Sacred
Steel
This is our second interview
with Sacred Steel, who recently released a very successful album that will
satisfy even their most demanding fan, and once again I realize what a
pleasant, honest and friendly person Gerrit really is. I surely enjoyed
the talk we had and I bet you will enjoy it too!
1. HELLO! HOW ARE YOU? LET’S START THIS INTERVIEW
A BIT DIFFERENT. ? FEW DAYS AGO YOU PLAYED IN GREECE 2 LIVE SHOWS. WHICH
ARE YOUR IMPRESSIONS FROM THE LIVE SHOWS, ESPECIALLY THE ONE IN THESSALONIKI
(BECAUSE IT WAS THE FIRST TIME THAT YOU PLAYED HERE)?
Hi there, I´m fine. I hope you´re
feeling great today as well. Greece, as usual, was a real blast! It really
was a shame that we had no time to see more of your beautiful country or
party more with our friends. Our schedule was very hectic this time. We
enjoyed playing both gigs very, very much! Sure, in Athens were more people
and they were a bit more enthusiastic but Thessaloniki also was great.
Nice people, nice club, nice beer. Thanks to everyone who came to one of
these shows!
2. IS THERE ANY BAND FROM GREECE (FROM THOSE WHO
OPENED YOUR LIVE SHOWS) THAT IMPRESSED YOU A BIT? IF YES, WHICH ONE?
Dark Nightmare were brilliant live! Their
singer gave me their Demo CD afterwards. It´s good stuff - though
I preferred the more energetic and brutal live versions compared to the
studio versions.
3. “HAMMER OF DESTRUCTION”, YOUR NEW ALBUM, FINDS
YOU WITH LOTS OF LINE-UP CHANGES. CAN YOU INTRODUCE US THE NEW MEMBERS
AND TELL US WHERE THEY HAD PLAYED BEFORE SACRED STEEL AND HOW YOU CHOSE
THEM?
Our ex-bass player Jens switched to guitar
and so we only had to recruit a new lead guitar player and a bass man.
Our choice for the lead guitar was obvious: Jonas was an old fan of the
band, since day one, he´s studying classical guitar and it was always
clear that - if we´d ever need him - he´d be in the band.
He´s been playing in several local bands like Immortal Metalheads
or Eternal Glory before. It was also easy to decide upon the bass player:
some of us knew Kai for years. A lot of people/friends recommended him
and we agreed before he even had played one note. He´s just a very,
very nice guy and perfect for that job. He´s still also playing in
Lanfear.
4. DID THE NEW MEMBERS OF THE BAND CONTRIBUTE
IN ANY WAY IN THE COMPOSITIONS OF THE NEW ALBUM?
Sure, Jonas wrote about 40% of the songs already.
Kai helped us with some arrangements.
5. JORG M. KNITTEL AND OLI GROSSHANS, WHO WERE
THE FOUNDING MEMBERS OF THE BAND HAVE LEFT YOU. WHICH WERE THE REASONS
THAT LED THEM TO SUCH A DECISIONS? ARE YOU STILL IN TOUCH?
Yeah, we´re still friends. I play in
Dawn Of Winter with Jörg since 15 years old.
I don´t see Oli that often but that´s
because we live pretty far apart. The reason for them leaving was just
that they had no ideas anymore for the type of metal that we play. It´s
no use to force yourself to come up with riffs for Sacred Steel. Music
has to come naturally. It just didn´t work anymore. All the best
for them!
6. AFTER SO MANY DEPARTURES, HAVE YOU EVER
THOUGHT OF QUITTING? IF YES, WHAT MADE YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND?
I was ready to call it quits but then Jens
and Matze gave me their demo with 3 songs they had been working on already.
That demo just blew me away! I immediately told them that I´d continue
with them.
7. ON THE NEW ALBUM, AS ON “WARGODS OF METAL”,
YOU HAVE COOPERATED WITH 2 VERY FAMOUS PRODUCERS LIKE BILL METROYER AND
HARRIS JOHNS. WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE ARE THEY? WHICH ARE THE SIMILARITIES
AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THOSE 2 PRODUCERS?
