As the thrash machine continues to power through bone heaps and beer cans, and as the legends of the international scene polish their Jacksons; ever mindful of their own dominance, but none-too-aware of the fact that bands like Eradicator are doing it with more balls, a dark vision of our future looms. Thrash with meaning? Absolutely. Remarkable band, and a remarkable message to their new LP: the human paradox and its profound impact on life around us as we knowingly and unknowingly sabotage ourselves and all those within the fallout - societal and environmental collapse as the catalysts to one brave but folly outcome - all tragedies set to wisely-composed but still balls-to-the-wall thrash fucking metal. During my latest interview, Seba of Eradicator sheds some light on the band's early days and their eclectic way of recording. He also provides some insight into their brand new "The Paradox" LP, into the importance of environmental vigilance, and into the duality of our most inglorious futures…

Jeger

Hails and welcome to MetalBite. Let's get into a little background as there is not much to be known about Eradicator other than the fact that you're a German thrash band that happens to boast a very impressive discography. What inspired you to start Eradicator and did you have any vision for the band going in?

Thanks for having me. This year we celebrate our 20th anniversary. So, when we first started the band in 2004, we were really young, like 14-15 years old. Our most important drive was to play music together. We just started to play our instruments and wanted to use them! For the first maybe two years we focused on performing as a band and covering songs of our idols like Priest, Maiden, Metallica, Megadeth, you name it. Around the beginning of 2006, we felt that once we wrote music, it was thrash metal. Our first album, "The Atomic Blast", came out in 2009, and you can say that it's clearly in the vein of the genre ancestors. But early we developed our own vision and it was important for us to not just copy our heroes. Later, we put out an album every three years and played many concerts in Germany and some in Europe. And now, many years later we are releasing our sixth album, "The Paradox". To describe our style: we take the influences we like most, whether it is Bay Area, Teutonic, or even outside the box of thrash metal. We mix it and try to make it our own characteristic sound.

You guys don't play a thousand miles an hour like other bands. At least not on the forthcoming LP. Reminds me of Metallica and how they basically refused to play that way as well back in the day. They got plenty of guff for it too.

In my opinion, it quickly gets boring if you speed through every riff and song. There is no darkness without light, and that makes it important to slow down to make the fast parts even more relevant. For me, it is a lot about feeling during the songwriting process - let the dynamics happen and the song can breathe. For example: the song 'Drown In Chaos' from the new album, it contains some of the fastest stuff of the band but also has some groove and melodic parts going on. That's what makes it a good Eradicator thrash metal song for me. Sure, especially the early Metallica albums had a great impact on our journey as musicians, but on the other hand, it is not our intention to recreate or copy their style. There are a lot of other influences from classic heavy metal to thrash metal bands from the US as well as from Europe and Germany. "The Paradox" is our sixth album and I think that we collected all the ingredients over the years to form our own style and special sound characteristics our band can be recognized for. Also, I think that "The Paradox" our most versatile album yet. We even added some death metal elements to our style.

I'm a black metal guy so I'm big on stuff like traditional recordings techniques and basically any old-school way of doing things. I feel like it's important to preserve those ways so we don't get totally lost in technology. It's bad enough that we have stuff like Pro Tools and Autotune that basically take the work out of making music. Looks like a layman's future for music in general.

We have recorded most of our albums differently, and we're quite proud of it. If you ever get your hands on our 2006 demo, "Back To The Roots", check it out. It was recorded with a 24-track tape machine. We tried all different ways over the years, the most important thing is that you feel happy with the way a new record turns out – the production has to fit the music. And if it is a good match, production even takes the songs to the next level. With the 2021 album "Influence Denied" and now "The Paradox", we went a little bit more modern way with mostly digital production, but our intention is to keep the band sound direct and straight in your face. We try to make the best out of modern technologies and capture the raw and honest sound of the band we are known for performing live. Everyone starts as a layman. We recorded our very first demos on a Hifi MC-Player. They did not sound amazing compared to today's outputs, but we began our learning process from there on. In the meantime, modern technology made it easy and affordable to record your songs, that's right. But isn't it exactly this that makes art and music so fascinating? You don't need a truckload of money or to be privileged enough to have a big record company behind you to make a great and good-sounding album. Nevertheless, it is still hard work to produce an LP.

Let's talk about the new album, "The Paradox". Interesting concept behind the record. Can you give us an explanation of the concept from your perspective as the writer?

