Evoking the so-called “stenchcore” revival of the ’00s, deeply rooted in British crust sounds, Cimiterium burst onto the scene as one of the best bands currently playing crust punk. Perhaps still little known in our European and Italian latitudes, the Australian band already has behind them an excellent experience within the hardcore and punk scene not only of their country but also of Southeast Asia.
I had a chat with Ergin, Myles, Albeiro and Gabry, in conjunction with the release of their first devastating 7″ with which Cimiterium hold high the banner of the most trashing, filthy and old-school crust punk. This is an intense, in-depth and thought-provoking interview, so give Cimiterium’s words the attention and time they deserve.
Tomorrow is an open grave, but punk is the soundtrack to the resistance!
HI Cimiterium! Since you are an almost new band, it’s a must to ask you when, how and why you formed and especially the reason that led you to choose a name like Cimiterium
Myles: We’ve been together since 2018; Cimiterium has always been a reflection of a dying present, where soon the living will envy the dead.
Gabry: The band formed around 5-6 years ago as myself and Ergin met through a mutual friend who actually used to front the band at first until 4 years ago. We all shared a common interest, Stenchcore,
and since there’s a lack of it in Australia at the moment we felt it would have been something new and refreshing from the usual D-beat/raw punk thing taking the scene by storm. The name Cimiterium actually came from our old singer, as both him and I are Italian and lovers of stench/crust and the occult we felt the group needed a classic creepy, Latin sounding name to set the vibe to the music even before playing it.
Albeiro: I joined the band in 2019 when I came to Australia. A Colombian friend “Javier” (Drummer of Encierro) introduced me Ergin. We hung out in some gigs in Melbourne and we got to know each other. After some time, he mentioned the band – Cimiterium – and told me that they needed a bass player so I told him I was interested. At that moment I really wanted to play with anybody and get involved in the Melbourne scene. I went to a rehearsal with the band and I met Gabriel at first, later on I would meet Myles the singer.
They were practicing in Gabriel’s house back then. I heard them playing and I liked how the band sounded, the guitar riffs and the strong punch of Ergin in the Drums were sick, also Myles voice was kind of death metal which I loved it. I have to admit that I wasn’t familiar with Stench core style at that time – I knew some of the classic 80’s Crust punk bands though.
I came across you and your music when only the track “Involuntary” could still be heard on your bandcamp page and those few minutes were enough to make me want to hear more of your stench-crust. Where does your passion for certain sounds come from and which are the bands that influenced you the most? But above all, what does it mean for you to play crust punk in 2022?
Gabry: Personally, although I have always been in and around the punk scene, I have always been more of a metal head. As a guitarist I found it more interesting and challenging to play genres such as thrash, black metal and death metal which when combined with coming from a punk upbringing (thus lacking the technical skills) these would turn into stench sounding riffs, more raw and stripped-back.
As far as tone and sound, Bolt Thrower has always been my number one, go-to band for reference. I have always been a fan of that chuggy, raw, low tone that makes them who they are. I would say my sound is a Thrash metal approach to Bolt Thrower (if that makes any sense) as I like to mix bassy, chuggy riffs and breakdowns with fast, palm-muted Sodom style riffs. So yes! definitely bands like Bolt Thrower, Sodom, Hell bastard, Hell Hammer and even a bit of early Death.
To me playing crust is not so much about the politics nowadays as it is about the music itself, I am and have always been a musician first thus my focus has always been on the music. Playing crust in 2022 (and especially old school crust/stench) is a way for us to hope it resurfaces especially around this part of the world where there is a lack of it at the moment.
