:: INTERVIEW TO ATROCITY
PLEASE,
PRESENT YOURSELVES OUR READERS...
We are ATROCITY from Germany - we dedicate our lives to our band and good
Metal music nearly 20 years now! Mathias is playing guitar and he is like
me a former member of Atrocity. Thorsten Bauer plays guitar and Chris Lukhaup
is the bassist. Our new drummer is Moritz Neuner and he played in bands
like Graveworm, Darkwell or Abigor. I'm Alex Krull and I'm the singer of
the band.
WHO DECIDED TO FOUND THE BAND?
Mathias and me are still from the original line up and we also formed the
band with some friends that time.
THE
MAIN FACTS IN YOUR HISTORY...
The band was formed in 1985. In 1989 we signed with Nuclear Blast and released
our first single BLUE BLOOD. Our first album HALLUCINATIONS was produced
1990 by Scott Burns in Morrisound Tampa/Florida. In USA Roadrunner released
HALLUCINATIONS. We toured with a.o. CARCASS and SODOM. After we were signed
worldwide to Roadrunner the second album TODESSEHNSUCHT was released in
1992. A tour with DEICIDE followed. In 1994 we get signed to Massacre Records
and we released BLUT (1994), CALLING THE RAIN feat. Yasmin (1995), DIE LIEBE
feat. Das Ich (1995), WILLENSKRAFT (1996), WERK 80 (1997) and NONPLUSULTRA
(1999). We played many big festivals like Dynamo, Wacken, With Full Force,
Mera Luna, Wave Gotik Treffen and did headliner tours with bands like In
Flames, Crematory, Theatre of Tragedy, Das Ich, Haggard and so on. In 1997
we supported RAGE and Orchestra. In 1999 we got signed to Motor/Universal
and released "Gemini" in 2000 and a tour in 2001 with Peter Tägtgren's Pain
followed. In 2003 we got signed to Napalm Rec. and released 2004 ATLANTIS.
We did also a couple projects with other bands like Lacrimosa, Silke Bischoff.
With Liv Kristine (ex Theatre of Tragedy) we formed the band LEAVES' EYES
and released LOVELORN in 2004
WHAT'S ABOUT YOUR PREVIOUS RECODING PRODUCTION?
I think GEMINI was a more rhythm than riff orientated album. The songs have
groove and we used electronic sounds and hard beats. I still like it. For
TASTE OF SIN we made a cool videoclip with some hot chicks!
I GUESS YOU MUST REALLY SATISFIED WITH THIS DEAL OF NAPALM RECORDS...
Yes, with our last record "Gemini" we have been signed to the major label
Motor/Universal .They do bands like Limp Bizkit, Rammstein or Marilyn Manson
in Germany. We were getting a bunch of money and we have entered the German
charts again but the pitty was actually that there was nearly no good distribution
of our last record GEMINI outside Germany, Austria, Switzerland. Except
Mexico, where we played with IN EXTREMO, there was only a very poor distribution
situation for us. We have been aware of that "major problem" before and
signed a contract which helps us to get out of this situation. After everything
was cleared we wanted to have a new partner which can handle us worldwide
again of course! So we are happy to be on Napalm Records now who are releasing
the record everywhere! The people there work very professional and we are
top priority with Atrocity and Leaves' Eyes!
A QUICK INTRODUCTION TO 'ATLANTIS'?
Atlantis is a great story, the biggest myth on earth, the myth of myths!
It has many elements which are fascinating at the same time: Cradle of mankind,
Mythology of the gods, mystical, occult and dark subjects, the old wisdom,
many legends on earth are connected with Atlantis and the doom of the Atlantean
empire itself! I was getting in touch with some strange things regarding
Atlantis when I was together with my youth girlfriend. Her stepmother said
she was origin Atlantean and she was reincarnated. Of course I was really
confused but since then I was interested in the Atlantis topic. More or
less I was getting new information about Atlantis through the years, reading
some stuff and the idea to do something with Atlantis is quite an old idea,
I just wanted to wait until the time was ready for it! When I suggested
to the others to do a concept album for Atlantis this time, everybody was
enthusiastic about the idea! There are many other aspects for the Atlantis
topic, too which can be also very interesting nowadays in that times we
are living! Just look around, all that radical ideas coming up from religion
and politics. Atlantis could be warning sign like Plato maybe wanted to
show to the ancient Athens or it could be even a danger for certain parts
of religion. What if the paradise was meant not to be in heaven and it was
just on earth and called "Atlantis" like many people suggested already?
It could be just a longing from people who lost their paradise on earth
and you really find the idea of getting back to the paradise and your ancestors
after death in nearly every religion. Some of the "holy" and "sacred" things
can sometimes just simply explained! The big flood which took away Atlantis
could be the same like described in the bible, the one the Aztecs talk about
and many other cultures in the whole world. By the way the Azteks called
their lost paradise "Aztlan" and some African tribes talk about "Atlantioi",
the sunken island. The album itself starts with the legends around Atlantis
and the description of the lost empire followed by the Greek mythology of
gods which is an important part of the story of Atlantis, too. We show the
whole story of the Atlantean Empire, the rise and the fall and finally the
doom. With different point of views and atmospheric elements the music takes
you into the antediluvian world. In "Clash of the Titans" for example we
show the biggest ancient battle and the last stand of Atlantis when the
great empire lost the war against the old Hellens. In songs like "The Sunken
Paradise" or Aeon" you find the sorrow and the escape from the destroyed
continent.On the CD is a multimedia part with the lyrics (so check it out
it's on the promo CD, too!) and with tons of background information about
each of the songs it's really a killer! Also the Cold Black Days video is
on the CD as well as our own Atlantis font (for PC and MAC)!
