The questions for this interview were sent a few
months ago but due to several reasons, the interview was delayed. The good thing
is that Stiff Old [guitars-vocals] and Muerte [bass] sent me updated info
about DEATHRONATION and the imminent release of their debut full-length “Hallow
the Dead”…
Hi!, how are you, are you enjoying this cold Winter?
Stiff Old: Ave ! All fine here, thanx! Unfortunately, there was no cold winter inGermany
You have recently recorded your debut LP “Hallow the Dead”, the last news were that you were looking for a label and you were about to do the final mix/mastering of the album, can you please give an update about the current situation?
Well, the good thing with delayed answers is, that sometimes you can give more specific informations when finally answering them. So right now all work on “Hallow the Dead” is finished and we got a deal with Ván-Records. They will release the album on vinyl and cd about September/October 2014.
For all of us, those who are longing to hear your raw Old school metal, could you give us an advance of what is to come? Describe the sound, style and concept that embodies “Hallow the Dead”
“Hallow the Dead” features songs from the very early period of the bands existence as also songs finally written when the recording-sessions already have begun. The music is about fast beats, doom-parts, melodic parts as well as brutal ones. It will be a bastard of dark and aggressive Death Metal the ancient way. We tried to bring the lyrics, the music and the visuals to one compact unit and I guess we succeded with that. The sound will be much more powerful than on the last releases, but nevertheless still rude. In my opinion the album has a lot of power which becomes – in the opposite of many releases - even more intense from the beginning to the end of the record.
You recorded two songs from the “Exochrism” demo and one from “A Soil Forsaken” demo, can´t wait to hear those killer songs with new sound. Are any of them new versions with new arrangements or just re-recorded versions?
“Realm of Shadows “ from the “A soil forsaken” is the second song we have ever written. We still like playing it live, so it was necessary for us to bring this song on the album. The same is for the two tracks from Exorchrism. The songs and arrangements are still the same like on the demos. But of course some details are different, like some solo-parts and stuff like this. So it’s mainly the sound which makes a difference.
I really like the cover artwork, who was responsible for the concept and drawing? Which album covers would you choose as your all time faves?
Fortunately with Chris/Misantrophic Art we have a talented friend who did all the work on the layout and design. He painted and designed the layout for many months and we are totally satisified with the result. We gave him a description what we want to express with the artwork and talked a lot about details. Then he was able to transform these ideas into the drawing and enriched it with a lot of own input.
We all prefer covers which show that they are more done with passion than with Photoshopskills.
Muerte: My all time faves are nearly all misanthropic art and iron maiden covers, south of heaven, seasons in the abyss, painkiller, rust in peace, blessed are the sick, arise, storm of the light’s bane, in the nightside eclipse, opus nocturne, just to name some and the last cover that really kicked ass was the cover of graveyard’s hisingen blues.
Old: coverartworks can impress me in different ways. By a great picture, a great Layout, a deeper Meaning or just because they are cool in some way. I think it’s important to take care for a fitting cover, as an album is a compact product. The cover is connected to the music. That’s the way I grew up and that’s the way I want to spread it.
Tiamat - Astral Sleep; Metallica – Master of Puppets; Slayer: Reign in Blood, South of Heaven, Seasons in the Abyss; Entombed – Left Hand Path; Morbid Angel – Blessed are the Sick; Cathedral – most of them; Running Wild – Death or Glory;
As far as I know you started as Eyesore, how was the beginning of the band? what motivated you to play this music and why did you decide to change the name to DEATHRONATION?
The motivation to start the band was simply to play that kind of music which could hardly be heard in that time: Death Metal the old-school way. The change to DEATHRONATION marks the decision to follow the path of the early 90’s deathmetalbands and to kick-off the non fitting musical influences. This meant to focus on a style which was already dead in that time. It should take some years before more and more people re-discovered the old style of deathmetal.
Are all the band members involved in writing the lyrics?, in what kind of lyrics/themes are you interested? Why do you think that the whole concept of Death is so appealing?
The lyrics are mainly written by me [Stiff Old]. Some parts have been taken over by Goathammer. The lyrics deal with different topics about history, spirituality, mythology, society and the with all related insanity. Always seen from the dark view of death. I don't know why the topic of death is appealing for other people. For us it's surly perfectly fitting to our kind of music. But this kind of view means also a reduction of the lyrics just being a part of the music. In our case the lyrics give the whole bandconcept a deeper meaning. The lyrics are not just a part of the music. They deal with topics related to the old questions about birth and death: where do we come from? Where do we go to?
On your first demo, A Soil Forsaken, you used an extract from the “Stigmata” movie as intro, do you like movies that deal with religion and demonic possessions?
