Angelcorpse III
2024-10-16
by Niklas Göransson
With The Inexorable a commercial triumph and following dominant performances both at home and abroad, Angelcorpse stood on the cusp of broader recognition. But at the dawn of the new millennium, they embarked on a tour that changed everything.
GENE: We wanted to maintain our momentum, and each album’s artwork reflects that drive. “Hammer of Gods” starts it off, “Exterminate” captures an ever-expanding chaos, and “The Inexorable” elevates everything to a universal scale. At the centre is a surreal image of a grasping hand emerging from madness – a concept perfectly complemented by the title.
“The Inexorable” – the unstoppable – did indeed seem an apt title for ANGELCORPSE at the time. When their third album came out in September 1999, sales surpassed all previous releases. Half a year earlier, Osmose Productions had reissued the sold-out debut, “Hammer of Gods”.
With endless tour dates lined up, ANGELCORPSE stood poised to conquer the new millennium.
GENE: The same month Osmose released “The Inexorable”, we hit the road, starting with some European dates that included MARDUK, CANNIBAL CORPSE and IMMOLATION. Then, MARDUK and ANGELCORPSE continued for another six weeks, bringing us to several new territories like Croatia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Russia. It was pretty intense.
How were you received?
GENE: By that point, with three albums out and all the touring, the difference was huge. On our first trip to Europe, we’d finish a song, and people would stand there staring – as if they didn’t understand what they’d just heard. But on the MARDUK tour, the audience knew our material and reacted to it. On some nights, I felt like we owned the show.
In March 2000, ANGELCORPSE embarked on a North American tour with SATYRICON, IMMORTAL, and KRISIUN. Just before it started, former guitarist Bill Taylor rejoined ANGELCORPSE; I’d wager he regretted that about a week later.
GENE: Around two in the morning, after a show in Montreal, Canada, we were trying to reach a hotel just across the US border. It wasn’t even a long drive – maybe thirty minutes or so – but I think Tony nodded off for a moment, and the van veered off the highway into a ravine and hit an embankment.
The vehicle was totalled, but by some miracle, all members escaped without major injuries. Bill received a cut on his head, bass player and frontman Pete Helmkamp had a badly sprained ankle, and Tony Laureano – the ANGELCORPSE drummer – hurt his arm.
GENE: Fortunately, I only took a minor jolt to my back, mainly because I was asleep and didn’t tense up. Had I been awake during the impact, it might’ve caused serious harm, perhaps even broken my spine. As they say about people in high G-force situations – staying relaxed can sometimes prevent serious injury.
Honestly, I was surprised to learn that you still did your own driving.
GENE: Yeah, the band wasn’t earning much money, so we drove ourselves in a van. And that means any one of us could’ve been behind the wheel on the night in question; as I said, I myself was asleep in the front seat when the accident occurred. No one is pointing fingers here – that’s just how it unfolded.
Making it to the New York date – IMMORTAL’s last appearance on the tour – was obviously not an option. The band took the day off to arrange van repairs and assess whether continuing would even be possible.
GENE: Most of that day was spent figuring out how to reach the next show – somewhere in New Jersey – which involved renting a new vehicle from Canada. So, despite everyone being banged up, we managed to keep the tour going.
By all accounts, the following weeks were not enjoyable for anyone involved, with tempers flaring, members suffering from illness and various debilitating injuries, and so forth.
GENE: I’ve certainly faced worse moments in my lifetime – nevertheless, for whatever reason, many factors seemed to conspire to make that tour especially difficult. Between the vehicle issues and other things that happened… because the calamity didn’t end there. We had a few more crazy incidents that made it a real challenge to keep everything together.
Twelve days after the accident, on April 14, the entourage arrived at the Showcase Theater in Corona, California. This marked SATYRICON’s final show of the tour; afterwards, ANGELCORPSE and KRISIUN were to continue on their own for another fortnight.
Pete’s fiancée at the time, who had family in California, attended the show and planned to spend the next day with relatives. As the band departed for Kingman, Arizona, they dropped her off at a train station.
GENE: Once we drove off, someone approached her under the pretence of asking for directions. Apparently, this was a ruse to try to abduct her. Thankfully, she managed to defend herself, even injuring the attacker enough for authorities to identify and arrest him. However, she also sustained stab wounds during the struggle and had to be hospitalised.
