INTERVIEW DETEST

Detest from Denmark are one of the longest running still active death metal acts in this country. Back in 1994 Detest released their debut album "Dorval" a hidden underground jewel that contains a brilliant mix of death and doom metal. The band disbanded in 1996 and reunited in 2013 and released a new EP called "A moment of love" in 2019. I spoke with guitarist John, the only remaining founding member.

Hello, how are you? When will you be able to play live again, what is the situation regarding Covid-19 in Denmark in general and in your area in particular?  

I am fine and everything is as it should be, we have played two concerts (but it is for an audience that has to sit down). It's a very strange thing, people have to wear masks on their faces when they walk around.

Please introduce the current band members. I think you (John) are the last remaining founding member, aren't you? If you look at the metal archives, there were a lot of line-up changes, what were the
reasons for that ?

Yes, I am the only one left, Simon S. (bass / vocals) Danni H. (drums) and Andreas W. (guitar). All kinds of strange reasons, but as long as Detest is alive, it's fine with me. But it's obviously a bit shitty that a newcomer has to learn it over and over again.  

REVIEW SLAUGHTERDAY "ANCIENT DEATH TRIUMPH"

Slaughterday from Lower Saxony, Germany, will soon release their third album called "Ancient Death Triumph" on FDA Records. And, as you might expect, it's again a very good album, which perfectly sums up the band's previous trademarks and strengths, i.e. dirty, rancid death metal, but which never goes off into the dull.

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! 

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. 

REVIEW CELESTIAL SANCTUARY "MASS EXTINCTION"

So, here we go with another release from Brutal Cave Productions, this time a 2-track demo by Celestial Sanctuary (named after a Bolt Thrower-song from "The IVth Crusade) from Cambridge, England.

REVIEW ATAUDES "MERECEMOS LA EXTINCTION"

First of all, let me say that I'm very glad that I was asked by Brutal Cave Productions, a real cool  underground label / distro from Portugal, for doing a review for this album. I've never heard before from Ataudes, a death metal band from Buenos Aires, Argentina before, but if this never had happened I would have missed this hell of a record.

REVIEW DEATHMACE "COFFIN' MAGGOTS"

Almost exactly two years ago I reviewed Deathmace's debut album named "Bleeding Frenzy" (look here for the review) which convinced me very much with its powerful mixture between death and thrash metal.

INTERVIEW PENTACLE

"All the lyrics of the album point to one direction: death !"

Pentacle released the new album "Spectre of the Eight Ropes" on Iron Pegasus Records some months ago. It's certainly no exaggeration to say that a lot of people in the underground scene, wherever they may live, could hardly wait until its release. A really good cause to do an interview with Wannes Gubbels, vocalist, bass player and lyricist of this battleship of dutch death metal. If you didn't know yet, you will realize in the course of this interview that Wannes is an real old-school maniac and has a lot of interesting things to say.

Hey Wannes, first of all congratulations for the great new album! Can you tell us something about the creative process concerning the creation of the new album? How were the reactions concerning „Spectre of the Eight Ropes“ in general ?

Thank you very much! Glad to hear you enjoy the album. I haven’t read that many reviews (yet), but those which caught my eye, are very much favourable for the band. It’s great to see people like the album. For sure, we create the music for ourselves first, but there’s no need to deny it’s satisfying when “Spectre…” receives positive reactions. We worked very hard to make this album happen. For a long time it wasn’t even sure if we would record a full length ever, but we made it happen and that’s something I feel very proud of. It’s truly a creation of dedication and hard work, not to forget inspiration. The road of creating “Spectre…” is very long one. In the beginning, it was uncertain what path to walk. After the “Five Candles burning red” MCD we weren’t sure what the next step would be. For sure we wanted to compose a new album. I always feel disappointed we weren’t able to create more full length albums for Pentacle, but I know the reasons why it didn’t happen and there’s little use to ponder too much about it. We decided to start writing new material and see how this would develop. A new Pentacle release could have been everything something in between an official rehearsal tape and a new full length album. After a long time rehearsing (I think it was a couple of years) we had written three new songs and at that point I decided to alter course. I was tired of little direction we followed and decided the next release would become a full length album and nothing else. This is what I wanted achieve and it turned into our focus point. I booked the studio with the knowledge I had to write five additional songs and all the lyrics. Not only that, we had to rehearse them as well to be able to record the material. This was a very big challenge for me personally as I am no fast songwriter. It can take ages to come up with decent stuff and now I had a deadline to catch. And a heavy one is was! So, I put on a very tight working schedule for myself. I wanted to create a new song every month: two weeks to come up with the riffs and arrangements and two weeks to rehearse it as a band. Then forward to the next one. And next one. And next one etc.  

