Interview - Alexander Krull (Atrocity)

Hello! It's an honour to have you interviewed into the pages of MetalFan e-zine. How are you doing these days?

Thanxx, in the moment we have a lot of things to do, I also produce a couple of albums at our Mastersound Studio in Stuttgart . We just played our first festival shows with the new album Atlantis in Germany , Austria and Turkey which was great!

Your band has a long history, many albums (most of them are distributed in Romania too) but I think that your oppinion about them, looking back in time, would be most appreciated.

I think with the concept album HALLUCINATIONS we had a very good start. We produced the album at Morrisound Studio in 1990 and right after we toured with CARCASS in Europe - we also organized the tour back then. Like HALLUCINATIONS our second album TODESSEHNSUCHT (1992) was our way to play extreme music, more complex and bombastic than other typical Death Metal bands, we already liked to combine classical elements with our music. We wnet on tour with DEICIDE. On the concept album BLUT we combined several musical elements and did also experimental songs like CALLING THE RAIN with my sister Yasmin on vovals or the morbid LEICHENFEIER. The BLUT videoclip was made in Romania ! By the way our bassist Chris was born and raised in Brasov ! We went on tour, supported by CREMATORY.After BLUT we decided to make two experimental albums: CALLING THE RAIN featuring YASMIN, the first Ethno Metal album ever, and the DIE LIEBE album with Germany 's Dark Wave heroes DAS ICH which combined Metal and Dark Wave the first time. Both bands went also on tour together - support act was THEATRE OF TRAGEDY - It was the first time I met my wife Liv Kristine. In 1996 we made the very heavy album WILLENSKRAFT and we went on tour with support act IN FLAMES (their first tour). After the album we made the famous WERK 80 album (1997): We put 80's Pop and Wave classics into our Atrocity sound. We toured very successful and played many festivals. In the year 2000 we made the very rhythm orientated bilingual album GEMINI - on the video you can see a lot of girls ha ha. A tour with support band PAIN followed. In the meantime we joined Napalm Records and here we are with our new album ATLANTIS!

One of your band members was born in Romania and you also made a video for one of your tracks (n.r. B.L.U.T.). Did you have the opportunity to vistit our country since then? Did you plan on filming another video here?

It's a pitty but we didn't come back yet, but we would love to play in Romania! I hope we get the chance. A band which I manage ELIS just played in Romania ! As I sayed Chris comes originally from Brasov and my own grandfather came from Sibiu.

After a few industrial-oriented records I was very surprised to see that Atlantis is more metallic, more epic, more intense and with touches that made Atrocity famous in the beginning of the nineties. How did this happen?

From the start I wanted to do concept album like we did with BLUT, the vampyric album, in 1994. In the beginning of the writing process it was like starting a journey to a big adventure. Like with BLUT we had some great adventures doing the video in Transilvania, ha, ha. The whole Atlantis topic we wanted to put in a mystical vein with a dark atmosphere which fits perfect the concept and our musical ideas! Around Atlantis there are so many legends and rumours which reach from pure science to occult things. In every period of time there have been people thinking about Atlantis, that's really interesting! We wanted to keep all emotion and atmospheric parts of the whole story we thought are necessary to create a great epic album and giving the listener a musical picture of the mystical sunken continent. So it has wild and furious parts, the big ancient battles, the mythology of the gods which is more hymnic in the music, the glorious times, the mighty empire and of course the doom of Atlantis and the apocalypse of the whole world and the escaping of the survivors to all parts of the world. To make a powerful, atmospheric and varied Metal album Atlantis is just perfect!

After a long "marriage" between you and Massacre Records you decided part ways and to sign a record deal with Napalm Records? What did this new deal had to offer to Atrocity?

Oh no, we left Massacre already in 1999! We have been signed on the German major Universal records before we joined Napalm which we hope can do a much better job worldwide!!!

Is Atlantis a conceptual album? If yes, what is the story behind music dealing with?

