Darkside from Austria released a very interesting album called „Evolution" earlier this year through NSM Records. Darkside do very complex Death/Goth Metal and their new album cannot be called commercial. But those who choose to ignore Darkside, miss out on something very special.
We contacted Wolfgang in Darkside for an update.
1. When was Darkside started ? Could you give us a brief biography ?
In the summer of 1991 a new band began to rise on the metal skies. Initially being only a project founded by bassplayer PETER BÖHM and drummer ROBERT GRÖGLER , they started to rehearse more intensely during the whole summer and even started to compose some first tunes, based on voivodesque bassriffs and complicated slayer-like drumrythems. A third member to complete the first line-up was found in PETER DURST and he supported those first efforts with his vocals and guitar playing. In spring of 1992 the guys recorded a first four-song demo entiteled "Depression" which basically contained four tunes of powerful death metal. Some first experiences on the concert front the band gained by participating on the prestigious Attack Of Fire Festival 1992.
To put a little more atmosphere in their songs, DARKSIDE decided to user the help of a former co-musician to record some piano-intermezzos for this first tape. After listening to it a lot of times, the band agreed on including a stable keyboard player in the line-up. The call for more melody and variety reached me, WOLFGANG SÜSSENBECK, a former singer of some local metal bands.
Shortly before we were ready to record our second demo, PETER DURST started having some severe health problems with his right arm, so we were forced to look for a substitute. HERBERT KNÖCHEL, a young guitar player from the outskirts of Wr. Neustadt was finally the person to fill out the vacant place and after the recording session ended up as the fifth member of DARKSIDE. The second demo "Herbst" ,also recorded in the PAST Studio in Hradec Kralove/CZ , already showed the progression and was a first hint to the direction the band was heading for. Six compositions of doomy, but still powerful death metal clearly showed the way towards a bigger range of melodies and sounds. " Requiem" ,with a running time of about 12 minutes, soon brought some kind of cultstatus to DARKSIDE in Czech Republic, with the whole demo getting excellent reviews in the czech press. Thanks to the friendship between us and the maybe best death metal act KRABATHOR a series of concerts in Czech Republic / Slovakia followed that brought to the band their strongest support. After the release of the tape, DARKSIDE took part in the legendary Horepnik-slamdance amongst others together with ZED JAGO, ARAKAIN, ROOT and more as well as in the Attack Of Fire 93. A first highpoint was the tour together with KRABATHOR and SCABBARD in autumn of the same year through Czech Republic and Austria. After that the band started to rehearse for new material, With the objection of recording a Cd on their own, the winter passed quickly and in the beginning of March 1994, DARKSIDE were back on the road supporting KRABATHOR on their Blasphemeous Mini Tour 94.
In May 1994 finally DARKSIDE started with the recording sessions for their first full-length CD " Melancholia Of A Dying World ". Within 14 days they laid down the basics and after the album was mastered at the Rudolfinum Studio in Prague ( RAGE, Y. J. Malmsteen and others ). Twelve songs full of melodies, melancholy and breathtaking power paired up with female vocals, death-typical grunts and some grinding guitar solos brought the Cd to a running time of about 53 minutes. For the band it meant first acknowledging in the foreign countries ( 8 points out of 10 ROCK HARD ) as well as premium rates in the polls of the czech magazines ( newcomer of the year ROCK REPORT, best foreign underground band ROCK REPORT, newcomer album of the year BANG !, 10 out of ten METAL HAMMER CZ ). The final official release was in September 94 with a first edition of 1000 Cds and 1000 tapes. The artwork was done by the famous science-fiction painter Martin Zhouf from Prague. On the concert ground the most important gig for the band for sure was the concert in Prague with CARCASS in front of 2500 spectators, as well as a tour together with VADER and KRABATHOR in Czech Republic and Austria. During this tour there started to be problems with HERBERT KNÖCHEL, which ended by him leaving the band in early 1995. The last show with HERBERT was on November 13 in Ruzomberok / Slovakia together with PHANTASMA, PURGATORY and KRABATHOR.
1995 was an important year for us because we finally reached our long awaited target - a deal with a label. The german company Impact Records, although being originally a punk-label, decided to found a sublabel named SYSTEM SHOCK and DARKSIDE was to be the first band on it. The next band to follow was VADER. Impact offered to release "Melancholia..." with a different cover and booklet artwork all over Europe, what happened in September 1995. Later on the Florida-based independant label CONQUEST MUSIC licensed the album from SYSTEM SHOCK for the USA, Canada and Mexico. On the livesector in 1995 DARKSIDE started to concentrate a little bit more on their homecountry Austria, where they played a series of gigs with VADER, KRABATHOR and some local bands. In November the band went on a tour together with KRABATHOR and DISTILLERY through Poland, but the highlights of the season for sure were the Attack Of Fire 1995 and the festival in Hustopece before an approximate 3500 people, where the security had to stop the show of DARKSIDE two times because of security risks for both band and spectators caused by masses of
people invading the stage.