I started to write the lyrics for the new album like one and a half years ago. And as I was gathering ideas I noticed that "The Paradox" would be the perfect title for this album. If I write about a specific topic that is important to me, I do some research to discuss different views on it. What I saw when I had this concept in the back of my mind was that conflicts and contradictions surround us everywhere, and a lot of our actions can be seen as paradoxes. We kind of expect one thing but do something that leads to something completely different. Sometimes we know about the consequences of our actions very well, other times not. And again in other situations, even our mind is playing tricks on us. For example, the topic of the title-track, which is industrial animal slaughter - it is a well-documented cruelty. From feeding to scaffolding, it's a really scary machinery where millions of lives get born, raised, and murdered every year. And looking at the conditions and the efficiency of this "deconstruction line", makes everyone at least question it, not only hardcore animal rights activists. But what we do is, we are really good at ignoring it, like selective perception. Sausages and meat are available and the origins are really not seen when walking through a supermarket. Maybe the background has to be promoted a lot more so consumers are aware of it and ignoring it becomes harder. This is where the idea of the album title has its origins, and if you have a closer look at most of the other tracks, you'll notice some kind of paradox, too! May it be the atrocities of war as in 'Let The Shooting Begin' or the closer look at the human mind in 'Hell Smiles Back', which deals with the inner contradiction that can lead to depression.

The human paradox is puzzling indeed. Was it anything specific that inspired you to tackle such thoughtful but ultimately convoluted subject matter?

Like I mentioned before, the idea to focus on the paradox topic emerged naturally during the writing process. I really like how you can find these conflicts in the songs and how it connects them to unite the tracks for the album. Since these conflicts seem to be in every one of us, I do not want to present my moral statement and convince people of my view on things in the first place. But what I would like to archive is that people start or continue thinking about their own actions: reflecting on actions and reactions - this can be seen as an inner conflict, too. To allow more than a black-or-white view of things. We are full of "failure" and contradictory actions, and that is okay, it makes us human, but we can learn from it and develop as individuals, and society in general. This is where progress comes from.

One track in particular stands out on the lyrical front and that is 'Perpetual Sacrifice' which details the paradox between victim and aggressor along with the denigration of the weak as a way to bolster the strong. Sounds like Nietzsche's definition of Master and Slave morality.

Thanks and great you like it. Yeah, obviously there are people who can only feel strong by making others feel small and by degrading them. Also, this song text is about an aggressor switching roles with the victim when getting confronted for abusive actions. This is more than for the purpose of personal feelings, like getting away with a crime. It starts with the denial of the accused crime and then continues with attacking the victim's credibility. There have been cases in public debate lately but unfortunately - even while this is a well-known procedure and quite easy to spot - aggressors often successfully switch roles to protect themselves and to make others support their point. And in the end, the offender presents themselves as the victim.

There's some environmental-collapse foreshadowing too and it's quite imaginative. 'Debris Of Demise' tells a tale about our planet's final unlivable state as total environmental destruction looms over the horizon and our last hope of survival is extraction from the planet. A lot of people really care about the environment but I'm more of a watch-the-world-burn kind of guy…

You're right, this song is a kind of science-fiction end-of-time scenario. Civilisation collapsed and the environment was exploited as far as that there is nothing much left to continue living on the planet for anymore. The apocalyptic vision of the story makes the survivors try to escape with a spaceship. But the junk and scrap in the orbit make it impossible to leave as the ship immediately gets hit and destroyed. Surely, this is an exaggerated scenario, but in the end it shows that we should all care about the environment and leave it the way we would like to find it ourselves. Like you say, there is a big fascination in imagining watching the world burn. Even this is kind of paradox. We – or at least I – don't want to die in agony or lose our loved ones in this end-time scenario. Pop culture is full of these kinds of tales and we're attracted to it, but do we learn from these stories we enjoy hearing or watching?

What does the future look like as far as live shows in support of the new LP?

We have a schedule of about 20 shows for this anniversary year, which is a lot for us. We really enjoy playing live and that's what it is about. All these planned gigs will take place in Germany, but last year we did our first international tour and played shows in the UK. That was a great experience, and I hope we can repeat it and even tour other countries.

What are you most proud of when you think about "The Paradox"?

I am absolutely proud of how we as a band developed. Songwriting-wise and also sound-wise. Also, I am convinced my vocals sound the best they ever have. We worked our asses off and the ten tracks show how versatile Eradicator is, as is also our vision of thrash metal!

Everyone has a different idea as to what constitutes genuine thrash metal. For me, it's attitude and not necessarily speed or dynamics. What's been the most important aspect of recording thrash metal to you?

For me, the joy in playing is a very important aspect alongside the authenticity a band embodies and yes, this is what the term attitude means to me. There is no need for costumes or masks in thrash metal. If we hit the stage, it is just the four of us with our raw sound having a great time with the audience. Performing our music is the spirit of Eradicator, and it motivates us and drives us forward! It is not easy to capture that feeling and band dynamics when you record an album, but "The Paradox" really sounds honest and gives a very good idea as to how much fun we have performing these tracks!

Do you have a message for your fans?

Thank you all for taking the time and risking a deep dive into "The Paradox". We hope you enjoy the album and keep thrash metal alive!

A special thank you to Seba, Eradicator and Metalville Records.