And now great and looong (hehe) interview with German death metal monster called Obscure Infinity. Their "Dawn of Winter" album made a huge imperssion on me and I just couldn't let them go just like that, without few words for all those, who read this blog. So, take a look at it, listen to this band and leave some comments if you dare. Stefan is answering my questions.
First I would like to ask you about the genesis of your band’s moniker… As soon as I saw it, I thought about GRAVE’s classic song “Obscure Infinity” from their first album, “Into the Grave”. And I guess I’m not the only one he, he… Tell me if this band and particular song have actually influenced you to call your band like that? Would it be sort of a tribute to the old Swedish death metal scene? You know, as soon as you see this name, you know that OBSCURE INFINITY must play old school death metal, nothing else! Weren’t you afraid that it would limit you to some degree? Besides, I keep mistaking you with Mexican INFINITUM OBSCURE he, he!
S: Yeah, you´re absolutely right. The name comes from the GRAVE song. I thought this song title would be a really cool band name for us and so we chose it. But it was never meant to be a tribute or something, it´s only a suitable band name for atmospheric Death Metal tunes I guess. GRAVE is one of my favourite Death Metal bands and I totally adore their first three albums. I listen to GRAVE very often so I think this band has a huge influence towards our music. When we started with OBSCURE INFINITY we wanted to do Death Metal the traditional way so it´s no problem that people expect exactly this type of music from us, hehe...and besides Infinitum Obscure is a fantastic band!
There also was an old Swedish band OBSCURE INFINITY that did several demos in the early 90’s, they were really good I think. What’s your knowledge about this old band?
S: When we took the name I already knew that there was a swedish band called OBSCURE INFINITY. But they split up a long time ago and only released demos... so I thought it will be OK to take the name. I know the demos. I like the “Beyond The Gate” demo. On the other demos they mixed too many things together for my taste.
Since you call yourselves “enthusiastic metal maniacs”, and personally I can also say likewise about myself, I’d like to talk about the metal in general, hope it’s OK for you if we talk about things, which not always are connected to OBSCURE INFINITY… So, tell me, are there other metal genres you really like, say black, thrash or heavy metal? What do you think about the times, when it was somehow in bad taste to listen to all metal genres, everyone was only into black metal or only into death metal and didn’t give a damn shit about pure heavy metal or doom or thrash or whatever? Wasn’t it stupid? Nowadays I think metal maniacs are more open for all metal sounds, don’t limit themselves… And also the gigs are more varied; it’s common to have a tour with various types of bands.
S: Death Metal is my passion so I listen to this style of metal
the most. But I also listen to Heavy Metal (bands like IRON MAIDEN, JUDAS PRIEST, BLACK SABBATH and OZZY at the Randy Rhoads era), Thrash Metal (SODOM, KREATOR or PROTECTOR) and a little bit of Black Metal. And of course a lot of Hard Rock like SCORPIONS, RAINBOW and stuff like this. I started with bands like SCORPIONS, AC/DC or IRON MAIDEN. Then came the Death Metal boom and we were totally blown away by this type of music... so for a time there was nothing besides Death Metal for us... we thought everything else is poser shit, haha... today I laugh about this teenage behaviour, hehe... and I´m really glad that I can listen to so many fantastic bands from several metal styles. But that´s only one side of the story. I recognize that too many people without the real passion infiltrate the metal scene. So these guys and girls are more a sort of all style listeners in a negative way. They turn the point of view from an open minded enthusiastic and interested listener to a randomly behaviour without any devotion into music if you know what I mean.
From the other hand personally I hardly ever listen to any other types of music, because metal in general can offer so many different styles, with various emotions and sounds that I feel fully satisfied with only metal music in my house and not necessarily look for anything else (maybe except the movie soundtracks). I don’t think any other type of music is so rich in sub-styles and can bring so many variations than metal… Your opinion?
S: I also only listen to Metal and Hard Rock music so I have no idea about sub-styles in other genres. I can only say that only this type of music gives me real satisfaction. But I think other music styles (for example Jazz) have also many sub genres and a wide range of musical expression.
I would like to ask you your opinion about the German scene… Everybody knows the legendary thrash metal bands, there are also some great black metal acts like SECRETS OF THE MOON, HELRUNAR, but the quality of most of death metal bands was surprisingly mediocre in your country. I really love MORGOTH and FLESHCRAWL, as well as two first ATROCITY LPs, also AGORAPHOBIA, PROTECTOR, TORCHURE, IMMORTALIS were good… But for such a big country, with such a big scene and some of the most important record labels, there weren’t that many of important bands (hmm, most of the names I mentioned were in second or third league, not that famous). How do you see the old German death metal scene and compare it to the present one, with bands like NECROS CHRISTOS, MANDATORY, PURGATORY, DEATHRONATION and yours? Is it getting better now?
