Hey, Benny! “Armamentarium” marks your third release within three years – one better than the other! What the hell is up with you guys? Don’t you even sleep?
No, we don´t...NEAERA never sleeps! Well, OK, we do sleep, actually we sleep a lot, especially our drummer Sebastian, hahaha... jokes aside, yes, we have kept working steadily since our last release, even though we tried to play a lot of concerts, there was always enough time in between to enter the rehearsal room and work on new ideas. It just seems to be kind of our working philosophy to write songs quickly and not fiddle around with details too much. When we feel a song kicks ass and we’re satisfied with it, we move on to working on the next one. Maybe that explains the pace with which we’ve been putting out our records. We just feel that the freshness of a song is the most important thing.
You obviously didn’t change your style but you broadened it – more mid tempo BOLT THROWERish stuff, darker, deeper, more brutal, even more evil… a natural development?
Yes, at some point we just kind of noticed that the overall tone of the new song material was a bit darker, slower, more massive...that’s something that just happened during rehearsals and during the songwriting process. Still, as you mentioned, it’s almost more important that people see that there are still some typical NEAERA trademarks, even though the songs go into a more brutal direction now. It shows that we can go different ways without repeating ourselves but still keep the NEAERA sound. The voice is also even more versatile and more aggressive than on the previous records, mainly due to the fact that Benny recorded the vocals at the Rape Of Harmonies studios in Eastern Germany with our good friend Alexander Dietz from HEAVEN SHALL BURN. It gave Benny more freedom to try different things with his voice, and Ali´s input was an essential part of the vocal recordings.
Also the cover artwork is your darkest and most fitting to date…
I definitely agree! We are all more than satisfied with what our Norwegian friend Terje Johnsen came up with! Terje was very cool to work with. We had of course though out kind of a very general frame concerning what mood we wanted the artwork to convey, but what Terje did with the basic ideas we had is really amazing, and yes, very fitting. I remember spending hours at the computer messaging with Terje and he kept sending this awesome stuff...the way the artwork turned out is simply great.
Along with that “new sound” you also got a new logo… is there any story/deeper meaning behind this particular one and why changing it at all?
There are some things I liked about our old logo, but at some point I thought it was too “soft” and overloaded with effects. On some show posters I had and have, our old logo just didn´t really stand out, it looked too “pale” and not massive enough. I sat down and made the N for the logo first, combining it with some graphic elements. Markus of Fear My Thoughts was kind enough to form all the elements into the logo as it is now. Funny enough, the development of the new logo didn’t really have that much to do with our “new” sound, but when I look at it now, it does fit together really well. The way the sound and the imagery work together is pretty important to me, these elements just have to complement each other in order to make a good overall package. So if we hadn’t already designed the new logo during the writing process of “Armamentarium”, I’m sure I would have started to do it in the meantime, hahaha...
What does the title “Armamentarium” stand for?
Even though the term stems from the military jargon, the way in which we interpret it is not entirely related to the mere military use. In this case, the “Armamentarium”, the arsenal that one should be armed with, is that of an open mind and heart. We are flooded with so much irrelevant crap these days that sometimes it’s really hard to keep focusing on what’s really important in life, for example and most importantly, treating people like you want to be treated, respect, such basic things that seem to lose more and more of their meaning in these times. A lot of people in the world, and also in our own country, are suffering from very bad situations and circumstances, and it’s important to realize this and to see that beyond the curtain of irrelevance and distraction, a lot of things are going wrong, things that we need to be aware of.
Like also some of the overall blowing reviews stated I guess you can consider the opening Track “Spearheading The Spawn” as the new bandhmyn…
I definitely can’t wait to play this beast live! I think it’s going to get some good pits going! I hope that a lot of people share my anticipation and that the song will get them to tear some shit down!
While talking about the tracks… “Liberation” – holy moly! How did you come up with the idea mixing black metal riffing with a AMON AMARTH-like vibe?
We had already decided pretty early on in the songwriting process that during the cold winter months, we were going to write a song that has a serious black metal edge to it. So the idea was always around, and “Liberation” was actually the last song we wrote for the record, except the one that Tobi and Sebbes wrote at the Hansen studios. The song really stands out because of it’s length. I like that it’s exceptionally long because that gives a lot of room for the dark atmosphere to unfold. It was also great to have such an amazing vocalist like Markus from HEAVEN SHALL BURN to work with on this track. That makes it even more special to us!
You also announced your first headlining tour along with DEADLOCK! What do you know to tell about it?
One thing I know to tell is that we’re all really excited about it! Of course we hope that the tour is going to go well, but we are not really worried about it to be honest. We have been on tour with DEADLOCK already once, and we have already played a couple of shows with them this year, so we’re familiar and good friends with them already. The clubs we are playing in are all between 300 to 400something capacity, we think that´s a pretty good foundation for some sweaty shows and some boiling pits. The tour will be presented by METAL HAMMER and METAL.DE.
This year you played the WITH FULL FORCE the first time as well as WACKEN OPEN AIR– how went both of the shows?
Both were really amazing. We played the opening slot on the tent stage at the WFF, and it was packed. It was great to see that even though we were the first band, people already partied so hard this early on. It was a great show! Wacken was amazing as well! I already pissed my pants with joy when I read that we would play there...I mean, hey, it’s THE WACKEN OPEN AIR...it’s simply an honor to have played there. The show was one we’ll never forget, of course it’s the biggest and most crowded place we have played so far. It must have been something between 8.000 to 10.000 people....amazing. It´s just overwhelming to see how many people are interested in our music. We all hope to be able to return someday soon to both the WFF and the W:O:A.
What would you have said if someone had told you 3-4 years ago where your band will be in 2007?
I would not have believed it. We never EXPECTED this to become so big. To me it just feels like a river that is catching up more and more water. Of course we owe a lot to the people who trusted in us, like Metal Blade, but also bands Like AS I LAY DYING, HEAVEN SHALL BURN, CALIBAN etc. who took us on tour with them and gave us the opportunity to show people how much we love playing live. But we owe the most to our supporters, they are the ones who decided to make NEAERA a part of their life and to devote their time to our music. I just hope we can get more people to join the ride, hahaha...
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