Interview with death metal band from Germany - APEP.
Recenze/review - APEP - Before Whom Evil Trembles (2024):
Ave APEP! I couldn't find any interview with you in Czech anywhere. So I'll ask you first to introduce the band to the readers who don't know you yet. You can start from the beginning and take us through the whole history of APEP.
Hello Jakub, thanks for the opportunity to do this interview and greetings to Czech metal maniacs.
We are APEP from Zwickau (Saxony, Germany) and we play technically influenced death metal. It all started in 2016 when Merlin, Oliver and Christopher decided to split up the previous band Carnage. We decided to form a more serious and original band. In 2016 we recorded the first demo and shortly after that Phillip joined the band on the second guitar. In 2019 we recorded our debut album „The Invocation Of The Deathless One“ which has been released on January 2020 and fell in rather bad times. Nevertheless, we had the possibility to perform this album live at least a bit and played several shows in Germany and even one in Mladá Boleslav last year. Whenever you guys are reading this, our second album is already released and it's also known that Philip left the band and has been replaced by Henrik.
And yes – we still have no permanent bass player.
This year you released a new album "Before Whom Evil Trembles". Again, it is dark, gritty and honest death metal. Did you take a different approach to recording than last time or did you go with tried and tested methods?
Well, I wouldn’t say that we followed any tried and tested methods when recording. We simply learned from previous recording sessions and tried to improve several things, especially technically. That is why the sound surely became a lot tighter this time. Everything was still pretty much DIY though apart from the mixing / mastering process.
In the end we think that we managed to surpass our first album with “Before Whom Evil Trembles” in several aspects. So we really appreciate it when you say you feel the atmosphere and authenticity of the album. Thank you!
I find the new record an order of magnitude more complicated, maybe less accessible at first, but at the same time incredibly dark and evil. Was that the intention? How was the album actually made and how did you compose the music?
Honestly, we haven't changed anything in our style intentionally. Maybe we went some steps further and dared a bit more, which might be logical when you grow together as a band. So, possibly the new songs feel more mature than on the 1st album.
During COVID-times, our creative leader Oliver simply came up with a lot of great ideas that reached their final shape while working on things together in the rehearsal room. It's a result of team work and there was nothing such as “master plan”. So you can still say that everything is 100% authentic.
I have "Before Whom Evil Trembles" in my MP3 player and I have to say that I am literally consumed by it. It's not just the great ideas, but the sound is in a word devastating. For example, I'm sitting on a tram and suddenly I find myself tapping my foot. I feel like partying. If I weren't a gentleman of my years, I'd probably do it. Where did you record the album and who is the mastering engineer?
Wow, thank you! Nice to hear that you enjoy it that much.
As mentioned before, things were more DIY than you would probably expect. The drums and vocals for this album have been recorded by our good friend Thomas “Conne” Conrad at his STEREOID STUDIOS close to Zwickau. It's not a “professional” studio – rather a rehearsal room that Conne constantly equips and develops with a lot of passion, conviction and money. It's great to have such crazy friends that also support you in such a great way. The guitars and basses were recorded at home and later on re-amped.
With a rough mix finished, we had several persons in mind for the final mix and mastering. Merlin just contacted Christoph Brandes (IGUANA STUDIOS) and showed him the rough mix. Christoph really liked it very much, so we decided to work with him for mixing & mastering. And it totally paid off. It feels like Christoph has extracted everything out of the recordings. He created a massive yet organic wall of sound. Brilliant guy!
Who wrote the lyrics on "Before Whom Evil Trembles"? And what are they about? Where do you get inspiration for the themes?
Oliver and Christopher, just as on the first album. Both have common inspirations but also bring in personal interest, such as the Necronomicon, ancient (Egyptian) mythology or sometimes even an old video game, that suits the sinister theme of the band.
In detail, this album deals with different topics, for example the preparation for afterlife in the old Egyptian mythology, themed in the song “Tombs of Eternity”. Or an old Archaic god hunting down humans like in the title track “Before Whom Evil Trembles (Goddess of Carnage)”.
Is Paolo Girardi signed under the cover of "Before Whom Evil Trembles"? I like his work a lot. How did you choose the motif for the cover and what exactly should it represent?
