GOATWHORE
Songs for the Damned
By: Stacy Buchanan
Ben Falgoust is resilient to say the least. Maybe the word determined should be thrown out there too. Balancing vocals duties in his southern-flavored grind metal band Soilent Green with his other malevolent black metal band, Goatwhore, while doing a small label on the side is tough. Oh, don’t forget to take into account the two car wrecks he was involved in last year, one where he broke both of his legs, both of his ankles and ripped his heel off. After taking that into consideration consider him unstoppable. In preparation of the upcoming Goatwhore album, Falgoust lent his time to update the fans on his condition, the new Goatwhore and what makes this juggernaut of a man tick.
RESOUND: So, I’ve noticed that Goatwhore has been playing some shows; can you give me the update on the state of your physical condition?
Ben Falgoust: Well, I have one more surgery coming up on the 29th of January on my left foot and after that all the surgeries will be done. The last two shows I’ve played, I have these can-walker boots that I got from the hospital, when I got out of the wheelchair, and I use those pretty much to play live because my ankles aren’t fully stable yet. I broke both of my ankles, broke both of my legs and tore the heel off my left foot, so I’ve been having surgeries on my left foot and shit like that. The boots keep me stable live, so I pretty much wear those. It’s kinda fun…
RESOUND: So even though it impedes your physical movements, you’re still getting out there and doing shows?
BF: Yeah, I mean I can’t get into it live as much as I’d like to, because of the unstableness of my legs, but that will progress with time, but why should I totally cut off doing shows, when I can take advantage of these boots for the shows?
RESOUND: The new Goatwhore CD is done. I assume you were still recovering during the recording process?
BF: Exactly. Actually when we first started at the beginning of October, I had just gotten out of the wheelchair, I had just started walking with the can boots. It was pretty tough, but I’d conquer like a couple songs every day, because I could only stand up for so long before my legs would get really weak so I’d do like a couple songs and then the next day we’d go in and then do a couple more songs, until we finished it. I have to admit it was probably the toughest experience in the studio, but I could just sit and wait until everything’s better and keep delaying things or just go in and bust my ass and knock it out. I’m going through therapy, all that’s just going to take time, so in the meantime still go do whatever I can and get back on everything.
RESOUND: So, tell me about this new CD. What’s the album title?
BF: It’s called Funeral Dirge for the Rotting Sun. We’ll finish up the cover and everything. A friend of ours, Jay Bailey, he’s a comic book artist. It’s real dark, the stuff he’s done, but in a way it looks like that old painting, graphic novel motif to it, it’s got a good element of it that represents what the whole new CD is about. When people get it and they see the titles and everything, the whole recognition of it will come across in a real dark, depressive atmosphere.
RESOUND: When you were recording, did you stick to the tried and true formula, or did you try anything new?
BF: We pretty much stuck to everything that we’ve done in the past; it’s just that I think these songs are more structured than our other material. I think as Goatwhore has been moving on and evolving and growing as a band, it’s kind of finally creating itself. Most bands, when they start, they pretty much have their influences when they start and you can hear those influences well, but as they go on they build off of that and kind of create their own kind of thing. I think we’re in that stage right now cause the material is quite different. Plus, it’s different as well because we were a four-piece when we recorded, we lost Ben after the first CD and we’ve been doing everything ever since as a four-piece, I mean we just added a new guitarist but that’s after the whole recording and writing of the new CD that’s about to come out.
RESOUND: What are some song titles from the new disc?
BF: "Sky Inferno," "Baptized in a Storm of Swords," "As the Sun Turns to Ash”.
RESOUND: Goatwhore has always been straight ahead black metal with no keyboards…
BF: No keyboards! It’s just more of that edge of the grind parts or the straightforward scat kind of hardcore-ish parts mixed with the black metal element. We’re not the total Norwegian thing, taken everything so literally and talking about Odin and all that other kind of stuff…
RESOUND: Do you sometimes see people not take you seriously because you’re not of that elite black metal type from Norway?
