A little over a decade since their previous album, Cruel Force comes back to bring the power back into the Metal. With their latest scorching album ‘Dawn of the Axe’ the band once again professes their adoration for the glory days of the 80s Metal. In this interview, vocalist Carnivore shares his stories about their return from slumber, the new album, and the impact of the Gods of Teutonic Metal on the band and Extreme Metal.

Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions! ‘Dawn of the Axe’ has just released, a couple of weeks ahead of schedule. A nice change in the era of delayed releases. Before the album came out, you released a couple of songs as 7” singles which rapidly sold out. To start things off, it must have been a warm welcome back to see people eagerly awaiting your return and jumping on the new material?
Hey, thanks for your interest! Yes, the response we’ve been getting from fans and critics alike has been overwhelmingly positive. It became clear to us that a lot of people had really had their hopes up about a possible return while we were away all those years. You can never please everyone, especially if you decide to switch things up stylewise as we did, but the majority of fans have stuck with us since the old days, which is something we definitely don’t take for granted.

Your first albums ‘The Rise of Satanic Might’ and ‘Under the Sign of the Moon’ were released shortly after each other, in 2010 and 2011 respectively. Was the following 10-year hiatus intended, or did things just happen to go that way?
We never said “Let’s take 10 years off” or anything, it’s just how it turned out. I quit the band in 2011 and the other guys decided to put it on ice shortly after that. We never lost contact though and always stayed friends during those years, going to shows together, some of us making music together and so forth. In those years the idea of us reuniting definitely popped up more than once, but circumstances just weren’t right. First our drummer GG Alex moved away, then so did I for several years, and yeah, life just happens. Just as it happened that when Slaughter reached out to us to finally get back together in 2021 we were all in a position where doing that made sense. We added our good friend Spider into the mix and here we are.

What was the trigger to say, it’s time to record a new album? How was the recording process for ‘Dawn of the Axe’?
Well, as I said, the timing was just right, the stars aligned, whatever you wanna call it. We got a rehearsal spot, jammed together, Slaughter brought in killer track after killer track and when we sure enough of the songs quality we contacted Hellforge Studios/Marco Brinkmann to first record the ‘Across The Styx’ single in our rehearsal dungeon and a few months later we went over to Essen to his studio to record the album. Beforehand we also did a lot of pre-production to see what we wanted, what works, what doesn’t and so forth. All that when we hit the studio we wouldn’t have to waste any more time on that than we had to. We had several recording sessions over there, spending a lot of time on adding little twists and turns to make the album more exciting. It was definitely the most ambitious recording session I have ever been a part of and it paid off in the end, we are more than happy with the final release to say the least.

In the years that passed since release, the first two albums have been re-issued several times on different labels due to high demand. The renowned Shadow Kingdom records now takes care of the release of ‘Dawn of the Axe’ and does so in style, with plenty of vinyl options, CDs, cassettes etc. How did your cooperation materialize?
Yes, the interest in those albums definitely never waned, they have a strong shelflife and are considered classics by some that grew up with them, which we appreciate very much.
When we got back together and especially after the release of ‘Across The Styx’ we got a lot of offers from several labels of varying sizes, but the one that spoke to us the most was definitely Tim with Shadow Kingdom Records because we had the same vision for this album from the start. The support has been very good and we are very glad how well it’s been working.

‘Dawn of the Axe’ is an album that fits well with the other two stylistically and should be right up the alley of those that love the earlier Cruel Force material, still paying homage to the likes of Motörhead, Bathory, Kreator, Slayer and so on. But it probably takes a few of your influences more to the forefront, places the Thrash and Speed Metal in your music more in the spotlight. What is in your opinion the biggest difference between the first records and your latest?
Well, I’d say and all of us would agree that ‘Dawn Of The Axe’ is really not that far off soundwise and musically from our debut ‘The Rise Of Satanic Might’. The difference is that back then we didn’t have any prior recording experience, we hadn’t really studied the process and all the nooks and crannies of what you can do in the studio. “Why does this snare sound like shit and this one doesn’t?” Stuff like that, you know? And while our producer Wally back then was good at what he did and did his best to get the sound that we asked him to get us, maybe sometimes we weren’t the best at articulating what we wanted and a bit too impatient. But with the last record we really put a lot of effort into every detail, every cymbal, every chord, every syllable, every pronounciation. That ended up giving us pretty much the perfect production for what we want now. And that’s really the biggest difference. That was then, this is now. Would I wanna go back and re-record the first albums with the knowledge that we have now? Fuck no. We recently did a new version of ‘Victim Of Hellfire’, but that was  never to say “We sounded shit back then, this is better!”. That’s the biggest bunch of crap you hear from failed middle-aged men who try to revive their glory days but think they need to prostitute themselves to “What’s hip with the kids”. All you need to do is be authentic and that’s it. Trying to change and/or erase history is never a good idea in any area of life. I love ‘The Rise Of Satanic Might’ and ‘Under The Sign Of The Moon’ for the time they represent and that will never change.

