BERICHT DARK DUNGEON FESTIVAL (ANTHISNES, WALLONIE / BELGIEN)

Da ich ja schon länger ein Interview mit den Freiburgern von Mightiest geplant habe, und diese auf dem Dark Dungeon Festival  (14.-15. April) in der Burg Avouerie in Anthisnes am (Black Metal-) Freitag spielten, bot sich ein Besuch im wallonischen Ort geradezu an. Die tolle Besonderheit an dem zweitägigen Festival ist der Veranstaltungsort, der für die passende räumliche Atmosphäre sorgen soll. Während der Freitag mit drei Black Metal-Bands aufwartete (Räum, Mightiest, Enthroned), spielte am Samstag wohl die internationale crème de la crème der Dungeon Synth-Szene. Leider hielten mich familiäre Verpflichtungen vom Besuch des Dungeon Synth-Tages ab, so dass ich am Samstag morgen wieder die Heimreise antreten musste. Auch wenn ich mich mit dieser Musik nur wenig auskenne und nur einige Mortiis -Alben (als auch sein Nebenprojekt Vond) mein Eigen nenne, hätte mich das Ganze doch sehr interessiert. Headliner des Samstags waren übrigens Depressive Silence aus Freiburg, deren Line-Up - wer hätte es gedacht - natürlich deckungsgleich mit Mightiest ist. 

REVIEW RÄUM "CURSED BY THE CROWN"

At the Dark Dungeon Festival, which took place in a medieval castle in the small town of Anthisnes, the first band I saw were the Belgians from Räum, before Mightiest, one of the best, and unfortunately also most underrated black metal bands in Germany, and finally Enthroned, the Belgian black metal kings, took over. The band name alone struck me as unusual as a German, "Raum", without the umlaut, means room in German. And also purely visually the four musicians didn't look much like black metal. In this respect I guessed a post-black metal act, most of which I honestly find quite boring and stale. Fortunately, however, it behaves differently, Räum play rather very partly very fast, hard, often traditionally designed black metal, which in some moments even reminds of Marduk.

INTERVIEW TANKARD (ENGLISH)

„They also only boil with water!“

When the Frankfurt thrashers Tankard  visited the Groove Bar in Cologne-Wahn for the second time towards the end of March, it was a good opportunity for an interview with frontman Gerre. Due to an unforeseen delay, and the fact that both Gerre and myself didn't feel like doing an interview under time pressure, we decided to make a second attempt a few days later via video link. Read here what the likeable frontman has to say about the lyrics of the last album "Pavlov's Dawgs", the Corona pandemic, the social skills of metal fans and his, even after all these decades unbroken enthusiasm for metal and new albums.

INTERVIEW TANKARD

„Die kochen auch nur mit Wasser!“

Als gegen Ende März die Frankfurter Thrasher von Tankard bereits zum zweiten Mal die Groove Bar in Köln-Wahn beehrten, bot sich dies als gute Gelegenheit für ein Interview mit Frontmann Gerre an. Aufgrund einer nicht vorhergesehenen Verzögerung, und der Tatsache, dass sowohl Gerre als auch meine Wenigkeit keine Lust auf ein unter Zeitdruck geführtes Interview verspürten, entschlossen wir uns, das Ganze einige Tage später per Videoschaltung nachzuholen. Lest hier, was der sympathische Frontmann über die Texte des letzten Albums "Pavlov's Dawgs", die Corona-Pandemie, die soziale Kompetenzen von Metal-Fans und seine, auch nach all den Jahrzehnten ungebrochene Begeisterung für Metal und neue Alben, zu sagen hat.

REVIEW NEKRARCHON "GEHINNAM"

Today I would like to present an album that, in my opinion, has unfortunately never received the attention it deserves. We are talking about the only album of the Greek black metal band Nekrarchon. Out of nowhere in 2014 the debut album "Gehinnam" was released by the German label FDA Records, which specializes in old-school death metal, and unusually there was no previous demo, no EP, no split release. Maybe part of the disregard was due to the label, don't get me wrong, FDA Records is an absolutely great label that has only good to top releases across the board, yet black metal in particular is not something you associate directly with this label. But be that as it may, the album named after a ravine near the biblical Judah, in which child sacrifices were made to the god Moloch, is a hidden gem to be discovered.