BF: We don’t really consider ourselves fully a black metal band, so anyone who wants to keep throwing us in that category we’re just like, “Whatever.” We really don’t care; I mean personally I don’t give a shit what anyone says. We do the things that we do and we enjoy doing it. We’re not trying to be like somebody else, of course we do have our influences from-whatever-the Scandinavian black metal scene, but we also have influences from Celtic Frost, Venom and things like that which were way before them (Norwegian purists), so they have no right to stand the ground and say that they are the true ones because there’s shit that’s older than them that was created beforehand. Everybody in the band listens to many different things, we don’t all listen to just black metal, we listen to things ranging from movie soundtracks to bands like In Flames, Meshuggah, Living Sacrifice, Zao, Darkthrone…everything.
RESOUND: One thing that I admire is how Goatwhore concepts are inter-related, from the lyrics and song titles to the cover and art and music…everything has that dark vibe.
BF: As for myself, I’m not into Satanism or things like that, but other members are and I respect the fact of, “whatever you want to be into, be into”. I’m not going to ridicule you for it, just don’t shove things in my face and I don’t mind what you do. We have a band. We all have different opinions on things and we respect each other.
RESOUND: You’re crossing boundaries between the mediums used. And there are inter-relating themes.
BF: Yeah, of course. Different aspects too…even abstract concepts. Sometimes when people ask me, “What are all these lyrics about?” I mean, it’s not what they’re about; it’s about what you get out of them. Not what I think about them, but what you think you can pull from them. Because you can say something like, “The sky is blue”, and everyone is going to have his or her own opinion about that. That’s why when you read the lyrics and look at everything about Goatwhore delve into in that aspect—be open about it.
RESOUND: I’ve noticed on your website that there has been a benefit set up for your recovery, that’s got to be very humbling.
BF: Oh, I totally appreciate everything. From April 11th on, whoever has helped out and assisted in any way I totally appreciate everything. It’s been tough, ya know? It’s cool to know that there are a lot of people out there that are in full support of the whole situation.
RESOUND: Are your hospital bills pretty ridiculous?
BF: Yeah (laughs), they’re pretty ridiculous. Close to $100,000. I never had any insurance, but I’ll work things out as they go. I can’t sit there and stress on it, there’s nothing I can really do about it. The idea of people stepping in and willing to put in whatever, it’s just considerate that people do that. It’s just amazing. Over the holidays, I received a few checks from a few people that were just like, “We know holidays are tough, but just wanted to send you some money to help out with your stuff.” I totally appreciate it. It gives me more incentive.
RESOUND: Since you’re also in Soilent Green do you ever find it difficult to separate your influences when you’re concentrating one band, from the other?
BF: Soilent Green has its way it does things, and Goatwhore has its way it does things, so I just switch over. They’re different vocally. Somebody who’s not really involved in music would probably listen to it and say, “Ahh, it’s just a bunch of screaming, it’s all the same to me.” But there are different vocal elements that I do in both bands.
RESOUND: Do you find yourself in Soilent Green or Goatwhore, zone in on a specific influence for that specific band?
BF: Yeah, I have my influences that I base a lot of stuff with Soilent Green and I have my influences that I use in Goatwhore, and sometimes I’ll try to blend somehow the kind of crises-cross between. It’s like a feeling, it’s how I feel about certain parts, when they write all the material and I’m sitting there listening to the song and laying out everything over it, I’m kind of like approaching it from different angles and seeing what ideas I can bring out of it. As far as Goatwhore goes, Sammy and me do a lot of the mixed up stuff, lyrically and vocally. Some songs I do all of the vocals and some songs me and him do the vocals, so it’s kind of like a mixture of elements there. With Soilent Green, I do all of the vocals and all of the lyrics. It’s a different writing style too, Goatwhore is more dark, and occult-ish.
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