Asphyx have recently released their new album "Necroceros" where, as always, you can find the well-known trademarks of the band, but one or two small changes have crept into the songwriting. What could be better than having a nice phone conversation with their drummer Stefan "Husky" Hüskens on an uncomfortable Friday evening in March to talk about this and the German-Dutch relationship among other things?

Michael

Hi Husky, everything okay?

Yes, sure!

Your new album has been reviewed very well everywhere (with a few exceptions) and also landed in the album charts at number 3. That is definitely an increase to the predecessors, which in Germany "only" landed on number 67 - "Deathhammer" and 30 - "Incoming Death". Did you expect such a success?

First of all, I don't care what ranking the album makes, because the album has to please us first of all. But of course, it's a proof of all the hard work that went into it. We were totally surprised that we ended up at number 3 because we are a death metal band and that's actually quite difficult to get such a position. Unless your name is Cannibal Corpse. We were also in the vinyl charts and there are about 1000 subcategories. It was definitely cool to be behind some stupid rapper, haha!!!

Lyrically it's again about WW2 and sci-fi / horror. Where do you get your inspiration from regarding the topics?

Martin writes the lyrics for us, so I can't say too much about that. Martin is very well read, and he really devours books and gets his inspiration from them. I think his lyrics are great because they are all very profound and for me Martin is one of the best lyricists there is in metal. He knows what he's doing, but unfortunately I can't go into detail.

One song in particular stands out, 'Three Years Of Famine', which deals with the famine under Mao in China in the 50s. I guess you either don't want to conquer the Chinese market for yourselves or there is a special version for China?

Haha, no there is no special Chinese version. Martin will probably have read something and then written it as lyrics. On the last album he also picked up two or three things like that. I think these are topics that interest him. But I think that when our CDs are distributed in China, it's through mini mail order and there it's all a bit different.

Hm, if you ever hear something about that, you'll have to let me know, haha!

Yes, I will, haha!!!

The song is pretty slow and almost epic by your standards. I know that Martin is really excited about it, but how is it as a drummer to play a song like that. Isn't it a bit boring to play such a lame song?

Since I've been with Asphyx, I've discovered slowness for myself. I switched from Desaster to Asphyx, or rather I played with both of them in parallel for a while and that was quite a change. I had to get used to it first. Meanwhile I like these sluggish songs, because you can put a lot of energy into them. Every beat has to be right and I like to play that. It's also pretty cool live. When Paul (Baayens; M.) plays his guitar, I get goose bumps behind the drums. The melodies are really cool.

To stay with the song, the beginning sounds quite like 'Skullcrusher', which reminds me of Black Sabbath. I listened to your older albums again and I think that you can recognize Overkill riffs or Black Sabbath influences more often. To what extent are you influenced by these bands?

I asked Paul once about Overkill and he was grinning, but he said that if anything everything would be somewhat Black Sabbath influenced. I mean, if you play doom, you can't avoid being confronted with Black Sabbath. It's like when you play thrash, you can't get past a Slayer riff. In any case, there are always things that remind you of other bands, but the fretboard of a guitar has only 12 notes. I also think that you shouldn't hide your influences.

I think your drumming brings a lot more flexibility to the songs than your predecessor did.

I actually consider myself to be a band-friendly drummer. I don't have to prove my skills and on top of that, I'm not really that good of a drummer. I know my 3 or 4 rhythms; I know how to use them and that's it. I make more music because I am a fan and have fun making music with the guys. That's why I don't have any compulsion there to do anything special, but what I do, I like to do. I was always influenced by Bob (Bagchus, M.), my predecessor, because I always liked his drumming. I don't know notes, I'm also very limited in what I do, but I enjoy it and that's enough for me.

The production of "Necroceros" is, in my opinion, a bit more powerful and clear than that of "Incoming Death". What did you do differently this time?

In retrospect, I'm not quite as happy with the drum sound from Incoming Death. We changed producers for the new album. First of all, Seeb (Sebastian Levermann; M.) is a real Asphyx fan and secondly, he managed to make my drums always sound dynamic and a bit more powerful. He also managed to do that with the other instruments. We weren't sure at the beginning if we wanted to switch or go with Dan (Swano; M.) and finally decided to give it a try. He sent us a rehearsal mix, which was already great, and Alvin and Paul were mainly responsible for the sound. We made some changes to it but in the end we are all very happy and I think it's the best album ever released with me as the drummer, just from the drums.

When your album was released, you did a live stream concert for it. How was that and how did it work?

