Despite leaving behind only a very modest discography, the German band Old managed to leave a solid impression in the Black/Thrash Metal scene. So much so that the band’s only full-length album, 17 years on, is widely regarded as a modest genre classic. I spoke to vocalist Reaper about the band’s sudden demise, which turns out to have a mundane and more than justified reason, and even more about Old’s unexpected resurgence. All this on the back of the band’s recently released second album, ‘Dawn Of Darkness’…
Hi Reaper, welcome to The Whispering Darkness, there is of course no need to introduce the band or explain your musical origins. What does require some explanation, however, is the slow departure from the scene in the few years after the release of your debut album in 2006 and the equally surprising recent return. What happened in the intervening 17 years?
Ave! Well, the slow departure started in 2009 when my daughter was born. At that time we also had constant lineup problems so rehearsing was also difficult. Back then the band had 3 main members, Doomhammer and Horus and me. We swapped instruments and had session and live musicians to be able to play live or even rehearse. All things we weren’t really happy with. Since being a father opened a new age for me, we decide to put OLD “on ice”. I had time to explore the unknown and Doomhammer started a new project called MONUMENTOR with Zarko, OLD’s new full member on the drums. He also helped us out back in 2004 and 2005 on our very first live shows.
Years passed by and the longer it took, the more it was unrealistic that we were coming back. After all, in 2016 I had a very bad time, falling into a hole and fighting with myself was not funny for me. I knew I had to change something in my life to get out of that abyss, to be the person again I had been my whole life. The one I felt right to be. In 2018 I talked to Doomhammer and Horus and asked to do some rehearsing, just for us. It felt right, realising that this was the shit I was missing, we tried to write new songs and the result you can hear on the ‘Dawn of Darkness’ album.
I just said we were not going to talk about musical origins, but, well, we are… At least a little. So, here we go: something I lauded in the review for the new album is that despite there being a whopping 17 years between the two albums, there is very little musical progression in the material on offer. Yet, ‘Dawn Of Darkness’ sounds a little less sharp and has a more distinct Heavy Metal aura to it.
Lacking musical progression might be explained by a relative outsider as artistic idiocy and incompetence, but in the world of Old and this kind of metal in general, that is something to be proud of. Still, if you take an inside look at both albums, apart from the more obvious touch of Heavy Metal, where do you think that we can spot the differences?
Ah! I think the main difference is the sound. You still hear the typical OLD school style in our music and this won’t change, ever. Fact is, we are all worshippers of old Metal style, no matter if it’s Heavy, Death, Thrash, Black or Doom… we try to make the package complete with our own OLD touch, which is mainly this old Celtic Frost vibe. It’s more the way we want to sound like, instead of a progression in music. A cool riff doesn’t mean you have a good song. It’s the arrangement of songwriting, which makes the whole thing work. After all there are thousands of new bands out there which are really fantastic and it’s not easy to write an album where people will like everything from A to Z. It’s always a matter of taste. People like us will get into our album fast, others, who are listening to “under a funeral moon” the whole day, won’t. But we don’t give a fuck.
Even before even hearing a single note of ‘Dawn Of Darkness’ the fabulous artwork caught my eye, Portuguese artist Belial Necro is the signatory of this impressive piece of art. Can you talk a bit about the conceptual connection between the album’s title, cover and music?
Here I can just talk for myself, since art touches everyone in a different way. To me the cover artwork fits 100%. The older and wiser guy on the right, where his inner demon breaks out on the left. I feel very connected with the cover, since it represents in my point of view myself breaking out of the depression I had. Which I also handle in song “Darkness in me”.
I am not entirely sure, but it seems that the band has undergone a bit of an overhaul when it comes to its personnel. Can you take us through some of the changes you’ve had in the ranks? And what impact has it had on the band and the new album, both musically and in terms of interpersonal chemistry?
Easy, like I said before we always had lineup problems. The main problem had always been the drummer position. On our first album drums were recorded with Mersus who, back then, was the drummer of Destroyer 666 and Zarathustra. Later we had for live shows Iron Tyrant of Hellish Crossfire on drums and later even we had Vomitor of Nocturnal and now Possession on bass guitar for live shows. At that time Horus swapped from bass guitar to lead guitar and Doomhammer from lead guitar to drums, just so we would be able to play live. After all, it was a big complicated mess. With the awakening of OLD in 2018, we reinforced the lineup with Zarko on drums and Horus’ brother, Scorn, on bass guitar. Both are full members now and since we all live relatively closely together, our lineup is stronger than ever before. This constellation made it possible to be able to write an album. We are a band that wants to rehearse and to practice new songs together in a rehearsal room. That brings a band closer together and you get into the right mood when rehearsing the songs.. Maybe I can say that this new lineup also saved OLD in its existence. Since we are not fans of sending files to other members, to practice the stuff alone at home when new songs are created and then have one or two rehearsals a year just because of distance. Not our cup of Metal.
