Supuration
Alien Music

13.10.2015

This French band has gone through amazing metamorphoses in the course of its career. It was established in 1989 as Etsicroxe, originally preaching raw thrash / death metal. The name was changed to Supuration, and the band switched over to doom death metal. Their debut record, “The Cube”, came out three years later and became a cornerstone of French extreme music. Further on, without stopping or changing their line-up, the musicians established a completely separate formation called Spherical Unit Provided (S.U.P.), which leaned more towards avant-garde metal. In total, the two bands have released 11 full-length records, and the music which they contain is best described with the title of this interview. We asked guitarist/vocalist Ludovic Loez to be our guide through 25 years of this outstanding band…

Hi Ludo, do you have any news for the fans?

Hi there! Well we put out an album in June. In late 2014 we decided to re-record very old songs from the very first demo of Supuration just for the fans, it could have been our official bootleg No. 18, but eventually our record company decided to release it on a true CD (the label in question is Listenable Records, and the album is titled “Reveries…” – ed.). Dan Swano did the mastering and Dan Seagrave did the artwork. We recorded three covers (Twisted Sister, Paradise Lost, Anthrax) for it. We played at the “Hellfest” festival this year with our other band S.U.P (same members but a style quite different compared to Supuration), we also opened for Fear Factory in July, and we played last week at the “Fall Of Summer” festival with Coroner, Suffocation, etc…

What has been your most successful album so far? And why, in your opinion?

I guess it would be our really first true album called “The Cube”, out in 1993 - the concept, the cover, the songs were quite original for a death metal band at that time.

Could you describe yourself and each of your bandmates to a person who hasn’t met any of you in person?

I don’t know, it’s quite hard to explain. I think we all in the band love to play music and to compose original songs. We are playing for our own pleasure first, we are playing with passion, we aren’t into a business…

You have covered songs by bands of different genres (Twisted Sister, Motley Crue, Tears For Fears, The Cure, Ange, Paradise Lost). Does their music have any special meaning for you?

Yes, all those bands have a direct influence on our music since we started to listen to music, it’s fun to do that, we like it!!

When “The Cube” was re-released via Holy Records in 1998, it was completely remixed and remastered. What was the reason?

I can’t remember. We had the rights to the album and it sold out quite quickly, so I suppose we decided with the label to re-release the album.

Your "Cube3" album (2013) came out via Listenable Records. Does it mean that your long-term cooperation with с Holy Records is now over? If yes, why?

It’s over with Holy Records, they changed, we had some different ways of seeing things.

Starting from your debut album, the music played by Supuration/ S.U.P. is characterized by unique atmosphere and can be rightfully called “alien music”. What were you influenced by when you were developing this kind of atmosphere? Some records or movies maybe?

Yes and no, we like science fiction stories and movies, when we started the band, we decided to be original but not so much and it worked and still working after 25 years, that’s pretty cool for us. Thanks to our fans of course!!

Can you name three metal bands that each of the band members appreciate?

I would say old Pestilence, Voivod and Carcass!

Did you had to face any problems when touring with Coroner (1995) and Аnathema (1999)? What are your memories about those tours?

No problems with these bands, they are real professionals and cool guys. The same is true for Suffocation whom we saw last week - after 20 years that was really cool…

Why did bass player Laurent Bessault quit the band in 1997?

Personal problems.

Metal-Archives.com claims that Mike Brasselet played bass in Supuration in 1997. How long did this cooperation last?

He wasn’t a bassist but a guitarist. I was the bass player of the band and after I fired Mike for lack of motivation I decided to take the guitar, and Laurent Bessault joined the band in 1991.

In 2001, Inner Sides Productions released a triple CD called "A Tribute To SUP", which featured a total of 37 band. What kind of label was that, who originated this project, and how ere the participants chosen?

Inner Sides Productions was my label that I created especially because the demand of a tribute was so big. We didn’t chose the bands, every band was welcome, it’s a great souvenir and a good experience!

Could you speak a little about the book "Trace Ecrite"? How big is it, what is its content? Was it published only in the French language?

Only in French. It was written by Jeremie Grima, we met him during one of our shows in Paris, and he decided to write a complete biography of the band. It’s very interesting - more than 500 pages on our lives, tons of interviews with people we met during our career, tons of pictures, and long discussions about the several albums we wrote for 25 years.

What were the reasons for transformations going between Supuration, SUP and S.U.P.?

I would say it’s the same composer and the same musicians, the style is quite original for both bands, maybe it would be better to ask our fans for that… Supuration was too gory even if the style is quite melodic. We aren’t into brutal death metal, we are trying to put some strange atmosphere in our songs, maybe it’s only that….

With such an extensive back catalogue, how do you choose songs for your setlists?

We are changing our setlist from show to show, it depends of the band we are playing as. Maybe next year we’ll make a mix of both bands. It’s true that it’s quite hard to choose songs from our albums, we are trying to do our best for our fans, sometimes we ask our fans via the Internet in order to know what they want  us to play live, but it’s rare.

Over so many years of existence you’ve never broken up and you’ve only had two line-up changes. What’s your secret?

We are a family, that’s the secret.

What jobs do you do outside the two bands?

We are working in a theatre close to our home. We all live in the same village, that’s important for us to be closer to each other.

Is each of your releases a concept album? Could you say in short, what they are about?

Yes, it’s our way of seeing the music, you know like Pink Floyd or King Diamond. Our stories are dealing with science fiction, fantastic stories…

What does the future hold for your bands?

A new album for S.U.P., all Supuration’s work on vinyl coming from the United States, re-editions of our first S.U.P. album (“Anomaly”, 1995) on vinyl including a live set, and for the rest, only time shall tell….

Thank you for this interview! Can you say a few final words to our readers?

Thanks a lot for your support. I would like to thank everyone who has helped us and supported us since the very beginning, and the new ones, of course. Support the metal scene - it’s a grand family and every style is ok! Stay sick and stay metal!

Supuration on the Internet: http://www.supuration.fr

Magomed Gadzhiev
September 10, 2015.
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