Desaster from Koblenz have been an institution in black and thrash metal for ages and are known to at least every halfway informed underground connoisseur, and probably worldwide by now. Nevertheless, the band members have always remained down to earth and-as I and I'm sure many others also have the impression-they still see themselves as enthusiastic fans who also make music. This extremely modest and basically likeable way of a band that doesn't take itself too seriously should be mentioned here again, because unfortunately it's not a matter of course. As many people know, the music business is the best place for narcissists and egomaniacs-in my years of experience, I have unfortunately had to learn that there are bands and musicians whose arrogance is based on only a fraction of the success of a band like Desaster. This extremely likeable nature is also reflected in the statements of guitarist Markus "Infernal" Kuschke. We talked about the upcoming new album "Churches without Saints", the book project about the band that is currently in the making and creepy funny anecdotes from the golden Black Metal 90s.
What is the situation like at the moment, how is the mood? Many gigs had to be cancelled or postponed, when do you hope to play again ? And how is the new album coming along, how far is the process ?
Of course we are really looking forward to playing live again! The last gig was in March last year on the 6th of March in Sweden! I don't think anything will happen live before the middle of the year. Nevertheless, the mood is good. We are not a professional band (fortunately in the current crisis), but we all have our regular jobs, which went on more or less normally with a few restrictions (Odin had to work reduced hours, but a Nordic god like him can easily cope with that). I really feel sorry for everyone in the event industry whose livelihoods are now threatened, solidarity is really needed now and in the near future. Therefore, when the next Desaster album comes out in June, you'd better buy the albums of the colleagues who do this full-time! Yes, the new thing is ready and will be called "Churches without saints".
That sounds very solidary! Following on from that, I would actually be interested to know if it would have been possible to do Desaster full-time? I've often heard that you never wanted to do that, and it's understandable, but would the possibility have been there at all?
We definitely could have taken the step several times. Even when we were demoing almost 30 years ago, there were offers from big and well-known record companies and we could have put all our eggs in one basket, quit our jobs and toured the world. The change to Metal Blade 15 years ago was another point where we definitely could have done it professionally. Shoulda coulda woulda: As you rightly say, it was always worth considering, but it wasn't really an option!
Following on from that, before we get to the new album, I would be interested to know when, in your opinion, the point came when Desaster went from being a purely underground band that everyone - at least in the german black metal underground - knew, to becoming a big underground band. When Desaster release a new album, there's always a lot going on in the forums of the relevant metal magazines. Was that mainly due to the change to Metal Blade?
Difficult question! After the Wacken gig in 2001 we started playing international gigs and touring in 2002, before that we had "only" played in the neighbouring countries. The first concert we flew to was a festival in Portugal where we played with Satyricon, Sodom, Destruction and Dismember, among others. Then came the request for the concert in Sao Paulo in 2003 to record the live album and DVD. I think during this time we became the "big" underground band. Oh yeah, then there's a lot going on in the forums?! Is that good or bad, haha?! I don't move much on the internet, so I have no idea?! The change to Metal Blade has definitely led to a better worldwide distribution! Also the promo work of a professional label is of course much more intensive than it would be possible with a one-man-label. But all we ever really cared about was that someone tells people that a new album is out! We don't like big hypes! The music should speak for itself.
Apropos "media hype" :Besides the really brilliant Desaster documentary on DVD, a book called "Teutonic-Steel-Three Decades of Bang or Be Banged" by Andreas Hertkorn, the author of the "Todessehnsucht" book about the development of death metal in Germany, will probably be published sometime. What can you tell us about the status and content of the book? Unfortunately I failed to buy the "Todessehnsucht" book, which is sould out now, what do you think about the book? And do you know the "Rotting Ways to Misery-the history of Finnish death metal" book, which I like very much? And do you know any other good band documentaries on DVD, in my opionion many of them are quite meagre. Apart from yours, I found "The Godless Years" by Atrocity amazing, although I don't like many albums in the intermediate phase at all.
