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Interview
Deutsche VersionInterview mit The Monolith Deathcult (25.04.2008)
HH: Hi, how are you? I think, not a lot of people already know your band. So, would you please start telling us something about your history? What was the reason to form the band ?
Michiel: Hallo HeavyHardes, I am doing fine. I can assure you a lot of people know our band. But here we go again: We are The Monolith Deathcult, formed in 2002 and we are hailing from Holland. We play a Svpreme avant Garde Deathmetal as you probably noticed while listening to our last piece of instrument Trivmvirate. We released in winter 2002 a four track promo Obliteration Of The Despised". One month later we got a record deal with Cold Blood Industries and we released our debut The Apotheosis. In 2003 we did two European tours with The Crown. In 2004 we recorded our recent album The White Crematorium which was released in march 2005 by Karmageddon Media. You probably know that Cold Blood Industries and Karmageddon Media both got bankrupted. We have a special relationship with recordlabels. The Monolith Deathcult could be compared with a swarm of locusts. We choose a label, eat away all their money, joy and happiness and leave them with nothing but an overwhelming sense of loss. Signing us will, in time, become a permanent loss of happiness. The Twilight-Vertieb label is extreme courageous and has a total disdain for catastrophe and disaster. They sealed their fate by signing us and releasing Trivmvirate and they are hopefully aware of the fact that all record companies who've ever worked with The Monolith Deathcult are completely bankrupted.
HH: What special deathcult is meant with your bandname? Why have you chosen this name?
Michiel: There is no deeper meaning behind our bandname. We chose The Monolith Deathcult because we weren't at all into names like "decapitated liquid baby entrails" and stuff like that, we wanted a name that was clear, sterile, and yet impressive, strong and in your face. For example something like Rammstein. First it was only "Monolith" but there were too many bands with that name and the main goal of The Monolith Deathcult was to distinguish from all (death)metalcliches. I remebered that time that British rockers The Cult called themselves in the early days The Southern Deathcult so we add Deathcult to the bandname. However, try to squeeze that into a logo for a CD cover AND make it legible... so we use often TMDC just short for The Monolith Deathcult.
HH: Your sound is quite different from a "normal" death metal band. You insert techno-sound as well as classical arrangements and soundsamples, which is an unusual combination. Why did you chose this way of playing death metal?
Michiel: For me it isn't unusual. Deathmetal is just the substructure on which I build my songs. I know there are maybe some unwritten laws about how deathmetal is supposed to sound, but I don't follow any rule. We proved with The White Crematorium that we are able to burst out of the narrowing borders of deathmetal and that album was a blueprint for our plans in future. Of course I like brutal stuff, but my vision on "brutal" doesn't mean endless blastbeats and deep growling. For me a band like Strapping Young Lad unleashed much more insanity and hysteria than Sufficationclone numero 1986120.
HH: What kind of music do you prefer? What are your influences?
Michiel: I have a very varied taste of music so I took my influences from Skid Row to Hate Eternal. I must tell you that TMDC isn't only influenced by only music. The biggest influences are our own cheekiness, impudence, arrogance, disrespect and rudeness to unwritten laws and icons in the scene. I personally have a predilection for bands that also carry those banners of boldness & pertness.
The black absurd humor of Peter Steele, the whole Rammstein concept, the impudence of Motley Crue, the bloated pompous personality of Axl Rose and the Monty Python from Hell attitude of Dani & Cradle of Filth, all varnished with a Oscar Wildean taste of inappropriateness and tongue-in-cheek arrogant intellectual elitism. Our music is the most important, but the image is a part of the entertainment. We topped our music with an image of irony, black humour and bad taste, in combination with a morbid fascination for everything that is "wrong". Whenever there are toes to be trodden on, hairs of necks to be raised and dirt to be kicked up, you can be sure we're there, "doing our thing".
HH: What kind of reaction did you achieve with your album ? Have you expected them ?
Michiel: I realised that people will hate me for this but yes, we expected them all. I knew that we were working on something special. We hold the conviction that death metal has reached a ceiling in terms of speed and brutality. It doesn't really get any faster than Cryptopsy and any more brutal than Hate Eternal without flurrying away in one great big cacophony. The timing for releasing an album like Trivmvirate is perfect. Ministry released their farewell album, Strapping Young Lad has left the building, Fear Factory sounds like shit after the departure of Dino and the last two Nile albums didn't have the same impact as Shrines on me. We decided to create a new genre in extreme metal by broadening our music by inserting previously "not done" elements like trancebeats, orchestral manoevres adding to the brutality and speed. We knew it was a win-win situation, so we were not surprised that the people embraced this style. What I read and heard most is that we do something really refreshing and I agree with that. At the moment we notice that the last resistance against TMDC is capitulating and even our most obstinate criticasters recognize our talents and bow annoyed their heads down for our appalling megalomania.
HH: What is the process of a songs' creation? Is every member involved in the writing process?
Michiel: No, I write 90% of the music/lyrics and the remaining 10% is stolen from other bands. TMDC is a dictatorship. I am a total control freak and I do not tolerate contradiction. Resistance means death.
HH: On your homepage is written, you see yourself with irony, bad taste and black humor? Is "Kindertodeslied" just irony?
Michiel: Hmm Kindertodelied wasn't supposed to be funny except our terrible pronounce of the German language.
