There's a quarry up ahead. I hope they're not blasting today. This is a volcanic area, they mine basalt and stuff like that here.
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"And already during the recording I thought, oh, that sounds so modern. In short: If Mille hadn't been so nice, we would have cut it out again. So we just said, okay, let's leave it on."
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No, that was more of a one-off thing, but the people were almost always brought in by our drummer at the time, Husky (Tormentor). He was always very active and made contacts everywhere. He's also in this business now with Continental Tour Management. I was never like that, I'm not a fanboy. It wasn't like that back then with sending files back and forth and all that, back then you still came in person. Mille came along with Götz Kühnemund from Rock Hard magazine (today Deaf Forever), and since they didn't have a car, they borrowed a rental car. Then Mille had sung his part and we were very happy and thanked him and of course wanted to give him money. But Mille just said: "Nonsense, guys, you don't need it, I'm really happy that I was invited". He was such a nice guy. And I always asked Mille if he could still sing like on "Endless Pain" or "Pleasure to Kill". Mille's answer: "Yes, of course I can!"
At the time, the last Kreator records were too new-fangled for me. A lot of bands did that back then, developed in the direction of hardcore or nu metal, Slayer too at one time.
Yes, especially with "Diabolus in Musica" or "God hates us all".
Yes, even Angelripper or Schmier used to sing like that, and I always nudged Mille to sing it like he used to, and Mille always said: yes, no problem. And even during the recordings I thought, oh, that sounds so modern. In short: If Mille hadn't been so nice, we would have cut it out again. So we just said, okay, we'll leave it on.
But Mille didn't need permission from the record company back then?
No, it wasn't like that back then, quite uncomplicated. Today you would probably need "permission by Nuclear Blast" or something.
You and the bass player live here, but the other two don't, your singer lives in Prüm, which is about 100 kilometres from here.
The drummer, Hont, lives behind Prüm on the Luxembourg border, that's a 1.5 hour drive. We meet once a month in the rehearsal room, that's enough for now, and then we all party, drink, barbecue and sleep there. We can also go there later.
What does your rehearsal room look like? Posters are standard, but I was once with a band that also had a TV in there and/or a bar.
Yes, we have that too. We spend a lot of time there, I'm also alone there sometimes. Just when I need some peace and quiet from my wife, haha. It's very rural, there are a few rehearsal rooms on a farm.
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Well, I'm a Koblenzer (pronounced "Kowelenzer"), that's what we say here.
I was never sure, is this geographically still or already the Eifel?
The Rhine and Moselle divide it up like that, and here we are geographically already in the Eifel. Our two Eifelers, Hont and Sataniac, laugh about it, because they live in the Schneeeifel, the so-called Schneifel, but we also call this the Eifel, the Voreifel, so to speak.
Speaking of home, you said you were born and raised here, did you ever consider moving away? Would that have been an option for you?
No, I'm very close to home, I always like to be somewhere else, but I always love to come back, so I've never thought about leaving.
No, that would be nothing. Maybe as a young guy, but definitely not nowadays. I live in a small town with 1,000 inhabitants, everybody knows everybody, on Fridays they meet in the village pub and that's more my thing. Koblenz, the city of soldiers and civil servants, is great, but I wouldn't want to live there.
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"And then sometimes the mayor comes by when he's drunk and wants to put on a second Wacken in Lonnig!"
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Yes, they know. There's even a Moontowers CD (Infernal's other band) in the pub, they play it there sometimes, but Desaster would definitely be too heavy. Especially for the older people who are there, they would have a heart attack afterwards. And the landlord always says, come on, we'll have an open-air concert here in my courtyard, and then sometimes the mayor comes by when he's drunk and wants to put on a second Wacken in Lonnig, and he wants to have Moontowers and Desaster play. Then I always say, yes, after ten minutes at the latest there's no one left from the village.
That's right.
Speaking of your profession, you are a social worker, aren't you?
Yes, I am.
