Summer Breeze Open Air 2011 report by Kai from Parasite Inc. – Day 1

I’m totally happy to release this blog - the report of Summer Breeze Open Air 2011 by Kai from Parasite Inc.! He brought me a lot of photos and reports of the kick-as metal festival, so I divided in 4 and will present each day separately. Okay, let’s start with the first day without the main stage… Here we go!

Kai:　 Hi my Japanese metal brothers and sisters, have you ever heard about the "Summer Breeze Festival"? It's the second biggest Festival in Germany beside Wacken and it's every year in the South of Germany in a small village called "Dinkelsbühl". Last year on stage with Parasite Inc. and this year as a metalhead I went there once again and if you like to have a small insight to how I have experienced the festival you should continue reading. :) 4 days with 90 bands on 4 stages and 33000 people... alright Summer Breeze... here we go.

Summer Breeze Open Air 2011 － Day 1：

Kai:　 I reached the venue in the evening and after I got my festival bracelet I walked over  camping-site to have a lookout to some friends.

first look at arriving  the camping-site 

SYRANIC complete interview with EAT magazine

It’s about a year and a half ago, I was absolutely hyper with their amazing songs from “The Windscale Inception”, couldn’t sit still anymore and worked really hard for spreading the word about the EP, here’s one of the results of my passion , hell yeah! The interview is an old one for their history and I really love it. Actually, SYRANIC are still my number one! So, I’m proudly show you how they answered to their first time Japanese metal mag interview. *grin*

SYRANIC interview with Japanese metal mag EAT magazine issue 94 (May 2010)

SHIT MUSIC FOR BAD PEOPLE! THIS IS THE WORST
MUSIC MAGAZINE IN THE WORLD – EAT magazine

～Opening Statements by EAT magazine～
"Metal is one of the best ways to canalize your emotions and to free something inside you.” By Julian Parusel

Hendrik Kröger (g) from KILLTRIBE that we run their interview on the previous issue founded SYRANIC before he join the tribe. They finished their 1st EP “The Windscale Inception”. The impression of their thrashing and edged extreme metal sound with stubborn-like is as same vector as ARKANGEL, HEAVEN SHALL BURN and others, but SYRANIC made it more emphasize their lyrical melodies like step into a kind of the works of human. The balance and the contract of those elements made their sound more intensely. Now, the amplification and the evolution of German Extreme Forces has been speeding up with raising a cloud of dust, it reminds a fierce attack by German soccer team at World Cup 2010. SYRANIC is just standing in the forefront among those forces. We had an interview with Hendrik and Julian by e-mail.

(by EAT magazine May 2010)

SYRANIC - Hendrik Kröger and Julian Parusel
The interview with EAT magazine Japan on May 2010

Q. You seem to be few playing shows from this fall to winter, but what will you be doing as Syranic until then? I guess you will be playing as Killtribe during that period as well right?

Julian: We will be playing a tour in Spain this summer and we also got some festivals coming up. We are really busy with everything concerning Syranic and prepare for our tour through Germany which will be played this autumn and winter. Moreover we are starting a campaign to get as much reactions as possible in the rock and metal press in Germany and Europe. Our EP is going to be released this month and we are going to use it to get label contacts, we got a lot of stuff to do as you can see.

Hendrik: There literally isn't a single day nothing happens in this band. We always have something going on and I love it!

Q. When exactly did you start playing Syranic? Did both Killtribe and Syranic start around the same time?

Hendrik: I wasn't a founding member of Killtribe so I don't know when this band started. But I created Syranic before I became a member of Killtribe. It all began in 2008, with me and our old drummer Geerd playing around after the breakup of our last band. At that time our song "Endless Open End" has been written. We always used to record the whole rehearsal session, then checking out the best ideas at home and continue writing on them until we're at a point where we have to take it to the rehearsal room again. That was and still is a very productive way of songwriting.

 

Q. Please introduce us the other members. How did the four of you get together?

Hendrik: We had quite some changes in our line-up since the beginning. At the time Geerd and I created "Endless Open End", Geerd suggested to send a demo to Julian, who didn't know me back then. He had a break from music for 2 years during this time after his last band called "Mahout Operator" and actually didn't wanted to be active again. He only did some singer/songwriter and jazz stuff, but he liked "Endless Open End" so much that he came all the way from his home - which at that time was 500 km away from our studio - to record the vocals for the preproduction with us. At least he broke up his studies and moved to cologne to be part of Syranic.

The first line up change appeared in 2009, due to different problems Geerd and the both of us had to go separate ways. Fortunately Stefan Klebingat, drummer from the insane technical metal band "Under The Pledge of Secrecy" helped us out on the EP, so we still were able to start the production in time. Also Helge Jansen from the former metal band "10 Fold B-Low" played bass on it. We weren't able to find permanent members for the band for a long time, so we figured: Let's give them a reason by producing the best songs we can and thus make them an offer they can't refuse, haha.

Fortunately this worked out really well and a number of good people became interested in playing for this band. The guys ending up on stage with us in the end were Kamil Albrecht on guitars and additional vocals and Jan Plücken on bass - who both are also playing with our good friends from Eleonore - and Daniel Schneider on drums. We found some insanely talented people there and I am really glad to have them on our team.

Q. I guess the common musical background for both bands is extreme music, especially heavy metal. How do you try to differentiate the sound and the concept between both bands?

Hendrik: We have a strong concept for the music we want to create with Syranic. We want the heavy parts to be as brutal and mind-fucking as anything there is and the soft parts to be extremely beautiful and catchy, too. Of course in the end you will end up doing the music you like to listen to yourself, but that only helps the concept in this case, because everyone in this band not only likes extreme metal genres but also we are all big fans of soft and melodic stuff like Karnivool or Dead Letter Circus.

