Hey, first of all please introduce the band to the readers of Systematic Desensitization Zine. Who are you, when did you found the band and so on…
Hey, we are an underground Thrash Metal band from Dillenburg (Hessen), Germany and we founded the band in 2010.
We are: Niki – Vocals, Marcel – Bass, Tobi – Guitar, Jonas - Guitar and me, Manu –Drums. Jonas left the band a few weeks ago, but he will join us for the next few live shows. What are your main influences as band, or maybe the lowest common denominator all band members share ? What are your current favourite records and your all-time classics ? For sure I am not the only one who reminds your logo to Slayer… ?
Our main influences are (old school) bands like Exodus, old Metallica and for sure Slayer. But we also try to put some modern parts in our sound.
I love many different kinds of (metal) music and try to put these different influences in my drumming.
My all-time favorite record is Pantera – Vulgar display of power.
Actually I listen a lot to stuff from Gojira, Behemoth, Havok and the newest Testament and Warbringer records. I also listen a lot to Punk stuff like Booze and Glory, Dropkick Murphys or NOFX etc.
Yes… our logo is similar to the Slayer logo but after our record "Ritual" we renewed our logo to a more modern style.
Yes! We are very happy, that we have been playing in this constellation for so long. We are all friends and we enjoy spending time together. I think this is the main reason why we are so constant in our lineup.
Please tell us more about the bands and venues or some festivals your local area ! Any special (secret) tips ?
We are very sad about the fact, that we have not had many live venues in our home area…
But one of our favorite venues is the "Vortex Surfer Club" in Siegen, a small club with a lot of good shows and a great team. Another "place to be" is the "Irish Inn" pub in Wetzlar. This is a small pub with a cool punk attitude. There is a (very) small stage and regular concerts (mainly punk, hardcore and some metal shows).
Thrash metal fans should check our friends of Suicide of Society. They will release their debut record soon.
During the last years thrash metal became more popular again in the underground in Germany as well, I think to bands such as Dust Bolt, Cripper, Space Chaser or Reactory to name some. To be honest, Centrate could not benefit so much from this development I think, I heard about your band some weeks ago for the first time. There were no bad reviews concerning „Ritual“, but some who defined it as a typical average product. I can’t agree, I think „Ritual“ is stronger than a lot of the more well known stuff. Why do you think didn‘t some reviewers recognize the high quality of your record ? Of course, it’s a typical thrash album with no innovations, but the real thrash maniacs out there don’t want to listen to some experimental stuff.
But we are very happy with the feedback and most of the reviews were good…music taste is different and we couldn´t liked by everyone…luckily ;-)If we would be loved by everyone, Thrash Metal is the wrong genre.
Dust Bolt, Space Chaser etc. are spending all their time for the music…this is one fact that we can´t do (more about that a few questions later) and on the other side we did everything by our own without help from a label or something like that.
We are very happy with our position in the metal scene. For sure…a little bit more fame would be nice, but it´s ok. We are playing cool shows and have a small, but great fan community.
I couldn’t find a bandcamp account for Centrate. Why not ? Don’t you think that it’s a good promotion tool for an underground band ? What can you tell us about the EP named „Tiger Force“ which was released prior to the album in 2015 ?
We are using different social media platforms like Instagram or Facebook and we are working with some streaming services. This takes up a lot of time and due to the fact that I´m the main person for all this platforms I wasn't concerned with bandcamp until yet. Maybe in the future….
The" Tiger Force" EP was our first output and was released in a small edition of round about 500 copies. Tiger Force is sold out now, but you can find it on Spotify and services like that.
"Tiger Force" was our "door opener" for more and bigger shows and got good feedback in the international metal scene.
The titeltrack is one of our "must play" songs on every show.
We are working on new stuff and hope to release our second album as soon as possible. Since all of us have a normal job, and our singer is building a house and because I became father of a small boy a few weeks ago we can´t spend all our time in Centrate… but we are still on fire to play thrash metal as often as possible.
We played a lot of cool shows and some great festivals. In 2015 we played a European tour across the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, France, Swiss and Austria. 2018 we supported Angelus Apatrida, Skeletal Remains and Trallery on their tour through the Czech Republic.
One edition of the album has been released by an Brazilian label called „Heavy Metal Rock“, how did this cooperation happen ?
Ritual was voted under the top 100 best thrash metal releases of 2016 in a South American Metal Magazine. "Heavy Metal Rock Records" noticed us and offered us a deal for the Brazilian area.
The last words are yours !
Thank you very much for the interview.
Go outside and support the underground. There are a lot of cool small bands which should be more known.