Kai Scheibe has been a very important person in the German Death Metal scene in the last ten years. He has just quit G.U.C 'Zine and started up his new company Deadly Art. We got an update from Kai Scheibe.



1. Please give us an insight to your new record label DEADLY ART. What releases can we expect in the coming months ?

DEADLY ART isn't only a label. DEADLY ART is also a zine and a mailorder. I try to release the zine two times a year. For the next months I have planned the following stuff:

- Musical Massacre (predecessor-band of Purgatory) "Necrobestiality" re-release of this cult-demo, 10-inch, couloured vinyl, incl. Live-bonus, limited to 500 copies
- Night in Gales "Sylphlike" double-7-inch in splattervinyl, re-release of their successful MCD, releases in cooperation with other German label MDD, limited to 1000 copies
- Maybe two (split)-ep's, but nothing is sure at this moment
- If the band don't get a better offer I will release the Depression-Full-Length-CD

By the way: since the beginning of 1999 the split-10-inch "Und keiner weint uns nach" featuring Depression/Rot is available.

2. Why did you break up with G.U.C.-zine ?

I had some other imaginations concerning the zine and the mailorder. I have to admit that I am a person who like to control everything. I don't like to make compromises. You know? Furthermore I moved to another town (600 kilometers away from the other guys) and it would not be easy to do a zine & distro together with this range. To see differences and reasons for the split, compare the zines and distros and you'll see....

3. Regarding the practical details of this split, please tell us what has changed and what will change ?

What changed ?? I left G.U.C. and started DEADLY ART. That's it. Now I release my own zine and run my own mailorder (check out www.welcome.to/metal). Of course G.U.C. will continue working. There should be the 12th issue of the zine and some releases in the future and of course there is still the mailorder.

4. Regarding the upcoming DEADLY ART Zine will it still be a german speaking magazine or will you do the magazine in English? What kind of concept will the magazine based on? Any free CD's in that magazine ?

Yes of course DEADLY ART will be a zine which is written in German. My english isn't that good for a English-written zine. The zine is mainly focussed on the Death Metal-scene. But I also want to feature bands from other styles, if they are good. (grind, thrash, black...) But the topic is Death Metal. The circulation will be 1000 copies and the zine includes a free CD. Number one of DEADLY ART will be released in april including interviews with Anasarca, Night in Gales, Ritual Carnage, Abstain, Pakeni, Castigate, Sudden Death, Grief of Emerald, Resurrected.... some more.

5. You have spent a considerable amount of your life in G.U.C. How could you sum up these years ?

It was a great time. I don't want to miss them. In this 4-5 years I've got a lot of contacts allover the world. I've heard a lot of great demos & cd's. I've visited some bands on their gigs. And of course I've got a lot of experiences for my further activities. I want to thank all in G.U.C. for the great time and the cooperation all the time and I want to wish them all the best for their further plans.

6. There is a hell of a lot German Death Metal/GrindCore bands who have to release their CDs/MCDs on their own labels because of total lack of interest from German labels (except from Morbid Records) in Death/Grind. What is your experiences with the established German labels ?

- What do you mean with established labels? Last Episode, Nuclear Blast, Century Media...? Or do you mean the established underground-labels? I've made really good experiences with the last mentioned ones. I can´t say, that I have bad relations to any German label. Especially I like to work with Perverted Taste (Hello Falk!), Morbid Records (Hello Olaf!), Ars Metalli (Hi Christoph!) and MDD (Hi Lachsack!). But there are a lot of other ones, think of Merciless, Folter, Prophecy, Noise V., Solistitium...... . But I think you are right, when you say, that the labels often have no interest in Death/Grind. OK, most of the mentioned labels above distribute and sell Death/Grind-stuff, but don't release stuff from this styles themselve. The most known exception is Morbid records, which have Dying Fetus, Haemorrhage, Dead Infection, Agathocles....really great and brutal bands. Or do you know Coercion, a great Old School Death Metal-band from Sweden, released on Perverted Taste. A good example for a sick undergroundlabel is Noise V. Ralf himself plays in a fuckin' Grindcore band called Intestinal Infection and he has released some brutal stuff. For instance the Analmassaker-CD, Intestinal Infection/Regurgitate Split-EP or last the Cryptic-MCD. I don't think it's bad, that most of the brutal bands release their stuff on their own labels. Grindcore or brutal Death/Grind ever were a underground-style and I think this is good. I get angry by the imagination , that every stupid, trendy kid wear Agathocles, Haemorrhage, Deeds of Flesh, Suffocation, Immolation.....-shirts. Do you think it would be better, if Death/grind will be the great trend maybe for one year or two? Fuck! The extrem underground lives with it's little labels, zines (hello Mutilated, Schreikrampf, Brutalized.....) and bands. If the style would be more known by the masses, you would hear more and more trash.

