AUTOKRATOR

Who are you and what do you do in your band?

Hi. I am Loic, I play guitar, bass, handles a part of sampling, I compose, record, mix and master the music in Autokrator.

I played in N.K.V.D for ten years before playing in Autokrator.

When/where was your band formed?

The band was formed in 2014. We started doing this album as an N.K.V.D album, but knowing that it would be very different, we choose to release it under an other name. As we started this album in august 2014, I consider the band to be born at this time.

Why did you choose to play Death Metal?

It wasn't really a choice I had a clear vision of the music and sound I wanted, so things were made naturally. I didn't said to myself that I will play death metal or whatever. And I had a lot of trouble labelling Autokrator's music.

How do you compose your music? Does only one guy do everything or does everyone contribute?

To be honest, I do everything in Autokrator, except drums and vocals, and one part of sampling. I work with high skilled musicians who helps me to reach the goal I have in mind, and without whom I won't be able to do it. These guys for the album are Oleg I on drums, David Bailey and Brandon L on vocals, and Markian Volkov on sampling

Tell us about your lyrics, writing, inspiration etc.

Concerning the music, every time i record an album, I have a clear idea of the sound and kind of songs I want. Things change during the recording because I spend between 3 and 4 hours in my own studio everyday, this allows me to work on tracks the amount of time and whenever I want. Concerning the lyrics, the album is about vices and deviances of the nastiest roman emperors. That's a subject that interested me for a long time, and wanted for long to do a record about it. But for the next Autokrator's album, subject will be different. Concerning the inspiration, Autokrator is simply a death metal version of N.K.V.D.

Is there an ideology behind your band?

There are no ideologies behing Autokrator. All the members are from different origins, come from different backgrounds.

How do you see the state of Death Metal music these days in your country and in general?

Quite good. There are a lot of good bands in France. In general the scene is quite good too, a lot of bands play good music. It is easy to say that things were better in the past, but take a look, 80% of great bands from the 90's still play, and there is a lot of good new bands.

What are your long term plans as a band? What do you want to achieve?

My only goal is to play the more evil, dark, brutal music possible. We will do a second album for sure, and will see what happens next.

Name an other Death Metal band from your country that everyone should hear.

Abjvration! ( http://abjvration.bandcamp.com/ ) They play some heavy and evil shit. They released their tape on Caligari. Amazing band

Free word

Thanks for your interest in Autokrator.

I give you some links to reach Autokrator :

Bandcamp : https://autokrator.bandcamp.com/

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/autokratormetal

Cd/ Ltd Tin cd with patch / Tshirt pre orders : http://thirdeyetemple.com/shop/en/szukaj?orderby=position&orderway=desc&search_query=autokrator

LP version : http://shop.ironbonehead.de/de/ibp-releases-/12603-autokrator-fra-same-lp.html

TEMPLE OF VOID

  

Who are you and what do you do in your band?

 Alex Awn. I headbang, I sweat, and I play guitar. 

When/where was your band formed?

 Doesn’t seem that long ago…but around winter of 2012. 

Why did you choose to play Death Metal? 

Artists create. Music is an expression and death-doom is our voice.  

 How do you compose your music? Does only one guy do everything or does everyone contribute? 

Temple of Void is the result of five of us collaborating. If any of us were to leave it would change the complexion of the band in one way or another. It’s definitely a combined effort. Typical song starts with Eric or I planting a seed of a riff or two and then bringing it to practice to grow. We jam on the riffs and keep it open to revision and interpretation. I trust the collective judgement of the others implicitly. 

Tell us about your lyrics, writing, inspiration etc. 

 Mike is the sole song-writer. He pulls inspiration from literature and cinema and often reinterprets it for the band.  Our debut is entitled, “Of Terror and the Supernatural,” so that should give you a hint of the lyrical content. I’m proud to have Mike write the lyrics. He’s a very talented individual. 

 Is there an ideology behind your band? 

None whatsoever. Temple of Void exists beyond the trappings of politics or ideologies. Temple of Void is death. Temple of Void is doom


How do you see the state of Death Metal music these days in your country and in general? 