We thought about it for a long time because we wanted to do a release party, but of course we couldn't because of Corona. Then someone had the idea that we do a stream as an exception. We were actually against doing something like that, because we are a band that needs the smell of sweat and stale beer. But in the end we decided to do it and we got a request from Metropol in Hengelo and the good thing was that they already had experience with smaller bands. They have Metro TV and bands have been streamed there, it's supported by the Dutch government and they have everything for it there. In the end, all we had to do was set up the stage, do a sound check and get going. Century Media helped us with the internet stuff, because the bands that usually stream there have maybe 1000 views and we were expecting a bit more, so the server had to be modulated. But no idea what exactly, I don't really know anything about it either. Until the first song, everything was like performing live, but when the first three songs were over and no one in the audience was yelling, it was a bit weird. But you get used to it relatively quickly and if you read the comments, the audience liked it too. It was all live, nothing was cut, and it was just like you perform it on stage in real life.

Yes, you're right, you get used to it. It's just like soccer games. A year ago, I found these ghost games to be disgusting, but by now you've gotten so used to it that there are no spectators anymore. It's definitely sad.

I have to admit, I haven't watched a streaming show yet either, but I hardly have the time. But then I would rather watch an old Priest concert from the 80s. You can never get that feeling you get live over a stream. Another cool side thing is that Asphyx got a lot of media attention in the Netherlands because of the stream. I live right on the Dutch-German border and there's a regional newspaper here and they did an interview with us and Martin was also asked again if he would talk about his life. Especially in the Netherlands, which is a bit more conservative, that was quite remarkable.

Yes, I have to confess that I didn't see your show either, but only heard that from Felix from Idiots Records (a metal store in Dortmund; M.) that it was supposed to have been great. During the Corona pandemic, when the infection numbers allowed it, you played in Essen in the Kreuzeskirche. Among others, Marduk was supposed to celebrate their 30th Anniversary Tour there. Isn't that kind of strange to perform there?

It was a bit strange, but it was also kind of cool. The people who own the church were pretty open-minded and the sound in a church is insane, just the reverb alone. People were all having fun and thought it was interesting to see a death metal concert in a church.

Yeah, I think so. Was it a catholic or a protestant church?

It's a Lutheran church...

Ah, that explains a lot, haha

Haha...and the funny thing is that it was sold to an investor years ago and then they turned it into an event location and if the Protestant community wants to hold their services there, they have to pay rent (laughs). But it was really great, even if you had to make some sacrifices. There was no backstage room, we had to go to another building to eat, but in general it was a great experience just to play in such a location.

Are you actually responsible for all the merchandise at Asphyx? Is it noticeable that people invest more money in shirts etc. at the moment, because they can't spend the money on concerts or festivals? Bernd from Slaughterday made this thesis.

Nah, when it comes to merchandise, Alvin does it all. But we don't have a store, we only sell at concerts. I can see that with the sales in my own wallet (laughs). Since the beginning of the pandemic my vinyl stock has grown a lot. But that's normal, because people are all sitting at home, buying a crate of beer for 15 Euros and where are they supposed to leave the money if they can't go to concerts? Then you have to order records and T-shirts.

Do you have some special plans for the future?

We have our 30th "The Rack" anniversary this year and we hope we can at least do corona compliant concerts, otherwise we might do another livestream. There are a few small shows planned, but seated concerts, but in the end it's better than nothing. A couple of shows are confirmed, one for July and one each for September, October and November.

You are the only German member of Asphyx. How does it work with the communication and are there sometimes problems? The German-Dutch relationship was not always without problems....

No, it's always totally funny. When we are on the road, we always speak a mixture of German, English and Dutch (laughs). Alwin and Martin speak almost perfect German because they also live right on the border. Paul understands a lot but doesn't dare to speak German that often. But when we are on the road, we usually speak English with each other. It's really like brothers now. Martin also helped me renovate my house, it's really like a family. But I also remember the second time we played with Desaster in the Netherlands. We drove a van over there and parked it at the venue at night and went to sleep. When we went to the van the next morning, both side mirrors were off and there was a big "Mof" (Dutch swear word for German; M.) written on the back of the window. But that doesn't even exist anymore these days. And here at the border, Dutch license plates are just as common as German ones. Also, from the kind the Dutch are a nice and open people.
By the way, what I find remarkable about the Dutch is that they eat fried stuff all the time - but have you ever seen anyone really fat there?

Uh, no.

(Laughs) That's because they ride bikes so much there.

