NOCTUTRNAL (Eng.)
– Hello, thanks for answering to our questions. How is everything going into the NOCTURNAL’s camp right now, just before releasing your new album?
Hello… everythings is going fine regarding the band… we did launch our videoclip for “Rising Demons” about 4 weeks ago and we got a lot great responses from all sides… So at the moment we are just waiting until the albums finally out and doing rehearsals as usual…
– This new album is “Storming Evil”, a title that pretty much sums up what the opus (and NOCTURNAL) is all about. Is just pure, unrelentless and unholy Thrash Metal without mercy but; how sounds this new effort to you? What can your fans expect?
I agree with the fact it´s a fitting title… well… what to expect… If you are aware of our previous material youcan expect the same riff based thrash as we did before but more worked out, with a better sound… but no experiments or major changes in style…
– You’ve got a new drummer for this new album, Skullsplitter. How has he fitted in? And Teutonic Slaugther left the band so, could you tell us how did you come up with the idea of trying having two guitars and why didn’t work?
Skullsplitter is the perfect drummer for us… his style fits perfectly to what we do and he is a great guy overall who is motivated to get shit done and ready to conquer the world with us… As for Teutonic Slaughter as 2nd guitarist… he is a good friend and a good guitarist so it somehow went natural since we always wanted to get a 2nd guitar again … We had a 2nd guitarist with Jex (now in TERRORSAW) already in the past during 2001-2004 … but we never found anyone fitting until Teutonic Slaughter joined… well it did not work so great because we could not rehearse much because we do live far away from eachother and also his motivation in playing in the band wasn´t the best so it was somewhat a mix out of him deciding to leave again and us thinking “it worked so many years with one guitar so we don´t care”… It´s also hard to involve one more person in the organisation part of a band so that´s another plus… being more independent again… We think it´s great the way it is right now…
– Have been 4 years since your previous «Violent Revenge» came out so, how are you feeling about finally going to release your new full-length?
Well… Violent Revenge was recorded in Summer 2009 and released in December… so it´s a litte bit more than 4 years from that album to the new one…. We´re feeling good about it, since the long time in between were really the hardest we´ve gone through as a band and it´s great to finally see things going in our favour again…
– Anyway you haven’t been inactive at all, in fact though you have been around for almost 15 years, you have unleashed 3 full-length albums but a number of EPs and splits. Do you have a special predilection for certain kind of releases?
We did some smaller releases in between to get something out to the people… We just do what we like and what we think is necessary in some way….
– As I said, it was 4 years ago when «Violent Revenge» hit the streets so, how has the band evolved throughout these last years?
I don´t think we have changed much as individuals, but we had time to work on the songs to make them as good as possible… with the albums before a couple of songs were born in a rush… that´s not necessary a bad thing… since being spontaenous can also work out well, but looking back there are many details I would do different nowadays…
– For instance, I noticed a really well-cared guitar work, with personal riffs and even certain catchy melodies along with your usual frantic, relentless riffage attack. Was this something you specially concentrated on?
Yes, definitely… many people said that the “DESTRUCTION kind of riffing” got a bit lost on Violent Revenge… I know what they mean, and I wanted to show I can still do that kind of riffs when I want to… The evidence is the new album which has more riffs than ever in that particular style… but we don´t want to copy anyone, still having something unique sounding going on was also very important to me…
– The songs themselves are more dynamic, have more diveristy to it, therefore each track on the album has its own identity. I personally think that was something lacking on your previous albums, which doesen’t mean weren’t superb as well but, was this something you were aiming for?
Yes, I tried to implement something in each song which no other song has…. So it makes each song more special and different from eachother even when it´s the same thing in it´s basics… That you mention it showed me that it probably worked how I intended… Also the tracklisting is a very important aspect in that matter…. We thought we need to take our time doing the tracklist, but in the end it was more or less clear which song should be at which place on the album… It was like the songs themselves looked for their place, ha ha….
– The album is traditional, 100% NOCTURNAL, but is simply overwhelming the way each song is different without being complex. Each tune has its own elements and, surprisingly enough, everything sounds honest and straight-forward. Is your songwriting as honest as it sounds?
You must know I´m very interested in all kinds of music… and I think to really know what to do that´s a necessary thing… You can at one hand think our album was smashed together like the first VENOM album maybe… but from a songwriting point of view I also left out a lot of riffs other bands would have maybe used because they are cool … but I did not because they did not fit into what I was trying to create… Whatever honest means in terms of songwriting … all I can say is that NOCTURNAL´s music is the most important to me and I play this kind of thrash since 17 years now, have gone through everything a musician and band can go through and I´m still here delivering the goods… I guess it can´t get more honest than that…
– This being said, still being honest and straight-forward, do you think this «Storming Evil» is your most mature opus to date?
