ANGELCORPSE's HELMKAMP Discusses Comeback Album

Pestilence magazine recently conducted an interview with ANGELCORPSE bassist/vocalist Pete Helmkamp. An excerpt follows:

Pestilence: First of all, it was really great news for me to hear that you guys are reforming back. The underground scene needs bands like ANGELCORPSE to crush all nu-metal/metalcore bands into pieces. Why the hell it took you guys for so long to finally agree on this and what's the actual reason for this reformation?

Pete: Gene and I had a lot of great ideas / songs / lyrics that never were used in the past. After the initial split, we started talking, about two years ago, and Gene had alot of music, and I started writing lyrics, and suddenly we had the next album... I think the time off did us some good, we had a chance to really perfect all the material for the new album, something that we would not have been able to do before.

Pestilence: I read about you guys having some creative differences with Tony Laureano when he was approached to join you guys into reforming ANGELCORPSE. I read that Gene Palubicki took some of the songs that were meant to be use for another band and fit it in for the new ANGELCORPSE material, thus making Tony feeling uncomfortable with it. Is it possible for you to give us a clearer picture of what was going on at that point of time?

Pete: Gene was the composer of some songs that back in the day were maybe going to be used in a project with Tony and some of the CANNIBAL CORPSE guys. It never happened, and since Gene was the writer of the materials, he took the songs back. It's unfortunate that Tony was not interested in working with Gene and myself, but he is a busy man, so we decided to work with our original drummer John Longstreth instead.

Pestilence: It's great to see John Longstreth back in the band again. With his tremendous skills now rather than the "Exterminate" era, I'm sure he will add some dimension and colour to the new album. What was his reaction when he was first approached since you guys have some problems with him after the second album?

Pete: It was actually great: we had put out the word that we were looking for a drummer and he contacted me via email. A perfect choice: he knows us, he knows the style and he is obviously much improved. The recording of the album was a bit bizarre, Longstreth tracked all the drums in New York (learning everything from demos) and Gene and I finished everything here in Tampa. But I think the end result is very powerful: a great fourth album for certain!

Pestilence: Who is Gina Ambrosio, who was previously announced to be the drummer of the band? Does she have another band?

Pete: Gina is a friend of Gene's and is in his other band BLASPHEMIC CRUELTY. They play really extreme thrash. Their debut album will be out on Osmose late this year and if you can imagine it, it would have been the great 1988 thrash album that never happened.
Pestilence: You guys just re-signed to Osmose Productions. As we can see a lot of bands such as IMMORTAL, MARDUK, ENSLAVED, IMPIETY left the label citing royalties/financial problems etc, so I'm curious to know how's the relationship with Osmose Productions in the past and present?

Pete: I don't care what other folks say or think about Osmose. Herve has always been a great label manager and a true friend as well. He is metal, unlike most other people who work in the music industry

Pestilence: Can you give us a sneak preview of what to expect from "Of Lucifer And Lightning"? Will the music direction be similar to your previous albums or are you guys going to do something different?

Pete: This is a question that I really cannot answer: of course the material is still ANGELCORPSE, yet we have some new elements after having 7 years to explore other avenues. But I say this not in a bad way: Gene and I worked very hard to make this the "next" album that should have followed the first three, but at the same time we look at "Of Lucifer and Lightning" as the "first" album all over again. Listen and you will understand.

Read the entire interview at this location.