Muerte: You mean the intro, right ? that’s actually a sample from “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” movie. Yes I like that kind of movies, but there were a lot of boring movies in the past about possessions and exorcism. Seemed that there were 2-3 new exorcism movies every month, so I started getting bored. My all time fave is of course “the exorcist”. No other movie about exorcism reached that feeling and when I think about, when I saw it first time with maybe 12/13 years… many sleepless nights ! beside “the exorcist”, “evil dead” and “hellraiser” are my faves !
On your old logo you used the head of one of the “Templars” from Amando de Ossorio´s movie Tombs of the Blind Dead, and you also have a nice design of t-shirts with them on it, absolutely killer and total old school! Did you watch all the films from the “blind dead” series? If so, which one do you like most?
Well, the Tombs of the Blind Dead are really cult movies for us. But this is related with the times first seeing them. We were teens, starting with metal music and all related stuff and then these movies appeared at late night in the private tv. The movies have mostly bad scripts, bad actors and are sometimes even boring. But nevertheless…the blind dead themselves look more evil than anything. Don’t listen to the dialogs…just love the atmosphere of these movies. I never forget the blind dead on dead horses riding along the beach. That was EVIL haha. Who the fuck is impressed by computertechnology Ring Ghosts when there are true analog blind dead lurking around haha?
Your second demo Exochrism was also released as digipack with A Soil Forsaken as bonus and it was also released as 12”Lp through Iron Bonehead. How did you get in contact with Iron Bonehead for the vinyl release? How many copies of Exochrism have you sold counting all editions?
If I remember right, we talked with Iron Bonehead at some concert. I don't remember exactly, but anyway we hold the contact via email and soon it was obvious that we will release the stuff at Iron Bonehead. I can't say how many copies of “Exorchrism” have been sold at all, the US/Canada edition digipack was limited to 200 copies. The first CD edition on Deadmasters's Beat Rec. /Godeater Rec. was done with 1000 copies. There are just a few left here. The vinyl edition is limited to 500 copies. The 500 copies of the following Split
Last year you released a Split 7” with Obscure Infinity through Whispers of Death Records and Iron Bonehead, who came up with the idea of this release? Did you know Obscure Infinity before the 7” release?
I think the idea was from Iron Bonehead. We were talking about doing a 7-Inch some day. Then it turned out to become a split 7". I never heard about Whispers of Death Records before the release and I still don't know who the man behind the label is. It's something else with Obscure Infinity. We already knew Obscure Infinity from a couple of great concerts we played with them before. So this idea was good for us to share a piece of vinyl with them.
Last year also you did a tour with Obliteration and Degial, “The Sepulchral Rites Tour”, I Interviewed Sindre from Obliteration and I asked him about the tour, he said it was great and had many cool shows! What´s your impression about the tour? Is there one show that you enjoyed most or remember it as special?
Muerte: Yes I agree. Obliteration and Degial are great guys and it was a cool ride and our first european tour. We learned many things on that tour and we’re also looking forward to go on tour again in 2014. I really enjoyed the shows inSweden Stockholm Sweden , we played nice shows in Belgium , the Netherlands again, Switzerland and Italy
I also asked him about Funny or crazy moments from the tour, now is your time to share some of those funny memories….
Well, maybe waking up in the morning and checking who has the worst hangover was funny. Realising that you’re getting old was less funny haha. The whole tour was really hard and doing a tour means a lot of stress. But we had numerous good moments and a good time at all. We’re crazy people talking a lot of crazy shit. So it’s not easy to pick out some single point. A funny situation was for sure, when we were inSwitzerland
How would you describe a Deathronation gig? What a band has to offer to leave a good impression on the audience?
A Deathronation show is like a ritual for us. It’s serious, dark and 100% old skull death metal cult. We don’t try to be something that we aren’t. What you see on stage is Deathronation and no stupid actors. If it’s possible we use torches, blood and fog on stage. Some people would say these are more black metal elements and that’s of course right, but for us, it’s death metal how it was in the early 90’s. We’re trying to bring the spirit of the old days back and the resonances are most time really good.
Being from Germany I guess that you have somehow been influenced by the early cult works of Sodom, Kreator, Destruction…am I right? What do you think about the latest works from these bands?
Muerte: To be honest, I haven’t heard the last releases of all the bands you named. I guess my lastSodom Sodom
How is the current scene inGermany
Muerte: In the past years the metal underground scene became strong again and a lot of bands released good stuff. It seems that people are into old school death metal again. There were years where less people listened and played that style of music and I can remember that it was hard to find musicians for a death metal band. German death metal bands I really like are: Wound, Graveyard Ghoul, Venenum, Incarceration, Savagery, Toderlebend and Chapel of Disease who released the best death metal album in the last past years. Beside the “new german death metal wave” we have great bands like Hellish Crossfire, Mechanix, Desaster and a lot of other bands from all metal genres.
