Some months ago I re-discovered both Mangled Torsos-albums in my collection and while listening to them I noticed again how good (and unfortunately underrated) this band from the southern part of Germany has been. So I found an "unofficial" Mangled Torsos-facebook page and got in contact via this page with ex-member Frank, who played bass for Mangled Torsos. So, to be honest, this page is maybe "semi-official", haha. And because I am this kind of nostalgic person, I like to do interviews with bands who ceased to exist long times ago very much, maybe because it reminds me to my own youth, and I think most people will agree, that youth is a very specific time in life that can't be repeated. Musicwise it has been the most intense and exciting times in my life, discovering all this new and great stuff via tapetrading and so on. So enjoy this conversation about times where death metal began to start and thereafter to explode in Germany. A time where a label such as Nuclear Blast sent copied order lists in black and white via postal mail. Besides Frank, Patrick who played drums, answered my questions. Here we go...
Please tell the readers of Systematic Desensitization Zine who you are and some facts about Mangled Torsos: when did you start the band, what were the main reasons and inspiration for starting an own band and did you know each other or did you get in contact because of searching for musicians to start a band ?
Frank: Hi and first of all many thanks for your interest! I'm Frank and I didn't start the band but played bass in Mangled Torsos.
We all knew us before the band was founded, Patrick visited the same school like me, and as we were obviously metal fans, we got into contact pretty soon. We started hanging around after school and Oli was a good friend of Patrick so I also get to know him. We listened to everything we could get and were evolving our taste more and more from thrash metal (Slayer/Kreator/Sodom/Destruction... ) to death metal- and grindcore- bands like Entombed, Autopsy, Death, Carcass, Napalm Death, Obituary, Morbid Angel, Bolt Thrower...
Soon we discovered the underground that had such many great bands, that we never heared of before and it was absolutely awesome to get deeper and deeper into this scene. Tape trading, ordering shirts, demos, 7“es directly from bands or other guys that had huge collections. I don't know exactly what the main reason was to start a band, the guys just wanted to write their own music.
And I think the fascination for all those underground bands, the strong connection between death metal bands and fans, the anti- mainstream attitude and extreme lyrics and graphics were also a great inspiration to start a band. As far as I remember the first "rehearsals" were just a hangaround of a bunch of metalheads that we knew and it was just a noisy fun grind session where everyone grabbed an instrument or the microphone and made some noise. After a while we took it more serious and the first songs were written. The first lineup was established around 1991. It was Robert May – Bass/vocals, Patrick Wentz – drums and Oliver Munz – guitar/vocals. The band name changed from Anesthesia to Masticator and finally into Mangled Torsos, and I think this was definitely a very good decision. With this lineup they started writing their first songs that have been recorded for the first demo "Inculcate of your subconscious". Robert left the band after recording the demo and I was asked to join. That's as far as I have it in my mind, how I became the bass player of Mangled Torsos. But as mentioned before, I knew the guys for years and we were all friends.
Patrick: It was just a good thing to kill time really, get some cheap instruments and making noise with your friends. After the demo we took it much more serious and played our first gigs.
How do you remember yesterday’s scene in general and in your local area specifically ? I think there was contact with Pyogenesis who started as a death/grind band as well, continuing with black/doom-Style („Ignis creatio“) before heading into a more gothic style etc. and becoming the now well-known band ? On a picture someone from MT is wearing a Pyogenesis shirt (with the old logo) and Stuttgart was not far away from Pforzheim…Has there been a lot of contact to other german death metal acts such as Atrocity, Morgoth, Ulcerous Phlegm, Obscenity or Fleshcrawl for example ? Looking in the thankslists in the booklet of „Drawings of the dead“ you can find names from german bands such as Dead, Gut, Blood, Nyctophobic, and from international bands such as Demigod, Miasma and Agathocles, even Samoth of Emperor is mentioned as well-what about this contact ? Are you still in contact with some of these people ?
The new and evolving death metal scene was great, it was a very cool time, nothing was established and known by many people, you could really shock "ordinary People" with your Carcass meat collage shirts and your "scary" look, it was real fun.
I think Patrick had the most contact with Pyogenesis and other bands because he wrote them, we were all great fans of their music and they were the local heroes, as they had done a lot of recordings and played a lot of gigs. Oli was wearing that Pyogenesis Shirt seven days a week, haha. But I think this question should be answered by Patrick and Oli, I think they had the most contact with other bands. But at that time you had a lot of respect for bands that you like and greeting them was also kind of honouring them as an influence. If you had a gig with a band, and you had a lot of fun backstage you said hello on an album if you had the chance to do so.
