Heaven the Axe – “Sex, Chugs & Rock’n'Roll” (2011)

Independent Release

Review by Tony Cannella

Holy crap! I had no idea what to expect from the Australian band Heaven the Axe. Heaven the Axe is a strange name for a band, but the title of their debut album “Sex, Chugs & Rock’n’ Roll” is just flat out weird. So based on those few things I wasn’t expecting a lot – shallow, I know – but man was I ever caught with my guard down and was treated to 38-minutes worth of ferocious hard rock with a punk rock intensity and attitude.

From the very first song, “Enemy” any doubts I had about Heaven the Axe were quickly laid to waste under a barrage monstrous guitar riffs and a confident swagger. The album simply does not let up for the duration and there are very few quiet moments until the obligatory ballad “Unconditional Love”. This song actually starts of as a sensitive ballad but as the song progresses it gets heavier and heavier, before ending on a sensitive note once again. Lead vocalist Phoebe Pinnock has a voice that is brimming with attitude and is a perfect complement to the hard driving music performed by the band – which is balls out, straight-ahead hard rock and roll. Highlights include: the aforementioned “Enemy”, “Electric Wire” and “So Nirvana”. The final song is the dreaded hidden track that starts at about five minutes in. I thought this practice was long gone? Anyway, the hidden bonus track is probably the weakest song on here; it is a slower song but is nowhere near the quality of the songs that came before it. With “Sex, Chugs & Rock’n'Roll”, Heaven the Axe has released a pure Rock and Roll with more than a little bite. Continue reading »

Interview : Liv Kristine – Leaves’ Eyes (2009)

Interview by Erwin van Dijk

An interview with Liv Kristine from Leaves’ Eyes. This interview is all dedicated to the forthcoming album “Njord”. 

“Njord” is the third full length Leaves’ Eyes album. (the other two were “Lovelorn” and “Vinland Saga”).

I am absolutely happy and satisfied with the album. We’ve never worked this hard before with a production, but we’ve reached our goal. I would even say, we even went further than we thought was possible, technically seen. It has always been important to me that our sound and art is authentic, i.e. that you can hear from the very first tunes that this is Leaves’ Eyes! We also want that our audience really get the feeling of being on a wonderful journey. I feel that our music needs a special well-written and interesting concept which is just as important as the sound, and “Njord” gives you all this.

“Vinland Saga” introduced the Viking elements in Leaves’Eyes. But “Njord” also seems to have some Irish themes, like the songs “Emerald Island” and “Irish Rain” . With “Njord” comes the EP “My Destiny”, which contains besides the song “My Destiny” in two versons also an acoustic version of “Scarborough Fair” and two non album tracks.

“My Destiny” is a song you can easily “tune into”. It’s a good way to introduce the album (out 28.08.), although you will of course have less commercial songs on the record, too. On “My Destiny” is actually an EP, for the price of a single, with four non-album tracks, and one extra album song.

“Vinland Saga” was a concept album. Is “Njord” written with the idea to tell a story or are it twelve individual songs?

The lyrics mainly deal with characters from northern mythology (e.g. “Njord”, “Fröya’s Theme”, “Nine Wave Maidens”, “Ragnarok”), or with places and historical happenings (e.g. “Scarborough Fair”, “The Battle of Maldon”, “Emerald Island“,“Irish Rain”, “Les Champs de Lavande”). This is why I found it necessary to deal with all these different languages. “Vinland Saga” is based on Leif Eirikssons discovery of America, even the EP, “Legend Land”, which followed soon thereafter. “Njord” has a much broader concept, travelling through history, and into Nordic mythology. It has always been important to me that our sound and art is authentic, and that our audience really get the feeling of being on a wonderful journey.The lyrics are written in 8 languages (english, middle-high german, old-english, gaelic, norwegian, icelandic, french and one “self-made” linguistic fictional phonetic sequence)… I even sat down to study a bit French to be able to write one French lyric. I did study Old-English and Middle-high German, so it was really nice to be able to use this knowledge. Gaelic is completely new to me, though, but fortunately I found a wonderful person who helped me. “Njord” is an album that demands an expansion in linguistic terms.

This is your third album. What are the differences between “Njord” and “Lovelorn” and “Vinland Saga”?