WHY SUCH TITLE?
From the start I wanted to do concept album like we did with BLUT, the vampyric
al bum, in 1994. In the beginning of the writing process it was like starting
a journey to a big adventure. Like with BLUT we had some great adventures,
ha, ha...doing the video in Transilvania and so on. And again I spend a
lot of work in preparing the lyrics and the concept. I was really diving
into the whole thing like listeners of the album can do with our album now!
I was reading books and when I've been with Liv on our honeymoon last year
in Ireland I was writing lyrics at the stormy Atlantic coast between standing
tombstones of the megalith culture which is very often named in connection
with Atlantis itself.
YOUR ALBUM HAS A STRONG GOTHIC/INDUS METAL BACKGROUND...
In other words I think it has a great combination of dark emotions and bombastic
music & power!
WHAT'S ABOUT ITS MOOD?
The whole Atlantis topic we wanted to put in a mystical vein with a dark
atmosphere which fits perfect the concept and our musical ideas! Around
Atlantis there are so many legends and rumours which reach from pure science
to occult things. In every period of time there have been people thinking
about Atlantis, that's really interesting! We wanted to keep all emotion
and atmospheric parts of the whole story we thought are necessary to create
a great epic album and giving the listener a musical picture of the mystical
sunken continent. So it has wild and furious parts, the big ancient battles,
the mythology of the gods which is more hymnic in the music, the glorious
times, the mighty empire and of course the doom of Atlantis and the apocalypse
of the whole world and the escaping of the survivors to all parts of the
world. This all could happen here on earth and not just in a fantasy world.
So I had to write down a concept before, so we could bring all in the right
direction!
THE SOUND IS VERY POWERFUL...
Thank you very much! We produced it in our own Mastersound Studio, where
I produce many other bands, too like Elis or Belphegor. We wanted to make
a powerful and crushing production, more raw and not too clean because fits
great to the ancient times of Atlantis!
MORE INFOS ABOUT YOUR SOUND?
The classical arrangements and the orchestral instruments are a little bit
in the vein like in the old monumental movies with this certain touch and
flair! We also used atmospheric sounds in additional to the extra heavy
guitars to bring much dynamic into the whole sound.
WHAT'S ABOUT YOUR WAY TO WRITE?
For this album I gave the others an exactly plan of the song ideas and the
concept story. All titles were ready before. It's inspiring for everybody
to get a script of such a great story. It's like a soundtrack of a movie
in our mind and we are the directors ourselves! The music we write altogether,
but Mathias is the guy orchestral classical ideas, Tosso for the melodic
- melancholic touch and Chris is the guy for melodies like in Cold Black
Days.
WHAT'S THE ROLE OF LYRICS?
For Atlantis the lyrics and the whole concept was very important to create
the album like we did it.
I FEEL AN ANGRY ATTITUDE IN YOUR SOUND...
Some musical parts are very brutal but ATROCITY cannot be described in just
one special category. We did a lot of different things in the past and we
also liked to do musical experiments. We like to combine several musical
elements and styles. ATROCITY is a band which has been always looking for
new and extreme horizons in Metal music and even dared to do things other
Metal bands wouldn't dare. The music of the band is not something we just
like to do, it is our life and lifestyle, our air we breathe, our deepest
passion and expression. I spent more than the half of my life for this band!
You could describe ATROCITY as a band which creates extreme, atmospheric,
bombastic, melodic and hymnic songs at the same time. We are five creative
characters in the band the big atrocious family. For us there are nearly
no limits which pushes our creativity even more.
INTERESTED IN SPREADING MESSAGES THRU YOUR MUSIC?
If you look at the faith of Atlantis when this empire fall down like any
other empire built up by force in the history of mankind, you will find
many similarities nowadays, too...
WHAT'S ABOUT YOUR FUTURE PLANS?
We just came home from our ATLANTIS LOVELORN tour and it was great so far,
we played allover Europe. Now we make a little break and we will continue
in March in South, Central and North America. Around April / May we will
play in Eastern Europe and Russia. Regarding our 20th anniversary end of
2005 we will do a second part of the WERK 80 album and a DVD is planned,
too, for this year!
WHAT'S ABOUT YOUR EVERYDAY LIFE?
Beside the bands ATROCITY and LEAVES' EYES I work as producer at our Mastersound
Studios, I'm band manager and I also work as talent scout for Roadrunner
Records.
ANY LAST REMARKS?
Thanks to all the fans who support us and the gigs in Rome and Milano were
great! We come back!
For more infos:
http://www.napalmrecords.com/
http://www.atrocity.de/
EMANUELE GENTILE
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