S: Yes you´re right. Back in the early nineties we had only a few bands with international recognition. Today it´s perhaps even a little bit harder. Old School Death Metal has turned to a sub-genre of the music that today defines the (mainstream) Death Metal style. So the Old School Death Metal scene in Germany is a small but dedicated one. The bands you mentioned create fantastic music and with the most of these guys we are in contact.
When listening to your album, I think that the old Swedish death metal scene must have influenced you a lot, so tell me what do you think about it? Since when are you all fascinated by Svensk Döds Metall? Which are your favourite bands, I’m asking especially about those less known acts, because everyone will always mention DISMEMBER, GRAVE or ENTOMBED,
but this scene was so great that there were also many other fantastic bands, some of which only released demos – NIRVANA 2002, GOD MACABRE, UTUMNO, EPITAPH, EXCRUCIATE, AFFLICTED, GOREMENT, ADVERSARY… This scene was a gold mine with a great number of amazing bands!
S: Yes, you´re absolutely right! I truely love - let me say - Scandinavian Death Metal. There are so many excellent bands from this area. Not only Sweden but also Finland as well. (OK, if we go this way, then let’s mention also Norwegian old scene, with early DARKTHRONE, OLD FUNERAL or THOU SHAT SUFFER – ad. Astus) There are also so much less known bands that made brilliant music. NIRVANA 2002, GOD MACABRE, GODDEFIED, WOMBBATH, NECRONY, ETERNAL DARKNESS, CONVULSE, DEMILICH and many more. I think we are heavily influenced by the Scandinavian scene. I am fascinated by this type of music now since 22 years so it´s no wonder that you can find many influences of that scene within our music.
How much do you pay attention to the new breed of old school death metal bands that the Devil has spawned in the past few years? Personally must say I am overwhelmed by many of them and worship this new generation! Any favourites of yours? Strangely I have a feeling that one certain book by Mr. Daniel Ekeroth has caused this hype in one way or another, which is so weird, as it’s probably the first time ever when a book, not another band, influenced some people to check this or another band and caused (or at least was one of the mains sparks) the resurrection of the whole genre.
S: It´s very cool that there is a new scene of killer Old School Death Metal bands from all over the world. It´s still a small scene but with many brilliant outputs. Bands like STENCH OF DECAY, KRYPTS, ASCENDED, CLAWS, HOODED MENACE, BASTARD PRIEST, ABSCESSION, DEAD CONGREGATION, BRUTALLY DECEASED, BURIAL INVOCATION, MORTUOUS, MORBIDER, ENTRAILS, HERPES, INFERNAL CONJURATION, SULPHUR AEON, BODYFARM, BURNING HATRED, MANDATORY, CHARON, DESERTED FEAR, DEATHRONATION or NERLICH create fantastic music! Not to forget our friends of FUNERAL WHORE and PROFANAL! Yes I think this book helped that many forgotten bands and releases got a second chance. Many young metalheads got into Old School Death Metal again and some of them formed new bands. I think that´s a cool thing as long as you have so much high quality outputs as we have at the moment.
OK, let’s focus on your band finally. “Into the Depths of Infinity” was OBSCURE INFINITY’s first demo. Would you mind giving me a brief introduction to this demo, with the songs that were there, their sound, front cover, line up, etc? Was it released on tape or CDR and is it still possible to get it anywhere? Finally, since you already have a full length released, what is your impression on the demo nowadays, few years from its recording? Are you quite happy with it or rather realize how much OBSCURE INFINITY has matured since then?
S: The demo was something special for us. We had a couple of songs ready and thought it would be a cool idea to record them. So it was amazing to listen to your own songs the first time. I think for a first sign of life it´s ok. But as a band we needed time to grow together so I think the album shows a huge musical progression and the songs have a higher quality. But “Maniac Destroyer” from the demo is still our last song at live shows. The sound of the demo is even a little bit cleaner as on our album. We released it on a CD-R and you can still order it through us. The cover is a photo of the texture of a piece of wood of a cupboard, alienated on the computer.
And “Dawn of Winter” is…? How would you describe and recommend the album to the maniacs?
S: “Dawn Of Winter” is pure Death Metal in the old vein. We don´t need to break speed records and we don´t want to be the most brutal band in the world. We just try to create authentic, mystical and obscure music. Our songs live from the contrast between harsh riffs and a special dark atmosphere. Some might say our music is a sort of grumpy tunes but that´s the way we want it to be. There´s no straining after effect but pure devotion for this type of music.
How’s the promotion of “Dawn of Winter” going?
I must admit that I haven’t seen many reviews of it or any interviews at all with your band, so I have a feeling of lack of good promotion for the CD from OBSCURE DOMAIN Prods. What are your feelings about it?
S: OBSCURE DOMAIN is a small underground label. Hacker and Sönke are two really devoted Death Metal maniacs. They are really cool guys who are totally relaxed. So from such a small label you can´t expect big promotion and marketing budges. We know that they are really into our music and that´s what matters. But I think there were many reviews of the album and we gave something between 15 and 20 interviews. So that´s ok for a small underground band I guess.
