Interview with legendary death grind maniacs from Germany - BLOOD.
Answered Destroyer Eisen and Martin Witchskinner.
Translated by Markéta, děkujeme!
Ave BLOOD! I have been listening to your new album “Inferno” for some time now and I still discover something new in it, some new pieces of darkness. I have to say that I thought that your album will be great but this completely killed me. The album is great. How are your reactions from your fans and what about reviews?
Thanks for your kind words. The reaction of the scene is overwhelming! We didn't expect so many great reviews and posts. We are still very very pleased with the way we did it.
Have you already played your new songs live? How do those songs work with fans? Do you have a potential hit already? For me, it would probably be the song “Decimation”.
Yeah, Decimation has a killer “melody line”, but we only played a very few shows this year. We only played 2 of the new songs live: The Summoning and Breed of the Jackal, which went out fucking awesome live, but will be more killer, if people will know the songs more and more.
How did you compose new material for “Inferno”? How BLOOD compose/create?
All songs (besides the old ones) we created since 2015. Writing new songs is a time problem for us, because don't rehearse that often, especially not with all 5 members. That's a shame, but the only way Blood can go on.
Who is the author of your lyrics and what are the lyrics about? Where do you find inspiration?
Martin Witchskinner: The lyrics of the new songs are all done by me, Martin Witchskinner. When i rejoined Blood I made myself a promise, doing all future lyrics all by myself. This way it's easier to connect the lyrical content with the music. Well, lyrics f. ex. deal with manmade brutality, inhuman acts of cruelty (war, inquisition) and the hell we basically live in. Others cover fictional horrorstories, like from movies as The Evil Dead or utterly satanic themed stuff.. Lyrics are meant to be bleak, dark and finally should have a good sounding to it. Enjoy and enter the dark realm of BLOOD!
Who is the author of the cover of the new album “Inferno”? I really like the art work. How did you choose the motive?
We worked with Chris “Thorncross” Moyen back in the early 90s and wanted to continue this way with the new album, because we have almost the same line-up. He drew this new motive for us, after we knew the title of the album “Inferno”. He did a phantastic job!
The sound of the whole album is great. It is dark, raw and sharp at the same time. In what studio did you record? Were you able as a band to have some comments about the final sound and mastering?
We recorded at “Kohlekeller Studio”. After so many years, all old studios no longer exist, so we were looking for a Studio that is not so far away from us and that is experienced with Death/Grind. So as also Benighted and Aborted recorded their stuff there, we also choose this studio and it was the right choice. The techniques were awesome and the mixing masters knew everything about this style – much more than anyone else in the past. So all ideas came together for this sound. We were so shorten with our time in the Studio, because we had no label to finance it, but we made the recording in only 4 days (+ 2 days for the mix).
You have been playing since 1986. That is a long time for a band. We can say that you are legends. How were your beginnings? How did you found your band and what was the first impulse to play death grind metal?
I and some friends were total metal heads back in that time and just asked ourselves, if we could play some noisy shit at ourselves. The very first tunes were absolutely noise – no one could handle an instrument, but we had lots of fun, so we continued. During the years we became better and had the chance to get better equipment and a rehearsal room. We started this sort of music, because it is for what our heart beats.
This summer, you absolutely killed me on the NICE TO EAT YOU DEATHFEST festival. I have to admit that I expected older men who will just play the concert, just to be there. But your performance was an absolute massacre. How did you enjoy the festival? How do you feel about Czech fans?
We had a killer time there and didn't know, what to expect from the fans, because all other bands are much younger, faster and tighter, but we tried our best to play for what Blood stays in 2017 and people enjoyed it a lot. We met great people and as always, Czech republic is very special for us and have some of the best fans in the world. We'll return in March 2018 for 3 shows along with our friends of Fleshless. They are great mates since so many years.
Now, you are almost like a veterans. Try to compare your beginnings and now – has the time changed? I mean the attitude of fans, labels, promoters and so on. I often hear people saying “it is not the same as it used to be”. How do you feel about that?
Everything changed during the years. At the beginning we had lots of time and invested all spare time into the band, but later some of us became parents, have stable jobs and other activities besides the band. That is the reason we cannot play that many shows, but it's OK, because we can go on and on… Yeah, today the world became digital, that means you can listen to everything everywhere, but people had no time to spend with one single release a bit longer, like it was in the past. That's a shame on hand, on the other hand it helps a lot to promote a self release, like we do at the moment. It's almost a bad thing for many (small) labels, but so is life.
I often hear people talking on concerts in the Czech Republic that there is not a lot of people on concerts. I would like to know how is it in Germany. For us, you are a big country with many bands, promoters. There are often abroad bands who have concerts in your country and those bands do not play in the Czech Republic. Do people go on death metal concerts? Do you prefer clubs or bigger festivals?
In Czech Republic the situation seems to be much better than in Germany. Here many many small clubs closed, because of the lack of visitors. We personally prefer small clubs, but it seams an organizer needs one or 2 bigger bands to get a bigger crowd. The situation is not easy – especially not if you like to earn much money. If you an organizer you also need to be a die hard fan!
I have been looking through your interviews, I even took out some magazines and I have not find any information about who is the author of BLOOD logo?
We had an old logo done by me at the very beginning, but that was not very good. Ventilator did this logo back in 1987, after he joined us. He wanted something that looks like a “brand mark” - and so it is.
Nowadays, most people download music online and they only use its digital form. How do you feel about this issue as a musician?
It's the state of art at the moment and to be honest, I also listen to music online – it's so fucking easy. But the metal scene is much more true and old school, that still many fans try to buy physical stuff. We don't need to earn much money with it, so we are OK with this evolution.
Are there any albums which has caught your attention recently?
The latest Embalmer album is killer, Disma destroys everything, Cardiac Arrest rules more and more with their newer stuff and also the latest Fleshless mini is awesome.
Do you know and listen any Czech bands?
We know many czech bands, like Fleshless, Malignant Tumör, Ingrowing, Carnal Diafragma, Cerebral Turbulency, Contrastic, Deflorace, Disfigured Corpse, Hermaphrodit, Krabathor, Spasm and many many more.
What are BLOOD´s plans for the next few months?
To play some very cool shows and to introduce the fans some of the new songs from the Inferno album, have a great time and start writing new songs, that people don't need to wait another 14 years until the next release.
Thank you for the interview and I wish you many sold albums, hundreds of crazy fans and tons of great ideas.
Thanks for your interest and the support – all hail to all true Czech Death/Grind fans!
