PUNGENT STENCH>>The Church Of Pungent Stench>>Schirenc Plays Pungent Stench - AUSTRIA
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Been Caught Buttering – 1991 – Nuclear Blast Club Mondo Bizarre: For Members Only – 1994 – Nuclear Blast Masters Of Moral – Servants Of Sin – 2001 – Nuclear Blast Ampeauty – 2004 – Nuclear Blast Smut Kingdom – 2018 - Dissonance |  |
Members Vocals Los Tres Hombres, Kreuzweg Ost, Hollenthon>>MARTIN SHIRENC [DON COCHINO]>>Los Tres Hombres, Kreuzweg Ost, Hollenthon, Zombies Inc., VuzemGuitar Carnage, Fetish 69, Los Tres Hombres, Hollenthon>>MARTIN SHIRENC [DON COCHINO]>>Fetish 69, Los Tres Hombres, Vuzem, HollenthonBass Overreaction O.C., Fetish 69>>Pitbull Jack [Jacek Perkowski]>>Fetish 69 – Scent Of Paradise, Pathetic, Belphegor, Collapse 7>>Reverend Mausna [Mario Klausner]>>Collapse 7, Cosmoblack – Pendragon, Defender KFS, Jormundgang, Empyre, Vargsriket, Cryosphere, Los Tres Hombres>>El Gore [Gregor Marboe]>>Vargsriket, Hollenthon, Los Tres HombresDrum Carnage, Los Tres hombres>>ALEX WANK [RECTOR STENCH]>>Los Tres Hombres, Spine, On/Off, Sangue, The Tempter |
History & Biography Pungent Stench was an early death/grind metal trio from Vienna, the capital of Austria, which was active between 1988 and 1995. Mr. Stench was the founder as a follow-up to his band Carnage, which featured Cochino for a while. The group split up and, like most bands, reformed in this case without bassist Pitbull Jack in 2001, disbanded in 2007, attempted another comeback, changed names and soldiered on. The music was less fast and heavy by this time.The band had intended to be a mere project and only after some early success deigned to become an actual formation. Mucous Secretion was an April 1988 rehearsal tape featuring singer and guitarist Martin, bassist Jacek and drummer Alex. Jacek was borrowed from Overreaction O.C., which was a band the hitherto nameless act shared a rehearsal room with. The group played its first show in Austria, shared a stage with Disharmonic Orchestra and took a trip to a festival in Poland. The band conducted a mini tour of Germany and Switzerland in March 1989 and was seen by its label Nuclear Blast. The band and Disharmonic Orchestra issued a famous split LP through Nuclear Blast in 1989. This split made a name for the band in the underground. Nuclear Blast released a 7” of leftover demo tracks, called Extreme Deformity, in 1989 before proceeding to the full-length. There was also a split with Benediction prior to the LP, which served as a teaser. The act appeared at the Nuclear Blast festival in Germany with Disharmonic Orchestra, Atrocity and Rostok Vampires. For God Your Soul… For Me Your Flesh was issued in April of 1990 and, alongside Dismember’s debut, made Nuclear Blast a larger label given the brisk sales. Amazingly, it was all recorded and mixed in two days. The band re-issued this record in the USA in 1993, which included a new cover for the record and three re-recorded tracks as the originals were lost. The band, Master and Abomination toured Europe using the Fleisch monicker in November and December 1990. Since Kanji titles are always hip a 7” with a Kanji title was issued in 1991, Been Caught Buttering came in 1991 and the band appeared on the Death… Is Just The Beginning II compilation in 1992. Pungent Stench and Type O Negative toured together in 1991. The band toured North America with Brutal Truth and Incantation. A tour of Australia was postponed however to July 1993. The band also hit New Zealand at that time. The band played with Sodom in Turkey. Video La Muerte was a 1993 full-length video with clips and live shows. The group was part of an Austrian documentary called The Bands. The 1993 EP Dirty Rhymes And Psychotronic Beats continued the band’s offbeat ways featuring remixed material, cover versions and of course a hamburger junk food chain fan prostitute. Club Mondo Bizarre, written, recorded and mixed in a month, was the band’s last record and, of course, Nuclear Blast issued a compilation called Praise The Names Of The Musical Assassins in 1997. Club Mondo Bizarre was supported through a tour with Macabre and Brutal Truth. A Canada/US tour with Entombed followed that. The reformed group issued Masters Of Moral – Servants Of Sin in 2001. Reverend Mausna was on bass. Jacek had left as he was