OK, maybe it’s just me who happened not to see any hehe. From the other hand I saw a countless of links for downloading “Dawn of Winter”. Hmm, I must admit that I also first downloaded the CD to check it out, but soon later I’ve found it in a distro and decided to buy it, since I liked the music a lot. I know that the subject of internet and music downloading is endless, but give me a brief opinion about it… Don’t you think that, in case of small bands, downloading can be truly helpful with spreading its name in the underground – of course if you consider internet as a tool for underground promotion, as there are diehard orthodox bands, which prefer to live in the Middle Ages and avoid internet like Devil avoids the holy water (no, it’s not vodka!). Personally I’ve found out about dozens of great new bands through internet, of which I bought many CDs or LPs… So, downloading can be very helpful, especially if there are so many, many bands around. This way your name will be noticed and remembered. Your opinion?
S: When I started to listen to Death Metal I was a young kid. I didn´t have the money to buy a lot of LP´s or CD´s so the tape trading was a really cool thing. The most of my favourite Death Metal albums I first had on a copied cassette, listening to it over and over again. Later I bought it on vinyl or CD. So if you use the internet and mp3 thing as a searching tool to find new cool stuff to buy it´s totally ok I think. But if your “music collection” is only a hard disk of mp3´s there is something going wrong I think. Personally I want to hold something in my hand, look at the cover and the band pics and read the lyrics, etc. Many bands put so much heartblood into the music and their releases so they deserve a little bit more support then clicking the download button.
I agree totally. OK, musically “Dawn of Winter” is just very traditional sounding death metal, influenced by mostly European bands I think, not only the Swedish scene, but also by some Dutch bands as well as the mighty MORGOTH… But what I like about your music especially – and this is I think what brings you close to the Swedish scene – are the atmospheric parts in your music, with some dark riffing, few acoustic passages and even with various vocal parts. Some death maniacs may say the album is not brutal enough, but I like the fact you concentrate more on the dark atmosphere… Besides, in some parts, with the vocal sound and music (like in “Sacrificial Ritual” for instance) it also reminds me two Polish acts: VADER and DAMNATION, so I’m wondering whether you know those Polish legends?
S: Yes, as I said before it´s really important for us to create atmospheric music. Personally I have no problem with the fact that someone could say we are not brutal enough. There are so many modern, brutal Death Metal acts outthere where he or she can listen to. I do this music in first line for myself. That´s the music I want to create and I´m happy with the result. If someone likes what we do it´s cool! But if you do music for others, looking for trends, starting to think what others could like or not, you create soulless fast food music. Instead of this I see us more as creators of rough, authentic art. And for sure I know the two bands but personally I don´t see much parallels between us and this acts. But that´s the cool thing with music. Everyone has a different point of view and experiences the music in a (sometimes totally) different context then the other.
Another thing which caught my attention is that some of your songs are quite lengthy, six of seven minutes long and the whole CD is about 45 minutes long, which I think is rather a lot. But the song structures, the way you play doesn’t make them boring or whatever… Really good job here!
S: Thanks a lot! I have no certain masterplan to create a song. Songs come into being with an idea and then you try to create a sort of puzzle. One riff comes to another and defines the course and development of the song. So it´s a natural progress. I have no default how long or short a song should be. It comes within the songwriting. For our sort of music it´s totally ok to have longer songs I think. If you only do this brutal stuff it is, in my opinion, much more difficult to do long songs.
For you, what is the best formula for great death metal song? What does the perfect death metal song need to have, in order to be really great? From the past and present, which songs from the other bands would you find as the most neckbreaking and killer? He, I know there are so many, but some songs are exceptionally amazing and will be remembered eternally, like “Evil Dead”, “God of Emptiness”, “The Rack” or “Left Hand Path” to mention just few, just for the catchy, dark, but aggressive power of RIFFS!!! They should be played on my funeral!
S: In my opinion Death Metal has to create a special feeling and atmosphere. For me these emotions by listening to this type of music is something really special and personal. And for me there is no special formula for a great Death Metal song. There are so many great bands around the world who create this type of music. But at the same place they differ from another and that´s the fantastic thing. You have that type of music that you love and countless bands who interpretate it their own way. You only have
to choose which interpretations you like and which not, haha. I can´t define only one favourite Death Metal song and the list of songs I would like to mention would go beyond the scope of this interview I guess, haha.
The production of the album is very raw, but organic and dynamic, very old school! Is this exactly kind of the sound you wanted to achieve? Besides, you had some guests participating in the recording of “Dawn of Winter”, tell me who they were, and what was the recording of vocals for “Everlasting Fires” like, as this song has some choral chanting, which sound damn cool to my ears?!
