FOETAL JUICE, FOETAL JUICE, FOETAL JUICE!!! Talk About Their New Album ‘Gluttony’

by Annie · June 9, 2020

Who is Foetal Juice?

“Foetal Juice have been on the Extreme Metal Underground circuit for well over ten years now, a band with a passion for the gory and perverted side of life, introducing black humour and pure horror with subject matter including strange sects of nuns who piss in the font and eat their own shit as a form of worship, creepy bar flies that wait till women leave then furiously sniff their seats to inhale the sweet pheromones and George CorpseGrinder Fishers neck exploding from playing too much. “

If you say their name 3 times it will summon the UK’s very own lords of extremity. Four years after the 2016 release of their freshman album “Masters of Absurdity” they are about to release their sophomore album “Gluttony” via Gore House Productions on June 12th ( Pre Order Link!). This 12 track wonder is definitely worthy of pleasuring your ear holes.

They released the title track Gluttony back in March followed shortly by Metamorphosis and then Manifestation of Falsity in late May to give us a little taste of what is to come. Drummer Rob Harris graciously agreed to answer our questions regarding the upcoming release.

Members:

Derek Carley – Vocals
Ryan Whittaker – Guitar
Lewis Bridges – Bass
Rob Harris – Drums

Interview with Rob Harris (Drums)

ITPA: In March we got a taste of the title track Gluttony plus a video. I’ve got to ask, how many kebabs were eaten during that video and was their a period where Derek in particular got full during shooting since he seemed to swallow the most meat out of everyone at least in what we can see?

FJ: To be honest no kebabs were eaten during the shoot at all. We were filming at 9 O’Clock in the morning after a heavy night watching Municipal Waste, Toxic Holocaust and Skeletal Remains in Manchester.

Derek bought 2 kebabs whilst stumbling home and brought them with him in the morning. He was a bit delicate in the morning and the cold stale kebabs didn’t really tickle his taste-buds haha. He probably ate a few strips of kebab meat and the rest just went on the floor.

ITPA: Concept wise was it your intent to have a seven deadly sins/ Dante’s Inferno meets the modern human corrupt condition theme with this piece of work?

FJ: In a nutshell, Yes. We had ideas about the content of a few songs and I had a number of working album titles. The more lyrics we were writing the more they all suited the gluttony concept. Everything we were writing about was to do with how disgusted we are with the greed and selfishness of mankind.

When we were writing the lyrics to the song gluttony it was semi-autobiographical. We were looking at the things that disgust us about ourselves and we thought that layer of hell would be a great and fitting concept for the album.

ITPA: What sets this album apart from your previous full length release “Masters of Absurdity”?

FJ: This album is a lot angrier than the previous one. I think we were pissed off whilst we were writing this one. There is a lot more black metal influences on this album too, I think that might be down to a few things. Derek is from a UK black metal band called Burial and I drum for the black metal band Necronautical too.

We have gone a lot more serious with the lyrical content as well as the musical content with this album. We enjoyed Masters of Absurdity but we thought we needed give our playing a big kick up the arse to show off our new members. I think we achieved what we set out to achieve with “Gluttony.”

ITPA: There is a bit more gravitas or seriousness in this album compared to MoA. While there are still some silly dark humoured anecdotes within were there anypersonal or world events that caused this one to be less playful?

FJ: We made a continuous decision to try to make this album more serious. Our music has always been serious but we feel that it’s not been taken as seriously as perhaps it should have been. This is probably down to some of the daft sense of humour that we include in our lyrics (also we are called Foetal Juice).

We just thought it would be good to show how serious we can make ourselves. Me and Ryan have always struggled to do things seriously. So it’s really easy for us to start something off serious but it’s difficult to stop ourselves taking the piss out of whatever it is and keeping the jokes we have made in the songs.

ITPA: Was there anything in particular you hyper-focused on instrumentally during the writing process?

FJ: I wouldn’t say we “hyper-focused” on anything but I always enjoy concentrating on the stabs in songs. I think a good set of stabs really grabs the listeners attention. There are a few that I really enjoy throughout the album.

ITPA: Are there any plans to tour to promote this release after COVID lock downs are over in 2021 or live stream performances sooner?

FJ: Pretty much everything we had planned in 2020 has been carried over to 2021. So we are lucky enough already be booked for a number of European festivals such as Fuck The Commerce (DE), Nice to Eat You Fest (CZ), Stonehenge fest (NL), Incineration fest (UK), Solempnytys Festival (UK), Snuff Fest (UK) as well as a number of little tours we are going to re-book as soon as things start to open up properly again. But we have also been speaking about a potential live stream but we will see how likely that is over the next fest weeks.

ITPA: Over the years you have played a multitude of metal festivals in addition to other smaller shows. What were some of your top festivals? (lets say top 5) and Top 5 smaller venues?

FJ: My favorite festivals we have been lucky enough to play are Bloodstock (UK), Obscene Extreme Fest (CZ), Extremefest (DE), Incineration Fest (UK), and Berlin Deathfest (DE).

For top small venues I would have to say The Star and Garter (Manchester), Temple of Boom (Leeds), Bannermans (Edinburgh), Nambucca (London) and Metal Point (Porto).

ITPA: Is there a festival or tour with a certain band you would give your left testicle to play at?

FJ: We just want to play them all. We would love to do a full tour with a bigger band (Napalm Death, Deicide, Severe Torture, Vomitory) but we need to wait and see what’s on the horizon. I would personally love to play Hellfest.

ITPA: Do you feel like the UK scene gives up and coming bands more opportunities for exposure in comparison to other scenes around the world?

FJ: It’s a difficult question to answer because I’ve not been exposed to the opportunities that might be available to up and coming bands in different places. I know the UK scene is doing great at the moment. All of the bands that are getting big from it are getting big because they have great work ethics and they are really good bands.

ITPA: What are some other up and coming bands in the UK scene you feel Death Metal fans should keep an eye on / give a listen to?

FJ: [Off the top of my head] Strangle Wire, Cryptic Shift, Live Burial, BTK, Scordatura, All Consumed, Blasphemer, Human Mycosis and After the Abduction. There are loads that are doing really well at the minute.

Additional credits for Gluttony: This albums artwork was done by Roberto Toderico (Vomitory, Asphyx, Sinister) and was Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered by Chris Fielding at Foel Studio (Conan, Napalm Death, Winterfylleth, etc.).