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INDEX
INTERVIEWS
GUESTBOOK
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+++ GERMAN DEATH METAL +++
These interview questions aren't so fresh anymore, actually it was meant to be published few weeks after I released the "Reincremation" split CDr (with Impureza, Arsonist, Ingurgitating oblivion... And Sudden death!) but because of several problems on a studies and personal point of view, Markus wasn't able to answer it a good way until recently... Hopefully most of the questions didn't deal too much with the last news and so the content doesn't taste like a dried and warmed up bottle of milk...
1. Hello! Since SUDDEN DEATH isn't a new band you might have a quite lengthy history to tell us... So here follows the usual question: Introduce the band to our brutal readers, and give us the most important points of your biography.
Sudden Death
started in October 1990 as a three piece band, found by Mathias
– playing some kind of Motörheäd hard rock’n’roll metal
or whatever. More drinking than rehearsing or doing shows. After
Maik joined SD as second guitar player, things became serious in
Death Metal in late 1991. Some line up changes were done, two badly
produce rehearsal tapes and the song “Abortion” was pro recorded
for the Rising Generation CD sampler in 1994 – Obscenity was on
that one as well.
Shortly after that time, Markus joined the
band as a voice and Maik, who used to play guitar and sing as well,
concentrated on his six string. In 1996 MCD “Focus of disease” was
put out and hit the underground – some good reviews and a couple
of shows were done. During the recording process of the second MCD
“Infernal”, longtime bass player Frank left the band. I was a friend
of the band before, so they asked me to join – and I did. We’ve
played many, many shows with the likes of EXHUMED, KRISIUN, FLESHCRAWL,
DEAD INFECTION and many more and in 2000 we’ve entered the studio
again, to record our first full length CD “Unnatural Human Art”.
That one was soon to be released. The first two MCDs are sold out
now and of UHA are only a few copies left for now. In the end of
2002 we decided to make a break. After nearly two years, we restarted
the band with another drummer, which supported us sometimes in the
years before. In the end of 2006 we’ve recorded our actual CD “Rethroned”
which we put out in January 2007.
2. In 2002, I think the departure of your drummer (Who left because of hear problems), lead to the split of the band. Am I right or not? It seems an axeman of once took care of the drum kit... Were you in lack of drummer and was it something new for him? Did he need some time to learn? What were the motivations to reform the band few years later? And is the previous drummer doing music right now?
You seem pretty
good informed! Got some Death Metal Spyz in Germany? Mathias quit
because of Tnitus, and is doing “Die Spezialisten” German Schlager
Punk Rock now – there He’s playing an electronic drum kit – not
that many decibels done there.
Our new drummers name is Sacha
(different from our guitarist Sascha) – so that’s not the same person.
Sacha did many other projects and bands before (Deterrent, Fortitude
a.s.o.) and is playing in the V8 Vankers as well. I used to start
playing music with him in the German Jazz metal band Deterrent in
1987 – so he’s a longtime brother in crime to me – when Mathias
hearing problems started, Sacha used to help out for a couple of
shows – but had not enough time to be a fixed band member – so we
ended the band in December 2002 – Mathias was the last former member,
and we thought, that the band couldn’t move on without him. Nearly
two years later, Maik felt really empty without crushing the local
stages and called Mathias, to ask him, if it would be ok to re-use
the name Sudden Death without him. And Mathias agreed – So Maik
called Markus (vox) and me at the end of 2004 to get back to the
band. We started to rehearsal and felt the same usual SD energy.
Some different drummers showed up, until we’ve heard, that Sacha
is out of Fortitude, we asked him and he joined SD – and in summer
2005 we entered the stages again - there we were back for the kill…
3. One can feel an evolution between the style of your previous album and the songs contained in the new one: It's more grind, rawer, yet with real Death metal influences of once. While at the time of "Unnatural human art" you could have been considered as somekind of Death metal meets brutal death a quite "modern" way, your current style could rather fit a "Death grind with real old school roots" description... What do you think of it and what could have led to these changes? A brutaller life? A change of girlfriends (Who knows... If the warming sessions in bed are more bestial, it might influence the music ahah)... Or maybe descriptions suck too much and we should only listen to the music... to break our necks!