Me too, by the way. But what I'd like to know is that nowadays people are always googling everyone's name. Did you ever have problems professionally or were there irritations from superiors, colleagues or clients when they saw what you do musically, the music, but especially the pictures and covers often seem frightening or alienating to outsiders.
So not knowingly. When I've had job interviews, I'm sure they've also looked at what they can find about me on the internet and I'm sure one of them thought something of me, I didn't get the one or other job, I don't know if that had something to do with it. But no one has ever told me anything directly or asked me anything. Even my boss, who is a blues fan, said, I have to listen to your music, and then he arrived a week later and said, wow, that's heavy. I don't like that so much now (Kuschke has to laugh).
Someone put our real names in the Desaster entry on Wikipedia, which I didn't think was so great, but what can you do?
I think you can hardly prevent that nowadays. If only one person knows, sooner or later it will end up on the net. And then it spreads quickly because one person copies from another.
Yes, the internet is good, we need it. But you can hardly post anything without some stupid unasked-for comment being made. It's terrible. As if people were just waiting to piss on someone's leg. They do it in secret, if you met them on the street they would never say anything.
You took photos here at Wernerseck Castle, for which release was that again?
Oh, we've been here countless times, for the first demo in 1993, we were here for a photo session and then we were here again for a split with Pentacle.
That's the river Nette, by the way.
Oh, there's also the Nette-Schiefer hiking trail.
Exactly, the Nette-Schiefer hiking trail, it's quite beautiful.
Do you also like to go hiking?
Yes, definitely, I've walked almost all the "dream trails" here, that's what they're called.
And at the photo session as part of the "Divine Blasphemies" or when did the police arrive? You had said something like that beforehand.
That was at the three crosses, we'll come by there later.
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"There we all stood in full costume, posing like pigs, and someone must have called the police."
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Yes, exactly, much smaller. I drove by once and thought we could have a great photo session there, and then, of all things, there was a construction site with a red light. We were all standing there in full gear, posing like pigs, and someone must have called the police. Someone must have thought we had weapons because of the cartridge belts, haha. Then the police came and said they had heard that someone was handling weapons. We told them that all the cartridges were empty and that we were all pacifists. Then it was no problem.
That only happened to us once in Bavaria. We had someone with us who went to get our bus from the car park after the gig, and he was stopped by the police, and they took his belt away, because the cartridge looked like it still had powder in it. They confiscated it for examination and then he had to ask for the belt to be returned to him at his own expense.
In Bavaria, the police are probably still a bit tougher.
It's like Florida, like a real police state. Once we were picked up at the airport, we really wanted a drink, but not only the driver is not allowed to drink, but also the passengers. We were really pissed off, then we said, come on, let's drink here on the spot, and we drank a few beers in the country of unlimited possibilities. That's why many bands from there are looking forward to the freedoms in this country.
We often spent the night at the castle and camped there with sleeping bags. And then we drove along a country lane with the car, Husky was with me too, and all of a sudden I sat down with the car, fully loaded with all the beer and stuff. You used to be able to drive up there, but now there's a barrier.
Probably so that elements like you can't get up there so easily, haha.
That's right, there was always stress, we always had parking tickets on the cars. But back to the story. When I had put on the car and the fuel gauge suddenly came on, I ruptured my fuel line and lost 30 litres of petrol in the nature reserve. Then we used the stuff from the first-aid kit to tighten the fuel line again and called my girlfriend, who then came with a five-litre canister and then we went on.
Speaking of castles, there's an old castle or castle ruin on every corner here, and for Desaster such an old castle ruin is predestined as a concert venue. There was once a concert at Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, wasn't there? But it must have been a long time ago, I don't remember.
It was planned, it had always been my dream to do something like that in an old building, and then it didn't take place, because bureaucracy has ruined that. I think they had a look at what we were doing shortly beforehand, concerts have taken place there before, just not metal. And then they withdrew our permit two days before with flimsy reasons, something to do with the building authority and so on.
And you played on a ship once.
That was cool, we were still talking about it recently. We often played concerts at the Florinsmarkt in Koblenz, and the public order office kept coming with the measuring device, saying we were too loud and that live music wasn't allowed.
