Interview with death metal band from Germany - RECKLESS MANSLAUGHTER.
Answered Leimy (vocals), thank you!
Recenze/review - RECKLESS MANSLAUGHTER - Sinking into Filth (2024):
Ave RECKLESS MANSLAUGHTER! Greetings to Germany. I hope everything is all right with you. I was really looking forward to your new album "Sinking into Filth", I always enjoyed the previous albums and I like to come back to them. How did the new album come about and why did it take five long years?
Hey Jakub! Great that you also enjoyed our new album. The first Songs were written directly after our last release "Caverns Of Perdition" in 2019 but because of the pandemic, lockdowns and health issues of our Drummer it took four years to finish all Songs. But sometimes it is better to take all time you need, because we are convinced that “Sinking Into Filth“ is our strongest and most dynamic album so far.
I have to say that I was literally blown away by the sound. It's dense, massive, dark and at the same time as cold as a dead man's hand. That's how I like it! The mix is by Jörg Uken. Did you record directly with him or did you just mix the album? With what feelings did you go into the studio and how did you manage to achieve such killer material?
Many thanks for those kind words, these were exactly the feelings we wanted to create with our sound. We tuned down the guitars and also the bass is more brutal than ever before. It should have sounded raw, authentic and in your face but also transparent and not too muddy and Jörg Uken did a gerat Job with it. We recorded with him in his Soundlodge studio, which was again a great time (he also did the Mix and Mastering afterwards). He has a flat for the band directly neighboring to the studio were we could sleep, so we could start with the recording at 10 o‘clock in the morning until 6 o’clock in the evening, so we also had a lot of time for partying, haha. This time we were really well prepared, so we had the time to work out all details like we wanted and I have the feeling that’s the reason for the best lead-guitar-work we ever had. “Ruf der Leere“ was supposed to be a bonus-track for a splitrelease, but it turned out so great with alls those desolate melodies and fitted so well to the album, that we changed it and “Fürchte nicht die Tiefe“ became the song for the split with Depression, which came out at the beginning of the year.
I always take the recordings as a whole and you didn't underestimate just the sound, but also the cover. Lucas Korte is definitely one of my favourite painters. How did you guys get together and how did the cover art come about? Did you have any requirements or did you choose from already prepared paintings? And how did the collaboration work.
For us the artwork is just as important as the music. I don’t like it when the music is top-class but the artwork looks cheap, inappropriate or childish. The music and the artwork must form a complete work of art, thats why we always work with renown artist. But after a Seagrave Artwork it is really difficult to bring it to a even higher level, so we decided to go to a different direction and were in search for a great black-and-white-artist. In 2019 the demo of Malignant Altar totally blew me away, because the combination of the music, production and the awesome artwork of Lucas was just perfect! I’m friend with Kari from Solothus and as he told me, that Lucas created the artwork for the CD-reissue of the debut-album of Solothus. So I wanted to know how it is to work with Lucas. He told me that he is a total nice and down to earth guy who responds to your own ideas what sounded appealing to me. So I contacted him in early 2023 and told him about my idea of a vertical gatefold-artwork. He was on fire and flame for that idea and after I send him a bumbling sketch of my ideas he started to create sketches and after only a few weeks the stunning artwork together with the revised logo (I wanted a logo which perfectly fits to the artwork!) was finished. It was his first Gatefold-artwork and he told me that it was really a lot of work but he seemed to be pretty proud about what he created and so are we! It fits perfectly to the title, the production and the songwriting :)
The lyrics are an integral part of the album. You are quoted as dealing with death by war, the apocalypse. So classic death metal themes. What are the lyrics on "Sinking into Filth" about, who is their author? Where did you get the inspiration for them?
I am responsible for most of the lyrics. I'm not a poet, but the lyrics should have a meaningful content that fits the music and so I always put a lot of work into it. Here you have some lyric-liner-notes for each song :)
Caverns Of Perdition: In keeping with tradition, the fourth album also begins with a song that bears the title of the last album. The lyrics are inspired by the breathtaking artwork of legendary artist Dan Seagrave and describe volcanic activity, the abominable depths and stone-carved tombs of long-gone civilizations.
