Answered Kuba.
Translated by Markéta, thank you!
Ave DEATHSTORM! Greetings to Poland. Last time we saw each other was in Pardubice in the backstage with the band DYSANGELIUM. You had just finished your performance and gave me your album “Nechesh”. I really liked the album and I played it in my player for a long time. Since then, five years have passed. What have you been doing as a band? Are there any changes in your band?
Kuba: Hi! I remember this night and the little conversation we had after we'd finished playing. Really good gig, nice atmosphere and nice reception from the Czech audience.
Many things have changed during those 5 years. We worked on “The Unfathomable”, which was a long and rather painful process due to many obstacles we had faced on our way. That night was I think the first time we played “Gateway” from this album, so you can see yourself that it took us 5 years to record it on a CD. Last five years have also seen some changes in line-up as Jędrek left the band leaving us a three-piece. But I think that we are right now more conscious, focused and self-aware as a band and the vision of what we want to do is much clearer than that on “Nechesh”.
This year you have released your fresh new album “The Unfathomable”. Once again, it is a dark, harsh and honest death metal. Did you change the way you record the album since the last time or you choose verified practices?
Kuba: We approached the recording process in a similar way as in the case of “Nechesh” - we even chose the same studio. Mixing was done in a different place though. The massive and suffocating sound of this record is owed to Jarek Musil, a Czech producer from Brno, who is a true professional. He doesn't seem to be into such genres of music, but he instinctively got the idea of how it was supposed to sound right from the beginning. When he'd sent the first track to us we were blown away completely and if it wasn't for him and his sound, these tracks wouldn't be so devastating.
The new album seems a little bit more complicated, perhaps initially it might seem less accessible. However, at the same time it is unbelievably dark and evil. Was that intentional? How did you create this album and how did you compose the music?
Yep, it's definitely more complex and more multifaceted than “Nechesh” and contains many ideas we wouldn't have been able to pull off on our debut album or we would've been skeptical about. Take, for instance, a black metal riff opening “Land of Severity” or the twisted structure of “Death Is Sacred” and the schizoid ending of this track that slowly develops into this full-blown apocalyptic finale. This album is full of such fucked up ideas and that's why we're so happy about it. Obviously, the process of composing this album was not 100% conscious and some of the songs were done during one rehearsal, whereas others took months to morph into the forms in which they appeared on the album. However, even before composing, we'd had the initial idea to make music much darker, depressing and overwhelming than on our debut.
I have the album “The Unfathomable” in my MP3 player and I have to say that I am literally absorbed by it. There are not only great ideas, but also the sound which is in one word – devastating. For instance, I am sitting in a tram and suddenly I realize that I am stepping with my foot in the rhythm. I want to go to a party. If I were not an old man, I would probably go to a big party. Where did you record the album and who is signed under the mastering?
As I've mentioned before, Jarek Musil is responsible for mixing and mastering. We recorded drums, guitars and bass at Metal Sound Studio in Świebodzin with Wojciech “Poland” Cenajek in charge. The vocal tracks were done at our “home” studio in Wałowice, near Gubin. I'm not surprised that you want to go to a party while listening to this album – it's a very optimistic music conceived just for a dancefloor. Other circumstances that would facilitate its reception would include a romantic sunset with your partner accompanied by a glass of chilled white wine, sitting at a Christmas table with your family and children eagerly awaiting the arrival of Santa Claus, your “first time” etc. As you can see, it's pretty universal.
When we did an interview together (a few years ago) you told me that your lyrics are made by 3 people in your band. The lyrics are influenced by resistance to faith and anti-Christianity. What are the lyrics about on the new album and who is the author of them? In the Czech Republic most of the people are atheists, perhaps (in average) the largest number of atheists in the world. But in Poland is probably different. How Christianity and belief affect everyday life in Poland? Do they reflect in your lyrics or do you rather choose more general level?
All mainstream religions are cancerous so fuck them, nothing's changed in our perspective since our debut album. First of all, I'll go with the situation in Poland. Unfortunately, the Catholic church has significantly grown in importance. There's number of reasons why. First, we elected an authoritarian government which rules the country in Orban style – breaching constitution, trying to gain influence over judiciary system, failing on an international level and supporting child rapists from Catholic church. Due to the immigration crisis and the identity crisis connected with multiculuturalism fostered by EU parliament (an idea which has failed, obviously), Catholic church posits itself as an answer to this – you know, being Christian as an ineffable part of being Polish, fear mongering etc. Of course, those greedy bastards gain benefits from the current government so they support deconstruction of Polish democracy and make young people jump the bandwagon of false, nationalist “patriotism” for dummies. Even thinking about this makes me angry and initially I wanted to provide a one-page answer to this question, but let's stop at that.
