Goath appeared on my radar out of nowhere. Well, not exactly. Wolf from Sure Shot Worx decided to shoot me an email with newest Goath promo and powers of the universe and coincidence did the rest. However, when listening to the sounds of the black and death metal they're forging I couldn't stop myself from a head bop supported by a wide grin and while I usually just listen to the music this time couple of questions popped in my head. Quick email confirmed the possibility and answers were back at my box the next day. So, click on a link to listen to the music, sit your ass comfortably and read on to find out more about Germany’s Goath and their upcoming album "II – Opposition".

Tomek

Thanks for taking time to do this. How are things in the Goath camp right before the release of the new album?

It's all going well so far. A lot of people are looking forward to this new record and in the end we thought that it would pile us on the pressure but in the end we realized that we don't have to comply with anyone because that would not feel natural. And that's what we're all about- nature and the natural growth of this band. A "step by step - destruction" you could say.

Here's a question that is going to be your worst nightmare for the years to come :). What is the story behind the name of the band, i.e. what is Goath?

We're used to this question so it's okay. It's a mixture of the two words GOAT and the OATH. So pretty easy, catchy and the description of what we do. We’re absolutely passionate with what we do...

All of you play or played in a bunch of other bands. What was the catalyst for the creation of Goath?

It was a logic coherence. We've been playing in different metal bands for years. All were about death and brutal themes and stuff but in the end we didn't fit into all of the bands because it was not about a common attitude, so it went out to be just kind of a hobby-music thing, even if it was fun and cool to see and learn about the business. Muerte and me, playing in Deathronation became more and more extreme in every way. We liked the black metal stuff, rotten blood, fire, leather stuff and so on. The other guys were not that much into it and this didn't work. Noone really was into satanic themes, lyrically and emotionally so we wrote a demo and found a drummer which really felt what we were doing and joined before we just hit the first note, just for the mere conviction in darkness, death, all anti-social aspects that go along with doing and living black metal... We met three times and the demo was done. Didn't need to discuss any riff or text we used.

First demo in 2016, first album in 2017, that demo must've had quite an impact on guys from Van Records. How did the collaboration start?

We already knew Sven from Van rec. through other bands and gave him the demo and he just asked us: "You wanna just do it as a small project or are you serious?" - and suddenly we realized what we really had created and decided to leave the other bands to do it fulltime, because it felt stronger than everything else. Liberated, no borders, no discussions. We're still friends with the other guys, not to get me wrong but it was overwhelming and still is. It felt fresh, like the first extreme metal band you hear when you're young and hungry.

We are just weeks away from the newest album. Quite a tempo in the releases category I have to say. Where do you find an inspiration?

We don't have to look around for inspiration because it's all deep in ourselves. It's us! 100% - everyday, no acting, no bullshit. Not to say that we're assholes or behave like youngster-idiots all the time. We can get along with nearly everybody but the three of us always feel the same, never had that in my life! Sometimes it feels like not belonging to this world, especially when we play! It's like interacting/denying society's morals, believes or so called values Goath could be one person. There's no ego shit, no dispute - kind of a dark unity, antagonistic disciples of extreme metal.

What can head bangers expect from the new album?

Lot of people won't like it or say we may be too serious or think that we're joking. Don't know. We're not condemned to push people to our side, cause it's extreme metal. Lot of people will love it if it reflects their feelings. It's up to everybody, fuck elite-behavior and all the weakness that goes along with it. In the end we'll be there, as a triumph or as a failure... Expect nothing just listen, then love us or hate us.

The new cover differs stylistically from the first album. What is the story behind the new one and the title? Why II?

II - it's obvious, cause it's the second full length album, pretty easy and not meant to be occult or shit like that. The artwork is done by a friend of us, Juri Schütz, a very young and very, very talented guy who is really into extreme metal. And the cover represents the birth of the ANTICHRIST. Yeah, how new, how individual but anyway. OPPOSITION is the only way. From the day you are born you are put into something and whenever you listen to yourself it all feels wrong, all the time and the longer you question yourself the more you feel ill, like an outcast. And the rewards in the beyond are always the things you're not allowed to have during life. So manifesting the liberty/the antichrist/ the opposer in your life will get you into trouble and that's the real reward! Living in constant opposition is the saw to all the chains society has built. Sexual perversions, excessive drug abuse, and accepting self manipulation to get what you want, what feels right is the way. The only truth, the ether, the OPPOSITION!