Julian: That is absolutely right! We had the idea to transform the classical metalcore and modern metal formula of brutal songs with clean choruses into something special by exaggerating the whole classical concept. I think we already have done quite a good job on our first EP and we will stay on this path for sure. Something which also should be mentioned is that we are not only metalheads. We had and have a strong impact from pop and other genres. I am listening a lot to swing like Django Rheinhardt or bigbands and I also worship artists like Dredge, Muse, Faith no More, Prince and so on. My dream is to create a death metal album with swing influences one day, but I am sure I will never get the other guys to write such songs - hahaha!

Hendrik: Yeah, I don't know, hahahaha!

Q. You told me that all the members are involved in songwriting for Killtribe, but who is the main songwriter for Syranic?

Hendrik: We evolved a lot of different techniques for songwriting over the years. The old songs were all written the way I described earlier, creating riffs in the rehearsal room and continue working on them at home and for some songs I create the riffs for myself and Julian then starts working on the vocals. But for the last songs Julian already had some riffs and vocal ideas in his head and so the two of us would meet in the studio or at home and work on those ideas for sometimes two days straight, having a completely finished song in the end. For example the song "Trans[c]ience" from our EP was created this way.

Julian: Yes, the songwriting for "Trans[c]ience" was different but it worked out really well. We wrote the whole song in one day, the craziest part was the chorus. At first we wanted to write a song without any catchy melodies but Hendrik still wanted a chorus in it. So I took the guitar and said: "Hey man I dreamed this part a few days ago - check this out" and played the chorus with the riff as it is in the song today. I am not kidding I dreamed exactly about this son of a bitch. I think you can say that Hendrik and me are the main songwriters but the other guys already have a big impact.

Hendrik: Yeah I'm a real popbitch and need my melodies, haha. But with Julian as the counterpart there's nothing easier than writing a great chorus. This guy is unbelievably creative and I'll eat my hat if he hasn't already stashed enough ideas for choruses to put on at least the next three records!

Q. How do you feel about the outcome of this new EP “The Windscale Inception”?

Hendrik: I was completely responsible for the recording and production of this record and that was so much work, literally hundreds of hours and I currently can't imagine doing this again for the next record, but I'm glad I did for this one time. We really have a good product in our hands now, and that gives us loads of opportunities. There were moments I thought I was going insane, but getting all those reactions from our fans now gives me the feeling it was all worth it.

Julian: Hendrik has done a hell of a job on the EP! It was a hard time but it was more than worth doing it, the fanbase is already really strong and we got so much preorders from all over the world - I think it is the greatest reward we can get for our work. Thank you to everyone who supports us - we appreciate it!

Q. I assume you guys will work on a full length after this. What will be your basic idea or an image of the upcoming album be like?

Hendrik: Yes, we already began writing some songs for a full length record and I feel really good about them. They do the job of fitting the style we are going for even better. I love the technical parts already and those choruses will be huge! We are on a great way of enhancing our typical sound.

Julian: Something I can already say about this is that the full length album is going to be more spiritual than "The Windscale Inception". The lyrics on our first EP are mostly dealing with social circumstances and humanity faling to solve its problems. I think the longplayer is going to be way different, we already have written a real beast called "Yalda" and the Lyrics are absolutely not comparable to "The Windscale Inception".

The idea is to write the lyrics like a conceptalbum and "Yalda" is going to be the final song, which already stands for the whole idea of our upcoming album. "Yalda" is a song which stands for the greatness of life and the connection between all beings who exist today and who have ever existed. Sounds like I got too much drugs in my veins hm? I should better switch to beer and whiskey again that is more metal! Haha, no I mean it and it is a great image for a longplayer.

Q. What does the title “The Windscale Inception” mean?

Julian: That is a good question. It is not quite easy to explain - I'll do my very best. The lyrics on "The Windscale Inception" are mostly dealing with humanity failing to solve their problems. In the beginning the vocals have been simply facts about disasters of our modern time like the lake Karatschai in Russia, the most polluted place on Earth. I used this theme for the lyrics of "Death Facility One". This disaster took place in a nuclear facility in the Ural where plutonium for nuclear warheads was produced. The Soviet scientists just lead the river which ends in the Karatschai lake through the core of the reactor to cool it and back into the river again - they really didn't give a fuck! Therefore you die if you spend 60 minutes close to this lake.

Nemesis is also one of these songs. it is about the irony that humankind is the first species which is able to realize that its limited resources are overcultivated but still is trapped in the principles. We are so convinced that we can solve our problems with technique that we can not see our real role in life in a modest way. We are still the same monkey which is just living in a technical world and we can't see how overstrained we are actually in this modern world. Relating to the themes of these first lyrics we were looking for a metaphor and found it in the town Windscale in Great Britain. The first nuclear disaster, which has been the most serious worst-case scenario with a reactor before chernobyl, happened exactly in this town and the british government just changed the name into Sellafield to keep it secret. The facility is still in use today and is polluting the Northern seas just as "La Haque" in France with radioactive garbage. The lyrics are all about the human hubris to rule and the failing of every single one of us. This sounds really depressed and dark but actually "The Windscale Inception" is a really positive piece of music even if it is hate-filled. I believe that we are all aware of our responsibility and know the difference between good and bad. It is the main conclusion of the EP: "Things are going bad but we can face and change them, if we become aware of our own role in this big game called life."

We called the EP "The Windscale Inception" because it is the beginning of our creative work as a group of musicians and because "Windscale" is a metaphor for the human hubris that technology is the solution for all our problems. I believe it is not! Technology is developing way too fast for us and we can't cope with the speed of changes in our environment. All that technology does in my opinion is accelerating the growth rate of our societies and this is just causing bigger problems, not solutions. Humanity is at a turning point and it is in our hands to deal with our problems in a responsible way or not. There will be just loosers or just winners, it depends on us! This is one globe, one nature and one humankind - we will swim or sink together. So "The Windscale Inception" is a metaphor for both: the beginning of our work as musicians and the beginning of a time which will change the human history once and for all.