INTERVIEW NOCTURNUS AD

"It either resonates with you or it doesn't !"

While listening to the new excellent Nocturnus AD-album "Paradox" I came to the conclusion that I should do an interview with the band. Nocturnus is a well-known and respected name in the history of extreme metal, also due to the fact that the band had some kind of pioneer role in integrating synthesizers in death metal. So I spoke with mastermind Mike Browning about the new album, his other (previous) bands and projects such as After Death, Acheron, Voodoo Gods and Morbid Angel, occultism and the death of ex-Morbid Angel guitarist Richard Brunelle (R.I.P.), who sadly passed away in the course of this interview.

The new Nocturnus AD-album "Paradox" was released some months ago, how are your thoughts and feelings concerning it afterwards ? Where would you place it in relation to the previous Nocturnus-albums "The key" and "Thresholds"?

The reviews and sales have been way past my expectations! I knew that we would have people that liked it and I was hoping that a few people would say that it is a worthy successor to "The Key", but I never expected for everything the record company made has sold out and in a second pressing already and the reviews are not just good, you can tell by reading the reviews that people are going in great details about the songs, lyrics and how it makes them feel when they listen to it and that it is the perfect followup to "The Key". It's really blowing my mind, but it is hard to judge your own songs because you never know how people will receive it, especially on the internet. 

To me it is the direct continuation of "The Key" lyrically and maybe even musically. "Thresholds" has always been a weird bittersweet album to me because I knew it was the beginning of the end of what I wanted Nocturnus to be when I started the band. I wanted "Thresholds" to be the followup to "The Key"- story and there is not one thing on "Thresholds" that continues from "The Key". It was a good album by itself on its own, but it was nowhere near what I wanted it to convey, so that is why "Paradox" is a real paradox!  

INTERVIEW CARNAL GHOUL

Dieses Interview von mir mit CARNAL GHOUL wurde vor ca. sechs Jahren im Legacy Magazin veröffentlicht. Die Band scheint es leider nicht mehr zu geben, auch wenn es wohl nie eine offizielle Auflösungserklärung gab. Personell hat sich auch einiges geändert, Drummer Tormentor spielt nun nicht mehr bei Desaster, dafür aber mittlerweile bei der deutschen Thrash-Institution Sodom. Das im Interview angekündigte Debüt-Album hat nie das Licht der Welt erblickt, so bleibt die starke EP "The Grotesque Vault" wohl die einzige Veröffentlichung der Band. Seit 2015 gibt es jedoch die ziemlich guten Demonbreed (Debüt-Album namens " Where gods come to die"), in deren Reihen drei ehemalige Carnal Ghoul-Mitglieder tätig sind.

 Alles kann, nichts muss.

„Die Idee, CARNAL GHOUL zu gründen, besteht schon seit einigen Jahren. Als ich noch bei Lay Down Rotten spielte, haben wir zusammen mit Desaster ein Festival absolviert, ich glaube, es war das Party San, und ich habe mich mit Tormentor darüber unterhalten, mal ein gemeinsames Projekt zu starten. Da Tormentor gerne mal was aus der Death Metal-Ecke probieren wollte, und dies sowieso meine absolute Leidenschaft ist, nahmen wir CARNAL GHOUL in Angriff. Jedoch schlief das Ganze dann irgendwie ein, bis wir Anfang dieses Jahres endlich mal Zeit fanden das Ganze in die Tat umzusetzen und Songs zu schreiben. Mit Fernando, Ritsch und Johannes, der übrigens auch Gründungsmitglied von Lay Down Rotten ist, hatte ich schnell fähige Leute an der Hand, die Lust hatten, sich an der Band zu beteiligen. Ritsch ist übrigens mein Guitartech bei Milking The Goatmachine und Fernando spielt dort Schlagzeug und singt“, so Daniel Jakobi zur Entstehungsgeschichte der Band.   

