Interview with legendary death metal band from Netherlands - SINISTER.
Answered Mr. Toep Duin.
Translated by Duzl, thank you!
Ave SINISTER! I have been listening to your new album “Syncretism” for a while now and there is always something new and some new pieces of darkness every time I listen to it. I have to admit that I knew that your album would be good, but this is absolutely killing. The album is excellent. How are the fans´ reactions and reviews?
Hello Jakub!! Responses are amazing. Every time we see improvement, and we are working our asses off to be one the better names if we talk about Death Metal, like the old days when Sinister was one of the leaders in the scene. And now it’s paying off. We play great festivals and the fans responses are great!!
Have you played any of your new songs live yet? How do they work with fans? Do you have a song which might be a hit? For me it would probably be “Neurophobic”.
We play always at least three songs form Syncretism live. Neurophobic, Canonical rights and Convulsions of Christ! The great thing is that the crowd is even more enthusiastic about the newer stuff then the old songs. Of course you always have some guys who only like the first two albums, but for these guys we can’t probably do anything good. But we have a lot of fans and new fans who are excited about the Sinister today. We are doing really great!!
The album has a dark and antichrist cover. Who is the author and what is the cover about? I have to say that this time it took me a while until I get used to it but I need this on my T-Shirt! It is excellent, original, apocalyptic!
Thanks!! The concept is made up by Adrie who gave the assignment to Alex Tartus from Russia. This guy is amazing!! Seen already stuff for our new album. Really sick!!!
Lyrics are sometimes underrated in death metal. You sing about darkness, death and Satanism. What are the new album´s lyrics about and who is the author? Do you want to send some message with the lyrics?
The concept regarding the lyrics are from my hand. I like to write stories and to think about titles. And yes, we went back more to the dark and Atheistic lyrics. It fitted well in the whole concept and artwork. Syncretism is the merge of religions. I used this concept to tell about the dark forces and evil ‘religions’ which becomes bigger and bigger and eventually destroys all common faith. But as I see it, as an Atheist, these dark forces are representing the nonbelievers as a metaphor. If you read it good, its actually a bash to all religions. That brought nothing but shit to humanity!!!
The new album has very dark and sharp sound. Still it is quite different from the previous albums. It was done by Jörg Uken. He even did your previous albums. Did you thought about the new album differently? Was there a different assignments and tasks for Jörg this time? Some passages seem to be “doomer”. By the way, I really like the fact that the bass is nicely hearable. Thanks to this the album has more pressure.
We are very happy to work with Jorg, we know what we get and he is really good !! Of course every time he is pushing himself to make the productions better and better. The songs are real dark, so then Jorg knows exactly what to do. He always try to find the right mix for the songs. And he pusses himself to the limit to create the right atmosphere.
Speaking about the sound I need to ask. There are the keyboards on the new album. I really like it because the songs are more dark and black. Who composed with the keyboards and do you want to continue with this technique?
The keyboard arrangements were made by Carsten from the Monolith Death cult. We asked him to help us out because we knew the songs could use some extra dark dimensions. And that was the right decision to make. Without loosing any of the brutality or Death metal concept we were able to create this extra dimension. It worked out really great!!
The last time I saw you was in the Czech Republic on NICE TO EAT YOU festival and there was Alesa playing the bass. She is not in the line-up on your new album. What happened? Does she only play on live performances? By the way she looked great with you:).
At that time we were looking for a permanent replacement for the bass spot. Then Alesa told us she could help us out for that period. Ans she did great!! But it is not really practical as she lives in Slovenia, so it was on temporarily base. Then we found Ghislain in Holland to join us.
“Syncretism” was released by Massacre Records on CD and DVD. Lately it seems that vinyl is getting more and more popular with fans. Have you thought about releasing the new album on vinyl?
Actually the album is on vinyl via Cosmic key creations and is available at Value merch and Nuclear blast catalogue if I am not wrong.
Last year you played in the Czech Republic on NICE TO EAT YOU festival. It was a great concert! How did you like the Czech Republic and what do you think about Czech fans? Do you see any difference between concerts in the Netherlands or in the Czech Republic?
Czech republic is always great to play. The underground and Death metal scene is big and great and we have a lot of fans!! So, always a pleasure!! And in your counties and the more eastern part of Europe the crowd is going insane and that makes it very killer to perform on stage, gives you the extra energy to destroy the venue!!
Nowadays, there is a lot of young bands who try to play “old school death metal” again. Most of them are not really good but there is also some of them who understand what this music is about. Do you have any favourite band which is able to make the “good old days” live again?
Actually I am not that kind of guy who is checking a lot of new stuff, so hard to mention some bands. I know there are new killer bands but most of the time it is very hard to reach the level of the old guys !! If new bands don’t have the success in a few years they quit and they will start something new to end up the same way. You know, its hard working and making a lot of concessions with your private part of live, family and jobs. And it doesn’t just come by saying we are a great band! I am in the scene for almost 30 years and still trying to get better and going forward!
Next year you will celebrate 30 years in the underground anniversary. You are basically a veterans now. Do you think that times have changed when you compare your beginnings and today´s scene? I am talking about fans, labels, organizers, promoters, etc. attitude. Frequently people say that “it is not the same as it used to be”. What do you think?
Last year’s we really professionalized the band. You cant get along in the scene if you do not infest a least a little bit in the business part of making music. I think fans and the scene are the same but as said, Death Metal professionalized. But playing a gig now or 25 years ago, for me it’s still the same and I enjoy it the fullest.
Today there is a phenomenon and it is called the Internet. Sometimes I feel that people do not do anything else, the just live online. How SINISTER feel about downloading music? Many “fans” just download music online and they watch concerts on YouTube. They do not buy physical albums because it is too “old” for them. I would like to know how do you feel about this “phenomenon”.
Well that’s easy to answer. What is better advertisement then that your band is copied and watched 1.000.000 on YouTube or whatever. This will increase your selling number because the real fans will buy it anyway. So better to reach as many fans as possible then living in a dream that you will become rich by selling CD’s only.
On concerts in the Czech Republic, I often hear that there is not enough people on concerts. I would like to know how are your experiences form the Netherlands. For us, you are the country of many bands and promoters. Famous bands who do not go to the Czech Republic often go to your country to play. Do people go on death metal concerts in your country? Do you prefer clubs or bigger festivals?
We have great festivals in Holland and actually, we as Sinister, don’t have really complaints. Everywhere we play we see this lovely crowd!! In Holland we are economically in a very good period so people have more to spend and you see that in the amount of shows and festivals! But I know sometimes there is an overload of festivals and shows and then people will make choices.
What are SINISTER´s plans for the next few months? Do you want to somehow support the new album by a tour? Are you planning to go to the Czech Republic?
We will play on the 70000 metal cruise and we go to Latin America for 10 shows, Also we have a lot big festivals on the agenda for 2018. Watch our FB sites to be informed about all this !! Behind the scenes we are already working on new stuff. Czech republic is not on this agenda yet, but who knows!
Thank you so much for the interview and I wish you a bunch of sold music, full concerts of crazy fans and I cannot wait to see you!
Thanks Jakub, see you next time!!!
