With "Global Worming" German death metal shooting stars Endseeker from Hamburg just released a furious beast which pays tribute to the old Swedish heroes Entombed and Dismember (read my review here). Being slightly different from its predecessor "Mount Carcass" but still killing everything in sight, I asked their vocalist Lenny about the album, the need of humor and of course about the fantastic pun in the album title. So check the album if you didn't yet and enjoy reading the interview.

Michael

Hi Lenny, how are you doing? You must be feeling pretty good these days with all the great feedback for your new album!

Hello Michael, when an album is released it's always a very exciting moment. We've known the songs for a few months now and had to keep it quiet the whole time. Now that the record is out, it's very liberating in the first place. We are of course very grateful for the numerous positive feeds!

How the hell did you come to the great title "Global Worming"? It's a really great pun!

Ben had the idea for those great lyrics. I can still remember the first time he showed me the lyrics and I was blown away. Love at first sight, so to speak. For me it was relatively clear that it would be difficult to surpass this brilliant title and so it was.

But the background for it is a little bit deeper, isn't it? Does Mother Earth need global worming to get rid of mankind?

As far as I know Ben wrote the text as a pure fun text without deeper meaning. It's about zombie worms that eat humanity. I like to interpret things into all kinds of texts. The subconscious of the author is not to be underestimated. :-) Having a break would probably be good for all life forms, but at the same time I like being alive and I like eating in all-you-can-restaurants. Without war, without hunger and without corruption and arbitrariness I would like the world already more. Whether this is only possible without mankind, I cannot foresee in perspective.

On the album you incorporated some more death n'roll elements quite similar to Entombed back in 94 on their "Wolverine Blues" album like in "C.B.V." or "Hanging Gardens". Do you want to pay some tribute to L.G. with that or was it a more natural development for the band?

Entombed has accompanied Endseeker since its inception in 2014, paying tribute already with the first EP Corrosive Revelation. Nevertheless, a band also evolves, and we felt like recording as much variation as possible with consistency on this release. A little groove here, a little crust there.

With 'Violence Is Gold' you have some really harsh social criticism in your lyrics pointing out the atmosphere becoming more and more violent everywhere you go. How important is it for you to have some messages in your lyrics?

Our guitarist Ben is very good at channeling frustration into socially critical lyrics. That was already the case with the Mount Carcass record. Sometimes you have to put your finger in the wound and if death metal is not the right genre for that, then I don't know. However, a certain balance is important to us. That's why we also write some less serious lyrics that are just meant to be fun and maybe provide the right amount of distraction.

What about the other songs? Are there also some deeper meanings in the songs?

Sure, abysses are always welcome text ideas. Situations in which people simply stop behaving humanly by our standards and mutate into beasts. Terror is such a text, which could inspire you to think about your own limits. 'Hanging Gardens', on the other hand, addresses the fatigue of people in today's society. It is difficult to drag oneself motivated out of bed and to work every morning. And it makes me sad that there are people who no longer see a constructive way out and escape from life. 'C.B.V.', on the other hand, is just a totally fun song that shows that you don't have to take everything so seriously and that there's still enough room for joy.

With the very simply kept cover you go pretty much back in the past to your first album "Flesh Hammer Prophecy". Why did you decide to go this way – I mean the last two album covers were very cool and a little bit more sophisticated if you know what I mean….?

We don't put ourselves in a corset and generally do what we feel in the mood for. For the topic Global Worming we found a black and white cover to be very appropriate and are also extremely satisfied with the result. The cover carries the songs perfectly in our opinion. And as a pleasant side effect, some very cool shirt designs were created! :-)

Apart from the death n'roll elements you still do very old school HM-2 death metal. What are beneath the obvious influences like Dismember and Entombed the biggest influences for Endseeker?

I am just a text writer...:-)
I think that besides Entombed and Dismember, Grave and Slayer have a huge influence on the songwriting. I mean you can't reinvent death metal anymore. But you can pay homage to it in a very qualitative way.

You are a relatively small band on a huge label like Metal Blade. How did it happen that you were signed by them for the second album? Are you content with the cooperation?

Working with Metal Blade has been a lifelong dream come true for all of us. I couldn't ask for a better label to blast our music into the world. We met at a festival back then (Metal Blade and Endseeker). Somewhere I read that men need 10 seconds to fall in love. It was like that. :) So, we liked each other and could imagine working together. And so, it happened.

When I saw your video announcement of your new album, I had to laugh because you are dressed and partying in a park. How important is the humor factor in (death) metal for you? I mean these days it is necessary to laugh sometimes and not take everything too seriously, at least I think so.

I could never understand people who strut through the world ultra seriously and think they have everything fully under control and others are just extras. No matter what happens in the world, in the end we all celebrate a big party together, which will end for each individual with death. Time passes too quickly anyway and we will look back at some point. What do I want to look back on? To a grumpy serious know-it-all who carried the pain of the world around all the time? Or am I much happier about all the good experiences I've had? About the laughter that almost leads to pissing in his own pants. :-) So yes. Humor belongs to life and therefore also to death metal.

I saw you back in 2022 at the Nord Open Air festival. What are your upcoming plans for live gigs and do you have some more things up in your sleeve?

Ah, that was a legendary show! Thanks to Marco! We just finished our double headliner release tour with Décembre Noir, which was a huge success. Making music on stage is the ultimate for me. For this year the concerts are over for now, but for next year there are already some awesome shows confirmed or still in the pipeline.

The last words belong to you!

Thank you for the interview and the support! I'm glad that the metal underground can't be killed. Keep going to celebrate underground shows and support your favorite underground bands with merch purchases. And resist all the chaos in the world!

Cheerio :-)