FRANK: And the other bands that opened for you ?
BRUNO: I listen to Infectious Outbreak and a little bit to PITT's music. It's not real Death
Metal, the second band I mean, but it's quite good. I think that not many people in Europe or
everywhere else expect to hear down here in South Africa......it's a lot of good bands. I
think that the South African scene will grow up a bit. As the bands like Groinchurn and maybe
some more change in the world.
FRANK: Would you say that Death Metal is making a come back ?
BRUNO: Maybe a little bit. I personally see it, like a few years ago their was a boom of
Black Metal and now it's more quite in the Black Metal. In my opinion the Death Metal scene
was cleaned up of all the bands that played trendy Death Metal and the posers you know. So I
mean the real Death Metal bands remained and this real Death Metal bands creates a scene and
this scene comes to me more true and I see like it's little grow's up again.
FRANK: Going back to what is happening especially in the United Kingdom and the Scandinavian
countries with some bands with that whole Black Metal scene like Dimmu Borgir as well as Cradle of Filth.
BRUNO: Yeh I wouldn't call this style as Black Metal. In my own opinion, it's more like Heavy
Metal with keyboards and it's quite soft music, it's...... I'm not much into this kind of
music, because it's to commercial for me. Anyway I have nothing against these bands. It's
maybe the priority of their music.
FRANK: Do you think they are posers? That it's all an act, the blood ?
BRUNO: Yeh maybe a little bit. You know if I listen to Black Metal I prefer bands like
Impaler or Immortal. Just the two bands that brings brutality, and evil, and darkness you
know. And more from the side of the bands you mentioned Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth,
it's more like.........Hollywood. (Laugh)
FRANK: Especially Cradle of Filth.
BRUNO: Yeh, but anyway music it's cool.
FRANK: Okay we are going to take a listen to track no.2 of the Mortal Memories EP. You got
the track list there? I'm...uh...still not familiar with the album. It's called "Bestial
War". Christopher maybe you can tell us a little bit more about the song.
CHRISTOPHER: This song is against the war and it's from our 1988 demo.
FRANK: Going back to your gig at the Doors nightclub. 45 mins the set, very compacted, very
polished. I must say ho... it truly blew my head away, it was unbelievable. I saw that you
both team up with vocals. Do you think it makes the band fuller and gives it more punch?
BRUNO: Yeh maybe it's the reason.
FRANK: Bruno one of the things I have noticed and seems to be your pet hate Jesus Christ and
Communism. Can you elaborate on that ?
BRUNO: It's not only religions and communism, it's more things. Like behaviour to animals,
neo-Nazi's, you know it's the things that really makes me sick here and there. I feel that I
should do something against this and I know that to write lyrics about this thing is 2 ways,
but it's better then nothing you know, and just things. No one can like you so I would like
to express this. It's my feeling to all the people just to keep them informed about it and to
irritate them to make their own opinion, or our statement to this problem.
FRANK: What would you say actually influences you? Is it your day to day living, things you see?
CHRISTOPHER: We are inspired by the things around us, you know. Well maybe you can find a lot
of bad things around us and it's good inspiration to put into the songs. I feel songs of
lyrics we had made of the mind, maybe some people can have the same problems in the mind that
we have and we can sing about it.
FRANK: Bruno will you be writing a song on South Africa? Something in particular that have touched you?
BRUNO: I didn't see nothing bad to write about. So I don't think so. I would like to say
that South Africa is really cool land as any other land. All I can say is that we enjoy to be
here and that we enjoy the show so far and we enjoy the people because the people are really
cool and we enjoy our friends Groinchurn, because when we met them the first time in Europe
we became just really good friends and it's for us important things.
FRANK: Which of the Death Metal bands in the Czech Republic or in Europe as such started of
the same time as Krabathor that are still playing music?
BRUNO: The bands that started with us in the same kind of music mostly doesn't exist anymore.
CHRISTOPHER: It's a lot of work I think it's not only to make the good music, good stuff, needs
to do a lot of work around to make the interviews and go to all the shows and something like
that. Few times it's expensive to go somewhere, you have to pay it and reason in it.
FRANK: Bruno are you guys making money?
BRUNO: Not too much really, at this statement we can bring money in from the music, but it's
not enough to survive so we have normal jobs. We have to work.