 

Q. Have Killtribe and Syranic ever played together in the past?

Hendrik: Not yet, but I'm pretty sure this is going to happen some time in the future. There is no intention to do that, but I'm positive the bands will come across on a metal festival or something like that.

Q. I think Syranic has more melodic sound compared to Killtribe. What kind of a message or an idea do you try to get across to the listeners with Syranic?

Julian: Metal is not just music - it is straight into your face, brutal, intense but always two things: honest and passionate. Metal is one of the best ways to canalize your emotions and to free something inside you. You get up and fight for the things you believe in, I feel it in the moments in which I am on stage and every time I write a song. It is this feeling which is meant for the person who listens to your songs or who is moshing on your gig. You share a moment and this is what I always want the listener to feel. It is a journey we do with our music - come with us!

Q. You told me previously that you have a big influence from Adam of Killswith Engage. What are some of the points that you admire about him as a guitarist?

Hendrik: Yeah, Killswitch Engage influenced my style a lot. I like the way they write compact and catchy songs. And they always have great choruses. It's quite obvious that our song "The Mindscale Inception" has been influenced a lot by Killswitch Engage. Also "Nemesis" isn't completely free of that. Yet with the new songs that influence is almost completely gone, though I'll always admire the compactness of their songs.

Q. Like you, Adam also does a lot of sound for different bands. Is this also some of the points that inspire you about him? How do you think about his sound producing works?

Hendrik: Well, I guess we chose a quite similar career, but it's not something I did for that purpose. Though I think he produced some of the best sounding metal albums of all time, most notably "The Awakening" by German metallers Caliban. I love the sound of that album, it's incredible.

Q. What is your favorite Killswith Engage song?

Hendrik: I don't listen to them that much these days, but I still think that almost every song on "The End Of Heartache" is a hit. Though the best song ever by them may be "Fixation On The Darkness" from their first record. I'm pretty sure there is no song I've played on my guitar more often than this one, haha.

Q. How do you think about the current metal / extreme music scene in Germany?

Julian: I think there are a lot of passionate musicians in Germany and the current metal and extreme music scene is really big. We got bands like Caliban and Heaven Shall Burn which where founding members of the metalcore scene and we got some great melodeath, metalcore and modern metal bands around here. The scene in Aachen and Cologne is really good for example, there are so many amazing bands out of this area like Eleonore, trickORtreat, Under the Pledge of Secrecy or Last One Dying. Moreover there is a huge Beatdown and Metalcore scene in Eastern Germany. You can say that there are not many well known bands but the underground is absolutely alive.

Hendrik: Hell yes, I love the underground bands from our region. We really have a high density of great bands here and I'm not just saying this. Also on a national scale there are a lot of bands who have some reputation all across the world as Julian already mentioned. It's kinda funny when you read about "German Metal" as a genre, but I get it - we do have a common style here.

Q. Who would you say is the all time greatest band of Germany?

Julian: My girlfriend Julia while she is playing guitar and my balls when I let them slide over a piano… Oh we are talking about metal right? Well that is hard to say - my favorite band in Germany is "Heaven Shall burn" right now, but my all time favorite German band are the noise-rockers "Harmful" from Frankfurt. Great songs, great live-band - awesome! I've seen them with "Faith no More" the last time and it was one of the best concerts I have ever seen. One thing you got to know about them is that Faith No More bass-guitar player Billy Gould also played for "Harmful".

Hendrik: Rammstein! An incredible and unique band! I'm not a fan of their latest stuff but their 2001 release "Mutter" is in my opinion one of the greatest metal albums ever. And to date it is one of the best sounding! Also my style of writing has been influenced by that album for a long time.

Julian: Ah yes Rammstein. That fits with my balls on the piano - "I hurt you and you are mourning silently" I love them!

Hendrik: Bück dich!

Q. Who named the band Syranic?

Julian: It was me. At first the band was called "Spinal Shock" but we have never been really happy with this name. Hendrik gave me the task to find a name which starts with S and ends with C and it should be one word. This task took me weeks I guess and I worked on it for a really long time. At last I ended up with "Syranic" and the greatest thing was that this name had a real meaning already.

Hendrik: That is the task I gave you? Holy shit, do I suck. But I guess in the end it worked out pretty well, haha.

Q. What is the meaning behind the name Syranic?

Julian: It is a description for our sound which is personated by a figure of the Greek mythology. This is Syranis, demigod of cruelty and mercy, the son of Eros and Hamysh-Git, a creature of Chaos from the outter void. The manic character of our songs is perfectly described by this demigod. We destroy everything you are and lift you up again when you are down. Syranic is heaven and hell in every song, we ARE Syranic!

Q. The environment of music and the relationship between artists and listeners have been changing drastically with the spread of internet. As a musician, how would you want to keep playing music in the future?

Hendrik: Of course with the introduction of MP3 and thus the possibility to get all the music you like for free the internet has a big downside to the music industry.
But we as Syranic use the internet to our full advantage. I can not imagine how we would ever have gotten the possibilities of playing shows and getting fans in these dimensions if it wasn't for the internet. Hell, we wouldn't even be doing this interview right now. Also the very convenient ways of talking to your fans and giving them the opportunity to talk to you are great. You can create a very personal relationship with your fans nowadays.

Q. How do you see the general rock scene of the first ten years of this millennium?

Hendrik: I must say I love the music that has been coming out this last decade. The Nu Metal genre in the beginning was fun and I also like all those modern polyrhythmic bands that came up during the years. And even when it comes to popular music, I love the stuff that has been coming out this decade! You would be shocked about what music from the top artists of the years I listen to. Nothing compared to the 90s, I really don't like the sound of that decade.

