Thanatos
Wywiad przeprowadził Wouter Roemers
Thanatos is probably without a single doubt the oldest, still active death metal outfit in the Netherlands. With two classic death metal records released in the early nineties Thanatos soon made a name for themselves in the international scene. Due to persistent label problems and continuing line-up trouble Thanatos eventually folded around '94. Founding member Stephan Gebedi re-grouped and presented an all new line-up in '99. "Angelic Encounters" is released one year later and more line-up changes ensue. Last year Thanatos released their most accomplished album to date "Undead.Unholy.Divine" through Greek label Black Lotus Records. Masterful Magazine talked to Thanatos guitarist/vocalist Stephan Gebedi about the band's past, present and future.
Hi Stephan. Thanks for talking to us. How's everything in the Thanatos camp as of late?
Hey, what's up? Nice to hear from you. Things are getting a bit hectic now because we're planning to enter the studio again after the summer to record our next album. We haven't written many new songs yet, so I guess we'll have to work a bit harder the next month. In the first weekend of July we'll be in the studio to record two songs (including a cover version of Dark Angel's ‘The Burning Of Sodom') which probably will be featured as bonus tracks on the forthcoming album.
"Undead.Unholy.Divine" was released last year. How have the press reactions been?
The press reactions were very good. Most of the critics considered this album our best release so far and I can only agree with them, haha. This time everything went right: the recordings went great, good songs, good production, nice album cover. So, this time there wasn't much to complain about.
The new album once again is a full-out attack against organised religion. Primary target is the Islam this time around, as it is specifically dealt with in two tracks. Somehow this change doesn't all surprise me, Holland has been shocked by the brutal assassinations of both politician Pim Fortuyn and film director Theo Van Gogh. Both opposed strongly against the Islam. What's your take on this subject?
It's obvious that the Islamic people cannot deal with criticism. For years and years the Dutch government and all the other Western European governments could have seen this problem coming. The Islam is taking over in the main cities. They form a large part of the population, they have all kinds of stupid demands and they really hate the Western Society where they live in. They moved here for the economic situations but in their hearts they despise us. We are all Christian swine in their opinion. I think it's already too late to stop them. The Muslims are on the same sort of crusade that the Christians were on 400 or 500 years ago, but this time we will become the hunted. Everybody who speaks out is being threatened or murdered over here and still the authorities don't react. Holland has become a weak, fucked up country. I'm even thinking about moving to another place in a couple of years. The only thing we can do is try to wake up people about this subject, or simply go out and kill them all, haha.
As always the fictional horror-gore stories have returned. This time however, we get a re-recorded version of ‘Beyond Terror' (inspired by Lucio Fulci's "The Beyond") and ‘The Sign Of Sadako' which is inspired by Japanese horror classic "Ringu".
This kind of lyrics are simply a major part of the Thanatos concept. If I would write 10 lyrics about the Islam or Christianity it would get boring, 10 gore lyrics would also get boring, so we try to bring some diversity into the lyrics. On the new album I will definitely try to do some new things lyric wise. Although there will definitely be some anti-religious stuff and fictional horror stories on it as well.
In a previous incarnation of the band, Aad Kloosterwaard (Sinister/Houwitser, Infinited Hate) and Theo Van Eekelen (Houwitser) resided in Thanatos. They were summarily dismissed after "Angelic Encounters". Can you tell us why?
Well, if you listen to "Angelic Encounters" you can hear that Aad's drumming wasn't very good anymore. Personally, I think it pretty much destroyed the album. Aad quit drumming a few years later and it was the best thing for him to do. It was clear to me that Aad would not play on the next album. I think he kind of felt this and quit the band in the same week that we asked Yuri to join the band. Theo was too busy to combine both Thanatos and Houwitser at that time, so he left Thanatos. We still get along fine, and maybe Theo and I will play together in another band one day. He was replaced by Marco de Bruin and to be honest, this is the strongest rhythm section we ever had. This line-up has been together for almost 4 years now and it's still working out fine
Label problems have always plagued Thanatos in the past. You did the first two records for Shark Records. The deal went sour for an assortment of reasons and you eventually bought the right back for both albums. Anything particular you want to comment on this?
I guess we will always be plagued by label problems, haha. Unfortunately, we were never picked up by a real strong, supportive label like Metal Blade or Nuclear Blast, but shit happens. Shark Records were more or less a rip-off label and they weren't interested in our music. They just needed some death metal bands because that type op music sold pretty well in the early 90's. Oh well, they paid for the recordings but they didn't do any promotion and they had a lot of problems with the German press. In the end they didn't pay any royalties although we had sold ten thousands of albums. We had to split up more or less to get out of the contract.
Both albums were re-issued by Hammerheart Records some time later. How have the reactions to the re-issues been thus far? Are they still available or are there plans to get them re-pressed in the near future?