Me (Lunatic) with Bruno after the Vanderbijlpark gig
FRANK: Christopher would you ever sacrifice your music, what you believe in what you like,
Death Metal, maybe go play some covers in some pub to make extra money?
CHRISTOPHER: No I believe only in the music. This is my life only the music. I like to be in
the band. Go on tour, find new lands, new people and new friends. This is life, real life.
It's better than staying at home watch the TV read the news paper ha ha......
FRANK: There are many kids, youngsters listening to the show although they do not call, because
I know that thirteen, twelve year old kids listening at home. Anything you like to say to
them. They into Metal, they wanna play Metal and that. Is there a hard road ahead? What
would you say to them this evening?
BRUNO: It's a long way to prove anything. The first, the prime moment in my opinion is to
believe your goals, to find some goals and believe them, to try to reach them and nothing else
matters. I would say.
FRANK: Okay let play another song, taken from the album, or more the EP Mortal Memories.
Track no.3 it's called "Apocrypha".
BRUNO: Yeh it's also the video..
FRANK: I actually had a change to check out the CD-Rom. Quite liked it on my computer the
night I came back from the Doors. Can you fill us in on "Apocrypha"?
BRUNO: Yeh of course.
FRANK: What is the song about?
BRUNO: This song is a bit of anti religious lyrics. As what Christopher said earlier, this
song comes from our old demo. The lyrics maybe doesn't fit to the music as we would do it
now. Anyway in my opinion it's a little bit of anti-religious lyrics.
FRANK: Bruno we where talking of the mic before we went on air. The whole merchandise aspect
of Metal bands. Do you feel that it's very important?
BRUNO: Yeh, our whole merchandise at this moment it's quite enough things but we couldn't
bring anything to South Africa, because we got a lot of bags for flyer, so we just brought 2
or 3 kinds of T-shirts, CD's "Mortal Memories" and "Lies", stickers, posters and so on. If
people are interested in our merchandise they can order it from Morbid Records (Germany). We
have long sleeves, T-Shirts, CD's, EP's, 7 inch's, stickers, posters and caps.
FRANK: Okay when it come down promoting the whole Metal scene in the Czech Republic and
Europe. Is there like fanzines that cover the bands, underground radio stations. How did
the fans hear about the Metal bands?
BRUNO: Not to many radio stations, I would say about really a lot of magazines and a lot of
bands. I would say the world Metal scene is still strong, there is a lot of people involved
in the underground.
FRANK: Many of the people, are they sincere or are they just like jumping on the band wagon,
just people that want to be in with the band groupies?
BRUNO: You mean like a lot of posers?
FRANK: Posers or what ever or are they ready to help the bands and put the money were their mouth is? So to speak.
BRUNO: Yeh there are also people like that. Unfortunately we had to fight they slam their ass
behind your back, after we have helped them in the past. I think this bad relationships does
not help the scene, that is way we stopped to worry about it. This doesn't help our band, we
only care about Krabathor and we spend all our power all our activities for Krabathor, maybe
it's the best way to spend it.
FRANK: And do they rip-off the bands? Like steal money from them?
CHRISTOPHER: There is a lot like this. In every country you find the good people but
everywhere you can find the paradox.
BRUNO: I wouldn't say that bands who steal the money it's hard work, not to honest bands, like
they promised a show for some band and they don't do that. Stuff like that.
FRANK: What about clubs and club promoters as such. Do you guys get paid your fee what you
supposed to or do you get ripped off?
BRUNO: It depends on the people it doesn't depend on the clubs. So but at this time we have
quite a good name an the scene so I think if we talk to a organizer it's mostly the good way
of speech. At this moment it's quite better, I would say.
FRANK: And the clubs do they have good facilities? Do you have to "schlep" around your PA or
do you just plug in you guitar?
BRUNO: We usually travel just with the guitars, amps, snare and cymbals and stuff.
FRANK: Christopher tell me before you go live on stage do you warm-up your vocal chords?
CHRISTOPHER: I've never had problems with the singing. It comes from the body.
FRANK: You are not like a opera singer that will like try "la la lala!!" to try and warm up
the voice. You don't down a few tequila's or a bottle of vodka?
CHRISTOPHER: No.
FRANK: Okay when you go and hit the mic your voice has never failed you? It's always there?
Your voice is always strong?
CHRISTOPHER: No, no....never.