Julian: I have nothing more to say and agree in all points - it was a lot of fun and a lot of great music was released! Keep it going guys!

Q. What is your favorite metal album that came out in these ten years?

Hendrik: Holy shit, that is a tough one! The problem with that question is I have something you could call band ADD. I can really adore a band for maybe one year and then I go like: God, they suck. I'm kind of extreme about that, haha. But the albums I loved the most were "Silhouettes" by Textures from 2008, "Ascendancy" by Trivium from 2005, "The End Of Heartache" by Killswitch Engage from 2004, "Deliverance" by Opeth from 2002, "Toxicity" by System Of A Down from 2001 and as I said earlier "Mutter" bei Rammstein from 2001.

Julian: Wow Hendrik is right, this IS a tough one but I can answer it. My favorites are: "The Audio Injected Soul" by Mnemic from 2004, "Alien" by Strapping Young Lad from 2005, "The New Black" by Strapping Young Lad from 2006, "Stabbing the Drama" by Soilwork from 2005, "Figure Number Five" by Soilwork from 2003, "Stone Sour" by Stone Sour from 2002 and "Deaf To Our Prayers" by Heaven Shall Burn from 2006.

Q. What is the goal for Syranic?

Julian: To fuck your mind!

May 2010 EAT magazine issue 94

SYRANIC “The Windscale Inception” EP review by EAT magazine issue 94
The debut EP of SYRANIC formed Hendrik from KILLTRIBE, Kamil Albrecht from the vox of ELEONORE and others. With thrashin’ riffs have relevance to FEAR FACTORY, conclusive melodies have the backbone of KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, and hysterical screaming vox like Devin Townsend, they created very sharp spirals with full of various eras right-on music sense. SYRANIC placed their sound with a lot of extreme metal icons, and also they show us some part of a traditional metal and heaviness mood from end of 90’s (they rejected that era as “dislike” though ). This is a really good EP that you can take their passion of their obsession as a German metal band with knife-edged sound images from the start to the end!

EAT magazine

SYRANIC 
THE WINDSCALE INCEPTION

1. Endless Open End
2. Trans[c]ience
3. Nemesis
4. The Mindscale Inception
5. Death Facility One

 

 

At this moment, they are having a long break and I am waiting for, oh wait! we all SYRANIC fans in the universe are waiting for their come back to the scene.

We love your real-hell-fucking-kick-ass-metal!!!

2nd Oct. 2011 - Kumi666

An interview with The Last Hangmen about the album “Servants Of Justice” ( 18th June 2011)

Here’s an interview with Simon from The Last Hangmen on middle of Jun. This cool melodic death metal force based Dresden released their first full-length album on this July 1st! I had a great interview with Simon the guitarist, songwriter and the founder of the band. So, here we go.

Q:　 The three songs in your free "Promo 2010" are very nice! When did you guys start as "The Last Hangmen"? Could you introduce me about all the members of the band?

Simon: First, thanks for the compliment! Well, it all started with my solo project "The last Hangman" (still singular, back then). My other band had split up and so meanwhile I continued to write songs on my own. After a few years I missed the feeling of kicking ass live on stage, but I also didn't feel like joining an existing band. So I decided to start a new band - I had finished songs anyway...

Simon:  I uploaded my songs to the internet, posted some requests and just after 2 hours I got the first message by a guy who offered his vocal-skills, even though I didn't ask for a vocalist. Well, what shall I say, somehow that dude managed to be our vocalist today...

But seriously, he, his name is Pether by the way, does a great job and right after some rehearsal sessions it was clear that he'll be the third permanent member.The third? Yes, in the meantime I accidentally got to know our drummer Ronny via the internet, although I was looking for another Ronny of whom I knew he was playing the drums. Before Pether joined us, Ronny and me rehearsed a few times and to make it short: from the first note we played together everything felt just right.

This all happened in May of 2009 and a few months later our lineup was completed by our bass player Sören, a good friend of Pether, and Pit (guitar) who later was replaced by Stefan who is also writing songs for us now; you'll hear a lot of him on our second album, which will really kick your asses again! So the actual lineup exists since about May of 2010 and, as it is, everything works out just fine.

Q:　 Okay, here's the main topic: You guys finished making the first full-length already and it will be out on July 1st, right?

Simon: Yeah that's totally right! Our debut album "Servants of Justice" will be out on the 1st of July 2011. Actually we planned to release it in fall of 2010, but then just everything lasted longer. Recordings started in March of 2010 and were finished in November, when the material was finally mixed and mastered by a great guy, called Victor Santura (guitarist in the German black metal band Dark Fortress). At this point thanks to him again, we're REALLY pleased with the result!

The first album "Servants of Justice"

1. The Gallow March - Intro (2:40)
2. Lupara Bianca (4:17)
3. The Hypocrite (3:24)
4. Crash Course Dying (5:38)
5. Little Ease (3:36)
6. Hang'em High (3:33)
7. Knocking Tombstones Down (10:09)
8. Cloak and Dagger Operation (6:23)
9. Withdraw the Hangmen! - Outro (1:25)

Playtime: 41:06s

 

Q:　 Could you tell me how the atmosphere of the album is? If you like, I would love to hear about the details of the songs, about the song titles or lyrics.

Simon:　 Well, what can I say about the atmosphere and the details of the songs...
At first I've got to say that it's quite hard to describe your own music, you know? At some point in the writing process you're no longer in the place where you can really feel what the music expresses. You just do your thing and you just know "what's right and what's wrong", you lose the objectivity, cause you build up some kind of personal relationship to the song. To be harsh: It's like the phenomenon that all parents like their children, although they're (sometimes) ugly like sh*t. So again and again I'm relieved when a new song gets positive feedback from "neutral" people.

