With a such name, you should believe that Jesus Martyr is either a White Metal or a Black Metal outfit. But this band from Argentina is not a religious band. Instead; they do Industrial Thrash/Death Metal in the vein of Korn and Machine Head. Their debut album is a revelation. We contacted Martin in Jesus Martyr for an update.
1. When and where was Jesus Martyr started ??
Jesus Martyr starts under the name of Martyr in July 1994 in Buenos Aires. The line up was the
same us now but lately we added a keyboardist, more or less one year and a half ago. We released
2 cassettes (Fear To be Born -1994-/ Humanize -1996-) and on January 1997 we started the
recording sessions of our first album "Sudamerican Porno".
2. In a strict catholic country like Argentina; the band name, the title of your album and the
combination between the band name and the title of the album is probably very provocative. How
has the reactions been so far ? Any riots and lynch mobs ?
Well, Argentina is a strictly catholic country if your see it from the outside, that´s how it looks like,
but definitely people doesn´t care much about religion, in spite of the ridiculous efforts Argentina
Catholic Church is doing in order to take part of the power spheres they are really loosing their
credibility, of course there is a part of society with very strong religious influences but I dare to say
they are minority, youth in our country is showing its back to Catholicism, there is a kind of spiritual
feeling that doesn´t feel identified with catholic dogma.
We have no problems with our name because we are not famous at all, we are not a very popular
band, and no one in the underground scene would feel scandalized by our music, lyrics or name.
Perhaps if we lived in other countries it would be more contrversial, but that has to do with your
level of popularity.
3. Please tell us more about your demo tapes.
Or first demo tape was recorded on August 1994 in a 4 traks portastudio, I sang that tape
because Santiago (who sings now) had just joined the band. It was death metal in the vein of
Carcass from "Necroticism..." very melodic but brutal at the same time, in spite of its poor sound
that tape gave us a lot.
I was 16 years old, so our drummer Guillermo, Bruno (bass) 18 and Santiago 20. We were very
young, now I feel really proud about that tape, we recorded it with no money at all, and in the worst
sound conditions, but it is very raw and powerful.
With "Humanize" (1996) things were better, we recorded it in a 16 tracks studio and the sound is
really professional.
Santiago sang all that tape and music was radically diferent, something more connected with what
we are doing now.
4. How did you get in touch with Repulse Records ? Why did you choose this arch- typical Death
Metal label ?
Luckily they contacted us, they received a tape with 8 songs taken from the album sent by a
Chilean magazine editor and they offered us a contract, we were in a critical moment at that time and
it took us 6 months in replying their offerings !!!
But they were really interested and did we, so everything was OK. We are very happy with
Repulse they are helping us a lot with everything and are extraordinary guys.
5. Your debut album "Sudamerican Porno" was released earlier this autumn. Please tell us more
about this album. For example the recording,the lyrics, the writing process and the featured tracks.
We wrote the album in no more than 2 months, we got isolated from the world in a garage and
composed full-time. It was an incredible time, ideas flowing constantly!
About lyrics, I can tell you that they were written in a lot of different periods of time and I think you
can notice the difference between one to another. Lyrics were inspired mostly by Nietzsche, the
Greek thinkers and many philosophers, another topic was religion, but mostly it is an introspective
album, a very passionate one.
The tracks chosen were the ones we found better to show what we are live, we chose producer
Matias Kritz, who has a solo band of industrial music in the vein of NIN and that stuff, and entered
to a very cheap studio in BA to record and mix the album in 80 hours. Those were very adrenalinic
sessions, we had no money at all and we ought to record the album in three different periods of
time, in fact we added the keyboards many time after the album was recorded!.
Anyway that was the best experience of our lives and I think that the fact of recording it under those
conditions ended up being something good to the album, it sounds very aggressive and direct.
6. What would you call your music ?
Mixture! I really don´t know how to catalogue it, it heavy music, full of energy and anger.
7. There is a lot of good metal bands from Argentina at the moment.Pandemia, Mortem and Jesus
Martyr, to mention a few. Can you please tell us more about this scene, the bands and the labels
involved ?
Most of the bands here are Death Metal or definitely Korn-Sepultura oriented, but there are some
very good doom metal bands like Pandemia or Ejecución and bands like Lobotomy (more Machine
Head oriented), Totus Toss (more Deftones perhaps) and Carne para Cerdos (which is the band of
the guy that produced our album) are very good and close friends of us. But they are all
underground scene, the mainstream bands here are real KORN-KORN-KORN, they rule here!.
Labels are not many and due to the economic situation they release "selling-assured" bands which
are a few. Underground shows are very good but the public is never more than 500 people as its
best, but when bands like Sepultura come here there are 5000 in each show. The people supporting
underground scene is little part of the whole.
8. Are any of Jesus Martyr’s members involved in other bands/projects ?
No, we are full time martyrs!
9. What are your plans in the coming months and year ?? Any tour plans ??
Yes! fortunately we´ll be touring round Europe on February 1999, we´ll play in many countries
from Portugal to Estonia!
I hope 1999 to be our best year, better than this incredible 1998. Next year we should start to
compose our next album too.
10. From what address can the band be contacted ?? Do you have any merchandise list ?
If you want to contact the band you should write to:
Jesus Martyr
Bertres 365
(1424) Buenos Aires
ARGENTINA
Or via e-mail: jesusmartyr@hotmail.com
For merchandising and stuff you should contact Repulse Recs.
P.O. Box 50562
28080 Madrid
SPAIN