S: Yes, we wanted the album to sound very rough and dark. We are all very fed up with this plastic sound from today so we decided to have it much rawer. We recorded it with Nils (of the Black Metal band WEIRD FATE) at his Klangkerker Studios. He did some guest vocals, especially the sacral part at the end of “Everlasting fires” is done by him. The choir after the sacral voice passage is done by Jules, Nils and me. Then a friend of us called Kojak joined for doing guest vocals for “Wreak Havoc – A Blackened Mind”. He has a very nice Death Metal voice with a cool deep range of growling. Kojak and Jules played together in band a few years ago so it was no problem to ask him to participate.
The artwork for the CD looks very impressive. The frontcover painting is one of the best I’ve seen recently; I also like the fact that the booklet has so many photos and lyrics, etc. I’m glad you didn’t put a simple b/w booklet, with no extras what so ever… How much important is the layout for your album to you? Who are the artists you used for album?
S: Personally I hate all this modern covers created with Photoshop. Right from the beginning we wanted to have something real drawn for the cover of the album. So we searched for oil paintings and we found this one that suits our music. It is not so obvious and gives room for interpretation. I think it´s a good visual counterpart to the music. It was drawn by the Austrian artist Harald Pichler. It´s a re-drawing. The original painting was drawn by the german artist Carl Hasenpflug and it´s called “Klosterruine im Winter”, translated “The ruin of an abbey in winter”. So the visual implementation is very important for us. When you buy our CD you should have value in your hands with a cool coverartwork and a cool booklet with photos, lyrics etc. And in the end it´s also a cool thing that we are a small underground band who do everything on our own. I created the booklet and so it´s also an egoistic thing: You want a cool product as a whole for yourself so you do everything to make it right. Just think on the “Post Momentary Affliction” release from MORTIFICATION where the band had a cover ready and Nuclear Blast just take a totally different cover because they didn´t like the choice of the band. Fuck this. We have the vantage that we are free in all issues.
Is there already or will be a vinyl version of “Dawn of Winter”?
S: Oh yes! I´m a real vinyl fan so I´m really proud and happy that the album also came out on vinyl. It has been released by RATS ON THE CEMETERY Records. You can order it at: http://www.whispers-of-death.de/ROTCUR/HTML/index2.htm
Few words about the lyrics? They seem to be very dark, obscure and sort of negative…
S: My lyrics deal more with obscure themes
like sacrifices, rituals and religious things. I like that dark fantasy stuff, haha. They have to fit to the music. Reflections on daily life, the struggle of being and the sense of it all can´t lead to a positive point of few.
I think OBSCURE INFINITY has a strong friendship with Italian PROFANAL… You’ve dedicated the album to them and also played some gigs together, finally just recently you’ve released a split 7”EP – which I already ordered and now wait for its delivery. Where did the idea for “United In Death” come from and what is the song you’ve recorded for it? To whom would you recommend PROFANAL? I think they’ve got a female bassist, just like fuckin’ BOLT THROWER??!! What were your gigs like then?
S: Haha, a female bass player? Daniele will be very astonished that you think he´s a girll!!! No no, just kidding. Rosy is the female in the band, but she is the singer not the bass player. (Upps, I must have got something wrong here hehe – ad. Astus) Yeah we have a really strong friendship together. Fantastic people. We played several times together and visit each other from time to time. So when we were the first time in Italy to visit them we had the idea to do a split single together. It took some time but when Matt from DARK DESCENT asked us to do a single under his label we asked him to do a split single together with PROFANAL. He agreed and so we recorded our song “Sign of the Nightsky” which is by the way probably our best song up do date. I can recommend PROFANAL to everyone who likes Old School Death Metal and especially the Swedish bands like GRAVE, NIRVANA 2002 and so on.
There are some other cool gigs that you’ve played I would like to ask you about. First is the appearance on the festival with ASPHYX, who are GODZZZZZZ for me!!! What was this gig like and did you have a chance to drink some beers with the Dutch legends? You’ve also played gigs with some great new, but old school death metal bands I like: BURIAL INVOCATION, DEATHRONATION, ENTRAILS, FUNERAL WHORE… Any good memories from those? What were your best performances so far?
S: Yes, the gig with ASPHYX was fantastic. They are really cool guys and Martin Van Drunen even wore a shirt of us on stage. That was a really cool gesture from him. Thanks for that! FUNERAL WHORE are like PROFANAL really close friends of us and we really love their music. Really nice people and we shared the stage now for many times. With BURIAL INVOCATION we didn´t play live. We wanted and the band came to us but sadly without drummer. So they were there at the gigs but they didn´t play. That was really sad for me because I think they create so fantastic music. Perhaps we get a second chance in the future. I can´t say what was our best performance so far. We had many great live experiences and also some bad, haha...but that´s the way it goes. In general we really love to play the songs live and we hope to do some cool live shows in the future!
OK, since “Dawn of Winter” album has been released already some time ago and the material is relatively old for you, I bet you already have some new tracks finished for the future recordings. Tell me then what are they like and if you have some plans for the next releases, some more EPs or the second album?
S: You´re right, we are working on new material. At first we will record our second album in December of this year. Then there is a split single planned to be released in March next year together with DEATHRONATION. And also for the next year we want to record new stuff for a split CD with FUNERAL WHORE.