Contacts with other metal bands, hm, Atrocity were local heroes, at the time when we started, they already were famous in my eyes, they had released professional recorded albums, were touring with well known bands, were a Nuclear Blast band and I had no personal contact to them. But you saw those guys at concerts or at the Rockfabrik, Krulle is a very tall guy, hard not to see him. The same to say about Morgoth I liked them a lot but never met one of these guys by myself. I became a big Ulcerous Phlegm fan after I saw them playing in Pforzheim (gig date 21.11.1991), but also don't get into personal contact with the guys. We had the most contact with underground bands we played with or that were from our area, like Blood, Gut, Dawn, Nyctophobic, Dead have played some gigs in Pforzheim and it was quite a lot of fun hanging around with them before and after a gig drinking beer and talking bullshit and Danny was a really perverted sicko, but I think the godfather of perversion was Oli from Gut, haha, it was a lot of fun those days at the gigs.
But nowadays I don't have contact to other bands of the past.
Patrick: We had lots of contacts to other bands back in the days, either we played together and hangout at gigs or had mailcontact and exchanged music. I´m still in contact with guys like Joe, Oli and Andre from Gut, Dany (Dead), Marcus (Ex-Nyctophobic/ Ungod) and others. We have a little secret FB group, where we post stupid stuff all the time, which is not meant to be seen by the public and sometimes we even see each other on concerts.
What can you tell us about getting the contract with the now defunct Morbid Records -label, which I think was defined in big parts of the underground community as some kind of cult label ?
How many gigs did Mangled Torsos play and with which bands together ? Did you play a (small) tour, or was it more the typical weekend gig-thing ? Did you play outside germany as well and has MT been part of the billing of some festivals ?
Frank: I don't remember the exact number of gigs, but for the more or less 3-4 active years (1992 – 1995) that we existed, it was ok. We never played a tour, because we were at our active time all in school, civil service or started job trainings, haha, that sounds really cool.
I know I don't remember them all, that's not only to be blamed to my age but the fact that sometimes some beers and other stuff deleted the details of a gig.
The first and unforgettable gig was on the 5th September 1992: Acrostichon, Dead, Decomposed Intestines in Pforzheim.
Other bands we supported or were part of a festivals have been: the mighty Blood, the godfathers of sick porn grind Gut, Dead, Nyctophobic, Miasma, Agathocles, Mangled, Harmony Dies, Rest In Pain, Amaymon, Pyogenesis, Enslaved, Drowned, Lunatic Invasion, Postmortem, Tenebral, Disgrace, Disfigured Corpse, Vaginal Massaker, Gut, Last Days Of Humanity, Goregast, Dawn... maybe some more, I sadly don't remember them all.
Patrick: We got the offer by our label to go on a four week european tour, supporting Suffocation from NYC. Sadly we couldn't do it, as we were still in school and there was no chance to get off from school for such a long time.
If you look back, what have been the best moments or the most important aspects during Mangled Torsos did exist ? Did some crazy things happen during MTs lifetime ? And do you think that playing an band and being part of an underground network gave you skills and you learned things you can still use today in another context ?
Frank: Puhh, that's a really hard question... the best moments for me or in my rememberance, were friendship, good rehearsal sessions and the studio recordings have been something special for me. Of course the first deal with Morbid Records was a great moment for a young band, too.
Crazy things... I can't remember everything, but yes, funny and crazy things happened, nearly slipping and falling from a bloody stage, covered with meat and blood from the band that played before us, backstage fun with different bands and people we met. Chaotic gigs with a detuned guitar or a damaged bass, that's the problem if you own just one instrument.
After our austrian gig, we had to flee because there was some trouble and the situation seemed to escalate, don't remember exactly what has been the reason, but we had to left the club, I had to throw my bass in the bus and it got damaged.
I don't know who I might be without my past, but I know that I don't want to miss this time of my life, it has been a great time for me, my youth, my past and it's still a part of me. I think I stick to my own personal principles, and they could have been set up back in the day... don't care what others think of me or my life!
Patrick: For me personally, the best thing was getting out of our city on the weekends, making noise, getting free beer, meeting friends and even get payed some money occasionally. And of course to release our music and to have total control about the artwork, tracklist etc. As I am still making and releasing music it was the first little insight into the music biz back then and how to deal with certain things.
I have the Impression that MT got some of the well deserved attention and respect in the last years which you did not get during MT was alive ? Do you agree or maybe i’m wrong ?
Frank: Yes, due to youtube and facebook people that never heard of us and of course younger people that weren't around back then, get the chance to hear the music and it seems that it is liked by some people. I found some nice reviews that I sometimes think ,wow, do they really write about that "awful" debut album of MT, hehehe... feels strange to get positive feedback.