Thriving. There’s so much good shit out there right now. We just did an east coast trip with Cemetery Filth from Tennessee. They have a demo out that fucking rips. There’s a lot of good stuff happening. We’re digging some of the English bands like Grave Miasma, Cruciamentum and Lvcifyre. Vastum is probably my favorite US death metal band.

  What are your long term plans as a band? What do you want to achieve?

 We’ll continue writing, recording, and playing live. We want to bang heads from coast to coast and eventually reach foreign shores.

 Name an other Death Metal band from your country that everyone should hear.  

Cemetery Filth. 

 Free word 

Thanks for the interview. Now watch this 

https://templeofvoid.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/TempleOfVoid
http://vimeo.com/templeofvoid
https://www.youtube.com/user/TempleOfVoid

MALTHUSIAN

Who are you and what do you do in your band?

'AC here. I play guitar and am one of three vocalists in the band'.

When/where was your band formed?

'The band formed when JK and MB decided to see if they could come up with some death metal, the sort that had not been represented in Ireland. That was around 2011 or so. Myself and PG were invited to try out once they realised they had something good to work with and things fell into place quite naturally from there. It was clear that the energy and creativity among the four of us was something we needed to explore'.

Why did you choose to play Death Metal?

'There are a lot of death metal bands in Ireland but most bands here tend to lean either  toward more technical or brutal forms, with a few melodic types knocking around, too. As we all tend to be more interested in the weirder, darker ends of things, be it doom, death or black metal, it was an obvious decision to try to develop something together with a focus on that side of things. That was, I suppose, the initial impetus. Once we all came together and realised we were creating music that we found genuinely exciting, ourselves, the band took on a new meaning. It became its own focus, the impetus shifted to one of pure creativity and exploration- seeking out those weird and unexplored corridors of darkness and obscurity and that remains the focus today'.

How do you compose your music? Does only one guy do everything or does everyone contribute?

'Myself and MB tend to bring the riffs to the table, either pre-written or else through spontaneous jamming. We then fuck around with them in rehearsals as a band until we feel they are something we are truly happy with. Nothing is sacred in that sense. If a riff is good but needs a bit of work we chop it up and play around with it until we're happy. If a riff isn't worthy it soon gets fucked in the bin. Ultimately, the song is all that matters so there is no point in being precious about who's riff gets axed or kept. We are hard on ourselves in that way as we see ourselves as being part of the wider death metal community and if we want to be taken seriously, have a real impact and stand out, then we need to write songs that sound both strong and identifiable as our own'.

Tell us about your lyrics, writing, inspiration etc.

'I write most of the lyrics and my ideas can come from anywhere. I read a lot and I work in archaeology which has offered some inspiration to me over the years. I'm no storyteller, I find that trying to write in a linear way to be creatively stifling and unnatural to me so my lyrics tend to be more kaleidoscopic and fragmented. I like to find the strands that draw seemingly disparate images together and give them a little twang. Usually there is some underlying focus on death/ life after death (both physical and, well, I don't necessarily like to use the term spiritual but maybe something more esoteric?), the loss of sanity- our minds can seem so fragile- and how that may be tied into religious belief or self-abuse. The physical landscape is of interest, too. I like how we look at the surface of this modern world we live in, so sanitised and clean, but if we physically dig beneath it we will find evidence of weird old spiritual practices, violence and brutality. We were looking at the idea of liminal spaces or points of transition on the new EP so that kind of underpins the whole thing. The image of the hengiform from the title was a strong visual cue that we felt tied things together nicely. A hengiform was an Iron Age structure that would have been used for ritual purposes, human and animal sacrifices, and was seen as a gateway between the physical world and the afterlife. As well as all of the above, I also enjoy playing around with word formations and I have recently made a bit of a small breakthrough in my head- one that probably seems incredibly obvious in light of what I've already said- but I plan on being a bit more playful in how I approach my writing in future. I want to break free of structure completely, maybe reverse the process a bit. Once the various ideas have been brought together why not shatter them again and reshuffle them? Allow them to create new associations with new formations. If the links are already there, and already somewhat tenuous, breaking them apart further doesn’t seem so radical to me. We'll see what happens'.

