Talking with . . .   Atrocity

Interview with vocalist Alex Krull
German metal band Atrocity have one of the most unique and prolific careers of any band. Their early albums (Hallucinations and Longing for Death) were technical death metal discs. When they recorded Blut in 1994 you could start to see Atrocity's progression, but nothing could prepare for the two 1995 albums; the acoustic, new age Calling the Rain and the industrial goth Die Liebe. Willenskraft was a return to the metal roots, but it was a tighter and more focused Atrocity. In 1997 they released the controversial album of covers from eighties pop bands, Werk 80. 2000's Gemini took Willenskraft's ideas and expanded upon them and now after a four year wait, Atrocity release the magnificent Atlantis. Their best and most varied effort to date, Atlantis is one of the few must have albums of 2004. Here is mainman Alex Krull to tell us about Atrocity's latest, among other things.

Why did you feel Atlantis was a good theme for a concept record?
Atlantis is a great story, the biggest myth on earth, the myth of myths. It has many elements which are fascinating at the same time: Cradle of mankind, Mythology of the gods, mystical, occult and dark subjects, the old wisdom, many legends on earth are connected with Atlantis and the doom of the Atlantean empire itself. I was getting in touch with some strange things regarding Atlantis when I was eighteen years old and I was together with my youth girlfriend. Her stepmother said she was origin Atlantean and she was reincarnated. Of course I was really confused but since then I was interested in the Atlantis topic. More or less I was getting new information about Atlantis through the years, reading some stuff and the idea to do something with Atlantis is quite an old idea, I just wanted to wait until the time was ready for it. When I suggested to the others to do a concept album for Atlantis this time, everybody was enthusiastic about the idea. There are many other aspects for the Atlantis topic, too which can be also very interesting nowadays in that times we are living. Just look around, all that radical ideas coming up from religion and politics. Atlantis could be warning sign like Plato maybe wanted to show to the ancient Athens or it could be even a danger for certain parts of religion. What if the paradise was meant not to be in heaven and it was just on earth and called "Atlantis" like many people suggested already? It could be just a longing from people who lost their paradise on earth and you really find the idea of getting back to the paradise and your ancestors after death in nearly every religion. Some of the "holy" and "sacred" things can sometimes just simply explained. The big flood which took away Atlantis could be the same like described in the bible, the one the Aztecs talk about and many other cultures in the whole world. By the way the Azteks called their lost paradise "Aztlan" and some African tribes talk about "Atlantioi", the sunken island. The album itself starts with the legends around Atlantis and the description of the lost empire followed by the Greek mythology of gods which is an important part of the story of Atlantis, too. We show the whole story of the Atlantean Empire, the rise and the fall and finally the doom. With different point of views and atmospheric elements the music takes you into the antediluvian world. In "Clash of the Titans" for example we show the biggest ancient battle and the last stand of Atlantis when the great empire lost the war against the old Hellens. In songs like "The Sunken Paradise" or Aeon" you find the sorrow and the escape from the destroyed continent. On the c.d. is a multimedia part with the lyrics, and with tons of background information about each of the songs it's really a killer. Also the "Cold Black Days" video is on the c.d. as well as our own Atlantis font.

I felt Atlantis did a great job of covering all the styles you've displayed through the years from melodic goth to fast and aggressive, did you approach the songwriting for the record with this idea in mind? In other words; did you want to have all facets of Atrocity's sound on one album?
You are right. I think an album like Atlantis is a great and varied output after a while and shows the big musical spectrum of Atrocity. We wanted to create a dark soundtrack of a big myth with metal songs. The Atlantis concept has to be shown with different emotions and that's an important fact, too. Around Atlantis there are so many legends and rumours which reach from pure science to occult things. In every period of time there have been people thinking about Atlantis, that's really interesting. We wanted to keep all emotion and atmospheric parts of the whole story we thought are necessary to create a great epic album and giving the listener a musical picture of the mystical sunken continent. So it has wild and furious parts, the big ancient battles, the mythology of the gods which is more hymnic in the music, the glorious times, the mighty empire and of course the doom of Atlantis and the apocalypse of the whole world and the escaping of the survivors to all parts of the world. This all could happen here on earth and not just in a fantasy world. Isn't that fantastic?

I've read where Martin has recently decided to leave both Atrocity and Leaves Eyes, was there a particular reason for his departure?
At the moment we are on tour together, actually in Barcelona, and we enjoy playing our shows together and the tour is great. I think Martin has decided to follow other plans, and I guess the two bands are just taking too much time from him.

What would you be looking for in a potential replacement drummer?
The drummer has to be very skilled and he has to play in different ways, not only fast and tight but also very groovy. He has to have a feeling for our music and we want to have somebody who fits personally into the atrocious family- and that's not the easiest part. In the moment there are some cool drummers who want to get the job and we will see who will do it in the future.

I know you've experienced great success in Europe and in Germany in particular; but what reception have you received from American shores; especially since Atlantis is the first album released domestically here in many years?
It's very hard to say. Of course we are getting response from the U.S. but since there was no official release for a while some people already asked if we have split up. That's very strange for us to hear such rumours while you are playing big festivals over here, meeting nearly everyday in our Mastersound Studio, writing new songs and so on. We steadily released albums and played around and it's sad that many fans in the U.S.A. didn't get the information or the chance to listen what we are doing. In the moment it seems it's getting better after Napalm released the new Atlantis album. The reactions are great so far, I'm very happy about that.