Uff… Great to hear about those plans, they’re very promising! Can’t wait for the new album and both splits! But I think that would be all my questions. Thanks for answering them and hailz to you for delivering great death metal devastation!
S: Wow that was a long interview, haha...I thank you for your interest in our band! It was a pleasure answering your questions! Hails to all of you deathbangers who like it raw and mystically! Keep the Death Metal fire burning!!!!
S: Yeah, you´re absolutely right. The name comes from the GRAVE song. I thought this song title would be a really cool band name for us and so we chose it. But it was never meant to be a tribute or something, it´s only a suitable band name for atmospheric Death Metal tunes I guess. GRAVE is one of my favourite Death Metal bands and I totally adore their first three albums. I listen to GRAVE very often so I think this band has a huge influence towards our music. When we started with OBSCURE INFINITY we wanted to do Death Metal the traditional way so it´s no problem that people expect exactly this type of music from us, hehe...and besides Infinitum Obscure is a fantastic band!
There also was an old Swedish band OBSCURE INFINITY that did several demos in the early 90’s, they were really good I think. What’s your knowledge about this old band?
S: When we took the name I already knew that there was a swedish band called OBSCURE INFINITY. But they split up a long time ago and only released demos... so I thought it will be OK to take the name. I know the demos. I like the “Beyond The Gate” demo. On the other demos they mixed too many things together for my taste.
Since you call yourselves “enthusiastic metal maniacs”, and personally I can also say likewise about myself, I’d like to talk about the metal in general, hope it’s OK for you if we talk about things, which not always are connected to OBSCURE INFINITY… So, tell me, are there other metal genres you really like, say black, thrash or heavy metal? What do you think about the times, when it was somehow in bad taste to listen to all metal genres, everyone was only into black metal or only into death metal and didn’t give a damn shit about pure heavy metal or doom or thrash or whatever? Wasn’t it stupid? Nowadays I think metal maniacs are more open for all metal sounds, don’t limit themselves… And also the gigs are more varied; it’s common to have a tour with various types of bands.
S: Death Metal is my passion so I listen to this style of metal
the most. But I also listen to Heavy Metal (bands like IRON MAIDEN, JUDAS PRIEST, BLACK SABBATH and OZZY at the Randy Rhoads era), Thrash Metal (SODOM, KREATOR or PROTECTOR) and a little bit of Black Metal. And of course a lot of Hard Rock like SCORPIONS, RAINBOW and stuff like this. I started with bands like SCORPIONS, AC/DC or IRON MAIDEN. Then came the Death Metal boom and we were totally blown away by this type of music... so for a time there was nothing besides Death Metal for us... we thought everything else is poser shit, haha... today I laugh about this teenage behaviour, hehe... and I´m really glad that I can listen to so many fantastic bands from several metal styles. But that´s only one side of the story. I recognize that too many people without the real passion infiltrate the metal scene. So these guys and girls are more a sort of all style listeners in a negative way. They turn the point of view from an open minded enthusiastic and interested listener to a randomly behaviour without any devotion into music if you know what I mean. From the other hand personally I hardly ever listen to any other types of music, because metal in general can offer so many different styles, with various emotions and sounds that I feel fully satisfied with only metal music in my house and not necessarily look for anything else (maybe except the movie soundtracks). I don’t think any other type of music is so rich in sub-styles and can bring so many variations than metal… Your opinion?
S: I also only listen to Metal and Hard Rock music so I have no idea about sub-styles in other genres. I can only say that only this type of music gives me real satisfaction. But I think other music styles (for example Jazz) have also many sub genres and a wide range of musical expression.
I would like to ask you your opinion about the German scene… Everybody knows the legendary thrash metal bands, there are also some great black metal acts like SECRETS OF THE MOON, HELRUNAR, but the quality of most of death metal bands was surprisingly mediocre in your country. I really love MORGOTH and FLESHCRAWL, as well as two first ATROCITY LPs, also AGORAPHOBIA, PROTECTOR, TORCHURE, IMMORTALIS were good… But for such a big country, with such a big scene and some of the most important record labels, there weren’t that many of important bands (hmm, most of the names I mentioned were in second or third league, not that famous). How do you see the old German death metal scene and compare it to the present one, with bands like NECROS CHRISTOS, MANDATORY, PURGATORY, DEATHRONATION and yours? Is it getting better now?
S: Yes you´re right. Back in the early nineties we had only a few bands with international recognition. Today it´s perhaps even a little bit harder. Old School Death Metal has turned to a sub-genre of the music that today defines the (mainstream) Death Metal style. So the Old School Death Metal scene in Germany is a small but dedicated one. The bands you mentioned create fantastic music and with the most of these guys we are in contact.
