| Interviews |

INNERGARDEN2.0

other interview :  the rocking horse winner (RIP) | ettison clio | truetilldeath.com

recently added interview. this interview is actually done as one of those material for the last Fightback!zine issue by Endy [one of the Fightback!zine team member]. but due the delay from Heaven Shall Burn itself [i know they're busy as hell preparing their thirth full length "Antigone" (their debut in Century Media Records)] finally this interview decided to be put on INNERGARDEN2.0.  as one of Heaven Shall Burn fans of course i'll be happy to put this interview from this great band here. thanx to NxD for letting me doin this.

HEAVEN SHALL BURN

Please tell us briefly about Heaven Shall Burn, past and present.

Hi there! Well, we were founded around 1996 under the name CONSENSE we changed our name in 1998 into HEAVEN SHALL BURN. That was right before our first MCD ‘in battle there’s no law’ came out. Besides that we released a split with FALL OF SERENITY, a split with CALIBAN and two full lenghts named ‘asunder’ and ‘whatever it may take’. Our third full album ‘antigone’ will see the light of day in april 2004.

How did the name Heaven Shall Burn come about? Did you guys take it from Marduk’s album?

Yeah, we  kinda adopted the name from MARDUK’s album ‘heaven shall burn...when we’re gathered’. But it wasn’t because we’re such big fans of MARDUK. We just thought it would be a strong and kinda provokative name. And we were right...hehehe. people always ask us how we came up with that name. The term ‘heaven’ should be seen as another word for the fake paradise people create. Some people create such a fake world around themselfes and don’t see the truth. So that kind of heaven/ fake paradise shall burn.

Do you guys have any lifestyle or political agendas? Straight-edge, veg(etari)an etc?

We’re all vegan and 4 of us are straight edge as well. No one of us is involved in any political group, but we all have our beliefs and convictions. Our lyrics are more socio-critical than lyrics most of the other bands in our genre have. That’s really important to us.

What have been your biggest musical and lyrical influences thus far?

Bands like EART CRISIS, BOLT THROWER, DISMEMBER, AT THE GATES...stuff like that. The list would be way too long to mention all of them. Lyrically i can’t really tell. Our guitar player Maik is responsible for that. But i guess lyrics from bands like EARTH CRISIS and also AT THE GATES influenced him a lot. That’s at least my impression when i read our lines.

You guys are now working on the new album, right. Could you explain a little bit about it?

Well, the album is called ‘antigone’ and will be out on april 26^th. Everything is done already and all in all it will include 9 news songs. We chose the name ‘antigone’ because Antigone was something like a symobl for a freedom fight. We took the name from the greek drama. Antigone was rebelling against the authority of the king, king Creon. It isn’t a concept album about that issue. It’s just that we ‘lend’ the name from there. the lyrics are in the way they always were.

“Whatever It May Take” sounds more melodic with more fast parts compared with the first full  length, “Asunder”. So, what about your forthcoming new full length? How will it sound like?

I guess everything was slowing a bit down, but got more power at the same time. There’s also a new sense of melodies. We use them in a different way now. But all in all it’s 100% HEAVEN SHALL BURN. You’ll notice that after the first moments when you’ll listen to it. I guess the listener should judge about the album. It’s always hard to explain when someone was involved into the rocess of creating a new record.

Who is responsible for writing the lyrics? What are your most songs talk about?

Maik, our guitarplayer is responsible for that. The lyrics deal with things we think about...things from every day life, things that happen in the world we’re living in. We wanna make the people think. This time, like last time as well, we also got two songs again which deal with historical people. Last time we had ‘martyr’s blood’. That was a song about the former president of Chile, who got killed during a military coup in 1973 by Pinochet’s troops. This time, one song’s about Victor Jara. Victor Jara was “just” an actor and a singer. But he also got a vision concerning a better Chile. His songs had so much power and were really able to reach the people’s hearts. He was always stating his conviction. So of course he was against the barbarian general Pinochet and his troops. They shouldn’t play a role in “his” Chile.

Due to his ability to reach the people, they were afraid of him. The only way to keep him quiet was to kill him. During the military coup in 1973, the troops caught thousands of people and brought them to the football National stadium in Santiago de Chile. It was the place, where they executed many, many people. Victor Jara also has been there. When he arrived in the stadium, he just got a guitar and started to play his songs. The watchmen just hacked his hands. They wanted to stop him playing his songs... they just didn’t succeed. Jara kept on singing and screaming until hundreds of bullets killed him. That’s the story that impressed us a lot. We thought it would be worth to tell. Another song is about Nelson Mandela. The former president of South Africa. Due to his fight against the apartheid system in his country, he had to stay in jail for around 30 years. He also fought for his convictions and he payed a huge price. Such stories are really impressive, but too many people already forgot about them. That are just two examples for our lyrics. In general you can say that we don’t have fantasy lyrics or stuff like that...

Lifeforce is one of the best hardcore labels in Europe. Are you happy being part of Lifeforce family?

The people behind Lifeforce are great friends of us and they always did a hell of a job for us! We always have been really proud to be a part of Lifeforce. Well, you most likely already know that we signed to Century Media. So the ‘antigone’ will be out there. but the LP-version of the new record will be still released on Lifeforce. When we were chosing a new label, we also took care that we can still do some stuff with Lifeforce. Btw. ‘antigone’ will be also released by Liberation Records in South America.

Do you see HSB as a metal band or a hardcore band?