And one of them had the idea: "Do you know where the public order office can't do anything for us? On the water! Then we chartered a ship and that's when the Metal Cruise started. We should have had the name protected, haha, then it really started with the big cruise things. Sodom and Primordial also played here on the ship.
With Desaster twice. Once the Metal Cruise and once for the 20th anniversary. That was also close to tipping over. In this business everything happens on a handshake, without written contracts. The captain came a few days before and said that he would earn more with a coffee drinking seniors than with us and cancelled. We then got a ship from Holland that was twice or three times as expensive. But we don't do it for the money, we do it to give ourselves and the fans a great time.
Whereas I find these Metal Cruises that last several days awful, just hanging around on the ship for a few days, that must be mega boring.
Especially as a black metal band, you play and the people watch you from the swimming pool, totally shitty. We had an offer there once and turned it down.
We also got an offer from Wacken, but we turned it down. We played there once in 2001, but it started to turn into a carnival.
Classen is a really nice guy, I like him a lot. And Husky also brought Bethlehem along, he really liked them too. And then they came to our barbecue once. But they had a lot to do with drugs. We even did a concert with Bethlehem once, in their rehearsal room. That was Bethlehem, Occult (pre-Legion of the damned) and Inquisitor from Holland, who also heavily smoked pot, and us. And this rehearsal room concert was already borderline, the people there, for example Ronald "Hellsturm" Möbus was there, the brother of Hendrik Möbus from Absurd. We were supposed to sleep there in the rehearsal room, but then we left again at night and went home. When Classen quit Bethlehem, we broke off contact with them again. But we also had direct dealings with people like that and had some very crass and unpleasant experiences. That was in 2001, which was not a good year for Desaster, because our singer Occulto left. We did the Desaster Metal Meeting again in Mülheim Kärlich, at the Dalfter barbecue hut.
Exactly. Back then, god and the world always went to the Dynamo Festival in Eindhoven, which was huge back then. It was also becoming more and more commercial. And we wanted to counteract that and do something of our own. Impiety from Singapore and Unpure from Sweden played there.
Unpure also played at Florinsmarkt once. Watain played there as the opening band. The singer Erik was still pissed off because everyone wanted to see Unpure and most people were standing at the bar for Watain. Then he kept referring to the name of the Hellbangers: "Where is the hellbanging, I can't see anyone banging", haha.
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"Then I was like, gee, I really did a good job with my socio-educational skills."
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I already had an inkling of what was to come-they came back?
Then they came back with a machete (!) in their hands and one of them had a gun (!) in his hand. I just thought, oh shit, he had already started aiming at the person they had been discussing with at the campfire. He was a buddy of ours, and there are other stories about him.
They came from Oberhausen in the Ruhr area. And the guy was aiming at our friend, who also had Rastas, so the guys had a bogeyman.
Today, by the way, guys with hair like that are also the enemy of certain leftists who want to win the first prize in hyper-politically correct behaviour, but just make a fool of themselves and everyone just shakes their heads, keyword cultural appropriation, very paradoxical nowadays.
Right, there was once a concert ban for someone with dreadlocks, who was then no longer allowed to perform.
As I said, the guy came towards us with a gun drawn and we thought it was a gas gun. Then he shot, we threw ourselves into the bushes and looked for cover, but then they ran off. Then we looked to see if anyone was injured, if anyone had been gassed. Suddenly we heard whimpering from a bush, we thought someone had got a gas charge in the face, and called the ambulance. A few minutes later a few police cars arrived, the policemen all had machine guns in their hands. It was a gunshot wound after all, he had used a real weapon, and the ambulance called the police immediately, of course.
