After brutalizing Sint-Niklaas’ De Casino, CtrlAltMusic took some time to have a chat outside with South Africa-based Vulvodynia’s brand-new bass player, Nate Gilbert! Vulvodynia is currently on tour alongside Revocation, Shadow of Intent, and Cattle Decapitation on the Terrasitic Reconquest Tour 2025, supporting their 6th album Entabeni.
Who are you, what do you do, and how do you do?
Nate: My name is Nate Gilbert, and I’m the bassist of Vulvodynia! We’re a South African band that started off more slam-based and later evolved toward deathcore, but I like to call it Technical Slamming Deathcore—kind of a mouthful. The band is from South Africa, but I’m from the United States. I met their guitarist through online lessons, and we became really good friends. They brought me on tour in 2022 to sell merch, and in 2023, I had to fill in on both guitar and vocals. Then, at the beginning of 2024, I officially became the permanent bass player!
We’re not too familiar with the South African scene over here—what does it look like?
Nate: It’s growing! There are a lot of awesome bands over there that really deserve to be touring internationally. Currently, we’re one of the only ones—along with Xavleg—that have made it onto the global stage. Xavleg and Vulvodynia actually share some band members, so there’s a strong connection between us two.
It’s a very local, grassroots scene. I actually haven’t played in South Africa yet myself, but it’s in the works! I’ll finally get to tour the country sometime this year.
We just got back from South Africa, where I rehearsed with the band and visited the country for the first time. It was incredible to see where my favorite band comes from! They were my favorite band for so many years, and after touring with them for a while, getting to experience life there firsthand was amazing.
That’s amazing! It’s really like a fan’s dream come true, right?
Nate: Yeah, it’s a constant fanboy moment! When I talk to people at our shows, it’s like, “Hey, I’m a fan too!” So it really feels like we’re fanboying together.
Before Vulvodynia, I used to sell merch and work as a guitar tech for Slaughter to Prevail, which kind of desensitized me a little to that feeling—since they’re at the top of the genre, but I still feel like a fanboy from time to time.
What’s also especially cool is seeing how the other bands on tour respect the music and how they operate. We try to implement that in our own work ethic, pushing forward as much as we can. All the bands on this tour are musicians we look up to. We hadn’t toured with them before, so it’s a huge honor, proving that we’re still growing! there’s still a lot of momentum behind our music!
Every band I’ve interviewed so far has had some wild stories to share. Do you have any fun ones?
Nate: Oh, we’ve had so many crazy things happen—it’s hard to pick just one! On our last U.S. tour, we got stuck in an elevator for about an hour.
But the craziest one? On my first tour with Vulvodynia, I got chased around a venue by a naked woman on meth—grabbing me and everything! Our tour bus was parked behind a venue in Portland, Oregon, and if you know anything about Portland, you know it can be a wild place. She had this crazy look in her eyes, like I was her long-lost husband or something, and just started chasing me around. My friend Hunter, the guitarist of Decayer, ended up scaring her off by growling at her like a bear.