Patrick: There is much more interest in the band these days, which is of course down to the fact that nowadays everything is available on the net, music, reviews, interviews and so on. Back in the days you had to buy DIY-fanzines or make the effort to go see us playing live. But our aim was never to become a big band during our active time, we enjoyed to stay in the underground and play small venues and sometimes festivals.
Where do you see the main difference between the debut "Drawings of the dead" and the second and last Album "Godless" ? I like both albums, but I prefer "Godless", because of its progressive and outstanding and independent character. "Insecure Feature" is such a great song, so sad and emotional, but without the cheap gothic-cliches. But in general I think, most people prefer the debut, which is of course more traditional death metal and grind-influenced.
Frank: Our two albums show for me exactly the evolution of the band members back in the days.
Mangled Torsos was founded by young guys around 15 … 17 years old, learning to master their instruments and writing songs with heavy influences by the bands they´ve liked, of course mixing styles of Doom, Death and Grind which seemed to be something new and not liked by everyone. The songs of "Drawings of the dead" were written between 1992 and 1994, so some of them were rather „old“ and much more raw than the newer ones, so you can hear a difference, for example "Maligant Tumour" vs "Lost Emotions" shows it very good I think.
Also important has been the aim to do something completely different as on the debut, resulting in Oli's decision that the extreme vocals are not suitable anymore for the new songs. This wasn't well received by the few fans we had.
Patrick: The main difference was the production and the fact that we mastered to play our instruments much better and of course the "pitch shifter" that we used extensively on "Drawings...". I personally prefer the 1st album, as it was much more in the traditional death/ grind genre. But we were always openminded to incorporate samples & drum machines in our music, for example listen to the song "Morphea" or "Sick" on "Godless".
In addition to the question before: There is a re-release of "Drawings of the dead" including the EP "Anatomia Reformatia". The original CD is a collectors item ; on discogs there are prices from 50-100 euro for the CD, "Godless" on the other hand you can get much more cheaper, so I think there is no need for a repress of the second Album, right ? Furthermore there are some MT-shirts now, decades after the band split up.
Believe it or not, but I was asked by a Mexican guy if he could get the chance to re-release "Godless", but Patrick owns the original recordings and has no interest on a "Godless" re-release, so I guess he doesn't like it that much anymore.
I had about 3-4 requests for a vinyl release of "Drawings..." but this was started years ago with The Crypt and Patrick, but it seems to be stuck. There are really people out there that are waiting and hoping that this piece will be released some day.
Also I got requests about shirts, which I forwarded to Oli. Oli got in contact with Morbid Generation Records, asking if there is any interest to print some. As Frank from Morbid Generation likes MT, he stepped in and did some. I appreciate this very much! The shirt is designed by Patrick, we just wanted a white print and keep it simple in the oldschool vein.
Patrick: There is still demand for the music and we hope to release “Drawings Of The Dead” finally on vinyl next year. After some bootleg shirts from Indonesia showed up, we thought it was time to do another run of official shirts after 25 years.
Mangled Torsos split up in 1996, right ? Did you afterwards in the run of the years sometime think about a reunion or has this chapter for 100% been closed when MT split up ? And what has been the reason for burying the band ? Are the three ex-members still in contact today and have there been some musical activities after the end of MT ?
1996 seems to mark the official end of MT, at that time I wasn't in the band for months as far as I remember. Back in the days of course I sometimes thought that maybe we can re-unite and go on, but to be honest, I lost a little bit the love for death metal and we all had other musical influences discovered beneath death metal. That had already influenced „Godless“ but we moved more and more in different ways with our musical interest. After „Godless“ we had Robert May as 2nd guitarist, he was shortly replaced by Fares, a friend of Oli, but the songwriting for the new songs was somehow stuck and I even can't remember any song after "Godless".
After MT I played bass in another band, which name I already forgot. I don't even remember how we sounded, as we didn't record anything, the only thing I knew is, that I insisted on a cover song from my alltime faves Impetigo which was "Revenge of the scabby man".
We had just one gig at the Pforzheimer Autonomes Jugendzentrum Schlauch, and it was not the right feeling for me, so I left soon. I lost interest in playing bass and being in a band and had to focus on job training and studying, and also had to deal with some private stroke of fate and getting into real life.
Oliver played during and after MT in a side project named For Jar Brain, which he and the drummer left and started Refleshed, which split up after around 10 years.
Patrick is as far as I know into electronic music, but I think he should tell his musical story!
After I left the band I haven't had contact with the guys for many years, in 2009 I met Oli at a gig to see him playing with his band Refleshed. But it really was facebook how we got in contact again, and also Patrick showed up via facebook. It was really nice to hear from the guys again!
Patrick: There was no big fight or anything like that between us, which forced the split up of the band. The reason was more that our interest in different musical directions was getting stronger, so at one point it was not possible to combine our musical tastes under the Mangled Torsos-banner and we decided to quit the band. We never liked bands ourselves, that changed their music drastically and still used their old band name. And also death metal got a bit boring and repetitive in 1995.
