Interview with death black doom metal band from Germany - GRAVEHAMMER.
Answered J.S., Arillus, T.W. , M.B.,The Field Alchemist, thank you!
Recenze/review - GRAVEHAMMER - Bones to Harvest (2023):
Ave GRAVEHAMMER! Hello to the underground. I hope all is well with you. It should be, you have a great debut album. I have to admit, it literally drove me up the wall. It's dark, it's energetic, it cuts with a knife edge. It's very telling that you've done a great job, and a great deal of talent as well. How do you feel about the new record in relation to your previous EP? Where did you want to go and how do you think the recordings are different?
J.S.: Hails Deadly Storm Zine and thank you for your kind words. It was our aim to capture the energy of playing Death Metal as a band. “Bones to harvest” could be considered a next step in the band’s development. Writing an album and not just a demo or an EP was a new experience for us. It is more challenging since you have a higher amount of work as more material has to be written and rehearsed. Our goal was to come up with a conclusive songwriting. The record has received some positive feedback so far which we are very happy and grateful about.
„Bones to Harvest“ includes all attributes of good death/black and doom metal. For me personally, it represents the record, which I really like to listen to. How did you produce it? How look the writing process of new material in the case of GRAVEHAMMER?
Arillus: Wow, that is a pleasing comment! Our music is never a construction in one's head but something that evolves live during rehearsal. I guess this is one of our essential properties. No overthinking but doing what feels right, just then. Next, there is no gap between the first creation and taping the fragments of a song. Thus, we are able to keep the original feel of a song and stick to it when we take off for the studio later. Besides that, just put us into our rehearsal room. After a few beers and an average working day “Bones to harvest” is what you get.
Who's signed for the sound and mix? I have to confirm that they literally kill. It keeps making me turn up the volume on the hi-fi tower. You've got a sound that's harsh, raw and dark and animalistic at the same time. How did you achieve it? What studio did you record in and how did it all work?
Arillus: With the former records, recording, mixing/mastering and all the technical stuff was in my responsibility. Especially the last E.P. taught us to get a really raw and energetic sound since we recorded the instruments live in our rehearsal room. Now, with the new record we decided to separate the recording process and also the responsibility of the production. We recorded in my other band’s (Nosturaack) rehearsal room which is far from perfect but kind of optimized to make some heavy noise ;) So, there was no one else to pressure us but ourselves. We took the time we needed and enjoyed a familiar atmosphere to do the work. Then, we gave the material to Alex from Holodeckstudio. He really has the right touch for this kind of music, shares our vision of sound and made it real.
An important part and a kind of extra bonus for fans today is the physical CD. You released the new album at CD in El Rotting Misery Records, and it has a „morbid“ cover art. Who is the author? How did you choose the motif and how does it relate to the music at the record?
T.W.: The physical release is an important milestone. Since we are not very much into streaming and digital platforms, it’s way more than a bonus for us. We are happy that we found labels that support us. Rotting Misery indeed released the CD as a nice digipak. The tape version was done by Kellerassel Records and Fucking Kill! Records did the vinyl versions.
The artwork was created by The Field Alchemist (https://www.instagram.com/thefieldalchemist/). She is my wife, so we can ask her.
The Field Alchemist: Thanks for allowing me to pitch in! I very much prefer traditional over digital art - a rusty nib and ink on cold-pressed paper feels more alive, raw and expressive to me than any digital drawing ever could, all imperfections included. I hand-drew the cover design inspired by the lyrics and leitmotif of the album - an all-engulfing tyrant killed by a dozen weapons throwing up not blood but rusty chains and countless corpses including a dagger symbolizing ritualistic murder. I was going for something crude, guttural and rotten as I feel it matches Gravehammer's vibe. Some additional illustrations within the CD design were done by me as well and I enjoyed the contribution.
MB: The layout did indeed capture the essence of the lyrics perfectly. The common theme of all the lyrics on the album is the way humans treat each other. The main focus lies on the brutality and humiliation that always has and always will be found when conflict, greed and craving for power strike. I took a lot of inspiration from Roman antiquity this time, which is full of blood, violence, gore - everything that’s needed for good death metal lyrics.
I have been wandering the underground for over thirty years and I still go to Germany for music with certainty. I think we have a similar nature and taste when it comes to metal. I like your bands a lot and I monitor your scene carefully. Maybe I envy you a little, because we only have a few death/black doom metal bands that are worth it. How do you explain that underground metal is doing so well in your country? How do you perceive your scene, fans, labels?
J.S.: Germany has had a strong scene right from the beginning in the early eighties. I guess, we are also lucky because of its position right in the center of Europe. Hence many tours are routed through the country when going from west to east or vice versa. From a business perspective, the German market is still very important when it comes to sales of releases. So labels pay attention that their releases are available in Germany.
However, these days it is difficult for many venues and promoters to survive. Rising costs for touring and production on one side, less money among the fans for tickets on the other side. I hope that most of the Metal devotees will cope with this situation and survive these difficult times. “Take nothing for granted” as the saying goes.
You play doom death/black metal influenced by, among other things, the old school. Today, the band can't avoid comparisons, but I would like to know how the idea to start GRAVEHAMMER was born, who was and is your metal idol? Where do you want to move your band? Are you attracted to large foreign festivals, for example, are you willing to go on tour with a more famous band?