Our debut “Lovelorn” was very refreshing and a wonderful start for the band, also the press and the audience were surprised. However, you shouldn’t forget that we all have a huge experience and knowledge as musicians of Atrocity and former ToT (Theatre of Tragedy) to rely on. This brings Leaves’ Eyes a wide step forward, so we were really no newcomers in our genre. Moreover, I really have to say that Atrocity + Liv Kristine is a magic formula! I took my experience from my favourite ToT releases “Velvet Darkness They Fear” and “Aegis” as a basis for Leaves’ Eyes music. Our second album “Vinland Saga” was a manifistation of the music of Leaves’ Eyes – we had “settled” in the genre gothic metal with female vocals. “Njord” is the perfection of both our 2 former albums. Since the first demo recordings for “Njord” we have been able to achieve goals that we thought back in 2007 after the “Vinland Saga” release would be quite impossible. I am so proud of my band members – “Njord” is a dream coming true, and all the hundreds of sleepless nights were worth it. We all have developed as musicians and technicians and this is experience that is unpayable. “Njord” (producer: my husband Alexander Krull) has a power to it that even is more intense than any previous production I’ve been part of. Technically, we constantly have new ideas and aims. We have our own studio and therefore we have the opurtunity to specialize in technical tasks concerning album and DVD productions. “Njord” has even a more bombastic but delicate sound that “Vinland Saga”, because techniques allows it. We recorded the classical parts in Minsk (Lingua Mortis, supervised by Victor Smolski), we had a complete local choir (Al Dente) singing the choir parts, moreover, a special artist playing solos on special instruments like the uillian pipe and the whistle. All this makes this album a multilayered and highly interesting experience for our listeners, for your ears, hearts and minds. If I should describe “Njord” in four words I would say bombastic, emotional, contrastive, and pure.

Where do you get the inspiration for the songs. Some sources are clear, like Ireland and the Norse mythology but what really inspires you to write a song?

It’s first of all my love for my homecountry, the Norwegian Nature, history, my family, the culture – everything I grew up with! I feel that our music needs a special well-written and interesting concept, and I want to travel through time and space.  For me history has always been extremely interesting, and even when I left my homecountry Norway and moved to Germany 12 years ago, I had more books about the Vikings with me than clothes and shoes. I have travelled a lot and been able to see a lot of the world. History, languages, and geography has always interested me. Thorsten is the main composer of Leaves’ Eyes, he works out his ideas on his guitar. “Irish Rain”, however, was an idea I had one early morning. I hurried to the studio and worked out the tunes with him. Sometimes, ideas just appear to my mind, like a complete “song”.

And can you tell us something about the songs on “Njord” and “My Destiny”?

We recorded 18 (eighteen!) songs, and all of them are placed on the single “My Destiny” (out now) or the album “Njord” (out late August). Our listeners will get a lot for the money. That’s a way for us saying “thankyou” to our fans and friends all over the world. To mention a few examples, “Fröya’s Theme” is one of my favourites on the album, too, next to “Irish Rain”. “Fröya’s Theme” is about eight minutes long, it includes five languages, inclusive two “speaking” parts done by Alex and myself respectively. It tells the story about Fröya, the Goddess of sex with her extreme power of beauty. However, her lover Od leaves her as he has “wandering eyes” for other beautiful women. Fröya travels around and through the worlds in Northern Mythology to find him. Her tears are made of gold and they heavily strike the earth. This song is an epic masterpiece composed by Tosso, our guitarist.

Is “Scarborough Fair” a Simon and Garfunkel cover and if it is, why did you choose this song?

I was an exchange student in the English town Scarborough, and I got very interested in their culture. This song is a folk song sung in the middle ages, also by the Vikings, on a trading market, in Scarborough. I wanted to rewrite the tune into a more heavy version and I am very happy with the result!

“Les Champs de Lavande” is a French title. Lavande means Lavender and the South of France (the Provance) is famous for its wide fields (champs) of lavender.
Can you tell us something about this song and why is it a bonus track?