INTERVIEW DEFECTED DECAY (ENGLISH)

„We did a lot of tapetrading, you sat around the campfire in the evening and people came from Velbert, Living Death for example, and Assassin from Düsseldorf.“

After Daniel, the singer of Defected Decay, contacted me in June last year for a review of the great second album "Troops of Abomination" (review here), we arranged an appointment for an interview on location in beautiful Hattingen. The weather threw a spanner in the works of the originally planned date, but two weeks later, on a weekend at the end of January, the time had come. So I set off by car to the Hattingen, which I can only warmly recommend to anyone who likes cosy half-timbered towns. Even on the way there, the last few kilometres of the journey seemed familiar, and that's right, this is also the way to Witten, or rather to the Muttental, where you can hike and also mountain bike very well on the traces of former mining. Singer Daniel and instrumentalist Dirk turned out to be nice and conversational guys, we talked a lot about Defected Decay, their other musical playgrounds like Suffersystem as well as about the metal history in the Ruhr area. We conducted the interview in Daniel's living room and were very nicely provided with drinks by his wife, thanks again for that!

At Daniel's house, I first examined the CD collection and a few cassettes, which led us to the topic of demotapes.

INTERVIEW DEFECTED DECAY

„Wir betrieben viel Tapetrading, man saß abends am Lagerfeuer und es kamen die Leute aus Velbert, Living Death zum Beispiel, und Assassin aus Düsseldorf.“

Nachdem mich Daniel, der Sänger von Defected Decay, im Juni vergangenen Jahres kontaktiert hatte für ein Review zum tollen zweiten Album "Troops of Abomination" (Review hier), verabredeten wir einen Termin für ein Interview vor Ort im schönen Hattingen. Beim ursprünglich angedachten Termin machte uns das Wetter einen Strich durch die Rechnung, aber zwei Wochen später, an einem Wochenende Ende Januar, war es dann so weit. Ich machte mich also mit dem Auto auf ins beschauliche Hattingen, das ich nur allen, die gemütliche Fachwerkstätte mögen, wärmstens empfehlen kann. Schon auf dem Hinweg kam mir die letzten Kilometer Anfahrt bekannt vor, und richtig, hier geht es auch nach Witten, besser gesagt ins Muttental, wo man auf den Spuren des früheren Bergbaus sehr gut wandern und auch Mountainbiken kann. Sänger Daniel und Instrumentalist Dirk entpuppten sich als nette aufgeräumte Gesprächspartner, die einiges über Defected Decay, ihre anderen musikalischen Spielwiesen wie Suffersystem als auch über die Metal-Historie im Ruhrpott zu berichten wussten. Das Interview führten wir in Daniels Wohnzimmer und wurden sehr nett von seiner Frau mit Getränken versorgt, vielen Dank nochmals dafür!

Bei Daniel zu Hause begutachte ich erst einmal die CD-Sammlung als auch einige wenige Kassetten, was zum Einstiegsthema Demotapes führt. 

BERICHT IM BONNER GENERAL-ANZEIGER

Bonner General-Anzeiger vom 16.03.2023

Hier der Link zum PDF. 

 

 

INTERVIEW DISINTER

„The first real heavy metal song I heard in my teens was "Fast as a shark" by Accept, their drummer pushed me to play the drums. It was a big shock for me to hear their double bass drum, so I have a special respect for that band and their way on that record to play.“

Ultimately, I became aware of Disinter from Peru mainly by the fact that I was looking online for the band of the same name from the United States. However, the South Americans could inspire me right away by their great, powerful death metal, which rather refers to the American style. A good reason to talk to founder and drummer Roberto Leonardi, who has been doing his mischief in the scene with Disinter since the distant year 1993.

REVIEW INVOKER "TOWARDS THE PANTHEON OF THE NAMELESS"

I would like to point out here once again a great, unfortunately probably too little noticed album, namely the third Invoker album called "Towards the pantheon of the nameless" released in 2020 by Einheit Produktionen. The band from Saxony-Anhalt presents on this release an absolutely outstanding mixture of death and black metal in the perfect tension between roughness and harshness

INTERVIEW HYPNOS

"I never was a real musician. I was a fan of music, who wanted to join a metal band to be close to it, even I didn't play an instrument. I was and still am crazy about music in general, not just metal."

Recently I saw that the Czechs of Hypnos will release a new EP "Deathbirth" towards the end of April. Frontman Bruno, also with Krabathor, can now look back on more than 30 years as an active death metal musician and has experienced quite a bit, which he has also written down in a book. So this was a good moment to talk about the new release as well as to look back on Hypnos and Krabathor in particular and death metal in the Czech Republic in general. And don't miss to see the band at the Munich Dark Easter Metal Meeting on April 08!