When listening to your album, I think that the old Swedish death metal scene must have influenced you a lot, so tell me what do you think about it? Since when are you all fascinated by Svensk Döds Metall? Which are your favourite bands, I’m asking especially about those less known acts, because everyone will always mention DISMEMBER, GRAVE or ENTOMBED,
but this scene was so great that there were also many other fantastic bands, some of which only released demos – NIRVANA 2002, GOD MACABRE, UTUMNO, EPITAPH, EXCRUCIATE, AFFLICTED, GOREMENT, ADVERSARY… This scene was a gold mine with a great number of amazing bands!S: Yes, you´re absolutely right! I truely love - let me say - Scandinavian Death Metal. There are so many excellent bands from this area. Not only Sweden but also Finland as well. (OK, if we go this way, then let’s mention also Norwegian old scene, with early DARKTHRONE, OLD FUNERAL or THOU SHAT SUFFER – ad. Astus) There are also so much less known bands that made brilliant music. NIRVANA 2002, GOD MACABRE, GODDEFIED, WOMBBATH, NECRONY, ETERNAL DARKNESS, CONVULSE, DEMILICH and many more. I think we are heavily influenced by the Scandinavian scene. I am fascinated by this type of music now since 22 years so it´s no wonder that you can find many influences of that scene within our music.
How much do you pay attention to the new breed of old school death metal bands that the Devil has spawned in the past few years? Personally must say I am overwhelmed by many of them and worship this new generation! Any favourites of yours? Strangely I have a feeling that one certain book by Mr. Daniel Ekeroth has caused this hype in one way or another, which is so weird, as it’s probably the first time ever when a book, not another band, influenced some people to check this or another band and caused (or at least was one of the mains sparks) the resurrection of the whole genre.
S: It´s very cool that there is a new scene of killer Old School Death Metal bands from all over the world. It´s still a small scene but with many brilliant outputs. Bands like STENCH OF DECAY, KRYPTS, ASCENDED, CLAWS, HOODED MENACE, BASTARD PRIEST, ABSCESSION, DEAD CONGREGATION, BRUTALLY DECEASED, BURIAL INVOCATION, MORTUOUS, MORBIDER, ENTRAILS, HERPES, INFERNAL CONJURATION, SULPHUR AEON, BODYFARM, BURNING HATRED, MANDATORY, CHARON, DESERTED FEAR, DEATHRONATION or NERLICH create fantastic music! Not to forget our friends of FUNERAL WHORE and PROFANAL! Yes I think this book helped that many forgotten bands and releases got a second chance. Many young metalheads got into Old School Death Metal again and some of them formed new bands. I think that´s a cool thing as long as you have so much high quality outputs as we have at the moment.
OK, let’s focus on your band finally. “Into the Depths of Infinity” was OBSCURE INFINITY’s first demo. Would you mind giving me a brief introduction to this demo, with the songs that were there, their sound, front cover, line up, etc? Was it released on tape or CDR and is it still possible to get it anywhere? Finally, since you already have a full length released, what is your impression on the demo nowadays, few years from its recording? Are you quite happy with it or rather realize how much OBSCURE INFINITY has matured since then?
S: The demo was something special for us. We had a couple of songs ready and thought it would be a cool idea to record them. So it was amazing to listen to your own songs the first time. I think for a first sign of life it´s ok. But as a band we needed time to grow together so I think the album shows a huge musical progression and the songs have a higher quality. But “Maniac Destroyer” from the demo is still our last song at live shows. The sound of the demo is even a little bit cleaner as on our album. We released it on a CD-R and you can still order it through us. The cover is a photo of the texture of a piece of wood of a cupboard, alienated on the computer.
And “Dawn of Winter” is…? How would you describe and recommend the album to the maniacs?
S: “Dawn Of Winter” is pure Death Metal in the old vein. We don´t need to break speed records and we don´t want to be the most brutal band in the world. We just try to create authentic, mystical and obscure music. Our songs live from the contrast between harsh riffs and a special dark atmosphere. Some might say our music is a sort of grumpy tunes but that´s the way we want it to be. There´s no straining after effect but pure devotion for this type of music.
How’s the promotion of “Dawn of Winter” going?
I must admit that I haven’t seen many reviews of it or any interviews at all with your band, so I have a feeling of lack of good promotion for the CD from OBSCURE DOMAIN Prods. What are your feelings about it? S: OBSCURE DOMAIN is a small underground label. Hacker and Sönke are two really devoted Death Metal maniacs. They are really cool guys who are totally relaxed. So from such a small label you can´t expect big promotion and marketing budges. We know that they are really into our music and that´s what matters. But I think there were many reviews of the album and we gave something between 15 and 20 interviews. So that´s ok for a small underground band I guess.
OK, maybe it’s just me who happened not to see any hehe. From the other hand I saw a countless of links for downloading “Dawn of Winter”. Hmm, I must admit that I also first downloaded the CD to check it out, but soon later I’ve found it in a distro and decided to buy it, since I liked the music a lot. I know that the subject of internet and music downloading is endless, but give me a brief opinion about it… Don’t you think that, in case of small bands, downloading can be truly helpful with spreading its name in the underground – of course if you consider internet as a tool for underground promotion, as there are diehard orthodox bands, which prefer to live in the Middle Ages and avoid internet like Devil avoids the holy water (no, it’s not vodka!). Personally I’ve found out about dozens of great new bands through internet, of which I bought many CDs or LPs… So, downloading can be very helpful, especially if there are so many, many bands around. This way your name will be noticed and remembered. Your opinion?
