Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
COTZ formed early 2011 in the small town of Borås, West Sweden around a love of older grindcore and punk/metal bands. It’s not that we wanted to be stuck in the past or glorify it but wanted to do something that had the organic energy and delivery of the bands we grew up with. Grindcore and extreme metal seems to have evolved to a point where a lot of bands use drum triggers and super-produced sounds with loads of effects and auto-tuning etc. We feel the best sounds and bands are those that happened almost by accident and just went in a rocked out. That's where we're coming from. As members we have all been in other bands before, but we are not an "ex-members of" band so...that's not important to us.
How would you describe your style? Which bands influenced your music?
Crusty Grind-Thrash! I think we have a lot of influences but certainly NAPALM DEATH, AMEBIX, DISCHARGE, REPULSION, DARKTHRONE and CARCASS have been the biggest.
Why should a metalhead buy your demos/albums?
I think (I hope!) we have something that will appeal to quite a broad amount of people as we mix grind and thrash and metal, little death metal and black metal and punk - I think a fan of any extreme music will find something they might like. Plus with a very "back to basics" attitude I think even the truest of true will enjoy what we have. We didn't just want to make music that was just fast for the sake of it, we tried to make actual "songs" not just blasts of music that blend into each other.
What have you released so far and how were your releases received by the public/media? So far we have only recorded a demo, which we did for free in a series of sessions when the local student studio was free, then we mastered it ourselves. Very DIY! The songs have been sent about and are appearing on many splits and compilations all over the place, I'm very happy about the response so far - it seems like we've created a good sound.
Do you play live as well? How's your live activity so far?
Our first ever gig is next month, we are quite a new band and Sweden is not the easiest place for a new band to break into - but soon after that we have another to the corpse is rising.
What sould labels/zines/promoters know about your band? Why should they be interested in it?
We don't care about labels or promoters unless they are just good honest people who are fun to work with, the aim of the band is not to get big, rich or famous but to make music that people can enjoy, spread some messages and have some fun (and drink some beer!) Zines however are always welcome to get in touch, we welcome them and are always happy to provide material to review and to interview with them. Zines are the voice of the underground and anyone who puts the time and energy in to making one, print or online is admirable.
What plans do you have for the near future as a band?
Well, we will be releasing a few splits and tapes and stuff, we are currently writing some new stuff and saving money to make a 7" - or searching for good bands or small labels that might want to help us out with one. Gigs of course are always worth the ride!
Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
You can hear us on facebook - facebook.com/cryptofthezombilord, we have a myspace site but we are not in there much - myspace.com/cryptofthezombilord - all our info and stuff is at the web "hub" cryptofthezombilord.blogspot.com we don't sell our demo as such but you can get one with a nice COTZ patch if you want to donate a little towards postage and material, or trade with us - mail cryptofthezombilord@gmail.com
September 2011