Simon:　 Against this background, I'll try to tell you something about our music anyway, so here we go: Our genre would be Melodic Death Metal. In my opinion it's ridiculous to preach sh*t like: "Oh, our style is so new, you can't describe it with the already existing genres, so we have to put some stupid words in front of "Metal" and our OWN new genre is born. And oh yeah! All people will be SO excited what's hidden behind this new genre and everyone will listen to us, because we invented a completely new style".
In SOME FEW cases this MIGHT be right, but you just read things like this too often and too often it's just the 1000th rip-off of band XY. You can't describe one's music in a few words anyway, so I'm holding the view of just using the main genre that fits best.

Sorry, I'm drifting again...

Simon:　 The atmosphere of the album diverges widely. I think it's because some of the songs were written years ago and by the time my composing style evolved and my experience in writing metal songs grew. For the intro and outro of the album we wrote orchestral arrangements to frame the whole work. Then we've got songs like "Hang'em High" or "The Hypocrite" which by the way are the two oldest songs and which aren't by far as brutal as "Knocking Tombstones Down". Every now and then we've some really catchy riffs and melodies, "Little Ease" for example is the most melodic song on "Servants of Justice", it's almost one huge melody... Some parts are just evil, partly supported with dark synths, and other parts are bitter sweet like the outro of "Cloak and Dagger Operation".

Simon:　 We recorded the whole album without click by the way, which is quite unusually nowadays. We just wanted to catch some kind of live-feeling, what you can hear best in the outro of "Crashy Course Dying". As mentioned before it's really hard to describe your own music, so I recommend everyone who likes bands like Dimmu Borgir, At the Gates, Wintersun, the old Children of Bodom and so on, to take a listen to our music at our homepag or somewhere else - one mp3 tells more than thousand words...

Q:　 How is the activity of The Last Hangmen this year?

Simon:　Right now we're especially rehearsing for live shows, but Stefan and I are also writing new material for our second studio album. Four songs are already done! We're planning to hit the studio in spring 2012 again, but of course it depends on our progress in the songwriting process (oh, nice rhyme! but it'll surely get lost in the translation, so... never mind...).

I assume that we'll need 6 months again to record the whole stuff. The whole recording process is pretty time consuming, in particular cause we do lots of the work on our own. So when everything turns out well, there COULD be a second Hangmen album by the end of 2012, but I wouldn't count on that!

Simon:　 The last months of this year we'll play some shows in Germany - to name a few: There's our CD Release Party and then there's the "Rock im Betonwek" Festival where Amorphis, Exodus, Alestorm and other popular acts will play, too!We're also still looking for a label who signs us. For now we're selling the album on our own. Well, that's pretty much it concerning our near-future-plans.

Q:　 Do you have any message to Japanese metalheads?

Simon:　 Yeah, of course! You guys rock!! We're SO DAMN LOOKING FORWARD to playing in Japan one day! People coming to concerts directly from work, still in their suits, and just partying hard and banging their heads off,

THAT'S THE SPIRIT!! SEE YOU THEN!!

The Last Hangmen are:
Simon Konze - Leadguitar
Ronny Garz - Drums
Pether Hantsche - Vocals
Sören Kube - Bass
Stefan Beckert - Guitar

 

Okay, how do you feel about the interview with Simon? Actually, I received their first album ”Servants Of Justice” in my hand just few hours ago and played it, it’s so awesome with melodic guitars and evil vocals! As Simon said, you can check them stuff out on their web site! www.thelasthangmen.com

18th June – Kumi666

An interview with Bloodspot about their new-album “Embrace The End” ( 10th Aug. 2011)

I had an interview with Dom the singer of the hell fucking thrash death metal band Bloodspot about their first full-length album "Embrace The End" on early August.

Q: "The Demon EP" that you guys released in 2009 totally kick-ass! and you almost finished making the first full-length album, right? So, please tell me about the album title and introduce the per track...

Dom: At first we wanna send a huge THANK YOU to you and all you guys out there in Japan for being interested in what we do! It is a great feeling knowing that there are people listening to our stuff on the other side of the world. Yes, just as you mentioned, we are right now in the final phase before publishing our brand new album EMBRACE THE END, which is really going to kick all your asses into the atmosphere...hopefully ^^.

Dom: The idea for the title was born from one of our guitar players after reading through the lyrics of THE DEMON EP. Through this, the album title is closely connected to the EP. I would say, THE DEMON EP was the first drip of water before the storm: EMBRACE THE END. The title itself has many ways to be interpretated. When it comes to the band, every member has another thought of interpretation concerning the title. I associate a certain feeling of maximum calmness, maybe just within the second before you die. You kick back, relax, think the last time about your life and embrace what is coming - to accept the end and BECOME the end. And maybe, just maybe, one can connect this intention into all day life when one realizes, that we are mortal and just a blink of the eye within time.

Dom: Okay, here’s the introduction of the songs:

In Nighttime
I made this piece with a friend of the band, who is very brilliant in creating music on his Mac. If you guys want to check him out, his facebook address is here.
Just check him out! very talented! I wanted to create a post apocalyptic atmosphere, in which the END has already begun. All this in combination with a song from the early 20th century "into each life some rain must fall". I just wanted to give a first dark impression of the album itself.

Breathless
This is actually the first song we ever wrote. It was created within the first practicing sessions back in 2006. We stood there in this really small room, looking at each other and having no idea what to do. So we said "ok lets just play and see what happens". Some hours later the first song BREATHLESS was born. The lyrics are very crypted. At that time I was in a very dark phase of my own life and I just wrote down what came to my mind. On the first sight it might make no sense but if someone filters out some messages or just pictures for himself, that is more that i could wish for. I think it is very obvious that this song has no typical verse-chorus structure. I think this is the result of "just playing what comes to your mind".