uninterested in heavy music by then. Pungent Stench toured with Gorerotted. The band appeared at the With Full Force festival in 2002. More sexiness ensued via the cover for this and the follow-up Ampeauty. Martin played bass here. The band reported that the video for the song The Amp Hymn was deliberately ignored by Nuclear Blast owing to its sick concept. The band implored the viewers to join the Austrian Ampeauty Association as it showed love to its female subjects. This was it for the band, and the act and Nuclear Blast parted ways, until the next reformation, which brought a 2018 record called Smut Kingdom that was ten years old. El Gore was on bass here. Wank had announced legal action against this version of Pungent Stench in 2013, which he soon won forcing Martin to change monickers. El Cochino (a.k.a. Martin Schirenc) resurrected a version of Pungent Stench called The Church Of Pungent Stench in 2013. Enjoying the stench with him was Danny Vacuum (Genocide SS and The Accidents) on bass and vocals and drummer Mike G. Mayhem (Hollenthon). The reconstituted band’s first show was on Friday, December 13th at the Eindhoven Metal Meeting in The Netherlands. Tongeren Metal Fest 2015, a Belgian metal/alternative festival, took place on Saturday 2nd of May 2015 in Tongeren and featured Enslaved, Schirenc Plays Pungent Stench among others. The band’s frontman commemorated the thirtieth anniversary of the band’s last album with European X-Mas shows in 2018. Schirenc plays Pungent Stench brought as openers Carnation, Theotoxin and Irdorath. The second annual Monolith Festival at Cypress Avenue in Cork City, Ireland on August 3rd, 2019 featured Pungent Stench Rotting Christ and others. Hollenthon was initially formed as a side-project to Pungent Stench in 1994. The band’s art has been both confiscated in Germany, UK, Singapore and more. Reviews PUNGENT STENCH - AMPEAUTY - NUCLEAR BLAST Interviews Released on the 14th of March in Europe and a month thereafter in America, Club Mondo Bizzare: For Members Only, Pungent Stench’s third full-length album (following For God Your Soul, For Me Your Flesh and Been Caught Buttering) couldn’t have found itself a better title. The band’s weird world is not for everyone. In fact, one often wonders whether the band set out to make things this way courtesy of - depending how you look at it - either an accentuated sense of humour or a perverted mind preoccupied with deviance. Alex (drums) who along with bassist Jacek and singer/guitarist Martin comprises this Viennese outfit is on the phone from home in Austria answering my questions in a solemn yet defiant manner. The band, you see, feel they cannot get a fair treatment from the press. So, it’s only natural that I scan the drummer’s mind for his opinion of Club Mondo Bizzare (Michael Jackson home videos on big screen?) now that the album’s been out some five months and the band has had a chance to look at the results in retrospect. - Ali “The Metallian”“I am still satisfied," Alex is quick off the bat, “but it’s very old for us. We recorded it during May/June of 1993. People probably can’t hear it, but we did the whole album in a month. We wrote, rehearsed and recorded it all in one month. For ourselves, it sounds very similar. It sounds like Pungent, but I can hear now that we did these songs in a very short time. It’s better to write songs over a longer period and play shows in-between. Next time we are doing it differently.” That might be precisely what many listeners and journalist expect as I’ve been reading some less than glowing reviews of Pungent Stench lately. Many people, in particular, have been criticizing the band’s image and use of sexually oriented artwork. I ask if the trio have taken note. “No, not too much,” claims Alex, “but I think that people who accuse us of creating a sexual image are people who write for magazines. These people get hundreds of albums and get bored. They don’t know what to write. So, instead of talking about the music, they talk about the image. Here in Europe I’ve seen thirty-line reviews and only five lines were about the music! I mean if it’s a music magazine, you should write about the music. If you talk about the lyrics, image, photos or artwork, it means that they were bored with the music. At least they wrote something about the album.” 
