When it comes to Death Metal bands in Europe; there is really only one band that stand out from the rest of the crop.
Altar have released three albums in the last five years. The quality of their three albums has been very high. Altar released their new album "Provoke" some months ago. Thanx to our general lazyness towards bands without e- mail address; we forgot Altar. But this band cannot be ignored. We sent them an interview. The interview is a run through Altar’s history. The guitarist Marcel Verdurmen patiently answered our questions.
1. Could you give us a brief presentation of Altar and the members in the band ?
Altar is a fast death-metal band from the Netherlands with the following members:
Edwin Kelder : vocals
Nils Vos : bassguitar
Richard Ludwig : guitar
Sjoerd Visch : drums
Marcel Verdurmen : guitar
2. Your released a very successful demo before you were signed on Displeased Records. Please tell us more about this demo.
The demo was very well received by a lot of magazines and it represented a lot of the frustration we had of all the religious shit, so it was a very aggressive demo.
3. Altar and Displeased Records has grown together in the last five years. How did you get in touch with Displeased Records ? What is your view on this label now ?
Displeased contacted us for a record-deal, everything seemed o.k., so we signed up with them. Displeased is doing a lot for us, and the most important thing is they, don't interfere with our music !
4. Please tell us more about your debut album "Youth Against Christ" and your second album "Ego Art".
Youth against Christ was our "smash in the face" to magazines and even more, to the Christian society. By this album Altar's name was settled in community. Even now some cities in Holland do not want Altar to play there.
Ego Art was sort of following up the first album, but the lyrics were much softer than on the first album.
5. At that time; you were compared to Deicide. A tag that was stucked to Altar for a long time. What is your view on this comparison ?
At that time they were right about that, our music resembled a bit of Deicide but now it's much more different. I really don't bother if people like us to compare with other bands, that's fine by me.
6. You were a no- nonsense Death Metal band on your first two releases. What is your view on Death Metal as a music- form ?
I like Death Metal a lot, what can I further say, I like to play that kinda shit.
7. You released your last album "Provoke" some months ago. Please tell us more about this album. Compared to your first two releases; how would you rate "Provoke" ?
Provoke is a different thing, I think it's much more mature than the rest of the albums we made.The lyrics were not anti-religious, because Edwin thought there was more to write about then just christian things. With Sjoerd as a drummer we are able to do a lot more into the music. Provoke is a sort of experiment, just looking what we could do, and I think we did, due to the very good production, a hell of job.
8. Carcass (R.I.P), Entombed and Dominius invented the socalled Rock’n’Roll Death Metal style. What is your view on this form of music ?
I find it cool stuff.
9. You have done a lot of gigs. Is there any plans of releasing a live album/MCD ?
No, not yet. First we're gonna do some cover-shit of the eighties, and in March/April we're gonna record our new Album called"In the name of the Father".
10. Is any members of Altar involved in other projects/bands ??
No we stick to one thing and that is Altar.
11. What is your political, religious and philosophical views ?
Political: politicians do your job !!!
Religious: Not for me !!!!!!!!!!!
Philosophical: Fuck'em All !!
12. With your debut album in mind; what is your view on the Black Metal scene ?
There are a lot of very good Black Metal bands, but there is also a lot of crap but the good bands will remain...
13. What is your view on the world wide metal scene ??
Excellent !!!!!!!
14. What is your future plans ??
Like I told, record the new "In the name of the father" album, it will be the hardest album of Altar recorded ever !! So be prepared it will put every album of ours in a very big shadow. Very fast, very aggressive and very anti-religious !!
And maybe in May/June we're gonna tour in the United States of America, together with Deeds of the Flesh.
We wish Altar good luck in the future.