Rockezine.com interview with Sinister on Jun 05, 2003

with Alex on Jun 05, 2003

When I arrived around 15:00 at the Excess Studio I thought I was early, because we were supposed to be there 15:30. But at that time there was just me, one other reporter and one of the guys of the studio. The rest, including the band and the guy from Nuclear Blast, came dropping in around 16:15… Oh well, the music is all that counts after all, and that was what we were there for! So after everyone took a drink, we were told that the songs we were going to hear were just the rough takes, we were going to hear all the songs from the album, but mixing hasn’t started yet. The last recordings were only done two days ago! So for the band members themselves it was an exciting day too, it was the first time for them to hear the new tracks! You could see their faces relaxing when the tracks kick off and everything turned out great! Because it did, Sinister rocks!! The first track ‘Savage Or Grace’ started off with a good riff and immediately in the beginning a guitar-solo, followed by some good breaks and a nice guitar-lead! The second track ‘Dominion’ had some unusual freaky riffs, but they worked really well. And again a very cool solo! ‘The Age Of Murder’ again contains a good solo and shows some mid-tempo drum-work which isn’t standard Aad (the drummer). But it turns out really cool. ‘Conception Of Sin’ is not yet complete. It should have an acoustic intro which hasn’t been recorded yet, but the song itself is really in your face! A very sludgy riff in the beginning and it ends with fierce blast beats with a good solo. Another thing worth mentioning are the vocals in this song, they are not just grunts, this record is the first Sinister-record to contain screams behind the grunts, and it sounds really cool! This song is the band’s favourite, and you can hear why. Excellent song-structure, great song! ‘Barbaric Order’ has got some nice up-tempo riff-work which contradicts to the mid tempo-riffs in this song, really good. And again a solo and screams behind the grunts. ‘Chapel Desecration’ is great with - I’m sorry but yet again excellent- guitar work and a really good structure. ‘Collapse Rewind’ sounds brutal but typically Sinister. Vocals really differ a lot and keep your attention, and yet again a solo. And finally ‘Apocalypse In Time’ which has a shredding riff in the beginning of the song, and for the rest it just fits the rest of the record. So, all in all, what grabs your attention is that Sinister has definitely gone back to the old ‘Cross The Styx’ days. This is not a strange thing if you keep in mind that old guitarist Ron wrote all of the song-material together with drummer Aad. But bass-player Alex tells us more about that in the interview-part. The songs are really good and diverse. You can hear directly that a lot of time has been put in the structures of these songs. Other things that immediately strike your attention are the amount of guitar-solo’s and the diverse vocals. Again, Alex tells us more about that later. Furthermore the sound is, for rough takes without mixing, actually quite well, in comparison to the last two albums that were a bit flat sound-wise and lacked power. So my opinion is that we can speak of a really brutal album, which I think will put Sinister back into the top of Dutch Death Metal. After the photoshoot in which I took some pictures (My god, what will they look like!) the interviews started. I had a short conversation with bass-player Alex.
		There are a lot of guitar-solos on this record, that’s one of the things I noticed directly from the beginning. Is that because of the cooperation between the two guitarists? That’s because of the joining of Pascal; he’s just an exceptional good lead-guitarist. And then we said, if you can do it that well, you have to do it too! And it really adds something to the record. We never really had that with Sinister, but it rocks!
		It makes the record as a whole really diverse, was that also the goal with this album? Yeah, it sure was. We wanted to make a really good and diverse record. We just wanted to try to pull out everything we have, again. With solo’s and double vocals and that kind of stuff, just to make it more diverse.
		Those new elements are indeed clearly audible. The diverse songstructures, double vocals, variation in the riffs. Those were really the things you wanted to achieve? Yes, we just wanted to make a really good and diverse record.
		What I found most interesting, was why you guys teamed up with Ron again? Because after Bart left Sinister continued with Pascal. Where does the cooperation with Ron come from? I knew Ron for some time we even played in a band together, though that was not all that serious. And he just wanted to play again. Although he doesn’t like the touring-part and all the stuff that comes with it, he really is a musician in heart and bones, and he really wanted to record some songs. So when Bart left, there was actually only one person who really sounded like Sinister on guitar, and that was Ron. And we did thought about recording with Pascal too, but Ron had so much good ideas. So we choose for Ron. Pascal may get his chance also to write songs, but when we got back from tour, we had two months time to write and record an album, and Ron had already everything in his head song wise. So we just made the decision to work with Ron again. And who knows, maybe on the next record there are songs written by Pascal, but for this record, we just didn’t have enough time. So Pascal recorded all the solo’s and leads, and Ron recorded all the rhythm-guitars. Ron and Aad then re-arranged it all in the studio.
