Infernal Dominion: Interview with legendary Spanish grindgore band Haemorrhage!

Infernal Dominion unleashes a gruelling Interview with Ana and Luisma, founding members of the gore drenched clinical disorder named as Haemorrhage. Enjoy!
Conducted by-
Ankit Sinha

ID:Saludos gore amigos! How are you maniacs doing? I hope that your daily ration of rotten bile and spicy innards has been kept intact. Ana must not stop taking those to maintain her gore-geous looks isn't it?

Ana: Hi! We are ok, thanks...ready to all answer your questions. Yes, of course, all in Haemorrhage have a gory diet

ID: So, going back to the days when Haemorrhage was still evolving as a bastard child in your embryos and you were considering the best dispensaries to conceive, what was actually going through your minds? Was the idea behind it was just too random and horny and you thought that ''hey just hit the toilet and fuck'' or it was a menacingly planned disaster which happened just like how you guys wanted by doing a nice sleazy intercourse with your scalpels and putrid minds?

Luisma: We never had a clear plan about Haemorrhage but some former ideas. We settled some basis to build the band from there, but many things in life don't turn out always as you planned. In our case we wanted to play Grind music with gore lyrics and a brutal image and more or less we are still into this ideas, so it mean things worked out well. The rest of the elements in this band are things that we took as the band was rolling on...

ID: I would love to know about the reaction of your fellow Spanish amigos when Haemorrhage started walking up from its foul cradle and began to shit upon the poseurs with its first bunch of pathological symphonies nicely minced and puked on the platter in form of ''Grotesque Embryopathology''. I am sure that the foul reek coming up from the first excremental ecstacy must have driven all of them nuts!

Luisma: The reaction to our first demo was really limited as the distribution of that demo was strictly limited to a few copies. In those times was usual that bands sells their demos through mail orders but the sound quality of our demo was really lousy so we decided just tape it to other amigos, spread it thru tape-trading and send it to some fanzines that asked for stuff of other bands we were playing for at that times. Anyway the few people that got our demo I think not more that 100 people was really shocked cause the style was really unusual in Spain, the filhty sound helped out to add more sickness to the demo

ID: Were you folk’s part of any previous surgical disasters before the miscarriage known as Haemorrhage happened?

Luisma: Yeah, we all were playing for other local bands at that time.Our former drummer Jose was playing with some friends in Deformed, I played in Avulsed and other shitty noise projects, our singer Lugubrious was playing in Lugubrious, our bass player and actual drummer played together in Greenfly and other bands, and Ana played in a Thrash bands named Mortal Housen.

ID: Initially when the name Devourment was pronounced for your devious baby, then why did you re-christen it as Haemorrhage? Who came with the names?

Luisma: Our former drummer had the idea of the name and concept after Devorment. It was all about cannibalism as protest against meat consume, and his idea was recording a demo or album with all titles like a restaurant menu replacing animals by humans...you know boiled members, embryos instead eggs, brain burgers, etc...ha, ha...it was original but I was pretty more traditional and my idea was a band with pathological and medical influenced lyrics cause it was the most extreme thing in that time. It was hard to make him change his mind but I finally did it and we changed the lyrics style and subsequently the band name to Haemorrhage. I don't know what I told him but surely they were good reasons as he also got 100% into pathology like me.

ID: During 1994, when Haemorrhage was just around 4 years old and grew more faster than any other child in the scenario all due to great attention and care from its parents who ransacked each mortuary in town to spread the rabid infection around. It got its vital breakthrough when Morbid Records from Germany got too unnerved by the reeking odour oozing out of the 94-promo tape and decided to expose other dedicated morticians to its rancid taste. They fulfilled this objective by releasing the Obnoxious/Thy Horned God split with Christ Denied. That was apparently the first time that a Spanish horde irked a deal with an international label and it gave your obnoxious child quite some unwholesome exposure among the maniacal surgical fanatics. How did this breakthrough change the proceedings for you? Did you guys get a good chance to infest the zombies at Germany and other Euro countries that time also?

Luisma: Well to be honest everything that happened to Haemorrhage before was a child's play compared when those first months of 1994. We got a full line-up for first time and some members left their old bands and projects playing only for Haemorrhage. That make us practice more days and getting a bunch of good songs. We entered a studio and recorded a quite good demo and this demo brought us the contract with Morbid. All these thing happened in 5 months. And changed our thoughts about the band forever. The contract with Morbid atractted the atention of the European scene on us and we had the chance to play out of the Spanish bounds for first time

ID: After the gruesome emanations off ''Emetic Cult'' and ''Grume'' plagued the living dead at Spain and other countries, Haemorrhage became a lovable child of the morgues and pathologies around in Spain and it gave rise to a menacing groove laden sound which was Haemorrhage's own and inspired many morticians who started dissecting the graves later on. How did your fellow Spaniards take this achievement as? Were they jealous of your then 7/8 year old child getting a good amount of (de)fame?

