KREATOR –
- by Rune
- Posted on 27-09-2004
KREATOR
ET M�TE MED MILLE
2004-09-27
Av Rune
Under �rets Hole In The Sky festival i Bergen, fikk vi muligheten til � ta et intervju med selveste Kreator. Slike muligheter lar man ikke g� fra seg og jeg innfant meg p� Verftet ganske tidlig samme dag som Kreator skulle spille. Etter � ha vandret litt rundt, dukket hele bandet opp, og etter noen f� ord med Mille og Ventor, ble det klart at intervjuene var litt utsatt og skulle foreg� p� hotellet. Da var det bare � pr�ve � finne ut hvilket hotell det var snakk om, men det var ikke helt lett. Men heldigvis var tyskerne meget hyggelige, og et stort h�ydepunkt for en gammel Kreator fan var et faktum. En taxitur sammen med hele bandet med Ventor ved sin side, er et �yeblikk det blir lenge til undertegnede glemmer. Vel inne p� hotellet, fikk man endelig tilm�lt tid sammen med Mille, og samtalen man hadde gledet seg til siden det ble klart at Kreator skulle komme til Bergen, kunne komme i gang.
ET � First of all, welcome to Bergen, Norway and Hole In The Sky Festival.
MILLE � Thank you.
ET � Is this your first time here in rainy Bergen?
MILLE � Yes it is, but I really like it. I didn�t know what to expect, because I have never been in these parts of Norway. I am overwhelmed by the landscape and the people here seem to be very nice. It�s really relaxed. It�s almost like being on vacation. We arrived here yesterday evening and we have to leave tomorrow morning, and that is too bad.
ET � Yes, you are playing in Sandnes tomorrow, right?
MILLE � Yeah, that�s right. It�s another new experience for us here in Norway. I have only been in Oslo before, so it�s cool to visit new places and play there.
ET � You have been a part of the thrash metal scene for almost 20 years now. Is it still fun after all these years?
MILLE � Well, there are some fun moments and there are some not so very fun moments. It�s like in real life. Life is not always easy and it�s not always fun. It�s the same in the music business as well. But, I would not complain, because it�s great to play music for people and it�s great that the people are still interested in what we do. The metal scene will never go away, it�s always there. There are always some people that haven�t seen us live yet, the younger people comes to our shows, there are some older people that haven�t seen us before and we go to places we haven�t played before, like Bergen tonight and Sandnes tomorrow. For us it is an adventure to go to places we never have been before.
ET � What do you think of the thrash metal scene today compares to the one in the 80�s?
MILLE � It depends on what you consider thrash metal scene. I don�t think categories, but more that it�s metal. To me it doesn�t make a difference if you�re playing hardcore, thrash metal, black metal or death metal. To me it�s good or bad extreme metal music. Do I like the band? Do they have anything that I haven�t heard before? The thrash metal like we knew it back in the 80�s is gone. I know there are some reunions, like some of the bands suddenly came back from the grave. I think some of it has been okay, but nothing has been really exciting, yet.
ET � What would you say are your most memorable times with Kreator?
MILLE � Now, hehe. I�m not a very nostalgic person. So that means I never look back at things, I look ahead. People always think that the 80�s were the glory days of metal. They weren�t. Today the metal scene is way more organized. Back then everything was new, so people didn�t know what to expect. Thing looks more interesting and exciting today than back then. It was pretty hard to get a record contract and to sell the records in the 80�s, and that was ok in a way. Most of us had pen pals all over the world, and many of the shows were organized by those people. Some organized a gig in Germany with bands from other countries, and in return German bands played in like Denmark or Belgium, if you know what I mean. The scene was very young and very na�ve back then, and I wouldn�t say that the things were better back then. Nowadays I think that things are a lot better.
ET � Is there anything you would have done different these years?
MILLE � Yes, maybe some of the business type of things. Maybe I wouldn�t have trusted people like I did. But you live when you do, and I did some mistakes. But it didn�t kill me.
ET � Certainly not, hehe. Well, back to the style thing again. I heard once on Headbangers Ball that Vanessa described Kreator�s style as hate metal.
MILLE � Really? That�s nice, hehe.
ET � What do you think about that?
MILLE � Hate metal? Whatever you�re happy with, hahaha. Well, hate metal or aggress metal. I�ve heard those before, and I would say it sounds like Kreator. There is a lot of hate involved, lot of pain and a lot of anger. I think metal music needs to be extreme in whatever form. It can be hateful, it can be painful or whatever you want it to be or whatever you feel happy with.
ET � Well, enough about the old days. Can you tell us a little about your forthcoming album?
MILLE � Yeah, it�s going to be called Enemy Of God. It will have 12 songs. It�s pretty hard for me to try to describe the vibe of the album, I have tried it earlier. I can say it has the best moments of Kreator combined. It has a lot of arrangements that could have been on an album like Pleasure To Kill. It has a lot of the complexity of an album like Extreme Aggressions, and catchy songs like on Violent Revolution. There is a lot of double harmony, guitars and very brutal songs. Just the songs titles says it all, like Impossible Brutality, Suicide Terrorist, Dying Race Apocalypse. It�s very much in your face, hehe.
ET � It seems like you�re going back to your roots again.
MILLE � In a way maybe, I will not completely agree with you. I think I am more aware of what we have done now than I was before. I know what the name Kreator stands for now. I am more self-conscious when it comes to style. And today I am happy and more confident with what I�m doing now than I was in the more experimental times of the bands in the 90�s. We were not really sure about were we wanted to go with our music, because we thought that the only way to evolve or progress as musicians were to try different styles. But that�s not the way to do it. I think that you can keep your own style and try to make that perfect. That makes a lot more sense.
ET � When will the new album be released?
MILLE � January next year. We tried to release it earlier, but it�s not possible.
ET � You have written some great songs during the years, do you have any favorite songs yourself?
MILLE � Most of the songs we play live are my favorites. I would say that there are some studio songs that are great to listen to, but they are almost impossible to play live because it doesn�t feel right as live songs. I feel that the classic songs that we play live like Extreme Aggression, Betrayer and Violent Revolution are songs that the fans do remember, they are catchy. I myself am a fan of bands that have songs that you can remember, you know with catchy songs. If we can achieve that with some of our songs, I am happy.
ET � I have a small favorite track in Under The Guillotine.
MILLE � We�re going to play that one tonight, hehe.
ET � Is it the new old older songs that get most response from the fans when you are playing live?
MILLE � It always depends. I think that the new songs that we are playing now fit perfect into a set. After our latest album Violent Revolution we received a lot of feedback that this was our best album since Coma Of Souls. When you are in a live situation, the fans like to hear the old stuff. A song like Betrayer always works in a live situation. Extreme Aggression always works, Toxic Trace and Coma Of Souls, all those songs works.
S� ble det ikke tid til mer, da det var flere som ville ha en prat. Men konserten p� Verftet samme kveld var en opplevelse utenom det vanlige. Takk til Mille og Kreator.