I'm kind of guy that likes to read the lyrics when listening to the album, but unfortunately none of them are available to me at this time. Tell me about the lyrics on the new album,; are they black or more death metal? Is there a common subject? Who is responsible for lyrical layer?

You will find most of the lyrics on our homepage soon. It's a lot of them and some are not printed down cause we could get in trouble if some douchebags would take 'em into a political direction, which is a real spare time activity for those ignorant assholes. To make it clear, we're not fascists or anything like that, we're liberated! We are all responsible for the lyrics, like I said, we could be one person.

What are the stages of your creating process? How do you work on new songs? Do you work on new songs collectively in practice room or is there a main composer taking care of all that happens?

There's no writing process. Chaos! Let it happen. We normally need just a handful of takes for one song, then we talk about the picture the sound paints in our heads, always have the same vision and done. But this explains why our songs are pretty simple. ...but effective...

Luciferian Goath Ritual was recorded live in about 30 hours. Was the new album recorded in the same way, and why did you decide to do it that particular way?

It was recorded within a few days and nights, constantly being in the rehearsal room, sleeping there, eating there, We entered it Thursday at 5 p.m. and left on Monday 6 a.m. reentering the "real world". We did it this way because we hate working in the studio, we love playing live and we want people to hear it. In some way a few songs sound a little bit claustrophobic.

What do you consider the most important element in creating your music? Is everything buttoned up when you go in the studio or there is still room for a little improvisation?

The most important element is us. The unholy trinity, accepting each other, treating each other with respect and just working on sounds that represent the hate and darkness we feel and that makes us feel home. There's no room for improvisation cause the writing process is so natural that we don't feel like having to do this. Not our cup of tea.

There are many bands playing death/black metal. What do you think is different about Goath?

Can't answer this question. Watch us playing live and that's it. We don't compare Goath with any other band. We love and respect so many DM and BM bands, all the different styles ... That's a thing for people that do reviews and stuff... Maybe one thing is different, we record everything live. No click, no trigger to give life to our demonic songs.

In your opinion, which song from the new album is the best representation of Goath and the new album?

Listen to the album and you will see. I think the whole album is the only thing that stands for Goath!

The new album premiere is just around the corner. Are you preparing anything special for the big date? Will there be a video for any of the new songs?

Got some plans but it's all said and not done yet. We'll see. But we'll do one special release show in a small venue with just a few people, good friends, good drugs...

Thanks much for the time.

Hail Satan !! Thanx for the interview !!

Finally, after more than a two-year break Sentenced comes back and maybe while not as suicidal as they used to be, they are still comprised of enough misery soaked into their latest opus that it will make you think about death more than ever before. Stronger than ever and with excellent compositions, "The Cold White Light" is filled with their best material to date and Sentenced stands tall as 'The Northernmost Killers'. Vocalist Ville Laihala reveals his deepest, but not always darkest thoughts.

Chris


Let me start by asking how close was Sentenced to a break up? After "Crimson" the atmosphere in the band wasn't the most pleasant...

No, I guess we played too many shows, supporting the "Crimson" album and at the end of the last tour we did with In Flames we started fighting with each other and things got kind of ugly so it was either we split up or take a long break. In total we had 7 months off not being in contact with each other that much.

It looks like the break did a lot of good for a band because in my mind "The Cold White Light" is the band's best album to date. It seems like you were able to generate a lot of energy and great ideas because of it [the break].

Yeah, you can actually hear on the album that the band is well rested: there are new ideas lyrically and musically and some even humor is back, us not taking us too seriously. The whole album feels kind of fresh to us; it's like a new start.

Where you so happy to get back together so that it turned out to be the least suicidal-oriented Sentenced record?

