IMPENDING DOOM is the ‘cover star’ of RANDOM #4, and who could argue that? Listening to their materials are what causing you to scream out METALLL!!! With the full capacity of your burn out lungs. Though IMPENDING DOOM are becoming a piece of history in the underground Metal scene of today, their members are still lurking beneath the scene in several disguises, most notably the exciting HATESPAWN, so just keep a watch on their activities soon.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IMPENDING DOOM from German is one of the very few surprises that I’ve encountered during the course of my last issue’s work, and an interview with them is inevitable, it seems. You should not miss the opportunity to check them out, for they’re one helluva great band! Andy kindly answered my interrogations, check out the outcome!
IMPENDING DOOM from German is one of the very few surprises that I’ve encountered during the course of my last issue’s work, and an interview with them is inevitable, it seems. You should not miss the opportunity to check them out, for they’re one helluva great band! Andy kindly answered my interrogations, check out the outcome!
Greetings friend! How’re you there in German? How’s the latest live-shows of IMPENDING DOOM came out as?
Hell-o Shahrizwan and you, readers of the RANDOM ‘zine. How are you? Hope all is fine today! Well, al is pretty cool at this moment here. Last weekend we have played a show at the capitol of Germany, in Berlin. Well, we played with INCUBATOR and MORBUS and two local support act. One was called WOLFBREED. Yeah, we’ve given all the power for this show, but the support from the fans wasn’t the best. Believe me, these big city kids are totally spoiled. But a week before we played a show in the north of Germany in Greifswald. And this gig was really cool. People going totally crazy and want more and more songs. This year (1999) the situation for live-shows is fucking great for us. A lot of gigs are planned in the near future. Also two bigger open air shows and maybe some gigs outside of Germany. Perhaps three shows in France are planned. But we will see…
Your second album “Signum of Hate” has finally being revealed to the listeners. So tell me, does it turn out the way it’s expected to be?
Well, the “Signum of Hate” album was released in August ’98. And we’re also satisfied with this work. Of course, a lot of things will be better on the next album we’ve just working on. So, if you’re interested in aggressive and powerful Metal between black, thrash and death; don’t miss it. Hope you’ll enjoy. But I’m not a man, who like to speak about his own work. Think so, that you Shahrizwan will be much more authorized to do this!! So tell the Malaysian Metalheads the best of our album, hehe. (it fukking kills, and this is no asslicking!-ed).
I think the production is a lot better, compared to “Caedes Sacrilegae”. It seems like the drummer is hitting some empty cans on the first one…
Yeah, the sound is a lot better than on the debut. The drum sound on “Caedes Sacrilegae” was a small catastrophe! Our guitarist Patrick produced the “Signum of Hate” album. And I think he did a good job. But you can await a killer production for the next album. Beware. He does a good producer job for a lot of Metal bands now here. Albums and demos productions for SEIRIM, POLYMORPH, MOURNING ENDS, PROSATANOS, FANGORN, and a lot more…
It’s (the second album) far more aggressive too. Probably due to the departure of your keyboardist. Is he really being kicked-out off the band or what?
Well, the keyboard-player left the band to have more time with his family. I can accept this, so he’s still a good friend. But I can’t understand this. You see, me and my girlfriend, we’ll also get a child in October this year (1999). But I don’t think this should bring an end to my musical activities. Metal is like a lifestyle, not a trend to me. Ha, I’m fiend for the wildness and power of truly Metal art. But, as the keyboard-player left us, we don’t want a new member. And it was like an evolution to bring more aggression and brutality in our songs. And now, our stuff is much more faster and full of weakcrushing riffs.
And so, why you reduced those so called ‘hateful melodies’?
Well, I think that most of the bands, who use keyboards, sounds so beautiful. I don’t like this mix betweengothic and Metal for gays. Haha. There are not so much bands, who keyboards sound really evil are horrible. So I like artists like KING DIAMOND or DEATH SS. These ones bring a brilliant horror feelings in their music.
But still I could trace some melodic lines in “Signum of Hate”, but done in a much darker way.
