Endstille recites all the dictators and war criminals in history



Freshly resupplied and armed with a new vocalist and a new pact of steel with Seasons Of Mist. The Endstille high command is ready and primed with a new offensive titled "Infektion 1813". I recently caught up with senior general Cruor about their recent black metal assault. One listen to "Infektion 1813" you will be convinced this is a band on a mission. Zingultis (vocals) rose the band to another level. Hopefully they will be their operations to us soil soon.

Endstille just released their sixth album "Infektion 1813" in the US, what the reaction been so far from the this side of the Atlantic?
I have to correct you. It's already our seventh album! Yes, "Infektion 1813" was just released last month. But I can't tell you about any reactions from the US now. I just can say that the response world wide on this CD is very good. The people seem to like it a lot and also the press's reaction is very good.

Not only the band has a new singer, the band is also on a new label. Can you bring the fans up to speed about the current situation with the band?
You're right. Zingultus is our our new singer now. We know each other for 10 years now and we all were very happy as it was clear that he'll join us.
With the rest of the band everything is like it had been before. Lars Wachtfels on guitars, Mayhemic Destructor plays the drums and I torture the bass. So you see the fraction who was always responsible for the songwriting in Endstille hasn't changed.

How much of the lyrics were written by Zingultus also how much contributed as far as music and lyrics goes?
Zingultus wrote 4 , M.D. 2 and I wrote 3 of the lyrics.
As Wachtfels, M.D. And I do live in Kiel, which is in the very north of Germany close to the Danish border and Zingultus lives next to the Dutch/Belgium border there's is quite a big distance between us.
So it's impossible to rehearse together. After we wrote the instrumental part of the songs we recorded them at our rehearsal room and sent them to Zingultus. Afterwards he started to work on bringing the lyrics and the music together.
I really like that way of writing music because we were forced to do something like a pre-production, which really helpsto work on the songs itself.

I like to know a little more why the band left Regain Records for Seasons Of Mist and how was the band's relationship with Regain prior to leaving the label?
We fulfilled our contact with Regain Records. There had been some problems between us and them but I don't want to discuss this in public.
So as it had been clear for us that we want to work together with a new label we started to talk with some record companies. In the end our decision was to sign a contract with Season Of Mist.
So as far as I can say for now it was the absolut right choice to make that change.

How's your relationship with Seasons Of Mist so far and what kind of job they been doing far as supporting and promoting the new album?
I'm very satisfied with their work. It seems that the new album is going very well. The response is very good and here in Germany we even made it into the charts... which is really a result I never expected. So things seem to go very well for us. I think Season Of Mist is doing a good job, so that "Infektion 1813" gets the deserved attention.

I been listening to "Infektion 1813" for quite some time and to me the new material is alot more faster and heavier and there's alot of VoiVod thrash like riffing which I been hearing on some of the songs?
Thank you very much. That's definately a compliment and Mayhemic Destructor, as Voivod is one of his favourite bands, will be more then happy about your impression.
Also you're right. As we wrote the songs for "Infektion 1813" we wanted to involve some more thrash riffs as we used to do it before.
Also we chose to use some straighter riffs again to let the songs sound a bit more direct than for example on "Verführer". As well as Zingultus really did a great job on "Infektion 1813". His voice is very rich in variety which gives our songs some interesting new aspects.

I know that Zingultus been in the band for little over a year now. How long do you known him prior to joining Endstille?
Zingultus joined us at the end of 2009. As I told you before we know each other since round about 10 years now. We first met just after Endstille was formed. We played a show together with the band Nagelfar in which Zingultus used to be the vocalist.
Because we got a long with each other very well, we stayed in contact. So as we were searching for a new vocalist we and also Zingultus had the idea that he would fit very well into the band. To the result of that idea you can listen to on "Infektion 1813".

I have seen some of the new videos from the new album, what I like about both of the band videos it has a horror movie type feel to it. Like the last video it remind me of that dark room from the first Saw movie.
I like the atmosphere of the new video clip for the song 'Anomie' a lot. The whole style of the clip reminds me on snuff movies or something like that. Also the idea to mix slowmotion scenes with the fast music worked very well and creates that sick atmosphere.
We didn't had the Saw movies in mind as we shot the video, but I think your impression fits. The director of the clip had been Maurice Swinkels (vocalist of Legion Of The Damned). It had been already the second time that we worked together and he always had good imaginations for such sick clips for our brutal music.

Seems like it's been a good year for German horror. I just read a two part article on the German horror scene in Fangoria. "Human Cenepede" been getting alot of attention in the US too. You feel that the German horror is finally breaking though cause of the success of "Human Cenepede" and "Grimm Love"?
"Grimm Love – Der Kannibale von Rothenburg"… this one really got a lot of attention... probably because it's a very sick and especially true story.
I haven't watched "Human Centipede" yet. But I watched the trailer and... wooow... this looks quite strange... but very interesting. Such fucked up ideas more fit to Japanese procuctions. By the way, it's a Dutch production, but the main character is played by a German actor.
I think such movies fit to stereotypes people do have about Germans – evil babarians or mad cruel scientists. But often there's some truth in stereotypes or it often has a true origin ;-)

What movies you been checking out lately when you're not stuka bombing with Endstille?
Hmmmm??? When I'm not Stuka bombing – which takes me ¾ of my day ;-)
I'm still impressed by the French horror movie scene. "Martyrs" still is one of my favourite ones. But also "Inside" or "High Tension" are very good.
I also liked the Spanish movies "REC1&2"... by the way the US version "Quaratine" sucked!!!
The next film I'm really looking forward to is "Iron Sky". That one will be great!!!

Did the band use the same studio JAK's Hell for the recording of "Infektion 1813" and how the band been using JAK's Hell?
Yes. We recorded at JAK's Hell again. It's quite easy for us to enter that studio because it's next to our hometown Kiel. So we don't have to drive so long or we don't have to stay there for some weeks. We can drive home after we recorded some stuff, drive back home and come back the next day. That makes it pretty easy and the recording sessions are more relaxed.
As we used to record all of our CDs at JAK's Hell we don't have to explain ourselves, our goals etc. So we always can start to record quite fast...

Give brief summary about some of the songs on "Infektion 1813"?
'Anomie' and 'Trenchgoat' are the first two tracks which are very uncompromising and there's just a very short break between that songs.
'Bloody H (The Hurt-Gene)' and 'The Deepest Place On Earth' are both varying a lot between midtempo and blast beats and have some really sick sounding vocals.
'When Kathaaria Falls' starts with a nice melody but changes quite fast into a disharmonic riff.
The next song 'Satanarchie' starts with some chaos paired with quotes of Aleister Crowley.
'World Aflame' is an old school black metal track with some really interesting vocals which that song its very own character.
'Wrecked' starts with thrashing riffs which are mixed with melodic black metal parts.
'Endstille (Völkerschlächter)' is the longest track on "Infektion 1813". Zingultus recites all the dictators, war criminals etc. in the history of humanity.

I been listening to the new album by your label mates Morbid Angel. I don't know what to think of it?
It's really not an easy album... very controversial... I think everyone has to find out on his own if he/she likes it or not...

I know the band is planning to hit the festival circut soon. Is there a possiblity of the band coming here at least as a supporting act I know the band been wanting to come to the US for quite sometime?
At the moment we're planning some shows here in Europe. Also we're working on in tour in Latin America. Maybe there will be the possibility to do some shows in the US, too. You know such tours always take a lot of time... and time is a very rare good... we'll see what happens...

Interviewer: Paul Lewis
Jun 20, 2011
Next interview: Erebus’ fuel for metal

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