Interview with Corinne van den Brand, Acrostichon

- Hello, Corinne! Let's start from the very beginning, how did you get involved into metal music? What were the first bands that influenced you?
- When I was about 13 I started listening to metal. In the 80`s there were a lot of illegal radio stations in my region and some of them played a lot of metal. I recorded tapes with hardrock but soon I was more interested in Heavy Metal and Thrash Metal. At first I listened to Iron maiden, Accept, Judas priest and stuff like that. Later on I became a big bay area thrash fan but my favorite band in that period was Kreator.

- Tell us a bit of the story of Acrostichon's creation. Who came up with that name? How did it happen that you decided to be in charge of vocals? 
- Richard and Jos were highschool mates. They started playing together and because I had a car and I could grunt I joined them. We found a drummer but so we could rehearse in a more serious way. Jos came up with the name Acrostichon. It is a Dutch word and is a kind of poem. We liked it because it sounded cool but is actually something really non metal. After a few months our drummer left and was replaced by Roeland. He left after a few gigs and was replaced by Serge and now we had our sound we wanted. 

- At that time, have you heard of any other female metal singers? Hod did local fans react on a girl growling in a Death Metal band?
- Of course there already were female vocalists around. Not a lot of death metal vocalists but I heard of Sharon of Derketa , Witches from France, Lori Bravo of Nuclear Death and a few others. Local fans reacted very cool. No one was really surprised because I always was a bit of a tomboy.

- In 1989, you released your first Demo, "Epilogue". Could you recall how you recorded your first material? How did you release it and what were the ways of distributing it?
- It is a long time ago so I don't remember a lot . It was a 4 track recording and I think we recorded it in a rehearsal room. We released it as a cassette and sold it on gigs and people wrote us from all over the world. Good old letters and mailboxes. Really oldschool. The underground scene was huge so we sold a lot.

- Let's talk about your debut CD, "Engraved in Black". Where did you record it? How did the whole recording process go? How did you get signed with Modern Primitive label?
- We recorded it at RS 29 studio with Oscar Holleman. And we got Colin Richardson to produce it. We were signed at the Modern Primitive label because we knew we had to sign somewhere  because other bands started to record their debut albums and we didn't want to miss the boat. Bad choice because after we recorded the album it took about a year before it was released. Very very frustrating to us because we did miss the boat. We never should have agreed with Modern Primitive.

- Who is the cover's artist? How could you comment on that picture? Who is that woman?
- Richard , our guitar player, made all our artwork. He still is involved in creating album covers for a lot of bands nowadays like Pentagram, Master, Church of Misery etc. We never were into the gore, horror album covers and girls were a constant part of Richards artwork. Nothing to do with me though. The girl on the cover is a girl he liked back in the days.

- How successful was this release? What kind of feedback did you receive? What was your own opinion on the "Engraved in Black"?
- I liked the album although it contained a few very old songs. Even pre-Acrostichon. It was a good album. You get a very good view at what we were doing in that period. The first few years of Acrostichon. Pretty death metal doom related with a bit of grindcore influences. It was pretty much what we all listened to in those days. I don't know how much were sold but it got released worldwide and we got good reviews. Can't complain about that. 

- In 2 years, in 1995, you released your last full-length, "Sentenced". How could you describe the music on that CD? What are the main differences from the previous album?
- Richard had left Acrostichon and was replaced by Michel and the style changed into a more thrash oriented deathmetal. Different guitar players, different playing style, different vibe.I liked it very much because that is where my roots are. I prefer the Sentenced album over Engraved in Black but the production wasn't very good. I wish we could do that one again. 

- Together with some light changes of the playstile, you changed the way of singing. Was it intended? What was your vision of the future album while creating it?
- I got tired of only grunting. It bored the hell out of me. I wanted to do something different but didn't know what I was doing at all. So, some songs make my toes curl when I listen to it now. Really bad. That's one of the reasons that I would like to do that all over again. I know how to do it now. We didn't really have a vision. We played the music we liked.

- Shortly after that release the band split up. What was the reason for it? 
- The vibe wasn't there anymore like in the beginning. Everyone was feeling it. Things had changed. Paul Speckmann asked them to join Master for a tour and they said yes. It didn't end like they expected but after they came back it just wasn't the same anymore. Acostichon didn't split up though. I left the band and the rest continued with a new singer. They soon changed their name into Outburst. They were active for many years till singer Tjerk left and they asked me to join again. I accepted and we continued as Razend. So you can say the circle is round.

- The band has been active again since 2009. What is the current line-up? What are you plans for near future? Do you work on the new album?
- The current line up is Jos - guitars, Richard - guitars, Serge - drums and me on vocals. It is the Original line up. But we aren't doing anything at this moment. No new songs, no rehearsing, not even trying to get on stage again. We all moved on doing other stuff but we never split up either.

- Apart from Acrostichon, you are also involved into another 2 bands, Razend and The Covering. Tell us a bit about these bands.
- The Covering is a 80`s metal coverband. We play all kinds of metalcovers from Wasp, Saxon to Morbid Angel and Death. Very varied. My brother Jos who is also the guitarplayer of Acrostichon is in it too. It`s a partyband but we are serious about it. Always fun to play with The Covering. 
Razend is a thrashmetal band also with Jos on guitars and like I mentioned is a band with connections to Acrostichon. Acrostichon ----- Outburst ----- Razend. We recorded our second demo this year and it will be released soon. I only sing, no bass anymore but in a more thrashy way, a bit of grunts and clean. This is what I wanted to do on the Sentenced album.

- Alright, thank you for this interview, Corinne. Would you like to add anything in the end?    
- Thanks for the interview. Check out my new band Razend and the YouTube Channel. And it's not always a good idea to smell your own farts !!