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).   

INTERVIEW APOKALYPTIC RAIDS

APOKALYPTIC RAIDS from Brazil is a band that gained cult status in some parts of the scene. Now they released their new album called „The Pentagram“. Reason enough to do an interview with vocalist and guitarrist Leon Manssur.

This year APOKALYPTIC RAIDS celebrate the 20th birthday of the band‘s existence. When you look back, what has been the best experiences that happened during this this time, an what has been the worst ? Do you prefer todays scene or the earlier days ? And please introduce the current band members and their side-projects.

Man, 20 years are really transforming. Best experiences were certainly travelling around the world and meeting and playing to new people. Worst experiences might be about a shit part of the „music business“. Hopefully I can stay away more and more from that shit.

I have no nostalgia of the old days. It was great then, it is great now. I make it. Great is where I am now, I will make it great whenever. Of course it is different with regards to technology. Things are much faster now. But the things that are human, like greed, passion, so on, these never change.

Current line-up is stable with me, Leon Manssur on the guitar and vocals, Vinicius Canabarro on the bass, since 2003, and Pedro Rocha in the drums from 2001-2007 and 2013-now. Vinicius is also singer in Atomic Roar, a band already on their third album now. Pedro is from Farscape and Whipstriker. He is a professional drummer/teacher and has a lot of bands and projects aside of metal.  

INTERVIEW JASON NETHERTON / "SEND BACK MY STAMPS"-FANZINE ARCHIVE / MISERY INDEX

Hey Jason, first of all, how are you doing ? Some months ago I found your fanzine archive (look here), which is really great ! So I think you are a very busy man, playing with Misery Index and running this fanzine archive, furthermore you published this book about death metal history called „Extremity retained-notes from the death metal underground“-so are you somekind of workaholic ?

Haha, no its just a labor of love; I’ve been dedicated to metal since I was a kid, and extreme metal since I was a teenager, so although it takes up most of my spare time, its never a burden. In fact all of my projects (band related and fanzine archive) are kind of like part-time projects now. Aside from real work, I do what I can when I can. Lately the fanzine archive has slowed down a bit, but I have not forgotten it. Once things settle down I will get back into it more actively. Right now I try to add one zine a month, and I already have a few hundred in there, so its growing slow and steady (but probably not as fast as some people would like, I know).  

REVIEW ELÄNDE "DÖDENS RIKE"

ELÄNDE is a Swedish three-piece black metal band from Gothenburg which exists since 2010. Before the release of their current album named "Dödens rike" they released a demo and an EP.
Most prominent member of this band is for sure Trish, who plays drums in ELÄNDE, I think some people know her through a lot of bands and projects such as DödsÄngel, Djevelkult or Skitliv. Besides ELÄNDE, she actually plays for example in Urarv, an avantgarde black metal band in which Aldrahn, well known through Dodheimsgard /DHG, does vocals and guitars. But enough of that namedropping, I only mentioned this to point out that ELÄNDE consists of well-experienced scenesters and musicians.

ROMANIAN SCENE REPORT

To be honest, I don't know much about the (extreme) metal scene of Romania. Like most people involved in extreme metal I have listened to Negura Bunget and Dordeduh and of course I know (very metal related) the story of Dracula (Vlad III Draculea), that lyrically inspired countless metal bands. But after that I have reached the end of my knowledge concerning Romanian metal. Mihai ”Coro” Caraveţeanu of Axa Valahă Productions wrote a really interesting scene report and I can't express how grateful I am for these deep insights !

ROMANIAN SCENE REPORT

A dark letter from the land of Dracula

Hi! First of all I’d like to say I’m honored that someone invited me over to write about the Romanian metal scene, I did that several times before in this life, but my last attempt happened more than a decade ago, when I thought there was still hope that something will change here for good. As most of you most probably know already, Romania is a country in the Eastern Europe, with a tragic past, including more than fifty years of different totalitarian regimes, the longest being the harshest communist regime behind the Iron Curtain, a dictatorship built on fear and a spiral of silence that affected and still affects the nation as a whole even three decades after it was supposedly finished. It happened in the final days of 1989 when the dictatorship was over, the dictator executed, with his execution broadcasted on the national television and with more than 1000 collateral victims of the single bloody revolution from all the social and political movements which happened in the East around the same time.  

REVIEW EKPYROSIS "DEATHTRIPS"

At the Magoth-gig last saturday I met the guy behind The Crawling Chaos Records who sold some stuff on his distro table. We talked about black metal in general and Ildjarn in particular and he advised me a band named EKPYROSIS, whose latest release is published by his label. To be honest, until then only knew the Italian death metal band of the same Name ( I found out that there are some other bands called EKPYROSIS). On their newest release named "Deathtrips", that is only available on tape (limited to 150 handnumbered copies and as digital download here), you can hear six tracks with a duration of 18 minutes. EKPYROSIS are labeled as avant-garde black metal, and I don't totally disagree, but hearing the term avant-garde within a black metal context I think to bands such as newer Dodheimsgard / DHG, Arcturus, Fleurety or Ved Buens Ende, and all these examples sound totally different, much more progressive, more complex and technical.