T.W.: I think the initial idea was to play old school Death Metal in the vein of bands like Nihilist, Grave, old Tiamat and Winter, without having had an elaborated concept or long term strategy for the band. We were (and still are) very much into that archaic sound and noticed that there were no bands in our area playing that kind of music. However, it turned out that we did not really know how to achieve that. We had some technical limitations and were biased by our individual backgrounds. Our first demo is probably closer to Hellhammer than to nineties Death Metal. Still, we noticed that there is the potential for a certain primitive energy, which I associate with the first waves of extreme metal.
Hence, we gave up the idea of being a pure Death Metal band and put more focus on finding our own identity. Although we still primarily identify as a Death Metal band, there is a lot of Doom Metal, Black Metal and War Metal in our current sound. By not limiting our music to a specific genre, we are maybe even closer to the essence of the early days of Extreme Metal - a time when it was more important to play energetic music than to find the right marketing tags. Look at - again - Hellhammer or early Sodom, Morbid, Master’s Hammer, Bathory, Sarcófago and the like. Although they sound very different, all of them have an incredible, primitive energy plus a dark, morbid aura. Yet, there is a certain lightheartedness in the chaos they embraced. Today, I can‘t name one specific band that influences us the most, but for sure we are inspired by those core aspects of the first waves of extreme metal.
For the second part of the question, we don’t really have a long term goal. I guess we will try to find a good balance of playing live and working on new material. There are for sure some stages we‘d like to enter, but yet I feel that smaller, shady venues fit our style of music better. I don’t think that our music is made for big stages and that‘s totally fine. Playing in front of 10 maniacs in a putrid garage can be a blast. Of course it would be also cool to share the stage with a bigger band we all like, but it’s not our biggest dream and definitely we would not pay to get a support slot. Yes, this happens, and it has nothing to do with Metal.
When I started my website seven years ago, I had a vision that I would try to support bands that are not so much popular, or they are lost in underground. To let the world knows about them. I think I'm doing quite well, at least according to the responses. How do you approach the promotion of your music? Do you rely upon the label or do you send the CDs for various reviews by yourself? For example, I buy albums that I really enjoy. What about you? Are you also fans who often support your colleagues? Do you go to concerts?
J.S.: Most of us attend shows on a regular basis. When we like the band we also hit the merch table since we like physical releases. And of course, shirts, too (who doesn’t?).
The promotion work of Gravehammer consists of several components. Our labels do promotion for their releases. Furthermore, we also do promotion on our own by using social media and getting word of mouth promotion going. Attending concerts and speaking to other fans is an important part of this, too.
On the one hand, today the new band has a lot of opportunities to make themselves more known, but on the other hand, there are a huge number of groups and the fans are getting lost in this big metal sea. A lot of people just download mp3s from the internet and instead of to visit the concert they prefer to spit poisonous saliva on Facebook. How do modern technologies affect you as GRAVEHAMMER? What do you think about downloading music, google metalists, streaming music, etc.?
MB: Well, the developments of the last decade or so are both a blessing and a curse. As it has become quite easy to record music on your own and release it, there is a huge flood of new demos each month or even week - yet, there are also many good releases among the many rubbish ones. But, even though we (this includes Gravehammer as well as Skardus, a band J.S. and I play in together) put our music on bandcamp, youtube and the like, we still see many people buying our stuff - both online and at our concerts. That said, I think that the attention span of people who listen to music via streaming exclusively has drastically shortened because that way music can be consumed everywhere and all the time. Thus, for many people, music has become a mere background noise which needs to be changed and skipped through as fast as possible. This, of course, leads to the problem that complete albums or demos do not get appreciated the way they should. But, on the other hand, I do feel that the people who rather live and support the underground do still buy the bands’ albums and merchandise to support them (and also support the bands on said pages like facebook etc.) and by that keep the flame burning, so to speak.
I like to ask the musicians what death metal means to them. How would they define it, whether it is more the philosophy and lifestyle thing for them or "just" relaxation? What does it mean for you? How do you perceive and experience it?
J.S.: Lifestyle is a strong word. On the other hand, Metal in general consumes much of my spare time. This includes rehearsing with my two bands (Skardus is the other one), attending concerts and listening to records.
Since this answer is not toooooo exciting, I may rephrase your question a bit to “What do you favour in Death Metal?” I personally like bands which capture a sinister atmosphere and not just playing “buddy Death Metal”. Records that evoke a similar feeling for me when visiting old churches and vaults or looking at medieval woodcuts. Teitanblood, Possession, Necros Christos, Beherit, Goat Molestör… you get the idea.
Finally, a classic but important question. What is GRAVEHAMMER planning in the upcoming months? Where can we see you at the stage and what about a tour of Europe?
T.W.: Yes, we do have some gigs in the pipeline, most of them in Germany. In March, we will hit the road with our friends Hallucinate and play in Mülheim (22.3.) and Göttingen (23.3.). Check them out, they released their debut last year, an incredible atmospheric yet old school Death Metal album. In April, we will play in Lübeck (27.4.) inside a freakin’ ship.
Most interesting for you and your readers and certainly one highlight for us will be the “United in Brutality” festival. On Saturday (21.9.) we’ll hit their stage in Jablonec Nad Nisou in the Czech Republic. All further announcements can be found on our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Gravehammer
At the moment, we prefer weekenders with 2-3 dates since they are easier to organize. But who knows.
Thank you so much for the interview. I wish a lot of success to the new album and let the number of your fans expand as much as possible. I will look forward to seeing you somewhere live again. I wish you a lot of success both musically and personally. I'm going to push „Bones to Harvest“ into my head again!
J.S.: Thank you for featuring Gravehammer in your zine and also for your kind words! We hope to see many of you guys when we play at “United in Brutality” in September.
Recenze/review - GRAVEHAMMER - Bones to Harvest (2023):
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