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Interview
Deutsche VersionInterview mit Torture Squad (13.05.2008)
HH: How are you doing having done your new record Hellbound?
Amilcar: Right now we are on tour here in Europe to promote our new album Hellbound and we have about sixty shows ahead. We are very happy with all and after that European tour we'll come back to Brasil to start the Hellbound's Brazilian and South America tour.
HH: Torture Squad are well-known in South America especially in Brazil but over here in Europe Torture Squad are known little. What's the reason for that in your opinion?
Amilcar: It's because we had played, all this years ago, in Brazil and some countries of South America more than Europe. It's "easier" for us. When I said "easier" I just talk about money, especially the price of the airplane tickets and actually this is the worst and difficult part for us bands from Brazil because it's very expensive for us to go to europe, and about Brazil and South america we can do everyting on our own. Here in Europe we need a lot of people working with us to book a tour. Now we have a label, booking agency and a manager that work good with us. Because of this, now the things tend to grow up but years ago we didin't have any support like this.
HH: How does it feel to be well-known in Brazil playing big festival while here in Germany you have to play the small clubs?
Amilcar: Actually for us it's doesn't matter because we all love to play. We love play our instruments and metal music. Surly that is fuckin'g great play in big festivals to big audiences, we like it very much, but we have the same feeling when we play in this big festivals or to ten people in a small Squat.
HH: What's the difference between playing in Germany and playing in Brazil?
Amilcar: Play in Brazil is special for us because this is our country and there are the first Torture Squad fans. They know all our albuns and often ask us to play more old songs etc... Here in Germany is special as well because here was the first european country that we played and since then the german's headbangers always have given a great support to us.
HH: Where's the difference in the audience?
Amilcar: The difference is that the German headbangers need more time to join the show. First they watch the show and after some songs they start make a mosh or bang their heads. In Brazil it needs almost nothing to make the headbangers start a mosh like a crazy rockers! (Laughs) But, like I told you, this is because the Brazilian's headbangers know all our stuff but in Germany the things be changing now and the most of the people that are coming to our show know our songs and I think this is a big motivation to do a big mosh in the begining of the show, isn't it?! (Laughs)
HH: Some years ago in 2004 there's been the release of your live-CD Death, Chaos And Torture Alive over here, Hellbound is the first regular release in Europe. How do you feel about that?
Amilcar: We are very happy with that finally. We needed to work with an European label to release our album. Surely that we wanted that our other albums had been released in Europe in that time but it was not possible and now that we need it we'll work a lot that our future albums can be released here as well.
HH: Slowly but sure there's some sort of Thrash Metal revival in Europe and the USA and some big mags here in Germany start pushing this movement. What do you think about this Thrash Metal renewal?
Amilcar: I think this is fucking great! We love thrash metal old school, by the way, is one of the our most influences together with death metal bands from the nineties. In Brazil exists this revival too and there's a lot of good thrash metal bands there nowadays.
HH: Right now you are on tour in Europe and you are participating once again at the Wacken Metal Battle as the promo sheet is telling me. You already won the battle in 2007, how do you rate your chances this time?
Amilcar: This year we are not part of the Metal Battle cause you can do this only one time. This time we are "a normal band" in Wacken. And we are really happy that its possible to return to that place of victory, haha.
HH: How's the tour going all in all? How is your relationship to the other bands?
Amilcar: The tour is great until here. We played in all Metal Battle's in Germany, Holland and Italy as a headliner while the judges are sitting together to decide which bands will go to the next level... All this gigs had a great support and we have a big tour ahead with Cilice from Holland as well. It will be great! Our relationship with the other bands is cool because we know that there are good bands and good people. We like to exchange informations.
HH: Which gig was the best so far, where did you get the best reactions?
Amilcar: It's so difficult to answer this cause in some kind of way every gig was great, but I can talk especially about the Hamburg's gig. This concert was really important for us because our album was released in Germany April, 25th and this concert happend April, 26. Everybody from the label and all the people that now work with us had been there and we had to do a great show. I think that all was fine because they liked the show and we stayed very happy about that.
HH: If you could choose bands to tour with, dead or alive - which bands would that be and why?
Amilcar: Slayer, Coroner and Death because they are bands that have great influence on us and we love all!
HH: Your new record Hellbound is the fifth record in the history of Torture Squad and it's a really heavy piece of Thrash Metal. What are the commoness and difference between Hellbound and your older records?
Amilcar: I think that Hellbound is a bit different if you compare it to our old albums. The production is better so you can hear each and every instrument well. About the compositions: I guess we have the same structure like in our old songs but one thing that is a little bit different is in Hellbound there are some songs with nice melodies, a thing that we never did before.
HH: Talking about Hellbound, the record starts with five very fast songs. Then you start to slow down. I think the order of the songs is a little bit unfortunate because of the speed of the songs they start to resemble one another very strong. What do you think about that?
Amilcar: Each one has a point of view about that. We like it this way because the first songs is the normal Torture Squad style, is more or less like our old stuff, and the other songs are a little bit different because as I told you, there are new things in the songs that we never composed before and because of that this songs are more is the end of the album.
HH: The track "The Four Winds" stands out because of its Asian-inspired introduction. Where did you get the inspiration for this song?
Amilcar: Mauricio Nogueira, our ex-guitar player, composed this song and he had a big influence of classic erudite music. Surely this kind of music was his great influence to compose this song.
HH: The final track "Hellbound" combines all of Torture Squads strenghts, very dynamic songwriting, strong riffs and lots of groove. I think this is one of the best tracks, if not even the best track on the record. It's very uncommon to put such a strong track at the end of an album. Why did you place it there?
Amilcar: This is the point man... The last song is always the best, like in the concerts! (Laughs) We love this song and somehow it is special for us because like you said, this song has strong riffs and lots of groove, because of this we put it as the last song of the album. So the record ends with a real punch in your face!
HH: How do you decide the order of the songs in general?
Amilcar: This is a very natural thing. Everybody talks about it and we chose the best order to the songs. In Hellbound's case happened the same thing and naturaly songs like "Twilight For All Mankind" and "Hellbound" that for us has specials melodies stayed as the lasts songs.
HH: Some time ago Max and Iggor Cavalera reunited under the flag of The Cavalera Conspiracy. Do you think there will be a reunion of Sepultura with the Cavalera-brothers?
Amilcar: I don't know nothing about some reunion of the classic line-up from Sepultura but if it happend will be fucking great! I listened to the Cavalera Conspiracy's album and I like it very much. There are moments in this album that I remind me on Sepultura's old stuff, by the way, we like that so much and it was also a great influence.
HH: Final Question: Imagine Hellbound is a typical Brazilian food. What would it be and why?
Amilcar: Cool question, I like! (Laughs) I think would be a food called Feijoada and sure with typical brazilian drink Caipirinha. After you ate feijoada and drunk caipirinha the first thing that you need is a bed because this food is very heavy and the caipirinha just finish the work. (Laughs)
It will happen with the hadbangers when they listen to Hellbound. They will bang their heads and when finish the album, drink some bears and after all that, "die" in the bed! (Laughs)
HH: Thanks for your time and good speed. Any last words?
Amilcar: We are very happy with this oportunity to spread a little more about Torture Squad in your site with this interview. We appreciate that a lot! Thanks and we hope meet all the headbangers on our shows! THE TORTURE NEVER STOPS!