Myles: I like the symbiotic relationship between punk and metal; which Stench Core embodies, these are of course broad terms to define something specific. Stench Core is so appealing to me because it can politicise metal and endows punk with an energy that D-Beat and Punk don’t (for the most part) achieve… I’m influenced by Warcollapse, Contagium, Hellshock, After The Bombs, Fatum, Masscontroll, Sacrelige, and a shit load of others that don’t fit the stench-core genre like Hiatus, Napalm Raid, Skaven, Code 13, Negative Approach, Destroy, Homomalitia and Dystopia. In 2022, when we’re being dragged to the ‘lights out… cannibalism… then nothingness’ faster than ever before, I feel like Stench Core is the perfect soundtrack to the complete collapse of our planet and society…
Ergin: Cheers for the compliment! Personally to me, I guess from everything that I’ve been listening over the years, I was always interested in everything that has to do with punk and hardcore, also metal, especially some early death metal and black. But of course the main influence in Cimiterium is the early Uk crust and death metal I would say, bands like Deviated Instinct, Hellbastard, Bolt Thrower…
Albeiro: What I most like about crust is the mixture it gets between punk and metal without going to metal or to punk. I started listening heavy metal when I was about 14 years old so my background was more heavy metal than punk. Back then people used to be very radical. If you were in the metal scene you could not go in the punk scene. They used to hate each other. There was no room for something in between or maybe I was not aware of it. Punk was always in my life, I liked its philosophy which was all about at that time in Colombia besides the social and political contents in the lyrics. I cannot say I’m totally metal head or punk.
I have to say that I’m a bit fussy when It comes to music. I don’t like some styles in the heavy metal or punk. Generally speaking, I prefer the dirty sound (the dirtier the better). I would say that my personal influences are: the 80’s heavy metal (NWOBHM, German heavy metal, European heavy metal in general), Latin-American heavy metal, 80’s and early 90’s death metal (especially Swedish death metal and its chainsaw sound), 80’s thrash black metal and early 90’s black metal, Latin-American punk, Spanish punk, 70’s and early 80’s American punk and hardcore punk, 70’s and 80’s English punk and almost all its subgenres. Anyway, I have so many different influences It would be a long list If I mentioned all them.
I think the influences that contribute to the sound in Cimiterium comes mainly from the Swedish death metal sound. I didn’t write any of the songs so my contribution to the band is to give a strong noisy defined bass. It sometimes feels like a guitar but without losing the power of a bass guitar. I used to play guitar before joining Cimiterium so I’m hoping to come up with some guitar riffs in the future.
You have recently announced the release of your first 7″ anticipated by a track like “Tomorrow is an Open Grave”. Would you like to tell us about this new album? Will the stench-crust of the British school still be the main theme of the whole work or will there be different influences?
Myles: The upcoming 7″ recorded by our friend Max Ducker will be released in a couple of weeks. I’m excited for the release show and to get the record out, the 7′ is a step forward from our 2021 self-titled demo without being a departure from our overall sound. We intend to have our release show at the end of June 2022, with Sepsis, Fukkheads and Katorga.
Ergin: Yes, after our demo, follows a 7’ (speaking of which I just received the package with the vinyls as I am answering this question) with four songs in total, three of which are new including Involuntary that was previously featured on the demo. The 7’ is released on my own label Black Against Night Records and is limited to 200 copies. Concerning the influences on this record, the roots and the basis is pretty much the same, the only difference from the demo is that we have evolved as a band I reckon so the set seems more tight, trashier and punchier. I think that with this record we managed to find the right sound and direction of Cimiterium.
Gabry: The new EP I think stays true to the “Cimiterium vibe” , it still is a mix of British late 80’s, early 90’s crust but I also think it has progressed and changed a bit from the last demo. We’ve been together on and off for almost 5 years now and have had two completely different vocalists which has also impacted our sound, as well as many years of practice together as instrumentalists which has helped us get WAY faster, tighter and discoverers of our own sound. As far as influences I think they are what we were and are listening to at the moment of writing the riffs. You can hear influences from groups such as Sword Wielder, Fatum, Instinct of Survival as well as references to old school death metal, grind, thrash and other genres all four of us love.
