Interview with DESASTER guitarist Lord Infernal!
Interview by Wilhelm

Once every few years (if that) a truly special band emerges from the
depressing and monotonous metal scene to leave their mark. One such band is
DESASTER, who have been existing now since 1988 and creating their own
unique music ever since. Combining traditional Black metal mixed with Heavy
/ Speed metal and ancient folk like melodies, the 4 maniacs of DESASTER have
garnered a cult following in the scene and a well deserving amount of
support among METAL fans. Classic black / thrash metal vocals, extremely
heavy / catchy metal riffs and an overwhelming epic / war like atmosphere
are all trademarks of this band, but devotion to making FUCKING METAL MUSIC
is DESASTER's specialty. I had the chance to talk with Markus (Lord
Infernal) about this and a variety of other issues and like always the
German madman had much to say!

Let's start with a band bio.... Eh, Nah, scrap that. BORING! Let's start
with how you crazy fuckers are doing these days!
Hail Emperor Wilhelm ! Everything's all right here at the Desaster
headquarters, the beers still tastes good and the Metal is hot !

Of course We are now listening to the latest DESASTER masterpiece "Tyrants
of the netherworld" released by IRON PEGASUS! I noticed that the production
was a bit like it was on the "Stormbringer" mcd. Darker and Rawer I think
then the previous two full lengths. Maybe you agree maybe you don't what are
your general feelings on your latest Cult record?
Yes, I agree that the sound is darker and rawer this time, we wanted it to
sound this way, you know that we don't like these modern overproduced sound,
so we wanted a raw but powerful sound and I think we've reached our goal.
The new album is another fist in every poser's
face and a pleasure for every real headbanger around the globe ! Of course
we haven't changed our style, we still present the typical DESASTER-sound on
the new album with some Speed and Thrash songs, one more atmospheric song
and some fast Black/Death Metal songs as well.
Everybody who liked our previous work won't be disappointed and I'm sure
that even some more maniacs who appreciate traditional Black/Thrash Metal
will join the horde of the DESASTER- followers ! Yes, we are very satisfied
with the new album !

Does the rest of the DISASTER fans have positive feedback for "Tyrants.." So
far or have you decided to wimp out on your next album and join Nuclear
Blast?
We got very good response from the maniacs all around the globe and of
course this is very satisfying ! We don't give a shit about the good reviews
in the big magazines, it's the opinion of the real metalheads that count for
us, not the words of an editor who has to listen to 20
albums each day. Ha ha, there were really some rumors that we wimped out and
join the Nuclear wimps because we had one song of the new album on a promo
CD of Nuclear sellout. Fuck, we did this only to show the typical Nuclear
Blast kids that there is still some real Metal
circulating in the underground. So I'm afraid that there won't be a tour
with Dimmu Borgir and Desaster in the future, I'm sorry, he he !

I was a bit shocked you decided to leave Merciless and join with Iron
Pegasus since Merciless was obviously the bigger and more established label.
But then again IP is just as much dedicated to the cause of the metal scene
as Merciless! You did tell me to that Merciless were working far to slow
with your albums anyways, especially "Hellfire's Dominion". Was this the
reason you left? What do you think about the move and your new alliance with
IP?
Well, it simply was time for a change, but there are no bad words between us
and Merciless. Of course we had different reasons for our decision to change
the label, but we don't want to discuss this in the public. Merciless is a
good underground label and Volker (the man behind
Merciless) is a great guy who has released some great underground stuff, but
now with our new label there is some fresh blood flowing around which is
very helpful from time to time. Costa of Iron Pegasus is really very
dedicated to Metal, that's very important for us, and what is also
a positive point is that he always has some cool ideas concerning lay outs
and new releases.

How did you get connected with Costa in the first place? Tell us a little
about your relationship to him, his label and magazine Tales Of The Macabre.
We know Costa for quite a long time now (I think for about 8 years), we are
close friends with him, he's also a member of our HELLBANGERS Metal club, so
we meet quite often together with the other crazy bastards, drinking beer,
banging our heads and praising the Metal gods
together ! Of course we also appreciate his ´zine "Tales of the macabre", it
ever was one of the best underground ´zines worldwide in my opinion, far
away from all modern trends, just supporting cool music. I hope that Costa
still has got the time besides his label work to release
some more issues of his cult ´zine. And about his label work: He already
released stuff from SABBAT, METALUCIFER, ZEMIAL, AGATUS etc., you see:
quality stuff for real maniacs ! He's not into releasing everything that
could be interesting to the trendy kids of today, he
only releases original stuff which he's 100 % personally into.

Do you think DESASTER will remain connected with IRON PEGASUS? (Hopefully!)
Well, we are very satisfied with his work so far, so we don't see any reason
for another label change at the moment.

