BMS: Hello there, folks. What have you being up to for the past year?

Arne: We have written a ton of new songs, recorded several of them for our upcoming album and managed to get Art Gates Records as our record label. And of course we played at some amazing concerts and festivals like the one taking place today. So overall it has been a very busy and creative year for us.

BMS: When can we expect your freshly produced album?

Arne: It will arrive very soon. Right now, we’re finishing the album’s artwork as well as taking care of the entire administration that comes with the release.
Ken: And as soon as the album is released, we’ll be doing as many gigs as humanly possible.

The Indemnity crew from left to right: Matthias De Boitselier (guitar), Matthias Debaets (drums), Arne Daelman (vocals), a rooster, Ken Koeckelberghs (vocals and bass) and Tomas Herremans (guitar)

BMS: I see, well, in the meantime I can enjoy your previous outing, The World Is Beautiful For Those Who Live In Another One. But what can we expect from its successor? Something similar or something completely different?

Ken: The upcoming album will be even more aggressive! Our ingredients haven’t changed, they’ re just better balanced. You can expect to be severely beaten by a lethal dose of thrash metal only to have your bleeding corpse raped in the ass by some punk rock and then the album will finish you off by defecating all over your lifeless body with some hardcore.

BMS: That’s quite an impressive, painful and foul-smelling statement. I’ve got to say that your performance tonight was intense to say the least. It was really enjoyable and made me much more interested in Indemnity.

Arne: We’re glad to hear that.

BMS: Well, I’ve got a little confession to make. Back in March this year  when I saw Indemnity for the first time I wasn’t very fond of your band. The only thing I thought hearing that night was shouting and not much else. But that was just me. In those days I wasn’t in the right mood to discover new stuff. I had unexpectedly lost my job just a week beforehand and felt miserable. But that’s all behind me now, I now have a permanent job at a company I’m very happy to work at.

Arne: That’s great to hear, man! But you know, we’ve all suffered from unemployment as well, even now some of us are still looking for a job. The anger, frustration and uncertainty that comes from events like that give us that energy we put in our music and in our live performances.

Ken: It’s rather ironic that you didn’t like our band back when you were angry about losing your job. First of all because I think that Indemnity sounds pretty pissed off and secondly because Indemnity from day one has been shouting from the bottom of the social ladder. From the people for the people. But you don’t have to excuse yourself for not liking our band from day one. I’m glad you saw the light, eventually.

BMS: Yeah, your anger intimidated me a bit at first but I still would’ve interviewed you guys even if I wasn’t a fan of you.

BMS: Now, Indemnity returned in 2013 after a few years’ hiatus. How did you get the motivation to reinvigorate the band?

Ken: Nothing more or less than the never-ending desire to play music. We had some disagreements about certain topics involving the band, but we never gave up on each other. We’ve always been friends, there have never been any hard feelings.

Arne: That’s right, we’re proud of the fact that we’ve maintained the entire lineup since we founded Indemnity in 2005. There are a lot of bands who’ve had plenty of lineup changes in ten years. But we’ve stood tall and now, we’re feeling stronger than ever!

BMS: It certainly is an accomplishment. So happy 10th anniversary!

BMS: I see. I myself am pretty clean, the only drug I take is alcohol. I’ve already got enough addictions myself.

Ken: Ah, tell us something about your addictions.

BMS: I do a lot of sports (like running and strength training), I love drinking whisky, playing a lot of videogames and of course there’s heavy metal!

Arne: Yeah, we’re all rock ’n roll junkies ourselves!

BMS: Time for something else. Do you guys have any habitual preparations before you commence a gig?

Arne: I prefer to lock myself in the band’s van and get drunk while the other guys are prepping up the stage. And when I’m finished drinking, everything’s ready to go and I just have to pick up the mic and get things started!

Ken: And after the show Arne suddenly has to go to take a big piss just before we begin cleaning up the stage. Arne is the uncrowned king of convenient coincidences!

BMS: What are your plans for the near future?

Ken: We’ve already written enough material to even record a thrid album. So aside from releasing and promoting our nearly finished CD, we’re going to further work on these newly written songs and eventually jump in the studio again.

Arne: Before we continue this chat, I’d like to add that we are very pleased that guys like you support Belgian metal and that you give bands like ours the chance to get some publicity. It’s very hard for young bands to get some national or international coverage these days.

BMS: The pleasure is all mine! And you guys fucking deserve publicity! What are your favorite Indemnity tracks to play on stage? I’ll start with you, Arne.

Arne: The song Never Hold Back, which will be included on our upcoming album.
Matthias Debaets: For me, Pigs to the Slaughter, a track that won’t be featured for the incoming release, but hopefully on the next one.
Tomas: I’ll also pick Never Hold Back as my favorite.

Ken: I personally have a ton of songs from our catalogue that I love to play such as Slavery and Never Hold Back. Simply every single track that best represents our musical style and message to the audience.
Matthias De Boitselier: Just like my namesake sitting over there, I love playing Pigs to the Slaughter.

BMS: What are your main inspirations for Indemnity’s style?

Arne: My own raging aggression.
Matthias De Boitselier: We have a ton of influences, too many to mention. We mix punk with thrash and hardcore. But as Arne just said, we get our main ideas from the frustrations we get in our lives. Getting up early to go to work, putting your faith and money in the wrong people, corruption, political bullshit. All that stuff. If we’d sing about trolls, fairies or dragons we wouldn’t have been as satisfied with our sound as we are now!

BMS: You know, I can immediately see when bands truly believe in what they’re singing and playing about. It’s that particular conviction that makes a band sell their music. And I saw that same conviction during your show tonight.

Arne: Really, if we weren’t a 110% convinced about what we're playing about, we wouldn’t have been able to write the songs we've made over the years.

BMS: Great! Is there anything else you wish to add to this conversation?

Arne: Yeah, if you’re looking for some other great stuff to cover for your website, be sure to check out the psychobilly band The Dipshits, they’re friends of ours and certainly deserve your attention. Devastation, meetjeslands violent old school thrash assault. Silence Means Death, a D-beat excrement from Lemmy. And also check out Cizin, a thrash metal band from Aalst who’ll be releasing their first EP very soon.

BMS: Then these bands are now officially on the Shredder’s list. And you, Indemnity, are now crossed off said list! Thanks a lot for this conversation and don’t make us wait too much longer for the new album! Now let’s help these poor folks with taking out the t(h)rash!