[Laughs] I guess so. I mean there is still some depressive elements, there is a song called 'Excuse Me While I Kill Myself', but it's not meant to be taken seriously. We are presented as a suicidal band but I think we are much more than that, we've always been much more than that and that's why that song was taken a little bit over the edge.

Uncharacteristically you even found some room for a black humor, what is up with the mentioned 'Excuse Me While I Kill Myself' or 'The Luxury Of A Grave'? Is it a parody of the Sentenced past?

We like to joke about stuff that you shouldn't joke about, death and stuff like that. It's a way of laughing at death, life and most importantly laughing at us on those songs and not taking everything so seriously. We joke a lot, our humor is pretty dark and you kind of want to express that in our music sometimes.

With band's "The Northernmost Killers" tag most people must think that Sentenced is the most pessimistic group of guys, who just think of the varying ways to get out from this world. Obviously impossible cause you'd be dead by now, but just to set the record straight tell me how are you guys in real life?

I guess we try to enjoy life like everyone else we're not living the way that our lyrics are. For us it's just much easier and natural to write about that kind of stuff. I don't know why but it just comes out easy. Anyway, we are like everyone else. I mean, of course we are from Finland where people tend to have a low self-esteem and we have a down way of looking at life, but still I don't think of myself as a suicidal person, at least not yet anyway.

Each album seems to go into a little softer sound direction and although few tracks have a real nice kick, overall "The Cold White Light" belongs more to rock than metal. Is this the direction you want to go?

We don't really want to limit ourselves to anything. We just want to do what feels right for that time. Next album could be heavier or softer but it doesn't mean we'll go into softer songs and we'll know already what we're going to do with the next one. It's just a way we do music I guess.

One thing I can't stress enough is variety of songs on "The Cold White Light". "Crimson" was a great album, but all tracks seemed to be in exactly same mood, type of lyrics and sound. This time you go from rocking, energetic tracks to more melancholic, did you have this in mind while writing this material?

Not really. Because we had this long break everybody wrote the music on their own, at home just playing stuff with a guitar... and when we started rehearsing we found out that the songs are quite different from each other. It didn't bother us in any way we just gathered them together. I think it's more interesting when the album has 10 different songs rather than one song going through the whole album anyway.

A few things away from the band, do you follow career of former Sentenced vocalist Taneli Jarva (The Black League) and if so what do you think of his new band? Do you guys still keep in touch with each other?

Yeah, we're pretty good friends and we know what they're doing. I'm not really a big fan of their music; it's just not my cup of tea but they are cool guys.

Either I missed something or you guys are 100% dedicated to Sentenced only. I can't remember any member playing in any side projects. Does anyone of you have something on a side?

Yeah, I have another band and we're actually recording an album at the moment. I guess it's going to be out in October but I'm not sure yet.

What's the name of your project and in what music direction is it going?

It's called Poison Black and we're going into heavier direction. I'd like to think it's a mix between Ozzy Osbourne, Paradise Lost and Type O Negative. I've been playing guitar for almost 20 years now and I still have an ambition to do that, so I play the guitar in this band. Zakk Wylde is my god with a guitar... You'll hear it.

What do you think of the fact that your new album was available on the net before the release date? In the future do you see this as a reason for bands to go broke and eventually break up?

Yeah and record companies too, maybe. I mean, we have to be away a lot because of the type of the music we do and we'd like to get paid for it cause we have to eat also... You have to put out promo CDs for reporters before you release the album but there can be just one asshole who puts it on the internet and one day it might get to the point that no company will give any promos, just samples of the songs...

Which will not work for the journalists because it's pretty hard to make out the atmosphere and structure of the album based on few second samples...

I know. We'll see what happens...

Back to "The Cold White Light", after so many years in 'the dark' where did this fascination of 'White Light' come from?

There is just a twist of positive feelings from us throughout this whole album and I guess 'Light' symbolizes hope, at least for me. I don't know where does it come from but I became a father 10 months ago and I have a pretty good reason to see some hope at the end of the tunnel.

Congratulations!

