Albums of Purgatory interview Atrocity

Firstly, whats the band up to right now?
We are currently working on new material for the next Atrocity album. Tosso, one of our guitar players left the band in 2001 and rejoined again this yearwhich is one of the reasons that it took a little time to write new material. Besides this, we also had loads of work last year because we started a production studio called Mastersound Studio.

How would you describe the Atrocity sound?
I think that Atrocity has a very variable sound, our main goal simply is to create good and valuable music.
How did you get involved with the band?
I started the band as some kind of school band together with my closest friends during this time in 1986. It meant some kind of rebellious behaviour for us and there simple wasn’t nobody else who played that kind of music.

Can you remember your first gig (how did it go)?
Our first show was inside a metal bar nearby our hometown somewhere in the forest. We first had to remove the furniture to have enough space to build up a stage. The show was for free and about 200 people showed up (including 150 friends and schoolmates). I remember that I was totally horrified to play before the crowd and I went about seven times to the toilet before the show. There even exist a two minutes video from it and all I can remember now is that I felt a great pleasure to play my music to the evil crowd !!!

Are you involved in any other projects and if so how do they compare to Atrocity?
At the moment I am too busy for doing any other project but I could very well imagine to do so !!

What are your favourite Atrocity tracks?
Tough question. There are songs on every album which I prefer to others. Gemini: Seasons in black; Werk 80: Let’s dance/Rage Hard; Willenskraft: Down below/ Seal of Secrecy; Blut: Blut/Begotten son of wrath; Todessehnsucht: Unspoken names/Sky turned red; Hallucinations: Life is a long and silent river/Hold out (to the end). This list isn’t the same all the time it depends on my mood and level of aggression.

What are your favourite all time songs?
For Atrocity: see question above; for other bands: too many to mention, maybe the whole Slayer ‘Hell Awaits’ album as well as Possessed ‘Seven churches’ and Morbid Angel ‘Altars of madness’ and Carcass ‘Symphonies of sickness’ ,Emperor ‘anthems to the welkin at dusk’, Nile ‘In their darkened shrines, The Beatles ‘White album’, Pink Floyd’Wish you were here’, Richard Wagner ‘The Ring’,Iron Maiden ‘Killers’,……….

What would be your dream band line-up?
Vocals: Ishahn (Emperor)
Guitar: Jeff Hannemann, Trey Azagthoth, Piggy (Voivod)
Keyboards: Glen Gould, Jon Lord
Bass: Tom Araya
Drums: Tony Laureano (Nile)

If you could do a cover for a tribute album to any band, which song of which band would you pick and why?
It depends on how we are playing the cover song. You can either try to get as close as possible to the original version or you try to create your own version of this song. For artistic reasons I’d love to play something from Richard Wagner, for fun I would like to play Pink Floyd or old Carcass.

What do you think of the position of metal and music in general today?
Metal is part of the music business and it also suffers from decreasing sales numbers as well as everybody else. It is hard nowadays to create outstanding and unique music because mostly you just get defined by the albums you were able to sell and that’s getting harder and harder without a major support and our current bad economic times.

Which other bands stand out for you at the moment?
Nile, Deftones.

Do you have any funny stories about the band you can share with us?
When we did our last video clip for ‘Taste of sin’, there was a girl playing a domina and an old guy which was playing her father and at the same time one of the guys going to that domina (she always wore a mask). Both were employed independently from each other. But what happened when they first saw each other? You won’t believe: she actually was a domina and that guy playing her father, was one of her punters, haha!!!

and finally, what do you see in the future for Atrocity?
I see a golden future with champagne and millions of breasts, stop! No, of course not. All I can definitely say is that we are still trying to create the best music we can and for this aim I am ready to work hard and give the best I can !!