You’ve dedicated the album to the pioneers of German Metal such as Accept, Scorpions, Kreator, Sodom, Running Wild and Iron Angel. I would say you do those band pride with your homage! Was the aim to give your take on Teutonic Metal something you specifically set out to do for the new album, or something that rather just gradually grew in this direction.
I don’t think there’s any other way we could have done it, there was never an option because that’s what’s in all of our veins. Of course all of us enjoy other genres as well, but these bands and this era of music is what’s probably closest to all of our hearts. The youthful rage, the no-compromise attitude that all of these bands had is just off the charts and something to aspire to. Not saying that other countries didn’t have similar scenes in that regard, but I mean we’re German, we meet these ‘veterans’ and see the places where all of that history happened quite a bit. We recorded the album in Altenessen, where Kreator is from, we visited Velbert, which is indeed absolutely dead, just as Violent Force said. We live and breathe this energy and that comes out in the music.

Do you think the sound of the bands of the Teutonic Metal scene and their influence on (extreme) Metal is sometimes overlooked?
That might be true for newer bands, I don’t know. But I don’t think bands like Blasphemy, Sadistik Exekution or Sarcófago have ever denied the impact that records like ‘Obsessed By Cruelty’, ‘Pleasure To Kill’, ‘Malevolent Assault Of Tomorrow’ or ‘Riders Of Doom’ have had on them and their music. As I said before, I think it’s that no-compromise, zero-fucks-given attitude that spoke to them as well and is still the basis for entire genres such as Death and Black Metal. It might have gotten lost among all the blastbeats, shitty modern production and lyrics about guts and forests, but the backbone of these genres is still Thrash Metal and mostly of the German ilk. Period.

The lyrical content on the new album appears a little bit different as well. On the first two records the themes and titles seemed more, let’s say Bathory and Venom inspired dealings with witches and the devil. On ‘Dawn of the Axe’ it rather seems more focused on subjects dealing with death. Anything you can share about the song titles and lyrical themes?
Yeah, the “shock”-factor was something we definitely had in consideration back then. You have to remember we weren’t exactly city folks, we all came from villages of varying size in the countryside. Just speaking for myself, the Catholic church still is very dominant there to this day, I was raised Catholic and I began hating it. Metal was my outlet for that hate and so that stuff was all I wrote about for the longest time. Plus, as you mentioned other great bands had done it this way for years, so why not? But as time progressed, Slaughter who writes the other half of the lyrics  and I began realizing that this subject gets repetitive and overplayed very quickly. There’s only so many ways in which you can tell me about how you wanna rape the virgin Mary that I will keep finding interesting. Not saying that that lyrical content is completely off the table, but I’d say it has to go with a certain energy and style of music that we just don’t play, simple as that.
So yes, the new lyrics are inspired by various things. Authors like Howard and Lovecraft, movies like Indiana Jones or Mad Max, mythology, whatever. There’s no real limits that we put on ourselves in that regard, it just has to work for the song and the overall album concept, that’s pretty much it. Don’t expect any insights into the human condition or politics in our lyrics though. Never happened, never will happen as it doesn’t enhance the music, it deflects from it. Because that’s then what people talk about and not the song as a whole. That’s pretty much the only rule we have.