Yes, mature is a good word to descibe this album… But this does not mean it´s sterile or we want to show off our “fantastic musical skills” or whatever else it did lead to when the old bands did grow out of their rebellious teenage years… I´m 32 years old now and i´m more a kid in the head than ever… So I think our music is young and relentless in style and mature in execution !
– Tyrannizer’s vocals fit quite well into this diverse sound, as I personally think she has provided here more versatile vocals. This is her second album with NOCTURNAL so, how do you think her skills have improved?
Her vocals did improve a lot… This was a huge aim of hers for the new album… since she is not very satisfied with the vocals on “Violent Revenge”… This has various reasons… one of them not taking enough time to work them out in the first place and also not taking enough time in the studio… The somewhat strange sound on that album does the rest… Well… this time we did focus a lot on the vocals… but thinking about that,this time we did focus a lot on everything… The guitars…The bass is better than ever, the drums anyway… I think in one way being more “mature” is that we all did focus on the work of the other members… In the past it was more… “I do my thing, if the others do not deliver the worst shit ever, it´s OK”. But this time when we noticed that something can be done better we tried to achieve this…
– You have always been an old school sounding band, firmly rooted and inspired by the 80’s Thrash scene, specially European/Teutonic I could say, and you have depicted that quite good with the cover artwork, crafted by no else than Philip Lawve. Would you mind to elaborate a bit on why did you think of him for the artwork and your feelings on the result obtained?
We already had him in mind when Violent Revenge was about to be released… but back then we could not find a contact for him… So we tried it again when we worked on “Storming Evil” and this time we had more luck since he decided to paint covers again and even did put up a website… We wrote to him… explained what we had in mind, and it went from there… we are very satisfied with his work…
– On the other hand, you have had a clear, powerful yet organic production by Mersus. Are you satisfied with the final outcome?
Yes, I can´t praise him enough… he really knows his shit. And he also knows how to produce music that it does not sound sterile and compressed… given that the band he´s working with does want that… He is a fan of NOCTURNAL since a long time and he knows what we need to sound like… he also knows how to push you to your limits as a musician… I really know we did not skip any chance to make the best out of everything this time in the studio… Is Mersus thought you can do this better, we did it again and again until it was as good as it can get…. this was different in the studio we used before…
– This has been your first album with High Roller Records, which seems to be a really good home for bands into your style and are a well-stablished company too. How are things working with them? When it came to choose the right label, was important the fact they are based in Germany?
All I can say is that so far everything is working out great, we got what was promised… Ask me again in a couple of years, ha ha… But we have a good friend working there who I trust a lot… so I don´t think there will be any problems in the near future… Well… we had a label from the netherlands which ceased to exist in the meantime and they still owe us money, and there´s not much we can do about it… going the legal/lawyer route is just not worth it…. money and patience wise…. We will just repress the first 2 albums ourselves at one point (which we are not allowed to regarding the contract they broke with their actions) and they can fuck off in eternity… Having your label in the same country just makes communication easier and also since it´s their “home market” you can be sure you get all the national exposure that is possible…
– All this about «Storming Evil» being said; how could you describe it in just 3 words?
UNHOLY THRASH METAL !
– As I said earlier, it seems like you draw inspiration (among others) from 80’s Thrash Metal, and your country has always been a great haven for that style and during that period so, what are your 5 Teutonic Thrash Metal essentials?
In no particular order…
VIOLENT FORCE – Malevolent assault of tommorrow
DESTRUCTION – Eternal devastation
KREATOR – Pleasure to kill
DARKNESS – Death squad
ASSASSIN – The upcoming terror
– Now, as 2014 has just started, would you mind to tell us what are your 3 favourite albums released in 2103 as well as the least favourite one?
Well… i´m not that good in those kind of lists since I tend to get some albums very late… so all new stuff I probably heard this year was already released in 2012 or 2011 , ha ha… One album which deserves a mention is definitely BEYOND´s “Fatal power of death”… That one was definitely a 2013 release… Also the last IN SOLITUDE and PROCESSION albums were amazing…
– And finally, what are the near-future plans for the band? How does 2014 look like for NOCTURNAL?
Playing tons of gigs, maybe a tour… hopefully some festivals… we will see… we will also record a song for a DESASTER tribute album soon….
– That’s all from my side, thanks oncemore your answering to our interview. If you want to add some final words; take these last lines.
Thanks for interview… Unholy Thrash Metal forever….