Yes, they found the perpetrator, who was then still in custody in Koblenz, together with our current booker, Roman Hödel from District 19, they were in the same cell. The police took a few of us with them as a preventive measure, because it wasn't quite clear to them who was the perpetrator or the victim. As the organiser, I also had to be there until morning to give my statements. The guy who was shooting around probably got a suspended sentence after being in custody for half a year. To me it looked like he was clearly aiming at his victim. But then there were different statements, and he was drunk and then the pre-trial detention was probably taken into account, so he got out on probation. Afterwards, the guy boasted about it on the internet.
In the meantime we have arrived at Wernerseck Castle. A beautiful view opens up into the wide countryside.
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"The castle is called Wernerseck, my father's name was Werner, and he always told me that it was his own castle and that I would inherit it one day. Of course I thought that was great, haha!"
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I think so, I was already here as a small child. The castle is called Wernerseck, my father's name was Werner, and he used to tell me that this was his own castle and that I would inherit it one day. Of course I thought that was great, haha! Then I always wanted to come back here, it's just a super adventure playground for a child. And when I was at primary school, there was the newly founded district of Mayen-Koblenz, we got a map with all the castles from here marked on it. I said to my father that there were even more castles here and that I wanted to see them all! In fact, my father took me to a castle in the area every Sunday. Since then I have developed a castle collecting fetish. As a child, my favourite castle was always in a book by Enyd Blyton, who not only wrote Five Friends, but also the adventure series "The Castle of Adventure".
The photo session brings back memories of Infernal.
Ah yes, I remember, this is where we were standing, the photographer was standing down there and wanted to take pictures of us from this perspective.
Our fan club leader from the "Stormbringers" also really wanted to go to the castle here, and then we also took photos here.
Yes, we are proud of that too, it was a great idea to bring people together like that. We also had a party in spring for the first anniversary of the club, again at the Grillhütte in Mülheim-Kärlich, where the first Desaster concert ever took place, that was a cool event.
Do you know Ilum Adora? They were also here in the castle for a photo session. Here where we are right now, he was standing in the tunnel with the torch.
No, the frontman threw a dead rat into the audience, haha. He also asks me sometimes, let's come here again like in the old days, campfire and stuff, I say sure, when I have the time. That's not so easy nowadays.
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Musically, I also prefer the old, traditional stuff. I recently did an interview with Trinitas (where Tormentor plays the drums), I don't need anything new or "innovative" or innovation as an end in itself. In general, I also think that a good "copy" is a thousand times better than a cramped striving for artistic "further development".
Right.
On the other hand, rehashing old stories from Norway that seem like they were 100 years ago gets on my nerves somehow, or the discussion about what black metal is or isn't or should or shouldn't be. Often it's all about terminology.
Of course, every subculture wants to distinguish itself, especially at the beginning, also through extreme statements. And the whole thing is important to me, too, but I'm also a music fan in general, and to always discuss such sharp boundaries and what is allowed or should be allowed, that was never mine either. Music is basically a matter of taste, everyone can listen to what they want, whether it's vegan black metal (Kuschke laughs) or oldschool die hard black metal.
In the richest country in the world, this was probably the last remaining possibility of rebellion, as individuals really explored all the extremes. Ihsahn from Emperor was always so mysterious in the interviews, just glowing so darkly from the side. If you see him today, he looks more like a teacher.
Gunther is a really nice guy, the drummer too, unfortunately he died recently. But the band developed in a funny way, the first things were great and then more and more keyboards were added. Then we played with them again in Belgium, and I thought they were better in the past, haha.
We toured with Fatal Embrace once, the guy has stinky feet, haha.
Someone brought me the cup, I hadn't been on the tour.
I was able to listen to the Iron Maiden concert in Cologne in my garden in the evening, maybe twelve or thirteen kilometres away by air. And concerning soccer, you are a Schalke fan?
Yes, I inherited that from my father.
That was cool, there was still a lot of spice in it. Today they all just reel off their memorised phrases. When former national coach Rudi Völler freaked out so much at television reporter Waldemar Hartmann, that was also cool. But I'm not that interested in Schalke's rise to the top any more, I hardly ever watch it.