As we had composed the instruments for this song, I thought about France immediately! I immediately sensed the smell of my favourite flower and scent, lavender! The Provance Lavender was famous already in the Middle Ages. I sat down and tried to put together a Franch lyric, and a friend of mine in France corrected it. This song just had to be about Lavender, and it sounds more authentic and special when it is sung in French.

While recording “Njord” you were supported by The Lingua Mortis Orchestra under the aegis of Victor Smolski and a classical choir. Most people will know Victor Smolski from his work with Rage. And this band does not exactly belongs to the same genre as Leaves’Eyes.
How did you find him and what was his influence on “Njord”?

We met Victor during a Rage/Leaves’ Eyes’ show in Greece in 2007. We are so happy that he liked the idea of working with us. It adds the important depth and bombastic character in our music.

The Special Edition will have a Drakkar (viking ship). What can we expect?

This is a way for us saying thank you to our fans and friends. Remember, many of them are collectors. I used to collect Madonna and Black Sabbath/Ozzy special merchendise objects.

One of the things that would make a lot of fans happy is a duet between the Espenæs sisters. (think of Beyonce and Solange Knowless doing a duet). Have you ever considered this for “Njord”?

It’s not that easy since my sister moved back to Norway a couple of years ago, however, I am planning a duet on our fourth album, which will be a folk-oriented album, planned to be released in summer/fall 2010.

Do you already have some details about an upcoming tour?

Europe in November 2009, USA/Canada December 2009, then Europe and Russia in the beginning of 2010, and another long tour in the Autumn of 2010. Moreover, we have planned an acoustic tour between 28.08.-02.09 (please check the news!). We will play a capella in some of the Media Markets, for free for our fans, and we will have a lot of time to make photos with everybody, have a chat with our fans and friends and write some autographs. I enjoy acoustic tours. It’s a nice way to keep up our close relationship with our audience, moreover, we are able to show that we are good musicians and can play live without a huge stage with a huge technical plan behind everything.

And which songs can we expect live?

A set-list still has to be decided on.

Although I think you will be very busy with the promotion of “Njord” this year and 2010 I would like to ask when we can expect a new Atrocity album and a new Liv Kristine solo album?

It’s been 3 years since “Enter My Religion”, and it’s always good to gain a different aspect of your own art after some time has passed by. Right now, I am just about to finish the final recordings of my third solo album, and I see things in a new perspective now. “Enter My Religion” was an expensive production on a major label, however I made the decision in 2008 to release my third solo album on a another label, with a smaller budget, but having more freedom about the whole process, from the very first demo track, until the final master. I am very proud of “Enter My Religion”, however I have developed as an artist and technician and my third album will be a huge step forward. I have put my focus on sounding just like myself, recording songs in one take, so you “get” me with everything I am, my character, my emotional level, my breathing, sometimes perhaps perfect, sometimes maybe not. I just want the audience to hear ME, not some singing lady with a pretty nice voice. I want to creep up inside your hearts and senses. I wrote all the songs together with Torsten (guit. Leaves’ Eyes), all the lyrics myself, and my husband Alex is the producer of the album. Atrocity are already finishing their next Atrocity feat. Yasmin “Calling the Rain”, which will be out end of 2009/beginning of 2010.

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Interview : Ida Evileye – Crucified Barbara

Interview by Si Smith 

Crucified Barbara will stomp across your skull and leave skidmarks, such is the impression they are having all over the world. Their style is balls-to-the-wall hard rock, no holds barred. Third album “The Midnight Chase” hits the streets soon so Femme Metal caught up with bass player Ida Evileye for a quick word.

First of all thank you for taking the time for this interview, and a warm welcome from all at Femme Metal Webzine. For those who are presently unfamiliar with the band, would you like to introduce the different members to us?

Yeah. We’re a four piece band and I (Ida) play the bass, Mia sings and plays lead guitar, Klara plays rhythm guitar and Nicki plays the drums.

Almost 15 years since your humble beginnings you are back with another powerful album. From the outset it is clear that you mean business, with opener “The Crucifier” giving it large 100%. For this listener it is a remarkable trip back into the early Motorhead days and punk-influenced heavy metal. Do you think the band in 2012 still reflects those kind of influences?

Absolutely, we love that type of music. We listen to a lot of different music (Mainly old school for me) and of course that shines through in our songwriting.

