Spain’s HAEMORRHAGE should require no introduction. Alongside MORTICIAN, there is no other gore-obsessed death metal band who’ve been around longer and been more influential – or, perhaps most importantly, never wimped out for more commercial aspirations. As such, while they’ve undoubtedly drawn influence from the immortal early works of Carcass, it could be argued that HAEMORRHAGE have in many ways bested the original. Or, simply, rarely does goregrind get as disgusting AND catchy as these Spanish legends. 

First of all, welcome back! It’s been eight years since „We Are the Gore“. How does it feel to finally unleash Opera Medica onto the world?

Yes, it's been too long...I personally feel it as a refief. I must admit I had many doubts about myself as composer. I wrote a bunch of songs during covid lockdown but after some time I didnt like them, it seems they weren't Haemorrhage songs. They sounded different.

Maybe my mind was full of negativity or something but that wasnt the music I usually make for Haemorrhage. In some moments I questioned myself  if I would be able to produce good songs again. And after listening "Opera Medica" I fell like I'm 100% back to my best, and also getting a drummer like Daviti made the band stronger.

HAEMORRHAGE has always stayed true to goregrind. What is it about the genre that continues to fascinate you – and how have you managed to stay true to your roots while still keeping things fresh?

Yes, we never denied our roots. We know what is Haemorrhage. Of course we also listen or play to other music styles but we always try that this fact doesn't afect Haemorrhage in a negative way. 

Ana and me play Crust/D-beat in Depopulation Department, Dani plays Black Metal in Frozen Dawn, Daviti plays Goregrind in Moñigo and Hard Rock in other band... I'm sure we get influences from this styles but when we are together we know the music we play must be 100% Haemorrhage.  Every new song is harder than the previous one, cause we always try it has its own "personality" and we try to avoid repeat everytime the same, so it's a challenge and it makes songwritting process longer but we prefer quality to quantity. 

After so many years in the scene, how do you view the current state of goregrind and extreme metal? And what’s your take on the Spanish scene in particular?

Its good to see Goregrind is still the "black sheep" of extreme music. Thant makes me proud of all the bands in this style. I won't like the Goregrind became a trend. Of course I like what bands like Gutalax are doing playing in every festival around the world, only by the fact of say "Hey! here we are" if someone likes this you must come to us and accept the rules of this style.  I remember Death Metal and Black Metal were like this in the early years and now is sad to see how the most of "big bands" ended. People seems to forget the big Death Metal or black metal "hymns" were written but teenagers that almost couldn't play. Goregrind is still like this. That's why I like it.

Spain is like the rest of the world in many aspects, but there's something in the music scene, in metal overall, that makes it different. Here the "trends" or "new styles" took a little longer to be accepted. It happened with Death Metal or Grind in the past. When all magazines in Europe were supporting this "new" styles and you could see interviews with Carcass, Morbid Angel etc...in big mags like Metal Hammer, in Spain you could see interviews with Scorpions, Ratt and bands like those. In some aspect is good because once you get into the fans they are more loyal fans than everywhere else. We have many diehard fans here, but Goregrind was not the biggest trend here, hahaha   

These days, there are countless generic gore bands out there. How do you feel about that development? Are there any newer acts that have caught your attention?

Yes, there are too many bands that is impossible to follow them all. The most of them arent real bands. I consider them projects not bands. They usually play in other bands and make a Goregrind project for fun. They record a demo or digital album including all cliches of the style and then they dissapear. I liked a lot Molder when they came out, and bands like Pharmacist or Fester Decay are cool but they should give a little more or their own presonality to their music. 

Speaking of bands – let’s look back for a moment. Which artists originally inspired HAEMORRHAGE? And aside from the obvious names, who continues to influence you today?

One of my biggest influences ever was Discharge. Looking back at the whole history of the Metal Music they were one of the bands that "changed the game". Black Sabbath, Discharge, Napalm Death, that kind of bands that influenced everyone. I always been a fan of Sodom, Bathory,Ruido de Rabia and some bands that people couldn't imagine as Master's Hammer, hahaha besides all the old spanish punk bands like Eskorbuto, La Polla, RIP, Olor a Sobako etc

You’ve had a long and influential career. Looking back, which moments or releases do you feel truly defined HAEMORRHAGE?

The first magic moment was Jose and me sat down in a bank in a park in Coslada imagining to form a band and discussing about the music and lyrics style etc...Obviously "Emetic Cult" was a crucial moment, considering how was the situation in Spain, with am arising Death / Grind scene with hundrends of bands. Everyone's  dream was releasing an album on a foreign label, maybe cause we see it so far away here from the south of Europe. We had the luck of beign the first band. The second moment was "GRIND OVER EUROPE" tour, cause it made us see we had fans in other countries and that was awesome! The releasing of "Grume" just after the GOE tour was another big step. I also think performing in the main stage of WFF festival in Germany in 2002 was really special cause there were like 60000 people in that fest and we were the first Grind band playing there, also it was great and surprising when we were drinking at backstage bar and we saw Lemmy, Kerry king etc..drinking  just beside you....it was a strange situation for a band that a few years before was playing in squats (well, we still play in squats and we love it haha). Later signing to Relapse was really cool too. 

HAEMORRHAGE has always embraced extreme and grotesque imagery. But is there a deeper philosophy behind your aesthetics and lyrics?

Really theres no other intention in our image that giving some visual aesthetic to our live shows. I personally grew up watching bands like WASP, King Diamond and I always like this.

About lyrics there no a deep philosophy, our only intention was to provoke some feelings on the people that listened to our music. The feeling could be nausea, I dont know haha....in the early albums I used the medical terms to hide some really personal views, using pathological metaphors that almost no one could understand. I also wrote some concept albums like horror stories or something, and laltey I wrote about the influence of "gore" in the modern society. In Opera Medica the lyrics were inspired by old medical books, the work of anatomists like Andreas Vessalius or Valverde de Amusco etc...actually the song "Obstetric Phantom" was firsly called "Venus anatomique" thats about those women figures used many centuries ago to explain the pregnancy to new doctors. Or "Nomenclator Pathologicum"about old medical dictionaries etc...even Opera Medica is the title of an old book .

Your live shows are known for their raw energy and gore-drenched theatrics. With Opera Medica now released, can fans expect a tour soon? Any special plans for the upcoming shows?

No, we dont play tours now, but we will keep on playing live shows and festivals as usual. Soon we will release "Emetic Cult 3.0" with some of the songs of "Emetic Cult" re-recorded and this means the setlist will included a lot of "Opera Medica" and " Emetic Cult" I guess. 

And finally: What would you like to say to your diehard fans who’ve been waiting all these years for new material?

I hope they enjoy as much as we enjoyed recording it!!! I think we have a quite solid band now and we will make more music now on.

Thomas Wunder

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