Sven de Caluwé , vocalist and only original member of Aborted , has decades of experience as the leader of a death metal and is well aware of the stereotypes surrounding the genre, both from the public and the press.
The band recently released ManiaCult , their tenth album, featuring Lovecraftian monsters and generous doses of horror and brutality, themes embedded in the sonic and visual aspects of extreme music.
“It’s harder when you’re in front of an audience, you have to be more careful depending on where you are because, even if you’re joking around, there’s always a chance someone will get annoyed,” he said in an interview with Wikimetal . “We’re joking about horrible stuff, none of this is serious. If you go to a death metal show and think anyone there is serious, sorry, you have a problem. For some reason, people think we’re all serial killers.”
The vocalist recalled an absurd question he received on the band's first tour from a Polish journalist, a classic example of the "misunderstanding" about the style.
At the time, the band was asked what they kept in their home freezer. “I don’t know, man, food?” Sven replied to the interviewer. “The guy was really disappointed that I didn’t say I had corpses and decapitated heads and, I don’t know, crushed penises. You could see on his face how disappointed he was. People really think we cut ourselves up and sacrifice virgins, those are the most idiotic and outrageous things.”
Even in the face of negative reactions, Caluwé tries not to "censor himself" when it comes to Aborted. "I think, 'You know what? People know who I am, they know my character, if they're at an Aborted show, I'll be myself,'" he explained.
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