You certainly have a memorable band name – could you enlighten us as to where it originates from?

Actually “Barbara” in Sweden is the name for a blowup doll (a sextoy). We were at the Roskilde festival many years ago and we saw that somebody had pinned a barbara on a cross and it looked really evil and cool so that’s where it comes from.

You guys look great in all the promo shots we see and have a very distinct look that reflects your music style – how important is image to the band?

The music is of course the most important thing without a doubt but image is important too. I love to go to concerts and it’s always more fun when the band wants to entertain the audience. So that what we’re trying to do with clothes and makeup!

It has been a remarkable journey across three albums. What are the highlights of the journey for the band?

Oooohhh, there are soo many. The Motörhead tour, the Nuclear Blast deal, the Russian tour, playing at the Download festival, the Australian tour. Meeting Brian May, having a drink with Lemmy……the list goes on!

Throughout the band’s life your lyrics have touched on all the usual hard rock topics. Does this reflect your lifestyle? Who is the biggest party animal?

Hahaha, of course! I am the party animal. You can always count on me and Nicki!

Three years on from “‘Till Death…” , you seem to have a tradition of working a long time on your albums, what is it you are looking for in the final product?

We don’t want it to take so long time but we’ve toured a lot and there has also been business things that’s prolonging the releases. And of course that we don’t wanna release something that we aren’t 100 percent happy with!

“The Midnight Chase” has 11 well-crafted anthems. How does the song-writing process work for you as a band?

It’s different with every song. Some of the songs has been written by one person only and then we’ve worked on the arrangements together (“Kid for the Upperclass” in on example, Mia wrote that song). Other songs we’ve done based on a riff or a melody and we’re written it together (“The Crucifier”, “Shut Your Mouth”). So it’s different with every song really!

By the time this interview gets to you, the band will have just played the Sweden Rock Festival. How did it go?

Greaaaaat! It was fantastic, so many people and a really good crowd! We had a great time, I love that festival!

In July you are heading to Italy alongside Elvenking. That should be some good shows! How have you found the band’s reception in different countries? Have you a favourite?

Italy is really good for us and France is very good too. It’s been good from the beginning and it’s always so nice to come back, you feel like home!

You have also recently been booked for the Getaway Rock Festival in Sweden alongside bands such as Manowar, Saxon and Nightwish. What are your hopes for the festivals this year?

I really like that festival, it’s a bit smaller than Sweden Rock but a lot of cool bands are playing. So we’re gonna have a great show and then drink some beers and watch the other band, so it’ll be a fun night!!!

Finally, what is the next stage for the band? After all the touring this year is there a plan?

More touring, another album etc! This is what we love to do and we’ve just got started so you won’t get rid of us anytime soon!

Thanks for your time, we at Femme Metal wsih the band all the best for the rest of 2012.

Thank you! I wish you the same!!!!!!!

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Interview : Sassy Skeleton & Rotten – Reactive Black

 Interview by Robin Stryker

As Halloween creeps closer on stealthy black-cat feet, my musical taste shifts gears towards darker fare, and you can’t get much darker than “A New Dawn…”, the sophomore album by German doom blues/dark rock band, Reactive Black. It’s like a triple-shot of espresso… dark and delicious but the bitter after-taste lingers. Femme Metal caught up with Sassy Skeleton and Rotten, the masterminds behind Reactive Black for a shockingly candid discussion about their music and their views on politics and religion. Read on, if you dare.

If you don’t mind doing a little memory test, let’s go back in time.Would you tell us about the first time you met and your first impressions of each other?

Sassy: The first time that we met was in Rotten’s recording-studio, where we later did the rehearsals for a coming tour through Eastern Europe with a band I was involved as guest musicians. I don’t know exactly when it was, someday in spring 2005 or so… He opened the door and welcomed me with the words: “Hey, welcome! Want a beer?”. This sounded VERY cool to me and was quite different from people I made music with before. So, what should I say…from the beginning there was no real distance between us, like in other bands before.You know, sometimes it’s hard to be a woman…;-)

Rotten: LOL…I remember that day, Sassy went to the studio by her motorbike. My first impression of her was that she was self confident between a horde of “fucked up” musicians, LOL…what else should I say to her, than: “beer?” Sassy was different than other female singers with all of her behaviour, not like a chick or whatever… The first time hearing her voice was impressive for me, because it was remarkable.