I think, that you hit the nail real close with your last statement. We don’t care about classifications of music – we just rock in the mainly brutal way we do. Usually Maik shows up with some new riff-material and we thrash it all the way together in our rehearsal room. That’s still the way we write our songs all over the last decades. But Gab, you’ve got the right view on our evolution fixed in our official brought out CDs. That’s what comes out of – ain’t it? A main topic of our style is influenced by the sound – I guess. An Jörg Uken from Soundlodge did a killer job on our last one – The sound of “Unnatural Human Art”, directly after the recording sessions, seemed good to us, but afterwards it was a little bit to flat – no dynamics over all. And another main point is our new drummer Sacha. He’s hittin’ it even harden and faster, than we were used to. And so the actual trax became more and more brutal. I really don’t think, that our bed-sports have anything to do with our musical output. Metal and love don’t fit! That’s why we’re playing death metal – har har. But we love metal and besides of that we’re average family guys I guess.
4.How long did it take to compose the songs of your last album “Rethroned”? Are there some unfinished or too average songs lying in a corner of the common grave? Are there only new tunes, or maybe some older ideas were reincremated for the incarcinerated purpose? It seems this album was totally self-produced by the band, from the recording, to the layout, printing, promotion etc… (Super shock resist seems to be your label, right?). Was it a choice to remain kinda self-produced, or did it occur as a sorrowful matter of facts? If you had the opportunity, would you sign on a bigger label such as NUCLEAR FART or CENTURY MAMA? I’m not certain you would get the necessary musical freedom… (More than 6 questions in a single one, I hope you enjoy this good price haha)
It took us
nearly a year – and there are no dead musical bodies lying around
anymore. When we compose a song and it doesn’t work out that well,
we ditch it. Normally we don’t re-use any old riffing stuff – we’re
heading for new metal-dimensions. Besides, on “Rethroned” there
are two elder trax, which we haven’t recorded before. They were
main set list trax in our live shows, that showed up after the UHA
recording sessions, so we decided to put them on the record. “Germ
under god” and “Black pieces” are these two – and they fitted very
well into the album concept.
About the second part of your mammoth
question: We used to press the CDs by ourselves before – same goes
for mearchandize and booking shows. Until now, we had some offers
from record labels, but they couldn’t do anything more for us, than
we can do by ourselves – so we kept it independent. We don’t want
our records sold for nearly 20 EUROs in the stores – so we keep
the totally musically freedom, as you mentioned, and the whole art
work thing as well. The metal headz are getting our shows, CDs,
mearch aso. for cheap – I like it that way – we’re not pushed by
anybody, except for the audience, that shows up at our concerts.
Why should some so called management or business guy earn money
on the backs of fans? Paying the hotel bills of any V.I.P. can’t
be the aim of making music. Music is for everybody to be reached
so keep it low-fi without these business thoughts. We pay our bills
ourselves and don’t earn money through our music. If we had to make
our live out of it, we would be nothing more than prostitutes of
some kind of record company. That’s crap – and not our cup of tea.
Nearly 20 years in this independent status learned us a lot – and
we will stay that way!
5. Did you know that once translated in French, "Sudden death" is the name of a quite strong alcohol? Did SUDDEN DEATH establish good relationships with alcohols of all kinds, to a purely vomitive point?.. Did the ethanol wife answer a convinced "Yes" during the wedding, and were the promises of alcoholic agony fulfilled for the worst? (Maybe years long vomiting fiesta keep on occurring every week end, since years (I even don't imagine the health of the stomach... Argh))
No. I didn’t
know that. To be honest, I quit drinking when I’ve got eighteen
– because it started to bore me – since my eighteenth birthday it
was legal, so I’ve lost interest on that one. Before that age, I
was really hard into drinking an vomiting as well – many strange
things happened those days. Mainly trouble in kissing a couple of
girls on the same party and having trouble all over that…
My
last real hard drinking time I spend in (guess where?)…… Paris.
I was out on an Inter-Rail trip with two friends of mine, and we
were totally wasted in that town – didn’t see that much of it, except
the liqueur stores.
About Sudden Death’s relationship with alcohol
I can only say, that we’re all heading for the 40s, the other (bigger)
Markus likes some beers sometimes and Maik as well. Sacha is out
of drinking for a couple of years now – he lost his driving license
because of alc, and he just mad a new on (expensive I tell ya!).