Befouled Commandments: Guitarist Dennis once wrote the lyrics under the title 'Mythdirected', which were actually intended for a Depravity song. I rewrote some passages under the working title 'Spoiled By Faith' and only christened the song the snappy 'Befouled Commandments' at the very end. In less than three minutes, the hypocrisy of Christianity is denounced and it is shown that supposedly good things stink to high heaven and are based on rotten lies.
Awaiting My Demise: Thematically, it is about the neglect of prosperity in the modern, western world of material abundance and the accompanying absence of euphoria and genuine happiness. An old, embittered, pessimistic man who has (supposedly) seen everything and possessed everything looks back and longs for the end, as he can no longer bear the emptiness and triviality of dreary everyday life.
Retreat Into Nothingness: The nihilistic, depressive text is about the longing for emptiness, loneliness and eternal peace. A return to nothingness, in which the carnal shell no longer has any meaning.
Aktion 1005: Each album features a song about a historically significant military operation. This time, the choice fell on a particularly dark chapter in German history, which was to deal with the exhumation and cremation of the victims of the Nazis' Aktion Reinhardt. This incomprehensible undertaking aimed to cover the traces of genocide and was also known as Sonderaktion 1005 or Enterdungmission and was carried out from 1942 to 1944, mainly in Ukraine and Poland. The vocabulary of the lyrics was deliberately kept sober, cold, almost cynical, but still shows a clear attitude towards this barbarism of our ancestors. Musically, a particularly bleak, threatening mood was therefore chosen, which reaches its eerily epochal climax in the doomy, melancholic middle section. A barbaric song about a barbaric event that will hopefully never happen again. Resist the beginnings. Never again is now!
Ruf der Leere: It is German and means call of the void. In a time where the world stands at the edge of the abyss of extinction the tempting calls to jump are getting louder and louder. Nietzsche once said: "He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster...when you gaze long into the abyss the abyss also gazes into you". Resisting this call of the void is more difficult than ever these days and this feeling, which is difficult to describe, has been set to music in a fitting way. An almost six-minute fall to the bottomless - eerie and beautiful at the same time...
Risen From The Mass Grave: Here we found lyrical inspiration in the short-story "Bleistiftumriss eines Auferstandenen" from the book "Den Löwenzahn zermalmt nicht die Kesselpauke" by Bernhard Schulz. In this story, he tells of his experiences during the Russian campaign in the Second World War in a visually powerful language and makes it clear how much this terrible experiences shaped him throughout his life and how he actually only returned half-alive. A story that was practically made for desolate death/doom!
My favourite question and I think the readers' too. How does RECKLESS MANSLAUGHTER create new songs? Please let us take a peek into your kitchen. Who is the author of the basic themes? Is everything created in the rehearsal room? I would be interested in the actual process of composing new songs.
Oh yes, we actually are creating everything together in the rehearsal room and that’s the reason why it always takes so long to release new albums, haha. We try to rehearse every week (which is sometimes quite difficult because of work and family-issues) and than we search together for cool riffs and try to arrange new songs. Sometimes one of our guitar-players brings some recordings of hooks, melodies or riffs and the we combine them together. This takes always a lot of time, since eveyone has to be satisfied, but usually we don’t waste too much riffs. When we have a raw idea of a song, Dennis our guitar-player writes down the tabulatures and programs the ideas into tab editor software, so we can optimize speed and iterations and also can add the click, so our drummer Micha can better bring into his ideas. When we have a rough idea finished, we record every track, so we can rehearse those songs even when one member can’t attend a rehearsal which was really helpful, when Micha wasn’t able to play for a few months because of an injury.
You come from the city of Herne, in the industrial Ruhr, just outside of Dortmund. What's it like with your gigs? Do you play a lot? If you were to invite us to play underground metal somewhere, where would it be? Do you have a "base"? Do you like to play often? What are live shows for you?
