Answered Harald Busse.
Translated by Duzl, thank you!
Ave MORGOTH! I admit, when began the mentions about your return to the scene, we had to celebrate it with friends. You used to be an absolute cult band for us in the age of our youth and one of the first death metal bands which come to us to Bohemia. I still have an unofficial cassette "Resurrection Absurd" from MG Records. For us it was hard to find anything at the time of socialism. How do you feel the old times? What was the first impulse to set up a band and how did you get the idea to play death metal?
Thanks for your compliments. It's always great to think about the old times. I think there was no first impulse. It just happened. Marc and me were together in school and one day we met Rüdiger and Carsten. They were metalheads too and had this idea about founding a band. Rüdiger already played drums at that time and together with Carsten who played guitar, they made their first musical attempts in a school workroom. When they asked Marc and me if we wanted to join the, we were immidiately excited. I played piano for 10 years before, i had some musical basics so i took over the guitar. Because Marc did not play an instrument he was forced to be the singer, haha. The idea to play death metal came later. At that time in 1987 the term death metal was not really established, so our first demo "Pits Of Utumno" was released under the term " Ultrathrash".
Albums Cursed and Odium from the 1990s, for me, many other listeners are absolutely cult. We had posters with you around the room, each girl loved someone else from the band, and we spent a long hours at the hi-fi tower. What really fascinated me was the sound of both recordings. Totally devastating. Do you remember how you recorded at that time? I wonder how it was at Woodhouse in Dortmund? Have you been "professionals" or your approach was more as "punks"?
We havn't been professionals at all. We were schoolkids. But schoolkids who wanted to do music as hard and brutal as possible. We recorded our first demo in our rehearsal room, wich was situated in a slaughter house (!) We had a good friend (Dirk Draeger) wich one should become the producer of all our following stuff. He had a own band and he had all the knowledge we needed, so he was from the very beginning involved in producing, mixing and recording our stuff. The first professionell studio we recorded was the Woodhouse Studio in Dortmund. It was a very relaxed athmosphere and we had a lot of fun there recording "Cursed"
For a long time I have one thing in my head. Who is the author of your amazing logo?
It was a guy named Torsten Gilsbach, he was a friend of us.
But let's go to the present. We all were looking forward to your comeback on the scene, but we were also very worried how it would go. How did you see your comeback? How did you actually get back together? You met in the pub, drank a couple of beers and said, "So, guys, what if we record the record again?"
The original idea came up in 2010. Sebastian phoned me one day to let me know , that in 2011, it's gonna be 20 years ago that "Cursed" came out. He spoke to Marc before and he asked me if i could imagine to play a couple of anniversary shows in 2011 to celebrate this happening. I said that i needed some time to think and i would phone him in a week. I called him back the next day and said "okay, let's do it". Since than, we have a very good time. We played a lot of festivals and club shows, had been on tour with Bolt Thrower and Incantation, we were invited to do a South America - tour and we have released a new record "Ungod" in 2015. So all in all everything went really successful for Morgoth.
The result was the album "Ungod" from 2015. I admit that even after some time I still consider this record as excellent and I still like to return to it. I think all old and new fans have to be happy. How do you rate this record in time? What are the responses and most importantly, how do the songs work live?
I have to admit that we are very satisfied with the result of "Ungod". From the very beginning, our aim was to record a true death metal record and despite the fact we had to part from Marc Grewe, we are really satisfied with the album. And this is of course not at least Jaggers merit who did a great job on "Ungod". It took a time until the fans appreciated the new songs, but today after Ungod is in the race for almost 3 years, the songs get more and more the same importence than the old once.
You may be surprised that I did not ask you about the new vocalist Karsten Jäger but everyone is asking. I would try it differently. Changing a vocalist at a big band always creates a lot of emotions. Personally, I think you could have not picked better, but I would rather be interested in how Karsten isin the band as a human? Are you a group who goes to beer together, chatting, talking about life? Or are you meeting only when you are rehearse new material? Do you think that Karsten will write lyrics for the new album (on "Ungod" he already wrote two, if I am right)?
Jagger has become more than only a musician to us. Unfortunately we don't meet besides the band activities, because we all live very scattered. He is a very enjoyable character and he is always to have fun. For us, he is the perfect choice and we are very happy to have him at our side. Karsten was lyrically involved in two songs on "Ungod". I'm shure there will be more lyrics from Jagger on the next Morgoth LP.
You are like a band (Herald and Sebastian) now veterans. Much has changed over these years, you're on stage, isn’t it? Is there a different approach for organizers, labels, fans? Into the game entered the internet, new technologies, completely different access fans to music.
It's true. A lot of things have changed over the years. The organisation, the technology, the whole surroundings are much more professional today. But one thing has not changed. And that are the fans. And that's why i'm still grateful to be on stage, having the opportunity to do make music for people who love death metal.
Your band is named after Morgoth Bauglir, a literary figure in the fantasy of the stories of Master J. R. Tolkien. How do you like the film processing of his stories? Are you a fan of Middle-earth? How was the idea of naming the band according to his work?
I have to admit that I'm not that familiar with the whole Tolkien universe. Of course I know the "Lord Of The Ring" movies, but back then it were Carsten and Rüdiger who choosed the name. They were big Tolkien fans, and it was them, giving the band the name.
It's been a long time since I saw you live. The last time was in 2014 with BOLT THROWER, INCANTATION in Prague. For me a „return concert“ which was unusually succeeded in all aspects. You did the perfect performance and I been totally chopped. How do you have it actually with concerts? I've always felt that kind of old-fashioned enthusiasm from you, the desire to do properly. How do you view concerts from a band's point of view? Do you prefer clubs or festivals?
For me personally, (and i think i can speak for the other guys too) clubshows are more interesting than festivals. I like the intensity of a club show. The proximaty to the audience, the heat, the sweat. This connection to the audience is difficult to reach on a festival stage, espacially when the stage time is in the early afternoon.
Since "Ungod" has been running several years. What about the new material? I firmly believe that we will soon find new records. Will you give us some details? Do you still stay "old school"?
We have no plans for a new record yet. We want to play some good club shows in 2018 and we have already the idea of touring late summer. This gonna happen in eastern europe mainly, but i can't tell you any details yet.
Thank you very much for the interview. I wish you all your gigs sold out and a lot of enthusiastic fans. A lot of success not only in personal life and I'll be looking forward to see you soon. MORGOTH FOREVER!
