Bocholt (Belgium) based extreme metal band FEAR DISEASE have signed a licensing deal with Wormholedeath for their album “Floodgates”, due for release on September 2nd, 2022.
FEAR DISEASE speaking of the album stated: For this album we started writing from the heart, drawing musical inspiration from various different bands and genres of metal that we enjoy. We didn’t set any limitations on the composition style. This, combined with having multiple songwriters in the band with each their own influences, ranging from thrash, death and groove metal, and even some metalcore and black metal, made for a very diverse and varied end result. The record is not a concept album. There isn’t one main topic. Instead, there are several themes throughout the different tracks. What ties them all together is that they all share a certain dark edge that makes them interesting to us. The album title ‘Floodgates’ refers to the proverbial floodgates being opened to release what we’ve been holding back for a long time. Not only are we presenting a new version of ourselves to the world, but we’re also touching on some subjects that we haven’t seen many other bands deal with before.
As we are a Belgian band we partly found inspiration in our country’s past, which we put to use on a few tracks aside from the broader societal topics we talk about.
For example ‘Bokkenrijders’ is about the persecution of the eponymous gangs from the 18th century who is said to have spread terror in our region. ‘End of All’ tells the horrors of World War I, whereas ‘White King of Black Death’ is an account of the atrocities committed in Congo Free State under the reign of King Leopold II around the turn of the 20th century.
The beginnings of what would later grow into Fear Disease were formed in 2014 by brothers Hans (rhythm guitar & vocals) and Mathias Paesen (drums) in Meeuwen (Belgium). What started out as jam sessions covering mainly Sepultura songs lead to the creation of original material and the independent release of a first self-made demo titled ‘Harbinger of Tempest’ in 2017. By then the band had taken shape under the name ‘Limbo’ with the addition of Jonas Parren on lead guitar, followed by Cas Hegge joining on bass. Around that time they had moved their headquarters to Bocholt (Belgium).
The band played a number of shows throughout their home country and also one in the Netherlands and Germany, and was also featured on a radio show based in Las Vegas before being contacted by a few record labels. It wasn’t until September 2018, when they received an e-mail from Jonathan Mazzeo (producer at The Grid Europe), that the ball started rolling. He had come across the band online, recognized their potential, and put them in contact with Wormholedeath. The label signed them soon after that.
The next step was to start composing new material for the first full-length album. As Jonas and Cas had now become part of the creative process, the influences on the sound expanded from thrash and old-school death metal to groove metal as well as bits of metalcore and black metal.
Along the way, a problem arose with the band name. It turned out it had already been taken. Therefore the choice was made to rename the band ‘Fear Disease’, after one of the song titles from the demo released in 2017. It refers to the parallel drawn between the state of mind of living in fear and the actual fear of contracting the disease. Ironically the covid crisis hit the world soon after, delaying the schedule to enter the studio several times. Eventually, in August 2021 the band was able to make the trip to Pistoia (Italy) and record their debut album ‘Floodgates’, set for release in 2022.
Line Up:
Hans Paesen – rhythm guitar & vocals
Mathias Paesen – drums
Jonas Parren – lead guitar
Cas Hegge- bass
1. Kill or be killed
2. Downfall
3. No man’s land
4. Stalemate
5. Ardent apostate
6. Victimized
7. Static
8. Scorpio
9. White king of black death
10. End of all
11. Bokkenrijders