No one of us actually lives in Herne, it’s only the place of our rehearsal room, which literraly is in the middle of the ruhr-area since we all live spread across the entire ruhr-area. Usually we only play a few weekend-gigs per year, since we all have family and demanding jobs. Our favourite place to be is the AJZ Bahndamm in Wermelskirchen where we played a few times and which is the best place for underground Death Metal with a strong Death Metal-base which is like a little family. We love it to play live and we would wish it would happen more often. Our songs are made to play live and we enjoy every second of those gigs. The gig at the Dortmund Deathfest this year was one of our biggest and most successful gigs so far and we hope to experience such great gigs in the future too.
And what about the underground scene in general? Do the fans come to the shows? Do they support bands? And now I don't mean just sharing on social media, but buying physical media, t-shirts.
Since the ruhr-area is a really big metropolitan region there is a real big Death Metal-scene here. underground concerts are also usually well attended and we are happy to say, that we always have loyal fans who are buying physical media and T-Shirts. We always try to keep the prices as low as possible, so that also the younger people have the chance to buy a CD, Vinyl or shirt. It’s really ridicoulus how expensive the stuff became when you look at all those well-known bands...
Do you have any dreams for the band? Do you have a good name in the underground, but do you want to move up? I mean, are you tempted to maybe tour with a big name, play a big festival, release another record on a well-known label? What dreams and vision do RECKLESS MANSLAUGHTER have?
Speaking for myself we reached more than I ever could imagine. We recorded with our hero Dan Swanö, played with well-known bands, met so many new friends and worked with great artists (Seagrave was always on my bucket list!). For me a dream would come true to play some day at the Party.San Open Air or the Kill-Town Deathfest. Two great festivals I attended and enjoyed often. Also a dream would come true to work with Wes Benscoter or Andreas Marshall for an artwork, I hope this will happen some day :) A little tour in support of a big band we all love would be amazing too, but it has to be planned for many months before that, because of our busy schedules. But never say never :) Oh and I could die immediately if one of the guys of Cannibal Corpse or Immolation would wear one of our shirts at a show, haha.
What does death metal mean to you? Why did you choose this style? How did you get into it and what musicians were your role models when you started? Do you see death metal "just" as music or is it also a lifestyle for you? Feel free to look at this page philosophically.
Oh man, that’s the question where I could write so much, but I try to keep it short. For me personally Death Metal means everything. I discovered it in 1996 when I was 13 and the virus infected me until today and I spend all my money for new records or shirts of the best Death Metal-bands, because for me it is the most emotional and powerful music on earth. I was always fascinated by the morbid side of life and how Death Metal is fixated on death, but that it is ironically turned so much towards life. I met so many great people through the music and I have seen so many nice places that I would not have traveled to otherwise. I also often think about death and consider it very important to deal with it. After all, it is precisely the awareness of mortality that defines us and gives life so much more value. In Death Metal are no boundaries at all and creativity is truly unlimited. I couldn’t imagine a life without Death Metal and there is no day where I am not wearing a Death Metal-shirt or where I don’t listen to that music. So it was always a dream for me to play in a Death Metal-band and since I can’t play any instrument I choose the microphone, haha. But on my bucket-list is written to learn to play guitar, so I hope to attend the music-school together with my son some day, haha. But I would never consider myself a musician or journalist (I also work for the German Metal-magazine DEAF FOREVER) and will always be just a fanatical fan of the best subgenre in the world: Death Fuckin’ Metal!
Please tell us more about what RECKLESS MANSLAUGHTER is going to do in the next few months? Give the fans a little hint.
At the moment we prepare a cool setlist for future live-shows and also entered the songwriting-mode right now. It will for sure take some time to write a full album, but we are still hungry and not tired! Stay tuned!
Thank you very much for the interview. I'm going to listen to "Sinking into Filth" again. It's great! Good luck and I hope to see you again soon at a gig somewhere and have a beer together!
Many thanks, too! A beer together would be great, since the czech republic has the best beer in the world! :)
Recenze/review - RECKLESS MANSLAUGHTER - Sinking into Filth (2024):
Recenze/review - RECKLESS MANSLAUGHTER - Caverns of Perdition (2019):
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