Is there an ideology behind your band?

'Lyrically, all of what I mentioned in the last question could be seen as a loose ideology. Musically our plan is to create something that sounds strong and identifiably our own. Our approach to riffing can vary from simply writing a monster, simple crusher of a riff that gets your head going to trying to capture some sort of a concept through the music. Trying to manifest the idea of being caught between two planes of existence like life and death, sanity and insanity or whatever, in musical form is a challenge. Trying to do that and then make it memorable is another challenge but that is essentially what our goal is. That is why our music tends to hinge somewhere between a more, maybe forward looking approach, and a style closer to old school death and black metal'.

How do you see the state of Death Metal music these days in your country and in general?

'The death metal scene here is active but as I said most bands seem more concerned with technicality and/or brutality than writing music that we would consider to be especially dark. Zom and Vircolac are the obvious exceptions, and we share a similar outlook to those bands. There are a few other new bands rumbling in the depths of the underground but have yet to release anything or gig but hopefully something of value will emerge in time'.

What are your long term plans as a band? What do you want to achieve?

'Our plans are to write a full length album and we expect that it will take us a good long time as we don't want to write some half-assed bullshit that will get lost in the ever-growing mire. We will play whatever gigs or tours that come our way as long as the bands are right for us, too. That is really it. It boils down to the music for us'.

Name an other Death Metal band from your country that everyone should hear.

'Venusian Death Cell'.

Free word

'Thanks a lot for the interview'.

ANACHRONISM

Tämä yhteenveto ei ole käytettävissä. Näytä postaus klikkaamalla tätä.

CASKET SOIL

Who are you and what do you do in your band?

Juho: I'm Juho Viinikanoja and I play lead guitar.

Petri: I'm Petri Viinikanoja, I play bass and do vocals.

When/where was your band formed? 

Petri: Casket Soil was formed in 2010 in Muhos. We have more specific biography on our Facebook page.

Why did you choose to play Death Metal?

Petri: Everyone in the band likes the genre so it felt natural to start playing it. For me personally death metal has lot of power and energy. That's one reason why I listen and play that kind of music. I also like the challenge it offers to a listener and musician since it rarely follows traditional song structures.

Juho: For me it's a great tool to reflect my feelings such as anger and frustration. Death metal may also be my favorite genre in metal in general. And because death metal has no limits it offers me endless ways to write new material for Casket Soil. 

How do you compose your music? Does only one guy do everything or does everyone contribute?

 Petri: Juho writes basically all the riffs. Then we take rough skeleton of the song to rehearsal room and start putting flesh around it. At this point there's Juho, our drummer Marko and me. When it's good enough, we make a demo of it and arrange vocals to it with our singer Antti.

Tell us about your lyrics, writing, inspiration etc.

Juho: My lyrics often deal with my personal feelings about the mankind and the way the world is going down the sewer. And being a die hard pessimist like me there's always some subject to write a song about... History also inspires me a lot in writing lyrics. When it comes to writing new riffs the ideas just flow out almost every time I pick up my guitar. And when the first good riff pops out the whole song usually follows it afterwards. Most of our songs are actually written within an hour or two because of this "flowing state". But of course there are certain songs that demand more time to arrange and they're usually the longer and more epic songs.

Is there an ideology behind your band?

Petri: No, our only idea is to make great music and have fun while doing it.

How do you see the state of Death Metal music these days in your country and in general?

Juho: I think the state is good! The old legends are still making albums worth listening to and younger bands compose some unique filth in the underground too. I also like the way the more organic sound is coming back to death metal. For example Sotajumala from Finland released a kick ass record this year and I'm pretty excited to hear some new Vorum material this year too.

What are your long term plans as a band? What do you want to achieve?

Petri: At this moment we are working with our first full-length album and it's supposed to be released before the end of this year.  Long term plans for me personally are to continue with this band as long as possible and keep its music interesting, to both band and listeners. I want to reach as wide audience as possible with music like this without making compromises when it comes to our music. 