The following day, in Tucson, Arizona, Pete received the news and chose to leave the tour to be with his fiancée. To avoid cancelling the remaining dates, Alex Camargo from KRISIUN stepped in.
GENE: Since Alex knew the lyrics well enough, he volunteered to handle vocals so we could continue. There are a few YouTube videos of those shows – with Alex singing, Bill on bass, and Tony on drums. That’s how we managed to finish the tour. Then, to top it all off, Tony and I had to drive the rental van all the way back to Canada.
Montreal is roughly 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi) from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where the tour ended on April 30.
In a 2008 interview with Chronicles of Chaos, Pete stated that in the immediate aftermath, he was disappointed by the poor attendance and lukewarm crowd response – even feeling betrayed by the fans. However, upon reflection, he attributed these feelings to pent-up anger and frustration. The rest of the band did not share those sentiments.
GENE: Not at all. The thing is, there’s a big difference between joining a larger tour with bands like CANNIBAL CORPSE, IMMORTAL, or MARDUK and headlining a smaller one on your own. That tour had ANGELCORPSE with KRISIUN as the support act, but we weren’t as well-known or popular. Naturally, the attendance wasn’t as high.
In the same Chronicles of Chaos piece, Pete recalled the moment he realised that earning a livelihood from extreme metal wasn’t feasible unless you were one of the early 90s top-selling bands.
GENE: None of this surprised me. I never truly expected to make a living from my music, even after securing an album deal. Coming from the Midwest, lacking much of a scene, our initial aim was simply to produce a better-sounding demo – something recorded in a proper studio. Beyond that, we’d see where it might lead.
It certainly played out well.
GENE: Yeah, we were fortunate to get things moving – but I never expected ANGELCORPSE to become the next big thing. Everyone in the band knew we’d have to keep our day jobs if the music didn’t provide sufficient income. This understanding was always present in the background. For some, maybe that reality informed their choices more than others.
Would it be fair to say that the SATYRICON tour was the beginning of the end?
GENE: Did those events – the van wreck, the abduction incident – contribute to the band coming apart? Hard to say for sure, but it definitely felt like a low point for any touring musician. Perhaps they influenced the atmosphere that led to ANGELCORPSE splitting up not too long after.
On May 10, 2000, Pete announced his departure from the band. Rather than continuing on his own, Gene let ANGELCORPSE rest.
GENE: I definitely felt pretty sour for a while, but continuing wasn’t an option. Not to sound egotistical, but our contributions were so distinct that the band wouldn’t have been the same without me on guitar and Pete on vocals. I had no motivation to create a ‘fake’ version of ANGELCORPSE.
In December 2001, a year and a half after the split, Osmose released “Iron, Blood and Blasphemy” – a compilation of EP tracks and soundboard recordings collected during the tours. I imagine that dealing with new titles from a defunct band wouldn’t inspire much enthusiasm.
GENE: Even though the release was posthumous, it didn’t really bother me. It wasn’t like we’d just recorded a final album, invested a lot of work, and then the band broke up immediately – that would’ve been a different story. Actually, I felt good about the compilation; it served as a decent closing statement for that chapter of the band’s history.
The following year, Gene – via Evil Vengeance Records – self-released “Death Dragons of the Apocalypse”, a collection of live tracks from various ANGELCORPSE shows in the US and Europe.
Afterwards, the label folded, and Gene stepped away from the public eye. However, I learned that he and Tony Laureano had plans for a project with Alex Webster and Pat O’Brien of CANNIBAL CORPSE.
GENE: Alex and Pat wanted to start a side project – something really fast. At the time, Tony worked as their drum tech, so they were already friends, and bringing him in made perfect sense. Knowing I didn’t have anything going on, Tony approached me.
Gene began writing ideas to fit their vision, but the project never materialised.
GENE: Every time we got close to finishing some songs, the others would head out on tour. And it wasn’t just the CANNIBAL CORPSE members – Tony also toured as a drum tech for other bands. So, there were gaps of several months when nobody was around, and then we’d try to come together for a few jams. Things just didn’t progress.
In 2002, Pete joined Canadian black/death act REVENGE. The following year, they released their debut album, “Triumph.Genocide.Antichrist”, and toured Europe. Fans across the continent bombarded Pete with questions about ANGELCORPSE, prompting him to contact Gene.