TuS Koblenz used to be in the second division, and there's the rivalry between Koblenz and Trier. When they were in the second division, I was of course in the stadium, but otherwise I'm not a real fan. Of course, the diehard fans from Koblenz were upset that now all the fashionable fans are coming and taking away some of their good seats, while they were already in the Regionalliga. They are actually right.
After we talked about Backward Masking, Satanic Panic in the USA in the 80s and the classification of bands like Kiss, Black Sabbath or Judas Priest (remember suicide trial) as the ultimate evil in some political books for pupils of grade 7, we come to talk about South America.
The people there are extreme and really hungry, we played in front of thousands of people, people came thousands of kilometres from some Amazon region to see us. We also had three shows in Colombia where the fans went crazy and there were really a lot of people, then I sat alone in the hotel room at night, all the adrenaline that had been released, I could have just sat there and cried. It's really not easy to come down from this high again, that's why many of the stars take drugs.
The Cluster Bomb Unit documentary about their visit to Southeast Asia was similar. The crowds that came for a band that attracts maybe 50 people here, unbelievable!
There is also a branch of our "Stormbringers" fan club in Malaysia. We must be pretty well known there, a lot of people would walk around with our shirts, that's cool. But we haven't made it there yet.
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"Those were the days when if you sold more than 50 demos, some people would accuse you of selling out."
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Is that a cool feeling for you, or is it satisfying when you think about the fact that you have created something with Desaster that has made you famous all over the world?
You're proud of it, I don't jerk off to it every day, but it's a cool feeling that you've achieved some kind of cult status somewhere. But for us, the commercial aspect never really played a role. We could have exploited it, we could have played everywhere, but we didn't want to do it professionally. Then the spirit would probably have been lost. There were a few offers, we sat down together and thought about it, but then decided against it. At the time of the demo, we had already received an offer from Nuclear Blast. But we were generally pure underground in our attitude and didn't want to "sell out", that's how we felt at the time. Actually, that was also bullshit, those were the days when if you sold more than 50 demos, some people accused you of selling out. You got reproaches from other bands, often it was probably just envy. Back then at Nuclear Blast, it was a sub-label, they called and ordered 200 demos to lure me in. Then I had to copy the demos day and night, haha, that still went from tape deck to tape deck. And finally we refused and said that we had already sold our soul to the devil, you won't get our body, haha, so we just gave them another stupid slogan. We just never wanted to get into this pressure situation, as you've always seen with Motörhead: a record every two years, then going on tour, and the whole thing all over again. This rut, this having to, this being creative at the push of a button, we never wanted that. And because of our approach, we have always kept the spirit.
But you can also be wrong: What was also funny and where we had wondered, on old Sepultura and Deathrow albums, the greetings of Desaster in the thankslists of early records. We thought, oh, we've just formed and they're already greeting us, haha, then we found out that there was a Brazilian band at the end of the 80s, they didn't exist for long either, they also called themselves Desaster with an "e".
But what I also find funny is this metal community, when you are on holiday; you see someone in a metal shirt and there is a direct connection, you sit down in the evening and drink a beer and talk about the latest Slayer record for example.
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"Then they searched the internet and printed out pictures of me and the band and decorated my office with them while I was away, there were live pictures of me everywhere."
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No, I don't, I'm reserved and don't need to be so publicised. I was also annoyed once when I came back from holiday and a colleague had told my clients that I had a band. Then they searched the internet and printed out pictures of me and the band and used them to decorate my office during my absence, with live pictures of me hanging everywhere. I really like the separation between my private and professional life.
How do you see your last record "Churches without saints" now with some time distance? It's typical Desaster, but somehow also the band's most melancholic record.
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Like Abbath, you can't take him seriously any more, he's such an old alcoholic. We take the music really dead serious, it all has to fit and be dark, on the other hand we don't pretend, we're just normal guys who like to goof off when we're on the road and we don't take ourselves too seriously as guys.
It starts to rain lightly. We are still talking about our daughters (mine 12 years old ) Kuschkes (10 and 13 years old), about the changed leisure time behaviour of this generation and their high smartphone usage.