Sassy: >smile<…Rotten was very directly with his way, he was not colouring something …. and later, when we have been already on tour, I understood, Rotten was also a guest musician like me, too. We never talked about being a guest musician, so we couldn’t know this about each other, strange. But then, one day, right in the middle of the Carpathian Mountains….

Rotten: Transylvania…spooky….

Sassy: Yes indeed…;-) spooky…..Right there, we talked about music itself, our influences, our idols, our way of life etc….and found out, this was close to each other. So we decided to write some songs together after finishing the tour, which went really great by the way. So, back in Germany, we worked at the beginning on ideas via e-mail over more than 300 km and sporadically meeting.This was not very satisfying. Later Rotten moved to Hamburg and since this time, working together is much easier…;-)

You both were in bands before forming Reactive Black. When you first met, what projects were you involved in?

Sassy: There were some projects and former bands where I’ve been involved in as a singer, mostly in Gothic Metal bands, sometimes with German lyrics These formations represented often the style of a “beauty and beast” image — but over the years, I found out, this kind of singing was not my way, I’m no dark princess or opera singer. This role is definitely too feminine for me, I cannot identify myself with this. So I decided to find or build up a project where I could express myself more than before with my kind of vocal timbre. Before I did the guest musician thing, I was part of another gothic music project which was more experimental and electronic.I was more able to bring in my darkened voice or my kind of singing, but…..how things go, there have been the so called personal differences, lol, etc…another reason for going on tour, to get new influences is always better than standing still. Then I met Rotten, we built up Reactive Black, and well…the rest is fucking history..

Rotten: Nearly the same here…many bands and several outputs…from old days Punk bands, via Power and Glory Metal, Oi to Black and Death Metal…but sometimes there are people in the music biz and musicians…it’s surely unbelievable…I can’t tell what I felt about them and what I felt in some bands…so shorten it up and say, I was MORE than unhappy in some of these bands, especially in the Goth Genre. Words like “hey, that’s not goth enough” and so on or just like in the Metal section “hey, that’s too dark” and this shit… Hey, come on…this is what I feel…no need to categorise or limit myself! I am how I am..not more, no less. Over the years, I learned to play the instruments for my needs on my own in order to make myself not depend to others… Ok, some instruments I do not play very well, lol, but I play them in this way, that I could let out, what I feel….sorry, now, what WE feel, LOL!!! This dependence was also the reason for me to get the skills of audio engineering etc to build up my own commercial recording studio, so that I can work however and whenever I wanted to work.So far, so good…;-) 

Considering that the two of you have essentially been the band for most of its history, what is your relationship like?

Sassy: What?! We love and hate each other quite a lot, lol! We can only work together under influence of a lot of spirits or psychoactive substances, hahaha Okay, stop joking, there was equality since we started with the project and we felt more and more like a band fitting together.

Rotten: I think, I can say, that we have respect for each other. Honesty, reliability, teamwork, that’s what it’s all about…

If you had to describe Reactive Black in five words, which would you choose?

Rotten: One word will describe all of Reactive Black’s aspects for me: BLACK!!!

Sassy: Polarising, different, emotional, darker, BLACK!!! 

I’ll go out on a limb and guess that you were not born with the names Sassy Skeleton and Rotten. Where did your nicknames come from?

Sassy: Well, Sassy is a short form or a nickname of Saskia. But we have already noticed that the term “sassy” is also a synonym for “cheeky” or “impudent”….. It is not like that, I would not be impudent in my behaviour  but it has nothing to do that, I am a “sassy skeleton” -– just a simple clarification…but the surname “Skeleton” is rather self-explanatory but it has a special meaning for me, for sure. The “skeleton” or better to say, the “bones” have always had a deeper meaning in different cultures or for some people for their own rituals to get in touch with the mystic or dark side. So I always played with this kind of statement and the English meaning too…

Rotten: In my childhood they called me Rotten, because of The Sex Pistols Johnny Rotten, it was simply a joke on names, but an honour to me…finally as a fan of the Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious was the reason for me to start playing bass guitar Puh, a long time ago…but today it is more that my name describes how I see the world…;-)  

Congratulations on releasing your second full-length album, “A New Dawn…” ! What vision did you have for this album and in which ways is it different than Reactive Black’s 2007 release, “Upcoming Evil”?