Yeah, the bike paths there are great. And you're right about the food. Have you ever bought healthy food in Holland? I only ever buy unhealthy stuff there like chips and stuff. And it's a lot cheaper than the healthy stuff, too.

No, I never have.

Until two years ago you played drums with Sodom, until 2018 you were the drummer with Desaster for a long time and you were also with the Portuguese Decayed for a while. Why did you drop out of that band?

In the end, I left Desaster because I couldn't manage the distance anymore and also timewise it was a problem and at that time I was also with Sodom and Asphyx, which was all a bit much. With Decayed I only ever recorded albums and only played two shows with them. They always sent me the songs and I recorded them with a click and then they added the drums. That's what I'm doing at the moment with Trinitas, that's a project of mine with Vargher (Marcus Norman; M.) from Naglfar and Bewitched and the former Dark Fortress singer (Matthias "Azagthoth" Jell; M.), I'm recording the stuff in four weeks. I got the guitars and the bass now and then I'll record my drum part.

Recommend me some cool albums.

Slaughterday - "Ancient Death Triumph"
Nuclear - "Murder of Crows
Amored Saint - "Punchig the Sky"

Do you have any words for our readers?

Thanks for the support and check out our album if you haven't heard it yet!!!

Alright, thank you very much for the interview!!!

Dead Head from the Netherlands are in my opinion one of the most underrated thrash bands in Europe. They always manage to release excellent albums with consistent quality and distinctive style. Their last album "Swine Plague" is now almost 4 years old, so it's all the more pleasing that they are in the middle of the recording process for their new album. I had the opportunity to have a long conversation with Dead Head's guitarist Robbie Woning via Skype (thanks again for that!!), where we talked not only about the new album, but also about the band's history, influences and funny anecdotes on tour. But read it yourself - have fun!!!

Michael

How are you guys doing with Dead Head?

Good. There is Corona, but still. We don't have any gigs, but last year in January or February we finished the songs for the next album and this January we recorded the demo. We used the time to write. The situation is not such a big problem for us as it is for other bands, because there are bands that just released a CD and they can't promote it.

I looked on Facebook and saw that you guys are recording new stuff.

Yeah, a lot of bands use that time to write and record stuff. But we had the songs ready before Corona happened. We'll see how that goes. I also talked to the label about it and the question is when the best time is to release the CD these days. What do you think about the fact that we are now playing again with the original line-up like 30 years ago?

That's definitely a cool thing!!!

We've been playing in that line-up again for 10 years now and that doesn't happen that often in a band. It might also have something to do with the fact that we all have steady jobs now and so we can take care about these circumstances. The band is not like a hobby, but still it's more like a side thing for us.

Is there anything you can tell about it (titles, themes)?

We had 20 songs, but 8 of them were not quite finished. Our drummer then said that we would only take the 12. I think 10 will go on the CD and the other two might come out as an EP. We want to have the same number of songs on the CD and the LP. The vocals are not quite done, the guitar solos are almost done, everything else is complete. Right now, we have almost only working titles like "sounds like Possessed" or "fast song". We don't really have a concept there. If, then the concept is rather the band itself - fast thrash and aggressive songs. The lyrics are mostly rather secondary. There are bands that consider their lyrics quite important, politically for example. I've learned German words like "Abtreibung" (means abortion, M.) and stuff like that before (laughs), but for us it's more about "Hail Devil, Kill, Satan" (laughs).
The new CD will be the same as always, because that's the only music we can do and we feel most comfortable with, but it's also a bit more influenced by classic heavy metal. That doesn't mean that we play Running Wild now, but you should pay a little bit more attention to the chords. But maybe nobody hears that, I have no idea (laughs)! There will also be a video that is a bit more professional than the last one. We did the previous one by ourselves and this time Hammerheart will support us.

In the past it was more about socially critical topics, but on "Swine Plague" you put more focus on religion. Has social criticism become old-fashioned in the meantime?

Our other guitarist Ronnie (Vanderwey, M.) mostly writes the lyrics. We have such themes, but not in every song. A new song of ours is called 'Age of Hype', which is about how people try to follow every trend these days. Ronnie turned it around so that it's now about Corona. Some people are skeptical about whether Corona is really that dangerous and he just stole my title for this theme. The title has a meaning, but only we know it. There are different levels of meaning in the song. I can mostly only say something about the titles. Ronnie is responsible for the lyrics and can say more about it. But he also says that he always just takes cool words, throws them together and then it sounds like metal.

