Albums of Purgatory interview Callenish Circle's Ronny Tyssen

 

Albums of Purgatory: First of all, what did you think of Newcastle?

Ronny Tyssen: We played in a club called Trillians which was not a typical place we used to play, for us it was more like a pub gig. But it was cool anyway. As Trillians was situated in the centre of Newcastle we spent the afternoon exploring it and I must say I didn't expect Newcastle to be such a cool place! 

AoP: how did the rest of the European tour go?

RT: The rest of the tour was pretty OK. All in all it was a very useful experience for CC doing a 4 week tour all across Europe, we learned a lot of it. Furthermore we had a very good time with the guys of the other bands, Vomitory and Amon Amarth. 

  
AoP: How would you describe the Callenish Circle sound?

RT: Personally I simply would like to describe our music as extreme metal. A lot of people call it something like aggressive and melodic Death-Thrash with some melancholic guitar-parts. Partly I can agree with this, but we try to use the best elements from every metal style, Death, Thrash, ordinary Heavy Metal, Doom, Black etc.. We don't pretend to play original music, that's not our intention, but the way we put it together delivers us a quite identical sound. That's what we read in many reviews and I think that's a compliment.

AoP: How did the band start back in 1992? 

RT: Like you mentioned, CC was founded in 1992. We played covers from our favourite bands back then. Bands like Death, Pestilence, Gorefest, Paradise Lost, Bolt Thrower etc.. After a while we started writing own material which led to recording our demo-tape "Lovelorn" in 1995 which got great response in the underground.

AoP: Its been a rocky road so far with record labels and recording, can you describe what it has been like? 

RT: In 1996 we released out debut album "Drift of Empathy" released by Hammerheart. Due to a lack of experience of both, label and band, this record didn't bring as much as we both expected, so we decided to split as good friends. In 1998 we recorded "Escape", which actually was our promo-tape in order to find a record-deal. Killer Whale/Polar Bear Records offered to release it on CD, so that release was a fact. We never meant to release a full-length album because PBR was just a starting label, not able to finance a proper promotion and their distribution was not that great too. In 1999 we released "Graceful… yet Forbidding" through the Dutch label DSFA Records. This one only was released in the Benelux countries (Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg) due to financial problems of DSFA, so we claimed back the legal rights and it was re-released by the Norwegian Edge Runner Records. Now we signed with Metal Blade for 4 albums and "Flesh_Power_Dominion" was the first one. Especially the "DSFA-affair" caused a really hard time for CC, because we really expected a lot of them, as they promised us to be a priority release and we saw what he did to bands like Within Temptation, Orphanage and Trail of Tears. But in the end we came out angrier and more motivated than ever to make a killer album, so at least it was good for something...

AoP: Can you remember your first gig (how did it go)?

RT: Yeah, it was in January '94 in the basement of my school. It was a so-called 'music day' where every student is given the opportunity to play music for the other students, friends and parents. So there was a lot of trumpets, flutes, violins and pianos. Suddenly we entered the stage and started playing songs from Gorefest, Pestilence, Death etc.. It was really cool to see the shocked parents walking away with their kids! The music teacher was pissed at us for playing this in front of those people, really funny. Furthermore a lot of students where moshing and stage diving, so it was a very cool first gig.

AoP: Where do you most enjoy playing? 

RT: As long there are a lot of people enjoying themselves with our music I actually don't care where I play. But up till now the Czech Republic and Spain are the 2 countries I enjoyed playing most because of that.  

AoP: What are your favourite Callenish Circle tracks? 

RT: It’s very difficult for me to pick favourite songs from F_P_D. I think every song has an own identity, which makes it hard to point out favourites. Besides this it’s pretty the same as choosing your favourite child. But to be honest the songs that get the best response at gigs are going to be kind of favourites, but that’s the only reason. 

AoP: What are your favourite all-time songs? 

RT: Difficult one, but I'll give it a try:

Morbid Angel - Altars of madness

Death - Spiritual healing

Slayer - Reigning blood

Killing Joke - Love like blood

Cindy Lauper - Girls just wanna have fun
 
AoP: What was the first record you bought? 

RT: Wow, that's a difficult one... I think it was Metallica - Master of Puppets, but I'm not really sure about that... 

AoP: What would be your dream band line-up?

RT: Guitar / Vocals - Chuck Schuldiner (RIP...)
      Drums - Dave Lombardo 
      Bass / backing Vocals - Dave Vincent 
      Silent nude stage dancing  - Britney Spears
 
AoP: Do you have any funny stories you can share with us?  

RT: 2 years ago we played somewhere in Germany, together with Macabre, when suddenly my string broke. So I wanted to get my spare guitar and I noticed I didn't hear any guitar at all. So I looked at Remy and it appeared that exactly at the same time the exact same string (which normally never breaks) on his guitar broke too! That was really a weird experience.

 

AoP: and finally what do you see in the future for Callenish Circle? 

RT: Well, this week we got a phone-call from Metal Blade Records and they told us we could record the new album whenever we were ready for it, so we immediately booked the studio for January 2003. We intent to release it before all big festivals. Furthermore MB told us we were on their list for next years Wacken and Summerbreeze, so hopefully we will do some big festivals in 2003.