Interview With Estonian GORESOERD Guitarist Rasmus Tauk, Audio Available

Photo by Jelena Jakovljevic photography

Interview by Katrin Malt

GORESOERD is one of the top metal bands in Estonia. Their latest album “Antikeha”, published last year, was one of the nominees for Estonian Music Awards in „Metal Album of the Year“ category. In between a busy springtime with a lots of shows and summer festival performances yet to come, Metal Shock Finland’s freelancer Katrin Malt had a short chat with band’s guitarist Rasmus Tauk. The full interview can be heard on the audio player below.

Firstly, some language lessons, as to foreigners, Goresoerd is kind of a hard name to pronounce. People try to pronounce it as an English word, but actually the name is a mix of two languages.

Rasmus explained:
“Gore is an old English word, meaning Blood. Soerd is an Estonian word, meaning Abomination. So all together, it’s kind of a, well, fucked up thing.“

Goresoerd’s music is raw and aggressive, but there is also melody and they even have a bandmember, whose speciality is sampling and turntables. An interesting combination, is that what makes Goresoerd stand out amongst other Estonian metal bands?

“Maybe. We combine elements of different genres, so it might be one reason why we’re so unique.“

Speaking of standing out, Goresoerd’s stage look is kickass. White shirts, red blood, zombie apocalypse.

“It gives an extra effect“ said Rasmus.

So it is art. Just like their merch – their shirts are always so neat, piece of art. How important is selling merch anyway, let’s say to an underground metal band?

“Merch, nowadays, for all the bands, is crucial. If you don’t sell merch, you’ll loose the main income.“

And some words about touring as well. Goresoerd was an opening band for Napalm Death’s Baltic concerts. They have an amazing crew and touring is purely fun, but besides Baltic states, most of the touring takes place in countries like Poland, Czech Republic and so on. Why?

Rasmus was struggeling with the answer at first:
“Yeah, we’ve been there a bit more than in Finland. Why? Maybe it’s easier to travel there, excpense-wise. Easier for us to go there. We’ve had some fun shows in Finland as well.“

So it’s not that the audience’s demands in „north“ and „south“ are that different. Could it be, that the music market in Scandinavia is flooded with great bands and it’s hard to get in?

“For Estonian metal bands, definitely. When you take Finland, there are thousands of metal bands. It’s hard to distuinguish there.“

To finish up the chat, Rasmus spoke a little about the gigs coming up. Goresoerd’s next gig takes place in Hard Rock Laager. Hard Rock Laager is the biggest annual metal festival in Estonia.

As one of the Estonian headliners, Goresoerd promised a special live show:
“We’re planning a bit more on visual side. More lightning and show elements!“

Listen to the whole chat here: