Interview with Tormentor of Desaster

By RingMaster Review on March 4, 2012 • ( 0 )

For twenty four years German metalers Desaster have treated metal through shows and releases to thrash fuelled venomous aggression veined with black metal malevolence and spite. With a formidable intensity the band has brought forth sounds with a distinct old school heart and intent. With the recent release of new album The Arts of Destruction they showed they had not lost any of their might or potency but increased it. To find out more about the band, album and Desaster we had the chance to send questions the way of drummer Tormentor who kindly revealed all.

Hi and welcome to The RingMaster Review. Many thanks for sparing time to talk to us.

Desaster is entering its 24^th year as a band with your brand new album The Arts of Destruction. How do you keep going with the same if not greater intensity and quality as shown on the album over such a span of years?

Thank you for these flowers! Maybe it is the love for music and the love doing this. And of course we don’t life on Desaster, so we are free to do what we want. That really motivate if you can do it ONLY your way!

Let us talk about The Arts of Destruction first of all. It feels like an even more intense release than ever from you but comes with a more defined creative use of distinctly crafted melodies as one aspect, was this a conscious thing or just how your music emerged naturally?

This was not constructed or planed. We only write songs, and this time everything is a little more melodic. Do not know how to describe this happens naturally!

We thought the album showed Desaster were eager not so much to venture and break into new directions from your own sound but to explore your own boundaries more, would that be fair to say?

Yes, that sounds fair! Hahaha! Yes, of course, the main course is set, and this is the way it has meant to be. And we love it this way, but we growing older (and fatter!) and maybe this is a little more melodic.

Which aspects of the album are you most proud of and what do you feel is the biggest evolution of your sound since previous release 666 – Satan’s Soldiers Syndicate?

I like SSS a little bit more than the new one, but the sound on The Arts Of Destruction is very good. We took the decision that we won’t do the mix on our own, and gave it to the hands of a good friend. (Mr. Angel of IMPENDING DOOM) That was a good decision, ’cause now the sound is very organic but still powerful. I also like the different types of songs on the new one; it won’t bore you, even when you listen to it very often.

Did you enter the studio with a defined idea and sound or was it a more organic emergence by the album whilst within those walls?

Not really, but with the years you know how to work to get the sound you want. You learn from your mistakes and do it better. But the songs where all written, everything was fixed.

How does the song writing process work within the band?

All the riffs (building the basics of the songs) came from Infernal, like every time. But we build the song together at the rehearsal room and record demos from the shit. So I can listen to the demos and write the lyrics, and choose the titles which fits to the songs spirit. I hope it fits?!?!

There have been a few line-ups changes over the years but has the approach to writing songs remained reasonably much the same despite the different people involved?

In the early days the line up changes a little bit, but since we had done records only one drummer and the singer changed, and since 2001 there was NO change. Infernal is the Riffmaster, and the last remaining member. This is not a surprise that Desaster sounds like Desaster throughout the years.

The power and intense might you produce with your music is formidable to say the least, how easy is it to keep that in check enough to avoid the melodic skill and ideas of the band from being smothered?

Puh, we do not think about these things, we only write songs and record them if we like them. Easy, very easy!

How have you as musicians and as a band changed in regard to recording music compared to previous albums such as Angelwhore or further back Hellfire’s Dominion?

I do not think that we are musicians at all. But of course you get better on your instrument throughout the years. We love to play live, and that brings you together, to have a tighter sound.

Over the expanse of the bands life you have picked up a constant flow of new fans whilst holding on to those who were there at the start. Do they look for the same thing in the band would you say though they caught onto your music at a different stage and sound in its evolution and if not is this something that you think about when composing songs?

We do not care and think about that. We want to write the songs we like, and do not look at everything around. But we stay truth to our roots, so most of the old fans respected that, even when we sound is a little different from album to album. But hey, we do not betray anything Desaster stands for since the beginning, even when some people say we move a little from BLACK to DEATH. The new one is more black, and it would be boring if every album sounds the same.

Excluding the impressive The Arts of Destruction, which moments have been the profound highlights for the band to date either recording wise or in another aspect of Desaster?

Mainly every concert is a highlight, we do not play many tours, mostly gigs at the weekend, so for me this is a kind of ritual, bringing the beast on stage. I won’t play a tour with 20 gigs in 21 days. It has to stay something special, so I can say, every concert is a little highlight. But I known want you mean, and the tours through South America I remember very often.

Are you touring or dropping some shows upon the world in support of the new album?

Of course, we will have three gigs in Columbia in April, and we will do one show every month at the coming weekends of 2012. That is enough promotion, and beware it had to stay a ritual hahahaha…

Do you still get the same buzz from all that goes into live shows or has it changed into a different emotion until hitting the stage after so many years?

No, for me nearly every gig is fantastic. I love the conversation between the band and the audience. We want to entertain and feel that the people like it and get wild. If we reach this everything is fine.

What were your initial influences and over such a long time what others have come in to drive you further in recent years?

(OLD for all bands I will mention )SLAYER, VENOM, KREATOR, SODOM….
But I also listen to different types of music, but if it comes to metal I like at more extreme. Maybe this is a question for you. Which influences do YOU hear? Hahahaha

Any plans yet on how to celebrate the bands 25^th year?