DETONATION (Eng.)
– Hello, thanks for asnwering to our questions. What are you guys up to right now?
Hey Sergio,
Right now we’re in the middle of making a pre production recording for our 5th full length album and it’s gonna kick ass. Were going back to our melodic death metal roots and are writing some of our best stuff ever. I think so anyway 😉
– To start, could you please make some history of DETONATION?
We started out in 1997 when we were young kids. We were all playing in different bands at the time and knew each other from the bands and school. We wanted to play melodic death metal in the vein of Dissection, At the Gates, In flames, Eucharist etc so we started a band and did it. We got signed to osmose productions in 2002 and released 3 albums with them, did some tours and a lot of gigs, of which two in India. Our new album “Reprisal” has
been released this year and it’s a really fast, hard hitting album. Full of melodic death metal.
– Your new «Reprisal» came out some months ago; how has its feedback?
It’s been really good. The reviews have been positive and the songs really work live. Because the songs on “Reprisal” are faster and more straight through death/thrash people can understand the songs a lot faster.
– This album has a heavier and more aggressive sound, more than ever actually. Was that something you were aiming to get?
I think it has everything to do with who is in your band at a that moment. With the writing and recording of reprisal we had Michiel van de Plicht as our drummer. Michiel plays in bands like God dethroned and Prostitute disfigurement so he has a more death metal orientated drum style compared
to our old drummer Thomas.
I like to write while we are jamming in the practice space so if our drummer is more a death metal heavy drummer I wil automatically write to what he is playing. That is the reason why reprisal has a more heavy sound than the previous albums.
– Your two previous albums were released by Osmose but you have released this one independently; would you mind to shed some light on this?
It’s actually three albums but no problem. 😉
We had a contract with osmose for three albums which we signed back in 2002. Don’t get me wrong, because we are still very grateful to Osmose for giving us our shot at the beginning of our career. But when you sign a contract when you are young, after a while you start and see some things that
are not very cool. And when other things go wrong like touring and the printing of artwork, it does not help for a healthy business relationship. After Emission Phase was released Osmose told us we were not selling enough albums in the U.S.A. which was true, but nobody in the U.S.A. could buy the album because their distribution was not very good. So we both decided that it would be better to go our own way.
– What are the main lyrical ideas in this «Reprisal»?
The main theme on the album is Urban violence and defending yourself in the concrete jungle. I live in the city and most of the times it’s nice but there are
also so many irritating fucked up vile dregs of society. That makes life a lot harder some times. The lyrics I wrote on this album deal with the fantasy of dealing with the problem yourself, becoming a vigilante. Movies like Deathwish, Rolling thunder, and Falling down helped to create the theme of the album. But also real life in the neighbourhood where I live. Or take the London Riots, I can not believe people are so stupid that they would destroy their own community. Someone said that between peace and anarchy lies two meals. I believe this, when it comes down to it we are just animals waiting to beat each other to death for a sandwich.
– And how was the songwriting process like?
Well like I said I like to write in the practice room while jamming. I think that way the songs stay fresh and spontanious. Koen likes to write at home and work out his ideas exactly how he wants them on his computer. Koen and me also got together a lot to get the guitar riffs and the melodies perfect. We also wrote the lyrics together. It’s one thing to write a lyric but the singer (Koen) has always got to put his touch on it so it wil fit the song in his own way.
– This is your first record with Harry and Allard; how’s everything going with them so far? What have they brought to DETONATION?
Wel Harry and allard joined the band after we recorded Reprisal. We made the record with Michiel and Danny still in the band. Michiel’s influence was his style which made our sound more straight forward death/thrash. And Danny’s influnce was that he played some fantastic guitar hero like solo’s on the album. Which is what we wanted to get the band to a higher level of musicianship.
– Artwork was done by Kevin Storm. What could you tell us about it? As the cover really caught my attention…
Wel Kevin made the first outlines for our ideas. Because we are good friends he helped us out that way. After a couple of months we decided that the stuff Kevin made was not the way we wanted to go. So we gave Eliran Kantor, the guy who also made our Emission phase artwork, free range in making some great, eerie, dark artwork. And that worked out really well. I love his style and his sense of mistery. The cover can mean a dozen things and that’s what I like.
– Your previous «Emission Phase» was released in 2007; what have you been up to during this time?
Writing for Reprisal and playing a lot of shows in Holland and all over Europe. Because we can’t afford to buy ourselves into a big tour, we have to play weekends and drive a long way sometimes for one or two gigs. We are going to England in October for two gigs. We can’t go longer otherwise we won’t be back in time for work and othe obligations. And that’s the way it is playing in a melodic death metal band anno 2011. But we love it!
– Dutch scene is quite big and varied; what are your favourite bands?
I like Textures a lot, they are just a super talented band in everything they do. We recorded Emission Phase with their guitarist Jochem Jacobs and it was a very good experience. I also like God Dethroned, their latest album is so fucking heavy and fast, I think it’s really cool that a band can exist for about 20 years and make their fastest album to date.
– And finally, what are your near-future plans? Will you tour in support of the new CD?
Like I said you need a lot of money to tour these days, and we don’t have it. So our plans are to do as many weekend tours as we can. And we are curently writing for our 5th album.
– That’s all, thanks once more for your time. If you want to add any final words; is your time.
Thanks for taking some time for Detonation. The entire metal underground needs more people like you to keep the scene alive. To whoever reads this, I hope to see you at a Detonation show quickly. In the meantime check out “Reprisal” beacause I think it kicks ass! You can also check out a professional shot video on youtube of “Washing Away The Blood” A new album is coming soon!
Cheers
Mike Ferguson (Guitar Detonation)
www.facebook.com/detonation.metal