Thank you very much.

Since everything looks so un-Sentencedly (I think I just come up with a new word) bright, now let's try to switch moods... did you have any problems, anybody pissed you off during the recording process? Anything will do... anything bad.

I hate to do vocals...

Really? You don't sound like one...

[laughs] I mean I hate it because I'm never happy with anything I do. We were recording in this pretty small studio in our hometown and the room where you sing has this door straight out from the studio. When I sang I felt like I didn't quite get it so I went through the door straight to my car and drove home, while the guys were thinking that I'm still in the booth. They were asking me, 'do you want to try one more time?' I was already on my way home. You suffer for one month but after that when you listen to the whole album you feel pretty good so it's worth the suffering.

What are the tour plans? I guess you won't be planning as many shows as after "Crimson" to avoid another downfall or are you? After all it turned out in an awesome new album...

[laughs] I guess, all together we're going to tour for like 3 months. It's going to be a lot but it's almost 2 years since we actually played the shows and we're looking forward to it. We're going to play some festivals here in Finland and some club shows and festivals in Germany. In September we're going to tour with In Flames in North America and in October we'll do a five week long tour in Europe and before Christmas we're going to come back to America.

Two tracks on "The Cold White Light" have titles in you native language. I'm not going to try to pronounce them but can you tell me what do those titles mean?

The first one, the intro of the album ('Konevitsan Kirkonkellot') means 'The Church Bells of Konevita'. Konevita is a historical place in Finland and it's old traditional Finish folk song and we just wanted to put in on the album cause it's really Finish and it fits to our music. This other song 'Everything is Nothing', the Finnish sentence actually translates to 'Time Buries the Memories'. The sentence is kind of a phrase in Finland so it's kind to hard to translate and 'Everything is Nothing' is the closest to the whole meaning of the phrase.

What song is your personal favorite from this album and why did you select 'No One There' as a first single to represent the new release?

We didn't want to put out a typical catchy rock song like everyone else is doing and there isn't a song that gives you a full picture of the album. We all like 'No One There' so, we kind of figured lets put out that for a single and maybe it's not the wises thing to do commercially but we don't really give a fuck about that. If it pisses people off at least they are talking about us. It's promotion anyway. My favorite track is 'Blood and Tears' it's one of the best tracks we've ever written and 'Everything is Nothing' is pretty personal song for me, I like that also. The album is still so fresh to me I like them all.

Since everything went so smooth and Sentenced turned out to be bunch of happy guys you have to end it on the dark side...

You mean kill myself?

[We laugh] No not you, the interview.

I think it can't get any darker than that. [laughs]

Nero Doctrine released one of those albums that seem to sneak up on you and once it’s in your head it doesn’t let go. If you haven’t listened to it yet, you can consider this as a reminder to give it a spin and maybe a warning too. Whichever one it is you may as well try and get yourself accustomed with the band, find out about what’s on the agenda and about the way things work. Read the interview below, read the review I wrote but most importantly – listen to the music!!

Tomek

Here is a question that you are going to hear a lot probably, why did you change the name of the band from Dystopia to Nero Doctrine, is something wrong with Dystopia?

There is nothing wrong with Dystopia, it's a solid and strong name. Unfortunately it is not unique. The name was inspired by a Misery Index song and when we started to make music, nobody thought of getting in trouble with copyrights later. We knew that we had to choose another name if we wanted to be successful with a label Boersma-Records. So we chose Nero Doctrine as a good alternative.

What is Nero Doctrine, what is the meaning and what does it relate to you?

Most people just do what they want, no matter what consequences. Just like Nero did. And that behavior is taught and developed over generations, not in schools or in universities, but interpersonally und subversive. With that trait mankind cannot live on long-term, so the Nero Doctrine dooms us all.

Was changing the name and beginning to play melodic death/thrash an unanimous decision of the band, how did the whole thing come about?

It was a natural process. We all like heavy melodic stuff, so it's more like a consequence that the music develops in this direction. But we try not to be entrenched on a particular style of metal. Maybe the next record is more black metal, maybe more dark. We will see.