‘Across the Styx’ and ‘Realm of Sands’ appear to have ancient Greek and Egyptian themes. That is obvious in the titles, but both songs also have riffs that have an almost middle eastern tonality to them. And maybe it’s me, but ‘Realm of Sands’ even reminds me of the epic closing song off Iron Maiden’s ‘Powerslave’ album with its iconic cover with a pyramid. What can you tell me about these songs?
Well, that comparison is not too far-fetched I reckon because of the Egyptian theme and because Slaughter is one of the biggest Maiden fanatics you will ever come across. He also wrote the music and the lyrics for both of these songs. I think what these songs showcase most is what kind of a versatile songwriter Slaughter really is. In that regard I would also throw ‘Devils Dungeon’ into the mix. There’s more riffs and variation in those three songs alone than in a lot of bands entire discography. They all showcase an epicness and love for detail that has been lost in recent years. It harkens back to stuff like Rainbow, 70s Scorpions, but also early Manowar, Iron Angel tomrolls, ‘Pleasure To Kill’-type Thrash and so forth. The list goes on and just makes those songs very exciting and gives them a massive replay-factor, because there’s always new stuff to discover.

The instrumental ’Watchtower of Abra’ refers to the Bantay Bell Tower, a 15th century watchtower in the Philippines that was used to look out for pirates. The first thing that comes to mind is Running Wild’s ‘Under Jolly Roger’ album. Is the song indeed inspired by that album and what does that band mean to Cruel Force in terms of inspiration?
Not really any inspiration for that song, no. Running Wild in general definitely is for us though. We used to play a live cover of ‘Chains And Leather’ back in the day and I don’t think any of us would deny that they’re one of the most influential and greatest bands from back then. Also one of the very few that didn’t wimp out in the 90ies, so kudos for that!

Are all these shifts in angle also the reason why you changed the band logo?
Yes. While the old logo worked for the records that it was on, it wouldn’t have played for the new stuff. The inverted cross by itself would’ve given a false indication of where the album was heading. We’re very happy with the new logo and while there was some understandable initial backlash from fans they seem to have embraced it as well.

You’ve done live shows in the past. Are there plans to go out on the road and promote ‘Dawn of the Axe’ live as well?
We’ve had lots and lots of offers for shows, tours and festivals so forth, but for now we are only doing one show in december. This is to honor our old friend and Hellish Crossfire bassist Sigi/Sick who tragically died last december. We’re gonna play there with a lot of old comrades like Division Speed, Witching Hour, Desaster and so forth. It’ll be a class reunion of sorts. Sad occasion, but also a worthy cause and we are very much looking forward to it. After that we will see what other shows we might wanna do. Or not. We’ll see.

Besides Cruel Force some of you are also active in other bands including Megathérion, Witches Sabbath, Sacrifixion and Shrine. Anything in the works for these bands?
Witches Sabbath and Shrine both aren’t really active bands, they were one-off projects. Never say never, but nothing is in the works in that regard. With Megathérion we are still working on our debut album, had a lot of setbacks with people not doing their part, quitting, etc., but I hope we will get something done in the near future. Concerning Sacrifixion nothing is planned, but we’ll see!

Your music suggests you guys live and breathe old school Metal from the 80’s. Are there different and more recent styles you take a liking to as well? What albums find the way to your record players the most in recent times?
I think the most recent style any of us really like is 90s Death and Black Metal, I don’t think any of us go much further than that. When it comes to older stuff we can talk. Southern Rock along the lines of Molly Hatchet, Progressive Rock like Rush, even New Wave stuff like Depeche Mode, we can appreciate and enjoy all of it. Recent bands we can wholeheartedly give a shout-out to would be Sphinx and Black Viper who both released very authentic albums in recent years.
At the moment for me the most played albums would probably be the new record by our brothers Old, Molly Hatchet’s ‘Take No Prisoners’ and ‘Tales From The Twilight World’, the sometimes overlooked third Blind Guardian album that Slaughter recently fixed me up with. Thanks for that one, Speed Metal perfection!

That’s pretty much it from my end, I leave the final words are for you. What message do you want to spread to our readers?
Thank you very much for your interest in us and the interesting questions. To your readers:
The DAWN OF THE AXE is now! Check us out on all platforms, spread the message, pick up your axes and take some heads! HEAVY METAL DEATH!
Carnivore/CRUEL FORCE