Dies
Ater
DIES ATER in their previous
work were moving musically into classic Black Metal paths, with their new
ep "Out Of The Dark" they go a step forward and present a toatlly new face.
Here the black metal elements are reduced and the sound is more close to
bands like RAMMSTEIN. If you want to know hat lead them to take such a
bold decision, then read this interview.
1.HELLO, I HAVE LISTENED TO YOUR PREVIOUS
ALBUM AND THE NEW EP TOOK ME BY SURPRISE. I AM REALLY INTERESTED IN KNOWING
HOW YOU TOOK THIS DECISION TO MAKE A STEP FORWARD AND HOW DO YOU CHARACTERIZE
YOUR NEW MUSICAL DIRECTION?
As you know we’ve released three albums so
far, containing pure and brutal black metal. For about ten years we used
to do this, so time was right to step in a different direction. We’ve decided
to cover “Out of the dark” from the famous Austrian musician Falco. A song
completely unrelated to metal in any way, much more interesting to cover
this one than just “rerecording” a song from another metal band.
The other three tracks included in this album
aren’t so unsimilar to our earlier songs, just being a little less complex
in structure. Nevertheless we didn’t absolve a real break of our style.
2.YOUR E.P. STARTS WITH A COVER SONG "OUT OF THE
DARK" WHICH WAS A HIT SONG COMPOSED BY FALCO. SINCE I HAVEN'T LISTENED
TO THE ORIGINAL SONG, CAN YOU TELL ME WHICH ARE THE NEW THINGS THAT YOU'VE
ADDED IN IT OR HOW YOU'VE CHANGED THE SONG?
Mainly we’ve modified the song-structure compared
to the original. Additionally we’ve added some parts and recomposed others.
For example a Car-Crash was put into the song to present the death of Falco,
who was killed in a car accident.
Trying never to lose the contact to Falco’s
version, screaming guitars, wild vocals and black metal drums were used
sparely, because these things just wouldn’t fit. You have to listen carefully
to realize the fine and gentle guitar workings, strengthen by a supporting
druming.
3.WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO DO A MINI ALBUM AND NOT
A FULL LENGTH RELEASE? IS IT PERHAPS THAT YOU WANTED TO TEST THE FEEDBACK
AND SEE HOW THE FANS WILL REACT TO YOUR NEW MUSICAL DIRECTION? WHICH ARE
YOUR EXPECTATIONS FROM IT?
Doing a Mini was an absolute spontaneous decision.
But after finsihing, we’ve recognized that the cover-version wouldn’t be
such a surprising and special thing, if it was put on a full-length album
enclosed by real metal songs.
We absolutely knew beforehand the risk that
some of the older fans would reject the new material. So we were prepared
and couldn’t be surprised. Besides we’ve demonstrated that we still make
music for us and are not influenced by opinions or rules from others.Thus
we will proceed on our new path, trying to avoid any repetitions.
4.EXCEPT FOR THE COVER SONG AND A REARRANGED SONG
FROM YOUR PREVIOUS FULL LENGTH ALBUM, YOU HAVE ALSO INCLUDED 2 NEW SONGS.
TELL US A FEW THINGS ABOUT THEM.WILL THESE 2 SONGS BE INCLUDED IN A FUTURE
FULL LENGTH RELEASE OF YOURS?
"Death to last" is a really straight track.
Although it is arranged in a very traditional style including strophes
and a refrain, we’ve added many variations of elements, inserted many parts
in between and different vocals to avoid simplicity and boredom.
Composing cool songs with recurring elements
is much more difficult than just line up many different riffs.The new tracks
wouldn’t be included in the upcoming album. We did them just for the Mini.
5.WHEN OBSKUR, ONE OF THE FOUNDING MEMBERS OF
THE GROUP LEFT YOU, DID YOU EVER THINK OF DISBANDING? WHICH WAS THE REASON
THAT HE LEFT AND HOW HIS DEPARTURE HAS INFLUENCED THE GROUP MUSICALLY?
DO YOU STILL HAVE GOOD RELATIONS WITH HIM?
