BUNKER 66 (Eng.)
– Hi, thanks for your time. What are you currently up to? How is everything doing right now with BUNKER 66?
Hi Sergio! Well, we are rehearsing the songs of the new album lately, hoping to play them live very soon!
– First off, how did you come up with the band’s name and what’s the meaning behind it?
There’s no particular meaning behind it, it just came to our twisted minds during a night of metal. It was with 3 sixes at the beginning but 66 sounds way cooler, don’t you think?
– Next September you will release your new album, «Screaming Rock Believers». What are your expectations on it?
Oh yes! We have “Great Expectations”, like KISS said eheh! We are very happy with the new album, it represents 2014 Bunker 66 perfectly and we hope that the listener will be able to feel our passion behind it.
– You are always loyal to your trademark sound and to your traditional style but, what are the main differences between your previous «Infernö Interceptörs» and this new opus?
I personally think that the new album is a great step forward, or backward… as it sounds dirtier and even more organic than the previous one, it’s more 84 than 86. The main differences are the guitar sound with less gain and the bass without distortion.
– Debut albums end to be more like experiments, like a learning experience for a second album, where you know better what it works for the band and what it doesn’t. Is this your case too? Does «Screaming Rock Believers» portrait better what BUNKER 66 is all about? Do you feel now more comfortable doing your own thing and closer to your own sound?
Hmmm we don’t think about how the new songs have to be, we just jam and record if we like them. We realize some things after the record has been done, like after several listens to “Inferno…” we thought that some riffs on it sounded too similar, but we seize the moment, if some vibes are cool we have to record them. With “Screaming…” we have strengthened our sound and musical approach, each song has its own character and the whole record is more varied and dynamic in my opinion.
– I personally think the sound on this album is more old school and organic than on your previous record. Was this something you had clear since the beginning?
It is, and yes, we had it clear since the beginning. Initially we were searching for a sound similar to “Don’t Break the Oath” but we failed. The result sounds super cool in my ears though!
– In fact B. Incinerator took mixing duties. How positive is to have an own band member doing this? What are the pros and cons?
Yeah he did, as usual. It has only positive aspects in my opinion, to have total control of our music is very important for us, we have all the time that is needed, no deadlines and shit like that. Just let the music and the emotions flow with no pressure.
– And the recording was done by Tardon Feathered, whom already did the «Out of the Bunker» analogue remaster. Was this album done on an analogue way too?
Tardon Feathered did the mastering and did a cool job, we wanted to contact him again as he also works with non metal bands and he’s able to underline different musical aspects during the mastering process. This album was not done analogically mostly for money reasons but I think we were able to give a strong analogue touch to it.
– On the other hand, the cover artwork follows the pattern of the previous one in a certain way, and with just two colors. Whom idea was and how did you work on it? It feels to fit your music: simple yet powerful.
I don’t remember if I or Bone came up with that. We just wanted a black and white cover similar to Thin Lizzy’s “Bad Reputation”, Death Strike’s “Fuckin’ Death” or Venom’s “Warhead”, simple yet powerful as you say, that’s exactly what we wanted. We just took some pictures on the hills and gave them to our buddy Porro (Underground Guerilla Artworks), told him that they have to be similar to the above mentioned covers, choose our favourite one and well, that’s all!
– There are even clean vocals here. Why did you feel there was place for them this time?
We just felt it, no plans as usual. Actually “On The Prowl” and “(She’s got) Demon Eyes” are my favourite songs of the record. The first one had already the clean vocals chorus during our rehearsals, I came up with that while I was writing the lyrics at work haha! The chorus of the second one was done after the recording of the song, Damien came up with that and we were like wow! Record this immediately!
– While listening to your music a band that always comes to my mind is MOTÖRHEAD, which I bet has been a huge influence for you but, what some other acts have influenced the sound of BUNKER 66?