Haha, like Obituary used to!

Yeah, we used to write our demos that way. It sounded good phonetically, but they weren't real words. It also helps with writing because then you already get a first impression about the songs.

Your last album "Swine Plague" has a very weird cover and I don't really understand the title either. What's the deal with that?

Yes, that happens. We also had a title that didn't fit and a cover with missiles in North Korea, but that wasn't really what we wanted. Ronnie then did the cover and he did it in MS Paint (laughs) and then the Hammerheart guys redid it. That's how the idea came about and then we had to come up with a title for it, something with a pig. We always felt it was important to use powerful words and Swine Plague fit. If you google it, you always find just swine flu, but plague can be equated with pestilence and that fit well. But there's no real concept to the title.

Okay, I get a little confused sometimes when I read your titles. Just like when I read your CD "Haatland", Hateland - I also wondered what that meant.

I can explain that to you, too. So "Haat" means "hate" in Dutch. But "Haatland" is an industrial area that we grew up near. With all the things in the world that cause people to feel more hate, we thought it was a fitting title because it's ambiguous. The producer of the album also got old maps of the site from the archives and used those for the booklet.

As a band, have you ever actually been on tour?

There were some phases in the band's history when we rehearsed twice a week and waited for calls that we could go on tour. But of course, there comes a time when that doesn't work anymore, and then you have other things like a job or children. That's what we decided for ourselves at some point. Before that we toured three times for a few weeks. That was very cool, we played in Scandinavia, Paris, Berlin, Hamburg, among other places. Of course, we did not have as big tours as other Dutch bands like Sinister or Gorefest, who also toured with Judas Priest among others. When we started, we were a thrash band in death metal territory, but that was still good because we were different from the other bands. But we weren't traditional thrash either, we were more like Sadus or bands like that. Maybe it was also a disadvantage for us that we started with thrash, but live it always went well. Perhaps we would have been more successful if we had decided to be a bit more cliché and play death metal. But we grew up with the music and have always felt comfortable with it. When we're together, the music that comes out is always the music that we're making now. But there is a little bit of death metal in it as well.

Don't you ever feel like changing anything in your style?

Haha, funny you mention that. We tried to change the vocals a few years ago. That was at the time when Pantera was really big. But we decided against it because it sounded too much like Metallica. Our label at the time, Shark Records, wanted us to do it, but we never released a CD with them either because they had expectations of us that we couldn't fulfill. We made demos and the boss of Shark Records said that was just bludgeoning. But that's exactly what we do! We then tried to do some slower stuff and change the vocals, but it didn't feel right and then we quickly scrapped it. After that, we released Kill Division. For the new CD, Tom thought that he would vary the vocals a bit. We did 6 songs with the typical vocals and 6 with different vocals and he said he wanted to re-sing those again because it's not the same. If people know you a certain way and then that changes completely, you can change the band name directly. Sure, you can try changes, but I listened to it again today and realized we're not going to do that.

That's a good thing to realize. I felt that way with Watain back in the day with "The Wild Hunt" album when the singer started singing clearly.

Yes, Tom didn't try to sing completely melodically, but that's something else. There it's more about the melody and the pitch and that's a completely different way of singing.

The best example is Kreator. I always think you guys sound like Kreator in "Extreme Aggression" times. When I listen to the last Kreator, "Gods Of Violence" where Mille sings, I also always think, what's that about?

But I think it works better now. I talked to Tom about it today and I think that Mille has found a way that his singing works well. But the first record where he sang like that ("Renewal", M.) was terrible. Nobody listens to that one anymore, right?

I think it's quite good, I was listening to it the other day. Maybe also for nostalgic reasons. But I also meant the last Kreator, "Gods of Violence". They sound like Blind Guardian in parts.

I think that after 30 years you can try some things. That always offers the possibility to go back to the roots. "Violent Revolution" was pretty much like the stuff before, in a positive sense. But at the end of the day, it's about what people listen to. If they want to be in a good mood, listen to "Pleasure To Kill" or "Coma Of Souls", I don't think for anyone it's "Renewal" or "Endorama". But it's hard, if you do the same thing over and over again, then you're like AC/DC or Motörhead and if you do something different, nobody likes it.

What are your musical influences?

A lot of people always say that we sound like Kreator or Slayer, but we used to listen to Possessed, Sadus or Sacrifice from Canada a lot. Those were our main influences, but when the singer sounds like Mille, you don't hear it that way. The speed we play is a bit different than most thrash bands. With us it's always a bit more intense and aggressive. On the later albums we have more varied songs, so the songs are more different than on the old albums. Of course, I also like Kreator, I really like "Riot of Violence", but they were never a main influence.