Yes you’re right. We asked Paolo once again for the cover artwork. We were totally happy with his work for the 1st album and yet again, he totally nailed it, depicting exactly what want to represent.
You can see the goddess Sekhmet on her throne in the Egyptian underworld. She is the goddess of war and the plagues. At first sent out from Re to eliminate the wicked, she fell in a blood rush and tried to kill all humans.
If we go back to the beginning... What was the first impulse to put the band together? And why technical death metal? It's not exactly a style that would gain you a lot of "fame".
Like mentioned before the first impulse has been given after the split of Carnage. We all knew that we still want to do music together, but it has to be a little bit more technical then Carnage was. Oliver and myself, we are big fans of the Nile. This fact of course is at least a small influence to the type of music we are playing now.
You come from Zwickau and play extreme death metal. Our readers would be interested to know how the death metal scene works in Germany. To be honest, I've been hearing nothing but great stuff from you guys lately. Does that mean that the scene is very strong in your country at the moment? What about the gigs, how many people come?
There are a lot of great newer German bands, that's for sure. But well... the scene in our region was stronger in the 90s. Also, a lot of legendary bands played close to our home town in the “Ratskeller Fraureuth”. But that was before our time and we were just too young to attend these glorious concerts. Now we still have some good bands which come from Zwickau or the closer areas, like ARCHAIC THORN.
Of course PURGATORY are the “spearhead” of the Saxonian death metal bands.
This phenomenon of a “dead scene” can also be witnessed when you visit the gigs in our area nowadays. Sometimes, there are only a few people that visit real great bands like I AM MORBID or MONSTROSITY. The play in front of about 20 people, which is really hard to understand. As a small local band this is even more difficult, but we also have made different experiences, for example in Chemnitz where even smaller gigs were well-visited. A little bit weird here.
From your music you can feel that you are influenced by both the American death metal school and the old European bands. How are you as fans? Do you prefer the original death metal of the 90s or do you draw inspiration from new records as well? If so, I’d be interested to know which bands had/have the biggest influence on APEP.
Our influences are several different types of metal. As mentioned before, Oliver and Christopher are huge fans of NILE and stuff like that. Merlin is also deeply influenced by the thrash metal scene and is a huge fan of SODOM for example. And obviously we all can't deny our love for classic DM bands such as MORBID ANGEL or ENTOMBED. Newer bands like SULPHUR AEON, DEAD CONGREGATION or SIJJIN are also super impressive. And recently we saw NECROT at PARTY SAN OPEN AIR. They really deserve special mention, because the gig really felt like time traveling to the golden DM times.
Well, the list could be endless and we also listen to non-metal stuff. So, all this has an influence on the sound we play with APEP somehow.
What about you and gigs in general? Are you a band that goes to shows as much as possible or do you pick and choose a lot? Do you have a dream, like a band you’d like to tour with or a festival, city you’d like to perform in?
We're definitely ambitious to bring this on stage and reach many people with our sound. So we're grateful about any kind of inquiry, as long as we fit into the overall concept of the event. We never refused an offer yet or let's say we never had to because of any circumstances.
We try to have “good” (valuable) gigs as often as possible.
Aims and dreams? Of course we'd like to “conquer” new regions and play abroad with the new album. And well.. It'd be great to be a part of established festivals like PARTY SAN or BRUTAL ASSAULT someday. But let's see what the future has in store. We're ready.
I'm gonna go play your new record "Before Whom Evil Trembles" again. I have to say that for me personally it is basically a perfect death metal masterpiece. A total inferno. I wish the record to do well, to reach as many fans as possible. It deserves it. I wish you all the best in your personal life. Good luck and the last words are yours. If you have something to say to fans, labels, promoters, you have space. Thank you for the interview and I'm already looking forward to seeing you live sometime!
Thank you, Jakub! We're super happy that the record impresses you this way. And by the way it's a rare thing to have such a pleasant and honest interview. Keep your passion, mate - and all the best to you too!
Special thanks go out the guys of WAR ANTHEM RECORDS for their great and passionate work. Thank you very much for trusting in us, dudes.
Now, as we're getting close to the public release, we're curious how this record will impact and how all those death metallers out there will receive it.
Cheers to Czech hordes. Let's meet at a gig someday!
Recenze/review - APEP - Before Whom Evil Trembles (2024):
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