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Interview with Shrapnel (Destroyer 666)

Interview with Shrapnel (Destroyer 666)
BANDS : Destroyer 666

First of all, I’d like to ask you how long have you been with the band, are you one of the founding members?
I joined Destroyer 666 in 1996, but originally Destroyer was more like a project band.
KK Warslut was a member of Bestial Warlust band, but he soon realized he didn't want to get stuck in one direction, he wanted to play a different style of metal and decided to quit Bestial Warlust and formed Destroyer 666. Then he released the first EP, called Violence Is the Prince of This World and I joined soon after, before the Unchain the Wolves recording. I play lead guitar in Destroyer since then.

 





Is there anything you’d like to share with us about the Australian metal scene? We know you have some bands there, we were in touch with Chalice for quite some time. Also I know you have relocated to Europe.

Yeah, the band left Australia in 2001, it is a country with not so many places where you can play, there is a problem with the distance between the major cities and there are not many major cities where you can actually play. So, in a way, we are detached with the Australian metal scene because we are living in Europe for so long, but there are some amazing, excellent, powerful, blast death metal bands in Australia, classic ones as well, you have Bestial Warlust, Armored Angel, Hobbs' Angel of Death and Gospel of the Horns. Australia is an isolated area, so far from the rest of the world, so the scene developed somehow on its own way, without many external influences. One can compare the Australian metal scene with the Brazilian and Canadian metal scenes, all developed in the same way.

Tell us how was the tour until now?

It's been good, great, we've done about 14 shows so far, we know Watain for a long time, we are friends with the guys and it is a pleasure to be on a tour with them. We had a fucking great time until now.

Which were the highlights of the tour?

For me personally, London has an amazing metal scene, and playing there you get to see English people, Australians, South Africans, Romanians, Polish, Russians. So London was great, Italy was great also.
 
Have you get the chance to go to USA?
Yes, we toured America two weeks before this tour, we did about 23 shows there together with a Belgian band called Enthroned.

Are there any major differences between American and European audiences?
I think the American metal scene is becoming s little bit more European in some way, there are more and more people getting into European bands. In the past, when I went to America, it wasn't like that. I think the North American metal scene is pretty good, is actually growing and getting better and better.

 Indeed, they were somehow attached to the mainstream, but we noticed lately a tendency to turn towards the metal, true metal.

Yeah, I totally agree.






 So, you are with Season of Mist for quite some time. They started as a small label, but more and more good bands come to Season of Mist lately. Are you satisfied with them, in terms of promotion?

Well, the whole music business stuff is something I dislike with passion, I guess we have a love and hate relation with Season of Mist, the things were good, and then the things went bad, but everyone I know in bands have exactly the same problems with the record companies. But I don't know, if you want the people to hear your music you have to fucking do it.

So, do you have moments when you feel like selling your soul or you are passionate with what are you doing and this is all that matters in the end?

Well, not yet, as long as I have the same feeling writing and playing the music it is ok. Destroyer 666 has always full artistic control of everything, from the music to the image, we are not that kind of band where someone else told you do that, do this, because we certainly wouldn't do it.

 Last year you have released a very good album. Did you anticipate such a good feedback, from both the media and the fans?
I don't know, we never really thought about that, we just felt creative and did what we felt was right and the result was good.

 Where did you get the energy, the inspiration to compose the music?

The thing about Destroyer 666 is that all of us are metalheads, we are still going to the concerts and stay in front of the stage and do some headbanging.
 
What bands have impressed you lately?

Well, I saw Inquisition and Esoteric in London and both were great

 It was a long hiatus between your last two albums? What happened, were there any problems?
The problem was that after we left Australia, we all moved to Netherlands and we were living in a very small house. We were 10 people living in two bedrooms, we managed to get jobs, working, doing the band stuff and than my visa ran out so I had to leave Netherland and I moved to London, the bass player we had at that time, his visa also ran out but he decided he had enough and went home, back to Australia. So we were kind of spread out, we recruited a guy who was playing drums, but he was living in Germany.
So it was this distance, the things weren't so productive, we've get the feeling we run in circles, we had a little break. But after a while he had a tour with a band from Canada, called Revenge, we did 14 shows with these guys after we didn't do anything for some time. We realized that we still had some fire in the beast, some fire in our engines.
But I tell you, living together, working together, doing the band stuff, it was no space for a couple of years so I guess we burned out a little. Anyway, the things seem to going well right know.






 
Have you started writing new material, are you writing on this tour for a new album?
Oh no, just drinking in this tour, no writing, haha.

Should we expect a new Destroyer 666 album soon?

Yes, absolutely. We've got some ideas and after this tour we will focus on writing the material for the new album and hopefully the mid next year we will have it ready.

 What about a DVD? Do you have some plans for releasing such a product?
Oh, when someone puts the camera on me is the worst show ever, so I don't know, the problem with videos is that they don't capture the moment, they give you an image but they don't give you the actual feeling of being there. You miss all of that.

It is your first time in Romania. Did you have some expectations before coming here?
I don't know what to expect to be honest, we played yesterday in Baia Mare, it was ok, but there weren't many people. But it is nice to visit different places.
 
Is it exhausting to tour so much, travelling and sleeping so many days in the bus?
Well, you get used to it, some people can handle it, others can't, but I am ok with it and the bus is very nice. The key is to get along with everyone in the bus, if you don't then you are fucked. But the guys from Watain are true fucking metalheads, with the right spirit and the right ideas and we get along very well.
 
Autor: Sake, Dragos P.
Vezi galeriile trupelor: Destroyer 666

   October 20, 2010  | 0 Comments  | 10053 Views « BACK

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