Detonation
Detonation is a band
from the Netherlands that has recently presented us their third official
full length work titled "Emission Phase" that delivers some enraged melodic
death metal. So, here we have Koen, the band's singer and guitarist, to
talk about their new album and the band's future plans and goals...
1.Hello Koen, first of all, congratulations
on your newest album! Tell me the latest news from the camp of Detonation.
Thank you Antonis! Right now, it's all about
business and promotion here haha! We're trying to do as many shows as possible
to promote "Emission Phase" and in between we're doing interviews and sending
out promo packages to get more reviews. That's what we are spending most
of our time with at the moment. And the time we have left is being put
in rehearsing and trying to create new songs already for another new album.
Besides this, we're also busy with our jobs and girlfriends and stuff,
it's always very hectic when you have just released a new CD....
2. This is your third album so far. Do you
believe that it is the most varied album you have written?
Yes I do! If you compare it to our previous
2 full lengths "Emission Phase" really offers the widest variety in styles
and atmosphere. I mean, we've used influences coming from Death, Thrash,
Black, Heavy and Progressive metal and mixed it with our own distinct melodic
metal style.
3. Why did you choose "Emission Phase" as the
title of your CD?
Well, the concept of the album is about the
impact of a nuclear explosion, and specifically about the consequences
it has for the people that live in the area where the disaster took place.
It is a chronological story about the fears and distress those people go
through, and we were looking for a title that would describe the concept
of the album, and one that would also have a symbolic meaning for this
album. Literally speaking, the emission phase is the specific part of the
impact when the radiation is being unleashed into the atmosphere.
4. Now you have a decade since the date that
you formed. Back in 1997, did you believe that you will have this entire
career so far?
No way! I never could have dreamed of getting
this degree of success with Detonation. We started the band as a side project
at the time, and I never thought of actually releasing 3 full length albums
through a record company, selling albums worldwide and tour so many countries.
It's been an amazing journey so far, and I feel very blessed to have established
so many things with this band. But as with all things, you always yearn
for more ;) Our next goals are to get a bigger record company, and tour
the whole world!
5. Tell me a few things about the cover. I
think you need to pay more attention in order to understand it. I believe
that the previous one was clearer.
Hm, I personally thought "Portals to Uphobia"
had a very difficult to understand album cover, and that the new one is
more obvious, but every person has his/her own perception upon things of
course! But for "Emission Phase" we wanted the artwork to resemble the
concept, but the idea of putting an actual atomic explosion on the cover
just didn't feel right. So we came up with the idea to display a symbolic
impact of some sort of meteor into a peaceful countryside. This resembles
our music, because within our songs you can hear very brutal parts but
sometimes also very laid back and mellow acoustic parts. So we put our
"D" logo inside the meteor to make the artwork even more symbolic. I think
it turned out very cool. The rest of the artwork has a more direct approach
towards the concept I guess.
6. This time which things and situations "forced"
you to write the lyrics for this album?
As always, my every day life is the most important
influence for me to come up with these lyrics. It is a way for me to deal
with my frustrations and struggles. And even though I came up with the
idea to write a concept album this time about a fictional story, the lyrics
still are very personal and psychological. I tried to put myself in the
position of the people in the story that have to deal with the consequences
of the nuclear impact. That's the reason why most lyrics are still very
personal and confronting. And also the concept is something I have always
been fascinated by. Even as a young kid, the thought of nuclear warfare
scared the crap out of me, and I never really lost that feeling. So I guess
now was the time to deal with it, and write a story about it.
7. You have included twelve tracks in this
work, why did you choose to put the two instrumentals at the end of the
album?
Well, because it is a chronological story,
the songs had to be put in the correct place on the album. Or else to story
would make no sense to me! "Fallout" was already destined to be the outro
of the CD, it has the perfect atmosphere to close the CD, and the other
one "2nd Sun Ascending" was part of the song "Soul Severance", these two
had to be put together. So there wasn't much choice where to put the songs
on the album actually haha!
8. Lately you had toured in England. Tell me
if you have some other plans to support "Emission Phase"?
We are now busy promoting ourselves here in
the Netherlands, which means we are trying to do shows every weekend in
all regions of the country. If we are lucky, we will go on another European
trip too at the end of the season, hopefully with a well known established
band this time! But nothing is confirmed about that yet, so we will focus
on the Dutch shows for now.
9. So far you walk musically, together with
Osmose Productions. After three albums do you believe that you need a new
challenge?
We have no choice I'm afraid, because our
contract with Osmose has just ended with the release of this new album.
So there has to come a new contract, be it with Osmose or another company,
we don't know yet. But we're going to shop around a bit after the summer,
and see what our options are for the next album. Time will tell!
10. Besides Detonation, do you have any other
projects or do you put all your energy inside this band?
Most of my energy actually goes into Detonation,
because I'm doing most of the promotional activities and stuff myself,
and this consumes a lot of my time normally. But I believe it is important
to me as a musician, to explore my musical capabilities and passion for
music by playing as many different music styles as possible. That's one
of the reasons why Thomas (drummer in Detonation) and I started Cardamon
(www.myspace.com/cardamon) in 2004, a melancholic rock/metal band with
a female singer. It was a project at first, but in the meantime it has
become an actual performing band. We have a full line-up now, and the debut
full length album "The Primrose Path" has just been mixed and mastered.
So we are looking for a record company now to release the album, so that
we can start playing more gigs and introduce Cardamon to the world. And
this is just one of the projects we're doing ;) I'm also still active as
guitarist in my first band ever, which is old school Death metal band Engorge.
Mike is also busy with Kutschurft, a grindcore band with Dutch lyrics,
and a couple of small home projects. And Thomas also does a few home studio
projects on the side as well.
11. Lately have you heard something really
interesting from the metal scene of Holland?
There are many bands here at this moment,
but I haven't really heard something extraordinary or interesting to be
honest. Well, except for Cardamon of course ;) I'm personally also not
really into the whole brutal Death metal scene we have over here, so that
leaves many bands out.
12. Thank you Koen for your time and close
the interview as you want…
Thank you Antonis! Take care and my sincerest
cheers and thanks to our fans from Greece, you know who you are! We will
visit your country as soon as we can! Cheers, Koen.
Antonis Maglaras
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