Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
ENRAGED was founded by former guitarplayer Martijn Linker and me, drummer Douwe Talma back in 1997. We wanted to play an extreme version of deathmetal, but with a lot of guitarmelodies. Aggression combined with melody, but not in a cheesy or poppy way. We had a lot of line-up changes in all those years, but managed to release a demo, a mcd and a promo during our first years. After the release of the 'Resist..' promo in 2004 some of the bandmembers left. Only bassplayer/vocalist Peter Hagen and me remained. Since we had a lot of trouble of finding some good replacements, we've finally decided to record a full-length first. During that recording process Peter left ENRAGED also. I've decided to finish up the recordings and mixing totally on my own with help of some befriended session-musicians and with our previous vocalist Jitse Schregardus. That full length was finally released at the end of 2012, entitled "It's Your Fear That Feeds Their Power".

How would you describe your style? Which bands influenced your music? 
The perfect blend of aggression and melody in death metal, for sure! We mix it with some technical parts, thrashy riffs, blastbeats and melodic guitarsolos. Some bands that influenced us in one way or another are Death, Eucharist, At The Gates, Suffocation and Carcass. Although we never had the intention to be a copycat and always try to create our own unique style.

Why should a metalhead buy your demos/albums?
Because ENRAGED is a tight and extreme deathmetal band from Holland which offers you a unique mixture of aggression and melody without sounding like pussies. We've just released an excellent 9-track album which is worldwide critically acclaimed during the past year, called "It's Your Fear That Feeds Their Power". That album features a whole bunch of interesting metal legends who contributed with some great guitarsolos like Andy Larocque (King Diamond, Death), James Murphy (Testament, Obituary, Death), Christofer Malmstrom (Darkane), Jens van der Valk (God Dethroned, Autumn) and Jos Hindriks (Disintegrate). The album was mixed by Jochem Jacobs (Textures) and has a great sound too.

What have you released so far and how were your releases received by the public/media? 
We've released a demo ('Tirade' - 1998), a mcd ('Counterblast' - 2001), a promo ('Resist Or Serve - Promoting Our Contemptuous Resistance Against Human Treason'- 2004) and a full-length album ('It's Your Fear That Feeds Their Power' - 2012). The first 3 releases gained popularity by a whole bunch of good international reviews. But especially our new 'It's Your Fear..' album has been critically acclaimed worldwide by rating it with an average of 8,5 points out of 10. Almost every reviewer who's into extreme but melodic deathmetal likes our most recent album very much. 

Do you play live as well? How's your live activity so far?
We've been doing a lot of liveshows over the past 17 years. Not only in Holland, but all across Europe. We've also been playing some nice Dutch festivals like Waldrock, Stonehenge and Occultfest and did shows with metallegends such as Gorefest, Deicide and Arch Enemy. We haven't done liveshows since the release of our most recent "It's Your Fear..." album so far, but if there's a lot of interest of people (locally or abroad) to watch ENRAGED live on stage we are up for it of course.

What should labels/zines/promoters know about your band? Why should they be interested in it?
ENRAGED just released their best album ever, featuring some very interesting special guests like Andy Larocque, James Murphy and Christofer Malmstrom. Furthermore the album has been critically acclaimed all over the globe. We've got something really interesting to offer, since you won't find another deathmetal album from Holland which has such a great sound, good songs and so many featuring international metallegends!

What plans do you have for the near future as a band?
Right now our main focus is on promoting our most recent "It's Your Fear.." album as much as possible by doing a lot of international interviews. Furthermore we came up with the plan to do a video for one of the songs of our last album later on this year. Most likely the song "Global Conspiracy/Invisible Oppressors", since that one suits the lyrical concept of our last album most. 

Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
You can find a teaser of "Confusion" (which features Andy Larocque and is one of the tracks of our latest album) on Youtube:  http://youtu.be/W8SuEbjwY2A
You can also listen to the track "Tribulations Climax" (another song of our new album) which is a soundtrack to the video coinciding with this interview on Pest Webzine. Furthermore you can buy our music on our website: www.enraged.nl, on Amazon and on I-Tunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/its-your-fear-that-feeds-their/id811061131
Check out our website, buy our music and like us on facebook!

September 2014