Now our music is still full of melodies. But it’s worked on guitars and it’s great, that you say; it’s much more in a darker way. That’s our way, to create the most dark Metal ever. So we deal with a lot of oppressive and evil feelings in our songs. And always we’re interested to mix our songs with good and aggressive riffs, melodies and our own feeling. But today it’s not that simple to create your very own style.
And what about your vocals, I bet you got a certain way of singing. I heard traces of old bands’ nuances belching out from your throat…
Thanks a lot… Well, we’re all influenced by the sound of 80’s Metal. All of us prefer stuffs like IRON MAIDEN, SLAYER, BATHORY, KREATOR, MOTÖRHEAD and so on. My favourite band is CELTIC FROST, and I think somebody can recognize this in our songs. But I’m interested to support the feelings of a song with my vocals. And there are many different styles of singing in our songs… you know. It’s the same with the lyrics. If you play this kind of music, you can’t sing about nice thigns or politics. Our songs are full of dark stuff and dark lyrics. I can’t judge about those hardcore attitude. It’s not our way!!! Enjoy the lyrics and you’ll know what I mean.
Don’t you find IMPENDING DOOM as a bit ‘retro-sounding’?
We have nothing to do with bands like AURA NOIR, INFERNÖ or GUILLOTINE. Listen to their songs and you’ll understand why I call these bands thieves. It’s one way to be influenced, but it’s another thing to play the same old riffs and say it’s your own song. Hell, we’re not a ‘retro’ band. We’re still a pure fuckin’ headcrushing Metal act.
Hell-o Shahrizwan and you, readers of the RANDOM ‘zine. How are you? Hope all is fine today! Well, al is pretty cool at this moment here. Last weekend we have played a show at the capitol of Germany, in Berlin. Well, we played with INCUBATOR and MORBUS and two local support act. One was called WOLFBREED. Yeah, we’ve given all the power for this show, but the support from the fans wasn’t the best. Believe me, these big city kids are totally spoiled. But a week before we played a show in the north of Germany in Greifswald. And this gig was really cool. People going totally crazy and want more and more songs. This year (1999) the situation for live-shows is fucking great for us. A lot of gigs are planned in the near future. Also two bigger open air shows and maybe some gigs outside of Germany. Perhaps three shows in France are planned. But we will see…
Your second album “Signum of Hate” has finally being revealed to the listeners. So tell me, does it turn out the way it’s expected to be?
Well, the “Signum of Hate” album was released in August ’98. And we’re also satisfied with this work. Of course, a lot of things will be better on the next album we’ve just working on. So, if you’re interested in aggressive and powerful Metal between black, thrash and death; don’t miss it. Hope you’ll enjoy. But I’m not a man, who like to speak about his own work. Think so, that you Shahrizwan will be much more authorized to do this!! So tell the Malaysian Metalheads the best of our album, hehe. (it fukking kills, and this is no asslicking!-ed).
I think the production is a lot better, compared to “Caedes Sacrilegae”. It seems like the drummer is hitting some empty cans on the first one…
Yeah, the sound is a lot better than on the debut. The drum sound on “Caedes Sacrilegae” was a small catastrophe! Our guitarist Patrick produced the “Signum of Hate” album. And I think he did a good job. But you can await a killer production for the next album. Beware. He does a good producer job for a lot of Metal bands now here. Albums and demos productions for SEIRIM, POLYMORPH, MOURNING ENDS, PROSATANOS, FANGORN, and a lot more…
It’s (the second album) far more aggressive too. Probably due to the departure of your keyboardist. Is he really being kicked-out off the band or what?
Well, the keyboard-player left the band to have more time with his family. I can accept this, so he’s still a good friend. But I can’t understand this. You see, me and my girlfriend, we’ll also get a child in October this year (1999). But I don’t think this should bring an end to my musical activities. Metal is like a lifestyle, not a trend to me. Ha, I’m fiend for the wildness and power of truly Metal art. But, as the keyboard-player left us, we don’t want a new member. And it was like an evolution to bring more aggression and brutality in our songs. And now, our stuff is much more faster and full of weakcrushing riffs.
And so, why you reduced those so called ‘hateful melodies’?