		How did Pascal take that? I presume it is not all that great to hear you get to play in a band, but then don’t get to write songs. But still play them live, ‘cause I presume that Pascal will play everything by him self live. Well, actually, he took it quite good, but why shouldn’t he? Imagine we had two guitarists, maybe then Ron had done everything too. In Metallica, James Hetfield also plays all rhythm-guitars, and Kirk Hammett is for the solos and leads. See, Pascal also plays in this other band, and never really accomplished something. And now he goes on tour, we went to Russia, we’re going to South-America soon, we’re playing on Wacken, and for him those are great things to do! So actually he’s quite ok with the situation.
		After a short affaire with Hammerheart Sinister now is back at Nuclear Blast, can you tell us anything about that? We left Nuclear Blast back then, because we thought Hammerheart was a growing label and everything looked good. But that was a great disappointment. You can better be number 30 on the list at Nuclear Blast, then being number 1 or 2 on the list at Hammerheart. Financially it wasn’t all that ok at Hammerheart, and the distribution wasn’t all that great either. Just a lot of things from which we thought, this is just not ok.
		And the cover album which was announced a while ago, is there still going to be one? Nope, we skipped that one. We wanted to do it in between albums at Hammerheart, but when we got back at Nuclear Blast, they also wanted to see a new full-length album. So as for now, that one is not going to happen very soon.
		You recently toured with Nile, how was that, to tour with such a big band as Nile? You get used to it, you know. Of course, in the past we already toured with Deicide, with Cannibal Corpse, Marduk, you can almost say that we don’t look up to those bands anymore. It’s more like just another band we play with. Still, the level of the before mentioned bands, Nile isn’t there yet. But actually, every tour is the same.
Well, I just hope we will sell millions of records!!		How do you combine all this? Next to Sinister you also play in Houwitser, do you have a fulltime job? I bet you don’t have enough days off from work to go on tour twice a year. Well, Aad for example, he takes days off from work without payment. I coincidentally happened to be in between jobs, I’m a teacher. So after the summer vacation, I told them that I couldn’t start until November. Then I went on tour in September with Houwitser and in October with Sinister. You just have to make the best out of it; sometimes you just call in sick. Yeah, sometimes it really is a mad man’s job.
		And how do you combine your both bands, musically speaking? When, for example, you come up with a guitar-riff, what do you do with it? With Sinister I’m not involved musically at all. That’s the job of Ron and Aad, they write the songs. Only my lyrics are for Sinister.
		How did it feel to play with Ron again? One can clearly hear the vibe of Cross The Styx back again. Why did he come back again? When Cross The Styx was released, Sinister was a pretty hot band. Lots of shows and touring, that kind of stuff. At that moment Ron couldn’t do that and he didn’t want to do that as well, he had a good job and everything. He rather spends time in the studio recording than on the stage playing live. But he really is a good songwriter! It just feels like it never was any different.
		How did the scene change? Sinister exists for a long time now, how do you look at it? For Sinister nothing has changed. We still like the same music, of course, you grow older, but we’re still the same persons. One can see that the American style of technical death metal is really hot nowadays, but the old school metal is also slowly coming back. The new Bloodbath for example is a really, really good record!!! (Sjoerd: I totally agree!!)
		What are your plans for the future? You guys got some festivals planned, maybe some touring? We don’t want to go on tour immediately after the release of the album, so that will probably happen after the summer. We do play enough single and festival shows, check our website for data’s.
		Well then, I just want to thank you for the interview, and the last words/worshippings/commandments are yours! (Laughing) Well, I just hope we will sell millions of records!! :-)
		After all was said and done, the guys from Nuclear Blast had placed reservations at a restaurant nearby, but since I had other obligations, I had to skip on this one, unfortunately. I’m sure the record will turn out great, and realizing it was my first listening-session, and my first face-to-face interview, it was certain I had had a great day!! Thanks to Sinister, the guys from Nuclear Blast and the guys from the Excess Studios for realizing this! (Sjoerd van den Berg)