What is the strangest place and the most shocking one that you´ve been?
You mean as a band? Hmmm…many strange places… fucked up venues and stuff like that…but shocking so far… nothing special…In personal life…well, I actually have been toSan Salvador Syria or Lebanon
What will be the next steps for the band?
The official release of “Hallow the Dead” and playing more shows and a tour in autum 2014. And of course working on new material.
Thanks for the interview, is there anything you would like to add?
Thanks a lot for the interview and the patience with our delay in answering! Keep the flame burning, check out “Hallow the Dead” and see you on tour some day!
Hi!, how are you, are you enjoying this cold Winter?
Stiff Old: Ave ! All fine here, thanx! Unfortunately, there was no cold winter in
You have recently recorded your debut LP “Hallow the Dead”, the last news were that you were looking for a label and you were about to do the final mix/mastering of the album, can you please give an update about the current situation?
Well, the good thing with delayed answers is, that sometimes you can give more specific informations when finally answering them. So right now all work on “Hallow the Dead” is finished and we got a deal with Ván-Records. They will release the album on vinyl and cd about September/October 2014.
“Hallow the Dead” features songs from the very early period of the bands existence as also songs finally written when the recording-sessions already have begun. The music is about fast beats, doom-parts, melodic parts as well as brutal ones. It will be a bastard of dark and aggressive Death Metal the ancient way. We tried to bring the lyrics, the music and the visuals to one compact unit and I guess we succeded with that. The sound will be much more powerful than on the last releases, but nevertheless still rude. In my opinion the album has a lot of power which becomes – in the opposite of many releases - even more intense from the beginning to the end of the record.
You recorded two songs from the “Exochrism” demo and one from “A Soil Forsaken” demo, can´t wait to hear those killer songs with new sound. Are any of them new versions with new arrangements or just re-recorded versions?
“Realm of Shadows “ from the “A soil forsaken” is the second song we have ever written. We still like playing it live, so it was necessary for us to bring this song on the album. The same is for the two tracks from Exorchrism. The songs and arrangements are still the same like on the demos. But of course some details are different, like some solo-parts and stuff like this. So it’s mainly the sound which makes a difference.
I really like the cover artwork, who was responsible for the concept and drawing? Which album covers would you choose as your all time faves?
Fortunately with Chris/Misantrophic Art we have a talented friend who did all the work on the layout and design. He painted and designed the layout for many months and we are totally satisified with the result. We gave him a description what we want to express with the artwork and talked a lot about details. Then he was able to transform these ideas into the drawing and enriched it with a lot of own input.
We all prefer covers which show that they are more done with passion than with Photoshopskills.
Muerte: My all time faves are nearly all misanthropic art and iron maiden covers, south of heaven, seasons in the abyss, painkiller, rust in peace, blessed are the sick, arise, storm of the light’s bane, in the nightside eclipse, opus nocturne, just to name some and the last cover that really kicked ass was the cover of graveyard’s hisingen blues.
Old: coverartworks can impress me in different ways. By a great picture, a great Layout, a deeper Meaning or just because they are cool in some way. I think it’s important to take care for a fitting cover, as an album is a compact product. The cover is connected to the music. That’s the way I grew up and that’s the way I want to spread it.
Tiamat - Astral Sleep; Metallica – Master of Puppets; Slayer: Reign in Blood, South of Heaven, Seasons in the Abyss; Entombed – Left Hand Path; Morbid Angel – Blessed are the Sick; Cathedral – most of them; Running Wild – Death or Glory;
The motivation to start the band was simply to play that kind of music which could hardly be heard in that time: Death Metal the old-school way. The change to DEATHRONATION marks the decision to follow the path of the early 90’s deathmetalbands and to kick-off the non fitting musical influences. This meant to focus on a style which was already dead in that time. It should take some years before more and more people re-discovered the old style of deathmetal.
Are all the band members involved in writing the lyrics?, in what kind of lyrics/themes are you interested? Why do you think that the whole concept of Death is so appealing?
The lyrics are mainly written by me [Stiff Old]. Some parts have been taken over by Goathammer. The lyrics deal with different topics about history, spirituality, mythology, society and the with all related insanity. Always seen from the dark view of death. I don't know why the topic of death is appealing for other people. For us it's surly perfectly fitting to our kind of music. But this kind of view means also a reduction of the lyrics just being a part of the music. In our case the lyrics give the whole bandconcept a deeper meaning. The lyrics are not just a part of the music. They deal with topics related to the old questions about birth and death: where do we come from? Where do we go to?