BERICHT IM KÖLNER STADT-ANZEIGER

Systematic Desensitization Zine im Rhein-Sieg-Anzeiger / Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger

 Hier der Link zum PDF

 

INTERVIEW BLACK MESSIAH

In the vastness of the internet I came across the Chileans of Black Messiah, who play great, atmospheric doom metal, which should really bring tears of joy to the eyes of anyone who can relate to Black Sabbath & Co. Rodrigo, guitarist of the formation from the capital Santiago, answered my questions.

INTERVIEW FROZEN SOUL

In my eyes it's hard to miss, there's a ton of mid tempo death metal in that album, tons of slow heavy parts, it really screams frozen soul to me, haha! -about Sentenceds "Shadows of the past" 

After I had bought the great debut album of the Texans from Frozen Soul a long time ago, I recently saw the band on tour as support of Dying Fetus. Their cool old-school sound, which is an intersection of Bolt Thrower, Massacre and Obituary, was very well received there. A good reason for a little interview with vocalist Chad Green.

INTERVIEW UNGOD / BAXAXAXA

"Black metal has musical and visual aspects. You can't deny that. But these should complement each other and form a unity."

Ungod and Baxaxaxa are two of the oldest veterans of the German black metal scene, both founded in the early 90s. Baxaxaxa, who were revived a few years ago, inspire many fans of the underground with their somewhat untypical and very own mystical version of black metal. With their debut album "Circle of the seven infernal pacts", Ungod set a milestone in the establishment of black metal in Germany and, after a break, subsequently released two good to outstanding albums. A good reason to ask drummer Condemptor, who is a founding member of both formations, a few questions.

REVIEW FALSE MUTATION "UPON THE THRONE OF BAPHOMET"

When I recently stayed in Hattingen for the interview with Defected Decay, Dirk, one part of this duo, pressed a CD of his other musical playground called False Mutation into my hand. This is the 2019 album called "Upon the throne of baphomet". And what can I say? Fans of dark, vicious sounding and brutal death metal who especially love the US style of bands like Deicide, Defaced Creation, Aeon, Immolation or even the German Purgatory, will be thrilled. Dirk seems to run the whole thing more as a lover's affair for friends and acquaintances, but the songs are far too good to be reserved for a select few. 

INTERVIEW SKOGENS RYMD ART (ALESSIA BRUSCO)

In the vastness of the internet I found the great, atmospheric pictures of Alissa Brusco, who distributes her art under the label "Skogens Rymd Art". But read for yourself what she has to say.

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Hello, please tell the readers of the Systematic Desensitization Zine more about yourself. Who are you, what do you do besides painting, where do you live and so on?

INTERVIEW SUMERIAN TOMBS

Sumerian Tombs from the Rhineland have stirred up a lot of dust in the underground with their furious, self-titled debut album. A good reason to ask guitarist K. for some statements.

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Tell us something about the founding of the band - how long have you been around and what did you release before the debut album? Did you all know each other before? Who took the initiative? And was there a special initial spark for the foundation of Sumerian Tombs? Maybe in the sense that you heard certain records that inspired you or over a few beers you got the idea to do something together that goes in a certain direction?

REVIEW SECOND COMING "DEATH FUCKING METAL" & "WILL NOT ENTER HEAVENS GATE"

During the preparation of the Mightiest story that is yet to come, I had the pleasure of a great promo package that also included two releases by the death metallers from Second Coming. Second Coming are the death metal counterpart to Mightiest due to personal overlaps, whereby the expression "Second Coming" denotes  a Christian belief that Jesus will return again after his ascension to heaven about two thousand years ago. But not only the title "Will not enter heavens gate" suggests that we are definitely not dealing with passionate Christians here, haha.

REVIEW MIGHTIEST / FUNERAL PROCESSION "OF DEATHFIRES, A TOMB & NIGHT WITHOUT END"

In september, Ván Records released a split release of two veteran German black metal bands. One is Mightiest from the south of Germany, the fabled dark Black Forest, the other is Funeral Procession from East Frisia in Lower Saxony. Both bands were founded in the mid-90s, both have released only one album each besides various EPs and split releases, Mightiest even needed 22 years until the release of their great debut album SinisTerra. But this doesn't have to mean anything, just think about the cult band Sadistic Intent, who haven't released an album since the distant year 1987 until today. Despite this long history and their first-class music, both bands - probably also due to the lack of album releases - could never reach the level of popularity of similarly started bands like Secrets of the moon or Lunar Aurora.

