Lifeless tells about sacrificing the only life you have
Hello Lifeless, firstly introduce yourselves for our readers and give us a brief history of the band.
Hi. I'm Marc, Vocalist and Guitarist in Lifeless. The other members are Daniel L. (dr.), Andy (g.) and Daniel "Wieni" W. (b.).
Lifeless was founded in late 2004 by Andy and me but due to some private issues it was until early 2006 that a real band was formed.
In 2007 we recorded our debut "Beyond The Threshold Of Death" all by ourselves.
In late 2009 we finally signed with Ibex Moon which re-released the album in June of this year including a bonus track and new artwork.
Your new album "Beyond The Threshold Of Death" is an absolute cracker!!! Can you tell us about some of the influences that came about in writing the record? Surely it wasn't just all Dismember and Entombed!?
In the first place we are influenced by Death Metal of the 1990¥s. Despite if it is the American way with bands like Obituary or the Swedish way with bands like Entombed and Dismember. Of course there are some other influences like classic Heavy Metal or Thrash Metal too. And some Black/ Death bands like Dissection and Necrophobic had their impact too. But in any case Lifeless was supposed to be an old school Death Metal band without any compromise.
How was working with Vesa from legendary Swedish Deathsters, Evocation? Did he come to you guys in Germany?
Working with Vesa was very relaxed. I just wrote him an email and asked if he could be intersted in doing the mastering and what his conditions would be. He was interested so we sent him our recorded and mixed stuff. He did the master and sent it back.
In the meantime we met him and the other Evocation guys personally and had some parties with them. They are very cool guys and I'm in contact with Vesa all the time. He will probably do the mix for the next album.
The cover work for the album is very eye catching!! Who is the piece by and what did you use for ideas on the cover?
Well, I did the artwork and layout myself. I'm a Graphic Designer and I try to establish myself as artist within the Metal scene. You can watch my art at:
www.myspace.com/artwarsmedia
The idea was to create an apocalyptic and desolate wasteland that should symbolize the barren minds of religious people who waste their lives on hoping for an afterlife. They are slaves to man-made traditions and they sacrifice the only life they really have.
I think the sound on the recording is very authentic and true to that of its Swedish origins. Did you guys use old Boss Heavy metal/metal zone pedals to achieve the rusty chainsaw sound?
No, we didn't use the Boss HM pedal except for the cover of Dismember's "Casket Garden" which is the bonus track. In the beginning we didn't try to sound Swedish sound-wise. The aim was just to sound old school. We needed some time to develop our sound but nowadays we are using the Boss HM pedal because we decided that the sound should be Swedish in the future for it is the most authentic DM sound to us.
Where can our readers go check you guys out this year? Have you got any big shows coming up?
There are only some small club shows here in Germany planned for this year. The next one will be at the NRW Deathfest on September the 17th. We hope to play some bigger festivals and a tour next year. We will see...
Is there any real cool or perhaps crazy shows that stand out in you minds?
Unfortunately we didn't play any bigger shows yet but it was a great honour to share stage with Swedish Demonical last year.
Being from Germany, I know for sure you guys like a beer or 10 like us Irish folk hahah, who is the party animal in band?
Yeah man, we love drinking a lot of beer of course. Well, I guess we are all party animals at least, ha, ha....
You guys are on Ibex Moon Records, which is owned by the one, the only, John Mcentee from Incantation. How has that been for you guys? They have released some seriously top notch death metal of late!
Of course it is a big honour to get this chance from a guy like John. He is a totally dedicated DM lunatic and a nice and fair guy. We like working with him and we are very thankful for the trust he puts into us and our music. It is not that easy for an unknown band like us to get such a fair offer nowadays.
Guys thanks for your time and for doing this interview. Before we go, have you got anything to add? The last rites???
Thanks for the chance to do this interview. To all the Metalheads out there:
Keep supporting Metal and stay open minded and critical in these times of global deception and superficiality.