Luisma: Yes, after "Grume" album we took another big step in the band's career and we our name got bigger, but curiously we were the same shitty band in Spain. I mean some people didn't like we were the first spanish band to release and album in a foreign label and they got really pissed-off when they saw us growing up album that album. I'm not talking about fans I mean people of other bands, labels, etc...or to be explicit a person that had a band, magazine, label, and big power in the scene was so jealous and he tried to fuck us as much as he can, but he couldn't stop the rot'n'roll!

ID: Haemorrhage has progressed in each album with a new sickening flavour. Where Emetic Cult, Grume and Anatomical Inferno were oozing with raw and nauseous production, Morgue Sweet Home had a tad improved and chiseled production with plenty of groovy old school Death Metal riffs. How did you decide about the musical directions to be followed in each album? Did you always try to create something way out of Haemorrhage’s league or followed one basic formula all the time?

Ana: Our only formula is making songs not putting riffs together. We are influenced by many styles: Grind, Punk, Death Metal, etc...sometimes we can show our Death Metal side in a song and sometimes our Punk side.

Luisma: We can't certainly plan our musical direction, cause we play what we feel. We know we are Haemorrhage and we know our style, but there's many aspects in our style. We always try to include more elements and influences and still sound like Haemorrhage. Thats a challenge in every album.

ID: Now lets again go back to the past *rewind, rewind, rewind* Ah! There we stop at when Haemorrhage was still brooding in your embryos, what were the gruesome ideas, which you lunatics were visualizing that such an offspring was born? Which horror/gore features or ominous hordes influenced you?

Luisma: Everything sick we watched influenced us, of course horror movies like all the classics: Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Day of the Dead, Zombie, etc...also all Gore: Braindead, Premutos...Troma movies, and shit like that. My biggest influence was a medical TV show called "In buenas manos" (in good hands) that featured surgical operations and al lot of medical stuff with a really crude and explicit videos...It was really amazing. Actually the intros of some tracks on Grume are taken from that TV show.

Ana: When we started we watched lots of gore /horror movies. Actually the Emetic Cult intro is from the movie Nekromatik, but our band style wasn't inspired in the movies.

ID: Ok Luisma, now I want you be to very honest again and tell me didn't you actually recruit Ana to Haemorrhage's bandwagon because a gore-geous maiden like her would be more than enough to attract huge crowds? Then I wonder what would be the situation of the attendees of your live surgical operations when they'd be in a dilemma as to concentrate on the musick or Ana. What do both of you feel about it after having done tons of such operations over these 20 years?

Luisma: No, inluding Ana in the band was something "accidental". We had some shows with Anal Cunt in Spain and our bassist moved to other town to get a new job. So we had no bass player. Ana was my grilfriend (and now my wife) and sometimes she came to see our rehearsals and then we jammed together, so I knew she was an amazing guitar player. So I just asked her if she wa also interested in playing bass on a couple of shows. After those shows they were the others who want her in the band, but our bassist Ramon left their job and returned to our town so Ana stayed in the band as guitarist and Ramon took back on bass.

I think Ana has probed she's not only a exotic female element in the band. Shes a talented guitar player, and she's underrated cause in this style she can't show all that she can do.

Ana: When I joined the band it was a very small band, they just signed to Morbid but I never imagined everything has happened in those years. When I look back it seems incredible.

ID: Ana its pretty obvious that you are amongst one of the first females to play Extreme abominations in the underground scenario and are still going rock solid by supporting your child dutifully like an ideal parent. How did you get the influence to be a part of this rabid, purulent cult and when did you pick up your surgical instrument for the first time?

Ana: I used to listen to Metal cause my older brothers always play Metal at home. I always liked guitar so when I was 14 I convinced my father to buy a guitar for me. I was in a guitar school for some years and I wanted to form my own band but I can't so I joined to other bands but as singer. Then I started to listen to Death Metal and Grind and I met Haemorrhage members cause we usually went to the same clubs and gigs. They want me in the band and here I am.

ID: One of the biggest highlights of Haemorrhage's gore antics (apart from Ana of course) is Lugubrious - the malignant conveyor of Haemorrhage's insidious symphonies. I really like the cool personality, which he has. He actually makes me feel as if he is a rotting zombie who couldn't get enough of guts and brain tissues for which he carries them along with him during your live operations to be eaten at frequent intervals. How did he come up with such a look and does he actually use real blood to drain himself for his stage performances? Hey, wait! One important question! - does he ever take bath to wipe out the filth out of his body or that has become an integral accessory of his malign persona?

Luisma: I guess he always had that idea in his mind and he did it from the first show to the last. I remember he appeared covered by blood since the first pics. In the first shows he also wore a white doctor coat but his body and face were covered by blood.

He uses artificial blood, of course. The real blood stinks a lot after some hours out of the body!