INTERVIEW DESASTER / HIKING WITH INFERNAL

After I had already conducted an interview with Desaster last year in the run-up to the release of "Churches without saints" (see here), one day I had the idea to ask whether there would be interest in presenting some of the most important places and locations in the band's history together. On the one hand, Koblenz is only an hour's drive away from me, on the other hand, I like the region there very much, especially the often wildly romantic area along the Rhine and Moselle with its countless castles and ruins, many of which have bravely defied decay for centuries and let us feel at least a little "touch of medieval darkness". I can only warmly recommend this region for hiking, motorcycling and also cycling! To be more precise, I had in mind a joint visit to these places. When Infernal got in touch and was enthusiastic about the idea, the whole thing slowly took shape. After we had agreed on a car park in the middle of nowhere near Ochtendung as a meeting point, and I bought some Desaster articles - which certainly looked strange when any packages change hands there for cash, an overzealous narcotics officer would certainly have sensed his chance here - we could already start. In short, I got into Infernal's car and we drove a few minutes to go from there to Wernerseck Castle.

INTERVIEW DESASTER / WANDERN MIT INFERNAL

Nachdem ich bereits letztes Jahr ein Interview mit Desaster im Vorfeld zur Veröffentlichung von "Churches without saints" geführt hatte (siehe hier), kam mir eines Tages die Idee, anzufragen, ob Interesse bestände, gemeinsam einen Teil der wichtigsten Orte und Plätze der Bandgeschichte vorzustellen. Zum einen ist Koblenz nur eine Autostunde von mir entfernt, zum anderen mag ich die Region dort sehr, gerade auch die oftmals wildromantische Gegend an Rhein und Mosel mit ihren zahllosen Burgen und Ruinen, die dort zahlreich seit Jahrhunderten mutig dem Verfall trotzen und uns zumindest einen kleinen "Touch of medieval darkness" spüren lassen. Zum Wandern, Motorradfahren und auch Fahrradfahren kann ich diese Region nur wärmstens empfehlen! Genauer gesagt schwebte mir ein gemeinsamer Besuch dieser Plätze vor. Als Infernal sich dann meldete und von dieser Idee begeistert war, nahm das Ganze langsam konkrete Formen an. Nachdem wir als Treffpunkt einen Mitfahrerparkplatz im Nirgendwo bei Ochtendung ausgemacht hatten, und ich noch den einen oder anderen Desaster-Artikel erwarb - was sicherlich sonderbar aussah, wenn dort irgendwelche Päckchen gegen Bares den Besitzer wechseln, ein übereifriger Drogenfahnder hätte hier bestimmt seine Chance gewittert - konnte es auch schon losgehen. Kurzum stieg ich in Infernals Auto um und wir fuhren einige Minuten, um von dort aus zur Burg Wernerseck zu gehen.

REVIEW BLASPHEMATORY "THE LOWER CATACOMBS"

Blasphematory from New Jersey, USA, honoured us a few months ago with their second album called "The lower catacombs" on Nuclear Winter Records. The album title really says it all, because musically the band descends into the deepest maws of hell to present their rancid, dirty death metal, which is always presented with the right groove at the right place. The band, which consists of veterans of the scene - among others, there are personnel overlaps with the also highly recommendable death metallers of Siege Column and the long-established black metal band Abazagorath - knows how to convince the listener during the almost 40 minutes with a brutal mixture of fast parts, gruff, dragged-out parts and a always wonderfully creaking bass. In addition, there are abysmal vocals, what else would fit to this kind of music? So whoever wants to listen to a extremely dark and dirty bastard, consisting of influences from compatriots like Incantation, Funebrarum, Autopsy, Rottrevore, Obituary but also from Finnish bands like Abhorrence, Depravity or Necropsy has to listen to this masterpiece. Highly recommended!

INTERVIEW ABSTRACTYSS

In the depths of the world wide web I came across the Bavarian death metal band Abstractyss, which weaves brutal and technical death metal with atmospheric elements into a coherent whole. Read here what the band from the city of three rivers Passau has to say.

Hello, please tell the readers of Systematic Desensitization Zine something about your band history. A short outline, who, when, where you formed. How exactly did you come up with the band name, which sounds quite unusual at first. An abstract hell so to speak?

INTERVIEW TRINITAS

"Black metal at that time was simply pure rebellion and an attitude towards life. And this fire, which was still burning in the respective protagonists back then, was also reflected on their albums." 

