What about this tour with
Morbid Angel? How is it going?
It just started, we had some
problems getting in the bus yesterday, but so far it’s OK.
Do you like to play in this
kind of festivals with a lot of bands together?
Yeah, it’s OK to play with a
lot of bands, but I think it’s better for the audience to have a few bands
less. But still, it’s OK, and a lot of people come to this, and it’s good.
Do you think it’s a good
opportunity for a young band to be on a tour like that?
Yeah, I think so. Why not?
Last time you were on the No
Mercy Festival, and now you are on the X Mass Festival…
Yes, this is good, we can play
for a big audience every night, and it’s cool.
Does it bring you positive
aspects, both musically and humanly?
Musically, we just try to play
our best and reach a lot of people, like every band is doing on this tour. And
humanly, we just have a lot of fun.
And what are your next
projects? What are you going to do after this tour?
We are going to do a tour in
the US in February, for four or five weeks, and after that, we’ll be writing
songs for the next album. We want to record the new album next year, and maybe
even release it next year.
With whom will be the American
tour?
Cannibal Corpse, Hate Eternal,
and another band, but I can’t remember the name.
How do feel about this
forthcoming tour with Cannibal Corpse?
That’s really great, we have
toured last year with them on the No Mercy Festival, and they’re really cool,
we got along very well, so we are looking forward to make a tour with them.
Concerning your music, at the
beginning you were more a death metal band, and now you are into heavy/black
metal. How will you evolve in the future?
I think we’ll just write the
songs like we always do, we just try to write songs that we like. Concerning evolution,
we’ll see. Maybe. Maybe not. The reaction of the people will show (laughs).
‘Bloody Blasphemy’ was
released in April, what were the reactions in the press and for the fans?
As far as I know, we didn’t
get any bad reaction on it, so that’s really great. All the reviews we got, in
every magazine, were good, so…And the reactions from the people on our last
tour with Immortal were really good. In every country we played, we noticed
that people were beginning to know us. With the first album, it’s a bit
difficult, people start to know you, with the second album, we noticed that a
lot of people seemed to know us.
Concerning your first album,
you reprinted 666 copies of it a few years ago. But now, it’s pretty easy to
find it everywhere. Did you reprint it again?
Yeah, Henry started his own
record label, and released the album with the original cover, the slaughtered
rat, on it. And if you wanna know details about that, you’d better ask Henry,
because it’s not a Metal Blade release. He’s doing it himself, so if you wanna
know everything about it, you’d better ask him.
And now that you are with a
big label like Metal Blade, how do you feel? Are you happy with them, the way
they promote you?
Yes, we don’t complain. We get
a lot of questions, people think that bands like us are not treated well by
bigger labels, but for us it’s not true. They do a lot of promotion for us, and
we are satisfied with them.
You recorded ‘Bloody
Blasphemy’ close to your home. Are you still in touch with local Dutch bands?
Yeah, we are, we meet each
other when we do shows in Holland. I have a lot of good friends in other bands,
and that’s it.
What do you think of Liar Of
Golgotha and Cirith Gorgor?
We played with Liar Of
Golgotha a few times, and the guys are really cool. I think the music is really
good too. And concerning Cirith Gorgor, we didn’t play with them, so I don’t
even know the guys. Our drummer lives near to the guys, and I think he knows
them.
And what about The Gathering?
I liked the old stuff, but I
don’t like the new stuff. I don’t follow things they are doing now, I’m not
interested in what they do now.
Your songs are very dark, who
writes the lyrics?
Most of them are written by
Henry.
And where does he take his
inspiration?
(laughs) Maybe he has a little
bit of a sick mind, or something. When you’re sitting, drinking in a bar, or
something, then you can have good ideas for new lyrics. We have a lot of
Dutch history in our lyrics. No other band had done that before, and we thought
it was a good idea to do things like that.
But why so dark songs?
Well, we are a band called God
Dethroned, so we have to write something like that.
And what does interest you in
witches, inquisition…?
I think everybody is
interested in what happened in the past. I think some things still happen
now…We hate religion, like a lot people, like most of the metal people do, and
for us it’s funny to keep on like that.
And by that, you mean that you
are not a satanic band, involved in black masses and stuff?
What should I say about that? There
are a lot of people who say they are satanic, but if you really believe in
Satan, then you believe in God. So, I’m not satanic, and I never will be.
Well, and one last question. Do
you believe in Armageddon, in the destruction of the world?
(laughs) We wrote lyrics from
Nostradamus, and we all found out that his predictions didn’t come out. I don’t
think things will happen when we get in year 2000, life will go on. Anyway,
just a few weeks and we’ll know! (laughs)
One last word?
Well, this is the most
difficult question. What should I say? I hope that every reader will come and
see us play live, because I think that our shows are more aggressive and
powerful than the album. I hope to see them all on the road.