Is there any chance for an American tour or festival appearance? When was the last time you were over here?
The last time was the Milwaukee Metal Fest 1999. So it's time to come over again. We are going to do a South/Central American tour around March 2005 and there is the idea about doing some shows in the U.S. and Canada, too. That would be very cool.

The war in Iraq and the upcoming presidential election has divided people in the U.S. these days; as a German citizen, what type of press is this receiving? Do you find people in Germany are not supportive of George W. Bush?
Sorry to say but I'm not a Bush fan at all like many other Europeans. Of course we heard about the things going on before the election, and it makes me think. I guess Michael Moore made a good movie about this man. Politics and religion are so fucked up in this world. Corruption, lies, propganda, manipulation, wrong information and it's getting more worse from day to day.

Your third album, Blut, started to show signs of Atrocity's sound crossing different genres and willingness to experiment; but it was really Calling the Rain and Die Liebe which brought Atrocity to different types of audiences; not just the metal crowd; what drove your willingness to experiment and add such new ideas to Atrocity's sound?
It's a funny fact that before we did Calling the Rain or the great selling album Werk 80, people didn't believe that something like that would have success but it had. But success is not everything to me. I see Atrocity in the vein of my evergreen heroes Pink Floyd or Laibach who both have made albums which have been very different to each other. Atrocity can not be described in just one special category. We did a lot of different things in the past and we also liked to do musical experiments. We like to combine several musical elements and styles. Atrocity is a band which has been always looking for new and extreme horizons in metal music and even dared to do things other metal bands wouldn't dare. We also want to keep the character of the band in doing follow ups of works like the ethno album Calling the Rain with my sister Yasmin and Werk 80.

I always thought both Willenskraft and Gemini were underrated albums, both were hard to find in America and had to be purchased on import; why were you unable to secure a label deal or licensing arrangement in this territory? How were these albums received by the European press?
Both albums went well over here. Willenskraft was very well rated in the press, in the German Rock Hard magazine 10 of 10 points. I don't know why there was never a licensing deal for us after Massacre Records. U.S.A. went down just before the B.L.U.T. release. With the Gemini album we have been signed to the major label Motor/Universal. They do bands like Limp Bizkit, Rammstein or Marilyn Manson in Germany. We were getting a bunch of money and we have entered the German charts again but the pity was actually that there was nearly no good distribution of our last record Gemini outside Germany, Austria, Switzerland; except Mexico, where we played with In Extremo, there was only a very poor distribution situation for us. We have been aware of that "major problem" before and signed a contract which helps us to get out of this situation. Napalm will re-release our backcataloque next year, our 20th anniversary, and then you should get most of the albums in the states, too, I hope.

Was it difficult working on Atrocity and Leaves Eyes albums virtually one after the other?
Of course it was a hard job to do two albums in a row. I didn't have much sleep that period, often I slept in the studio, and don't forget about the fact that Liv and me got parents just after she finished the vocals for the Leaves Eyes record. It was a great challange to make it all but when I'm looking back I'm glad we did it. The albums went out great and that was the goal.

I know you're also an in demand producer; do you enjoy your work? What type of bands do you like working with and what do you think is your best work to date?
I love my work as a producer and to work with different artists. It was always my dream to built up an own studio and we made it. The Mastersound Studio is booked and going very well. It's hard to say which band's I prefer because luckily all studio sessions went well so far. In the monet I do the new Belphegor album, so look out for the upcoming Belphegor album it will be a killer album like Lucifer Incestus.

I know you've filmed a video for "Cold Black Days" and Napalm is still promoting Atlantis; what form of promotion have you discovered to be best for Atrocity? Does the music media give your band a chance on radio or t.v. in Germany?
I think a video is very important nowadays. The "Cold Black Days" video was shown very often on the Rock shows of German Music TV channel VIVA, so we are satisfied at the end. But it's not like that metal music is established in Germany's mainstream radio or TV, it's still very hard even if you are No.1 in the album charts like Nightwish. In Germany there are not so many Rock Radio stations so it's more important to get played in the clubs. We had a lot of club promotion and the single "Cold Black Days" was played all over the clubs.

What plans do you have for the next few months? When do you start writing and getting ideas together for the next record?
We already have a tough schedule. After our tour we fly over to Greece to play two shows with Paradise Lost and then we already start with the recordings of the new Leaves Eyes record end of December. Then we will tour again in the beginning of 2005 and recording the new Atrocity album which will be the follow up of Werk 80.

Discography:
2004... Atlantis (Napalm)
2000... Gemini (Universal)
1997... Werk 80 (Massacre)
1996... Willenskraft (Massacre)
1995... Die Liebe (Massacre)
1995... Calling The Rain (Massacre)
1994... Blut (Massacre)
1992... Longing For Death (Roadrunner)
1991... Hallucinations (Roadrunner)

Current line-up:
Alex Krull... vocals
Thorsten Bauer... guitars
Mathias Roderer... guitars
Chris Lukhaup... bass
Martin Schmidt... drums

www.atrocity.de

TTM reviews of albums by Atrocity:
	2008 - 'Werk 80 II'