REVIEW BLOODY INVASION "ZOMBIE SOCIETY"

If you are searching for a yet undetected death metal band, then maybe you should check out Bloody Invasion from Brandenburg, Germany. The band exists since 2012 and these days they released their first full-length album called "Zombie Society". 

INTERVIEW RECKLESS MANSLAUGHTER

Hier nun ein weiteres, schon vor Jahren geführtes und in einer anderen Publikation veröffentlichtes Interview mit Leimy, dem Sänger von Reckless Manslaughter. Demnächst, am 01.12.2018 feiert die Band auch ihr zehnjähriges Jubiläum im AJZ Wermelskirchen, zusammen mit Obscenity, Suffocate Bastard und Scalpture. Vielleicht ja für den ein oder anderen ein Grund, mal wieder in das beschauliche Wermelskirchen zu fahren.

Hallo Leimy, erzähle doch erst mal das Übliche, um den Lesern die Band näher zu bringen, sprich wo kommt Ihr her, wann habt ihr Euch gegründet und habt Ihr vorher noch in anderen Bands gespielt ?

Mahlzeit! Wir haben uns Ende 2008 gegründet als Drummer Micha und ich nach einem Konzert mal darüber geredet haben, dass wir doch beide mal Bock hätten 'ne Death Metal-Band zu gründen. Und so fragten wir in unserem Freundeskreis nach, wer noch Bock hätte und so kam es dann, dass wir noch unsere guten Freunde Sebi und Chris hinzuholten und los ging's mit den ersten Proben im Keller von Michas Oma. Nachdem wir endlich einen richtigen Proberaum gefunden hatten, haben wir erst einmal langsam begonnen uns aufeinander einzuspielen und einen eigenen Stil zu finden. Das hat natürlich seine Zeit gedauert, vor allem weil wir alle Full-time-Jobs haben und die anderen auch alle familiär ziemlich eng eingespannt sind. Aber irgendwie hat dennoch alles geklappt und seit August 2010 bestreiten wir regelmäßig Konzerte und haben dann im Dezember 2010 unser Debüt-Album aufgenommen, was wir ja dann bekanntlich von Dan Swanö haben mixen und mastern lassen.

Wir kommen alle aus dem Ruhrgebiet wobei Chris, Sebi und ich in kleinen Käffern aus dem südöstlichen Ruhrgebiet kommen und Micha aus dem westlichen Pott. Demzufolge mussten wir schauen, dass wir einen Proberaum in der Mitte finden, was uns letztes Jahr dann auch endlich in Herne gelungen ist. Micha hat auch früher schon in einer Death/Grind-Combo namens Manstractor Erfahrungen als Drummer sammeln können, während Chris neben Reckless Manslaughter auch noch bei der der Melodic Metal-Band „The Mystery“ spielt. Sebi und meine Wenigkeit haben bislang immer nur ein paar Spaß-Projekte am Laufen gehabt aber nie richtig ernsthaft in 'ner Metal-Band gespielt und haben uns umso mehr gefreut mit Reckless Manslaughter endlich mal so richtig die Sau rauslassen zu können!  

INTERVIEW CHAPEL OF DISEASE

Hier nun noch ein altes Interview mit den Kölnern von Chapel of Disease, die demnächst ein vielversprechendes drittes Album über VAN-Records veröffentlichen werden. Das Interview wurde im Jahr 2012 nach der Veröffentlichung des Demo-Tapes, aber noch vor der Veröffentlichung des ersten Albums geführt. FDA Records hiessen damals noch FDA Rekotz, und die leider vor kurzem eingestellte Kölner "Rhein in Blood"-Konzertreihe war damals noch frisch am Start. Das Interview führte ich damals mit Laurent (Gitarre und Vocals).

