Interview with death metal band from Germany - COMMANDER!
Recenze/review - COMMANDER - Angstridden (2024):
Ave COMMANDER! Greetings to the German underground. Let's get straight to the important stuff. You have a new album out, "Angstridden", which is literally packed with honest, dirty death metal. How was the album made and how do you feel about it? What direction did COMMANDER move in?
The songs for our new album „Angstridden“ were written between 2016-2022, lyrics were finalized in 2023. The goal was to write more extreme metal riffs and to explore new arrangements we never used before. We feel that this album is our most mature record, musically & lyrically.
I'm listening to the album right now and I have to write that this time it took a while to get into my blood. I put the album in my player, I listen to it in the car. I like the sound a lot. It's lively, organic, old school, and at the same time very clear. I find it different from your previous records. Where did you record and who is responsible for the sound?
The album was recorded at Sick fo Sound Studio with producer Michael Kraxenberger. We started recording drums in Feburary 2023, then guitars and bass during April-May 2023. The vocal recordings took place between September-December 2023. Mix & Master were finished in January 2024. Our new album „Angstridden“ is the best sounding Commander album to date and the closest to our live sound. Michael and our drummer Flo tried out a couple of different cymbals and snares. All in all it was worth to spend a lot of time to find the right sound for each instrument and as a vocalist, I cannot be happier with a producer like Michael.
I think you'll agree with me that the cover sells. I have to write that I like it a lot. I prefer the classic black and white covers, but the green one has its own vibe too. I'm sure you know, I'm an old dog who puts an album on and lets it affect me. He looks at the cover and thinks about what exactly it's supposed to say. Can you please tell us who the author is and how the theme relates to the music?
I follow a couple of cover artists on Facebook, Instagram and one day, Tata Kumislizer posted this cover artwork for sale which immediately caught my attentinon - that’s it! The artwork fits the album title „Angstridden“ very well, especially in all the small details. The whole green theme is also a eyecatcher. It sets it apart from all the other death metal albums coming out at the same time.
I put "Angstridden" over and over again in my head and I think what I like most about the album is probably that hard to describe old school death metal feeling. We seem to be of the same blood. Who was and is your role model? Every musician started out somehow, there are role models that shaped their signature. What were yours?
I was always into British death metal (Bolt Thrower, Benediction, Carcass, Napalm Death) which was always more groove oriented, but I also like bands like Death, Obituary, Morbid Angel, Morgoth, Illdisposed, etc.
My favorite death metal vocalists are Karl Willets, David Vincent, Chuck Schuldiner (Spiritual Healing era), Marc Grewe (Ex-Morgoth, Asinhell)
I tried to keep up the old school death metal spirit without copying the originals. I.e., I wrote a song which sounded exactly like Bolt Thrower, especially the melody and the groove, but this is nothing I want to release on a regular COMMANDER record. Maybe we will do a digital single release in honor of Bolt Thrower instead of covering one of their songs.
Let's stay in history for a moment. Yours goes back to 1999. You played until 2012 and then you stopped playing. Why? Please take us through the history of COMMANDER.
I wanted to form a death metal band around 1999 but it took 2 years to finally start to write music. Commander was born on 6. February 2001, when I recorded a 3-track demo tape on my own, followed by our first show on 15. June 2001. At the beginng it was more a project but it became a full-time band in 2004, followed by our first album in 2006 (World’s Destructive Domination) and the second album in 2008 (The Enemies We Create). We played a lot of shows during the first years and also played our first european tour in 2008 opening for Unleashed, Krisiun, One Man Army & the Undead Quartet. In 2009 we started writing our 3rd album „Fatalis (The Unbroken Circle)“ and we were really done with the songwriting process before I stopped the band in 2012 due to various reasons. I was still in contact with my guitarist Steffen Augstein and we had a feeling that we left some unfinished business, since we wrote our best songs at the time. So we started again by the end of 2014 but it took us 3,5 years to finalize the recordings for a 2018 release, followed by a short european tour with Belphegor, Melechesh + a couple festival appearances during 2018/19. And then 2020 Corona hit us all with full force. We played a couple shows between 2020-2023 but due circumstances beyond our control, it took us until January 2024 to finish our latest album. And here we are now.
How did you get started in music to begin with? And what was it like in Germany in the 90s? What about your first concert? And the first live performance when you stood on stage?
I started playing drums in 1985, Bass in 1988, Guitar in 1989. I started my first band (Deception, speed/thrash metal) in 1991 and played my first show ever on November 9th 1991 with Haggard, Obscurity in a small village near Munich. The 90s were not that cool for a small band, because you didn’t get any attention outside your city and the most bands played only local shows. Especially in Munich we were little cut off from the rest of the German scene. Beginning 2000, MySpace changed everything and you were able to present your music to everyone and to make friends worldwide.
Did you ever perform here in the Czech Republic? How do you enjoy concerts? Do you prefer playing festivals or small clubs? And what about in Germany, how do you enjoy performing there? What about the fans? Do they support, do they buy merchandise?
We played 3 shows to date in Czech Republic (AFOD Festival 2015/2023, Nice to eat you Festival 2024). We always enjoy playing shows there no matter if in clubs or festival. The crowd is more enthusiastic than ever before, especially after Corona. We’ve been doing this for a while and have seen a lot of generations of fans coming and going. I mean, they are only a few of them left, which saw us back in 2000s, most of them are with us since the restart in 2014. We sell more merch at live shows than at bandcamp and we are always happy to see new people at shows or at bandcamp.
How do you look at the current trend, widespread mostly among young bands, where they try to play as technically as possible, often putting into death metal, for example, saxophone, different keyboards and generally finding their way in a very complicated way. Do you enjoy such bands? I'm confused sometimes when I go to a gig and someone like that is performing. It seems like a jazz school exercise, but I end up not remembering anything at all. What about you and the current trends in death metal?
The trends will always come and go and only a few of the bands will last forever.
When you are young you always try to play faster, heavier, more complex than your heroes. That’s something most of the bands were going through.
We follow our heart, that’s what all our records have in common and we never followed any trend to get more attention or success. That was never our intention or goal. We are like the turtle in a race with a rabbit...hahaha...
Our music taste is more into old school metal, thrash, death, black, progressive but we always explore also new bands as well. In my case I like the more groovy bands like Frozen Soul, Gatecreeper, Baest, GROZA etc. Unfortunately no newer thrash band caught my ear, maybe Suicidal Angels which are close to the old school thrash vibe, I like.
If I want to see something truly extraordinary, then I listen to bands like Laibach, Johnny Cash, Journey, Beastie Boys and a lot of female singers, I enjoy very much.
I was at my first Laibach concert 2 weeks ago, which was heavier and more intense than most of the brutal death metal shows.
We're coming to a close and that always makes me ask a slightly philosophical question. How would you define death metal and what does it mean to you? I don't mean now the technique of playing, but rather what it brings to you, takes, how you perceive it in relation to the fans. Did you grow up on it?
I started listening to death metal in 1989. I prefer the song-oriented death metal style with signature melodies, a good groove and catchy choruses. In death metal you can play everything without too many limiting factors. To me death metal means creative freedom.
Thank you very much for the interview. I appreciate it. Now let the music do the talking. I'm gonna go play "Angstridden" really loud! I wish you all the best with the news and that all is well in your personal lives. Thank you!
Thanks for your support, stay heavy... And for all your readers, check out our new album on Spotify or www.commandermetalmunich.bandcamp.com
Recenze/review - COMMANDER - Angstridden (2024):
Recenze/review - COMMANDER - Fatalis (The Unbroken Circle) (2018):
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