Friday, September 13, 2013

Toxemia Interview


Toxemia came highly recommended to me by my buddy Ian from Brimstone in Fire, who urged me to include them on the third DoC podcast. Their guttural old school thrashings will find immediate favour with anyone who loves death metal "the way it used to be". I fired off some questions to the band, which guitarist/vocalist Corix and drummer Kenneth took turns answering.

DoC: Who or what is Toxemia?


Corix: We are now experiencing some line up changes, from 5 guys down to almost 3 now. Patrick our bassist just left the band after the release of Planetary Devastation to pursue his career. Ron our vocalist is currently busy with his application and training for his job offer abroad as a sea farer, so I am currently filling up the duty on vocals on our tracks that we just recorded 2 weeks back in preparation for our second album. Kenneth is on drums and Peto is on lead guitar.

Our music is Death Metal that draws from the old style that combines fast and slow.

Ken: Toxemia is a group of people who have the same passion and ideas when it CUMS [sic] to Death Metal and underground music.  Unfortunately from 5 we are now down to 3 drunk-Drugged-fuckers. Still, we will continue what Corix started 10 years ago…When you say Toxemia, you say Corix, haha.

DoC: Please give a brief history of Toxemia for those who aren't familiar with your band.


Corix: We formed in 2003; at first, it was only me doing shit alone and I had released a demo called “Sealed with Blood” in a Lo-Fi and total DIY manner, until I found these drunk fuckers Ron, Patrick and Chodi in my neighborhood. It then became a real band, but after a year or two the line-up kept on changing, and since then, we found Vic of the mighty Pathogen to fill in on drum duty and also added Erwin from Pathogen on lead guitar, who happens to be an ex-axe man now.

In 2005, we recorded Death to Us All and Let This Rotting World Empty and played live and traded demos. In 2006, I received a job offer abroad, so I left the country and the band as well, and, in my absence, the rest of the guys didn’t push in continuing it, until the band members became busy as fuck. The band was on hiatus until 2008; that was my return from a two year contract abroad, so I reformed the band right away, and was lucky all of them were all good. So we started drinking first (hehe) and then jamming, playing live and writing new material. Then the band moved very slowly because of both Vic and Erwin’s time conflicts and distance - their place was too far away from the rest of the members. It was 2010 when we decided to replace them with Kenneth on drums and Peto on lead guitar, since they were both from Cavite. We released the EP called Cavite’s Beast in 2011 and still the plague continues….

Ken: I entered Toxemia way back in 2008 but it was not official at that time. I only played drums for their show at Dasmariñas Cavite. After 2 years, Toxemia went missing in action….Then Corix called in and ask me again to drum for the band. I immediately agreed and then the planet got DEVASTATED haha!!!


DoC: What made you decide to form a band? What were your goals/intentions?

Corix: When my punk band AFM called it quits in 2003, that’s when I decided to form a new band with different music, with much more noise and heaviness with the intention to contribute music to the underground scene, to practice more DIY ethics and to be involve in the DIY demo trading circuit. Underground pureness was the band's first intention, though we didn’t expect much in the long term; but we are oriented to release lots of original recorded material like demos and albums. We don’t care much about what people say, we will do things our own way.

Ken: Never had the chance to form my own band before. But for me my intentions of being in a band are to share my music and ideas with the people who listen to our music. This is also how I release my madness to the rotten reality of this world. Another one is to learn more since I am proud to say that my band mates also stand as my teachers when it CUMS to music.


Toxemia in January of 2013
DoC: Toxemia is from Cavite [also the home of Pus Vomit]. How would you describe Cavite to someone who's never been there? What's the scene like there?


Corix: The province is known as the Historical Capital of the Philippines. It was the cradle of the Philippine Revolution, a renouncement of the Spanish colonial control for over 300 years, culminating with the declaration of independence on June 12, 1898 in Kawit, Cavite.

Anyway, from the 1900’s to present, the province is also known for notorious gangsters, hoodlums and also people with amulets like “Nardong Putik”. Cavite was also known for major criminal cases involving drugs, guns, kidnapping, armed robbery, murder and dirty politics. In our place Naic Cavite, just a couple of months ago, three youths in three consecutive days were killed by riding in tandem gunners…now, welcome to Cavite man! (with a shotgun to your face). Hahaha!

Musically, our underground scene here is doing good, there are still bands doing record releases and demos and stuff like that. Our scene is mixed from Death metal to Punk genres… Pus Vomit are our old time good friends.

