ROX Alive: Boneripper interviewed plus new album dissected

Boneripper is a brutal metallic hardcore band hailing from the northern parts of The Netherlands.

The band consists of former and current members of Manu Armata, 13Steps and Bladecrusher (fun fact: 3 of the 5 band members are actual brothers). With so many years of experience in the scene, Boneripper is not your typical new kid on the block. Instead they build on the foundations of their previous bands. Bringing their fury with heavy riffs, hard grooves, energetic vocals and a ‘straight to your face’ attitude. With a fresh drive and a new record Boneripper can’t wait to hit the stage and bring their mayhem wherever they can.

WORLD ABLAZE album is already killing it since its release in May

‘World Ablaze’ is the follow up record after our debut EP last year, ‘Vengeance & Forgiveness’. We evolved and molded our sound as a band trying to get more brutal and aggressive. Since we are a relatively ‘new’ band the new record was a good opportunity for us to explore where we want to take Boneripper as a band soundwise. I can say it is our most brutal work yet hahaha. The record ‘World Ablaze’ is about what the title suggests, a world that's burning. War, climate change, fake news, discrimination, religious extremists, hatred towards each other etc. the way this can make you lose hope and how to pull yourself through.

‘World Ablaze’ dropped on all platforms May 24th.

ALBUM INFORMATION:

Recorded, mixed and mastered by WD Glashouwer @ www.doubleyoud.com

Cover art by Toha Mashudi a.k.a. Ahot74

Layout by Glashouwer design @ www.glashouwerdesign.com

It is a representation of the title and theme of the record, depicting a world that is burning. It simply represents what is going on in the world right now and foresees a doom scenario in which we don’t stop and keep up the global destruction through war, climate change, fake news, discrimination, religious extremists, hatred towards each other etc. this is how the world could end up, burning and in ruins.

TRACKLISTING:

01 Final Warning

02 The Abyss

03 Desolated

04 Fear of Death

05 Mental Warfare

06 Forever

07 Xenophobic

08 Hate is Hollow

09 Rise Back Up

10 Beyond Redemption

Track by track

1 FINAL WARNING

Is the opening track/intro of the record and sets the tone with a sample taken from George Orwell his last interview about his novel 1984. Warning everyone what will/can happen to the world and mankind if we don’t take action.

2 THE ABYSS

The way things are going we are slowly heading towards our end. I’m talking about the way we are treating the earth and are heading down a path of no return. Essentially staring into an abyss, knowing what is coming but unable to stop ourselves. Slowly but surely and knowingly heading towards our demise.

3 DESOLATED

A song that talks about trying to move forward as a person, leaving behind bad habits and feelings but finding yourself moving around in circles. This can lead to feelings of going nowhere and the danger of old habits coming back again. All this in a one step forward two steps back scenario.

4 FEAR OF DEATH

This track is about the Stoic concept 'Memento Mori', this concept from ancient philosophy talks about contemplating death and remembering you will die.

As the lyric goes:

' Think of yourself as being dead, you have lived your life, unable to come back.

Now be reborn and take what’s left, start to live it properly no time for regrets'

Therefore fearing death in a positive way reminds you to live your life to the fullest.

5 MENTAL WARFARE

A song about inner conflict, it’s about feeling stuck in life and the feeling you are unable to change and are set in your ways. It’s about taking matters in your own hand, confronting yourself and breaking free from old patterns. Facing what is holding you back and determine your own destiny.

6 FOREVER

A short instrumental piece with a bit of George Orwell reminding us where the world is heading and who is responsible.

7 XENOPHOBIC

This literally means; the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange, and talks about exactly that. People who live in their own buble and are afraid of anyone or anything that will change this therefore turning to all kinds of fake news and narratives to support their version of reality. Letting themselves off the hook and keep them in their own little buble just the way it has always been. Everything is always someone else's fault, ‘and everything is fine’

8 HATE IS HOLLOW

Racism and discrimination, plain and simple. The song talks about people’s urge to judge other people on the color of their skin, their sexual preference, their gender (lgbtq) and anything else that is not in line with their own beliefs. It’s about the constant need from people to dominate over others because of their own beliefs, they think they are superior, they are right and therefore have the right to force their ‘morals’ and will upon others. We are all equal.

9 RISE BACK UP

This song talks about getting back up after you fall down. That giving up is never an option. That no matter how hard and unfair life seems sometimes the only thing to do is get back up and start moving forward.This is the hardest thing to do after you’ve fallen down but the only way is back up again.

10 BEYOND REDEMPTION

It’s the question whether or not we as humans and planet earth are still savable. The way things are going with wars, global warming, fake news, religion (extremism), greed, pollution etc. it looks like we are beyond redemption. Will the people wake up in time? Or are we past the point of no return?

We pinned the band down for a bone ripping interview…..!
Let’s start by getting to know Boneripper. Who is in the band?
When did you form?
Were any of you in bands before?
The band consists of: WD - Vocals, Jeljer - Guitar, Eric - Guitar, Kees-Jan - Drums and Douwe - Bass. After the guitar player left Manu Armata in 2022 we were faced with the option to continue with Manu Armata and a new guitar player or take things in a slightly different direction. We choose the latter. We asked two new guitar players to join the band, one of whom is the brother of the drummer and singer and was the guitar player for 13Steps. Our bass player was already playing drums in Bladecrusher and since Boneripper is kind of an extension from Manu Armata there were already members there haha. Because we now had 2 new guitar players instead of 1 guitar player for Manu Armata and a new name we had the option to gravitate more to some other heavy influence instead of sticking to the Manu Armata Hardcore, which we love btw but after 15 years some fresh influence can be inspiring.

Since you’ve been together there must be a good deal of songwriting. Two albums in as many years. Were some of these songs already written in some form before?
Before we started Boneripper we had worked on a side project with the 3 brothers just for fun and up to then we had not played together in a band all 3 at once. We used a couple of songs from that project to get things started but a lot of the songs just got written within Boneripper.

Your latest album “Violence and Forgiveness “ is brutal! How did recording go? Your debut album “World Ablaze” was also great. How do you feel you approached writing,performing and recording album no2 differently. It’s a learning curve for musicians isn’t it?!
(Our latest album is ‘World Ablaze’, ‘Vengeance & Forgiveness’ was our debut EP)To be honest we did not really do anything different compared to our first record. The band has a lot off experience writing and recording music so the learning curve is not really there anymore. We took a bit more time to go a bit deeper into the songs and they naturally progressed into more brutality. The first record was done in a relatively short time and when we started working on World Ablaze’ we we’re playing together as a band for a bit longer which naturally evolves your style and playing. I (WD the singer) run a recording studio www.doubleyoud.com (shameless plug hehe) and I took care of the whole process. Production, recording, mixing and mastering. This also helps tremendously with the whole record making process.

What were your inspirations for the songs?
The inspiration comes from everyday life and just living in the world we live in, observing everything that is going on and wondering why things are going the way they go and what will come off all of this

Do you feel the metal scene in the Netherworld is supportive and vibrant?
I feel we have a great heavy scene here in the Netherlands, although it’s a relatively small country there are some great festivals and I feel there are new bands popping up all over the place which is a great thing. Also there is a general support from bands amongst each other.

What are you up to now? writing again?
Our main goal now is playing more awesome shows and having a good time doing so. Meet new people and continue to make music together. That's pretty much it haha, writing will come naturally but for now mainly playing shows

How about live dates?
We have a few dates coming up, mainly in the Netherlands, still working on some shows

What would be your dream gig?
A dream gig would be just playing the bigger festivals in europe

Is there anything you want to say to your fans?
Thank you for your support, it means the world to us!