INTERVIEW CHRISTIAN KRIEGER (CHAPEL OF DISEASE)

This time I spoke with Christian from Chapel of Disease about the metal scene in Cologne and surroundings, past and present. Being the same age, I remember some things in almost the same way as Christian. By the way, because of his answers I think I found the perfect name for an old school death metal band: Massive Rat Infestation, haha. 

Hey, please tell us who you are: age, your musical socialization, your local origin, and your previous bands and all other relevant stuff you want to share.

Hey Gerald, yes, like you said, I've been playing bass for Chapel Of Disease for over ten years now and so far there's no end in sight. Before that I was active for many years with Grabnebelfürsten, who were able to make a name for themselves nationwide, which the band name was probably not completely innocent of, haha (Indeed, I remember people who weren't into metal in general talking about the band  just because of that spectacular band name). My first "real" band after various school projects was a punk band in the nineties, with which I had enough for at least two or three gigs in local youth centres. In the meantime I am 42 years old and have been musically active for more than 25 years.

I grew up in a small village of 100 souls near Gummersbach, about 40 kilometres east of Cologne. My musical socialization was probably the classic school of metal, starting in 1990 with AC/DC and then quickly moving on via speed and thrash to death and black metal, although I would still call the latter two my musical home. Even though I now have an extremely wide range of musical tastes, even outside of metal, it always feels a bit like coming home with every new good DM/BM record. With mum it still tastes best, haha! 

REVIEW BOVARY "MES RACINES DANS LE DESERT"

Maybe France is not the first country which comes to mind while speaking about Black Metal, nevertheless well known and / or outstanding bands such as Mütiilation, Antaeus, Osculum Infame or Gorgon, Vlad Tepes (and other "Les Légions Noires"-bands) are or were based there. By the way, there is an very interesting documentation called "Bleu Blanc Satan" about French black metal  including deeper insights in the minds of some of the protagonists.

Bovary from France are often labelled as Depressive Black Metal or "DSBM" ("Depressive suicidal black metal"). Let me go back a bit further, to be honest I never was very attracted by the subgenre called Depressive Black metal or bands labelling themselves using the acronym "DSBM". Yes, I like some records by Shining and sometimes I listen to Wigrid (which surprisingly came back from the dead and released a third full length last year), but in general I was relatively bored by the always same mixture of slowly or mid-tempo orientated  black metal combined with pictures and covers of knives cutting into own flesh or people who hung themselves etc. Often "DSBM" was used to cover up the lack of musical abilities and ideas of the bands concerned. 

INTERVIEW PURGATORY

Purgatory from Saxony, Germany deliver high class death metal since the distant year 1993. Their latest output "Omega Void Tribvnal" is a mighty record who combines brutal death metal with atmosphere, call it a masterpiece. Reason enough to talk with guitarist René.

Hey, first of all, how are you doing in general and in particaluar during Covid-19 times ? I have seen that the next live appearances and festival gigs you wanted to do were cancelled or postponed due to Corona, unfortunately meanwhile normal condition concerning live appearances. When do you hope to play live again ? How did it happen to realize (the now postponed) gig in Turkey ? 

Hey, thanks for asking! Overall, I'm fine. Of course, the whole current Covid-19 situation is extremely annoying, but this just can't be changed. Still, I miss all the shows and festivals a lot. I have no idea when it will return to normal for this. The planned show in Istanbul was organized by Mezar Organization & Bookings and will hopefully take place in 2021.

Purgatory now exist since 27 years. First of all it is noticeable, that Purgatory had not very much line-up changes aside the bass position. What do you think are the reasons for this ? A clear distribution of roles or / and a good comradeship within the band ? Did you remeber some low points, where maybe motivation was gone for continuing with the band ?

Yes, this band has been around for a damn long time and there have been ups and downs that have made it difficult to motivate yourself over and over again. I can't really tell you why we have kept up with the times with relatively few line-up changes, but good comradeship and especially the fire for the music certainly plays a big role! Somehow we obviously managed to do it again and again, because we're still there! And as long as the fire and the will to create extreme music burns within us, we will go on doing what we love.