Odin and I had our first meeting with Andreas in the summer and did the first interview with him in the beer garden at the Deutsches Eck in Koblenz and unpacked a lot of old anecdotes. Unlike the DVD, the book is supposed to focus more on memorable stories and cool stories. So it's not so much about when we played where with whom, but we want to entertain people first and foremost. People should smile, shake their heads in disbelief, pull their hair out and hold their stomachs laughing! I thought the DVD documentary was quite good, but it got a bit boring at the end when it was just about releases and concerts and tours. To be honest, I don't know Andreas' books at all. I'm more into musician biographies than encyclopaedias. Atrocity have never been my cup of tea, but the Sodom "Lords of Depravity" DVD was cool!
Can you perhaps already tell us or at least hint at a spectacular story or anecdote ? And, especially when it comes to old stories, did everyone perceive them in the same or similar way? It's often the case that the people involved sometimes have very different perceptions or memories of one and the same situation, especially when they've had a beer or two, haha.
Yes, that's exactly how it is, which is why Andreas wants to get as many contemporary witnesses on board as possible! It's always amazing when I meet our first singer/bass player Creator Cassie: he blows me away with stories that I'll never remember in my life! It's been over 30 years and a few beers have been drunk since then, indeed! Something slippery for you: Our second drummer Luggie (1992-1995) was always unreliable when it came to showing up at rehearsals! When he didn't show up again, we went to his house with the rest of the band and rang the doorbell. His father opened the door and said he was in his room. We found him asleep on the bed, a handkerchief on his stomach, his dick in his hand and the porn was still playing on the television!
Haha, that sounds really funny! The poor guy certainly had to put up with one or two comments from you, didn't he? Apart from that, especially as far as partying is concerned, do you generally take it a bit easier nowadays, because after a certain age you don't really get over partying without a trace...?
Well, in the past I used to ring in the weekend on Wednesdays and drink until Sunday! Today I have to recover the whole week if there was a good session on Saturday, hehe! You can see the age! A tour with the band lasting several weeks would no longer be possible today, after that I'd be dead!
Surely there are one or two obscure or funny memories in the black metal context, probably set in the 90s? You must have experienced or witnessed something or other, even if it was only something like when I saw a visitor full of corpse paint at an Ancient Rites concert in Cologne's Live Music Hall in 1996, it was stupid that it was high summer with 35 degrees and the make-up looked accordingly. It was such a thing back then that one or the other (very rarely) concert-visitor walked around like that, unimaginable today.
That was indeed a crazy time! I can still remember a concert in Berlin in 1995, when our drummer asked me afterwards why there was such a gap in the audience? I told him it was because a guy in a monk's habit was kneeling the whole concert and practically worshipping us! HarHar! Well, on the one hand there were really a lot of obscure characters to marvel at, but on the other hand there were also a lot of individuals who really lived out the music and the associated lifestyle. I miss that a bit today, when I have the feeling that everyone listens to everything from 70s rock to vegan black metal and you have to be careful at concerts not to drip a few drops of beer on someone's polished leather jacket while they film the concert with their smartphone.
Okay, let's move on to the new album: what can you tell us at this stage ? When you look at your discography, which release would you compare it with ? Did you put special emphasis on anything ? Has the cover artwork already been decided ? And-since you've had a new drummer for some time now-how did he settle in and was it unusual to work with a new drummer after the long years with Tormentor. And then the question: how big are the Jupiter Jones - influences on the new album?
The new album will be called "Churches without saints" and will be released in June, again by Metal Blade Records. The cover was drawn by a Brazilian artist (Marcos Miller). Personally, it was important for me to get away from the sound of the last two releases, which sounded very similar and, in retrospect, I don't really like the guitar sound anymore. I wanted to return to the dark, seething sound of "Tyrants of the Netherworld", only this time not so muddy. Hont I had settled in very quickly and the songwriting worked with him as if from the same mould. He can really play everything on the drums, but also knows directly when a song just needs a simple "Uffta" rhythm. He has studied Tormentor's style carefully and can therefore call up the typical Desaster rhythms without copying them because he knows how to use his own precise and powerful style wonderfully in the right places. Since I only know this one song by Jupiter Jones, I don't know if there are any influences, hehe!