Interitus in Latin means: devastation, ruin, downfall which I think is quite the opposite from having a new album and starting with new name. Is there a hidden meaning?

Marko found the word in a Latin book and we have thought that this name would summarize the mood of the album fairly. Interitus isn't a concept album but every song deals with the topic of downfall in its own way.

New album has been out for more than two months now. Response has been good from what I see. How does it feel to know you did well, what is the best thing and the funniest you’ve heard about the album so far?

As musicians it isn't that important to us because we just wanted to create an album that we're satisfied with, so we're absolutely fine. But of course it's cool to see that we're earning respect for our art. The best thing about it is that we get response from all over Europe, America and South America. That is still unbelievable for us. A funny thing about the album? "Nero Doctrine's debut sounds much fresher than the last Arch Enemy album." End of quote. Burn :)

I know you’ve recorded demo material before but now you have an album to show to the world. Were you ever stressing about the whole first album thing and such?

Strictly speaking it's our third album in this constellation, so the answer is no. It wasn't stressing about the whole third album thing ;)

How was the recording itself?

Very relaxed. We took two weeks for the recordings in May 2017 and Jörg Uken is an absolute professional and knew exactly what we wanted. We had enough time to find a good sound, to work on details and to have a nice time among friends.

Was it your first time in the studio, what can you tell us about the whole experience?

It was our second time in a studio. Tools of Oblivion was recorded in Osterode by Thorsten Sauerbrey. For Interitus we searched a studio to get a dynamic and dirty sound which is modern nevertheless. We aren't professional musicians, hence it was great and exciting recording session in a studio where some bands we are listening to recorded their albums as well.

How did you make your decision when choosing album cover, tell us about the process?

We couldn't agree on a specific design before the recordings. Jörg recommended "Killustrations", a company he often worked with and we were thrilled by their work.

Whose work do we see on the album cover, how does it correspond to the lyrics and music?

Björn Gooßes of Killustrations, also singer of Night In Gales, made our cover and artwork. As we said, every song deals with the topic of downfall and the cover shows exactly what is heading towards all of us. Mankind that is drifting near the edge in front of ruins we once called our home. Björn just nailed it.

Album sounds and looks really good, so congrats on a job well done. Are you guys working together on everything or is there a leader/dictator that decides on everything?

It's a mixture of all those things. Christoph is the creative motor of our band and writes a lot of the music. Everyone can suggest ideas and we try to work on everything together. We also went on vacations together to work on new stuff.

How about actual creating of the music, is it a bunch of guys actually in the practice room, files being shared, or is it something else entirely?

Again, it's a mix of all of these things. Sometimes we are together in our practice room, presenting ideas to each other, other times we sit at home figuring out what fits good and just share the files with each other so everyone can listen and get inspiration from another one.

I don't own the album, and the promo came without the lyrics sheet, so can you tell me about the words a bit?

Interitus means downfall, so the lyrics are mostly concerned about this topic. Every civilization will disappear one day, we are no exception. But the worst thing in this process is the loss of humanity. What makes us human? How is it defined? Does "humanity" really exist? We also wrote songs about the overall effects of war, religion and defiance.

Album came out on digital format and CD so far, any plans for vinyl?

We haven't any plans to make a vinyl version at the moment.

Are you a collector? What do you buy?

We're all huge metal fans, so everyone owns cd’s, vinyl or cassettes. Enumerating what albums we all buy would go beyond the scope. But last year we were very addicted to Anticult by Decapitated, Of Ghosts And Gods by Kataklysm, King Delusion by Nailed To Obscurity and Deep Calleth Upon Deep by Satyricon, just to name a few!

What are Nero Doctrine plans for 2018, is world domination on agenda?

World domination is planned for 2019 ;)
We are happy when we can play many concerts and share a few beers with nice people, hopefully with the people from America too one day. And to all metalheads out there: Risk an ear and keep supporting the underground and your local scene. Every person that spends hundreds of hours into learning an instrument to form a band and play shows, deserves it, to get a few minutes of your time. Metal on!