Interview with death metal band from Germany - OBSCENITY. Answered Hendrik Bruns.
translated by Markéta, thank you!
Recenze/review - OBSCENITY - Retaliation (2016)
Ave OBSCENITY! I have to admit that your new album “Retaliation” totally killed me. It has everything what should be in death metal. How do your fans react on it? How about reviews? Are you satisfied with your work?
Hey Jakub, we hope that you are still alive. Sorry for that late answer, but we have a shitload of interviews at this time ….
The reactions were great, many people told us that we have find the perfect way between our previous and current recordings. Reviewers reflecting this many times in different ways. We were totally satisfied with Retaliation, all of us have an intense enthusiasm to the songs when were listen to that.
The first thing that hits you in the face is the great cover by Paolo Girardi. I really like this artist. Last time the author of your cover was Remy Cueilier. Why the change? By the way, the cover of your new album is amazing. But it makes me think all the time – what does it mean? It is amazing, however for someone it could be too abstractive. How did you choose the cover?
There is nothing to say about the change from Remy to Paolo. On every Album were looking for the best results , at this time we talked to Paolo. We really like his morbid and dark paintings and the whole band decided to work with him. The Artwork is reflecting Paolo’s interpretation of our lyrics. We have sent him individual text fragments of Retaliation and thereof he created this spectacular artwork.
The lyrics are unimportant in death metal sometimes. You sing about darkness, death and evil. What are the new lyrics about and who is the author? Do you try to send some message by our lyrics?
We have discussed a lot about the lyrics, which are deeper cuts into personal matters. Finally Tobias was responsible for the realization of the lyrical themes. Everybody can interpret his own things in this lyrics, that’s they are made for.
“Retaliation” was published by Kolony Records. The last album was published by Apostasy Records. Why the change? Were you not satisfied? I am curious because nowadays the labels are very important for bands. It makes the publicity for albums, it advertises. And me as a nonprofessional I do not see any difference between those two labels.
It took us a long time before we actually decided to sign with Kolony. The label made a serious impression and came up with our expectations. Hope you understand that we can`t talk about the Details. But in fact, Tomasz from Apostasy make a great label-work. He is one of the best address here in Germany.
The new album has a very dark, sharp sound. Who was responsible for the sound and where did you recorded the album? I am interested in the process of making a new material. How does OBSCENITY compose? Who has the last word, who says “this is right, that is how we leave it”?
The Recordings were partially made in the studio (Art temple) and at Christoph's home. Stefano Morabito (16th cellar studio) was committed for the mix and mastering of the album, since he has convinced our ears with his earlier productions such as Apophys, Fleshgod Apocalypse and Hideous Divinity. The Songs were arranged beforehand by Christoph and me and later finalized in collaboration with the whole band. Only when everybody says that`s right we will carving things in stone.
Nowadays, a lot of young band begins to play the “old school death metal”. Some of them are not very successful, however there are some good new bands which figured out what is this music about. Do you have any favourite band which can bring those “old good days” back to life?
To be honest, I am not in old school DM .. I really don´t like it. It bores me to hear the sound the bad riffing and the clichés who are in this kinda music. And I can´t understand the hype around that style at this time. We have a recurrency style that comes around once more like in the nineties as it starts. It does not last very long and this time is over in my opinion. Maybe 1 year and we have the new sensation..Maybe Trash maybe Hardrock..we´ll see what the future will bring. Let´s have an eye on the Metal-marketing companies. They are responable for that...
Today, you are like veterans. If you compared the beginnings of your band and your band today, how different would it be? Is there a big change? I mean the attitude of fans, labels, promoters, and so on. I often hear the “it is not the same as it used to be” kind of mumbling. What do you think?
Hmm, veterans ...hahaha ok. We have learned over the years. We have learned to play our instruments and we know about our skills. We don´t have changed as a band according our musical style.. but I think the circumstances does have changed. All about recording , the labels , the distribution … The most important thing is the internet.. You can apply for a label, hear the music on YT, down and upload some music.. it has been changed into a hyperspeed area where the music industy lost it´s value in the last 15 years...
The today´s phenomenon is the Internet. Sometimes I think that some people just do not live outside of the internet. What is OBSCENITY´s relationship to music downloading? There is a lot of fans who just download music and they do not go to concerts. They watch YouTube videos instead of listen to an album. CDs are old case for “old dads”. I am curious, what do you think about this “phenomenon”?
The good things about downloading are, that you can get music everywhere. Personally I only like high quality downloads in wav. format. Musicians pay a lot in the studios to get the best results for their record . Listen to a album via youtube the whole time is creepy as hell , cannot understand. Nowadays there is a certain oversupply in concerts, but all the people have to know that bands are living from the concerts not from selling downloads, cd´s or lp`s.
In the Czech Republic, there is a low attendance in concerts – at least I have heard that. I want to know what your experiences from Germany are. For us you are a big country with a lot of bands, promoters. You have a lot of concerts by bands which often skip the Czech Republic. Do people go to death metal concerts in your country? Do you prefer smaller clubs or bigger festivals?
We stayed last year at the NTEY – Festival in Czech and we had a great time. It was not the first time for us to stay there. We have played many times in your country.. We had single shows and tours for example with Hypnos ,Krabathor , Disfigured Corpses... to name a few. And of course we played 2 times on the Obscene Extreme Fest.. One of the best Festivals in Czech! Here in Germany we have different styles of festivals. There is Wacken , the biggest festival on earth, and on the other side we have club shows in record stores with an audience of 35 people.. Everything is possible..
What are OBSCENITY´s plans for next few months? Are going to support your new album by some longer tour. Do you plan to visit the Czech Republic while the tour?
We´re in negotiation with a booking agency.. That means playing shows in Europe if it works … At the end of 2016 we´re going to arrange some new stuff we have written over the last month.. Maybe we´ll see us in Czech... I ´ll hope so. So we can drink some Czech brew .. really famous beer ..
Thank you so much for the interview. I wish you a lot of sold music, full concerts, crazy fans and I am looking forward to seeing you!
Thanx for having us and give us a try while listening to “Retaliation” !
Stay obscene !
http://www.reverbnation.com/obscenity1989
http://www.kolonyrecords.com/
https://kolonyrecords.bandcamp.com/album/retaliation