Beneath A Burning Sky
We wanted to create a blasting song being made of triplets because of terms of rhythm and brutality combined with fast thrash metal riffs. You have to decide for your own if we managed to reach this goal or not. I think we did. The songwriting is quite simple. This was made by purpose because we didn't want the song to be too complicated so that it might lose its blasting and brutal effect. The lyrics are adding the last ingredient of a apocalyptic atmosphere.

Bullets
This is one of our newer ones. We recorded it with a friend of the band who used to be the leader of a band called PUBLIC EXECUTION which changed their name after a short time into PUBLEX. They were a big influence for us in the beginning and so we decided to include their singer into this song. There are several half-time parts waiting with their boots for your face The lyrics are a combination between a superior being punishing you and social criticism. In fact, this song is very hard for me to perform live, because it is growled very low all the time.

Answer My Fall
This is the most actual song being on the album. Right now my favorite!! This song really kicks ass from beginning to end and rarely gives you a break. Combined to the other songs, this one gives a more complicated impression when it comes to songwriting. The lyrics are dealing with a struggling inner being, which is running at the edge of insanity while accepting the upcoming fall. This person tries to send out a last scream of help with saying "Answer my Fall" while dealing with this situation in some sort of irony and schizophrenia. And last but not least get ready for a real nice guitar solo.

Consumed By Hatred
This is a real neck-breaker! Being fast and limitless from the very beginning, this song only slows down in the chorus and in the end with the intention to build up only more power. The lyrics and the vocals are giving the impression of a dialogue between a fictional person and this feeling, called hate, which tries to sneak into the mind of the person unnoticed and breaking out at the end of the song.

Heart Gore
This is a very personal song. I wrote it in 2008, after a relationship of mine ended very unpleasantly. I had to fight hard every day not to lose my will of living for about 3 months. A long and hard time of pain and tears. For me, this time was HARDCORE, an so I created this wordplay HeartGore. A very slow, hallucinating song with a very hypnotic part in the middle and very honest lyrics. Just check it out!

Rise From Depravity
Everyone who knows THE DEMON EP might be reminded somehow of IN HONESTY. A melodic song which surely gets in the path of Metalcore genre songs. There is a little gimmick just within the first 10 seconds of this song. You will surely hear it - getting back to the old days of metal haha^^. The lyrics are a combination of themes of inner fighting and the call to arms against the depravity we are facing nowadays nearly everywhere.

Unborn
This is also an old one, being #5 in the chronological list. It was born just shortly after Breathless was born and so the lyrics are also relatively dark and crypted. I would say it deals with the missing knowledge of one's place within modern society. The song in general is dark but fast and combines real fast riffs and drumming with slow mosh-parts.

Lifeless Flesh
This is the longest song we have ever written. I think it takes something about 7 1/2 minutes. Normally songs being this long are ballads or hypnotic ones. But this song really could remind you of the old days of Slayer. BRUTAL! FAST! SHOWING NO MERCY! The lyrics are dealing with the kind of decadency a lot of people are showing in modern times. The title itself shall draw the bow back to the album title with giving it a real brutal ending.

Venus
This one is actually written and recorded by myself. I am writing acoustic songs for my own since 2 years. What you hear are 3 acoustic guitars and an e-guitar playing a solo. After having shown it to the rest of the band we had the idea to put it on the album and so I recorded it within the last hours of being in the studio. It shall calm you down and give you this feeling of relaxing I talked about in the beginning.

Dom: In general I have to say, that I normally don't talk a lot about the lyrics of BLOODSPOT. I just want the listener and the follower of lyrics to create their own idea of the pictures and atmosphere created. If the listener is able to draw something out of the songs, which could mean something to him, then I managed to draw the listeners attention and that is more I can wish for.

Q:　Tell me what you are planning for the band this year.
Dom:　We are planning to release EMBRACE THE END in September 2011. Right now we have a little break until September. There will be a gig on a local festival in the beginning of September - just at my birthday!
And after that we are playing 2 weeks of constant touring at the end of November 2011 throughout Germany and some countries within Europe. Going to be a great time! If you want to follow us, just check: https://www.myspace.com/bloodspot
There you all can see tour dates and news stuff!

The new member of Parasite Inc. has been revealed! (8th Sept. 2011)

Kai: Hey guys,
I want to inform you about a change in our line-up today: Well, I have to tell you that Benne and Parasite Inc. are going separate ways since the end of May. The reasons for the split up were mainly that he didn’t have enough time to give 100% for the band anymore because of his studying. We observed, talked and tried a lot over a long time. In the end it seemed that it was the best for us all. But it definitely wasn’t an easy decision for us.
Here’s the new lineup of Parasite Inc. (left to right): Basti(b)、Kai(vo/g)、Benni(d)、Kevin(g)

Kai: We started searching for a new guitarist without much success first but through some lucky circumstances we found a new guitarist (or shall I say he found us?) - a guy who is a well known musician in our local area and also plays in some bands that are friends of us. He is a really great guitarist...and he can read music ;) *hem*.
So Kevin, say "hello" to our Japanese and English readers and let them know a bit about you:

Kevin: Hey guys, my name is Kevin Sierra and I’ve been playing guitar since 2008. Before that time I had learned to play a few other instruments like trumpet (not very Metal-like) but because of that I can read sheet music =D. Later I learned to play drums and also started listening to metal bands. First I did some drum jazz lessons but they were too hard and so I decided to become a BRUTAL FUCKING DEATH METAL guitarist instead =D.

 

Kevin: Well, I played in many bands within the last 4 years: for example  “Predominance” (Black Metal), “Shattered” (Death Metal), “Living Meander” (Acoustic), “Hackneyed” (Death Metal), “Ugly breaks the Mirror” (BRUTAL FUCKING DEATH METAL … of Death =D) and in a little bluesy project only for myself. I recently left my last band I was playing guitar in and it was a stroke of luck that Parasite Inc. was looking for a new guitarist. And because I already knew Kai, Basti and Benni, I just asked them if they want me to play the guitar. That’s it.