Recently I got the information that black metal trio Trinitas will be releasing their first album via Ván Records, having already released a first sign of life (or better sign of death?) in 2019 in the form of an EP. The band, which consists of veterans of the German and Swedish scene, let's mention former and current bands like Dark Fortress, Gràb, Desaster, Sodom, Asphyx, Naglfar, Bewitched or Throne of Ahaz, is completely dedicated to traditional black metal. Vocalist Azathoth answered my questions.

INTERVIEW MILLE / KREATOR

"Global problems are also difficult to solve at the local level. As long as humanity does not see itself as a world community, it will hardly be possible to carry out rules that effectively counteract climate change."

After I had already conducted an interview with Mille more than five years ago in the run-up to the release of "Gods of violence", the new strong "Hate über alles" album, which this time managed to land at number 2 in the German album charts, offered itself as a good reason to repeat the matter. Since then, a lot has happened in Germany, Europe and globally, just think of the Corona pandemic, the increasingly apparent climate change, the war in Ukraine and also the, at least in the social networks seemingly clearer division of society. I talked about these and other topics with the band leader, who now lives in Berlin.

INTERVIEW MILLE / KREATOR

"Globale Probleme lassen sich auch auf lokaler Ebene nur schwer lösen. Solange sich die Menschheit nicht als Weltgemeinschaft begreift, werden kaum Regeln durchgeführt werden können, die dem Klimawandel effektiv entgegenwirken."

Nachdem ich vor über fünf Jahren im Vorfeld der Veröffentlichung von "Gods of violence" schon einmal ein Interview mit Mille geführt hatte, bot sich das neue starke "Hate über alles" -Album, welches diesmal auf Platz 2 der deutschen Albencharts landen konnte, als guten Grund an, diese Angelegenheit zu wiederholen. Seitdem hat sich vieles in Deutschland, Europa und global getan, man denke nur an die Corona-Pandemie, den immer stärker zu Tage tretenden Klimawandel, der Krieg in der Ukraine und auch die, zumindest in den sozialen Netzwerken scheinbar deutlich werdendere Spaltung der Gesellschaft. Über diese und weitere Themen sprach ich mit dem mittlerweile in Berlin lebenden Bandkopf.

REVIEW PROTECTOR "EXCESSIVE OUTBURST OF DEPRAVITY" (DEUTSCH)

Mit "Excessive Outburst Of Depravity" veröffentlichen Protector, die deutsch-schwedische Band um Martin Missy, dem einzig verbliebenen Mitglied der Originalbesetzung, das vierte Album nach der Reunion im Jahr 2011, diesmal wieder über High Roller Records. Seit der Wiederbelebung der Band sind Protector nun erfreulicherweise einer größeren Anzahl und vor allem einer neuen Generation von Metal-Fans bekannt, dennoch gehören Protector leider zum Club der unterbewertetsten Metal-Bands aller Zeiten. In einer fairen Welt hätten Protector den Status einer Band wie Sodom, aber gut, das ist eine andere Geschichte...  

REVIEW PROTECTOR "EXCESSIVE OUTBURST OF DEPRAVITY"

With "Excessive Outburst Of Depravity" Protector, the German-Swedish band around Martin Missy, the only remaining member of the original line-up, releases the fourth album after the reunion in 2011, this time again via High Roller Records. Since the revival of the band, Protector are now fortunately known to a larger number and especially to a new generation of metal fans, yet Protector unfortunately belong to the club of the most underrated metal bands of all time. In a fair world Protector would have the status of a band like Sodom, but well, that's another story...  

INTERVIEW JOAKIM STERNER (NECROPHOBIC / UNHALLOW)

"In the summer of 1982, when I was at a summer camp, a guy there showed me Iron Maiden and I was hooked right away."

There was no specific reason for this interview, I had been carrying around the idea of doing a Necrophobic interview for a while. Since they say that the first experiences are among the most formative, it's also logical that "The nocturnal silence", Necrophobic's debut from 1993, made a lasting impression on me. Although it was by no means my first death metal album, it was one of the first that I got back then, along with bands like Unleashed, Obituary, Morbid Angel, Grave, Benediction, Bolt Thrower, Asphyx and Cannibal Corpse. Of course, it's difficult to filter out aspects like nostalgia, but when I listen to the album today with its outstanding songs, then one must definitely attest to the album being one of the strongest and most important albums in Swedish metal history, especially because it was already the anticipation of the fusion of death and black metal. And of course all albums of this band are exceptional, especially the last two captivate in a different, more refined way. Nevertheless, for this interview, I have concentrated on this debut album in particular. Drummer and founding member Joakim Sterner, who has another band called Unhallow at the start (more details in the interview), answered my questions.