Interviewé: Clément (basse):

1. Tell us a little about the band and why you choose to start.

We are Outcast, a thrash/death band from Paris, we started with a classical metal style and then improved to a more brutal stuff with some mosh parts and few melodics riffs and solos. Actually we are four but we are looking for a second guitar player for solos. We started in 1998 as a local band by covering metal classics, we created the band for the fun and to have good time with friends, but with the time we realise that it was more serious than a simple entertainment. The band is now working hard to create quality tracks. You can find more at our website: www.outcast.fr.tc

2.  A few words about what you have released or planned releases.

We released a MCD 4 tracks in 2002 called “The Source of All Creation”, and we had very good review about that. It was a very good tool for us to make us a name in the French underground and we realize that our music was appreciate. We are actually planning the recording of our first full length release for this summer (called “First Call / Last Warning”), it will be a powerful Thrash/Death album of 10 new tracks, and the style is very less classical, more personal than before…

3.  Working conditions for underground bands in France? (Do you have a place to practice etc?)

The working conditions for underground is minimum, because metal – and especially underground – is not popular here in France. We have some rehearsal places and associations to help us but not that much, fortunately we have the chance to have rehearsal room at home!

4. Describe your style and influences?

As I said above, we are a death metal band and we use different tempos and atmospheres to enrich our music. The influence panel is very large, the most of them comes from classical Thrash bands like slayer, Kreator, Sepultura, Carcass etc… and more brutals and actual bands like Decapitated, Meshuggah, Corporation 187, The Haunted, Vader and many more. We are very open in music and take influences everywhere, also in non-metal music.

5. What do you think of the French underground scene today?

In one hand, I think there is a lot of bands that have no reason to be popular, there is to much “amateur” bands. In the other hand, we have some very good bands that sound very professional and offer music of quality, but it’s a minority. But there was a clear improvement since a couple of years in spite of the delay we have compared has other countries in Europe like Sweden, Norway or Deutschland.