When it comes to the lyrics, this time I was solely responsible for them. I think our lyrical message on “Nechesh” was more straight-forward and more optimistic – Lucifer stood for illumination and absolute freedom. Lyrics on “The Unfathomable” deal more with the consequences of this freedom. Lyrical content is much darker this time and death permeates every track. It's like a destructive mystical experience of death, nothingness and chaos that leaves you crushed and directionless. The biggest literary inspiration this time were the writings of a twentieth century writer and philosopher Georges Bataille, especially his theoretical works like Inner Experience or Erotism. He portrayed existence as a fake, semi-rationalized order with tumultous forces of chaos lurking underneath and death as an agent turning every “rationalized” concept into dust and throwing an individual into the midst of absurdity. What I liked in his work was the insane joy he drew from these contemplations, from the madness these contemplations left him in. It's like accepting the fact of death, decay and nothingness being the primary forces shaping the Universe. I also picked some concepts from Qabalah, which has been a big source of inspiration for me for some years, and philosophy of existentialism, which helped me to expand this idea. And, of course, Satan who is still a potent and important metaphor illustrating this deconstruction, absurd and existential angst hiding under the surface of reality. It's really hard to explain and it has to be felt and understood on an individual level – every time I'm explaining this I realize how fitting the album title is.
From your music people can feel that you are influenced not only by the Polish death metal school but also by American or possibly old European bands. How about you as fans? Do you prefer the original death metal of the 90s or you drew inspiration from new albums? If so, I would like to know which bands influenced or are influencing the music of DEATHSTORM.
It's hard to talk about only one source of inspiration as we listen to a lot of music everyday and we have different tastes. Mysth definitely is more into modern, clearer production and more melodic stuff I think. I find some of his favorite bands pretty hard to listen to myself :) When it comes to me and Góral, we worship classic bands like Immolation, Incantation, Morbid Angel, old Deicide etc. but we are also big fans of relatively new death metal bands, like Grave Miasma, Adversarial, Teitanblood, Portal, Dead Congregation, Cruciamentum and so on. We definitely don't listen to all this technical, brutal death metal stuff with polished production, maybe except Dying Fetus, Origin and few others. And we all are really huge black metal fans, we're fucking crazy about more crushing war metal approach like Archgoat, Bestial Raids or Revenge, this orthodox “religious” scene with Funeral Mist, Katharsis, Ofermod, Antateus, Aosoth, Deathspell Omega etc., conservative, ugly shit like Clandestine Blaze and the bands we've always been closely following like Marduk or Arkhon Infaustus, which to us is one of the most evil bands this scene has ever spawned. I think you can hear a lot of their influence on this album. I also listen to a lot of grindcore stuff, also newer bands like The Kill, Death Toll 80k or Insect Warfare plus tons of non-metal stuff like krautrock, US rap, alternative rock, some ambient, basically everything.
I have already jumped over the age of 40 and recently have remembered how me and my friends organized the events of cassettes exchanging during the socialism. We often went to Jelenia Gora and it was literally a metal paradise for us. If it was not for your markets, I would have never discovered many great bands. How do you remember this time and what were your beginnings? I mean in case of you as musicians and as fans.
Góral would tell you more about it since I'm too young (28) to remember this. He was quite heavily involved in tape-trading and other underground activities back in the day. I started to listen to heavy metal when I was like 8 and my father would play me some Iron Maiden tapes all the time. When I was about 12-13 I got into more extreme stuff like Vader, Morbid Angel, Deicide. Discovering Mayhem's “De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas” was a huge leap forward in my musical interests – I still listen to more black than death metal myself. I remember going to marketplaces and seeing all those bootleg CDs and tapes, but I was too young to be consciously involved in any exchanges etc.
As I said at the beginning, the time I saw you in Pardubice I really enjoyed your concert. I did not sleep through the whole night and went home by train many miles. I was very difficult but the experience was priceless. Correct me if I am wrong but you have done some concerts in the Czech Republic since right? How do you feel about Czech metal scene, how do you like the Czech Republic and what about Czech fans? Could you compare for our readers Czech and Polish scene? There are any great differences in the bands support?
Thanks for your devotion, we really appreciate that. To be honest, I think we haven't played any more shows since this one, but we have very good memories from the shows in Czech Republic – both from Pardubice and Mlada Boleslav. I haven't had too much contact with Czech people so far, but what I like about your country is that the majority of you doesn't seem to give a fuck about religion, there seems to be less taboo about sexuality and you don't go to fucking jail for smoking a joint. You seem to be passionate about metal and there were many people on our shows in here, which is always a good thing. Czech bands are also popular in Poland. I know a lot of maniacs of Master's Hammer, Krabathor, or your goregrind scene.
What about you and concerts in general? You are a band which do concerts a lot or do you like to choose only the best ones? Do you have a dream? For example, a band you want to do a tour with or a festival, a city where would you like to perform?
We like doing live shows even though I'm always stressed when I have to play one, especially after a longer break. We usually accept all the offers, as long as they don't collide with our professional lives too much. You know, we gotta make money somehow and playing in an underground metal band is not a satisfying source of income. When it comes to places, I'd love to see some exotic corners of the earth or visit the US. When it comes to bands, there's many I'd love to play with. Immolation, Marduk, maybe some Nidrosian black metal acts first come to mind.
Well, I am going to turn on my player with your new album “The Unfathomable”. I have to say that for me it is a perfect death metal work. An absolute inferno. I wish your album to be successful and to have as many fans as possible. It deserves it. I wish you the best in your personal lives. I wish you luck and you have the last words. If you want to say something to your fans, labels, promoters – there is your chance. Thank you for the interview and I am looking forward to see you live!
Thanks a lot for this interview and for all the good words you've said. We also wish you all the best. Come to see us at future shows, listen to the album, spread disease and destroy shit.