He never had a bath he has the same blood over his body from the first gig!! ha, ha...Seriously the blood colour can't be removed easily, so it's still on his face for somedays after tours or gigs. So if someone that doesn't know he's a Grind singer ask about the colour of his face or hands he answers "I've been painting my dog house in red"

ID: The rest of you dress up as surgeons to enhance the vile embodiment of Haemorrhage and that really goes well with its image. Are you guys having this look from the very beginning or incorporated it later? How did the people react when they saw such a beautiful appearance for the first time?

Luisma: We play in medical apparels from our second gig, except in the first GOE tour when we decided don't wear our clothes by some reasons. We were openers so we want people focus on our music and not in our image, but it was a big mistake, cause we tought it was our first tour and nobody in Europe would know us, but people saw our pics and wanted us to play like we were on the pics. So when we played the tour for "Grume" we decided to dress up in scrubs again. People in the begging was shocked it wasn't usual to see bands playing like us.

Ana: Nowadays we usually play with bands dressed like us. Its weird but it cool cause it seems we created a trend.

ID: I am really an appreciator of Luisma's comic book style gore artworks, which give an exquisitely eschatological look to Haemorrhage's grindgore conjurations. How many bands have you worked with as a graphic artist? Do you also work as a professional graphic artist for a living or the mortician's job gives you enough bile juice and guts to relish?

Luisma: I worked mainly for Haemorrhage but I did some stuff for others bands and zines, the most known are Impetigo, Cliteater, Pulmonary Fibrosis, Flesh Salad 'zine, etc...No I'm not a professional artist, or at least this is not my only job, but obviously my artwork has a price. If someone wants my artwork just contact me I can do cover artworks, layouts, animations, 3d-logos, banners etc...

ID: Ana have you ever imagined yourself as a ''normal'' ''ideal'' woman whom your equally sane boyfriend could introduce to his mum? How would you think a regular mommy would react if she sees her daughter in law, in a surgical suit, defiling the innards of her son's corpse and then making love with it? By the way, how did Luisma's mother reacted when you visited her for a lunch for the first time and asked for boiled intestines and brain juice instead of Croquetas and Spanish omlettes?

Ana: Luisma's house is like Texas Chainsaw Massacre house so they always eat things like that, and a cup of pus for dessert. Seriously, Luisma's mom wasn't surprised when see meet me after living many years with a freakish son like hers. And more after knowing the most of the friends he has in the past.By the way, what do you mean with a "normal" "ideal" woman?? Are you meaning am I a freak or something? If you are meaning this you are completely wrong. (Ana seems completely pissed by my comment here haha!)

Luisma: Man, if you taste my mom croquetas you won't eat intestines or festered bowels anymore!!!

ID: Why did you guys decided to part ways with your long time supporters Morbid Records who possibly did each and every full length of Haemorrhage and sign with Relapse Records? Did they lure you by offering mortuaries that are more lavish and more victims to be dissected?

Luisma: No, it was basically cause Morbid records was sold to other label called WAR (War-Anthem-records) we don't want to follow on with them and we looked for other label and Relapse was a good option. I think it fits quite good for a band like Haemorrhage.

ID: Why is the split with Mexigorge taking forever to release?

Luisma: That's a question for EMF records. We send over all our stuff and they seems to be in a hurry...e-mails everyday and so on...Now I don't have responses from Edgar from EMF and Disgorge guitarist. I don't know whats going on. I think we should look for another label, but thats hard cause we don't have the masters

ID: What does Haemorrhage have in store for the psychotic surgeons next?

Ana: We are preparing a bunch of new songs. We hope record in a few weeks, probably after OEF 2010

Luisma: Yes, we have the stuff for new album "Hospital Carnage" ready to be recorded!!

ID: How did you guys come up with your recent offspring, which is - The Emetic Club? Was it conceived to become an ideal sibling to Haemorrhage? Tell me more about this club and the various gigs you have conducted there.

Ana: We must clear that is not our club and it wasn't our idea. There were some guys that make a extreme music club and they were Haemorrhage fans. So they asked us for permission for using our name for the club and also some artworks for decorate their club, and flyers, etc...We were totally shocked with the single idea of having a club with our band's name. So we supported them. I recommend you go over there if you come to Spain.

Luisma: Yes, the club is actually 500 km from our hometown and we've never been there, but we hope we can play a "baptism" show there. A good point is we don't have to take out stage banner cause there is a big Haemorrhage logo behind the stage. Eveything that save work is welcome, you know, ha, ha...

ID: Now I am feeling quite depressed as I have come towards the end of this fantastic questionnaire and the pain of separating from your nekromantik charm makes me shed a tear or two. I would like you to puke out your goresoaked comments about the interview and your words of wisdom for the fellow ''Zombified Preachers of Gore''. The final space is all yours.

Ana: Thanks to you for supporting our band and Hi to all Indian fans.

Luisma: Thanks for the intie greetings from the morgue!!!