In January 1996 DARKSIDE finally took part in their first european tour together with SINISTER and CREEPMIME, playing 23 shows in various countries. Again also Austria and Czech Republic were on the tourplan of a series of concerts, some of them DARKSIDE played with THERION. After the end of these activities DARKSIDE began with the work on their second album " Shadowfields " which was interupted by the second european tour supporting SIX FEET UNDER. The last efforts propagating " Melancholia.. " were to be the forth concert on the Attack Of Fire 1996 as one of the headliners together with KRABATHOR and SINISTER and a show in the ice-hockey arena of Hradec Kralove / CZ. Right after, the band started the recording sessions for " Shadowfields " in the PAST Studio under the productional wings of Vincent Dijkers, a dutch producer. The new album contained a lot of orchestral arrangements mixed with aggression and a very low feeling throughout the whole work.
The release of "Shadowfields" in March 1997, getting excellent reviews throughout the european metal press ( 8,5 points ROCK HARD, 89 points AARDSHOCK , Hansi Daberger from ROCK HARD naming the album among his top favorites of the year and many more ) opened the door for the third european tour in companion of VADER, during the one DARKSIDE played some headliner shows in Italy and Czech Republic, as well as a tour with SCABBARD in Czechia. This tour contained also a festival with SINISTER, HECATE ENTHRONED and BAL-SAGOTH. In late autumn of the same year, DARKSIDE started to work on their third album, tentatively entiteled " III " then.
April 1998 finally saw the band in the HAZIENDA Studio of Milos "Dodo" Dolezal, recording their third Cd. The producer they chose this time had a 10 -year experience in producing and his work until now sold well over 2,500.000 copies of various bands, some of them selling over 60.000 pieces in Czech Republic.
" Evolution" , so the final title of the album, was mastered by Jan Nemec, a producer well-known for his work with RUNNING WILD, X-WILD, CELTIC FROST and more, in his studio in Hannover, Germany. He also produced the czech band KREYSON, who also sold a lot not only in Czech Republic but also in Germany. The album was released in September 1998 through NSM Records. The band shot their first video-clip for the song " The Gloaming" under the direction of DAVID BERANEK, a great czech director for film and TV, on locations in south- Bohemia. On these facts, POPRON s.r.o. licensed the album for Czech Republic / Slovakia. A first promotional tour through those two countries by the end of July, as well as the taking part in 3 big festivals started the concert activities for " Evolution " . In September 1998 the band got on the road again together with MOONSPELL and THERION to support those two bands on the "It´s a sin tour 98" throughout Europe for 46 shows in 16 european countries. The shows in Belgium, England, Scotland and the Netherlands were enriched by the appearance of ANATHEMA as a special guest. After the end of this tour, DARKSIDE played a festival in Austria before approx. 1200 people on Halloweens Day. On November 9, NUCLEAR BLAST released their third edition of the videocompilation "Beauty In Darkness 3" which among others features DARKSIDE with their clip "The Gloaming". The band played some more shows until X.mas and early this year, before going on a small tour with SKULL CRUSHER, TORTHARRY and SILENT STREAM OF GODLESS ELEGY throughout Czechia, Slovakia and Austria. Some more highlights of the summer will be several appearances of the band on various festivals, e.g. MIND OVER MATTER in Austria and the czech DYNAMO NORTH POWER JAM as well as the DISTORTION FESTIVAL in Torino / ITA.
2. Please give us an insight to your first two albums.
Our first album "Melancholia Of A Dying World", which we recorded in 1994, featured a mix between several different styles amongst the metal scene. The vocals were typical death metal, whereas we tried to implore melodic guitzar solos, female vocals, acoustic parts and melancholic, atmospheric parts to create very ownstanding tracks and songs. We were still searching for our musical identity then and we had a second guitar player co-writing on the songs, which makes this first release a little different. A lot of thrash influences can be found as well as some strange, jazzy parts and a lot of atmosphere.
On our second album "Shadowfields", we started to experiment a lot with the keyboards, as well as our songs partly became more aggressive and straighter then on the debut. On thge other side we tried to integrate orchestral passages and compositions in the various songs, which in the end was maybe a little bit to much. Some of the songs on "Shadowfields"are very epic and long, but I don´t think, that they are boring.