We’re going to HC shows, we have HC ethics, we feel like home in the HC scene...so we’re a HC band...hehe.

With the name Heaven Shall Burn, do you think people automatically classify HSB as satanic band?

Some did, but we already got many possibilities to explain the name. So most people already know that we’re not satanic.

What's your point of view about religion (and god)?!

I don’t believe in any good and i think that religion is one of the worst things, humanity ever created.

It caused so many wars and so much suffering already...it can’t be good. People should think of their own and not follow a religion our an old book. Some people might get strength through being spiritual, but that a different story. For me, organized religion is the root of all evil;-)

What are you guys doing beside the band?

We’re all working and studying. Maik(guitar) is studying law, Patrick(guitar) is studying mechatronic and i(Matthias; drums) study economy. Eric(bass) is working as an ergo-therapist and Marcus(voc) is doing an education to become a male nurse;-)

If music and the band wouldn't work out for you, what are your backup plans?

We don’t wanna become professionals. We have our feet on the ground and don’t have plans like that. So we also don’t think about such a possibility. Never say never, but i really don’t think that it would work. We all wanna life our life with work, studies...whatever...The band should be something we can enjoy...not a job.

Many bands often have line-up problems, especially in a hardcore scene. Even some of them split up in a short period of time. What makes you guys solid as a group and keep playing together over the years?

We’re not a bunch of musicians who came together after some years playing in other bands. We grew together as a band and became the band we’re today. We try to keep everything as easy-going as possible. We just do our thing. I guess the biggest problem of today’s bands is that they want too much and they want it too fast. We just were playing our stuff all the time...not really thinking what we could reach or what could happen to the band. We didn’t care about trends or whatever. We just played the music we love. So many bands are way too serious and do the music just to become famous. They try everything to become huge. If they don’t do it in time, they just split up. Besides HEAVEN SHALL BURN we’re also doing things together...cooking together, going to the cinema, the waterpark, to a show...we’re really close friends. And we also know that our band wouldn’t be the same if someone would leave. Sure, we could get better musicians for each position, but it wouldn’t work. It wouldn’t be the same band anymore...

There are some bands that have been using instruments that are considered “abnormal” in hardcore scene, such as keyboard, violin, and female vocals. What do you think about that?

If they think it fits, they should use it. I guess everything is fine as long as the people are 100% behind it. We’re also using everything that sounds good in our opinion. On the new record there will also be some keyboards, some piano...not that much, but something that makes the record sound better...hehehe.

Some say that the metalcore scene has now reach its “final destination”. Some new bands are just copycat and aren’t able to create something new. Do you have any comment?

There are a lot of bands around that are just copycats. One one hand it’s okay. HEAVEN SHALL BURN also started as a band, which wanted to have all the good elements from the bands we like. But i guess that we always had our own identity. We always got influences from many different bands and didn’t just copy one certain band. The problem is that metalcore became quite big and popular during the last years and everyone wants to have a piece of the cake. Bands without any metal background wants to play metalcore, because it’s so popular at the moment. That’s doomed to fail. There are too many bands like that around.

If you were going to be locked in a room for 24 hours, what 5 CDs would you have?

Just 5? Well:

AMON AMARTH – once sent from the golden hall

            MY DYING BRIDE – new CD

            NUEVA ETICA – la venganza de los justos

            THE GREAT DECEIVER – new CD

            DEAD PREZ – let’s get free

It seems that the best hardcore bands are keep coming from Germany these days. How would you explain this and what are some of your favorite up-and-coming German hardcore groups?

I didn’t notice that the best ones are coming from Germany...hehehe. One band i would recommend is DESTINY with their new record ‘the tracy chapter’. Another band is XMAROONX. They’ll also put a new record out in april. DEADSOIL, BLACK FRIDAY 29 or SETTLE THE SCORE are great as well.

And of course...everyone already knows CALIBAN...actually needless to mention. But there are good european bands in general, bands like BORN FROM PAIN, CATARACT or STAMPIN’ GROUND.

What do you know about Indonesia?

To be honest, not that much until now. I just know that the country consist of many islands and that’s so much different to germany. I guess i just know all the things from the news and from broadcasts in tv. We were also talking in school about Indonesia...but that was many years ago. About one year ago we all heard about the terror attacks on Bali...something really shocking. We always hear that many multinational companies are producing their products there...things like that. But also more positive stuff...like it’s a nice place to visit and stuff. To get a real impression we would like to go there and see. But even then, we’d just see some little parts. Unfortunately i don’t know any bands from Indonesia. I just think that the scene there is quite alive. That’s at least my impression. Sometimes we’re getting comments from indonesian people in our guestbook. Once or twice i was also talking to people from there via icq or aim.

Any future plans?

We’ll put out the new album at the end of april in europe...then we’ll see...

We wanna play as many shows as we can play. maybe we’ll also do a tour at last. There’s nothing really sure yet. We just also wanna travel with the band whenever it’s possible. Our problem is just the lack of time...hehehe. we’re all working or studying.

Thank you so much Maik for the interview. Any final thoughts for the people out there?

Hehehehe..it wasn’t Maik answering the question. It’s me, Matthias(drums). Maik still was way too busy with everything concerning the new CD “antigone”. So watch out for ‘antigone’ and check it if you’ll have the possibility. Stay true to yourself!

Thanks a lot for the interview and for giving us the possibility to say what’s up with HEAVEN SHALL BURN. We really appreciate it!!! Endy, good luck with your zine and everything!