GENE: Apparently, there was plenty of interest, so Pete proposed bringing ANGELCORPSE back to life. I already had a bunch of material – about eighteen demo songs. We just needed to select which ones to shape into a new album. Much of it still reflected what could’ve been the next step after “The Inexorable”.
Did you meet up and work on the arrangements like in the old days?
GENE: There was one track based on some riffs Pete had, so we worked that into the opener. But all the proper songs on the album were based on material I’d been working on since 2001. Almost all of it already existed in demo form.
What band did you write this for?
GENE: I made these tapes at home not long after ANGELCORPSE split, intended for whatever future project might arise. So even though the band became technically inactive, looking back, it feels more like an extended break – a long period of inactivity, but with a creative process running in the background.
Instead of using all the material Gene had accumulated, they picked about half of the tracks.
GENE: The remaining songs and some other ideas were set aside for what would’ve been a fifth album to follow. So, going into it, I was somewhat ahead of the game in terms of musical material.
Tony Laureano declined to participate, citing the fact that some of the material had been written for another band. I’m assuming he was referring to the unrealised CANNIBAL CORPSE project.
GENE: Sure, I incorporated a few ideas conceived during that period, but they weren’t far removed from ANGELCORPSE. So, when putting the new album together, I used those riffs. To me, Tony’s objection felt silly; it made no sense that material deemed fine in one context was suddenly unacceptable in another. So yeah, that wasn’t gonna work out.
Instead, Gene was put in touch with John Longstreth – the original ANGELCORPSE drummer – who’d heard about the reunion.
GENE: I believe he contacted Pete, who relayed the message to me. I recall getting John’s phone number and speaking with him. Despite commitments to other bands like ORIGIN, he agreed to rejoin ANGELCORPSE on a session basis. Having the three original members together again felt like a true resurrection and a strong way to move forward.
One aspect was decidedly different from the early days: ANGELCORPSE didn’t rehearse as a band before recording.
GENE: When Pete and I convened at Audio Lab, John had already tracked the drums up in New York, or wherever he lived at the time. In hindsight, I realise we thought this would be easier than it turned out to be. Despite our prior experience with that studio, I expected the process to go much smoother.
Instead of returning to Morrisound, ANGELCORPSE handled the entire production of their fourth full-length album, “Of Lucifer and Lightning”, at Audio Lab Studio in Tampa, Florida.
GENE: Choosing the much cheaper studio turned out to be a mistake. It was the same place where I’d been unhappy with some guitar parts on “The Inexorable”. We assumed modern technology would make the process easy, but we faced many issues concerning mixing and getting everything done.
Do you think the sound is the main problem?
GENE: Many reviews criticised it, but I don’t think the overall mix was bad – though we should definitely have addressed certain things. Compared to our previous albums, the production of “Of Lucifer and Lightning” isn’t significantly better or worse. If you play them back-to-back, it holds up just fine.
The primary issue, I believe, is that “Of Lucifer and Lightning” doesn’t sound quite as vibrant or ‘alive’ as the previous ANGELCORPSE albums, which benefited from intense rehearsals. It comes off as a bit sterile and devoid of energy.
GENE: I spent some time playing along with John’s drum tracks, but it’s not the same as jamming together. In a rehearsal room, you can figure out the little nuances, fix things that don’t feel quite right, and find better ways to approach certain parts. We did our best to maintain the energy and atmosphere, but there’s only so much you can do.
Do you have any regrets?
GENE: Sure, there’s a certain feeling of, ‘We could’ve done better.’ But that’s just part of the process; this is how it goes, sound-wise. A lot was learned, and I’ve tried not to make the same mistakes again. You take those lessons and apply them to the next project.
Osmose Productions released “Of Lucifer and Lightning” in May 2007. Judging by contemporary reviews and comments, the reception appears to have been somewhat tepid.
GENE: As I recall, and from discussions with the label, the response commercially didn’t exactly pick up where “The Inexorable” left off. A lot of momentum had been lost. Moreover, by then, the entire music industry was in decline, and artists of all genres sold fewer records.
In the mid to late 2000s, the rise of digital downloads and the convenience of online streaming led to a significant drop in record sales, making it challenging for bands to earn income from traditional album formats.
GENE: And things only worsened from there. Even today, CDs have almost become the bane of physical media, while everyone’s obsessed with endless re-released vinyl. The industry is really exploiting that market. I was in a store recently, looking at LPs, and everything was a repress – no original copies, just re-releases selling for $30 to $40.
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