In my aforementioned review for ‘Dawn Of Darkness’ I spent quite a few retrospective words to your relationship with Darkthrone. To the relative outsider that I am, it seems that you have sort of switched places and influenced each other. I imagine that in your position, as part of the creative process, it can be a bit tough, but could you shine your light on my claims?
Hmmm, I understand your thoughts. But I think its more of a same taste in metal between both bands. I mean NO ONE on earth is listening to Darkthrone and says “hey, this sounds like OLD!” but on the other hand, a shitload of people say OLD is very darkthrone-influenced. All I can say is that we are NOT! People should start to listen to old Celtic Frost/Hellhammer or even old Motörhead instead of jumping up and down with corpsepaint in the forest and worshipping Panzerfaust album at home. Like I said, its more like both bands main vibe has or had the same influences.
If ‘Dawn Of Darkness’ is released 17 years after your debut album, that means that you have been getting older in about the same amount of years. Apart from the reality check that such a realization brings, those years must have affected you in more ways than only one. If you were to think about that, what have those years done to you on a personal and musical level?
When it comes to metal, the others and I in OLD haven’t changed at all. When it comes to musical taste we are on the same level… like I said before, we worship many kinds of old school metal and that has never changed. 20 years ago we also proved this on stage by doing cover songs of Death Strike, Venom, Exciter, Violent Force, VON or even Manilla Road.
When it comes to personal things, I just can speak for myself. Having a child you set your priorities elsewhere, trying to build a path for your child were you set the stone for her future to see the world with real eyes and not walk around blindly, like a fucking lamb on its way to the butcher. You will be lost in this world if you are the lamb and not the wolf. Seeing all this “normal” families and their nonsensical lives makes me sick and surely is something I never want to have. It’s also worth mentioning, that my wife never forced me to change or do “strange” family things like in most other relationships. I just couldn’t agree with myself: To be 50% Metal and 50% father was a no go for me. My dedication had always been all or nothing. Now my daughter is a teenager and that makes my own life easier again. To focus on things I like and be the one I’d always been before.
Taking this same space of time in consideration, is there any difference to be discerned in the metal scene as a whole and your local scene specifically?
Time and its progress changed a lot in Metal. I mean I come from very early 90s where you heard about a band name and it took you an endless pain of time until you finally held a copy of their tape in your hands. That was something special. You also listened to the stuff much more intensively than nowadays. You only discovered a handful of new bands every month. You spent much more time with a release. Also back then, 9 of 10 releases were ACE and today they are classics. Nowadays its more the opposite of that, you are able to listen to 5000 new bands a week and 95% of it bores you to death. What I’m trying to say is, even 17 years ago everything had already been fucked up by the MP3 overdose in the scene. There is always one rule for young bloods in underground metal and that is, if you don’t know the right people you will be forever “lost in necropolis”. Someone must “take this torch” to keep the flame alive. Good METAL doesn’t need big promotion or a fucking image around a band, it spreads on its own with the helped of the right people. My “local scene” are my close friends and these are the people I like to spend my time with. But I also enjoy to attend concerts, to meet friends and also see friends’ bands on stage in different regions. Besides this I don’t care much about the scene. I can’t care about hundreds of people and I don’t give a shit about that. My scene are my friends and brothers I stay in contact with all around the world.
Your unexpected return is of course nothing short of joyous, however, the choice of record label is almost as surprising. Your debut was released by Tyrant Syndicate Productions/Peaceville and ‘Dawn Of Darkness’ on the relatively small heavy metal label Unsilent Tombs Records. Tyrant Syndicate has been laid to rest, but I’m curious about your considerations, expectations and experiences with this new label.
When had been almost done with the new material we realised that we were headed for a new album with this stuff. It was still OLD and we really like each fucking song on it. We didn’t announce it or looked for a label. Florian of Unsilent Tomb Records has been a close friend of ours since the beginning of OLD. He lives here and was also went to the same school as Scorn and Horus. So it was out of the question to look for another label. We feel very at home on his label. It’s all very transparent, no rip off here, we have the last word on everything OLD related. Plus, his releases are high quality. He is more invested into the quality then in making lots of money with it and he is also a very dedicated fan of our shit and this is also a good for us.
