Interview - APOCALYPTIC RAIDS - Some ideas become songs instantly, but normally it takes some months or years until we are satisfied with an idea. ~ DEADLY STORM zine

Interview with black/thrash/death metal band from Brazil - APOCALYPTIC RAIDS.

Answered Necromaniac.

Translated by Duzl, thank you!

Questions prepared Jakub Asphyx.

Ave APOCALYPTIC RAIDS! Greetings to the other world. I hope you're doing fine. I have to admit that I have been playing your last album "The Pentagram" on my player very often. Every time I get an appetite for a really moldy metal. The album got deep into my head. How do you rate the record after some time, and what was the response from fans, critics?

Thanks a lot!!! That album was a “back to basics” thing. After some time of Eps and tours but without a new album, we needed a fresh start. I think the response was amazing! Again, the people got what we intended to do in composition and production. That connection is very important.

Album „The Pentagram“ was released after the long eight years. Even though you released a few split records and one live album, but still the period was quite long. Why actually? In general, to release only 5 records from 1998 is not a lot. Do you focus more on quality?

We had some personal problems, we had a change in liuneup with drummer Pedro Skullkrusher back in the band. Of course we focus more on quality. We don’t have a deadline, so we are ready when we are.

Nevertheless, we did record extra tracks over the years and we have released them on the Eps. We also did a live album in Chile. So now we have The Pentagram + the live album + the compilation of all Eps and there is more coming soon. So we hope to catch up with things that way.

How exactly APOCALYPTIC RAIDS writes the new songs? How the writing process of the last album was going and how long have you recorded it? Who is the author of the music?

I write most stuff, but I rarely finish the tracks on spot. Normally I record some riffs or ideas and I have them on file. Hellpreacher, our bass player does the same. Then when we are to finish songs, we have a lot of notes taken. Same for lyrics. Sometimes I have ideas while travelling, then I take notes either by pen or by recording them on mobile phone. Then we get together to assemble it all, we see what riffs/lyrics/mood match each other. Some ideas become songs instantly, but normally it takes some months or years until we are satisfied with an idea. So we put all the dates on the albums.

The sound of the whole record is excellent. It is dark, cold and sharp at the same time. Where did you record it, in which studio? Did you have a chance to talk into the recording process concerning the resulting sound, mastering?

We did it in AM studio, a small studio here in Rio. I produce EVERYTHING. All I need is a good tech who teams up and acts as a 4rth member of the band. The tech must understand our sound in order to work with us. Some “standard” practices are reversed in our sound, like bass drum, guitar tone, etc… We have very specific needs in order not to sound like all the others. A good tech will not have a problem with that “oddity” of ours, provided he is open to it.

Once I got a tech on stage who didn’t know the guitar tone and he told me as soon as I turned up the amp “oh, you have a wah wah on”. I told him “no, it is the tone knob that is turned to zero on my guitar. That’s the way it is. But you have a good ear and you speak what you hear” hahahaha

Back in the beginning of the band, we used to have some problems with “wise ass” techs who “knew it all” and treated us as idiots who didn’t know what we wanted. Well, our sound is the same, but now they react differetly, maybe because we are older, so either we look more respectable or we have learned to deal with them hahaha If you are too open people tend to step on you, you know…

You every time had a fantastic album cover arts. How important for you is the look of the album cover? Who is the author of the latest album cover art?

We think cover art and layout in the same “handmade approach” as the composition. So it might take years for a concept to mature. The simpler, the harder to do effectively. This time I myself redrew our Pentagram, and Umberto from previous albums did some parts of it like the skull. After that I had it all looked by a couple of designer friends…

Who is an author of the lyrics and what is their topic? I wonder, where do you take inspiration for them? In general, lyrics deal with anti-Christianity, Satanism, darkness, apocalypse. Why exactly these topics? Do you want to tell something by the lyrics, to deliver some message? Here in the Czech Republic, we are very tolerant of such songs. How is it in Brazil? Have you ever had problems with the church, did someone reject a concert, etc.?

I do all the lyrics, but I am really open to stuff by the others. In fact, I got back to The Pentagram album and realized that 2/3 of the lyrics are autobiographical. Of course I would write it in terms that will make sense in general and might be useful to someone else. Of course I want to deliver some messages. It has become more and more of a tendency to be more personal since 3rd album. We get older, we get more personal, you know. But I don’t want to sound “old ass”, so I tried to put it all together in a “fresh” mood. So this album is kinda reboot in many senses.

People seldom speak English in Brazil, so we go unnoticed hahahaha We have had problems with some lyrics took out of context, yes. We are not a “politically correct” band, in spite of the fact that everything is a politcal act. I hate right wing as much as I hate left wing. I am an individualist-anarchist. I hate the state. I don’t hate private property, as long as it does not team with the state. Do what you will, as long as you don’t get into other people’s business. All things are accomplished by the voluntary union of free individuals, which of course is an island of civilization in a world of aggression. So that message will inevitably go into my lyrics as well.

