BMS: Congratulations with your win at the Wacken Metal Battle. You beat five other bands to gain a spot on this year's Wacken Open Air lineup!

Mathieu: Thanks! We were a bit nervous at the beginning because we didn't know when we had to play. It could've been as early as 19.00. But we were lucky and we were the final band to take center stage that day. Anyway, it was a fun experience and we enjoyed the performances by the other bands as well. There was thrash, industrial, classic heavy metal and metalcore.

BMS: Too bad I had a birthday party that day, otherwise I would have certainly attended the show.

BMS: What went through your mind when you noticed you had won the battle?

Mathieu: Every band received 5 score panels and by the time we reached the fourth score panel we knew that we were close to winning the contest.
Jan: I only realized the day after the show that we were going to play at Wacken. It felt like such an awesome reward for all the years of work and dedication we've put in Carrion since its inception.

BMS: I recall my first encounter with your band back in February 2015. I didn't hear any material of you before, but when I saw your style of mixing technical guitar solos with brutal vocals and riffs, I knew you had something great to offer.

Carrion from left to right: Jannick Govaert (drums),  Sven Van Severen (vocals)  Mathieu Vander Vennet (guitars), Jan Van den Berghe (guitars), Sam Philipsen 

BMS: What's Carrion's next big ambition?

Mathieu: We want to release a second album.

BMS: You also call Carrion's sound by the term gingercore. I don't notice any gingers in your band...

Mathieu: Jonathan, our previous bassist was 100% ginger. A true Ron Weasley! He eventually quit Carrion because of time constraints and because he began to suffer from hearing damage.
Jan: We were sad when Jonathan announced his departure from Carrion so we decided to call our sound gingercore as a tribute to him. Furthermore, we don't consider our sound as fully-blown death metal.

BMS: So Sam, you became Carrion's newest bassist. How did you join the ginger gang?

Sam: One of my closest friends introduced me to Sven and Mathieu. A few months later Carrion announced that they were looking for a new bassist and I auditioned.
Mathieu: And I was very satisfied with his performance.

BMS: Are you going to "gingerize" him?

Mathieu: No. The ginger concept is more like an inside joke than anything else.

BMS: So you're writing new material. What can we expect from the successor of Revelations, your 2012 debut album?

Jan: Revelations was a sort of compilation of songs we had written between Carrion's start in 2007 up till the point we began recording the album. There was a lot of creative experimentation going on at the time. But now, we found our own signature style of metal and the new album will be beefier and more consistent than Revelations.

BMS: What are your other activities aside from Carrion?

Jan: I'm in an amateur cycling club.
Sam: I work for the local municipality and I attend bass lessons in the pop and jazz music genres.
Mathieu: I do urban exploring.

BMS: How about you, Sven, what are your favorite wastes of time?

Sven: I'm a driver and operator in a cattle fodder company. Not much else.
Jannick: I play drums in another band called Reject the Sickness and I'm still a student. But drums remain my main passion in life.

BMS: What are your favorite individual Carrion tracks to play live?

Jannick: I prefer to play the new material. They feel more robust and natural compared to our earlier songs.
Jan: The song Urge is a favorite of mine. As well as a currently unnamed track that we haven't played live as of yet.
Mathieu: The new material, especially the freshly finished song Mutilation, are my top picks.
Sam: I agree with the other guys, we've grown tired of playing the same old shit over and over again and so I also prefer to play more recent material.
Sven: I enjoy singing every song in the Carrion catalogue as long as there's enough variety in the set list.

BMS: Clever answer, Sven.

BMS: Where do you get inspiration to write your songs and themes?

Mathieu: Jan is Carrion's main songwriter. When he brings up the material, we review it and provide adjustments when necessary. We play an extreme metal genre so obviously we tackle dark, nightmarish themes but we still keep things varied.

BMS: Is there anything you wish to add before we wrap the conversation up?

Jan: Be sure to check us out at Wacken. We're counting on many fellow Belgian headbangers to come join us and show everyone what we're made of! And of course, we also want everyone's favorite Belgian Metal Shredder to stir things up!

BMS: I'll see what I can do.

BMS: Got something more to tell me, Jannick?

Jannick: We look forward to presenting our new album to the masses. We hope to get it released during fall this year and otherwise in spring next year.
Sven: I've got nothing special to add. Thanks for your time.
Sam: Yeah, thanks and see you soon.
Mathieu: I want to thank everyone who attended our gig today. I had a great time here!

BMS: So did I. Now let's take the traditional band picture!