FRANK: Bruno with the altitude, Johannesburg, Gauteng, being high up above the sea level and
that. Did you experience any problems, maybe in you nose, hey fever?
BRUNO: I personally don't expect any problems. For me from this moment everything is all
right.
FRANK: Okay looking forward or looking ahead rather. You soon will be embarking on a national
tour with Cannibal Corpse
BRUNO: It's a European tour. It's going to be over 30 dates from Scandinavia, England,
Scotland, Germany, France, Holland, Spain, Portugal. It's going to be the longest tour for
us so far. We are very looking forward to this and it's really good support for us. Being the
support band for Cannibal Corpse and they cause many people to come to the show. We can
spread our name for much more fans as before. We have played a couple of European tours, but
never for so long. We played for I think once for 2 weeks.
FRANK: Okay the album will be out "Orthodox" will be out in March. How many tracks will be on this album?
BRUNO: Nine tracks in total.
FRANK: What can we expect? Is it still Death Metal?
BRUNO: Still Death Metal, is no change, it's no females vocals, maybe a little bit of
keyboard as we used on the first album.
CHRISTOPHER: But like a background.
BRUNO: It's real pure Death Metal we like to play and I think that the people cannot be
afraid of any style change.
FRANK: The writing process for the album?
BRUNO: It was a really long time we've wrote it nearly close to 3 years. We started to write
new songs just after the releasing of the "Lies" album and it's almost 2 and a half years at
the moment. You know we use to play a lot. We play a lot of gig's and we play some tours.
It's quite hard to get everything in together to fit , you know, the rehearsals, your job,
and your live shows, tours and everything. So at this moment process of writing for this album
was a bit longer as it was before. But anyway I am personally satisfied with the new
recording and I hope that people will like it to.
FRANK: Was is recorded in the Czech Republic?
BRUNO: In Slovakia. The last 2 albums was recorded in Slovakia in a studio called "Exponent".
It's quite small, quite cheap and quite good.
FRANK: Did you have a big budget? Did Morbid Records afford you?
BRUNO: Yeh they supported us with the recording.
FRANK: How many copies will you be releasing?
BRUNO: Perhaps....we don't know. You have to ask Olaf from Morbid Records. Usual press is
3 000 copies. But uh.... we expect it to sell 15 000 maybe 20 000.
FRANK: Okay to promote the album? Obvious you going on tour with Cannibal Corpse. Any other.....
BRUNO: We prepared a video for the song of the new album called "Liquid" and as I told you we
are gonna play the tour and we are prepared to play a lot of single gigs in whole Europe and
maybe outside Europe. Who knows?
FRANK: As we go out this evening. Thanx for coming to the studio we really appreciate it.
BRUNO: Yeh, thank-you.
FRANK: Having you guys it's been a real pleasure. Christopher as well as Bruno, Skull didn't
talk the language. His busy with the groupies. I don't know what he is doing to them.
(Laugh's in the studio). I can just see him there.
BRUNO: Maybe there's gonna be change in the future to meet here again, speak here again.
FRANK: Defiantly. I really looking forward speaking to you guys.
BRUNO: We are interested to be here again.
FRANK: Maybe we can get you guys to stay here in South Africa. Who knows?
BRUNO: Yeh.....why not....hahahuhu!!
FRANK: Get you a nice Boere meisie. You haven't, you don't speak Afrikaans yet?
BRUNO: No, No
FRANK: Jy praat nie daai taal nie?
BRUNO: No, no way....
FRANK: Nog nie. (Laughter in studio)
BRUNO: We did not understand you at this moment.
FRANK: You must try to speak Afrikaans, maybe we can get you a nice Boere girl there in
Roodepoort or Florida. (Laugh's still going on). You know make lot's of children.
BRUNO: No it's no good.
FRANK: Work in the garage. Okay as we go out this evening the title track of the album that
will be released in March.
BRUNO: It's called ORTHODOX.
FRANK: Is it any religious connotations, is it about religion?
BRUNO: At this time I would say it's more about our attitude for a long time. We prefer to go
a honest way, honest to the people, honest to the fans. As in the music life, the same as in
the personal life. That is all I can say.
Back to Scripture 3
DARK AGES J.G. Mocke & Lunatic (After the Krabathor gig in Jo'burg - Mocke with a slight short term memory lapse & Lunatic with what would later be 17 stitches on his lip - All due to good Moshing)