3. Which bands is your band most influenced by ?
We have a very broad musical taste within the band, so some of our favourite artists are f.i. SAVATAGE, MORBID ANGEL, VOIVOD, SLAYER, TERRORIZER, old METALLICA, WHITESNAKE, DEEP PURPLE, CRADLE OF FILTH, NAPALM DEATH etc. I think, we don´t include much of our influences anymore in our songs, we tried hard to develop our own style / identity, but of course influences can still be heard e.g. in the song "The Blood On My Hands..." from "Shadowfields" we used a very MORBID ANGEL like guitar riff, but not to copy them, just because it did fit the best. Nowadays the variety of our musical taste is even bigger, some members of the band like acts like MIKE OLDFILED and PINK FLOYD or hardcore stuff like HATEPLOW and MALEVOLENT CREATION as well as VADER, so you see, it does not depend, on what you listen to, just on your own possibilities to express with the music different kind of emotions and feelings, which has always been one of the major priorities in this band.
4. Please give us a full insight to your new album "Evolution". The recording, the tracks, the concept, the line-up on the album and the artwork.
We started writing songs for the album in October 1997. The first three or four tracks were done totally without keyboards, which were added, when the songs were already finished. The other songs were written in cooperation of all four members simultaniously. With all tracks, we first worked out a drums-bass basis and then tried to add step by step the rest of the instrumentation before working on hooklines or vocal lines. For that, our singer did some melodies according to which I tried to do some first, directional lyric concept, which we outworked together at my home, before trying them out in the rehearsal place. After we had finished most of the songs, we tried to think about a concept for the album, because we thought, it would be important to present our third album in a special way, you know, a third album often decides on the future of a band. We felt, that we had undergone a certain kind of evolution during the writing process for the album as well as from a personal point of view of the members of the band. We had gone through some troubles with our old label and after they didn´t want to pay the studio for the production, we decided to leave them and look for a new partner. Also some happenings in our private lives led us to the conclusion, that the band was at some kind of breaking point and that we had to fully invest our energy and interest into our project. So, with the context of some lyrics already written, the album title "Evolution" began to become more and more possible. As from the topic itself, a connection with the question whether the human being can be regarded as part of the evolution or not, was more than obvious. The cover of the album shows a skull, which represents the human without his masked shell, so just the soul, but it is difficult to show that, so we chose the skull as a symbol for the naked human, surrounded by the energy and influence of the surrounding cosmos, which is represented by the somehow seemingly magnetic fields surrounding the skull. The artwork from the booklet was also chosen according to this kind of profile we wanted to give to the whole album. The lyrics are not monothematical, but there is a certain red line through all the songs on the lyric basis.
We recorded with Dodo for the first time and I must say, that we took the right decision. This guy has over 10 years of experience in the field of producing metal albums and sold over 2,5 million albums in his homecountry with his productions. The chemistry during the recording session was indeepened by the fact, that he already had his own vision of how this band should sound, and he also helped us a lot in transferring our ideas to tape. Everything war recorded on analog equipment to a 24 track 2" tape. We had the chance to have the album mastered in Germany by Jan Nemec, a well known producer and sound engineer.
5. Please give us an insight on your lyrics.
The lyrics basically always deal with humans, questions of believe and loosing faith, dark poetry or actual themes from the daily news. I wouldn´t say, that we ever did some nice or happy lyrics, simply because I don´t feel doing so. The lyrics of this band are my spiritual world, my often sick ideas and thoughts, as well as they represent a big part of my interest in literature and poetry from different cultures and countries. I tzry to read a lot in my few spare time, to embroaden my basis for the writing of lyrics and stories, which could probably end up on some of our records to come. I often just put down some notes on some sheet of paper and throw them all into a box, to take them out when it comes to write new lyrics for some new stuff. It is a great way to work for me in this way, some kind of brainstorming every time, which keeps me getting weird ideas and interesting topics, I think. On the first albums I did the lyrics alone, now we work them out with the singer together, or somebody else has a concept and I just try to work it out and finish it my way. It really depends also on the mood a song has, whether I can find some stuff to it or not.
6. It is my impression that the new Goth Music scene follows the same pattern as the Romantic Wave scene did 20 years ago with bands like ABC, Duran Duran and Human League. The similarities are striking. The Romantic New Wave scene was a reaction to the Punk music, the new Goth Metal scene is a reaction to the Death Metal scene. What is your view ?