What do your children actually say about Desaster's music?
The other day I got the older one a sampler of rock and metal, and she said: "Dad, you've been torturing me with your music in the car for 13 years, I'm listening to something else." The other day she listened to Nirvana and Limp Bizkit.
My daughter and my wife always say that I only listen to music where the singer has to go to the doctor because he's screaming in pain, haha.
Haha, that's a good comparison, I must remember that. My wife used to be very into death metal and brought a lot of records into the marriage, but that's not her life any more, she lives a somewhat quieter life; goes to bed early and doesn't drink alcohol either. I think that's good, because I don't have to take care of her when we're out and about. Then you also want to have fun and not have to listen to your wife's admonitions, haha.
We talk about religion, the influence of the churches, the increasing number of people leaving the churches (especially the Catholic ones) and the attendance at catholic schools.
My uncle was a pastor, then he came into my metal children's room with Venom posters, went out and never spoke to me again, haha.
I was even an acolyte at the suggestion of my parents, haha.
"Learn to love the void"- our singer, the old philosopher, haha, wrote a really good lyric on our cuurent album. It's about the fact that if everyone accepted that nothing comes after death and that there is no god, people would certainly be much more relaxed with each other, because there wouldn't be so many religious conflicts and violence.
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The thing is that in the church, apart from all these abuse stories, things are often not exactly people-friendly or appreciative.
That's why many who have worked there say that Caritas (welfare association of the Catholic Church in Germany) is pretty much the worst employer of all, haha, that confirms the picture.
How did the last album go in terms of sales?
To be honest, I don't really know what to make of all the statements Metal Blade keeps sending me. But all in all the numbers are manageable. Nevertheless, we even entered the German album charts at number 21, haha.
I didn't know that at all, and for a band called Desaster it's great, isn't it?
That was funny, but today that really doesn't mean much with today's low physical sales figures. When Sodom entered the charts back then, you knew that they had really sold a lot of records.
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"I always say James Hetfield was my guitar teacher."
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Are you actually self-taught or did you have guitar lessons?
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So Kühnemund said that you are practically the German Joe Satriani, haha.
But I'm proud of my songwriting skills, I'm quite good at that.
Technical skills never interested me anyway, the best works were often recorded with very limited technical abilities.
So our singer, he's into demanding stuff where people can really play and show what they can do, Rush or also stuff from the death metal area where it gets very technical. But soon we will release a punk cover single, before our sessions when we play and drink, there is often punk. And then we said at some point, let's release cover versions of punk songs.
Of course Toxoplasma ("Asozial"), the Toxos come from here and we've played with them before, we used to record with Toxoplasma's Wally in the studio. Then Slime with "Legal-illegal-scheissegal", the two songs form the German-language side. And on the English side we cover Exploited with "Fuck the USA", which Destruction have already covered, but very badly, I think. And then we thought about it some more, and then we came up with S.O.D.'s "Speak English or die", which we've already played live a few times, and it's always gone down well. It will be released on November 5th as a vinyl 7", self-released, and we will play the release party in Winningen at the Weinkeller together with Insulter and Eternal Damnation, the concert is already sold out. The small things, like the "Black Celebration" 7", we do on our own by now.
The title always makes me think of Depeche Mode.
Haha, I'm not a huge fan of Depeche Mode, but of course I know some of the songs, and at some point someone came up to me and said, "Black Celebration", that's something from Depeche Mode!
Everyone probably thinks that Desaster are now coming around the corner with this idea, as if we had copied it. But we didn't know anything about Mayhem's EP at first.
What actually happened to the planned Desaster book by Andreas Hertkorn (author of "Todessehnsucht - Als der Death Metal nach Deutschland kam")? Do you know anything?
That's on ice for now, it's incredibly time-consuming. He has visited us before and we were in the beer garden at the Deutsches Eck and did the first interviews.
What other projects are there to report?
He makes great boxes, this Dissection box, for example. But tapes are no longer my medium, my tape deck doesn't work anymore.
Today you can find all that on Youtube and the next recommendation comes directly with it.
