FLESHCRAWL in Flesh Perverse.
For the last 2-3 years FLESHCRAWL have been fairly considered the trendsetters of German brutal Death Metal. It's not a surprise, just listen to their previous release "Bloodred Massacre" if you haven't yet. This year they have spawned a new clot of gore, blood, entrails and flesh on Metalblade recs, which shows FLESHCRAWL's further augmentation of brutality aggression and musical violence. Once again they prove that Death Metal is far from being extinguished by trends and mainstream. The interview is given by Bastian Herzog, FLESHCRAWL's drum tormentor. Enjoy. (Krasniy)
1. Greetings Basti. How is your mood today?
Very good, thanx. It is a perfect day for metal, I guess. To be exact, everyday is a perfect day for metal!!!
2. You released your new album this year. How has been the audience's response so far? Are you pleased with the final result of this record?
Very much. The reactions and responses from the fans as well as from the international metal press like mags, zines, webzines and radios have been great and amazing. People keep on saying that "As Blood Rains..." is the best record we did so far and that it has got the most power, brutality and intensity. Songwise, I think we wrote the best songs for "As Blood Rains..." so far in our "career".
3. Have you done some extensive touring this summer? Which bands have you played with (and where)?
We played a lot of single shows after the release as well as one european tour in june 2000 together with bands like Vader, Vital Remains, Rebaelliun and Pandemia. The tour covered a lot of countries in Europe, among the best shows have been in London/UK, Paris/France, Poznan/Poland and Minsk/Belarus. Is was a great experience and also lots of fun and party. Concerning upcoming shows, we will play a mini-tour (5 shows) supporting Bolt Thrower in January 2001. The dates are:
10. Jan 2001 Holland - Rotterdam - Baroeg
11. Jan 2001 Holland - Enschede - Atak
12. Jan 2001 Germany - Essen - Zeche Carl
13. Jan 2001 Germany - Zwickau - Alarm!
14. Jan 2001 Holland - Groningen - Vera
I guess, that should be pretty much killer shows. Right now, we are busy writing the new song material for our next album for 2001.
4. Metal Blade Rec is definitely one of the most well-known metal labels in the world. Thousands of underground bands try to jump over their heads to get into Metal Blade's vision. How did you get the contract with this label? How successful has been your collaboration so far? By the way, are you still having any relationships with Black Mark, are they still distributing your previous works ?
After we parted company with Black Mark, we shortly signed to the German label Invasion Records. Under mysterious circumstances, they somehow disappeared from the scene and shortly after the label didn't exist anymore. Well, for us this meant to once again search for a new label. Since we knew the people running the European Metal Blade office for quite some years already, we told them about our situation, having all the new stuff ready to be recorded, but without having a valid record deal. They offered us their help very spontaneously and we started recording in Sweden in Studio Fredman. After the master tapes were finished, we received the recording contract and signed it. I think there is nothing which could have been better for us than signing to Metal Blade, right?
The collaboration between Metal Blade and us is really good. Everything is done in a fast and good way. Finally, we have a record label where people work who know 100% what they are doing!
Our old label Black Mark is still around, but they only have one office left in Sweden. I heard they closed down all the other offices... However, Black Mark is still manufacturing new copies of our previous albums, so I guess they are still selling those.
5. How do you evaluate the musical changes on "As Blood Rains From The Sky..."? Do you find them significant or it's just a typical evolutionary progression?
It is kinda progression from our previous albums because we improved our songwriting once more. We didn't change our style or anything and just tried to perfectionize our music and lyrics.
6. What are the band members' and personally yours favorite bands? By the way, what is your opinion to Black Metal?
First off, all band members are total metal fans, that's our favourite kind of music. Doesn't matter if extreme or softer metal, we listen to almost everything in the metal genre. Apart from heavy metal there are also some directions some of the band members listen to from time to time like pop and rock music. I don't know what the favourite bands of the other guys are at the moment, but mine are Obituary, Slayer, Stuck Mojo, Kataklysm and Judas Priest. That's surely not any newcomers or new bands, but killer ones.
Concerning Blackmetal, my personal taste is that I cannot really handle it because I don't like it too much. There's some bands I listen to and check out sometimes, but most of the time I don't follow the black scene.
7. Could you cite some of the non-musical occupations of the band members?
If you mean what we are doing beside the music, then I can tell you that everybody is going to work in all kinds of different jobs: computer administration, graphic design, metal works and so on. All kinds of stuff.
8. What were the reasons that made you move to Germany, and after all, where do you belong, Sweden or Germany?
We never moved to Germany. We were born here, so it is our home country! We just inspire and identify ourselves with the Swedish scene, that's it, but we don't have the Swedish nationality.
9. What are FLESHCRAWL's plans for the future?
Well, right now we are writing new songs for our next record which will be recorded in september 2001 in the swedish Studio Underground. The release is planned for november 2001 on Metal Blade Records. Meanwhile, we will support Bolt Thrower on a 5 show warm-up tour in Germany (2 shows) and Holland (3 shows). We are also trying to get the slot on some summer festivals for 2001.
10. Any last words?
Thanx for the interview. Hope to meet and hang out with you on some future tour! (I do hope we will! -Ed.) take care!
FLESHCRAWL Official Homepage
Interview taken by KRASNIY.
Back