Sassy: We wanted to work out much more the musical elements that really represent us. We wanted the songs to come more directly without losing their emotions or without losing the catchiness. And sometimes it was much more about giving answers to our own questions or finding out something about ourselves We wanted to combine our aggression more with our own unique melancholic atmosphere, created by the keyboards and also with my voice. This record should more deepen the body of thoughts which already appeared on “Upcoming Evil” …. For myself, sometimes it was quite a hard time to get through, LOL, I was suffering a lot , not least in cause of the outer circumstances. It was important for me to bring in more emotional feelings with the vocals….not to leave our path which we went on since the first album, and support much more our kind of dark style…. We are no happy people, so we show it on this record how we think about life and about the world outside but in the end I was glad to express my sadness, disappointments and hate on this album. So, what should I say, I think “A New Dawn…” has a special dark vibe, a sinister atmosphere…when you hear through the whole record and you are alone, you will get a bitter “aftertaste”….What I like to say is that there is no good feeling left, like a happy end ….

Rotten: The vision behind this records? Hmmmm..at least to free our minds!!! LOL!? But..uh, hard to say… for me, “A New Dawn…” grabs on some of the feelings we already started on our first record “Upcoming Evil” but we put it together with more electronic elements, without letting them take over the song. But I think these electronical influences are now definitely an elemental piece for our kind of sound and songs too. It was my wish to make the songs a little bit harder and more in the face without losing their brittleness of feelings the songs are about…and without following the cliché. So, we described our points of hate, with more aggression, our points of views and our views of the world we live in and we do not like very much…;-) and of course again we send out questions to those stupid steam followers without an own opinion or point of view…caring about nothing more than a well filled fridge. I cannot describe with words what I feel about those people…but I must say…the record describes the feelings we had during the time we did it, and yes, sometimes it was hard to get through because of the things that happened. 

Reading between the lines, it seems that the process of finishing your new album was a longer process than expected with some painful set-backs along the way.What happened?

Rotten: Damn shure!! Sometimes it was hard…the loss of good friends, even the coming and going of false friends, dramaturgies inside of my family and even the death of beloved friends during this time was hard for me. So these changes put sometimes our work on the records nearly down to zero…but then, like ever in life, we have to reflect who we are and what we wanted. We decided to reset ourselves, think about who we are, what we can do and decided to hit the way what WE considered as correctly. So, “A New Dawn…” is a very emotional thing for us.

Sassy: Sometimes it was very frustrating, thus a hard fight…against time and against unexpected circumstances…. Unfortunately we also had bad experiences with some musicians — but they were like….let’s say more than a very bad joke — shit, but sometimes you recognize things when it is already too late.You lose so much time with this bullshit, too Damn, no time to lament, sometimes, losing means winning! You never know why things sometimes happen like that…..some things you will get to know only in the end …..the end your only friend, like Morrison liked to say, lol, shows. 

Reactive Black’s lyrics explore dark themes and some rather unpleasant aspects of humanity. Are there particular issues that make you just shake your heads at the self-destructive tendencies of mankind?

Rotten: For me, it is more than just shaking my head…I have some days where I am looking out for another reason NOT to press the red button to reset the whole world without having any backup …I think humanity itself is just a mistake of gods.It is a bad virus. What did I say? Of the gods, fuck, I do not believe in any god, by the way…Religion is a very evil thing to humanity. I prefer darkness, silence and loneliness in my life. I give a fuck for what people expect me to do..I live my own life and this must not be the one of any other. So, let’s be a little bit elevated…I love the night, when everything is silent and everything is much more intensive… I am no child of the night but I like the moonlight more than the sun, coldness more than heat… So I always do not like places with many people, as well as busses or subways and so on.. I am really thinking of moving to the top of cold and freezy Norway….LOL…. I can say…some days I really hate the world….and, fuck, I feel it is like a world full of Zombies…caring about nothing more than making money or bearing down on people….so please, no more words about this…;-)