Yes, especially the kids today, they don't have any patience any more, if something doesn't happen immediately after one minute, then they skip straight on.
Yes, but to be honest, I've also noticed this kind of behaviour in myself, why spend three minutes with a song where nothing happens, when the next hopefully better track is waiting right away? Sure, you're bound to miss one or two gems, but in the past you spent more time on individual albums and gave them more time.
In the meantime we have reached the crosses, known from the "Divine Blasphemies" photo session, and where the state authorities were called into action.
In Bavaria you might have been thrown straight into the dungeon for 20 years for blasphemy, haha.
Haha, but that blasphemy paragraph no longer exists.
There's also a metal festival on an open-air stage near the Loreley rock.
Yes, we have already played there, Venom and Metallica played there in 1985 at the Metal Hammer Festival, Running Wild and Warlock were also there.
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No, that was a year before I started listening to metal. When we played there ourselves, I had to kneel down and kiss that holy ground, haha. The venue has a dark past, it was built by the Nazis back then. But as a venue it's really good.
During the drive to the rehearsal room we listen to the soon to be released single. As far as I can tell in this short period of time, the original versions have been put through the Desaster meat grinder and have become a whole lot harder without losing any of their original charm.
How was your relationship with your parents, what did they think of your music? Your mother died recently, didn't she?
That's right, and my father died before my mother. My mother took part in all the shenanigans and always supported us and said to us youngsters that before we always had to hang out in this chicken restaurant in winter, we could always go home to our place. We could also drink beer there, but we always had to finish at ten o'clock in the evening. But my father never said anything either, of course he always insisted that I should learn something useful and not do music professionally, in which case the relationship would probably have become a bit more strained. I first studied civil engineering after graduating from high school, my father was an engineer, but that wasn't really my thing, I saw myself working in a statics office, and then I studied pedagogy at the University of Koblenz, for a relatively long time, haha. But my parents were also very tolerant when it came to music, I was such an afterthought, they were always very lenient. In grade 11 I had to repeat a school year, that wasn't a big problem either, my father also drove us to the first rehearsals with bag and baggage to Koblenz.
Then there was a woman standing there, I wanted to wave to her, she looked like our landlady, then I thought, that's not her, that must be the sister, they're all related to each other here somehow, haha. There are a few rehearsal rooms here in the former stable, including ours. Denise from Heavy Metal TV was here once and put us on her podcast. She visited us here and sat with us at the bar and said that it was like being in the meadow landscape here, and that it was so beautiful and idyllic. I think she came from somewhere in the Ruhr area.
Andreas Hertkorn "Todessehnsucht - Als der Death Metal nach Deutschland kam", p. 101
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A large rehearsal room opens up in front of us.
And you also rehearse here with Moontowers, don't you?
Yes, the rehearsal room, it was a lot of work to get everything ready. Also fixing all the posters on the ceiling. At the moment there's a lot going on in the rehearsal room, because apart from us and Moontower even Megathérion rehearse here sometimes before or after us, then there are always real sessions here. Costas from Iron Pegasus, who used to do the "Tales of the macabre" fanzine, is the guitarist of Megathérion, and they lost their drummer before the recording of their debut album, so they asked Hont to help them out with the recordings, which he does now.
We met a few people at the Eindhoven Metal Meeting, the boss of a metal construction company always gives his employees company outings in the form of festival visits because he is a metal fan. And that's when they saw us for the first time and thought we were great, we had a good drink with them and since then we've been in contact and then they make such cool things for us. They've also made bottle openers with the Desaster logo for us.
We sit at the bar, drink beer and watch old video clips of Anthrax, Metallica, Slayer, Unleashed and Root from Viva's Metalla and MTV's Headbangers Ball and Mosh on RTL with Sabina Classen and drink Bitburger beer, which Kuschke says is dissed in the region.