Your music is greatly inspired by HELLHAMMER and CELTIC FROST. I like both these bands, but at the time when I have started to listen to metal music, I have never had a chance to see them alive. The first meetings with them proceeded by copy tapes. When did you discover your „idols“ for yourself? Did you admire them from the first moment or did they pay your interest into them gradually?

The main source back in 1985 was small radio shows and small record stores. There were people who could travel and bring some records and magazines. People would tape what they could. No international shows in Brazil back then. Maybe once a year. So one day my favourite weekly radio show played Venom, Bathory, Celtic Frost, Hellhammer. There was a kinda “contest” back in the day, to see who’s more fast, dirty, heavy… When I first heard Hellhammer, I was like “FUCK. MUSIC IS OVER. HISTORY IS FINISHED.” And I am still like that. And I was so dissapointed that the band had already ended. And since 1985/1986 I was out to continue that sound. Nothing topped Hellhammer. Some good Death Metal bands appeared after, but there wasn’t any real breakthrough in Metal since 1987. I witnessed the 90s without much of that first awe I had. Thankfully, by the end of the 90s lots of people worked to bring back the pre 1988 feeling and here we are...

You are from Brazil. I really like your scene, especially the band SARCÓFAGO, it is an incredible cult for me! Have you ever seen them perform live? How did the metal concerts take place during the eighties and nineties in Brazil?

Yes I saw them in 1986 just before the released of INRI, still with the Warfare Noise lineup. I have that show in a bootleg LP. I saw them again in 1990 (Rotting- era) opening to DRI and then in 1991 releasing The Laws of Scourge. I saw many other legends back in the day like Mutilator (demo days). They were all 18-year old guys who had no decent equipment at all. Guitars and amps and dum kits and cymbals were import and expensive as fuck, so nobody had one. We had to play on shitty brazilian copies of the real stuff. Some guys studied electronics and built their own pedals on plastic soap dishes and painted them black. I still have some of those here, like a shitty drum kit, a cheap guitar (flying V copy) and a hand made makeshift pedal. The sound was terrible as you can hear on some rehearsals hahahaha There were no decent studios or techs who knew the sound. Just the kids wanted to play, and there were some “riff geniuses” like Zeder Butcher. So the work of labels like Cogumelo, who took those young kids to decent studios, was fundamental. Much like Noise records did with Sodom, Kreator, Hellhammer taking them to Horst Müller to do such great productions as their first EPs…

I like to remember your great concert in Pisek in 2016. We drove a lot of kilometers in the rain and wind to see your show. You were brilliant, and I had to borrow money from a friend to buy one piece from each CD. How do you remember the Czech Republic and what you can say about our fans? Are they as crazy as the Brazilian?

What can I say, thanks a lot for your support and dedication!!! Thanks a lot to all in Pisek in Czech Republic. There is a picture of the 2014 Pisek show in the album. We have tried to cover all the wonderful moments we had in that tour in the album photos. And Pisek was again a high point of our 2016 tour. Yes, you are as wild as brazilians, with lots of stage dives and flying people all over. I can’t wait to be back again in your beautiful country!!!

What about APOKALYPTIC RAIDS and concerts in general? Do you like to play live? Do you feel any differences between South American and European fans? Here in Europe exist the rumors about the shows in Brazil, how wild they are, is that true?

I love to play live. Sadly we suffer from a lack of a decent backstage team. South Americans are crazier, you know, latin people get more physical. European are more introspective and contact-less, with exceptions like Czech. It is a challenge sometimes to get Germans and Scandinavians moving and banging their heads, but to my great satisfaction that only lasts 1 or 2 first songs. So one of the greatest things of being in a band is to travel, to know different cultures and break the ice.

What are you planning the near future? Can we look forward to some of your tour, which would include some performances in our country? And what about the new songs, are you already preparing some? I hope we won't wait again for eight years:)).

We’d like to be back in Europe in 1 year or 2, at most. So we can present The Pentagram live and more. Of course Czech republic is mandatory route. We’d like to play Pisek, Prague and more if possible.

About newer stuff: we have 10+ songs for 6th album, so we will start recording works still in 2019 and possibly release it in 2020. We also have some 4 tracks in our sleeves for EPs, and the live album part 2 to release. So this way we hope to catch up with the hiatus we had in the previous album.

Thank you very much for the interview. I wish you a lot of inspiration, lots of sold albums and sold out concerts. And also I wish you all the best in your personal lives.

Thanks a lot to Deadly Storm! I hope to see you in person very soon! Thanks to all maniacs in Czech Republic and Europe! All the best!!! www.apokalypticraids.com

contact@apokalypticraids.com

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