SOULLESS FROM POLAND

SOULLESS

SOULLESS ARE A DETH METAL BAND FROM POLAND, BUT DON'T LET THEIR NAME CONFUSE YOU. THIS BAND HAVE THE SOUL TO PLAY DEATH METAL IN THE AMERICAN WAY. THEY ALSO KNOW HOW DIFFICULT THE THINGS ARE IN THE METAL SCENE AND THAT'S A PLUS FOR THEM....

1.BRIEF US ON THE BAND HISTORY. HOW WAS IT CREATED? WHAT DID YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE WITH SOULLESS?

Ok, I created the band under the name of Soulless in 1999, but before this band I played in others bands. From '99 to 2000 Soulless was a trio. Some time later we lost a bassist (he wasn't interested in playing metal music), and in 04.2000 I met Micha³. From this time line up was: Darek (voc/guitar) , Micha³(bass) and Paulos(drums). In the end of 2000 we kicked out from Soulless our drummer becouse he wasn't to good for us in those time of our exsistence. Our new drummer's name was Mirek, he was great muscian. We also add to our band second guitarist (Oley) and vocalist (Seba). In those time (middle 2001) we played some gigs. Before holidays. Oley left the band (because of attitiude for music) and Seba (he is stupid motherfucker- you won't met him). In the end of holidays. 2001 Mirek (drums) stole our money and you can guess that he was kicked out from Soulless. Before this sad incident we had a new second guitarist- Grzegoz. He was great musician but after 4 concerts he had to left the band because of music differences. In conclusion only I and Micha³ stayed in Soulless:)... For a short time we had new drummer - Piotrek, he was the best drummer I've ever played with. But his biggest problem was his job and place of living(40kilometers from our town, it's very expensive if you don't have a car, you know busse, trams...). In November 2001 we have recorded our first official demo, in february 2002 we have recorded second demo with new guitarist - Borys (his still playing with us and I hope that he will play in Soulless for a long time). Both of demos were recorded with automatic percussion. I think thats all. We play some covers: Slayer-"War...), Death-"Pull the Plug", Bathory-'Woman of Dark Desires" and Obituary. We want to record this songs (for our own pleasure). We also play show as many as it's possible. I can only say that Soulless really exist for a year time because as you read what I wrote real line up is from the beging of 2002. In this time Soulless are: Darek- guitars/ vocas , also drumms prgraming(I hate this job:) Micha³- bass Borys - guitars

2.HOW HAVE YOU SELECTED THIS BAND NAME? AMONG WHICH OTHER NAMES AND WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SAY BY THAT?

The first name of Soulless was Cause of Death, second Reincreamation. I chose Soulless because when You hear this word You can gues what music we play, second and also very important reason are our lyrics and my attitiude to religion. I am an atheist but I do not tolerate all of organized form of religions! I think it's something normal when you are living in catholic country which is Poland.

3.HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR MUSICAL STYLE? WHICH ARE YOUR INFLUENCES?

Some time ago I asked Micha³(bass) how would he describe Soulless and he said that it's - Pure Fucking DEATH METAL! And I agree with it :) My favourite bands are:Immolation, Morbid Angel, Hate Eternal, Sinister, Nile, Rebealluin, Sodom, Gorguts, Cannibal Corpse , Yattering, Grave,Pestilence, Krisun , Mortician, Damnable, Malevolent Creation, Crytopsy, Broken Hope, Kataklysm, Destruction, Kreator, Vader, Reinfection, Slayer, Testament, Mekong Delta, Morgoth (1st &2nd album), Incantation, Altar, Obscenity, Avulsed, Marduk, Pessimist, Sepultura , Blood, Exit 13, Unleashed, Defacation, Malignant Tumour, Cerrbral Turbulency, C.S.S.O, Deeds of Flesh, Gride, Krabathor.
Micha³ like to listen:Overkill, Slayer, Coroner, Exodus, Death, Deicide, Napalm Death, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Van Halen, Sodom...
Borys (guitars) likes also those band but he loves many Thrash Metal bands...
In our reviews You can sometimes find names of bands like Incantation or Cannibal Corspe and I think You can find some sounds of this to bands in Soulless.

4.I READ IN YOUR BAND BIO THAT YOU ARE A YOUNG BAND. HOWEVER MANY CHANGES IN THE LINE UP HAVE OCCURED. WHY? HAVE ANY BAND MEMBERS BEEN DISAPPOINTED IN A WAY?

It's true we are very young band, and it's also true that we played with many musicans under the name of Soulless. I think that the reason of so many changes in our line-up is that in our part of Poland it's very difficult to find good musicians especialy in our kind of metal. For example we are still searching new drummer! Many ex-members wanted to play more melodic music, and not so brutal. Sometimes the attitiude of those musicians wasn't too profesional, you know they were drunken or someting like this...