Since I last interviewed you for one of my old zines you also released the
cult double LP "10 years of total Desaster", and should I say it was
EXCLUSIVELY on the vinyl format! Hails! While it contained some unreleased
material, live recordings and old favorites it did not contain the whole
1989 reh. Tape, except for 2 songs! Will there ever be any plans to release
this old piece of German Metal history? And didn't you tell me there was
also a reh. From 1988 w/ you and Creator Cassie?
Well, we wanted to include one or two songs from every Desaster release on
the anniversary double-LP, so we also put two very old rehearsal songs from
´89 on the album. Ha ha, I won't speak of "a piece of German Metal history",
because at this time we were hardly able to
handle our instruments, so the old songs weren't really good. Back then we
decided not to release the stuff and only taped the songs to some of our
friends, first of all because it really was too bad and second because in
that time nobody was any more interested in Satanic stuff. I
remember that every mail-order sold the old Venom records at the end of the
80s for only a few bucks, unbelievable nowadays ! Yes, I also have some
rehearsal tapes from 1988, too, but the quality of the songs is really not
good enough that we could release them. Sometimes I play the
old stuff and you can see me sitting here with a big smile on my face
because I remember the good old crazy time I had with my companion Creator
Cassie, ha ha, but I don't want to torture the Desaster fans with this old
noise !

And since we are talking about the vinyl format what are your general
feelings for it? And how does it compare with CD's, tapes and now the ultra
shitty mp3's that people download from the Internet?
We are all vinyl-fanatics, this is the original and the one and only format
that suits perfectly to Metal music. What can be better to put a record on
your player, open a beer and smoke a cigarette, have a look on the large
cover, listen to the good old scratchy sound and remember
the good old times ?! So it's clear that every DESASTER- release must be out
on vinyl as well or on vinyl only, these are collectors items and we always
try to make our records a jewel for every collection. I must say that also
the sound of a record appeals much more to me than the
sound of a CD, it has much more feeling than the digital and often sterile
sound of a CD. I don't have anything against tapes, I also work much with
tapes and don't forget that tape trading ever played an important role
within the underground. About MP3 I can't say anything
because I'm not into this Internet stuff, I simply don't have the money for
a new computer, ha ha!

Now that we have finally kicked this interview into high gear I'd like to
hear EXACTLY how you formed DESASTER, w/ Creator Cassie I believe. Is it
still true that DESASTER are the first German band of the Black metal
variety or what? In a time you say Bermuda shorts and skateboards were in
DESASTER were playing the kind of music to make ears bleed! Ha!
Well, let's go back in time: I started to listen to Metal in 1986, first
bands I heard were WARLOCK, JUDAS PRIEST, ACCEPT..., but then in ´87 I met
Creator Cassie every morning at the bus station to drive to school and he
supplied me nearly every day with harder stuff like
SLAYER, CELTIC FROST/HELLHAMMER, BATHORY etc. and so I got more dedicated to
the extreme and satanic stuff. It were really crazy times back then, we were
even drinking beer before school in the schoolbus, throwing the bottles on
the pupils who were into Pop music so that they soon changed to another bus
so that we had enough place to bang and stagedive in the bus, ha ha ! And
after school we immediately went to the local record store to listen to the
newest Metal records, buying the best and most extreme stuff, driving to
Creator Cassies home, banging
our heads the whole day long ! I think it was already in 1987 when we had
the idea to form our own band, I think it was because we saw Venom´s Live
Video ("The 7th date of Hell") and we were so impressed by this because we
had never seen a Metal band live or on video, so we decided to form our own
band to produce as much chaos as Cronos and Co. did in
the past ! At the end of the 80s nobody was any longer interested in our
favorite stuff like Venom and Hellhammer, everybody was into this Anthrax
bermuda short stuff, even former satanic bands like Sodom or Destruction
tried to change their image to gain as much success as
Metallica did back then, but we hated this and wanted to stay extreme,
satanic and wild like Metal was meant to be in the past ! I remember that we
had discussions about our name, we thought about "Eternal Torment" or
something like that before the Destruction song "Total
Desaster" brought us our bandname, I remember that we also had a saying
"Let´s go to town and cause some Desaster !" and I thought "why don't we
call our band DESASTER ?!" It perfectly fitted to our wild and crazy
characters. So the band was born before we had songs or even
instruments, ha ha ! It was in ´88 when we had our money together to buy
some cheap equipment, but a drummer was still missing. Creator Cassie knew
somebody from his school who played drums, so we asked him if we could make
some noise with him and he agreed. So we rehearsed with him from time to
time and wrote our first songs, then in summer ´89 we
performed our first concert, a still remembered event in our region !
Unfortunately Creator Cassie wimped out in 1990 so that I had to search for
other maniacs to continue and I found them in 1992. So this was the story
about the very beginning of DESASTER.