S: When I started to listen to Death Metal I was a young kid. I didn´t have the money to buy a lot of LP´s or CD´s so the tape trading was a really cool thing. The most of my favourite Death Metal albums I first had on a copied cassette, listening to it over and over again. Later I bought it on vinyl or CD. So if you use the internet and mp3 thing as a searching tool to find new cool stuff to buy it´s totally ok I think. But if your “music collection” is only a hard disk of mp3´s there is something going wrong I think. Personally I want to hold something in my hand, look at the cover and the band pics and read the lyrics, etc. Many bands put so much heartblood into the music and their releases so they deserve a little bit more support then clicking the download button.
I agree totally. OK, musically “Dawn of Winter” is just very traditional sounding death metal, influenced by mostly European bands I think, not only the Swedish scene, but also by some Dutch bands as well as the mighty MORGOTH… But what I like about your music especially – and this is I think what brings you close to the Swedish scene – are the atmospheric parts in your music, with some dark riffing, few acoustic passages and even with various vocal parts. Some death maniacs may say the album is not brutal enough, but I like the fact you concentrate more on the dark atmosphere… Besides, in some parts, with the vocal sound and music (like in “Sacrificial Ritual” for instance) it also reminds me two Polish acts: VADER and DAMNATION, so I’m wondering whether you know those Polish legends?
S: Yes, as I said before it´s really important for us to create atmospheric music. Personally I have no problem with the fact that someone could say we are not brutal enough. There are so many modern, brutal Death Metal acts outthere where he or she can listen to. I do this music in first line for myself. That´s the music I want to create and I´m happy with the result. If someone likes what we do it´s cool! But if you do music for others, looking for trends, starting to think what others could like or not, you create soulless fast food music. Instead of this I see us more as creators of rough, authentic art. And for sure I know the two bands but personally I don´t see much parallels between us and this acts. But that´s the cool thing with music. Everyone has a different point of view and experiences the music in a (sometimes totally) different context then the other.
Another thing which caught my attention is that some of your songs are quite lengthy, six of seven minutes long and the whole CD is about 45 minutes long, which I think is rather a lot. But the song structures, the way you play doesn’t make them boring or whatever… Really good job here!
S: Thanks a lot! I have no certain masterplan to create a song. Songs come into being with an idea and then you try to create a sort of puzzle. One riff comes to another and defines the course and development of the song. So it´s a natural progress. I have no default how long or short a song should be. It comes within the songwriting. For our sort of music it´s totally ok to have longer songs I think. If you only do this brutal stuff it is, in my opinion, much more difficult to do long songs.
For you, what is the best formula for great death metal song? What does the perfect death metal song need to have, in order to be really great? From the past and present, which songs from the other bands would you find as the most neckbreaking and killer? He, I know there are so many, but some songs are exceptionally amazing and will be remembered eternally, like “Evil Dead”, “God of Emptiness”, “The Rack” or “Left Hand Path” to mention just few, just for the catchy, dark, but aggressive power of RIFFS!!! They should be played on my funeral!
S: In my opinion Death Metal has to create a special feeling and atmosphere. For me these emotions by listening to this type of music is something really special and personal. And for me there is no special formula for a great Death Metal song. There are so many great bands around the world who create this type of music. But at the same place they differ from another and that´s the fantastic thing. You have that type of music that you love and countless bands who interpretate it their own way. You only have
to choose which interpretations you like and which not, haha. I can´t define only one favourite Death Metal song and the list of songs I would like to mention would go beyond the scope of this interview I guess, haha. The production of the album is very raw, but organic and dynamic, very old school! Is this exactly kind of the sound you wanted to achieve? Besides, you had some guests participating in the recording of “Dawn of Winter”, tell me who they were, and what was the recording of vocals for “Everlasting Fires” like, as this song has some choral chanting, which sound damn cool to my ears?!
S: Yes, we wanted the album to sound very rough and dark. We are all very fed up with this plastic sound from today so we decided to have it much rawer. We recorded it with Nils (of the Black Metal band WEIRD FATE) at his Klangkerker Studios. He did some guest vocals, especially the sacral part at the end of “Everlasting fires” is done by him. The choir after the sacral voice passage is done by Jules, Nils and me. Then a friend of us called Kojak joined for doing guest vocals for “Wreak Havoc – A Blackened Mind”. He has a very nice Death Metal voice with a cool deep range of growling. Kojak and Jules played together in band a few years ago so it was no problem to ask him to participate.