I once did the same with my protégés in a local brewery in Koblenz. The tour was led by an old retired brewmaster who always said that the best was yet to come, he just meant the tasting. When the time came, I said, wait a minute, I can't do that, I'd love to eat, but not beer, they're supposed to be introduced to the job market. The brewmaster couldn't understand that at all, he was really pissed off and then sat down alone at the bar and downed one beer after another for everyone, so to speak, haha.
You were about to say something about Holy Moses.
Yes, Sabina Classen asked me at some point if I wanted to join Holy Moses, but I declined.
I once paid 70 euros for the "Pleasure to kill / After the attack" picture LP by Kreator, but that was the most. I've never been much of a collector myself, I'm primarily interested in the music. But of course, vinyl has quite a potential to increase in value. Back then, our singer Okkulto lent me the "Transylvanian Hunger" LP and I wanted to record it. Then I drove to the rehearsal room with the car and had packed everything and forgot the LP on the roof of the car. When I arrived, it was gone, of course. I drove back the way I came, but I couldn't find it. I did say at the time that I would buy a new LP for our singer at the time, but then I could only get hold of a CD. Then later I looked on Discogs again, this first LP pressing sometimes sells for between 600-800 euros. Our roadie, Mario, recently bought an Iron Maiden single for 150 euros. By the way, I have a funny anecdote about Mario: he is also sometimes on the road as a roadie for Asphyx, and when Sodom played with Asphyx once, Frank Blackfire of Sodom just walked into the Asphyx backstage room to get new beer, because Sodom had probably run out of beer. The fridge was clearly marked "Aspyhx", and when Blackfire wanted to help himself without being asked, Mario said in his inimitable way: "Hey, tell me, what's written on the fridge? Can you read? And what band do you play in again?", haha.
Inspired by the posters, we talk about old preferences and youthful sins...
I only really liked Running Wild for the first two albums, then they got this pirate image, which I found a bit silly.
I worked as a roadie for them in Koblenz one time, there was almost a fight, very strange guys, they almost came to blows. But what about Manowar, do you like them?
I used to listen to them, of course, but that was when I was 15. After that I really couldn't do anything with them.
We didn't have much contact with Pentacle anymore, even though they used to be a brother band. As I said, Husky was the one who made and kept the contacts.
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"Somehow their girlfriends ran away, haha, then they asked us if we could do their make-up. We refused of course, then they actually didn't perform!"
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In 1995 we played at the Folter Records-Festival, the forerunner of the "Under the black sun"-Festival, Mystic Circle were there too. Somehow their girlfriends ran away, haha, then they asked us if we could do their make-up. Of course we refused, then they actually didn't perform!
No, nothing in particular, but I would really like to play in Iceland!
With Moontowers we're going into the studio next year for the second album, we already have six songs, I always have to push the guys a bit.
Apart from that, I'd like to cycle from Metz in France along the Moselle to Koblenz.
Kuschke is now requested by phone for a family barbecue, so we leave again after five hours and I am taken back to my car. In any case, an interesting trip into Desaster's past and present, thanks again to host Infernal!
Pictures: all pictures by me or with kind permission of the band or the Stormbringers fan club (thanks again!). Motifs are Wernerseck Castle, Ölbrück Castle, the current rehearsal room including the path leading to it along the cornfield (reminds me a bit of Stephen King's "Children of the corn", haha) as well as the surrounding countryside and various paraphernalia such as disaster slips, old recordings from demo times, Stormbringers fan club meetings, Hellbangers meetings, old recordings throughout the band's history, Husky in front of the Externsteine, Burgruine Iburg in the Teutoburger Wald, water playground Mülheim-Kärlich, Desaster in front of the HoT (Haus der offenen Tür) Koblenz, a former rehearsal room in a former bunker, otherwise (parts of) Desaster with Nifelheim at the Under the black sun festival, with Svartsyn and Jörg from Merciless, with Sabbat and with Roberto Blanco a very famous schlager singer in Germany. I assume that the professional audience can roughly classify these anyway (at least Roberto Blanco, haha), which is why I have refrained from naming the pictures exactly. Thanks to all who have read this far, haha. Cheers!
