New merciless and heavily devastating Teutonic storm is raging over the world! With three crushing albums so far, Traitor have the very responsible duty to carry on raising the mighty German thrash flag. They prove no wrong – Traitor are among the finest thrash acts from the past decade and we are more than sure – Teutonic thrash is in very safe hands!
I invited Andreas, one of the founding members of Traitor, also performing drums and vocals, for a friendly and very special punching chat, in order to share with us some inside information about the secrets of the Teutonic thrash. (And pelase make sure to check here the review of Traitor's brand new album, which my brother in arms UHF made for Blessed Altar ZIne)
- Hello Andreas, it is a real pleasure to have you here on Blessed Altar Zine! Busy times for you now?
- Hey Ho! Thank you for having us here. Not busier than usual. It got a little bit more administrational work, but its fun.
 |
| Photo by Martin Kubowski / KUBO Fotoart |
- Who is the Traitor, what are his typical features and what are his sins so far? A fictional character from our two songs „Traitor“ and „Hell-Hammer“. His typical features are very evil. Just listen to the songs. His sins are told there in all their evilness.
- You have changed the band’s name several time before choosing Traitor...
- Yes. The ones before were silly and/or to complicated.
- The band is already in the echelons of the Teutonic thrash. With such musical heritage on this scene, how hard is to get there?
- If you are from a German-speaking country (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and if you play Thrash Metal, you are in the Teutonic Thrash scene! It´s not that hard, isn’t it? But you are right: the heritage is glorious. It's nearly impossible to compete with the heroes from the 80s. But we are not trying to compete. We just want to honour the time and the Bands from then. And we want to play the music we love.
- I guess your main influences are in the Teutonic thrash scene, right? Are there more bands or genres, or even types of music, that inspire you?
- We love all types of music. And for example, I am listening to all kinds of music I enjoy and like. There are days where I listen to Ice Cube, Slayer and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in one row. But the main influences are the great Bands from the 80s like Darkness, Assassin, Violent Force, Tankard and all the others.
- What has changed for you since “Thrash Command”?
- We got better and improved our playing.
- Is this the hard road to success?
- I would not call it hard. We had to make mistakes, we had to play bad shows and had to learn some lessons. But it was fun!
- You have a brand new record “Knee-Deep In The Dead”. Could you please tell us more about it? What does it mean for you?
- The writing and recording process was the most intense so far. Pure aggression and power. But we also focused on groove and variable vocals. In my opinion it's our best record so far.
- What is the initial response of the audience so far?
- The response of the press was not that good. But the response of our listeners was very good!
- You had a special guest in “Xenomorph”...
- Yes. Gus Drax from Suicidal Angels.
- Since I saw the artwork of the album for the first time, I’ve always wanted to ask you about it. Whose head is the Predator carrying? Of course, I’m curious about “Venomizer” and “Thrash Command as well”!
- It's not meant to be the predator. It's our mascot, inspired by Arnold Schwarzenegger from the Predator movie. And he is holding the head of Duke Nukem. On the other artworks, it's also our mascot. Always in different outfits.
- You have been always very critical in your lyrics pointing out all the venom spilling around. How dead is the society and the world, and how deep-knee are we in it?
- Not really to be honest. I try to avoid political lyrics because it got some kind of trendy mainstream to do that. We got very negative reviews because of that. But I don’t want to write the 101st lyrics about Donald Trump, Refugees or the climate change. When I listen to music, I want to have fun. So our lyrics are fictional and entertaining. Not about things, making a bad mood. They are about things we love. About things that let you enter a different world. It's better to be for something than to be against something.
 |
| Photo by Martin Kubowski / KUBO Fotoart |
- You are going to play Wacken very soon. How do you feel about it, what are your expectations?
- We are very excited and we hope to make a very special and unique experience.
- What are your plans after Wacken?
- Business as usual.
- I know it is early, but have you thought about the next record already? Is it planned yet?
- We are celebrating our 10th anniversary next year. So you can expect something. Definitely!
- Can we expect any change stylistically or any compromises?
- No way!
- How do you see the thrash scene nowadays?
- Great! Its growing and it's going in the right direction.
- Where the fans can find vinyls of your records? It seems they are already hard to find...:-))
- You can find them at our online store on www.traitor-band.de/shop. If they are out of stock, we will reissue them as soon as possible.
- Is there anything you would like to add or exclusively to share with Blessed Altar Zine readers?
- Hmmm… (thinking) …I never learned to play the drums. I just started to play. Sometimes I regret that. That's exclusive! ;-)
- Thank you very much for taking time for this interview despite of your busy schedule. It’s been a real pleasure! We are wishing you much success and you guys have our full support! Thrash’em all!
- Thank YOU for your support and the chance to share our thoughts and opinions with your readers.
"Beneath Ancient Portals" is Abythic’s debut full-length release which contains eight tracks and goes a little over forty minutes in its entirety. Although Abythic is a death metal band and fairly much influenced by the old school, there are at times, quite the hints of doom here too. This can be heard on and off throughout the tracks, especially in the first track, "Prelude to Obscurity", which comes across as a bit of an intro style track as well and without any vocals present either, and in the track, "T.H.O.N." and also in the track "Depths of Oblivion" too. In these moments the listener is cast into a world of slow, heavy, sustaining, sorrowful riffs which can be accompanied by dark harmonies and sometimes eerie solos as well. The sound here reminds me a bit of the likes of Desecresy and their style of a doomy death metal that they are known for. This combination of death and doom that Abythic does, works well together while the vocals remain guttural and brutal throughout despite the pace being either slow, mid-pace or fast. The more faster tracks on this full-length are Purulent Phantasm and the track "Afterwards Behind Beyond", which presents the more aggressive attack of old school death metal styles, that is also part of this release by Abythic. Not having heard this band before, until now, has made me take a further interest and shows how variations of styles can complement each other. What you have here, is raw, heavy, doomy death metal of the old school flavour taking you down a road of obscurities and dread. Abythic "Beneath Ancient Portals", is an example of underground death metal with a unique blend and worthy of your attention! 9/10 Wolven Deadsoul 