He does not want to loose it again, so he remains sober. Music is
our drug and it is making us high. But it’s unhealthy as well sometimes,
ha ha. Thrashing stages can cause serious body-damages, I can tell
you…
6. I recently got a copy of the first demo tape of the German brutal death band PROFANITY, and I was surprised! In their beginnings, they played melodic death with keyboards and everything needed to turn me into a big fan (Ironic). If I ever crossed the path of a very early SUDDEN DEATH release, could I happen to find something appealing, such as tiny ass-licking melodies, gayboards' fiestas of Beavis metal without balls? Maybe there isn't a little shame hiding in the past recordings of S.D.... Then congrats!
Profanity is
a killer band by the way – really good friends of ours. And I really
hope, that nobody will ever find our early demo tapes – rumpeldipumpel
Metal that was. But the rehearsal tapes were nearly unsold and un-produced,
so they nearly don’t exist anymore.
On “Abortion” there are some
low keyboard parts on – but after the guitar walls show up, they
are vanishing. And not that many melodies in that one. Death Metal
that still is. With it’s usual clichés as there are neon
spandex pants and lots of lots of hair spray. We used to practice
in front of mirrors, while eating raw and bloody chicken torsos.
– no – to get real – I’ll send you all the early records combined
on a CD-R. So you can make yourself an opinion.
7. Current German Death metal is known for being usually brutal, quite old styled and so heavy it could be disgusting for those who like their music too volatile.... Germany seems to be plagued as hell by such kind of brutal bands! How do you explain such morbid agglutinations of brutality? The social or weather factors often shew to be not so influential... So might it come from the cheap prices of beers? Or maybe the germaniacs feel frustrated since France has taken all territories next to the seas (lol). Give us names of some upcoming Death metal band that could please the tastes of your brutal readers!
I think that
German Death Metal is the way Germany is – sometimes a little bit
to old fashioned but always concentrating on the basics. The aggression
may result of different topics. Social disgusting movements in a
real rich state – to many bad manners in a capitalistic drowning
society. Still the old ’68 mood in pushing mostly adults to their
border and over the edge. And you’re right – here are some killer
bands around: BRANDED SKIN out of our area, are playing in a real
old school style – killer hooks. EMBEDDED brutal and fast – you
may know them. PROFANITY, mentioned before, longtime friends. BROTHER
LOVE KAIN is a more slow-mo Death style, maybe compared to Crowbar.
PESTILENT are playing more old school thrash – but killer. LAY DOWN
ROTTEN is another real Death Metal band to blast your heads of.
And
just to mention – we have some places at the seaside left, I guess…
8. What do you know about French metal? Don't you think the metallic reputation of my country had improved since few years (We had a lot of very average bands in the past... At least the whole is more professional now)... Or maybe I’m too much in the middle of it to see things with clarity... Apart from metal, is there something French you like? And what do you hate the most about France? (Maybe all these pussies who don't fuck the first hour Ah Ah! We're impatient, the faster the better...)
I really dig MASSACRA and TRUST as well. To be honest, I’m not that much into French Metal – except for Charles Asnavure (is that right?) – a real metal head. I know that many French metal headz are really enthusiastic about the bands they like – saw an elder VOIVOD video tape, which was recorded in France – and the audience went totally crazy. Much more extreme, then here in Germany, I tell you. What I hate about France? Maybe Vanessa Paradis? I don’t know… Normally I don’t hate.
9. Do you like Industrial or dark electronic music? Would you consider an industrial remix of your music, and how would you hope it would sound?
I really like TREPONEM PAL, some NINE INCH NAILS, THE YOUNG GODS, elder and even the last MINISTRY records, but I dislike gothic stuff (same goes for me for that pagan stuff). No keyboard snatches needed, crying all the time. I like the old KILLING JOKE, BAUHAUS, THE CURE and JOY DIVISION as well, but modern goth sucks in my opinion. About the remix idea: I like that thought – but it has to be Mr. Jourgensson or the maybe the GODS – giving it some killer fast drum loops – crushing sounds and gamma bomb detonations at the end of the track.
10. While each country has its clichés and representative symbols that evolve as the rain keeps on falling, I noticed these clichés are often out of touch with the reality of what could be seen and occurs in a given country... What are the symbols/ clichés of France from a Germaniac point of view, and what would symbolize Germany in 2007? (France used to be linked to breed, camembert, red vine...)