Hi Laurent, stell doch mal die Band vor. Seit wann gibt es Euch, wer macht was ? Einer von Euch spielt doch auch bei Infernäl Death, oder ?

Hey Gerald! CHAPEL OF DISEASE gibt es nun bereits seit 2008. Ich kam damals im Februar nach Köln, während mein Bruder Cedric, unser Gitarrist, schon einige Jahre zuvor hierhin gezogen ist und bereits zusammen mit David, unseren Drummer, Musik mit Infernäl Death machte. Relativ schnell kam ich auf die Idee meinen Bruder zu fragen, ob er nicht Lust auf eine Old School- Death Metal Band hätte. Nachdem er sofort dabei war haben wir David auch an Land gezogen. Die Bandkonstellation war also zunächst: Ich an der Gitarre und den Vocals, Ced damals am Bass und David an den Drums. Ein paar Monate später haben wir jedoch eingesehen dass für das, was wir im Kopf hatten, zwei Gitarren angebracht wären und haben somit Christian als perfekten Basser für uns gefunden. Wenn man sich fragt wieso wir tatsächlich vier Jahre gebraucht haben um eine Demo aufzunehmen, hat dies zum einen damit zu tun, dass drei von uns- Ced, David und später auch Ich- in Infernäl Death tätig sind. Zum anderen müssen wir jedoch auch einfach zugeben, dass wir eine ziemlich lange Zeit unsere Ärsche nicht aufgerafft bekommen haben um uns wirklich mal intensiver mit der Band zu beschäftigen. Eigentlich wurde die Band wieder erst zu einer kontinuierlichen Sache im letzten Jahr. Aber besser spät als nie, oder ?
Die Aufgaben in der Band sind eigentlich ganz gut aufgeteilt, wir tragen alle irgendwie zu dem ganzen bei, einen Art „Leader“ haben wir eigentlich nicht. Das Songwriting teilen mein Bruder und ich uns, wobei ich dafür ein wenig mehr die Musik schreibe, dafür jedoch Ced die Texte im Griff hat. David kümmert sich zum einen um das ganze Organisatorische, was mehr als gut ist, denn da ist der Rest von uns zu vergesslich für. Zum anderen würde sich unsere Musik ohne ihn jedoch nicht halb so gut anhören, da die Chemie mit ihm als Drummer einfach perfekt ist. Hat einer von uns einen Riff, dauert es nicht länger als 3, 4 Takes bis David darauf den perfekten Beat findet. Christian kümmert sich viel um unsere Werbung, leitet unsere Webseiten und ist viel in Foren vertreten. Viel cooler an ihm ist jedoch, dass wir ihn nie irgendein Riff zeigen müssen. Meistens tauschen Ced und ich uns aus, Chris steht daneben und findet schon selbst die Noten raus. Das erleichtert natürlich den Songwritingprozess um einiges. Bis jetzt kann ich wirklich nur sagen, dass bei uns auch zwischenmenschlich wirklich alles ziemlich flüssig läuft.  

INTERVIEW NIGHTBEARER

NIGHTBEARER are a new star in the death metal firmament. Enjoy this conversation with vocalist Michael about death metal (of course), fantasy literature and misspelled band logos. 

Hey, what exactly were the reasons for the founding of NIGHTBEARER ? Please tell us who’s in the band responsible for what? And what about Schlachtung!, does the band still exist, will you maybe return with new recordings and some more live appearances in the future?

NIGHTBEARER started basically as a two-piece side project of Dome and myself besides our other bands --Despised, Schlachtung!, Bloodwork, speaking for myself, and Despised, Hate Force One & Legion, speaking for Dome – without any bigger ambitions to play live or record more than one EP or so. After knowing each other quite a time and after doing the songwriting for Despised together, we realized that both of us had some old school death metal riffs and ideas in the closet and that it would be a shame not to use/record them. So we decided that we would finish the songs together, Dome would record the instruments and do mixing and I would take care of the lyrics, the vocals, the concept, promo, social media etc. To go full speed on stage we recruited fellow musicians from Hate Force One (Manuel, Florian) and Despised (Christian).