The artwork for the CD looks very impressive. The frontcover painting is one of the best I’ve seen recently; I also like the fact that the booklet has so many photos and lyrics, etc. I’m glad you didn’t put a simple b/w booklet, with no extras what so ever… How much important is the layout for your album to you? Who are the artists you used for album?
S: Personally I hate all this modern covers created with Photoshop. Right from the beginning we wanted to have something real drawn for the cover of the album. So we searched for oil paintings and we found this one that suits our music. It is not so obvious and gives room for interpretation. I think it´s a good visual counterpart to the music. It was drawn by the Austrian artist Harald Pichler. It´s a re-drawing. The original painting was drawn by the german artist Carl Hasenpflug and it´s called “Klosterruine im Winter”, translated “The ruin of an abbey in winter”. So the visual implementation is very important for us. When you buy our CD you should have value in your hands with a cool coverartwork and a cool booklet with photos, lyrics etc. And in the end it´s also a cool thing that we are a small underground band who do everything on our own. I created the booklet and so it´s also an egoistic thing: You want a cool product as a whole for yourself so you do everything to make it right. Just think on the “Post Momentary Affliction” release from MORTIFICATION where the band had a cover ready and Nuclear Blast just take a totally different cover because they didn´t like the choice of the band. Fuck this. We have the vantage that we are free in all issues.
Is there already or will be a vinyl version of “Dawn of Winter”?
S: Oh yes! I´m a real vinyl fan so I´m really proud and happy that the album also came out on vinyl. It has been released by RATS ON THE CEMETERY Records. You can order it at: http://www.whispers-of-death.de/ROTCUR/HTML/index2.htm
Few words about the lyrics? They seem to be very dark, obscure and sort of negative…
S: My lyrics deal more with obscure themes
like sacrifices, rituals and religious things. I like that dark fantasy stuff, haha. They have to fit to the music. Reflections on daily life, the struggle of being and the sense of it all can´t lead to a positive point of few.I think OBSCURE INFINITY has a strong friendship with Italian PROFANAL… You’ve dedicated the album to them and also played some gigs together, finally just recently you’ve released a split 7”EP – which I already ordered and now wait for its delivery. Where did the idea for “United In Death” come from and what is the song you’ve recorded for it? To whom would you recommend PROFANAL? I think they’ve got a female bassist, just like fuckin’ BOLT THROWER??!! What were your gigs like then?
S: Haha, a female bass player? Daniele will be very astonished that you think he´s a girll!!! No no, just kidding. Rosy is the female in the band, but she is the singer not the bass player. (Upps, I must have got something wrong here hehe – ad. Astus) Yeah we have a really strong friendship together. Fantastic people. We played several times together and visit each other from time to time. So when we were the first time in Italy to visit them we had the idea to do a split single together. It took some time but when Matt from DARK DESCENT asked us to do a single under his label we asked him to do a split single together with PROFANAL. He agreed and so we recorded our song “Sign of the Nightsky” which is by the way probably our best song up do date. I can recommend PROFANAL to everyone who likes Old School Death Metal and especially the Swedish bands like GRAVE, NIRVANA 2002 and so on.
There are some other cool gigs that you’ve played I would like to ask you about. First is the appearance on the festival with ASPHYX, who are GODZZZZZZ for me!!! What was this gig like and did you have a chance to drink some beers with the Dutch legends? You’ve also played gigs with some great new, but old school death metal bands I like: BURIAL INVOCATION, DEATHRONATION, ENTRAILS, FUNERAL WHORE… Any good memories from those? What were your best performances so far?
S: Yes, the gig with ASPHYX was fantastic. They are really cool guys and Martin Van Drunen even wore a shirt of us on stage. That was a really cool gesture from him. Thanks for that! FUNERAL WHORE are like PROFANAL really close friends of us and we really love their music. Really nice people and we shared the stage now for many times. With BURIAL INVOCATION we didn´t play live. We wanted and the band came to us but sadly without drummer. So they were there at the gigs but they didn´t play. That was really sad for me because I think they create so fantastic music. Perhaps we get a second chance in the future. I can´t say what was our best performance so far. We had many great live experiences and also some bad, haha...but that´s the way it goes. In general we really love to play the songs live and we hope to do some cool live shows in the future!
OK, since “Dawn of Winter” album has been released already some time ago and the material is relatively old for you, I bet you already have some new tracks finished for the future recordings. Tell me then what are they like and if you have some plans for the next releases, some more EPs or the second album?
S: You´re right, we are working on new material. At first we will record our second album in December of this year. Then there is a split single planned to be released in March next year together with DEATHRONATION. And also for the next year we want to record new stuff for a split CD with FUNERAL WHORE.
Uff… Great to hear about those plans, they’re very promising! Can’t wait for the new album and both splits! But I think that would be all my questions. Thanks for answering them and hailz to you for delivering great death metal devastation!
S: Wow that was a long interview, haha...I thank you for your interest in our band! It was a pleasure answering your questions! Hails to all of you deathbangers who like it raw and mystically! Keep the Death Metal fire burning!!!!
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