5.TELL US SOME GENERAL THINGS ABOUT THE BAND RELEASES AND MOSTLY FOR YOUR LATEST ONE. TELL ME ABOUT THE MUSIC, THE PRODUCTION...ARE YOU STILL SATISFIED WITH IT OR IS THERE ANYTHING YOU'D LIKE TO CHANGE?

First demo (2001) was of course in Brutal Death Metal style, it's made of five songs, total time is 20minutes. It's rather quick and heavy. The only exception is one song which is very slow and fucking heavy. The second demo (2002) is more brutal than our first material, it's much more technical, it's longest than first and much heavier. We are still playing very fast.The way we want go in future is to play much more brutal music than now and more technical, so on our second LP You will hear the real brutal, fast Soulless. Zero compromise! I said on 2nd LP because our 1st and 2nd demo are available on one CD ans our first LP. The only thing I would like to change on our 1st&2nd demo is sound, it's cool & brutal but it's not the sound that we want to have. Both of demos were recorded in ours friend studio-Invisible studio, the owner is Krzych K³osek. He is the frontman of thrash metal band "Throrn.S" Second LP will be recorded in the same studio but it will be mixed and mastered in profesional studio. We would like to record 2nd LP in normal studio but we don't have enough money! It's too expensive for us, You know I'm still in school, Micha³ & Borys have shit like job. In conclusion we are satisfied by our music but of course it could be much better!

6.YOUR NEW DEMO IS ENTITLED "HEAVEN IS BURNING". WHAT ARE THE LYRICS TALKING ABOUT? ARE THEY ANTICHRISTIAN? DON'T YOU THINK THAT MOST OF THE TIMES THE WHOLE THING AND ATTITUDE BECOMES CHILDISH?

Firstly as I wrote in previous answer 1st and 2nd demo are our first LP, the name on CD is SOULLESS- "Soulless". So now you know that we changed the name of this album. Our lyrics are Anitichristian but not Satanic, We don't believe in any religions . I can say that our lyrics are against all religions! I thing that our lyrics are very mature! They are about religions from our perspecitve, from perspective of an average citizen. I hate the situations when priest are meddle with politic, they have very strong possition in Poland, we hope it's will change when we will enter to Europian Union. WUE is a big chance for our country but it also have many disadventages. I hope that Catholic Church will have pay taxes as high as it's possible. Our polish Pope will be suprised by small quantity of his believers!

7.DO YOU THINK THAT A METAL BAND IS HELPED MOSTLY BY THE LIVE SHOWS OR BY RELEASING STUDIO ALBUMS OFTEN?

Of course the best promotion for Metal bands is to play Live shows beofore well known bands! But also Your work is very important for us. Releasing studio albums too often is the worst thing that band can do. For example our polish Vader recorded things like"Kingdom", "Reign forever words" in my opinion it wasn't nessecary. I like all of Vaders albums very much but they could made someting like bonus tracks... On the other hand in they situation it's immportant to be on the top. The other imorotant thing I have to say say is that no-one can plan how many song or albums will record in a year time! It's something stupid, that's the bigest difference between band from Metal scene and shit like stars that You can see on MTV - those people can't write music! I want to come back to Your question, live shows are the essence for Metal bands, look at Iron Maiden, Pantera, Morbid Angel these bands would not exist without live shows! It's their fate, it's the thing they do the best and when the biggest audience can see and their music. For the end of this answer I can only say that we will record our 2nd Lp in the end of 2002 or later. We will record this in time when we will be ready!

8.I HAVEN'T YET LISTENED TO YOUR CD, SO COULD YOU TELL ME WITH WHICH AMERICAN DEATH METAL BANDS IS YOUR SOUND CLOSE?

We don't want to compare our music because it's not our job. I'll send You our CD so You will answer Yourself. As I wrote upper some people compered us to Incatiaion (only fast fragments)& Cannibal Corpse (maybe because we sound heavy).

9.POLAND HAS MANY EXTREME METAL BANDS. WHY?

I can't explain it! It's very strange, maybe because of the situation in Poland. In our times Death Metal is the best way to express our fillings. Another strange thing is that Death Metal is the most popular sort of metal in Poland. For example in Germany You can find thousands of Heavy Metal bands, in Czech republic Grind core is very popular.

10.WHY DOES HEAVY METAL MSUIC INVOLVE SO MUCH WITH RELIGION?

20 years ago it was a way of rebellion, and expressing the agression. Now it's something much more ambitious. However not all Metal bands involve in ther lyrics religions plots...

11.WHAT'S THIS THING YOU FIND SO SPECIAL IN DEATH METAL MUSIC AND MADE YOU DECIDE PLAY THIS GENRE?