Motorhead is very important for us and will always be. No Motorhead no party! I guess that other influences are Venom, Hellhammer/Celtic Frost, Discharge, Bulldozer and all the metal that had punk in it and vice versa.
– I ask so because I personally think on your music you mix different 80’s styles: Heavy, Thrash, Black or Rock n’ Roll. Was this the vision you had of the band when forming it or did it just developed itself? Did you started BUNKER 66 with the purpose of honoring the classics?
Yeah that’s true, we like different kinds of metal, we like punk, we like hardcore, we like rock ‘n’ roll, we like music in general and listen to lots of different shit, from Autopsy to A Flock of Seagulls. We did not have any particular vision or purpose when we formed the band, we just met every Sunday and started to jam, it’s basically the same thing that we are doing nowadays.
– In fact this album contains a cover for CELTIC FROST’s «Seduce me Tonight». Why did you choose this song and how did you come up with the idea?
We were not able to decide which track had to be album opener and the weird “Seduce Me Tonight” cover idea jumped into my mind one day, I was singing the riffs of that song in my head and imaged how they would sound with a faster picking à la Motorhead and a d-beat. I have to admit that I sometimes listen to “Cold Lake” and we didn’t want to do the usual “Countess Bathory” or “Into the Crypt of Rays” cover, we wanted to do something unusual and we wanted to twist and distort a song, like Celtic Frost themselves did with “Mexican Radio” for example. To place this cover as the album opener can also be seen as a tribute to the artistic liberty that Celtic Frost had back in the “Into the Pandemonium” days.
– And what other tracks would you like to cover?
I don’t know actually, but I guess that if we will record another cover in the future it will be something unusual. During our live shows we sometimes do super classic covers if we have some minutes left, stuff like “Witching Hour”, “Iron Fist” or “Outbreak of Evil”…
– All this about «Screaming Rock Believers»; how could you describe it in just 3 words?
Metal fuckin’ metal!
– You play a really traditional kind of Metal that takes your listeners back to the 80′s, and nowadays it seems to be a huge interest (or hype) for old school sounding Metal. How good are the current times for a band like you? Do you think due to this may be easier to not go unnoticed or rather the opposite, as competence is big?
This revival thing is going on since a couple of years now, I simply think that who has something interesting to say remains. This decade is often very superficial because of the infinite amount of music that people can listen to due to the internet but I think that when a band has good songs it will be noticed sooner or later.
– Italy itself is prominent in different subgenres, but into a more traditional approach there have been and there still are classics such as STRANA OFFICINA, NECRODEATH or CREEPING DEATH among others, or even new bands such as SIGN OF THE JACKAL, BAPHOMET’S BLOOD, CHILDREN OF TECHNOLOGY or BARBARIAN just to mention a few. All in All, Italy has always had a healthy underground scene, but specially for Heavy Metal so, are there more extreme bands you could suggest?
I have to thank Damien Thorne for the Creepin’ Death “No Privation” Demo, he gave it to me a couple of years ago. Italy had and still has great bands, other bands that immediately jump into my mind are: Schizo, Bulldozer, Raw Power, Death SS, Negazione, Incinerator, Excidium, Convulsed, Noia, Fangtooth, Haemophagus, Morbo, Sabotage, Black Oath, Saturnine, Nerorgasmo, Psychopath Witch, Daemonokrat, Fogna, Cryptrip and many more, I’m sure I forgot a lot!
– And how do you see the current state of the Italian Metal scene as an insider?
Pretty good, number 1 is actually Noia with their last album “Obstinate Sacrifice”, buy or die!
– Finally, what are your near-future plans?
To play live as much as possible, contact bunker66@gmx.com if you want us to invade your town.
– That’s all, thank you once more for answering our questions. If you want to add some final words; feel free to do it.
Thanks for time dude, for merch and gigs get in touch with us at the above mentioned e-mail or contact us via Facebook at www.facebook.com/bunker66, cheers!