Juho: To continue this thing as long as it feels good. To make records we like listen to and to play gigs as sweaty they've been this far!

Name an other Death Metal band from your country that everyone should hear.

Juho: Name just one? Revulsion. 

Free word.

Petri: Check out our brand new music video ”Trap of Reverence” in YouTube and listen to our ”Reptilian Verses” EP from last year!

Juho: Be brave and listen to some Casket Soil. And do it now! Feel free to spread the word also. Thanks.

www.facebook.com/CasketSoil

MANDATORY

Who are you and what do you do in your band?

 

My name is Sascha Beselt, I am the co-founder of MANDATORY (GER), lead guitarist and songwriter as well as lyricist. I run my recording studio by the name of SHOW NO MERCY STUDIO and a record label. I have founded other bands like CRIMSON DOME, DARKDAY, INFACTDEAD, FLUCH, DISPUTOR and INVICTION. Debut albums coming up this year. I also write and record music in other genres like classical Avantgarde, New Age, instrumental Rock or Blues.

 

When/where was your band formed? 

 

2001 in a putrid rehearsal room somewhere near Euskirchen, Germany.

 

Why did you choose to play Death Metal?

 

Because we were chosen by the hands of death. Seriously: I wanted the fattest riffs - so it had to be Death Metal.

 

How do you compose your music? Does only one guy do everything or does everyone contribute?

 

In MANDATORY we collect our best riffs and fit them together. Sometimes we will throw in some nice melodies or twin-leads. As for my other bands I am the only songwriter there. They are my babies. The only way to be 100% satisfied with the stuff I release.

 

Tell us about your lyrics, writing, inspiration etc.

 

As for MANDATORY: No goats, reversed crosses or 666's - just pure Death Metal. No Black Metal-lyrics but also not white. We always get our inspiration from death, decay, murder, war, occult rituals, surreal empires and religion. Songs like "Where They Bleed", "Into Eternal Sleep",  "A Hallowed Sacrifice" or "Nevermore" coming to mind. A few lyrics also deal with belief and the question if it helps us or not such as "Obscure Mortification". Most important to us is the connecting and sound of words. If it spreads the atmosphere of death, it's right!

Concerning my other bands it's more or less the same with the exception of macabre horror lyrics in INFACTDEAD and sociopolitical lyrics in DISPUTOR.

 

Is there an ideology behind your band?

 

No ideology! Just DEATH METAL till death!! Music about the morbid depths of the human mind and kind.

Even if a few lyrics of mine deal with christianity, they are always just inspired by the bible and it's violent stories, never preaching. Maybe asking questions or just describing agony and pain. They have no conncetion to what people might understand as "White Metal".

 

How do you see the state of Death Metal music these days in your country and in general?

 

Oh man! A very difficult question that I get asked everytime I do an interview. Well, first off I think people in the worldwide scene are getting something completely wrong at the moment: They still think that Death Metal is underground music. It is not. We had MySpace, we have Twitter, Facebook and Soundcloud. Labels, even the so-called "true" and "credible" ones, promote their new releases with "...in the vein of" or "for fans of classic...". Now fill in every name you can think of.. "Asphyx"...  "Grave"... "Unleashed"... "Massacre"... "Master" - WHATSOEVER! And what does the consumer out there do? He immediately thinks he absolutely NEEDS (!) this new release. And while I personally have the highest respect for EVERY band that manages to get a record deal for self-composed and -recorded music, I think the scene needs to realize that it is subject to the rules of consume just like Hip Hop or Metalcore, too. It has become some kind of mainstream to listen to evil music. And another thing is: Maniacs need to stay objective and don't take themselves too serios or "superior" to let's say Hip Hop- or Metalcore-fans. Everytime I read a post against other music genres - sorry man -, I would like to vomit. In moments like these Metalheads downgrade themselves in my eyes. I find this absolutely embarrassing. So bottom line:  Listen to whatever you like, guys, but be tolerant and don't think you are superior to others. You don't need to like other music but just let other people listen to what THEY like. The Third Reich is history.