Well, I think that most of the bands, who use keyboards, sounds so beautiful. I don’t like this mix betweengothic and Metal for gays. Haha. There are not so much bands, who keyboards sound really evil are horrible. So I like artists like KING DIAMOND or DEATH SS. These ones bring a brilliant horror feelings in their music.
But still I could trace some melodic lines in “Signum of Hate”, but done in a much darker way.
Now our music is still full of melodies. But it’s worked on guitars and it’s great, that you say; it’s much more in a darker way. That’s our way, to create the most dark Metal ever. So we deal with a lot of oppressive and evil feelings in our songs. And always we’re interested to mix our songs with good and aggressive riffs, melodies and our own feeling. But today it’s not that simple to create your very own style.
And what about your vocals, I bet you got a certain way of singing. I heard traces of old bands’ nuances belching out from your throat…
Thanks a lot… Well, we’re all influenced by the sound of 80’s Metal. All of us prefer stuffs like IRON MAIDEN, SLAYER, BATHORY, KREATOR, MOTÖRHEAD and so on. My favourite band is CELTIC FROST, and I think somebody can recognize this in our songs. But I’m interested to support the feelings of a song with my vocals. And there are many different styles of singing in our songs… you know. It’s the same with the lyrics. If you play this kind of music, you can’t sing about nice thigns or politics. Our songs are full of dark stuff and dark lyrics. I can’t judge about those hardcore attitude. It’s not our way!!! Enjoy the lyrics and you’ll know what I mean.
Don’t you find IMPENDING DOOM as a bit ‘retro-sounding’?
We have nothing to do with bands like AURA NOIR, INFERNÖ or GUILLOTINE. Listen to their songs and you’ll understand why I call these bands thieves. It’s one way to be influenced, but it’s another thing to play the same old riffs and say it’s your own song. Hell, we’re not a ‘retro’ band. We’re still a pure fuckin’ headcrushing Metal act.
What do you think about it, seeing bands turning way back behind their time in their sound?I think there’s also a lot of good bands, which sounds more traditional and older. I like the stuffs from band like ORDER FROM CHAOS, ANCIENT RITES, DESASTER, or NECROMANTIA. Also a lot of bands from Asia or South America. Their music sounds not so trendy in my opinion. Here in Germany most of the fans are totally in this typical Scandinavian black or melodic death Metal stuff. I like also a lot of their stuffs. But most of them are albums from the early 90’s. Too much clown bands now!
Being a German band, does it even bother you; that the German scene produced such enormous talents in the 80’s Metal scene. I mean, as a new generation kinda’ bands, what do you take this situation for? Is there any pressure for all the new bands there to produce quality rather than quantity? Do you think that the German bands today are on par with those heroes?
For us it’s very important to produce quality rather than quantity. But it’s right, that many bands come out with bad sounding rehearsal tapes after two months of founding. Fuck off. I hate all these childish suckers, who think that they’re the most evil ones and can’t handle their instruments. Go home and suck the tits of your mother. Ha. Most of them forget, that we have a big ‘heritage’ with the fantastic old German bands like ACCEPT, DESTRUCTION, LIVING DEATH… We have good bands here, who are interested to find their own way. Bands like EMINENZ, HARMONY DIES, PURGATORY, ATANATOS, DROWNED, and many more. But the scene here is also full of fakes and idiots. But I think it’s pretty much the same in other countries. We have a lot of contacts here and outside and many loyal fans and friends.
And is it good for the old bands to reform or something like that? Take into view the reforming of DESTRUCTION. I heard that their live-appearance in the Milwaukee Metalfest was a flop…
I’m not a fan of these reformation shit. Most of the bands sound a bit different now. And their old fans wanna listen to the old feelings. A good reform was MERCYFUL FATE. But the new DESTRUCTION is totally shitty. I’ve heard, that this year the original line-up of DESTRUCTION will play some festival shows. But, what’s the reason… Only the money! Also the last VENOM release was a joke, if you like their old cult stuffs.
