with Jos, an old acquaintance of the Belgian crust and punk scene and formerly active in the great Last Legion Alive, one of the best expressions of that “stenchcore” revival of the early 2000s despite their short existence. However, Jos is still active in several extremely good bands such as Silence Means Death, Feed the Tumor and Serial Pissers, continuing to live a real crust as fuck existence and making punk still a means to resist and develop a critical consciousness about what is happening around us. I was lucky enough to have a chat with him about the Last Legion Alive experience and his long active militancy within the Belgian and European crust and punk scene, so all I can do is leave you with his words.

Hi Jos! How are you doing? Thanks again for agreeing to answer these questions! Let’s start with a bang: You have been active in the Belgian scene for many, many years, what is the current situation in the Belgian hardcore punk and crust scene?  What are the most interesting squats, bands and collectives currently?

Hey hey mate!!! I started to listen to punk when i was 15/16 years old. Now i’m 41 and still arround. Well the scene in Belgium is still going on. We had better , we had worse….Quite a lot of squats were evicted tho. In Liège there is still the KaFc squat, cool squat with great crew where they still organise concerts and do Food not bombs in the city center. Besides that there is the Pigeon squat where they have meetings and People’s kitchen.  And in Aalst (other side of Belgium) and my old hometown , we have Rock and load collective. They organise shows and festivals since more then ten years now and put small and big bands on the bill. Bandwise there are a lot of bands still going strong and quite a lot of new bands. There is Contradisanti , Raw Peace , Hetze , On Fire , Smokebomb , Plague13 , Travolta, Arrögant , The End of Ernie , Frustrerad , Sons of Disaster , Detvrire , Holyland , Mölar , Ekzeem A , Verpest , Fucked up minds , Pagaï , Speedözer , Idealus Maximus , Ordigort , Pesticide , fuck there are soo many bands i want to mention here but my memory is a warzone hahahaaa. Aah and last but not least the oldtimers of Hiatus are also playing shows again.

You were a member of the majestic Last Legion Alive, one of the best bands of that “stenchcore” revival at the turn of the 2000s and early 2010s. What are your memories of that precise moment in history of extreme turmoil within the European crust punk scene and beyond?

Thanks for the kind words mate. Not much was going on so together with some friends we decided to form a band. We had two friends on guitare first but one decided he didn’t wanna  stay so we found another and after that we were ready to spread out filth. Things went pretty fast from the start and we had a blast the short time we existed.

Your first demo was released in 2009 and contains in my opinion one of your best songs “A Black New Dawn.” Under what conditions was that record born? Do you remember what inspired you on a lyrical, personal and even political-social level in writing that album?

That demo was recorded in the ‘Battlefield studio’s. Some friends (the lads of Mutual aid and Nature’s) had a diy studio and we asked them if we could record there. Some of us allready recorded there with our old band and me aswell with Silence Means Death . Welll,about the lyrics i can’t say much because Katrientje did all of the writing. Very dark material. I love(d) it.

How did the idea of creating Last Legion Alive come about and with what purpose did they form? Most importantly, what did you want to evoke with a name that harkens back to dark fantasy, epic yet barbaric and warlike imagery?

As i said, we were just some friends who wanted to form a band to have some fun, be on the road and show the world that we had something to say. The name was chosen very quick. One day i was listening to the album ‘Enemy of god’ from Kreator and at a certain moment they sing ‘Last legion alive, …..’ Hearing these words i knew this would be a killer band name.

Why did you choose to play crust punk so clearly rooted deep in that British primordial soup known as stenchcore?

We we were talking about forming a band the question came up what we would play. Most of us were listening to stenchcore so it seemed obvious for us.

What did it mean for you Last Legion Alive to play crust punk? Was it just about the music, or did you see in this subgenre of punk a potential for conflict against this world doomed to extinction by capitalism’s hunger for profit?

For sure it was a nice to play this music but it was also a good way to express our anger against mankind who is destroying this earth in the name of greed. And to make clear we were (and still are) against racism and the exploitation of animals and such things.

What, on the other hand, does it mean for you to play and still be part of the hardcore punk scene in 2022? What do you think could be the potential of this music nowadays?

That’s a good question…. Nowadays most kids don’t seem to give a shit about the current situation of the world of all the war and powersgames that are going on. So i think it is still important to be out there and be active because we still have kids at our shows who wanna know more about the idology or about antifascist stands. Or about veganism. So yeah, i still think we have potential, although i also realise a punk song is not gonna change the world.

Around the 10s you released a couple of split albums that years later still turn out to be some of the best work released during the “stenchcore” revival. How did you come in contact with Cancer Spreading and Hellstorm and what are your impressions years later of these two records and collaborations with these two bands?

How we got in contact with Hellstorm i don’t really remember, i think it was Killbo who got in contact with them. Fun fact, i was in Greece a few weeks ago to see a concert of Disease and Angza and others and i bumped into the singer & drummer of Hellstorm on that concert. Small world right??? We also played together with Cancer Spreading on the ‘play fast or die’ festival in Czech Republic. So we got to know eachother and later on there was this idea to make a split .

What are the fondest memories you have of your experience touring with Last Legion Alive? What were the situations, gigs or places that you remember most fondly around Europe?

Oooh man, these were the good old days!!!! Being crammed together in a van on the road, always loads of laughter hahaha. We did two minitrips (first to the Uk) and after a few trip on our way to the ‘Play fast festival’ and also two Eastern Europe tours. Fuck these were cool trips.

Perhaps this may appear to be an indelicate question, and I am sorry. But you Last Legion Alive have left a great void in all lovers of certain apocalyptic stenchcore. How did your adventure come to an end? What are the biggest regrets you have with Last Legion Alive?

I started to work and had almost no free time so that was pretty harsh, same time the drummer his other band Link was getting really active playing all over so he had to devide his time over two bands…..It was sad we quit but i guess it was supposed to be that way. It was short but intense hehehe. Personally the biggest regret was not going to play the Varning from Montreal fest in Canada. We were asked to play there and do a tour after but we didn’t went…

As a final question I want to break away from Last Legion Alive and talk about your two other bands: how are things continuing with Feed the Tumor and Silence Means Death? Then give us some previews of new albums or tours?

Silence Means Death is still going on after all these years. We are working on new songs to record later to do another split. These days there is also Serial Pissers, same members then SMD but with Pascale (ex Chaos bastards) on vocals. Different style of music and if all goes well our split lp with On Fire’ from Brussels should be out. Also Feed the Tumör is back on track, two members are out and we have an old friend on guitare and we are also working on a new setlist. So we can’t wait to come out and play

Thanks for the interview mate and see you soon!!!! Salute amico mio.