Luckily Parasite Inc. got back their lost piece early and they are having the rehearsal days with Kevin for some upcoming gigs and the new stuff for the future recordings. I hope I will be able to get some episode from the gig on 24th Sept. for Kevin’s first show as Parasite Inc. member :D

Their spanking powerful melodic death world will be everlasting!!!

26th Sept. – Kumi666

TASTE OF EXTREME METAL – “Far From Innocence” Bloodspot

Bloodspot ”Far From Innocence” from The Demon EP! Check it out with an introduction of each member by Dom!

Bloodspot “Far From Innocence”
If you want to listen to the song with more greater sound condition, click the link below and play the audio file  Listen to "Far From Innocence" from Bloodspot in HQ

Far from innocence

1, 2, Fuck you!

Stealing from ourselves by just closing eyes
Try to calm the voices in the back of your head
What a fucking great attitude
Stay where you are and watch them die from far away
Witness equal victim
You know which side you‘re on!

We are
Far from Innocence!
The first without sin shall cast a stone!
We are
Far from Innocence!
Once and for all!

Tight hands by a mouth that‘s shut
Not able to see the reality
Of truth; of mankind
There‘s nothing more to say than
this is your only view
Can‘t help with what I‘m saying
Fuck off! Be on top!
Come a bit closer; I‘ll show you what I mean!

We are
Far from Innocence!
The first without sin shall cast a stone!
We are Far from innocence!
Once and for all!

We are
Far away
From what we were meant to be!
We are
Far from Innocence!

Once and for all!

Far from Innocence!

About Daniel “Howdy” Geberzahn
Dom:　 He is our rhythm guitar player. He does a real great job in creating mind blasting fast riffs! Check out his riffs on the album! You'll see what I mean!

About Marius Vent
Dom:　 He is the newest member of the band and our lead guitar player. He has a huge talent when it comes to musical theory and is a huge improvisation talent. He wrote and plays all solos on the album.

About Jürgen “Kuno” Kuhn
Dom:　 He is our bass player. He makes music for, I think, 25 years by now within bands and has a great feeling when it comes to groove and being tight. He is
our centre of relaxation. And believe me, we really
need something like this.

About Björn Grontzki
Dom:　 He is our drummer. He is the one who founded this whole thing back in the days of BLINDFOLD, a former hard rock cover project, from which BLOODSPOT was created. He learned everything from himself. He is a really crazy guy. I know him since the days we were together in the kindergarten and we grew up together. He is a real good friend.

About Dominik “Dom” Jahr
Dom:　 Last but not least: me! I am part of BLOODSPOT since the first day just like Howdy and Björn. I never really tried something like vocal coaching or something like that and to be honest: I give a shit about it. Just try and make your own experiences! Your body will give you signs if you are not doing it right!

How was the song “Far From Innocence” ?

Bloodspot are the one who set fire to our metal spirits with their kick-ass thrash-death-tunes and makes us moshing and banging, huh?

They already finished making their real-kick-ass full-length album “Embrace The End”, I’ve already listened to it all and can say it’s more brutal than the previous EP! Plus, there’s some surprise in it, so, all of you extreme metal fans might have much fun with it!

The moshers who are
enjoying a gig of Bloodspot!

TASTE OF EXTREME METAL – “Beneath A Blackened Sky” Leviathan

I proudly present the awesome song “Beneath A Blackened Sky” by Leviathan from their brand- new album ”Beyond The Gates Of Imagination pt.I” with some statements by Tobi! Here we go!

Leviathan “Beneath A Blackened Sky”
If you want to listen to the song with more greater sound condition, click the link below and play the audio file :)
Click the audio file "Beneath A Blackened Sky" by Leviathan

The reason we chose the song as a single:
Tobi: "After we had finished the music for the song, we decided very fast to choose this one as the album opener as well as the first single for the new album. It was very obvious because the song is a perfect summary for the new record, it has everything that you'll find on the album: technical guitar riffs, epic orchestra, a touch of classic melodic death metal and progressive song-structures."

About the music:
Tobi:　 "Well Beneath A Blackened Sky was written actually in late august and early September 2010. I had the main ideas for the first 1 minute 30 seconds of the song as well as the main idea for the chorus. Jonas then worked the orchestra out especially on the intro and after that the whole song really came together very fast. Basically in about 3 weeks we had the whole 6 minutes written."

About the title:
Tobi:　 "The Title was also my idea. When I listened to the first ideas I had written down it just came across my mind, this picture of dark clouds rising on the horizon. Jonas was first not too pleased with it, because he didn't have an idea for the story behind the song, but then he came up with this picture of black clouds rising above a black sea, polluted by oil."

The artwork of the single “Beneath A Blackened Sky”

About the lyrics:
Tobi:　 "Around the time we wrote the song, the media was full of reports about the oil spill in the gulf of Mexico, caused by anj explosion on the oil plant deep water horizon. Jonas then felt like he wanted to write about this topic and came up with the chorus lines and around that he build the whole story of the song. Basically the whole song is about the cruelty with which corporations run a high risk for the environment and the wildlife just to increase their profit. This is something that too many people tend to ignore until finally a catastrophe like the one in the gulf of Mexicon or Fukushima happens.