I was more and more listening to electronic music in the mid nineties and started to make my own music with samplers, synths and drummachines. I also started DJing in 97, which I still do and run my own vinyl recordlabel called "Tardis Rec".
There is a bandpicture in the booklet of the debut album, in the background the viewer can see some tools such as a saw, pliers and hammers. This should be a reminiscene to early Carcass, right ?
Frank: Yes somehow, or maybe Pungent Stench / Disharmonic Orchestra - style... we loved those guys, in fact we liked a lot of austrian bands... Disastrous Murmur „Extra uterine pregnancy“ was our encore at gigs.
Patrick: That picture was taken in the workshop of my grandfather.
Can you tell us what the lyrics deal with ? And seeing a song title on the debut called "Malignant Tumour", do you know if the czech band of the same name was maybe inspired from this Mangled Torsos-song title to choose this band name ? I think i remember an interview in Rock Hard Magazine concerning the "Godless" -album where you said that it deals with some eastern philosophies, could that be (and because of that the chinese character on the cover ?)
Frank: I don't have the lyrics of "Drawings..." but as far as I remember, the most of them were in the gory splatter style about different atrocities, sickness and stuff like that, very Carcass/Necrony/General Surgery-style.
Maybe Oli still owns the lyrics on a piece of paper.... but as he stated in an interview "I didn't want the lyrics in the booklet, because I thought no one would care about them!"
Maybe you can ask the Malignant Tumour guys what inspired them, but their old stuff on "Symphonies for Pathologist" sounded awesome!
For me Godless was a statement for atheism, as far as I remember that chinese symbol shall stand for other lifeforms, the lyrics according to Oli are about suicide, the sense of life, what comes after death. Oli had enough of gore lyrics.
Patrick: We always used unconventional artwork for our album sleeves, rather than choose another gory zombie picture. As far as I can remember the chinese sign stands for "a new beginning".
In the booklet of the second Album "Godless", music journalist Kai Wendel, who worked at that time for german Rock Hard Magazine, is "greeted" with a "Fuck Off". Has this been the revenge for giving the debut album only 2 out of 10 points, I think the review was from Wendel ? "Godless" got 7 out of 10 points, did this review Kai Wendel as well ? (The review ist still online on the Rock Hard homepage, but without mentioning the author-maybe I own the original issue, but don’t want to search in the cellar, haha). Do you think MT would have gotten more attention if the Rock Hard review of „Drawings of the dead“ had been better, because in these pre-internet times, for a lot of people big magazines such as Rock Hard or Metal Hammer were the only information source concerning new bands and records ?
Frank: Somehow funny, that the same guy reviewed the second album, and he was pretty fair with his review about "Godless", maybe he didn't read the booklet. The bad review for "Drawings…" was of course a little shock, because, as you stated, people were "impressed" what those magazines wrote. On the other hand those "experts" were so often wrong with their opinions, that you don't have to take it too serious and for underground music it was a very good marketing point that the mainstream did not like your record. So we were in good company.
Patrick: The first album got "Arschbombe des Monats" (means something like "the shittiest record of the month") in Rock Hard, which was a good thing, because a lot of people which were into undergound music, just bought these records which got the "Arschbombe" review once a month. And if I remember right we were in good company as the cult record "Fallen Angel Of Doom" by Blaspemy , has also been reviewed in the "Arschbombe"-section. And our record did sell pretty well for a debut underground album.
The MT-facebook page is administrated by you, Frank, and a fan from Lima, Peru as I experienced. How did this happen, and do you still get feedback from all over the world (which countries in particular) after all these years ?
Diego then asked me if I would like to be an administrator and help with the page, and this was ok for me. Since then I try to provide some more stuff of the past, but in the older days without smartphone you don't have thousands of pictures or videos, so I'm running out of stuff!!
But I'm overwhelmed that today this fan page has over 1680 followers, they are from all over the world! A lot of south americans, mexicans, a lot from indonesia, malaysia, russia, europe, usa, australia… really cool to see that the music nowadays come across the planet. Of course the feedback or messages are not daily, weekly or monthly, but yes, some guys ask for stuff or have questions for example about the vinyl release that does not show up...
Thanks a lot for answering the questions. I hope you enjoyed to travel back in time. The last words are yours !
I hope this was a little bit interesting for those who still like Mangled Torsos music and like to hear old stories. I also appreciate everyone that is visiting the facebook fan group, I met also a lot of nice people there. See you there!
Wish you all the best with Systematic Desensitization Zine and hope your readers will enjoy the time travel.
Patrick: Thanks for the support and everlasting interest in our "old" music !
