Must say it's great to see that some bands are trying to be a bit different and not just go back to the roots which seems to be so popular today. Red Harvest is a band hailing fron Norway and are according to themselves playing Apocalyptic Industrial Cyber Metal. To make you aware of their new album "Cold Dark Matter" we did a short interview with them, answered by Ketil Eggum.

Interview by Whodan

 

You have just released your new album "Cold Dark Matter" through Nocturnal Art Productions, but what else is currently happing with Red Harvest?
Right now we're doing promotion and stuff. Besides of that, we're puzzling with new songs, and booking tours for the fall. We'll do some gigs in November with Zyklone in Norway, and hopefully we'll visit Europe as a support act before or after that. That's about all I know at the moment.

After four records on Voices Of Wonder and one on Black Mark you have joined the Nocturnal Art camp. Why this change?

Black Mark was just for one CD, then we signed up with Voices of Wonder. After a while we were really fucked up by the way VoW handled things, so when NAP wanted us we didn't hesitate to cancel the deal with VoW.

 

How are these labels working in comparsion?
NAP is actually doing something for us. The label VoW is more or less dead in my opinion. They spend most of their time working with their distribution and they have no persons dedicated to promote their own bands. NAP is interested in how their bands are doing, they're located here in Norway and know what's important to make a band work.

I think much magic in todays Metal has gone lost since it has become so outwatered. Do you feel your type of industrialized Metal music is a bit more modern and fits more to the new millenium than the traditional Metal sound?
We've been doing industrial stuff since 1993. Some metal bands are able to develop in cool directions, but I guess you're right when you say that there's lot of more interesting stuff happening on other scenes - not necessarily the Metal scene.

Do you feel like your music is taking Metal a step further?
Metalwise I think we are. Other metalbands are picking up loops and samples just the way we've been doing the last 6 years. It's important for the genre, cause otherwise it would be kind of boring. Anyway, some bands should remain the way they are, cause development doesn't suite them.

In the info sheet we got it says that you are playing "Apocalyptic Industrial Cyber Metal". How do you want people to interpret Red Harvest's music after such a definition?
It's the music made after the atomic winter. The fight between man and machines. Red Harvest - The choice of the new generation.

There weren't any lyrics along with the promo version so I was wondering what the lyrics are dealing with on "Dark Cold Matter", and what about the songtitle "Move Or Be Moved" which perhaps could be interpreted as a matter of racism by someone?
The lyrics are on the web. www.redharvest.com The lyrics are about being fucked up and dropped dead by machines, your own head, drugs and assholes that think they're a lot better than you. Red Harvest has nothing to do with racism. "Move Or Be Moved" is the song for the people that want to kick some rich motherfucker in the nuts.

It's been about 8 years since your debut album was released. How do you think your music has developed since then?

We've been doing so many strange things. Due to that, our fans tolerate what we do musically in a larger scale. That makes us develop a lot easier and it also makes us willing to take bigger "risks". Our music has become more and more chaotic, and I'm afraid it's gonna get worse in the future.

When you formed the band about 10 years ago, what was it that you wanted to achieve, and do you think you have managed to do it?
In the beginning I guess we just wanted to play. Now the goal is to move people, not leaving anyone untouched. I think we've managed that - at least the people that have seen us live or heard any of our CD's.