Haha, I can understand that very well! What is the current situation with your other band Moontowers? Generally you (incl. ex-members) have kept a low profile regarding side projects and other parallel bands, with the exception of Tormentor of course. There were certainly enough offers or possibilities, was there never the need to do something musically different or in a different constellation or was that simply due to pragmatic things like lack of time or stronger focus on family or other hobbies?
Yes, Tormentor has always been like a hooker, haha! In the past I had several things going on besides Desaster, but that was pure fun and not worth mentioning. No recordings, only live gigs. Moontowers are not a project for me, but an independent band, my "other" band. Absolutely on a par with Desaster in my book. There was always the need to make music without screaming, hehe! But it took ages until something came out of it, yes, also because of lack of time. But also because we didn't meet the right people. For me, music is not a pure craft, but always very spiritual. You can bring the best musicians together, but the result is just crap if the spark doesn't fly! I've always had the one or other riff that didn't fit with Desaster, although we're not exactly committed to absolute noise and speed. But there were also riffs that lacked the "evil intent" necessary for Desaster, as we always like to say. But they were too cool to disappear in a drawer. So shortly after the turn of the millennium, Tormentor and I started to make songs out of them, which eventually turned into a single with the project Lunar Eclipse. We tried out different singers beforehand, and even a female singer.
That's interesting, I've never heard of Lunar Eclipse before. How far do you think Moontowers helps the "Desaster"- bonus? And could you imagine doing something musically that has nothing to do with metal? On the thanks list of the Desaster DVD your singer also mentions bands like The Prodigy, which is of course not something that one would associate with Desaster. Do you or the others also have favourites from the non-metal area?
Well, the single by Lunar Eclipse was also a shelf warmer, harhar! So far we haven't noticed any Desaster-bonus. Of course it's good to know a lot of people in the scene, that's how we got to the Corona gig in the church in Essen with Asphyx via Husky. But Desaster fans don't necessarily automatically like Moontowers. It's different music. No, I can't play anything else, hehe! I used to play bass in a punk band, I'd like to do that again: Scrubbing the E-side while drinking beer, hehe! Yeah, sure, we all listen to more than just metal, but metal is so diverse that you can get anything from hard to soft. When I was young I didn't listen to anything softer than Slayer, today I listen to everything I like, from classical music to Klezmer to 80s synth pop! But mainly guitar music, at the moment especially the old hard rock classics like Deep Purple and the like.
Okay, let's slowly come to the end. Which - maybe also rather unknown bands have you discovered lately? Or are there any insider tips that have always been worth knowing, whatever (sub-) genre? Last but not least: Have you been to a Slayet farewell concert? And feel free to share anything else you have to say here. Thank you very much for the great interview!
The eternal insider tip for all Razor fans is always Dresden with their album "Too many Skeletons" (1986, USA), great! A friend of mine recently played Uada for me and although I don't really like the newer Black Metal stuff, it went down quite well. One or the other riff is already known here, but well arranged and authentically presented. Only the babbling in the interviews gets on my nerves, harhar! No, I haven't wanted to go to big concerts or festivals for a long time. I don't want to feel like a cow whose money is milked even more despite the immense entrance fees. Including standing in line for 40 minutes for a beer that costs six euros. No, I'd rather go to smaller events where it's still mainly about the music and you can still talk to people over an affordable cold drink without being crammed into sectors and tiers like cattle. I prefer to remember Slayer with the old live videos from the 80s! After "Seasons in the Abyss" nothing cool came out. I'd rather listen to the albums I grew up with and which shaped me. That's why I can understand the people who only like the "old" Disaster. The first albums of the bands you grew up with are of course better than the newer stuff. I have no problem with that! Nevertheless, people should check out the new album "Churches without Saints" when it comes out in June! It combines almost perfectly everything the name Desaster stands for and can still surprise with one or the other new element without disappointing old fans. Therefore: risk an ear and Bang...or be banged!!!! Greetings Infernal !