The cover artwork of your new S/t album has been designed by Adam from Archaic filth and recalls in all respects that stenchcore imagery so dear to bands like Fatum, Instinct of Survival, Swordwielder, etc.. What particularly fascinates you about this aesthetic and this kind of imagery?
Ergin: Yup, that is Adam and his amazing drawing skills once again. As far as I can remember I have admired his artwork since I came accross Contagium which was a long time ago. So, first, it was a pleasure to work with him for the cover art of our 7’. He has a very specific and sophisticated style that conveys the meaning of crust music in an impressive manner. As you mentioned, the stenchore imagery that is so dear to all of the contemporary crust bands, which often depicts dark medieval art represented by battles, death, torture, is very fitting for Cimiterium’s image.
Gabry: To be completely honest, at first, I was not the biggest fan of the Norse/Celtic imagery used to portray Stench Core or Crust, this comes from the fact that I am actually Italian and not northern European which meant I didn’t really feel a connection to the imagery itself. But as we got together and thought of ideas for the cover art, Ergin got in contact with Adam and sent him a preview of the EP to listen to, two weeks later he sent back a sketch and we were all left speechless. Adam had taken the meaning of our name, the warrior-like sound and mortuary ambience in our music and put this all onto paper magnificently; when we all saw the artwork it made sense instantly and when put to the music, it gave the music it life and a face. After seeing how much Adam’s work compliments our sound, I now understand why this particular aesthetic is used for crust and stench and have grown to love it more and more.
Myles: Adam was given free reign and did not disappoint! I never had the pleasure of seeing Archaic Filth but Contagium was one of the first bands I saw when I moved to Vancouver in 2010, at Distort Vancouver Fest. Contagium and their artwork is the definition of Stench to me.
Reading the titles of your songs, it seems that your music is intrinsically political and full of criticism of this world dominated by capital’s hunger for profit and by the repressive and oppressive brutality of the States. What inspires you in the writing of the lyrics and what do you want to convey with them?
Gabry: I think this is a question better left for Myles (the evil mastermind behind the lyrics). Although I can say from having lived with him for the last 5 years I can relate to the lyrics as we find ourselves being pissed off about similar, if not the same things. I think, as per usual music is a platform to release stress, thoughts and all kinds of emotions and stench core, for us, seems to portray best the deep annoyance and disgust we have (as do most people) towards our society, authority and control.
Myles: Inspiration for my lyrics comes from my realistic and negative outlook; our mode of survival, what we consume and how we live blurs our ability to engage with a bigger picture (the ugly truths we have no real intention of really considering or altering). The onus of a content existence seems to be that while resources and our time on earth runs thin, we are to vocalize a need for progress while we carry on the same path, unchanged and consider voicing opinions sufficient. Presenting virtue constantly in the discourse of social issues with trite platitudes and inaction is on the whole an empty gesture, all of this to wash off the stink and live with ourselves. Humanity will never function as cohesively as all this posturing would imply. I’m concerned that social justice and progressive change are fad ideals that might fade out of popularity once resources dwindle globally… which is catastrophic, we’ll see our ends faster.
Do you think that punk today can still be a means of attacking and resisting all the crap we have around us, from environmental devastation to the rise of neo-fascism and the new imperialist conflicts between states?
Albeiro: I would say definitely punk is still a way to express inconformity and also it’s still a way to tell the truth about what’s going on in the world right now. We gotta keep it up and don’t let anybody to take that away from us.
Myles: Thats dependent on younger generations getting a message from the music, interpreting content with a critical eye, critique everything; including the content one immerces oneself in, make up your own mind. Always question what you’ve been sold. I’d hope that punk is still encouraging its following to question and reassess the realities that are portrayed, in addition to suiting up for a drunk night out.