There’s this cover-version of CELTIC FROST’s “Dethroned Emperor” and MORBID ANGEL “Chapel of Ghouls” in the LP version of “Signum of Hate”. Clearly why you did those?
Well, we play a lot of cover-versions in our rehearsals. And these two songs were produced as a bonus 12” for the limited vinyl edition of the new album. Also a cover-version of DARKTHRONE’s “Cromlech” will be out on a split 7” EP with EXMORTEM from Denmark soon. We also play covers of SLAYER, MASTER’S HAMMER, TORMENTOR or BLACK SABBATH. It’s kinda tribute to the bands we like so much and influenced us. All the stuff of MORBID ANGEL are simply brilliant. I like all their stuff and I’ve seen them some months ago on tour with the mighty VADER from Poland. The CELTIC FROST stuff from “Morbid Tales” to “Into The Pandemonium” is all time killer. The other ones like “Cold Lake” is crap.
Lots of bands are into playing covers these days. What’s the real purpose of playing covers for IMPENDING DOOM?
We play covers mostly live on stage, so the fans can listen to new interpretations of their faves, and also we can show them our own favourite stuffs. It’s a sign of tribute and honour to our musical heroes.
The picture on the first album was taken on snow-covered surroundings, whilst on the second it’s fire all-over. Coincidence, or there’s actually some hidden meaning underneath?
We want it a bit simpler for the second album. The first one was a first step. But the new one is much more like we are, you know… We’re not one of these trendy shit bands or people who play Metal for 2-3 years you know. I’m now 26 years old and I listen to this extreme music for more than 10 years. I collect a lot of albums and demos and it’s a lifestyle for all of us. Our music and lyrics are full of demonized feelings. And we have the fire of dark lusts inside!
Who did the logo? It’s very attractive and detailed, but don’t you think that the design of the ‘doom’ wording is quite similar to the semi legendary DOOM logo from the UK?
Oh no, the word ‘doom’ isn’t similar to that UK band. I know some of their stuff, but those are not my favourites. Also, since we started IMPENDING DOOM seven years ago, people think that we play a kind of doom Metal. Really nice. No, it’s really a powerful name for a band like us. And it presents our lyrical and musical way. The fantastic logo was done by René from German heavy black Metallers ATANATOS. Are you interested in “Hymns of Heathenpride”? Check ‘em out!
One question that’s not relevant to the overall discussion of this interview, but I’ll ask you anyway. There’s a credit for you in the “Bestial” album of PURGATORY for doing some backing vocals; but why you’re referred to as ‘Andy(Christ) Kaufmann?!
Ha, ha. Turn this word-creation to Anti-christ now. You know what he mean…? I don’t cooperate with Christian attitude. Not a filial Christian. We’re to retaliate the resurrection of Christ. Believe, I am the Anti-christ. Ha, ha. So it was a funny thing to do some background-vocals for the last PURGATORY album “Bestial”. It’s a good and brutal band with unbelievable stage-action. PURGATORY is still pure evilized death Metal.
Since that your releases are very Metal-sounding, what does “Metal” really means to you?
What can I say… Metal is my life. I wake up and stand up with Metal in the morning and go to sleep with Metal in the evening. Metal is Power and Rebellion. So remember “…Chains and Leather – Forever”. I’ve got some problems with long hair or my wearing of shirts, boots, etc in my job. But fuck them! Also we celebrate a real Metal shows on our gigs. Metal is devotion of 200%. Sweat, aggression and wild headbanging.
I guess I’ve bored you enough my friend, so…
So we have to say thank you for all your support my friend. My best wishes and dark blessings to you. This interview is one of the best I’ve the honour to answer. Greetings to all the Malaysian headbangers. Hope it’s possible to see you all sometimes. If you’re interested ask the mighty Shahrizwan or write us directly. We’re interested to keep a lot of contacts to cool and real bands. Keep the black flame burning. Metal Supremacy.
damn!!still remember i'm quite possesed with this band back those years...where's my cd?huh..need to selongkar balik..
ReplyDeleteBe on the lookout for HATESPAWN, the legacy of IMPENDING DOOM lives on...
ReplyDeletewill check bro..hehe
ReplyDelete