INTERVIEW EMINENZ (ENG)

More or less by chance I got to know that Eminenz have a new album called "Diabolical Warfare", the great work was already released in December 2021. (Review see HERE).  A good reason to do an interview with guitarist Heiko.

----------------------

Hello, many greetings from Cologne to Annaberg-Buchholz. How are things in the Eminenz camp at the moment? Well, a few months after the release of the strong new album "Diabolical Warfare", what is your first conclusion about the album, also regarding the reactions of fans and press?

Yes, it's going very well at the moment. The album has been surprisingly well received by fans and fanzines. Since each band member has different musical influences, we first had to reconcile them so as not to completely abandon the style of Eminenz. We seem to have succeeded quite well.  

Where do you place the current album in your discography? I think you can already speak of a highlight, do you see it the same way? And how would you classify the entire work of Eminenz? Especially the first two albums still seem different with their mixture of slow-dark-doomy parts on the one hand and thrashy parts, I think. And what would you like to change regarding the releases, is there anything?

It's the best album in terms of playing and technique. We wish we would have had this level earlier, but that's part of the development of a band. All the other releases stand for their time and are difficult to compare with each other. It always depends on the band line-up ... Personally, I would put "Anti Genesis", "Blackest Dimension" and "Diabolical Warfare" on the same level, but "Nemesis Noctura" is also one of them.

What I researched again before the interview, everyone connects you with the first gigs of Mayhem in this country, especially with "Live in Leipzig", but you weren't there in Leipzig, Manos was. Hardly anyone connects Manos with Mayhem, the paradox is that Manos later got this comedy band image, in 1990 they were probably a normal Death Metal band. And, here we come full circle, in 2021 there was supposed to be a repeat in Leipzig's Messepark agra on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of this concert, Mayhem with Manos in the supporting programme, probably postponed to 2022 because of Corona...Your thoughts on this whole topic?

Yes, it keeps getting misreported! We played together with MCB and Mayhem in Annaberg! That was a cool thing back then: We should also play at the new edition. A gig in Annaberg was also being planned, this didn´t work out for various reasons!

I had the impression that you have always made yourselves a bit rare live, especially here in more western climes. Was that more due to a lack of offers or was it more due to the fact that you were always a somewhat larger band in terms of members and it was so difficult to get everything under one roof in terms of time? And with which bands or at which festivals or locations did you like to play the most, or which ones did you remember the most, positively or negatively?

Oh yes, it's not easy to get everyone under one hat all the time! This year we have already played four concerts, but none in the west of Germany. At the moment there is only one more planned in November (probably Schirnding).

In the nineties we were on the road more. For example with Dunkelgrafen and Eisregen. But most of the clubs don't exist any more, too bad .....

We've played so many concerts and festivals, but a few of them are highlights, of course, for example joint gigs with Destruction, Protector, Carcass, Mayhem, Marduk, Unleashed, Sodom, Eisregen, Master, Rotting Christ, Belphegor... and many more.

Let's take a look at the East German metal scene. Besides the Annaberg bands like Eminenz, Belmez, Opacity, Krig and Dunkelgrafen, I spontaneously think of Purgatory, Vilkates, Viu Drakh, Korades, Spawn, Postmortem, Prosatanos, Golem, Orth, Impending Doom, Arathorn, Necros Christos and Maledictive Pigs. Oh yes, I also found Cryptic Carnage with "And another kingdom was born" super back then about 20 years ago at least, Nox Intempests on the other hand I still find really good and they were always underrated. Which bands, current or long since disbanded, can you still recommend?

Oh yes, all good bands! We have played with most of them, except of course Opacity and Belmez, which were solo projects of band members.

We often play together with Saxorior and have good relations with Purgatory and many new black metal bands. The scene has grown again quite a lot in the last few years, which is very good. 

When we come to your region, what should you definitely see as a visitor or tourist? For example, are there any recommendable visitor mines in the region, which was shaped by mining for a long time. Since the 90s, however, that is more or less completely history, isn't it? 

Oh, there's lots to see! The Erzgebirge region is rich in forests and mountains. People have been digging for ore here since the middle ages, and you can experience mining history in the visitor mines in many places. But we also have a lot of castles, which are very interesting.

What are the next steps, ideas, wishes and hopes for Eminenz? What is already planned for the near future, perhaps also in terms of concerts?

We are planning to release a mini-CD. The songs are already finished, let's see when we can do it. We also have some concerts planned, you can always follow them on Facebook.

The last words belong to you!

We thank all our fans who stayed loyal to us.