Answered Benni.
Translated by Petra, thank you!
Ave ATOMWINTER! I have not found the interview with your band in Czech anywhere. Could you please introduce ATOMWINTER to Czech metal fans? Who are todays ATOMWINTER?
Founded in 2010 ATOMWINTER consists of Olle Holzschneider (vocals), Martin Schulz (bass), Patrick Walter (drums) and me Benni Grapp on guitar. Our former singer Christopher Lehmann had to leave the band in 2013 because of his professional activities, and he also moved to southern Germany.
I don't like to describe my music, but if I have to here is a statement:
If you like the filthy and uncompromising atmosphere of 90's style Death Metal, then you are right with us!
ATOMWINTER is like a 60 tons tank that will overrun you before it spits out your guts through its gun barrel.
And after you have died a glorious dead we will take you into the morbid catacombs of doom!
That's all I can tell you!
I have received your newish record „Catacombs“ for review from the label TROLLZORN RECORDS and I am really delighted! I was waiting for good gravedigger handwriting, however, I did not expect that it cut me into pieces so much. How was the album created? How exactly ATOMWINTER writes the music?
It took nearly one year to write the songs for this album, because we were busy with a lot of live gigs in 2016 and 2017. Although I had some basic structures of the songs, we created the rest as a band in our rehearsal room and you can hear the influences of every band member on it. However, we only spent 6 days in the studio to record the whole shit.
The sound of the record is also really great. It is dark, cold and harsh at the same time. In which studio did you record the new album? Did you have a chance to say/argue something to your producer regarding the resulting sound?
''CATACOMBS'' was recorded by Torsten Sauerbrey in MetalSound Sudios in Lerbach/HarzMountains. Torsten is an old time buddy of us, and he knows perfectly what fits into ATOMWINTER and its sound.
Could you reveal us who is the author of lyrics and what is their background? Where do you take your inspiration for topics in the lyrics?
Mainly Olle is responsible for the lyrics, but I also did contribute the lyrics for 3 songs. On ''Catacombs'' you will find some creepy little stories about the demise of humanity and the abyss of human souls. The lyrics on ''Iron Flesh'' were all about war. Now the mood is more darker and mysterious. The lyrics on ''Catacombs'' are darker and more occult than on ''Iron Flesh''. There is no main theme on the album, but every text tells a little filthy story about the demise of humanity and the abyss of human souls.
When we were in the songwriting progress it was clear from the outset, that mystical lyrics will fit better into the music.
We want the listeners to form an own view on the music and the lyrics.
You have always had the amazing cover arts. Is it very important for you, how the whole album, booklet, cover looks like? Who is the author of the cover of new album „Catacombs“? I really like his work. How was this cooperation formed?
The cover artwork exactly reflects the whole wickedness of ''Catacombs'', and it also takes you deeper into the music. Although it's a very complex painting, it's an evil statement for what ATOMWINTER stands for today! Special thanks go out to the artist Johannes Kiesselbach from Hamburg. He's got a really sick mind.
When I revealed to my friends that I am going to make an interview with you, everybody recommend me to ask, how the underground in your country works? Czech Republic is a small country; we have only a few death metal bands, which are really great. How do you perceive your scene? Do the fans go on concerts, to buy merchandise? Do the bands support each other?
The underground scene is stronger than ever. There are so many current metal bands which are worth to discover. We got much support and the opportunities to play live are outstanding. The solidarity inside our scene is awesome, and that's not going to change soon. We are proud to be part of this scene, and we will die for it if it's necessary.
I am old metal dog, who listen to metal music more than 30 years. The time has so changed during these years. We have an internet, young fans only download mp3 and sometimes I really miss „the old good times“. How do you perceive the changes in music, at concerts etc.? Did you have to change an approach as a band?
The good old times are still living on dude! We are an Old-School Death Metal band, and we play our asses of on stage. And we still are selling CDs, Vinyl and tapes of course. It could be worse!
Do you remember who created the ATOMWINTER logo? Recently we talked about the best death metal logos with my friends in the pub. Besides of we were drunk, the result of this discussion was that we could not decide which logos are the best. I was voting for yours!
The name comes from our longtime and good friend Carsten Boritzki. He also created the first band logo for us and he is a big supporter from the beginning. Without Carsten ATOMWINTER would be nothing!
And what about the ATOMWINTER and concerts? How difficult is for you to organize the tour? Do you prefer to play in Germany or do you want to go also abroad? I know, everything is about the money, but I still think, the live shows are bringing to the bands more and more fans.
We already played a few gigs this year and we are in the preparations for the rest of 2018. There will be a lot of shows all over the country including festival gigs in summer. Also we are planning to tour with our buddies from Collapse Instinct in autumn this year. So watch out for ATOMWINTER in 2018!
Thank you for the interview and I wish you a lot of sold CDs, hundreds of crazy fans and tons of great ideas.
It was a pleasure to answer this interview and I would like to thank the readers for taking time to read this lines.
