The phrases “Van Drunen” and “side project” will cause more than a little excitement in these parts. The death metal frontman handled vocals on two prestigious entries in Decibel’s Top 100 Death Metal Albums (available here). He also toured with the mighty Bolt Thrower and fronts war-themed badasses Hail Of Bullets. The dude is like the Lebron James of death metal.
Grand Supreme Blood Court is basically a hybrid of Asphyx and Hail Of Bullets so know two things: there will be no musical surprises and it will be fucking awesome.
Decibel is happy to offer a stream of Bow Down Before The Blood Court in addition to a liner’s notes worth of material from drummer Bob Bagchus on the album. Stream the album below and get in touch with Martin, Bob and the rest of Grand Supreme Blood Court here. The album is available for preorder from Century Media.
Grand Supreme Blood Court was formed during a phone call conversation between Eric Daniels and Bob Bagchus. Eric was eager to play death metal again. Blood Court was never formed with the idea to bring something new or fresh into the scene — hell no. It was formed to play the old style death metal we all like: pure and simple. Nothing more.
Eric really wanted to play with Bob Bagchus (drums) and Martin (vocals) again in a band for old time’s sake. Martin and Bob agreed since Eric is a long time friend and Alwin Zuur was asked to handle the second guitar. Theo van Eekelen was asked to handle the bass roars. Songs were made and in a short period of time 11 tracks were ready to be recorded. GSBC signed a worldwide deal with Century Media. Influences vary from Slaughter (Canada) to Necrovore to Hellhammer.
Nobody expected something else, right?
1. All Rise: Mid-paced/doomy track which contains riffs that existed for quite awhile. Finally shaped into an extraordinarily heavy track.
2. Bow Down Before the Blood Court: Title track, a faster/mid one which existed before we entered the studio. We were still in the rehearsal place and started to jam again — this was the result. We packed our stuff, went to the studio and recorded the thing right away.
3. There Shall Be No Acquitance: Faster track with an extremely crushing, doomy head-bang part in the middle. Inspired by old Possessed. This one is relentless.
4. Veredictum Sanguis: A mid-paced track in the Hellhammer/Slaughter-style. The opening riff is a crusher. No fast parts here, the middle slow part is in the best Black Sabbath-style. A band we all love!
5. Behead the Defence: A short, fast track which existed for some years. Straighter than straight and very much in your face death metal.
6. Grand Justice, Grand Pain: An instrumental which was a soundcheck for the drums right before recording the album. I did some mid-paced double bass and suddenly Eric started to play along with it. I heard it on the headphones and told him to play that riff endlessly. So this song is actually the sound-check, but it turned out to be a heavy bomber. Theo played some bass lines as an intro for the song and there it is.
7. Fed To The Boars: Could be the most brutal track on the album, especially lyric-wise. Some people might misinterpret the lyrics, and some people even think we might get into trouble with it. It’s a total anti-religion track, and we name the beast by the name here. Century Media wasn’t sure about printing the lyrics, but luckily they hate censoring as much as we do. Martin did some really great pig squeals in the slow part of the track…Guess who will be eaten there…
8. Circus of Mass Torment: A pounding two-beat track which roars like a tank battalion. It was supposed to be a 7″ track only, but since we all thought this was too good to be only used as a 7″, we decided to put in on the record itself. Eric and I made the song, and the day before we had to record it, Alwin made some changes. I heard the changes late at night and at first thought, “What the fuck?” but wrote the changes and extensions quickly on paper, went to the studio the next day, recorded the damn thing and praised Alwin later on! The changes made the track very special and gave it the right creepy atmosphere. It stands out, as a matter of fact. Martin did a diabolical laugh which really fits the concept.
9. Public Castration: What do you do with rapists and child molesters? Torture them, carve their balls and let the public kill them. The lyrics say what every court should do in those cases: let the public/victims be judge, jury and executioner. The music is from Alwin’s old band. He took his laptop to my house once — Martin was at my place as well, we had some beers and listened to his older stuff. This track really stood out, and both Martin and I wanted to use it for Asphyx. But since Asphyx had already enough material for Deathhammer, we decided to use it for the Blood Court instead. It’s a chopping up-tempo track.
10. Piled Up for the Scavengers: One of the faster tracks on the album with a catchy middle break, which even has a bit of melody in it. The riffs are inspired by old gods Necrovore. Yet again, a brutal straight forward death metal song with the old style D beat.
11. …And Thus The Billions Shall Burn: A very epic track which is close to 10 minutes. The main riff has such a creepy atmosphere due to Alwin’s higher notes. It’s the kind of riff that makes you think your grave is already waiting for you in the cold night. Eric did a marvelous job again with his end-time solo at the end of this epic monster.