The re-releases were received very well. As far as I know, they're completely sold out now. Hammerheart/Karmageddon said we can do whatever we want with the old recordings. Maybe there will be another re-release or otherwise we will make the complete albums available for download on the internet. We're not sure yet.
Prior to recording your debut "Emerging From the Netherworlds" in '90, Thanatos recorded about 4 demo's. They ensued in a lot of one-off shows with bands such as Death, Sepultura, Autopsy, Bolt Thrower and the likes. How do you remember these days, as you were still an unsigned demo-band back in the day?
As a demo-band we already achieved a lot of success. We played with bands like Kreator, Napalm Death, Death Angel and many more. We headlined shows in Holland in front of 500 – 800 (!) people and we even did some headline shows abroad, like a great headline show in Portugal in front of 1,000 insane fuckers!!! Pretty crazy when you think about it now. We were very disappointed that our record company couldn't help us move to the next level when we finally got a deal. We stagnated when we signed to Shark Records: no tours, no big festival dates, nothing. If we would have had some more support from the label, we would definitely had become a much bigger band.
After the release of ‘92s "Realm Of Ecstasy" two European tours were scheduled: one with Cannibal Corpse, the other with Exhorder. Both were cancelled prematurely but the chemistry within the band was lost as well. The split was inevitable, more or less.
Like you said there were some problems within the band: certain people in the band just weren't serious enough about being in a band. They definitely had an attitude problem. If drinking and doing drugs is more important than writing new songs or playing good live shows, things are definitely over. Of course, the cancellation of those tours and the lack of promotion and commitment of the record company did not make things better either.
In between 1994-1995 you were involved in Age Of Panic, which later resurfaced as Church Of Indulgence. But they never came around to recording anything. Did the involved members part ways and started new bands later?
This band was made up of myself (vocals), ex- Thanatos member Erwin de Brouwer on guitar, bass player Peter van Wees and drummer Dirk Bruinenberg. Erwin and Peter ended up playing in local bands. Dirk, of course, went on to play on various albums from the likes of Elegy, Kamelot, Patrick Rondat. Prog rock stuff, more or less.
Eventually in 1999 Thanatos got re-formed with a new line-up.
I had been thinking about starting up Thanatos again many times. I had to wait until I got back the rights of the first two albums and I had to find new members. Starting over with the old guys was out of the question. They lost their interest in metal and we didn't split up without a reason. The first drummer I approached was our present drummer Yuri, but at that time he was too busy with Liar Of Golgotha. I approached Aad from Sinister/Houwitser. We immediately got a deal with Hammerheart Records and started working on new material.
Atari Teenage Riot also used a riff in one of their tracks. The thing got quite blown up by the media at the time. Did they attempt to make any contact with you for the use of this riff?
Yes, it definitely got blown out of proportion by Blabbermouth. I only found out about this song last year. I don't really care about it too much, but I think they could at least have contacted us before blatantly using our riffs. After the incident I also heard nothing from this Alec Empire person. To be blunt, I think it's a very pathetic way of making music: using another band's riff and building your own song around it. It's just as stupid and pathetic as all those hip-hop artists that use other people's music and do rap lyrics on top of that. So, fuck you, Alec Empire! Try to write your own music for a change!
Thanatos is also linked to Dutch cult doom metal act Sempiternal Deathreign, with whom you shared a drummer. What has come of this band in the end?
Our drummer at that time, Remo, helped them out during the recordings of their debut album. I think he also did one or two shows with them, as far as I know he was a session drummer for Semp and never really joined the band. Their bass player Victor auditioned for Thanatos once after Semp had split up. I have heard some rumours that the singer, Frank, has become a born-again Christian now. I don't know if that's true. None of the guys is still active in the metal scene, as far as I know.
You are also featured in "Worst Case Scenario", a new zombie movie. Can you tell us how you got the part?
Well, they still have to shoot that movie. They only filmed a trailer so far. For the actual shoot they need hundreds of zombies, so hopefully I will be one of the lucky ones that get a good close-up shot, haha. I don't have an actual part, although I would love to play an actual part in a gore/horror movie someday. Maybe I can convince my buddy Killjoy from Necrophagia one day to give me a small part in his upcoming movie. I could do a blood drenched gory porn scene with Jenna Jameson or something like that if she's also in the movie…that would be killer, haha!
Thanks a lot for doing this interview. Last words are yours… Cheers!
Thanx for showing interest, we really appreciate it! Yeah, we definitely come over to Poland later this year or early next year. We were approached for the Winter Conquer Fest last year - but we weren't available on all the three dates. Maybe it works out next time or next year's Summer Fest, that would be even better. Keep an eye on our website for new sound samples of the stuff we will record early July. Stay brutal, stay sick!!!
www.thanatos.info
