Version Française ici: http://www.artnroll.net/home/interview-stephan-thanatos/
1/ ANR: Hello, we are Art‘N Roll webzine from Paris France. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to interview you and for taking the time to answer. First of all, congrats with the new album. Speaking of that, how did the recording process take place and are there any memorable anecdotes to mention?
Stephan: Thank you. We started writing material for the new album in the Summer of 2013. We finished writing early 2014 and quite soon after that we already recorded the drums in the Spacelab studios in Germany…but things almost went wrong before we even left for the studio; Our bass player Marco rented a van to drive our stuff to Germany but he almost literally blew up the van when he departed from the rental company! And since Thanatos has always been haunted by bad luck not surprisingly our drummer Yuri cut his foot on an electric saw just 2 weeks before the recordings, so he was in lot of pain during the recordings. But in the end he managed to pull it off. The recordings of guitars and bass (at our guitarist Paul’s home studio) and the vocals (at a local studio in Rotterdam) all went very smoothly in the next few months. In July we send all recordings to Dan Swanö in Germany and he mixed and mastered the album. Dan was also present during the drum recordings this time to check the settings and the positions of the microphones
2/ ANR: Being one of the oldest death / thrash bands from The Netherlands, can you introduce Thanatos to our French readers that don’t know the band and its evolution throughout the decades?
Stephan: Well, I formed the band in 1984 which makes us the first thrash/death/whatever band from Holland I guess. Being in a band in those times was pretty exciting because thrash and especially death metal were still in their embryonic status in those years. We were in touch with all the early bands back then like Possessed, Death, Incubus, Wehrmacht, Carcass, Master etc. We traded demo tapes with each other and we were all trying to play as fast and heavy as we could, without copying each other’s style. We were all young inexperienced kids back then but step by step we learned to play our instruments and write better songs, It was exciting to see the early scene that we were part of develop and grow stronger and bring forth bands that really changed the face of metal. With Thanatos we released 4 demo tapes before we got signed to Shark records and released two albums in the early nineties. The band split up in 1992 but I reformed Thanatos in 1999 with members from Sinister and Houwitser. After the release of our 3rd album ‘Angelic Encounters’ Yuri and Marco joined the band and our present line up was completed in 2001; the albums that followed were all recorded with that same line up, including our new piece of work ‘Global Purification’
3/ ANR: I assume that Stephan and Paul, as both guitarists, compose most of the music. But playing also in bands like Hail Of Bullets or Asphyx, how do they separate or choose the riffings for the different bands?
Stephan: I write most of the music in Thanatos and Paul also wrote a few songs for this album. Even Marco and Yuri both came up with complete songs this time. Paul basically writes all the music in Asphyx. In Hail of Bullets most songs are written by our drummer Ed Warby and some by me and Paul. For me and Paul it’s no problem to separate riffs for Thanatos from the other bands; the stuff we play with Thanatos is much faster, a bit more technical, more insane and more thrash-orientated than the riffs we write for Hail of Bullets or Asphyx which is more doom/death anyway. For this new Thanatos record we were inspired by albums like Darkness Descends (Dark Angel) and Seven Churches (Possessed); we wanted to write a fast, intense album with not too many slow or doomy parts and full of hate and aggression. And I think we pretty much succeeded 😉
4/ ANR: When listening the album, I noticed Yuri’s outstanding drumwork. As I knew he was also playing in Melechesh ; how did his return happen ?
Stephan: Yes, he’s a great drummer and a very important part of our sound. When Yuri first joined Melechesh he was also still in Thanatos. At a certain moment both bands’ schedules started interfering. The fact that Melechesh was a more active touring band than Thanatos at that moment, plus the fact that Hail of Bullets was starting to get really big and absorbed a lot of time for Paul and me, made Yuri decide to choose for Melechesh. When we started thinking of a new album a few years ago, Yuri told me he wanted to be part of Thanatos again. I don’t know exactly what happened, but last year he decided to leave Melechesh and fully concentrate on Thanatos again. Of course we’re happy to have him back in the band. Our bass player Marco also toured as a session musician with Melechesh by the way.
5/ ANR: One can interpret the album title in several ways. Is there a textual concept behind it or can you give us a deeper look into the lyrics ?
Stephan: The lyrics for this album are pretty much inspired by all the shit and misery that’s going on in the world right now; fanatical religious groups killing off other people, corrupt politicians trying to indoctrinate the people, medical care for old people is being cut down and proper education will become something for the higher classes only again. In the title track we more or less blame everybody for the demise of our world; the radical muslims in the middle east, but also the western governments who create conflicts worldwide and then step in to “solve” them and ‘bring peace’ by dropping bombs everywhere. Hunger and poverty are often fuel for hatred and people who have nothing to lose, are easily tricked into fighting for a religion or ethnic reasons… and in our western society we are more interested in our new smart phones and our facebook status! So basically the message is; this world is lost and humanity is the cause for our demise. So kill everybody, summon the antichrist and the forces of darkness to cleanse the earth and get it over with, haha. No happy message here I’m afraid
6/ ANR: Is this for you the best Thanatos album ever ? Which ones are your favorite tracks and why ?
Stephan: I’ve always thought that our 2nd album ‘Realm Of Ecstasy’ was our best one, but this time I finally think we surpassed that album and that ‘Global Purification’ actually is our best album ever! My current favorites are the title track, ‘Infestation of the Soul’, ‘Feeding the War Machine’ and ‘The Murder Of Innocence’ which features a truly awesome guitar solo from Paul. But I like all tracks very much and I’m also really happy with the new recording of ‘Dawn of the Dead’, which was first featured on our debut album and now is the bonus track on the Digipak version
7/ ANR: For the very first time, Thanatos is now on a major label : Century Media. How does that co-operation work ? And are you happy with them ?
Stephan: You know, we have been on many small ‘underground’ labels before. A lot of people might think that underground labels are more ‘true’ and ‘honest’ than so-called ‘major labels’ but I can tell you that our experiences with a bigger labelshave been much better so far. These ‘major’ labels are not run by guys in three-piece suits but by people who are really into metal. They just do things more professionally than a lot of the underground labels. And it’s nice to work with people who keep their promises for a change and to see your albums actually be available to fans around the globe. Being on a good label definitely inspired us to come with some strong material for this album
8/ ANR: Are you going to promote the new album with live performances and can we expect to see the band on stage in France ?
Stephan: Definitely; we already have a few shows planned in Holland and Germany right after the album release and we definitely want to come to France next year, so French bookers, get in touch! Of course we would love to play Hellfest but we’d also like to play club shows and smaller festivals in France. We always love playing in France and I have some good memories of your country because three of my ex-girlfriends come from France, haha!
9/
ANR: Thank you very much, all the best of luck with the great new album, and feel free to add anything you like !!!
Stephan: Thank you for showing interest. We hope all French death and thrash metal maniacs will like our new album and we hope to see you at some of our upcoming shows, cause there’s still some time to party before we shall destroy our planet! Salut! 😉