How would you describe the German scene nowadays when they have all taken
the initiative to play extreme metal music? To be honest I haven't heard
many interesting new bands from Germany except for MAYHEMIC TRUTH and
IMPEDING DOOM, a lot of it goes by unnoticed. But I think a band more or
less like ABSURD has brought a lot of attention to the German scene thanks
to the book Lords Of Chaos describing their murder of a young student. What
do you think of this and the ABSURD group? I think they're somewhat over
hyped if you ask me.
You are right, this story of some stupid kids watching horror movies is much
too over hyped and I really don't care for this shit because it has nothing
to do with METAL ! Unfortunately the German Metal scene has nothing exciting
to offer any more, you're right. It´s a fucking shame
if you remember all the German bands that ruled the Metal world in the 80s !

DESASTER also seems to be connected to various other bands around the world
as well, like SABBAT for example! Actually I hear they attended a DESASTER
release party! Are they to Japan what you guys are to Germany? What do you
think about them and other old Black metal hordes still existing today
(Nunslaughter, Mortuary Drape, Varathron etc...)
I don't know about SABBAT´s position in Japan, I only heard that the
Japanese fans don't pay much attention on their national bands which is a
pity I think ! Yes, we are in good contact with Gezol(ucifer) from SABBAT
(METALUCIFER). I don't know if you heard about it yet: the new
METALUCIFER is a German-Japanese CO-production, also our drummer Tormentor
plays on the new album ! So Gezol came over to Germany last year to records
the basic tracks for the album and when he was here we just had our release
party where Gezol, Tormentor and Blumi (the guitarist of the local Metal
band METAL INQUISITOR) performed some META LUCIFER songs which was really
great ! I must say that I was never much into Varathron, but Nunslaughter,
Mortuary Drape still kick some fucking ass !

Give me some general opinions on the older gods of black / occult metal
like- MERCYFUL FATE, WITCHFYNDE, VENOM, BATHORY, HELLHAMMER etc.. I know
these bands play a heavy influence on the DESASTER sound along with the
German ones!
It would take to much time and space to mention all the bands that had an
influence on the music of Desaster because I think every music you like to
listen to also has an influence on your own playing. I must say that I'm
more into the old 80s stuff than into all the modern Death
or Black Metal bands. You must know that I've witnessed many trends coming
and going through my 15 years being into Metal, every trend brought us some
fucking great new bands but unfortunately also many bad copy bands, too. I
especially think of the Death Metal explosion 1989/90 and the Black Metal
hype from 1992. There are few bands from this period I still like to listen
to today, but there are much more bands I still adore hailing from the 80s,
I think the quality of the music (necessary to get a record deal) in that
time was much better.

I see that a lot of people compare you to KREATOR, SODOM and especially
DESTRUCTION. I think you guys obviously sound a bit like them but you also
have a special trademark in your music that I'll get into on the nest
question.. What do you think?
I feel honored when people say that we are the heirs of Sodom, Kreator or
Destruction, nobody can deny that especially these three bands had inspired
us a lot. We have various Thrash songs in the traditional vein, but you are
right, these songs only show one side of DESASTER.

I think one thing that sets DESASTER apart from any other band in our scene
today is your use of folk inspired metal guitars to open up certain songs
and then the epic feel of tracks like "Teutonic Steel", "Tyrants of the
netherworld" or "Battle Oath" for that matter are a big factor in the music.
I truly feel this is a special way of making music as most bands would
rather not use such elements in their music. Comments?
Yes, some of our songs also contain some medieval-sounding tunes and
melodies. I think they have become another trademark of DESASTER. We always
pay much attention on variety, so we not only have some straight forward
Thrash songs, but also some epic and medieval sounding songs as well. I
think that especially these songs prove that you can produce atmosphere also
without keyboards, only with the traditional Metal instruments played with
passion and feeling. You know that we are dedicated to many different Metal
styles and so we absolutely feel not
limited in making music we like. We have songs that start with a Black Metal
inferno and have an epic Manowar-like part in the middle of the song. As
long as these different influences fit together we don't hesitate to combine
all our inspirations to our very own DESASTER-mixture and I think that is
what makes our music to something special. We havn´t invented something very
new within the Metal scene, but I think you can never the less hear that
there´s DESASTER playing, no matter if it's a fast Black Metal song or an
epic mid-tempo banger !

And what would you say to a wimp that's never heard DESASTER and would say
"They are just nothing original.. I like Cradle Of Filth the best."
hahahahaha! Fuck that!
I'm not interested in what way people judge our music or our position within
the scene, I don't care at all. We never wanted to become the "best band in
the world" and get recognition from all sides, we are fans of Metal music
and try our best to bring good Metal music to the maniacs all around the
world, if somebody likes it or not, I don't care ! Of course it's fucking
great if you get good response from the people, but first of all we play the
music for ourselves, to satisfy our own metallic desires. So if somebody
prefers to listen to Cradle instead of banging his head to the DESASTER
sound it's his own problem !