7. Some years ago; the scene was totally different. Most German Deat/GrindCore bands was signed by labels like Century Media, Nuclear Blast, Massacre and Black Mark. Today; these labels are only interested in Black, Thrash, Goth and Heavy Metal. Brilliant bands like Fangorn and Depression are ignored by these established labels. When did the rot in the scene start ?

- Nice joke, which Death/Grind-bands were released by Century Media, Massacre or Black Mark? Are you dreaming? All labels you named had released only a few great bands. Asphyx, Unleashed (CM), Edge of Sanity, Fleshcrawl (BM) or Experiment Fear and Sickening Gore (Massacre). But I think every bigger label has to release bands, who play a style, which is popular among the fans. At this time, the bands I mentioned above were relased, Death was very popular, without doubt. It would be a horrorfying imagination, if Depression would be released by Century Media or Black Mark. And I think, this is not the aim, Kai (Depression) is tring to reach. He really is an underground-maniac. What about other talented and good bands from the underground? Small labels will release them and the better ones will be picked up by bigger labels, that's life. You have to see the whole situation not only from the fan-perspective, you have to put into a labelmanager of a bigger label. He has to think about his income, money for advertisement, money for recording-sessions, money for toursupport and the wage for his colleagues. It's logical, that he looks for bands, who are able to sell some more copies. If you run such a bigger label you have to make compromises and you are not so idealistic, as you was in the beginning. And as I said above, Death/Grind is no trend and won`t be such a trend, hope so, labels sign only a few bands from the extrem sector. So I think, you can't define a point, where the rot in the scene starts.

8. What is your view on the self- financed German Death/GrindCore releases ? Which bands deserve to be picked up by the established labels and which bands should give up ?

- Of course we have a really great and active scene in Germany. I only name Immured, Kadath, Blood, Sanitys Dawn or Depression, who are well-known all over the worldwide underground. But there is a bunch of really great bands too, who are not so much known. To much to name them all. It's impossible to say which bands should be picked up by established labels. Take Blood for instance, they don't want a deal for every price. They see their band as a hobby, the way it should be, the greatest hobby besides their jobs. They rather control business-things theirself. I can only repeat myself: it's good, that the brutal scene is spreaded more in the underground. Can you imagine the masses of Death/Grind-CD's, who will swap over us, if every label would release brutal stuff. More and more average bands would come to the surface and after some months the A&R manager will hunt the next trend. I think it's unfair to say which bands should give up. Surely, not every band plays great stuff, that's natural. Most of them see the band as a hobby. Why should they give it up? Only because they are not so good as others? In my opinion this is a silly point of view. People will give up a band, when they have no more fun to rehearse or to play live, but not because they are bad.

9. A well established Death Metal band from Germany told me that it was more or less impossible to get gigs in Germany unless you are a Black, Goth or Heavy Metal band ? What is your experiences ?

- To be honest, I don't have experiences with the live-situation, 'cause I never organized gigs. I have no time. I have to much to do with zine and distro. Two or three times I appeared as a Metal-DJ in our local youth centre. There were 100-120 maniacs , but most of them came only, because they knew me. If a stranger had made this, less people had visited the youth centre.
But I heard a lot about the live-situation from other bands, who asked me about playing live in my region. I think it's to hard to organize gigs, because so many bands try to play live and no one can go to every concert. The same happens on the CD-sector. Fans buy the bands they know or that have been pushed by labels. Only a small part like to listen undergound-stuff, to search for new bands... . And in the same way concerts are selected. It's a pity, that only a small part of the huge metal-scene is interested in the underground.

I hope this interview was in the interview was a bit interesting. Feel free to contact us for a review or possible distribution. And manicas, order our list with tons of really cheap underground-CD's, Demos, EP's, LP's, Zines..... & more.

If you are interested in DEADLY ART. Check out our website or contact us at:

Kai Scheibe
Wachenheimer Straße 82
65835 Liederbach
GERMANY
Tel./Fax ++49(0)6196-527263
e-mail: kai.scheibe@db.com