If that’s how you feel than how do you describe your music? “I don’t know. Very heavy rock 'n' roll.”That’s very different from the Pungent Stench of a few years ago, which was a grindcore-oriented band. “The recording you are talking about is five years old,” Alex remarks. “That’s a long long time. You get influenced by other bands, and then you do this kind of stuff.” In that case it might be interesting to know what Alex is listening to currently. “So much!” he answers. “I work in a Vienna record store called Why Not Records. I listen to all kinds of independent stuff. So I get bits and pieces and transfer them to my own band. The main thing with Pungent is to be very heavy. But nowadays we try to do the songs in a different way. To be honest, if we play extremely fast (these days), it sounds stupid.” Since we have arrived at the extremity topic, why don’t you explain the concepts behind your band? “Why should I explain the concept on our mind?” Because you claim people are misunderstanding you. “People who write me do understand,” the man replies. “They more or less understand what we are trying to say or create. On one side it’s pure entertainment,” Alex continues, “and on the other we try to be different from other bands and be special - but in an extreme way. And yeah, the lyrics, cover and photos were in a sexual direction, but next time we may be different. Maybe. Nothing is really planned.” But before we go on to the next time, let’s stay in the present. What does a song like 'Rape - Pagar Con La Misma Moneda' mean? “It’s Spanish", he explains, “It’s hard for me to translate into English. Roughly it means ”˜if you hurt somebody, then he should do the same to you.’" What you are saying, therefore, is rape those who rape you. “That’s sad,” states Alex in an obviously upset tone. “That’s the main problem with censorship, and people who don’t try to read our lyrics. They go, 'Oh sexist, blah, blah, blah,' and this song has a message that, of course, is against rape. Stores don’t take our album, and MTV (Mush Television) just don’t want to play Pungent Stench videos." Alex goes on, having obviously come across a contentious point with the band. “So what? I don’t need them. We’ve worked for six years, and we are a small band. But there are people who wait for a Pungent Stench album and know when it’s out. We earn a little money from the band, tour when we want, et cetra. That was the point of the band, and we’ve reached it. I don’t need MTV to be bigger. Fuck them. Especially in Europe, Headbanger’s Ball (a.k.a. music even your parents would fall asleep to) has a totally stupid bitch doing the show, and she just doesn’t like the band - a totally stupid cunt. I am happy she doesn’t like the band, and she doesn’t play the videos. We won’t ever send them our videos anymore. What should we do? Write lyrics for them, not for ourselves?” Alex sounds extremely defiant and has an attitude, which I can only commend him for. In this context, what is next for the band, I inquire? “We just did a two and a half month, fifty-show tour with Brutal Truth and Macabre.” Alex notes. “That was the best tour for us. We are touring the USA from September 17th to the 14th of October with Entombed. It’s only around twenty shows, which isn’t much for the US, but it’s a good chance for us anyway. We also just recorded a new song for the Death Is Just The Beginning III compilation album. The song is totally different - kinda popcore (in style). The lyrics are influenced by (the movie) Scar Face and that kind of stuff.” At which point Alex says goodbye. However, there is one point, which I would like to make as the conclusion to the above interview. No matter whether you agree or disagree with Pungent Stench’s choice of image, stance or attitude, the fact remains; it is their choice, and one that they’ve reached through exercising their options. It is fair enough to dislike the band or even invite others to do so too; it is not fair to ban or attempt to censor a band. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it. The band’s freedom of expression is not up for the discussion - it’s that simple. This interview initially appeared in Pit Magazine No. 12.
If you enjoyed this, read Edge Of Sanity
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Pungent Stench