We had to separate from him, cause he faced
too many personal problems and hewasn’t able to concentrate on the band
and on his instrument anymore. It’s true, he was a founding member and
at that time everything was fine, but time changes and so did the band
- members. We’ve tried to ignore this fact, but after eight years it was
best to split from each other. Don’t know what he is doing nowadays, I
don’t think that he’s making music anymore. After the departure of Obskur,
Torgrim changed instrument from lead guitar to bass, being able to act
much more live and concentrate on the supporting vocals. Andy from Apokrypha
(GER) fills the gap by taking over the lead-guitar primarily as a session-musician,
due to the long distance between Berlin and Warzburg.
6.THE COVER OF YOUR NEW ALBUMS REMINDS ME STRONGLY
OF THE COVER ALBUMS OF RAMMSTEIN AND I AM SURE THAT OTHER PEOPLE HAVE ALREADY
TOLD YOU THAT.HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS COMPARISON? DID YOU DO IT ON PURPOSE?
We don't want the people to think of Rammstein
when looking at the album-Cover. That was not our intention. Instead if
you take another closer look, you’ll see, that we try to look like Falco,
maybe a little bit more broken and nearly dead. You shouldn’t take this
picture too seriously, in contrast to the music. Even we laughed seeing
the result of the photo session, but that’s what we wanted. We don’t care
for people, who dislike it.
But don’t panic, we still respect old BM Cult
and its spirit, intention and brutality will be fundamental for all our
upcoming songs.
7.ALL THE MEMBERS OF THE BAND USE NICKNAMES WHICH
IS SOMETHING VERY USUAL FOR THE BLACK METAL GROUPS. WHY DO YOU DO THAT?
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THE NAME "IMPURUS" FOR YOURSELF?
I’ve chosen this name at the foundation of
DIES ATER in 1994, and so did all other band-members, too. Impurus comes
from Latin and means something like “The horrible one”…
In respect to the former elements of original
black metal, we still use these nicknames, also our logo hasn't been replaced
by a modern, overstyled one and nevertheless using corpse-painting at live-gigs
is another tribute to bygone values.
We still know our roots. The new direction
of our compositions is just a logic and necessary evolution. It is not
a break in our musical progression and definitely no turning away from
black metal.
8.FROM THE BIO THAT YOUR LABEL SENT ME, I SEE
THAT YOU EXIST AS A BAND FROM 1996, SO NAME ME SOME OF YOUR BEST AND SOME
OF YOUR WORST EXPERIENCES THAT YOU HAD AS A MEMBER OF THIS BAND THROUGH
THESE YEARS.
It is very hard to pick out the worst experience.
Playing our first gig in 1996 and being disconnected
from power supply after the first song was a real bad memory. The organizer
believed that our music and acting was totally tasteless and decided to
get rid of us as soon as possible.The best thing that happened was that
the festival in 1996 ended in an absolute disaster, cause nearly the whole
stage-backline disappeared with us...
9.BY THE WAY DO YOU HAVE PLANS FOR RELEASING A
LIVE CD OR DVD, SINCE YOU EXIST FOR SUCH A LONG TIME OR IS IT STILL TOO
EARLY FOR DIES ATER?
Well,There aren’t any plans to produce and
release a Live-Album, cause we don’t have enough usable live-material.
Time should be right, because enough songs
are present for a CD or DVD, but we don’t want to bring out any, unhearable
live-shit just to have a Live-Album.
However it’s a nice idea and will be remembered
for future plans. So we will continue to get good recordings on a live
gig.
For an impression you can hear to “Filius Tenebrae”
on the “RAUSCH DER MACHT – EP”. This track was live recorded in August
2001.
10.HOW DID THE MAGAZINES AROUND THE WORLD RECEIVE
YOUR NEW ALBUM? WHICH WAS THE MEANEST REVIEW THAT YOU HAVE READ AND WHY?
ALSO TELL ME HOW DID THE METAL FANS ACCEPT YOUR NEW RELEASE.
The press shows that you have to love this
album, including the Falco-Cover, or you have to completely hate it. No
way between! The reviews represent this fact clearly.
However we didn’t search for reviews in such
an extensive way and haven’t got a sufficient overview.
The more important and strengthening thing
for us is the enthusiasm of the fans, especially the older ones. They’ve
accepted the different sound of songs, presented by “Out of the dark”,
compared to the old tracks in a much better way than we’ve assumed.
And after all it is still metal, no electro,
ebm, gothic stuff or something like this!
If you take this and add the enormous production
of Andy Classen (Stage One Studio), you’ll have to agree, that the whole
world has to be completely possessed by this new release of DIES ATER.