On your first demo, A Soil Forsaken, you used an extract from the “Stigmata” movie as intro, do you like movies that deal with religion and demonic possessions?
Muerte: You mean the intro, right ? that’s actually a sample from “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” movie. Yes I like that kind of movies, but there were a lot of boring movies in the past about possessions and exorcism. Seemed that there were 2-3 new exorcism movies every month, so I started getting bored. My all time fave is of course “the exorcist”. No other movie about exorcism reached that feeling and when I think about, when I saw it first time with maybe 12/13 years… many sleepless nights ! beside “the exorcist”, “evil dead” and “hellraiser” are my faves !
Well, the Tombs of the Blind Dead are really cult movies for us. But this is related with the times first seeing them. We were teens, starting with metal music and all related stuff and then these movies appeared at late night in the private tv. The movies have mostly bad scripts, bad actors and are sometimes even boring. But nevertheless…the blind dead themselves look more evil than anything. Don’t listen to the dialogs…just love the atmosphere of these movies. I never forget the blind dead on dead horses riding along the beach. That was EVIL haha. Who the fuck is impressed by computertechnology Ring Ghosts when there are true analog blind dead lurking around haha?
Your second demo Exochrism was also released as digipack with A Soil Forsaken as bonus and it was also released as 12”Lp through Iron Bonehead. How did you get in contact with Iron Bonehead for the vinyl release? How many copies of Exochrism have you sold counting all editions?
Last year you released a Split 7” with Obscure Infinity through Whispers of Death Records and Iron Bonehead, who came up with the idea of this release? Did you know Obscure Infinity before the 7” release?
I think the idea was from Iron Bonehead. We were talking about doing a 7-Inch some day. Then it turned out to become a split 7". I never heard about Whispers of Death Records before the release and I still don't know who the man behind the label is. It's something else with Obscure Infinity. We already knew Obscure Infinity from a couple of great concerts we played with them before. So this idea was good for us to share a piece of vinyl with them.
Last year also you did a tour with Obliteration and Degial, “The Sepulchral Rites Tour”, I Interviewed Sindre from Obliteration and I asked him about the tour, he said it was great and had many cool shows! What´s your impression about the tour? Is there one show that you enjoyed most or remember it as special?
Muerte: Yes I agree. Obliteration and Degial are great guys and it was a cool ride and our first european tour. We learned many things on that tour and we’re also looking forward to go on tour again in 2014. I really enjoyed the shows in
I also asked him about Funny or crazy moments from the tour, now is your time to share some of those funny memories….
Well, maybe waking up in the morning and checking who has the worst hangover was funny. Realising that you’re getting old was less funny haha. The whole tour was really hard and doing a tour means a lot of stress. But we had numerous good moments and a good time at all. We’re crazy people talking a lot of crazy shit. So it’s not easy to pick out some single point. A funny situation was for sure, when we were in
A Deathronation show is like a ritual for us. It’s serious, dark and 100% old skull death metal cult. We don’t try to be something that we aren’t. What you see on stage is Deathronation and no stupid actors. If it’s possible we use torches, blood and fog on stage. Some people would say these are more black metal elements and that’s of course right, but for us, it’s death metal how it was in the early 90’s. We’re trying to bring the spirit of the old days back and the resonances are most time really good.
Being from Germany I guess that you have somehow been influenced by the early cult works of Sodom, Kreator, Destruction…am I right? What do you think about the latest works from these bands?
Muerte: To be honest, I haven’t heard the last releases of all the bands you named. I guess my last
How is the current scene in
Muerte: In the past years the metal underground scene became strong again and a lot of bands released good stuff. It seems that people are into old school death metal again. There were years where less people listened and played that style of music and I can remember that it was hard to find musicians for a death metal band. German death metal bands I really like are: Wound, Graveyard Ghoul, Venenum, Incarceration, Savagery, Toderlebend and Chapel of Disease who released the best death metal album in the last past years. Beside the “new german death metal wave” we have great bands like Hellish Crossfire, Mechanix, Desaster and a lot of other bands from all metal genres.
What is the strangest place and the most shocking one that you´ve been?
You mean as a band? Hmmm…many strange places… fucked up venues and stuff like that…but shocking so far… nothing special…In personal life…well, I actually have been to
What will be the next steps for the band?
The official release of “Hallow the Dead” and playing more shows and a tour in autum 2014. And of course working on new material.
Thanks for the interview, is there anything you would like to add?
Thanks a lot for the interview and the patience with our delay in answering! Keep the flame burning, check out “Hallow the Dead” and see you on tour some day!
http://www.deathronation.de/
https://www.facebook.com/deathronation
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