 

Another thing that gets on my nerves is that most people seem to miss ears. Because IF they had some, they would hear that most of their beloved new "old school bands"-bands lack great hooklines or riffs that make a song stand out just like the old classics by Unleashed, Grave, Asphyx, Benediction or Massacre. "Defeat Remains", "Violation Domain", "The Krusher", Unfit Earth"... Do I need to name more?!

 

The thing is: Productions currently all sound the same "thanks" to most bands and even extremely well-known producers (not naming anyone) mixing "in the box" (meaning without analog hardware) and even getting their guitar sounds in the box (GUITAR RIG and Co.), so without mic'ing physical amps. Productions of this kind all sound more or less similar: FAT and LOUD.. but too often also dull. I remember a lot of "comeback"-albums from the last 3, 4 years that left me with a big question mark in my head. Just loudness for the sake of fucking loudness. But when you think back to the 80s or 90s, you remember different scenes from different countries having different sonic strurtures, sounds. This was due to local studios being booked by local bands and labels using locally-available equipment. You can be sure that German studios in 1992 had not the same stuff to work with like Russian or Polish studios. Take the Greek scene for example with bands like early Rotting Christ and Septic Flesh.They had a way more organic, I would like to say "open" sound than Death Metal acts produced at Morrisound for example. At Morrisound everything sounded the same. The same snare, the same guitars. Everything compressed to death. Now take those aforementioned bands from Greece or maybe bands from France, Israel, Poland or the Czech Republic around the same time. I would like to throw in names like Misanthrope, Krabathor, early Vader, early Orphaned Land and Salem - all during the early-to-mid 90s. Great bands with unique productions making it a REAL discovery to go through the shelves of record stores just to discover a new jewel from the true underground. All these bands plus British Doom-Death Metal (Anathema, Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride) or progressive Death Metal-acts like Tiamat and Edge of Sanity made for a highly interesting scene. You know, I hear people complaining about production aesthetics of album X or Y. "And Justice For All" is such a well-discussed release. Man, I am SO thankful for the way it sounds!! This has to be my favorite Metallica-album among the first five. It sounds different, it sounds unique. It always made me want to dive into it. So much for my view on the Death Metal-scene of the 90s. And now 20 years later, here we are in a scene with a standardized production-level- and -ways resulting in missing sonic individuality. Maybe most people don't even realize it and are happy with what they hear and think "What is this guy talking about!?" reading these lines. But the thing is: It is MY opinion I get asked for.

 

Personally this whole development lead to myself ignoring most new bands. Or let's put it different, vice versa: At some point like 10, 11 years ago I found myself not buying new albums. I KNOW that there are great bands out there but I just don't feel the will to listen through five dozens of new 2015-releases that more or less all sound very similar to each other and out of which 80% are recorded using a HM-2-"Heavy Metal"-BOSS-pedal. In fact the only band I discovered myself on Youtube in the last year and that made me get highly interested in it, was a Black/Thrash-band from Bosnia with a do-it-yourself-production. It felt cheap but "pure". But don't think I would never get myself some new stuff for my collection. It's just that I still have to collect so much releases from the old days. I got myself the Utumno-release last year for example. KILLER stuff man! Also there is so much other music besides Metal that I also try to explore from time to time. So, yeah.. I wish all new, young bands out there the best, really. But I am not the guy faking interest in "scene". IF I will hear some great new stuff one day, you can be sure that this guy here will put his hardearned money into it - and I mean PHYSICAL media, no downloads! Music is my life: From my profession as a musicologist (M.A.) and teacher to being a producer, songwriter and Metal maniac.

 

What are your long term plans as a band? What do you want to achieve?

 

World domination!!

Well, to stay realistic: Writing music that satisfies MYSELF.

If it also satisfies other people - GREAT!!  If not:  It's ok, but then I have at least not made any compromise. Being yourself -> the only thing that counts.

 

Name an other Death Metal band from your country that everyone should hear.

 

See (7).

 

Free word

 

Trust your ears - not "attitude" or "scene"!!

Thanks to all reading so far and fight for the Metal of death!!