1.
1. SDI is a German Thrash Metal band that have recently made a comeback, delivering us more of their mayhem, and today we have an interview with them about the reissue of their classic album “Mistreated”. How are you doing?
a. Apart from Corona, we are doing quite well
2. Great to hear. What differences will the reissue have compared with the original album?
a. The original Vinyl edition contained 8 Tracks. The CD-Editon from 1989 included one bonus track (SDI). We havn’t been very lucky with the original mastering ever since because back in 1989 we’ve had some difficulties during the production of the album. This is why we were very lucky when MDD decided to let the “Tonmeisterei” remaster it. They’d already remastered our “Sign of the wicked”-album last year in an impressive way. With “Mistreated” again they really did an exceptional good job. All songs sound much clearer now, more nuanced and much more powerful than ever before.
3. Besides making this release easier to obtain for younger fans, will it also be interesting for collectors?
a. YES! Of course! The new edition contains 3 bonus tracks that were originally meant as demos for an album in the early 90’s that never has been released. We decided to record two of them (“I don’t mind” and “… in the ass”) completely new with the current SDI-line-up (Christoph Olbrich (dr), Chris Friedl (git), Reinhard Kruse (bs, voc)). These songs sound as fresh and “on the point” as they’d been written yesterday. Very very cool indeed! Besides this: the new booklet shows a lot of pictures that belong to the album, the following tour and the line-up that recorded it (Ralf Maunert (dr), Rainer Rage (git), Reinhard Kruse (bs, voc)). Some of them were never shown before. But especially I’m very proud that a real friend (Atanas Dimitrov from Metal Mammer 18, Bulgaria) wrote some liner notes to the album and his special connection to the band.
4. What inspired the band’s name?
a. Back in 1986 we wanted to be harder and more brutal that any other.
Thought 1: The personalized evil is the Satan.
Thought 2: The worst thing than can happen to you is to be raped.
Thought 3: If you do something really good, you can make a profession out of it. You probably found a firm.
So the the worst of the evils would be guys who rape the devil for money: Satan’s Defloration Incorporated
5. Which are the main influences of the band?
a. From my childhood I have to mention Deep Purple. Great influence also came from Motorhead and Iron Maiden and – when it comes to speed – in some way Anthrax. But I also listened to different other music. I love the “Ramones” and ”the Police” and the “Stranglers”, but also the Stones, ACDC and Rammstein.
6. What made the band play this particular style?
a. Ince 1979 I played in a band called Black Jack Company. It’s been a hard rock band with melodic songs and mostly strict arrangements. I was the only writer in the band and I was very disappointed that we couldn’t find a record deal. So I told a friend (Ralf Maunert) to play as fast as he can and I played some old Black Jack Co songs to it. We recorded a demo with 4 songs (Bloodsucker-Demo 1986) and sent it to different record-Companies. One week later we had a deal with GAMA and 6 weeks later we recorded our first album.
7. Do you have any live concerts planned?
a. Yes ! Though our concerts in denmark (Heavy Agger) and finland (Metal Capital) are postponed to 2022 we want to play some gigs in Czech and in Bulgaria, if the “Corona” situation allows it. Besides this we would like to make up for the postponed concerts of our spanish tour in December this year.
8. How do you think you have evolved musically since the first album?
a. I’m pretty sure we did. Our first album was a kind of “shot from the hip”. We didn’t even had a real band when we started. The songs of our first album have originally been written for another band. The albam was very punky and rough. The reviews were devastating. With “Sign of the wicked” we developed a certain SDI-style in writing and performing you can call “Good songs played well, fast and heavy and (sometimes) sung underground”.
9. How do you think the local music scene has evolved since you started playing?
a. I’m not sure if I should speak about the local scene because I lost contact with it when the band split up in 1992. I concentrated on my own music and the developments in scene and industry did not impress me very much. Neither emotionally nor musically. Because I know this I named our latest album “80’s Metal Band”.
10. What made the band originally split?
a. After our Czechoslovakian tour in January 1991 we (Christoph Olbrich (dr), Rainer Rage (git), Reinhard Kruse (bs, voc)) thought that after a lot touring in 1989 and 1990 a break would be a good idea. When we started working again in summer 1991 we found out that Rage had been hired in another band. So we searched and found a new guitar player, Jürgen Uthleb, who played some gigs and recorded the guitar on several bonus tracks we published later as bonus tracks when all three albums were republished in 2005 by Battlecry records. Unfortunately, our record company could no longer find a reputable distribution partner for heavy metal in 1992. It was a hard time for metal in the early 90ies. So Christoph and I concentrated on other musical projects and left SDI behind for a while J
11. What favoured SDI’s recent comeback?
a. I was invited by Atanas Dimitrov from “Metal Hangar 18” to meet some Bulgarian fans on a visit Sofia in 2012. It’s been a heart-touching journey. One year later I messed with cancer quite hardly. So I thought about what to do with the rest of my life. Because it might could be rather short. I made the motorbike driver's license and refounded SDI together with Ralf Maunert.
12. How is the writing process for your albums like?
a. I’m the only writer right now. So I write, the guys learn, the bard arranges. Maybe Chris our guitar player has some ideas for our next new album planned for 2022, we’ll see.
13. What are your lyrics mostly based on?
Everything that touches me. Everything that’s real. I’m bored about stories about the hell and how bad it’s in there. I mean: Come on, everybody knows that, we’ve heard this a thousand times. Scottish sword fights in the 14th century don't matter to me either. I find that most metal lyrics about death, the devil and the war are similarly uninspired as love and sex in pop music lyrics. Beside this it will take the listener at least 3 or 4 songs to recognise even the language of the text if you “growl” those lyrics.
14. Are there any future plans besides the reissue at the moment?
a. Besides playing live again as much as possible we also want to reissue the “Satan’s Defloration Incorporated” album in the near future. Besides this we’re working on new songs for a new album in 2022. It will be a new thing for SDI, because it will tell one story in twelve songs.
15. Thanks for the interview, is there anything else you would like to add?
a. We hope that everyone will get through this miserable Corona story well. I’d like to meet all of you soon healthy and cheerful at an SDI gig. Stay safe, stay metal!
VARG THE MIGHTY
No comments:
Post a Comment