BENEATH A BLACKENED SKY

Through the wallows of poisoned water
Through the mists of ill longing I shall walk
To share my vision of demise

We leech on to the ashes with fires in our wake
Need to comfort our languorous limbs
"Black gold" as you call it is death in liquid form
Closing your eyes will not simply unmake

Claiming forces that we cannot tame

Will greed and recklessness reign
Till only ashes remain
Secured by disbelief
Above the blackened sea
See the biotope that we spoil
Between the acid and soil
Is where our fortune lies
Beneath a blackened sky

On a seaside hidden from your sight
I’ve seen their corpses washed ashore
Black clad by the earth’s pouring blood

Do you believe in afterlife
Believe there’s judgement for your failure and crime
Then let old mammon be your guide
‘Cause I don’t care what dream you live
No one will forget no one will forgive you

(Music by Jonas Reisenauer and Tobias Dahs / Lyrics: Jonas Reisenauer)

Beyond The Gates Of Imagination pt.I

1. Prologue
2. Beneath A Blackened Sky
3. Where Light And Death Unite
4. Reaper's Edict
5. Servants Of The Nonexistent
6. The Scourge We Wield
7. About Fangs And Feathers
8. Sway Of The Stars

 

 

 

 

As you found out after listening the song “Beneath A Blackened Sky”, they accomplished making much greater music than their past and has huge grown up!

The album is already out on September 16th!
You can download the song as free on their Myspace by the way, check it out!
Leviathan Myspace - "Beneath A Blackened Sky" free download available!

Very personal review of Leviathan’s “Beyond The Gates Of Imagination PT. I”

Finally it’s out! I was absolutely stoked when I received their CDs in my hands! You know if you were the one who only buy music via web-download, you could never experience that kinda fabulous feeling… At first, I stared into the album artwork for a while before opening the CD case, my mind had already started traveling into the Leviathan’s world… and then, I opened it and found out there’s a beautiful pictured-disc and was smiling like a little kid :D Okay, let’s put it on a tray of a stereo system *grin*, and visit to the first gate of imagination…

As you know I’m not a critic from a press, so I can’t write about the music objective with any technical terms, I’m just a tiny metalhead and eager to visit their philosophical dimension, that is all.

It started with tick-down sounds by the way. I turned the first page of the booklet and listened carefully to the instruments tune “Prologue”, was feeling a bit weird…I mean I started kinda loosing a balance in my body… can’t describe it well but honestly felt so. Slowly came down when the tune faded away, and then, sounds of waves reached my ears… Hell yeah! I already know this song very well and love it so much… “Beneath A Blackened Sky”. Phew, such a progressive and dramatic tune with the darkened lyrics!I became more fan of the song coz I finally listened it without any compressions, yay!

Anyway, we all human beings have been betrayed our Mother Nature over and over again for a long time, and now I’m standing in the polluted blackened oily water and listening to the last scream of Jonas “No one will forget, no one will forgive you…”. In the end of the song, I closed my eyes with silence except the sound of God-box. Oh, by the way, Tom in the first page of the booklet looks like the Rodin’s sculpture :D Yeah, Leviathan has their own philosophical sense in the lyrics as you know, and the artworks in the album as well!

Well, it exploded suddenly with totally overwhelming instruments and vocals!!! Actually “Where Light And Death Unite” is my latest favoriteAnyway, I remembered one of my favorite quotes "There never was a good war or a bad peace." by Benjamin Franklin with the lyrics.

The next one called “Reaper’s Edict”, Tobi told me the song is one of their oldest writings before… turned over the booklet, you can see the lyrics and the photo of Tobi, one of his hands is getting vanished in smoke… the photo and the lyrics scared me anyway. Only the guitars sounds more emotional than others.

“Servants Of The Nonexistent” has started with a song of bards ( Is this correct???), now I’m traveling to some ancient world. This is the most exotic tune in the album. Impressive! :D Fabian’s clean vox are totally new to my ears by the way, and the photo of Tobias(P) is trying to catch something…. You know, if you really want to listen to the album, you need to concentrate it and need to allow your imagination to run wild for sure! Actually, the first time I listened through it I felt it’s totally complex! :D Yeah I like progressive metal of course but I can’t say am a big fan of Opeth, haha. Anyway, I love Leviathan’s philosophical world so much!

Okay, let’s move to the next one - “The Scourge We Wield”. I’m still somewhere in an ancient world… You can hear some female’s vocals in this song. Tell the truth, usually I don’t like a partly-female-vox in Death Metal coz I feel it takes the edge off the power of metal but her vox are totally matching to their world honestly  I love the lyrics by the way, it reminds me “Visions” by Stratovarius somehow, the human race has to pay the price to planet earth because of those selfish behaviors…

Oh, in this album, you can hear a lot of folkloric-atmospherical-sounds :D I mentioned Opeth above and also can talk about Eluveitie, haha :D In the booklet, Fabian who looks like an ancient prophet (or just a pilgrim? xD) is pointing something. Oh, the intro of “About Fangs And Feathers” is totally flaming… and I love it! With Jonas’s overwhelming screams, the song sounds more intense, and I also love the lyrics, it reminds me Aesop’s Fables :D Sorry guys but this is my journey and there’s no one could blame me, right? haha ;D

By the way, I have to describe something about their dimension again… All songs in the album have obviously strong trait of contrast between calmness and intensity, it makes their tunes more extreme.

Okay, finally I reached to the last song “Sway Of The Stars”. Ugh, the lyrics annoys me completely xD I mean they made it! *epic win* :D It means I’m totally into their dimension and struggling with my journey… If you are curious about what’s happening there, there’s no way to find it out without an experience by yourself, and everybody who try it get their own story there. I only can tell you that your journey will be so intense, also it will be darkened and much scary, but it’s totally worth trying for sure! Thou shall not fear… :D Jonas in the cover of the album is waiting for you for leading you to the first gate of imagination, so why don’t you try it? ;D I already became a frequenter of their dimension (junkie!!!), and always get a new experience there, as I told you it’s not so easy album, it’s totally complex, so you never get bored with it I bet ;D

I want to say “Congrats!” to all Leviathan guys, they’ve done such an awesome job, seriously!

Sept. 2011 - Kumi666