Sassy: Jep, sometimes Rotten is not able to go out and get some fresh blood, muhuhaaahaaa So, it is on me to go out for a hunt, lol. Seriously, I don’t like masses of people too and I don’t like the “rush hours” you are involved in daily…when the night begins, everything is more patient, there’s no trouble around. I can concentrate myself on the creative work. We are a kind of “night breeders”, lol. That’s right, it’s so beautiful when the moon is full and everything is quiet I’m happy to live not directly in the city of Hamburg, it’s more the “suburbia” and I be surrounded by a nature reserve. You will go crazy when you are always stuck in the crowd. Like Rotten said before, religion really sucks… like Christianity or the Islam, or Judaism or whatever….this is an instrument which lets the people be stupid to put pressure on them. The believers are forced to kill each other in the name of god — they don’t questioned it! What the fuck!?

Rotten: We do not help them to kill each other…muhuhaaa …stupid people…

Sassy: LOL…But anyway, politics sucks too, especially here in Germany but also in the rest of the world. So much corruption, megalomania, greed and exploitation. The people are always fucked by the government, which tries to persuade that we still live in a democracy and that we all have the same rights and blah blah blah ….they told us that globalization is a perfect way to be united…it’s only valuable for the big concerns and lobby groups to get much more influence in politics and society (but, what they don’t really say, is that the people lose their employment because everything is getting more and more in price dumping!)…..I hate that everything changes into stereotype masses. When you have idealistic visions and no commercial intentions then you are declared as a “crank” or “dreamer”… 

I was interested to read that the track “Taste of Paradise” was inspired by the French poet, Charles Baudelaire. Was your inspiration “The Litanies of Satan” from his Les Fleurs du Mal volume? Why does Baudelaire’s poetry appeal to you?

Sassy: Jep, I was inspired by Baudelaire’s litanies verses, they really suits me It’s because Satan is often a misunderstood character, not only in the bible, which is for me definitely NOT the book of books……he is still responsible for every kind of dark theme, for the misbehavior of mankind, for every kind of pain and so on. Let’s say, Baudelaire moved Satan and his character over into a “positive” light he described and honoured his “qualities” and did not declares them as “evil failures” like all the representatives of religion groups did before and still do. What is Satan or Lucifer…in the real meaning of the name he is the bringer of the light…so it means wisdom, placing questions as well…What’s wrong about to say “something’s going wrong here ?!” Or to put inconvenient themes into a question….When you say what you don’t like or don’t have respect for someone or something….you are a troublemaker, a “grumbler” in the view of the society…that comes along to Satan, he disagrees to “divine regulation” and therefore he was cast off by “god”. By the way, I don’t believe in that what they call “god” …For me, Baudelaire’s works/poems are offensive and provoking, they deal with unsuitable themes and social criticism, it’s about his sufferance of the world he was living in, and I think he reflects himself and his depressed soul. He represents the dark aspects of human existence. For me, I think, he was a rebel and he has chosen the way to be a writer, this was his tool to fight against the social conventions at that time.It was not a kind of worship Satan, to speak out the lyrics of the song “taste of paradise” like a sacral speech, but absolutely some kind of tribute to Satan…until now, some reviewers weren’t able to understand that the lyrics at the end of the song are spoken in reverse. They noticed it as a bad “rap” thing or something like that….I think they don’t even get it

Our thanks for donating a song to Femme Metal Records compilation, “Beauty and Brutality”. Why did you choose “Thoughts” as the song to introduce listeners to Reactive Black?

Sassy: I think this song represents our sense for darkness and melancholy. “Thoughts” is floating, has a catchy tune and has a lasting effect. The lyric deals with the expression of internal emptiness…to feel as an alien, as somewhat very strange in the midst of the society.

Saskia, in addition to being a musician, you are also a photographer and free-lance artist. Can you tell us about combining all those talents together to create the music video for “Doom”, the final track on the new album?