Gabry: I wouldn’t say a direct attack but rather the soundtrack to the attack itself, to the resistance, a means to be heard and show that the fight is still alive and fucking pissed off. Punk for me is as relevant today as it was 40 years ago; the world hasn’t really changed that much and people still need a voice, an angry, loud and in-your-face voice to drown out all the societal bullshit, greed and tragedy that surrounds them.Ergin: I am not sure if I see punk today as a real threat or as a tool for making some meaningful change. It is an important outlet for people who feel dissatisfied with the way everything functions. In a way it is a creative space for people who don’t like to be conformist to mediocore and mainstream culture. It is true that a lot of people in the punk scene are engaged in radical politics but I am not sure if we are doing enough to be seen as a force of change. Instead, it’s more so like a platform that could attract people to radical politics…
You guys are from Melbourne and at least here in Italy we know very little about the Australian hardcore and punk scene. Would you like to tell us a little bit about it? What are the realities (bands, collectives, social centers, squats, etc..) more interesting and significant in your city and in general on the Australian territory?
Myles: The Melbourne scene is a great mix of different Crust, Grind, Punk, Doom, Noise, Dbeat, Death metal bands and a little Stench, they comprise a lot of different little scenes.. sadly the boundaries between the sub-genres are a bit more fixed than I prefer and mixed bill shows are not a frequent occurrence. Melbourne is definitely running low on alternative venues, DIY spaces / squats in particular. The current scene post pandemic is much larger though, from what I’ve seen at shows; it’s a younger generation who found punk over the pandemic lockdown, I am seeing the same new faces at a variety of shows, not just stagnating in a single sub-scene, which is encouraging.
Gabry: I have to say Australia has a vast and prolific punk/crust and grind culture with bands like Warsore, Extinct Exists, Kromosom, the Kill to name a few; so they are no strangers to the scene, but having said that I feel the “real”, old school festering squat punk days have kind of faded away.I am from Italy as well and I remember the social centres, huge squats, warehouse gigs and so on, unfortunately (in Melbourne at least) these places have disappeared and most of us ended up renting and working, but this hasn’t really affected the music side of the scene at all. I find there are still many bands popping up out of nowhere and most of them are made up by young people who have just gotten into punk or metal which means the flame hasn’t died yet.
As far as the political side of the scene, I am not up-to-date with it but I know there are still many collectives (outside the cities especially) that are constantly fighting for things such as Aboriginal land rights which as you know is an ongoing fight here in Australia as it is an “ex” colony.
Ergin: Melbourne, and Australia in general, has a vibrant punk scene that is rather dispersed and somewhat divided. Though this is the case pretty much everywhere especially when it comes to big places where you have a good number of bands from different subgenres. Some of the newest bands from Melbourne that I really dig are: Sepsis, Fukkheads, Sin Tax, Vampire, Thacher’s Snatch, Reaksi, Szklo, Encierro…These are some of the bands that were formed during the two year lockdown or just before that. Other than that some of the bands that have been around for a while are: Sistema en Decadencia, Execution, Havittajat, Enzyme, Geld… From the more metallic side Reaper (which toured Europe recently) and Iron Hawk from Tasmania. More broadly from the rest of Australia I would recommend: Fukker, Cream Soda, Self Harm, Warcycle, Shitgrinder, Hexx…for the fans of Death Metal check out: Faceless Burial, Gutless and Vile Appariation. When it comes to the realities of collectives, social centres and squats it is very different from Europe. We don’t have any squats or social centres here. All of the shows are held in bars or rarely in people’s houses. Occupying buildings here lately has been impossible. However, there are couple of very active collectives and labels that put up shows, release records and zines. Some of them are Hardcore Victim, Fuzzed Atrocities, Feral Dog and Deafening Raw Assault.
Albeiro: As I mentioned before I came to Australia in 2019 and then in 2020 COVID hit so I haven’t been involved in the scene long enough to talk about it.
I’ve seen that you’ve often played in Southeast Asian countries, countries that seem to have an extremely fertile punk and hardcore scene in recent years. Would you like to tell us about some of these experiences and gigs? What are the bands you’ve made the most contact with over there?