I've been hearing some wild and crazy stories about the Hellbanger's
Moselfranken! Like the fact you are the most feared group in all of Germany!
Hahahahaha! But something worries me.. I have heard that the official drink
of the group has been switched to KinderBeer? Why doesn't Jagermeister or
Heineken have a part in the MoselFranken anymore.
What the hell do you mean with KinderBeer ? Our favorite beer is Bitburger
Pils, a normal German beer sort but definitely the best beer around ! Of
course also other drinks are appreciated by the maniacs in the club, no
matter what it is as long as it causes some alcoholic excesses, ha ha !
Uaarghh, Heineken is definitely not a good beer, also the Dutch people we
know don't like it at all, I think it's only appreciated by some Americans
who don't know how a good fresh beer has to taste, he he ! (Hey! I will
drink ANY beer except for Pale Ale! -Wilhelm) Well, it's true that the
Hellbangers don't have the best reputation here in our region, it's possible
that especially the trendy local clowns also fear our crazy and wild gang of
real metalmaniacs, he he ! But I must say that it's not our aim to cause
trouble all the time, we are here to enjoy Metal in first sight, that's the
main reason why we formed the club.

You recently told me about this new 7" recording you have been preparing. Is
it going to be a split or a single?
Well, our label boss Costa had the idea to release another split single
(this time with ZEMIAL) which is called "Four track attack" which means that
there are 4 songs (two songs each band) recorded on a small four track
recorder. We want to show the people with this 7" single that
good Metal music doesn't need a big production in a big studio, you can also
catch a great atmosphere at the rehearsal room if the music is really good.
We will have two brand new songs on this 7", one song will later be on the
4th album and one is exclusively recorded for this split. I think it will be
released about autumn 2001.

The DESASTER horde is also going to be playing at the 2001 Wacken!!! Are you
going to be playing alongside the likes of DESTROYER 666 and who else? What
do you think this experience will be like? Is the Moselfranken going to
raise hell or what?
It´s cool to play on the big Wacken open air (about 25.000 people), we
usually go there every year, so this year we can save the 50 $ for the
entrance and spend it on beer instead, ha ha ! Of course it's great to play
in front of more than the usual 100-300 people which are coming to a normal
DESASTER-show, but we don't feel like "rockstars" now just because we can
play the Wacken open air, ha ha ! We play the gig in Wacken because we want
to enjoy ourselves and not to get recognition, bucks and girls ! There are
some great bands playing at Wacken this year (DESTROYER 666, MOTÖRHEAD,
SAXON, PAUL DI`ANNO&KILLERS, EXCITER EXUMER, WARHAMMER, VOIVOD) but of
course also a lot of shit and trendy bands like DIMMU and HAMMERFALL - we
don't care.

I just have to ask this... What do you think of the movie Conan The
Barbarian? I don't think movies get much more "heavy metal" then that one.
Conan Uber Allas!
Yes, the first Conan movie is a great one, it has a great ancient feeling
but of course it's just fantasy and has nothing to do with historical facts
about the ancient Germanic tribes. (Of course not. How many of them do you
think were pumped / oiled up with 22" guns? Hahahaha! -Wilhelm)

Ok, my friend Markus AKA Lord Infernal. My utmost hails and support go to
you metal brother maybe you could release some important details to the
wimps reading this before we kill them! HATE!!!!!!!
Thank you Wilhelm for the support you gave DESASTER over the years ! We
appreciate this very much ! Possibly there will be another EP released
besides the mentioned 7" single with ZEMIAL before the 4th DESASTER- crusade
will be unleashed in 2002 !

Bang or be Banged !

Contact:
Desaster
C/o Lord Infernal
Jahnstr. 76
56218 Mulheim Karlich
GERMANY

Get in touch with DESASTER and get everything they released!

Desaster-Discography:
1993 "The fog of Avalon" demo (sold out)
1994 "Lost in the ages" demo (sold out)
1995 Split-7" with UNGOD (sold out)
1996 "A touch of medieval darkness" CD/LP (CD $14)
1997 "Stormbringer" MCD/picture-MLP (sold out)
1998 "Ride on for revenge" picture-7" (sold out)
1998 "Hellfire´s Dominion" CD/LP/picture-LP (CD $15)
1999 "Ten years of total Desaster" DoLP ($19)
2000 "Desaster in league with Pentacle" Split-10" (sold out)
2000 "Tyrants of the Netherworld" CD/LP ($15)
T-Shirts available for $15