Fleshcrawl

The structures of the tenebrous darkness


When endeavour, technique and quality joins together through the years, one can be certain that the result will always be something intense, dynamic and terribly portentous. “Structures of Death” is the eight album of the german deathsters, Fleshcrawl, and demonstrates that years don’t bring any tiredness when one really likes what one does.
In an interview for Rock Heavy, the guitarist Oliver, seconded in some questions by the drummer Bastian (only original member), answers:


1 - Twenty years have passed since your formation and, through the years, you kept on growing strong, releasing Cds and touring. Do you believe there are still some steps to take so you could achieve a higher status thus giving you a wider respect towards your musical quality? In your home country, in which one can find a major appeal to Heavy – Metal and the sorts, what are the views regarding Fleshcrawl?

Regarding the status of Fleshcrawl we never started dreaming of being stars one day. We always played the style of death metal we love and tried to do our best to write intense old school death metal songs. Of course there are some steps, which we should take in the future. A tour in the US to show our sound to a new audience is one of those steps for example. In Germany we are well known in the scene and played at a lot of big festivals like the Wacken Open Air, Summer Breeze or Party San Open Air. In general, with the new album “Structures of Death” we will try to conquer territories and countries we could not play so far.

2 – “Structures of Death”, being already the eight Cd, is the group’s new release… I know you’ve passed through some troubled moments but there’s still an intoxicating flame that burns like acid tormenting us all when listening to this release. Was it easy to be inspired and compose such fiery musical schemes thus maintaining it attractive within the style for yourselves and the listeners?

Well, we had some problems when it came to starting the songwriting for the “Structures of Death”. First of all, Tobias, our former bass player, left the band due to personal reasons.
During his time in the band, he was a major songwriter, composed a lot of riffs and contributed arrangements. We had to change the songwriting focus to Mike and myself then which took some time. Also we had some major delay in the songwriting because of health issues of Mike and Basti. Additionally Basti married his long time girlfriend and became a proud father of a daughter.
After all these issues we started over and finally managed to get the old school death metal machine running. Once started our inspiration comes by itself. One riff demands another fitting one and so we write our songs. This time maybe with more melodies than usual because of the change in the songwriting focus.

3 – This excellent Death – Metal release was recorded not in a swedish studio but in Toninfusion located in Germany and produced by you… It was the first time you did it… Why was that? What main stronger points do you consider to be between this and your latest “Made of Flesh” from 2004?

We had to choose a studio near our location because Basti stay abroad for three or more weeks because of his young family which is fully understandable. So we found the right place with studio Toninfusion and Martin Schmitt behind the desk. After 8 albums we exactly know how a Fleshcrawl album has to sound like and we know how to change things to achieve this. We just need the technical equipment and a good engineer to handle it. Both we found in Martin and his studio. I think the new album's strong point is its variety in songs. You have groove, melodies, thrashy riffs, blast parts, mid-tempo parts and much more blended up into a perfect balanced mix. It´s important to not get bored while listening to it and I think we achieved this goal.

4 - Are you content with the final product? Do you think this will be the one that will grant you a wider recognition? Because this is a very strong output and you deserve it!!!

Yes we are! Were really satisfied with the album and there is nothing we would change in the aftermath. We really hope that it will reach all the death metal heads out there who keep the spirit alive!

5 – The song "Rockin' is ma' business" from The Four Horsemen was covered by you and recorded in November 2003 at Studio Underground, Vasteras, when you we were recording the "Made of Flesh" album. Why you choose it (I know the song and I'm curious to hear it hehe) and why it came only on this 2007 release? Were you inspired by what Six Feet Under has been doing throughout the years? Do you think the song suits your life style?

One day, our former bass player Tobias Schick came up with the idea to cover that song. He brought a CD to the rehearsal and wanted us to listen to that track. Sounded cool right away and we were pretty sure to create a good deathmetal version. However, there also exists another version of that story: We played Wacken 2002 together with Alabama Thunderpussy. Those guys already covered that track and sometime later we decided to also cover it. However, long time later we found out that the original was not written by Alabama Thunderpussy but by The Four Horsemen. Shit happens, but does not matter anyway: cool song, cool stuff !
The reason why the song only made it on the "Structures of Death" album in 2007 although it was already recorded in 2003 is pretty simple. Originally, we wanted to use the song as a bonus track for a possible Japanese release of "Made of Flesh" in 2004. However that did not happen. Then again when planning the release for "Structures of Death" we again suggested that song for a possible Japanese release, but again this did not happen.
After that we decided to release the song on a limited digipack version of "Structures of Death". Otherwise that cover song never would have been released...
To answer the other question: The decision to cover "Rockin' is my business" had nothing to do with Six Feet Under.
Yeah, somehow you could say the song fits to our lifestyle. Mmore or less a Rock'n'Roll Lifestyle...

6 - What do you intended to portray at a lyrical level with this release? Would you ever focus in other subjects rather than the more usual for a band like yours thus adding a somewhat fresh perception to your material?

Mainly Basti writes the lyrics. This time also Sven came up with some lyrics, on Fleshcult for example. The inspiration is always the same – brutal death metal stuff like death, blood, flesh, and some demons of course, haha. We don´t want to transport any smart message or political opinions in our songs. We just play old school death metal with old school death metal lyrics.

7 – The artwork proves to be an intense display of the band’s power… Who draw it and what is the concept about?

First we came up with some ideas of how the artwork should look like. Evil, atmospheric and infernal. Our designer Uwe Jarling then came up with some drafts and asked for our comments. Basically we let Uwe do anything he wants because in the end it always turned out to be a great artwork as everybody can see. Well, there is no concept behind the album cover, Uwe got the tentative album title “Structures of Death” (the tentative title turned to a definite one in the end) from us and then somehow created his own vision of how the structures of death could like on a painting. So, the cover artwork simply fits a pure and brutal death metal album.

8 –What have been the reactions of the audience to your new material? Is there any gig that has stuck to your mind in a positive way?

When we performed some of the new songs live on a smaller festival in our area, people really liked the stuff! The best gig in my opinion so far was at the Summer Breeze 2004, our 2 tours with Bolt Thrower and of course the Japanese Tour with Hypocrisy. This was a quite intense experience.

9 - Any gigs planned that you think will help you prove furthermore your capabilities to achieve a greater status?

We don’t have any plans for touring yet but we’ll try to align some tours in early 2008, additionally we hope to play on the big festivals like the Wacken Open Air, Summer Breeze, Party San and so on again.

10 - Do you get inspired while touring or always intend to focus more on playing than in song writing?

No, usually we never write songs during tours or shows. We simply do not find the time for doing that. There's always something to do while on the road, so new ideas and material has to wait until we are back home!

11 - So many years have passed and you've granted us so many strong outputs... Any plans for a Live Cd or a Dvd?

Äh, no. currently not. We have lots of video footage lying about but nobody ever had the time so far to check and sort out all that material. I think this could maybe become interesting for the future. Let's see...

12 - Any plans for a video so to show your capabilities to a wider spectrum?

A video would be cool but we don’t have any plans or offerings regarding this.

13 - And are you happy with your label’s promotion until now?

Yes we are! We know a lot of the guys at Metal Blade Europe personally and meet them often at concerts in our area. Besides, their office is located not far from us so we have good contact with them.

14 – I thank you for engraving these words. Just carve some more for a bloody ending.

Thanks for the interview and your support! Check out Structures of Death!

Visit our homepage on http://www.fleshcrawl.net or our MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/bloodyflesh

We hope to see you on tour somewhere!
Olli – Fleshcrawl