POWERWOLF interview by Damjan
Their debut album, “Return
In Bloodred”, certainly was striking, but it’s with the new one, “Lupus Dei”,
that Powerwolf really showed us how serious they are when it comes down to
playing strong, catchy melodic heavy metal, with a fistful of theatrical
atmospheres and effects. Following the footsteps of Alice Cooper-esque stage
antics coupled with in-your-face music full of hooks and sing-a-long chorus,
they provided a minor masterpiece with “Lupus Dei” and here we have Matthew
Greywolf (guitars) to tell us more about the life and crimes of Powerwolf...
Honestly, after hearing your debut album, “Return In Bloodred”, I thought “wow,
that’s cool” and really loved it, but shortly after kinda forgot about it.
“Lupus Dei”, however, stays in my CD player for quite some time now and, in my
opinion, stands out as much stronger unit. Which would you say are the steps
forward on your new album in comparison to the first one?
It’s more striking and more catchy than our debut, probably that’s why it stays
in you CD player and in your head, ha-ha… we focussed on writing really catchy
songs this time, especially the chorus lines are catchy as hell on this album.
And of course the album is much heavier than “Return In Bloodred”.
Some segments of “Lupus Dei” were recorded in a 12th century chapel – how
strongly did its atmosphere influence the sound of your new album? And, after
all, how come you recorded in such a place?
Well, a good friend of us offered us the chance to use a small church built in
the 12th century for some recordings. That church was located in the middle of
nowhere in a forest, and the atmosphere was haunting. Exactly the surrounding we
needed for an album like “Lupus Dei”. You can’t compare recording in a studio to
recording in a church – it’s so atmospheric and special that it can only be
highly inspirational… the only disadvantage was that there was no heating system
in the church and we recorded in January, with snow outside and temperatures at
minus 10 degrees…
On "In Blood We Trust" you worked with a 30-piece classical choir… Can you
describe us the experience of working with a real choir as opposed to the
ever-growing use of computer effects and technology which replaced already by
far too many orchestras or choirs on rock/metal albums?
It was fantastic, I mean, it’s an overwhelming moment when you’re standing in an
empty church and 30 people are singing your songs – it was shivers down our
spines the whole time we’ve been there. I think the choir really adds a new
dimension to some of the songs. I mean: a lot of bands simply use samples or
keyboards for that, but you can never reach the atmosphere and the density of a
real choir singing your songs with that. It was a lot of work to get the choir
convinced to sing for a heavy metal band, but it was definitely worth all the
work!
The “Lupus Dei” booklet was done by Niklas Sundin, one of the modern day
metal-icons… How is it to have someone like him working on something basically
inspired by your music?
Great, ha-ha. We developed the concept of the artwork while we were in studio
and asked several artists to provide something, but the all delivered shit to
say it in clear words. Then we decided to ask Niklas and he came up with this
picture and it fitted perfectly. He’s absolutely great. But to correct you: it’s
only the front cover that’s done by him. All the rest was done by me myself.
The digipack edition of “Lupus Dei” features lots of bonus stuff… Can you give
us the details?
Well, there are two live songs which were recorded during our 2005 European
tour, and there’s a short tour documentation clip featuring a lot of backstage
or tourbus sequences as well as live scenes.
One of the important elements for Powerwolf certainly is the theatrical
“effect”… Some consider such elements being childish, while others sustain it
“enhances” the music, as in cases of Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson or Lordi.
What’s your standpoint on that?
It’s a bonus, something that comes on top of the music. People who don’t like it
can only listen to our records – there’s no pictures on it – just music. For us
a great visual appearance and a certain show simply belongs to a good heavy
metal band. Metal and show belong together. Nobody wants to see a band
performing live staring at their shoes on stage… but we don’t do this to catch
any attention, we do it because we love to do it. It belongs to Powerwolf and
we’d never go on stage without our makeup or costumes.
Recently your drummer, Stefan, had some health issues and was temporarily
replaced by Tom Firespider… What’s going on with Stefan? Will we see him back
with Powerwolf?
He’s back already. He had some problems with his spine and had to stay in
hospital for some days. We had a show scheduled and he even wanted to leave
hospital to play this show, but we forebode it. I mean, you can imagine it’s not
the best idea to play drums in such a situation, so we played the show with a
good friend on drums, so Stefan could relax knowing the show would not be
cancelled if he doesn’t play… in the meantime he’s doing better again and we’ve
already rehearsed together again…
You have a tour scheduled with German legends Grave Digger…
Well, it’s gonna be a good party for those who come to the shows I guess. The
wolves enlightening the fire of metal and then Grave Digger to give ‘em the rest
– I think this will be a nice package of two different generations of metal
bands who share the same kind of passion for this music!
It’s for quite some time now that Germany and Scandinavia stand out as some sort
of European metal-oasis, while the other countries seem to have much lesser
interest in heavy music… Based on your touring experiences, do you see that
changing in the future, or…?
I don’t know, but especially in Scandinavia it seems like everybody has at least
three bands that he plays in, ha-ha….
Coming from Romania, Attila obviously brings to the band lots of rich Romanian
imagery and horror-like mythologies… What is the signification of a wolf, as a
symbol, for you?
As far as I understood Attila, the wolf is a symbol for strength and for pride
in Romania – and it both fits to heavy metal very good, doesn’t it?