Sassy: Yes, that’s right. I studied  Illustration and Design here in Hamburg and after my graduation, I have lived and worked as a free-lance artist. I express myself not only by voice and by lyrics but also in a creative way in form of photographs and collages (as well as painted and drawn pictures) … it’s always some kind of dark style. I keep myself busy with dark and mystic themes, also with mythological ones and try to put them into a form by visual instruments… I really prefer to underline our statements and lyrics by art and design. I did the artwork of both booklets of our albums “Upcoming Evil” and “A New Dawn…” and I’m also responsible for the design on our website, let’s say the art direction of Reactive Black. It’s important for me and for Rotten, as well that we make the decisions and the concepts for the visual stuff of Reactive Black. So, I had the first ideas of our videoclip “Doom” — I had some aspects in my mind like the pictures with the coffin and the “dead and alive” painting on my face. Rotten and me put our ideas together ‘cause we wanted to express our morbid and dark style here in this clip too and not only in the music. You cannot divide these things, music and visual arts belong together. It’s always important for us that a video tells a story and does not show a simple or boring uniform band performance like thousands of other videos…so Rotten wrote the whole videoscript and we started with a few friends to set our visions into scene.  

Rotten, one of my favourites is the spoken-language track “Fading Away”, which is completely different than anything else that Reactive Black has done.What were you going for with this song?

Rotten: Yes, it is different.This song is a statement about Sassy’s and my life. Some days we feel like aliens on a very strange planet…so why don’t put a song into a strange and different form…I think with this instrumentation, the words on “Fading Away” have the place they already need. And thank you Sassy, you did a great job on this!!!

Sassy: I like the timbre of my voice…I tried to express it by my emotions and inner feelings although I didn’t write the lyrics of “Fading Away” but as Rotten said before, I feel in the same way about the world and the place I live in, sometimes I feel like an alien too….at least this song is a very intimate thing for us… 

You had been searching for musicians to round out the line-up for live performances. Have you found everyone you need to start performing live shows?

Rotten: There are several things that make it very hard…first of all…Hamburg is definitely NOT the place where we want to live, ‘til we are old…and is NOT the best place for goth musicians or dark rock musicians as well. This town is full of Power Metal Heads, Emos etc…but we need a musician, who is black inside and feels the music in a way we do…and lets our music grow, not stagnate. But finally we found N:H:S: for the job on the live guitar. I think, he feels the songs and the music, in a way like we do and we he has still the same influences. But also for the future, Sassy and myself will continue being the heads of Reactive Black, so a little bit different than other bands, but I think that’s no problem.

What is the current music or club-scene like in Germany?

Sassy: That’s a bad thing. It’s so frustrating when you see that most of the underground bands are playing in front of a handful of people because the clubs didn’t care to promote the events before or let the bands start playing so damned early in the evening that there is unfortunately no audience at all.We had this case two weeks ago…there was a concert with 4 bands (3 of them came from Finland) on a Saturday “night” at the Reeperbahn here in Hamburg, that’s the best day for an event like this — BUT…the first band started at 7 p.m. and the last at about 10 p.m. The room was cleared at 10:30 p.m.There were a big crowd outside of the club but nothing was going on INSIDE the club. It was more important for the club owner that the “club party” with techno or mainstream shit started right on time at 11 p.m. than to let the bands playing longer…that was a really a bad joke…

Rotten: Yes it is a bad thing…many smaller but very attractive clubs have died in the last couple of years, not to say this walked over the years. Many of today’s club owners are not experts in having a club, it is more a thing about making quick money…so they think they would do a favour for the bands to let them play live…but sometimes you have to rent the club for a lot of money…So many bands are surely not able to play live because of this costs.Today it is also common to pay for going on tour with a more established band…as well some German magazines go over, maybe because of the disastrous financial condition, to let the bands pay to for a review in their magazines…that’s fucking bullshit, isn’t it? So in a few years there will be only a handful of big festivals with the same old and sucked out bands…a very nice vision…argl! 

Thank you so much for talking with us today. Do you have any final words for your fans at Femme Metal? 

Sassy: That’s right.Thanks so much for doing the interview. So we are really pleased that we got the chance to talk to you guys at Femme Metal. Keep up the good work on supporting outstanding female fronted goth metal bands.

Rotten: Thanks you for this interview and the chance to being part of the compilation.

Rotten/Sassy: One thing left to say for our friends, thanks for reading and: STAY BLACK AND BE YOURSELF!   

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