Atlantis is a great story, the biggest myth on earth, the myth of myths! It has many elements which are fascinating at the same time: Cradle of mankind, Mythology of the gods, mystical, occult and dark subjects, the old wisdom, many legends on earth are connected with Atlantis and the doom of the Atlantean empire itself! I was getting in touch with some strange things regarding Atlantis when I was together with my youth girlfriend. Her stepmother said she was origin Atlantean and she was reincarnated.  Of course I was really confused but since then I was interested in the Atlantis topic. More or less I was getting new information about Atlantis through the years, reading some stuff and the idea to do something with Atlantis is quite an old idea, I just wanted to wait until the time was ready for it! When I suggested to the others to do a concept album for Atlantis this time, everybody was enthusiastic about the idea! There are many other aspects for the Atlantis topic, too which can be also very interesting nowadays in that times we are living! Just look around, all that radical ideas coming up from religion and politics. Atlantis could be warning sign like Plato maybe wanted to show to the ancient Athens or it could be even a danger for certain parts of religion. What if the paradise was meant not to be in heaven and it was just on earth and called "Atlantis" like many people suggested already? It could be just a longing from people who lost their paradise on earth and you really find the idea of getting back to the paradise and your ancestors after death in nearly every religion. Some of the "holy" and "sacred" things can sometimes just simply explained! The big flood which took away Atlantis could be the same like described in the bible, the one the Aztecs talk about and many other cultures in the whole world. By the way the Azteks called their lost paradise "Aztlan" and some African tribes talk about "Atlantioi", the sunken island. The album itself starts with the legends around Atlantis and the description of the lost empire followed by the Greek mythology of gods which is an important part of the story of Atlantis, too. We show the whole story of the Atlantean Empire, the rise and the fall and finally the doom. With different point of views and atmospheric elements the music takes you into the antediluvian world. In "Clash of the Titans" for example we show the biggest ancient battle and the last stand of Atlantis when the great empire lost the war against the old Hellens. In songs like "The Sunken Paradise" or Aeon" you find the sorrow and the escape from the destroyed continent.On the CD is a multimedia part with the lyrics (so check it out it's on the promo CD, too!) and with tons of background information about each of the songs it's really a killer! Also the Cold Black Days video is on the CD as well as our own Atlantis font (for PC and MAC)!

Please make a brief presentation of you and your fellow band members.

Wow, that's not so easy. I give it a try: Together with Matze I formed the band and he is still the person with the extreme musical taste like in the beginning: Brutal Metal or classic! Bassist Chris is the womanizer of the band ha, ha - when we formed our second band LEAVES' EYES he put a lot of energy there to write emotional songs he he. But he can be a hot temper too. Martin is a fantastic drummer and he likes to play around with technical stuff - if there's a new programming tool out - be sure Martin knows already about it! Same with mobiles and computer stuff. Finally Tosso: He is the good soul in Atrocity and he can make you laugh even when the situation is bad! Like the others in the band Tosso is an extraordinary musician! Hard to tell something about your own---so something more funny, ok? Everybody calls me Papa even if I'm not the oldest and long before the birth of my son Leon.maybe I'm sometimes like that for the others too, maybe.

Where can we see Atrocity live this year?

After the summer festivals we are going on a long European tour in October and November! We will tour South America early 2005.

As a band I am sure that during your history you dealt with many strange and funny situations. Could you tell us one of them?

One time we have been on tour in Hamburg and we lost our Tourmanager on the famous red light district in Hamburg called REEPERBAHN. He and some guys from the support act came a day later back on tour - still drunken, beaten up, no money and weird stories about the nightlife of Hamburg . I think this happens many times to other bands too.

When do you plan on releasing a DVD and when will you start recording the new opus?

There are plans to do a DVD or even two! We still collecting material and working on it!

Have you ever had the oportunity of listening to a romanian band (demo, CD, tape)?

In the past I heard some stuff but I haven't had the chance since a long time.

Thank you very much for your time and in the end I would like you to say a few words to our readers.

Thanx for the interview! Take care, enjoy Atlantis and hopefully we come back and play in Romania one day!!!!!!!!!!!!!