Gabry: South East Asia is an amazing part of the world and YES! The punk scene is huge and laborious. It makes perfect sense as in many of these countries people suffer every day and are left to fend for themselves without any help whatsoever. We played a few gigs around Jakarta and Bandung (Indonesia) and honestly they were wild! I have never seen so many punks all in one place at the same time, enjoying all the bands and moshing and thrashing all night long. We spent most of our time in Jakarta with the Ponti collective who hooked us up with the gigs and showed us around their punk scene.People were so welcoming and giving and the support we got for playing stench core was incredible, as Europe and the States seem to be the places for it unlike this part of the world.We met up with a few bands including Hell’o’War which is an amazing stench group from Indonesia (you guys should check them out!), other bands like Kontrasosial, again a raw-as-fuck group from Indonesia as well. Everywhere you look there so many insane bands coming out of South East Asia, for me it’s the next Europe in terms of amazing, genre defining groups coming out.
Ergin: We actually did have something like a mini-tour in Indonesia. Apart from New Zealand, Southeast Asia is the closest touring destination for aussie bands which still takes eight to nine hours of flying… that’s so fucking far away, at least for an European haha. That is one of the reasons why bands from Australia mainly tour South East Asia. I must say as someone who has never toured outside of Europe, Indonesia was a trully amazing experience. Playing on a island with amazing beaches as opposed to playing in bunch of squats was quite refreshing. Our first show was Libertad Festival which was held on Sawarna beach somewhere south of Jakarta. It took us 15 hours of driving through the rainforest and 2km hike with all of the band’s gear in scorching heat, however, it was rather worth it! After that we played Punk is Not a Crime Festival in Jakarta. I have never seen so many punks in one place ever in my life. Absolute madness! I must agree, Indonesia indeed has a fertile and vibrant punk scene. Other than that we played two house shows that were equally chaotic. We mainly made contacts with some individuals , Athenk who is in Zudas Krust was of a big help by printing our shirts, Kunx/Krasskepala who is doin the Libertad, we played also with bands like Kontrasosial, Kontradiksi and some others. Total respect to Ponti House and our dear friend Padang who sadly passed away some time ago.
We have come to the conclusion of this interview, so I ask you: future plans? Are you already planning a tour or a series of gigs?
Ergin: As I mentioned before, we just received our 7’ and we already have two upcoming promo shows in couple of weeks. Apart from that gigwise probably we will be a bit quiet since Gabri moved to Brisbane and we don’t catch up that often anymore. Also, I’m hoping to go back to Macedonia this summer and stay there for couple of months. Once I come back we might start working on another 7’,or maybe even a LP, but I reckon the process will be slower and it’ll take some time for that to come out.
Myles: We’re hoping for a few more shows towards the end of this year, after the 7′ release show. As for 2023 I think we’d all like to get up to Europe to tour. In terms of recording, another 7′ release in the first half of 2023.
Gabry: Definitely! Even though I have moved interstate and fly down to see the boys to practise or play, we really don’t want Cimiterium to fade away and disappear. We’ve worked at this for over 4 years and the music keeps getting heavier and closer to what we want it to sound like each time. After bringing out the tapes and now having recorded the EP, we’ve received a fair bit of attention (especially outside of Australia) and for me that’s a sign that our music is being heard and enjoyed which is the what we want in the end.We are planning a European tour sooner rather than later, hopefully it would be next year during the summer; we’ll see how we go and keep writing brutal riffs in the hope that we can come and share them in Europe. Before that we’ll do a 7” release shows on the 24th and 25th of June 2022 in Melbourne which I’m super excited about as we’ve been waiting to bring out a vinyl forever!
Also feel free to add anything else you think might be interesting. Big hugs and let’s keep punk a threat!
Ergin: Stefano! Thanks a lot for the given opportunity to talk a little bit for our interests and stories. Cheers for this interview. Hugs!
Myles: Thanks again for the support!
Albeiro: Big hugs and let’s keep punk a threat!