Ken: Cavite is described as the land of the most dangerous and notorious from the Philippines, since way back in the 1940's I guess. Cavite is also known as a place where the dead bodies of missing people were found back in the 1970’s. Cavite is known as a place where people deal with their arguments against another person on their own, either by death or by a simple agreement. In Cavite, we do not call our local 911, haha.

When it comes to underground music, Cavite is known as a big contributor. Cavite caters to different kinds of heavy music, from Grindcore to Death Metal, your soul will be torn apart if you attend a gig here!!!



DoC: The song "Evil Drunkard" features Dondi from Brimstone in Fire and Willie from Pathogen. How did the collaboration come about? Of the two, which one is evil and which one is a drunkard?


Corix: it all started with an alcoholic night when we were drinking at Don’s studio (Noiseworks). Both of them are “Evil” and both of them are “Drunkards” hahaha!

Ken: Yeah I say both are evil…. More evil and drunkard than me, haha.


DoC: 2013 has been a busy year for Toxemia; you released your split with Pathogen early in the year and Planetary Devastation more recently. Why the sudden influx of material?


Corix: Just so happened that we were all very active in writing songs these days, and actually we wanted to fill those empty years from 2006 until 2010 that passed without writing new material. And since some labels abroad were interested with our shit, we pushed on releasing and recording. But even if there were no labels who happened to be interested in us, we would still push thru on self releasing, DIY and stuff like that.

Ken: Actually it just happened. At least the hard work and days of song writing paid off with those releases and just like what Corix said, we wanted to fill those empty years.



DoC: Speaking of Pathogen, how did the split come about? Do the two bands have a long history together?


Corix: We had planned this project since 2005, I guess, and we’re all very happy that it came to life now. Pathogen are our good old time friends, they are our brothers, our drinking buddies, our true horde from the south! Vic and Erwin from Pathogen were also part of this band before, and we’ve known each other more than a decade already: Starting with trading demos, zines, drinking alcohol, specially the local homebrew called “Lambanog”; playing live together from far South, going down to the North side of Luzon, hitch hiking etc. Those were the days, man! I would like to thank Chris Ureta (Septic Sewer) for introducing Willie (Pathogen’s front man) to us and the rest of the guys.

Ken: The split was a long lost project that came to life after some years. When I was in my high school years and not yet a member of Toxemia, I’d see these guys at different shows drinking together and banging their heads to metal bands who were on stage. When I entered the band, I finally had the chance to share those glorious moments, and yes indeed upon seeing these bastards hang out together these past few years, I say Toxemia and Pathogen can be considered blood brothers when it comes to metal music.


DoC: How did Metal Porn Production in Malaysia come to release Planetary Devastation? And why a cassette release? Did they happen to have a box of TDK D60s in the closet?


Corix: Hahaha! I guess he has lots of them. Anyway, I sent Muhd Muniff of Metal Porn Production our music, and luckily he got interested in releasing it on pro cassette. And we are very thankful for that. And we like it to be released on cassette tape because tapes are gold and aren’t “In” these days anymore [ummmmmm - Dreams of Can't Keep My Mouth Shut]. It was really intended for our debut album, it really fit it.

Ken: The cassette tape format was insane and I raise my mugs to that!!! Yes I guess he has a lot of TDK60s on his closet! The cassette tape format for me is an A+ knowing the fact that it is very limited and at the same time since all of us at Toxemia are still into cassette tapes, the format did really fit.


DoC: Planetary Devastation is Toxemia's first full length release. How does the music compare to your previous releases?


Corix: The previous records were more influenced by Grindcore than Death Metal, over the years our sound evolved to a much more Death Metal direction.

Ken: Toxemia’s previous material are more influenced by Grindcore music. After a few months of song writing we’ve decided to focus more on Death Metal.


DoC: What's next for Toxemia?

Corix: We are in the process of doing our second album, we have recorded 4 new tracks just a couple of weeks back at Noiseworks Studio, we also have future split projects, we will mention the band once it’s already out - very soon! Our debut album called Planetary Devastation is still available at Metal Porn Production (Malaysia), we still have a couple of copies left with our split with Pathogen on Pro-Cdr version and still available on cassette tape at Mandarangan Recordings (US).

Ken: About our plans, we are now writing our 2nd album. We’ve already recorded 4 songs so I guess we have 5 or 6 more to go to unleash the 2nd beast!!! Cheers and have a blast!!!!

For band info, drinking sessions, gigs etc.
contact us at:
Blk. 14 Lot 11 Villa Apolonia Ph.2
Naic, Cavite 4110 Philippines

Toxemia E-mail: Afm_120ml[at]yahoo.com
Toxemia official website
Toxemia on Facebook