Disgusted were one of the biggest discoveries for me this year, and introduced me to Vietnamese death metal. I caught them when they played Rumah Api in Kuala Lumpur and at this year's Singapore Deathfest. I e-mailed some questions to bassist/co-founder
Hoàng Nguyễn, who was kind enough to fill me in on his band and the Vietnamese metal scene.
DoC: Disgusted organized and headlined the Saigon Deathfest, with bands from Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Japan. How did it go? What was the crowd like?
It was Trung's idea after Disgusted finished the small tour to Malaysia and Singapore. Trung is the organizer of the gig. He invited bands from Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore. I invited the Japanese bands.
SaiGon DeathFest surely is one of the best extreme metal gigs in the past several years in VietNam; after the "Extreme is Back" show back in 2008 with DEFILED and HYDROPHOBIA, there was almost no extreme metal gig until the SaiGon DeathFest. Therefore, the crowd was so crazy, they've been hungry for a show like that for too long, if you know what I mean.
DoC: What was the genesis of Disgusted? What were your goals when you formed?
Disgusted was formed by me and Trung when we left a melodic death metal band called End Of Road to pursue a more aggressive and less melodic genre, as me and him always loved death metal.
Our goal when we formed? I can't speak for other guys in the band, but to me it was simply to play the
music I love: Death Metal. I just wanna play, go crazy on stage, get drunk and have a good time.
DoC: What is the songwriting process like for Disgusted? Is there a primary songwriter, or do you collaborate as a band?
In the first album of Disgusted, both of us wrote all the songs and lyrics. But Trung wrote 100% of the next album when I took a break from the band for 2 years. Of course when Tom joined the band as a vocalist, he [became] the main lyricist for the band.
DoC: How did vocalist Tom Banks end up joining Disgusted? And how's his arm doing?
Tom met Trung on internet (so they told me). They hung out and Trung just invited Tom to take the mic for the band.
Tom smashed his arms to the floor when we played in HaNoi, that was one of the best nights ever in my life. The Hanoi crowd… wow…awesome.
DoC: You recently undertook a small tour of South East Asia, including shows in KL and Singapore. How would you compare the scene in Vietnam with the rest of the region?
The scene in Vietnam is weak and very very very small. It’s not easy to organize extreme metal gigs here in Vietnam, they will ask you for the license to play, check your lyrics, your appearance; and more importantly the fee for hiring stuffs such as venue and sound systems are fuckin expensive…I think Wormrot experienced this.
DoC: What would you say the biggest obstacles are for the Vietnamese metal scene?
There are too many obstacles... mostly I think the Vietnamese culture doesn't accept this kind of music. The other is from the whole music industry, we don’t have labels, record or booking agents… the only one now is the X-Metal Group of Trung.
DoC: There's an interesting backstory to your song, "Fuck the Tiger." What inspired it?
The full name of the song is “Fuck the Tiger Translate” not fuck the Tiger Beer haha, because that is my fav beer. It’s a competition between bands that Tiger Beer organized in VietNam in the last several years. We found it so stupid to make a competition like that, then a song came [out of it].
DoC: How can fans get ahold of Disgusted's releases? Where can they order them?
Direct from the band. That's the only way.
DoC: What other bands from Vietnam should metalheads look out for?
DoC: What's next for Disgusted?
We are on hiatus now. So nothing coming in the near future.
Find Disgusted on Facebook.
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Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Disgusted Interview
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South East Asian Metal Attack