French clichés
seen here have mainly to do with EATING. Do you like to eat the
legs of frogs? We used to blow these animals when we where little
kids – but we would never eat them. White bread only – with cheese
and read whine. Eating four hours at nighttimes. Sex-mad (as every
countries people only talking). So I check in for the usual standards
– Nuclear energy and weapons as well. Multicultural problems in
the suburbs (nearly the same like in Germany…).
For Germany there
stands nowadays: Real high taxes in general, Generation conflict,
a shrinking state (by numbers), new poorness, bad soccer teams and
still lots of money! A state ruled by business guys.
11. If you're interested in politics, what’s your opinion about the French president's election that occurred recently. Would you rather feel like a royalist or a sarkozist? By the way, don't you think "Sarkozist" would sound quite brutal in the middle of other abominations: "Nevro Embryotomic Lymph Sarkozist" wouldn't be a bad song title for blasting brutal death Ah Ah!
Feel free to give that song title to the guys of Cannabis Corpse – they are used to things like that. Sounds gory and brutal to me, you’re right! And since the election is done, the Sarkosist is giving quite a nice picture, besides of Gardafi and even a better one with his topless beauty. To move different ways and to divorce is quite hard. Good for the paparazzi and the boulevard press. He kissed Germanys favorite Angie on the usual banquets – hopefully the story of flowers and bees doesn’t work. Guess what would become of that combination. A mixture of a real Hobbit with Boris Karlofs nice… buaaahhh. Zombie eaters!
12. Please write few comments about these (quite) famous metal slogans:
-METAL ON METAL (Isn't it a slogan for CD collectors who spend leisure time building piles of metal albums?)
What does that mean? I was working as a gas-metal-arc-welder before, so I know about the metal basics and its chemistry. If you hit an ambos with a huge steel hammer, it will nearly rip your hand of by it’s blowback – and it may effect your hearing as well… And I like to build mountains of vinyl LPs! Rooock!
-DEATH IS CERTAIN, LIFE IS NOT (Clear enough, isn't it?)
Without life, there is no death – so for my point of view, life is as certain as death. With your birth, you’ve checked in for the hole thing – including life and death. And life is as different as death is.
-ONLY DEATH IS REAL (Wasn't this slogan created by HELLHAMMER?)
I guess you’re right. If I would still be 15 years old, I think I would join into that one. A little bit to clichéd for me nowadays and a nearly fascistic, ain’t it?
-DEATH METAL CAME IN THE WIND (It seems some peoples think metal of death was some kind of hazard? Or maybe they like to fart to death ahah)
That’s a funny one – it may have to do with world-farting-championship. Fart till death – stomach explosion, blast! And what to do, when the wind is getting to strong? Death Metal seeking shelter?
13. If SUDDEN DEATH was a toy, what would it be?
A death crushing pin-ball – like at these Terminator II machine. Always ready to rumble.
14. If SUDDEN DEATH was a sexual toy, what would it be?
A real huge pineapple to crush the opposites head during his or her climax! The Killer has to eat it afterwards and the brains of his opposite as well – as long as it is still on fine temperature (sorry – to much bad 70s horror B-movies).
15. This is the promotional question, so tell us about the current merchandising for sale!
So we have some shirts and stickers of course. Some for the ladies as well. Few “Unnatural Human Art” CDs are in stock – and our 2007 record “Rethroned” as well. CDs and shirts are 10,-€, girlies 12,-€ plus shipping. Feel free to contact us! And we have ourselves to offer – if you’re planning a stunning Death Metal party and you’re looking for a real crushing one, just send an e-mail! Gasoline money, some food and a place to sleep and we’re there!
16. Alright, tell us about your future projects, and thanx for the answers.
We’re planning
to put out our next record in October 2010 at our 20th anniversary
show – so we’re working on new material right now. A couple of shows
will be done until then. Maybe our first time in France? And in
the same period I maybe becoming father for the third time. As long
as the old guy still can take it.
So Gab, thanx for this unusual
interview and once again sorry for one year delay of getting the
answers. Keep up your underground work and spread the nihilistic
word!
Websie: http://http://www.suddendeathmetal.de
