interview: black metal band Creature (Germany)

interview: black metal band Creature (Germany)

Creature (Germany)

From the start of the album “Helioskron’”, it’s evident that black metal band Creature put a lot of effort into having a professional-sounding recording and quality songwriting. Creature presents an album worthwhile to the genre supporters that have high standards. As you will read, Creature is an experienced group that began in the 90s and has four albums.

The drummer Gregor Lasczok answers the questions. --

What do you think about how Creature should sound?

We have no certain thinking about how we should sound in 2013. Our music evolves unconsciously while rehearsing together, while listening to music or due to personal experiences. Over all the years we play now as one united black metal band, we learned to play together, to complement one another. Every member has his strengths and weaknesses, and despite that we're no professional musicians, we achieved a professional sound. Concerning the production we work with a very competent producer with whom we work perfectly. The recording sessions are always fun and pleasant. That's the most important thing. We think that our music needs a professional production to support the atmosphere and all the little details which result in homogeneous sound impression.

"Helioskron’" is ambitious, and the melody shines through the fast, intense black metal. How much of this is on purpose?

Yes, Helioskron' has melodies as every Creature album has and this time they may be more catchy than on [previous album] Feindtbild [2008]. There have never been discussions about the musical directions as we already said: the music evolves as long as the band consists in the current line-up. The production evolves in the same way our music does. In order to record Helioskron' we entered the Studio E for the second time and we think we will stay with it. Our producer Markus Stock knows our sound by now. After we recorded the first two cds "Der Ursprung" und "Kreuzlaub" in hobby recording studio and achieved an acceptable production we were blown away by the sound of Feindtbild. But after a while we recognized, that the sound, especially the drum sound was a bit too artificial. So Markus created a rather natural sound for Helioskron' which fits much better in our music.

"Feindtbild" is from 2008, so it was a while between albums. Why did it take longer than the other albums?

We played a lot of gigs after Feindtbild. We were on a tour through Germany supporting Taake. And when we began the songwriting for Helioskron' we lost the inspiration, but after a while when the first two songs were finished it worked much better and we decided to put more time in musical details. We recorded, mixed and produced Helioskron' in 10 days in November 2012. The reason for the late release in November 2013 was that we searched a new record label which took us a few months. Marco [guitars] started the band in 1997. But it went more serious when Gregor (drums) and Sebastian (guitar) joined the band. We are a live band and we already played many gigs in Germany, Switzerland, Hungary and Belgium. As already mentioned, we supported Taake on their tour through Germany. We'd like to play more tours, but we haven't been offered any interesting tours yet. A tour through several European countries would be nice or maybe through North America? We'll see. We all have to go for work so it's not easy for us to get a few days off in the same time. If you are interested in booking Creature, just contact In Fiction Entertainment www.in-fiction.eu.

Does the metal press in Germany take black metal seriously? Why does it seem that Motorhead or Saxon headline a lot of the festivals?

We think the German press takes black metal seriously the problem is, that there are only few good bands in Germany which are worth to be mentioned. Nowadays there are so many bands, because every blockhead believes he can make music only because he can hold a guitar and use recording software including a drum computer. So it's difficult to find a good band among this huge wave of garbage.

It is possible for black metal bands to play Wacken, but then you have to play on little tent stages. But that all doesn't matter because Black Metal is still and should stay underground in Germany. Our goal is not to sell ourselves to the music industry only to play huge festivals in front of thousands of idiots. There are a lot of small festivals in Germany for people who truly listen to Black Metal. We don't care if Motörhead or Saxon or someone else headline mega events. This is not our world and they can stay in their own.

Creature used to have more irreligious lyrics. Now, it seems that mythology is more present, such as in "Helioskron’". Is this true? For instance, the song "Nordblut" from the album "Der Ursprung" could be interpreted in a nationalist way. Do you think of Creature as a political band in the lyrics?

Helioskron' is the first album dealing with Greek mythology. "Feindtbild" expressed our hatred on religion and mankind. And all our cds before "Feindtbild" dealt with Nordic/German mythology. So we wouldn't say that mythology is NOW more present, it always was. The lyrics of "Helioskron'" deal with the success of egoistic behaviour in the background of Greek mythology, especially the myth of Ikaros who tried and achieved to fly like a bird. We took the myth to express OUR way of behaving. Concerning your nationalistic interpretation of "Nordblut": We are not political! Nothing more to say!

Do you feel proud of the album?

You're right, we are really proud of the album and think that it is the best piece of music we've ever created. But we also think that we can do even better and WILL do so.

Do the metal press and concert promoters in Germany have a certain prejudice against black metal bands?

We don't think that we have the same issue as you have in the U.S. We have many online and print zines dealing with all kinds of metal, even bigger zines such as Rock Hard and Metal Hammer have a special Black Metal section. But when you got in touch with the nsbm scene even when you only played with a political incorrect band it may happen that you'll be boycotted by the common press. And concerts may be threatened by the antifa, an antifascist group which has a lot of power in Germany. Our first record label was known for selling fascist bands and although we always stated that we are no racists or nationalists or fascists or whatever, we had problems in the past with the antifa so that some gigs had to be cancelled. But finally people and press believe us and we haven't had any problems for a while now.

What are your plans for 2014?

We will play several festivals in Germany in 2014 and hope to get the opportunity for touring. Further we will start writing on new songs. If you are interested in Creature just watch out. www.creature666.de --

Postscript:

When this zine specifically has asked Creature if they play with fascist bands, guitarist Marco Praher categorically denies it. That audience is not their objective, says Marco, who also explains that they claim to be a band not associated with fascism.

Clearly, Creature has had an image problem because of record labels. Marco, in his own words, says that Creature has never been “a nazi band,” despite the image problems and questionable associations (as mentioned in the interview).

Anyone who reads this zine knows that it supports equal rights, and is clearly against racism, sexism, ignorance and intolerance.

Readers who go to metal shows in Germany, in the Schorndorf and Baden-Württemberg region, where Creature is based, will know better than this zine about the situation on the ground there. THE END