First of all I would like to say, that we don´t regard our band being part of some gothic scene, because we simply used keyboards already in 1992, when except for some bands, nobody would combine aggressive death metal with keyboards and atmospheric parts. You can find keyboards on both our first demos. I remember, that when I was young, I hated bands like DD or the whole new wave scene, I used to listen to Black Sabbath, Kiss or The Doors instead. I really don´t have a big favour for all those heart-breaking Theatre Of Tragedy a like bands with female vocals and tons of pathetic romance stuff in their lyrics, I mean, I don´t mind them doing what they do, I just don´t feel attracted by their music. I prefer old MY DYING BRIDE and early PARADISE LOST as far as that is concerned. We try to use those influences and ingredients differently, according to our own philosophy, which for sure has nothing to do with neo-romantism. I couldn´t say, whether Gothic is a direct reaction to the death scene, but I would like to point out, that we started to use " strange elements" for the reason to be different and to have a broader variety of sounds and atmospheres in our songs than normal death metal bands. In the end I think, only music matters, not some kind of style or reaction to it.
7. Darkside has been included in one of Nuclear Blast´s "Beauty In Darkness" Goth metal samplers. Are you comfortable with this label ?
If you mean Goth metal as a label, not. I don´t think, that Darkside could be called Goth metal. If you mean Nuclear Blast, then yes, they have got a good reputation and I think, the clip is good enough to stand amongst the other stuff featured on that compilation. We were lucky enough to be able to take part in that video collection and I think it just means one step forward for us.
8. Please tell us more about NSM Records.
NSM Records exists since 1994 and the company is on one hand the biggest indie metal distribution in Austria with exclusive deals with Nuclear Blast, Century Media, Modern Music, Massacre, Metal Blade and many more, amongst them Necropolis, System Shock, Black Sun and lots of others. On the other hand they try to develop also their production arm by doing young, prospectorious bands from Austria and it's neighboring countries. Any bands interested in that can gladly send their material to the contact address which you can find later on. I work in the company as promotor and export manager as well as label promotor. Our company has a good reputation among the european metal scene I guess, and the biggest advantage of NSM is, that we are specialized in metal and therefor we have a big credibility among the buyers over here.
9. Austria has a many hundred years long tradition when it comes to music. Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss etc. etc. Is there something in the water you drink or is Austria a very music orientated country ?
Well, of course, Austria is concious of it's musical past and tries to include this already in the general education in school. But I don´t think, there is more musicians here than every where else. In the field of popular music, many efforts have been done to close up to the international market, and some of the Austrian artists also succeeded in doing so, e.g. Falco, Opus or Abigor, Pungent Stench, Disharmonic Orchestra, but also people like Friedrich Gulda, Joe Zawinul, Peter Wolf and others are musicians of international format. WE TRY HARD !!!
10. Austria has a lot of very good metal bands at the moment. What is your view on this scene ?
The movement is growing, I must agree with you. STIGMATA IV, ABIGOR, SKULL CRUSHER, SEEDS OF SORROW, SUMMONING, THIRD MOON and lots more are getting attention by the international press and also deserve it, I think. People have learned to work harder for their success, that´s what I appreciate the most. A lot of newcomers is coming to the scene each month, now it would take some engaged companies to map all this and sort out the best to support them.
11. Where can Darkside be contacted ? Any web sites ?
We have a web site
. Everyone willing to contact the band, can do that at:
NSM Records
Hauptplatz 24
2700 Wr. Neustadt
AUSTRIA
Tel: +43 2622 65 321
Fax: +43 2622 65 337
E-mail: wolf@nsm.at
or
nsm@nsm.at
To get more info on NSM we are currently setting up a website under:
NSM Records
People can also write directly to my address:
Wolfgang Süssenbeck
J. Bierenzgasse 12
2700 Wr. Neustadt
AUSTRIA
12. What is your future plans ?
We have been approached by American DWELL Records to take part in a MEGADETH tribute album, which will fature amongst many others also SKULL CRUSHER. We will do a cover of " Go To Hell ". Currently we are writing material for our next album, which will be a double album, one Cd featuring the whole Noohoorsh Story, which we started on the " Shadowfields " album, and one regular Cd with new songs. We will have some guests on that concept album, Martina from THERION being one of them. Besides that, we will play a lot live this year, to promote " Evolution" . We hope to finish the recordings for the new album by February 2000, to have the album out before summer.
13. Any final comments ?
We would like to thank you for taking time for this interview and all our fans for their strong support over the years. Keep those letters coming to us, all will be answered. Until then - C-ya somewhere on the road and support the underground !