HH: Especially "Kindertodeslied" could be misunderstood here in Germany, where the era of the 3rd reich is still in a bad remembrance. Aren't you afraid of beeing misunderstood?
Michiel: Ehm how could it be misunderstood in Germany? The lyrics are in German, or is the English language of the German people just bad that they can't read the disclaimer? I also don't get the sentence "misunderstood here in Germany, where the era of the 3rd reich is still in a bad remembrance". I think you that the remembrance of the 3rd Reich is more bad in countries who were occupied during WW2. It annoys me sometimes that some people in Germany feel more victim because of the deeds of preceding generations than people from countries who suffered under a Nazi occupation. The current Germans had nothing to do with the 3rd Reich so don't feel so terrible responsible. In my opinion the whole of Europe (especially the French) was guilty of the rise of Hitler and the Nazi's because of the ridiculous Treaty of Versailles. It could happen that time in every country with the same circumstances as Germany that time. Even the deportation of the Jews wasn't unique. Vichy-France started already the deportation the Jews BEFORE the German authorities asked them for that! So STOP the self-flagellation and be proud on your country for is is the main engine to the European economy.
HH: The relationship between the Netherlands and Germany is sometimes not the best, due to the history. What's your opinion about that?
Michiel: Well I think that is not true. I never heard such things except when we are talking about the Germany-Holland football match. And then we are talking about stupid things like football. Just I said before, I really think that you Germans are too paranoid when it comes to the topic of the war. Sometimes I think that every sense of irony and humour in Germany was forbidden by the Gestapo during WWII and after the war people forgot it. There are rumours here in Holland that the Fawlty Towers episode "The Germans" wasn't seen on Deutsch television. Could you believe that?!
For me the 3rd Reich is quite interesting. I have a weakness for the 3rd Reich. Don't get me wrong, NOT about the atrocities and the Holocaust but for the "merchandise" of The Reich. The uniforms, the logo's, tons of army ranks, the Großveranstaltungs with the bawling leaders. The endless rows of black-helmet uniform, Pfadfinders with Spaten ready to built an empire. I have seen Triumph des Willens many times and my personal preference is the scene were a SA leader is screeching himself almost to a brain haemorrhage during a nightly torch gathering somewhere in the German woods. That has nothing to do with my personal feelings for Germany. I have not any problem with Germans, but the 3rd Reich is the zenith of megalomania and just like The Soviet Union a thankful and endless source for songs.
HH: What about religion? Do you believe in God? Or something else? What makes in your eyes the live worth living?
Michiel: I had a Christian education but I do not support any religion. Religion is something which you keep behind your front door, in your church, mosque, temple or synagogue. Don't bother non-believers with your rules and dogma's. I don't like it when people want to obtrude their religion. The theocracies we had here in Europe some ages ago and the theocracies in the Middle East are examples of a very bad way of carry out your religion. The Islam took the stick over from Christianity in the great Religion Relay Race and the Islam is in my opinion the new religion of death.
HH: What plans do you have for your future? What do you want to achieve with your band ?
Michiel: Musically we have everything on the track and I hope we don't get lazy and start repeating ourselves. Maybe we will do in future a concept album about a book I recently read. It is about an ordinary Dutch floriculturist who was caught by the most extreme obscure and dark Calvinism I ever heard of. This very orthodox belief made him a total stranger for his family. A very somber and desolate book which gives me the again shivers while I am writing this.
HH: What about touring or festivals? Can we expect to see The Monolith Deathcult here on stage?
Michiel: We are booked for Barther Open Air and we have a German label so I suppose that we do more gigs in Germany in the future. We hoped for The Rockhard festival but I am afraid that we can forget this after "Kindertodeslied". We aren't political correct enough for that and they are too afraid that Mille Petrozza will cancel his subscription hehehe.
HH: What are your engagements besides your Band?
Michiel: I educate history and music on a high school, I do some fitness, biking and reading.
HH: If you could live your life one more time, would you do the same things or what would you change?
Michiel: Oh there are several things but I can't write them down here because people will kill me for that. Oh well, I will finish my high school and I will take guitar lessons.
HH: We have come to the final part of this little interview. I have a couple of so-called or-statements. Please choose one of each. You do not have to explain your choice; you may of course if you really want to. It is just some silly thing I came up with and I would like to see if and how it works.
Run or walk?
Michiel: Walk. The human race is designed to walk long distances. Animals run faster but the human will finally catch them while they lay resting from the loss of energy.
HH: Left or right?
Michiel: That depends on the society and situation. For example I hate the policical correct blablabla. When I am in a society of rightwinged people I will do "a praise of socialism", but when I am in a society of treehuggers and people who think that the Islam is a blessing for the world I will talk like hawks of the Republican Party.
HH: Man or woman?
Michiel: Woman, without a doubt. God's gift to man, but the inserting of vocal chords was a Divine failure.
HH: Black or white?
Michiel: Black, because the black people will rule the planet in the future. When the ozonosphere is no more all white people will die or have to hide in caves. The blacks, resistant against the sun, will use the white people as slaves in the mines were they have to dig for minerals. The second reason is that scientists already concluded that the Caucasian race will disappear because the black DNA is more dominant than ours. I always take sides of the winners. As you know Obama is a half-breed but he is called half-black and not half-white.
HH: Thanks for answering my questions, the famous last words are up to you.
Michiel: Thanks for the interview and check out our website and space.