11.SINCE I HAVE THE PROMO AND THE LYRICS ARE NOT
INCLUDED, I WANT TO KNOW WHICH THINGS INSPIRE YOU TO WRITE LYRICS FOR AND
WHO IS THE MAIN LYRICIST OF THE BAND. IS IT NECESSARY FOR YOU A GOOD COMPOSITION
TO HAVE INTERESTING LYRICS AS WELL?
N. T. is mainly responsible for the lyrics.
For the “Out of the dark”-Mini the lines of
“Death to last” were the only new ones, the lyrics “Dethrone the weak mortality”,
which is a rerecorded and remixed song from the “Chanting Evil”-CD, were
slightly changed and rearranged.
It’s difficult to point out just some single
source of inspiration, because in order to write a text you have to be
in the right mood for that. But all the lyrics describe in many different
ways thoughts and wishes of N. T.. If you take a closer look, you’ll find
that many texts express extremely and straight emotions, like hate, greed,
the wish for revenge and so on… On the other hand melancholy and depression
are present, too.
You can say that the idea of men or creatures
facing tragic doom or insurmountably misfortune is some kind of inspiration
in the lyrics. The hard part with the lyrics is to be correctly associated
to the music, the use of different languages/vocalist to express different
implications and printing all lyrics in our booklets, for everyone interested
in them, should explain how important the lyrics are. The music and vocals
should work as a union and if one of these lacks quality the whole
composition becomes poorer.
12.WHICH BANDS DO YOU THINK HAVE INFLUENCED DIES
ATER AND HELPED YOU TO CREATE YOUR PERSONAL SOUND? NAME 5 OF YOUR ALL TIME
FAVORITE ALBUMS...
Nearly impossible to name influential bands,
because every band-member has his individual taste of metal and sometimes
this differs a lot. Meanwhile we aren’t interested just in metal, other
genres of music became attractive, too. You can say, that bands like Motorhead,
Deathstars, FALCO, Sirenia, Rammstein … have an influence on us these days.
But there are many more… Nevertheless it is necessary to find your own
style and sound or else you are just a copy of your idols.
I think we have managed to develop an individual
sound. When you listen to craefully, it’s possible and easy to identify
a DIES ATER from other BM-Bands, just by the sound and song-structure.
You may dislike it, but you’ll hear the difference.
Of course it’s essential to find a studio to give you the correct sound.
13.NOWADAYS ALMOST ALL AROUND THE WORLD THE OLIVER
STONE’S MOVIE “ALEXANDER” IS PLAYED ON THE CINEMAS. I DON’T KNOW IF YOU
HAVE SEEN IT, BUT HERE IN GREECE MANY PEOPLE SEEM TO BE ANNOYED BECAUSE
THERE ARE RUMORS THAT THE MOVIE SHOWS ALEXANDER AS A BAD PERSONALITY. HOW
DO YOU COMMENT ALL THESE? HOW DID THE PEOPLE OF GERMANY REACT?
I’ve seen this movie and it’s absolutely boring.
Maybe it’s based on history and Alexander’s
life well studied, but too many dialogues and the neverending suggestion
of Alexander’s homosexuality tear down the whole film.
I advise everyone not to watch it, it’s a waste
of time.Crap!
14.DO YOU THINK THAT ART MUST BE FREE EVEN IF
IT IS PROVOCATIVE? CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF ARTISTS BEFORE CREATING
SOMETHING HAVE TO ASK PEOPLE IF THEIR WORK WILL OFFEND THEM OR NOT?
This is a horror-vision and hopefully will
never come true. There’ll always be someone annoyed by the art of another
one. After a short time the evolution and expression of art will stand
still and slowly vanish, because nothing is free of critics.
In addition BM is a really provocative kind
of art being confronted by many adversaries. So probably it would be one
of the first ones being controlled, suppressed and in the end extinguished.
15.I WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOU IMPURUS FOR YOUR
TIME REPLYING THIS INTERVIEW.THE LAST WORDS BELONG ALWAYS TO THE ARTISTS,
SO SAY WHATEVER YOU WANT AND ALSO MAKE A WISH FOR THE NEW YEAR THAT WILL
START VERY SOON...
Thanks for the interview Nikos and the support.
Hopefully you get a good impression of DIES ATER.
Everything’s said!
For any feedback:
[email protected]
or
www.diesater.de!
Nick "William_Kidd"
Parastatidis
|