I started to listen Metal music when I was ten years old, my first favourite bands were Sepultura, Obituary, Broken Hope, Cannibal Corpse and I think that's the reason I want to play Brutal Death Metal. You can gues that I don't listen old thrash & heavy Metal bands but it's not true. When I was creating Soulless I didn't think about what genre we will play, in those time I only knew that it will be metal music. After our first rehearsal, when I heard all instruments I knew that it will be Death Metal. The next reason is more obvious- I always loved the most extreme kind of music of present days which is Death Metal.I think that in this type of music I have very much to say/play... I hope that I'll play this music to the last day of my life! However I want to create my own Thrash/ death project. I'm opened for all kind of music which are so interesting that I would like to play them.

12.WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WEREN'T ABLE TO COMPOSE MUSIC?

I would die:-)... but seriously I can't answer exectly. The easier way to answer is to show You what I am doing after school in my free time: we are going to play (two or three days a week), after this we always go somewhere with our girls- you know parties, pubs- we are drinking to death! Sometimes we like to smoke some grass. So if I am not playing probalby in age of 30 I would be an alcoholic:-) In fact the only reason which can force me to stop playing is an accident after which I would be handless (I couldn't play guitar) or headless(I couldn't sing:-)

13.WHICH SONG OF YOURS DO YOU THINK IS THE MOST IDEAL TO REPRESENT YOUR MUSIC?

It's very difficult question. I like all of our songs. From the 1st demo: "But the Salvation" and maybe "Urns of Hate" from second demo my favourite is "He must die"(it's about god(s)) and "Desecreation is now". In general my favourite songs of SOULLESS are those fast ones.

14.IF TIME TRAVEL WAS POSSIBLE, WHICH HISTORICAL PERIOD WOULD YOU LIKE TO VISIT AND WHY? WHAT WOULD YOU MISS THE MOST FROM OUR TIME?

-...our existence now is very hard & difficult... Just think about the Middle Ages, about people with different world view, opinion. In those times if You were a magician You could be killed for it- it's not so strange. But You could be also be killed because you were dressed differently from normal man living in those times. Life in our times is shitlike but is much easier than in the past.

15.MANY METAL MUSICIANS ACCUSE POP STARS FOR THEIR LIFE STYLE, YET WE SEE SUCH BEHAVIOURS IN THE METAL SCENE AS WELL (BANDS PAYING TO MAKE A COVER FOR SUCCESFUL MAGAZINES, HAVING A GOOD REVIEW, METAL LABELS PROMOTING SPECIFIC BANDS AND GENRES EACH EPOCH,ETC).IS IT MAYBE AFTER ALL TRUE THAT THE METAL INDUSTRY DOESN'T DIFFER FROM THE POP? WHICH ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT?

-Metal industry exists on the same rules, the only difference is that it's smaller and sometimes has underground and illegal character. It sounds very pessimistic but I think that the situation in metal industry and metal scene looks much better than in POP music. Of course you can see clowns in every type of Metal but it's something normal, the only way to fight with this shit is to ignore people like this. You said that many Metal musicians accuse Pop stars for their life style- I agree with it because behavior of Pop "stars" is very unnatural. I mean that after concert You can't go to them and talk about the shows because You are only a fan and now look at the band like old good Sodom after every concert you can go to them buy them a beer and talk about many things that You want to answer, you can take a photo and things like that. You also said that metal bands are paying for all ways of promotion. From one side it's strange and looks stupid but in our times when trends rule over the music indusrty it's natural that You can loose patience to play in stinky garage all in shit like pubs. Sad but true... I hope that Soulless would never be forced to do shit like that. Many bands that I know pay for promotion but I understand this.I hope that it will change!

16.WHICH IS MAN'S BIGGEST TEMPTATION?

Well my biggest temptaion is to know future. But sometimes I think that it wouldn't be so good.

17.WHAT PROLOGUE AND TITLE WOULD YOU LIKE THIS INTERVIEW TO HAVE?

I don't know man maybe Soulless from Poland, I am not too good in things like that. Feel free to name it as You like!

18.IF SOMEDAY YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO MEET THE CREATURE THAT CREATED THE UNIVERSE, WHICH WOULD YOUR BIGGEST QUESTION BE?

Why our world is so cruel? And why people have to suffer!?!

19.THANK YOU!HAVE I FORGOT TO ASK YOU ANYTHING AND YOU'D LIKE TO MENTION?

Thank You too! This interview was very interesting and Your qestions were very concrete!For the end I want to say hello to all Metal Maniax in Your country! Sorry for my English... Stay Brutal!

NIKOS "William_Kidd" PARASTATIDIS

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