That you have drawn your influences from what we can easily call the classic foundations of the metal genre is of course no secret, even a deaf person should be able to hear that. But in particular, the song ‘Tyrants Of Death’ seems to be a tribute to everything that has touched you musically. A sampling of those lyrics: “make way for the incinerator”, “power and pain”, “funeral fog” (or fuck), “orgasmatron” and “satanic hunger”. That song just about seems to consist almost entirely of such familiar quotes…
This is something I always wanted to do and when the instrumental song had been done, I had to write the lyrics for it. I thought this neckbreaker is perfect for such lyrics and even if people don’t get it on a first listen, there are also more “hidden” dedications besides the verses in it. It is also a dedication to my close brothers Iron Tyrant of Hellish Crossfire and Melle, who works for High Roller Records. All in all, these are bands that are important to me and I have to mention the idea behind Watain’s “Satan’s Hunger” reference. Back when they showed up and everyone was talking about them, I didn’t liked them i.e. their first release that much and I was also maximum bored about new 2nd wave Black Metal, since almost every band sounded the same and were another copy of a Darkthrone classic. That wasn’t the shit I was looking for. I had Under a Funeral Moon album and didn’t need copy number 45 of it. In 2000s, most people didn’t get the shit about Black Metal right. I mean take a look back at the 90s, no Black Metal band was the same. Compare all the bands from back then and you will see that almost all were unique. From Abigor to Mayhem up to Zyklon B. Around 2017 I gave Watain another try with Sworn to the Dark album…and yes, I was hooked from the first second. Their later works are also fantastic. Songs like “They rode on” or “Waters of ain” are very important to me. I only listen to Black Metal ALONE, to get into the right mood, so Watain is a perfect fit with me. Well, after all I just wanted to pay something back to Watain by mentioning them in the lyrics, to show my maximum respect to them for creating something that’s worth being called real 2nd wave Black Metal.
While the musical influences are obvious to Old, I’m curious to know which records have stuck with you the most recently. Take us through your record collection, what is currently on the player and what are your latest purchases?
First of all I have to mention upcoming CRUEL FORCE album which I have had since January and which I am still worshipping very often. This is real old school Heavy/Speed/Thrash at its best. I also love the vocals, which remind me of Exodus’ Paul Baloff, one of my favorite Thrash vocalists. I also have to mention German Speed Thrashers SPHINX, they are 666% authentic as fuck! Its like time was froze in ’86. Then another German band I like to mention is NUCTEMERON- Germany’s violent child of Nifelheim. The other day I got CHAINSAW (Greece) from my friend Jochen of Diabolical Might Records. Great old school stuff and no fillers here. For old Morbid Angel worship I recommend Italian band THULSA DOOM. Then I got a tape of NEBIROS which is damned good 2nd wave Black Metal. From Poland I currently worship TORWARDS HELLFIRE which is Black Metal with fantastic guitar work ala old Dissection. Also from Poland, I highly recommend SexMag and Gallower. Both real underground old school metal. And another highlight I listen to very often is ARMAGH, also from Poland which is a more evil version of Angel Witch meets Brocas Helm and Manilla Road. But the clue is, sometimes they have built in Black Metal outbreaks which work fantastically together and do not feel wrong at all. Very intuitive! Finally some great Black Thrash you can find in NUCLEAR REVENGE from Spain, INCINERATOR from Norway, DEVASTATOR from UK and BLACK VOMIT 666 from Columbia.
For some reason your return has been under my radar until the release of ‘Dawn Of Darkness’, but prior to that you’ve played a lot of great shows, albeit mainly in Germany. What can we expect from you in this area in the coming period?
Don’t expect big touring. We are a band who wants to play live but not 35 times a year. We go with 4 gigs for this year and said NO to ALL other requests we had. Firstly its not easy to get 5 members set for a date to play live and on the other hand we just want to see this year if we are still in the mood for live shows. Next year, if everything went well on the other shows and we feel that we are in a good place for playing live, then I guess we will do some more shows. But no big touring, something around 10 concerts a year could be realistic.
Thanks for your time and sharing your story, traditionally I like to leave the last words to my guest. So: go ahead, to you the honour of closing our conversation…
Don’t forget Iron Maiden is touring soon. Come to DER DETZE ROCKT Festival to hail Bunker66 and worship ULRICH ROTH. Try to check out some of the bands I mentioned here, drink more Cuba Libre and “fuck the ways of Christ”!