They´re pretty different! It´s
not easy to say something about their characters though because it´s
not that I know them really, really well personally. All I can say is that
it was great to work with both of them. They´re bothvery experienced,
professional and nice to work with. Maybe Bill was a bit more easy going
and relaxed while Harris was a bit more focused and down to the point.
They both rule the universe!!!!
8. “HAMMER OF DESTRUCTION” WILL BE ALSO RELEASED
AS A LIMITED BOX SET. CAN YOU TELL WHAT THIS BOX WILL INCLUDE?
That box includes the new album, the video
for “Maniacs of speed”, a bonus disc called “Pounding Inferno” with 7 unreleased
and 3 rare tracks, a full-colour poster, a signed post card and a patch.
It´s selling fast, you better hurry!
9. DO YOU REMEMBER WHICH THE WORST COMMENT THAT
YOU EVER READ OR LISTENED FOR YOUR BAND WAS AND WHICH ONE WAS THE BEST?
The worst was just recently from a guy who
wrote the live review for our show in our hometown in Ludwigsburg. I mean,
it was OUR show and we had invited all the other 6 bands. We were organizing
the whole evening, doing the catering and everything else. Then this guy
comes and writes something like “Well, these guys just suck, I can´t
stand them – so on to the next band”. No comment about the fact that
the audience loved us, that the evening was great, no nothing. FUCK HIM.
I can´t say what was the best comment. I cherish them all!
10. YOU STARTED FROM METAL BLADE, A HUGE METAL
LABEL, AND NOW YOU BELONG TO MASSACRE WHICH IS A DECENT LABEL BUT NOT AS
BIG AS METAL BLADE. DO YOU THINK THAT MASSACRE IS A MORE PROPER LABEL FOR
SACRED STEEL AND WHY?
We don´t care if a label is big or small
as long as we have full artistic freedom and enough money to record an
album. We enjoyed the years on Metal Blade. We just switched to Massacre
because the deal was better back then. Massacre does a lot for us, just
think of that new box set!!
11. SINCE YOU ARE 80’S METAL MANIACS, I BELIEVE
THAT YOU LOVE VINYL. SO, IS IT POSSIBLE TO RELEASE YOUR NEW ALBUM IN A
VINYL EDITION AS WELL?
We´re looking for a label that may be
interested in releasing the album on vinyl. This time Massacre preferred
to have that boxset instead of a vinyl edition. That was also okay for
us, of course. Nevertheless, that album MUST be available on LP sometime
definitely!
12. LATELY LABELS SIGN MORE AND MORE METALCORE
AND MELODIC (HELLOWEEN CLONES) POWER METAL BANDS, BUT IT IS OBVIOUS THAT
PEOPLE HAVE STARTED TO GET TIRED OF THESE SOUNDS. WHY DO YOU THINK THE
LABELS STILL TRY TO SIGN SUCH KIND OF BANDS?
Labels always sign bands that seem to be able
to sell a lot of records. Maybe some people have grown tired of some of
these things but as long as the labels sign shit like this, it still seems
to sell somewhere.
13. WHICH CLICHES IN HEAVY METAL DO YOU LIKE AND
WHICH ONES YOU DESPISE AND WHY?
It always depends on what you label as cliché.
To me most of the stuff I sing about just belongs to heavy metal naturally.
Cliché always sounds so negative. I mean, if you see a beautiful
woman you want her to have hair, breasts and a hole between her legs, or
not? Or does this ever become boring. NO! If I buy a heavy metal album
I want it to sound & look like a heavy metal album AND I want it to
be about heavy metal itself. There´s nothing wrong with that.
14. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME ANSWERING MY QUESTIONS!
HOPE YOU FOUND THEM INTERESTING. THE LAST LINES BELONG TO YOU…
Thanks a lot for your support, mate!! Greece
rules, you know that…
See you next time in Thessaloniki or Athens,
Gerrit
Nick “William_Kidd”
Parastatidis
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