You used to write for the Dutch Aardschok magazine, do you still do that?

Yeah, I wrote another review yesterday. I always take on the stuff that nobody can do anything with, like really weird bands or guitarists. Marty Friedman had sent me his new CD "Tokyo Jukebox 3", very interesting. I used to write a lot more, there were months when I wrote up to a third of the magazine. Then I often had to fly to the USA to do interviews, studio reports and so on. Sure, I still took vacations there, but that was all always as a freelancer. I didn't have a family and a house at that time. You can do that when you're young, but now I only do reviews, 2 or 3 a month, and only what I want to do myself. I also used to have to do soundchecks, where you had to listen to around 50 new albums by a certain deadline. In the first month that was great, but at some point it's exhausting. Apart from that, I can also report from the other side. A band has been working on something for 1 ½ years and a journalist is supposed to judge it within a few hours. That's not right. But that's how it goes in the music business now, especially when the festival season starts again. Everything has to run fast and that's too much.

What do you do full time besides Dead Head?

Our singer works in a factory that makes baby food for children with allergies, he always has to wear a protective suit because everything has to be sterile. Our drummer has many jobs and our other guitarist works in a psychiatric hospital recording. He often has night shifts and then he can always read books at the same time. And he also writes the lyrics there. I'm a journalist for regional TV and radio and I report on current things that have happened.

Are you still on the same record label as with the last CD?

We are still with Hammerheart. But something has changed, because the distribution has changed. There is now a sub-label called Petrichor. The label also re-releases our old albums, also on vinyl and also the Haatland is re-released. There is a second CD with 19 bonus tracks. That means that the Swine Plague and the Feast Begins At Dawn and Dream Deceiver reissues were on Hammerheart and the other stuff is now coming out on Petrichor.

Are you satisfied with the re-releases of your albums?

Our first album was a disaster back then. We did two demos in the late 80s and we were the next big thrash band from Holland and played with big bands. Then the album (The Feast Begins At Dawn, M.) was released and it wasn't really good, because something went wrong with the production and we never talked about it again. But a lot of people said that the album should be remastered, but we didn't want to do that. One day we saw on Ebay that there are people who pay 200$ for a CD with such a sound and then we finally decided to remaster it. Hammerheart was interested in it and finally we released a remastered CD with many bonus tracks. I think the bonus tracks are always important because the collectors who already have the original CD and buy the album again should also get something new. And that's what we did with all the CDs. It's not all unreleased songs but other versions of songs, but that's all we had left. Hammerheart is really trying hard with the CDs and we also spent a lot of time putting old photos in the booklets and we try to make it as good as possible. I spent a few evenings scanning old photos for it, but you only do that once.

You guys have been active for over 30 years now. Do you have some funny or thoughtful anecdotes you can share?

One Saturday in 1991 we had a showcase for Noise Records in Berlin. It was a festival and we were invited, and the label was there too. But it wasn't to be, because the previous night our drummer had gotten into trouble with a captain of a sailing ship. I wasn't there for a few minutes and when I came back I saw that our drummer was going after the guy with Ronnie's guitar and that's totally out of character for him. Actually, he's not like that. We weren't quite as strong as the guy and we couldn't perform. We didn't go to Berlin then and there was no Noise Records deal for us either. A few years later I met the captain again and told him all this and he was terribly sorry about it all, haha. There were a few moments in our band history where things didn't go the way they were supposed to. Another story was when we were on tour bus and then a window just fell out. It was a really old bus and then a whole window fell out. The driver just shrugged his shoulders and drove on. He didn't even stop. Another story is that we were playing somewhere in Germany and I was just holding up my guitar. Our singer was banging and went down with his head and hit the top of my guitar with his cheekbone and was bleeding. He just told us to keep playing. After the show we went to a private clinic and the doctor said he would help, but we had to pay 400 German marks for the treatment. What should we do there? Then we played once in Belgium and there are two places with almost the same name. Mechelen and Maasmechelen. Our singer went home for one day because he had something to do and then he went back to the wrong place. That means before the gig at 7 PM and we had to drive another 1 ½ hours to get our singer. The audience had absolutely no idea what was going on beforehand and it was a miracle that we were still on stage at the end. You know Spinal Tap - and it happens to every band. You could almost write a book about it.

Thank you so much for the interview!!!

You're welcome!!!