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DARKSEED
Interview with Stefan Hertrich

Darkseed proclaim themselves to be the originatots of the German Gothic Metal scene. Forming at the start of the 90s, the band relesed two demos (1992's Sharing the Grave and 1993's Darksome Thoughts), an MCD (1994's Romantic Tales) and a full length (1996's Midnight Solemnly Dance) which they're said to have "decisively formed" the scene with. 1997 saw Darkseed's first full length on Nuclear Blast Records, Spellcraft. These were followed by Give Me Light and Diving Into Darkness before Nuclear Blast and the band parted ways. 2003 saw Astral Adventures released on Massacre Records. Through these albums, Darkseed developed and reinvented the internationally received gloom and power of their unique music and attracted a growing number of fans worldwide in the process. Taking one year off to recharge their creative batteries in 2003, Darkseed returned in 2004 to create their most diverse and powerful album. January '05 brought forth Ultimate Darkness, with deep atmosphere, tenebrous vocals and complicated electronics... plus a poetic critique of society that will have you see the world quite differently.

How long has Darkseed been in existence? What is the band's definition of gothic metal and 'ultimate darkness'? Has this definition remained constant or changed over the years?
Darkseed make metal music since late 1992 (but it was more a sort of death metal and only had some small gothic passages). Well, Gothic Metal for me means "music that mixes entertainment with serious topics and a touch of thoughtfulness." We have chosen the album title Ultimate Darkness because our lyrics talk about realistic darkness, not fantasy darkness and so "ultimate" isn´t that bad, cause this kind of darkness happens every day. We describe all kinds of negative things that can happen in and outside a human being, for example loss of values, loss of trust, egoism, destruction of nature, hate, dullness of everyday gossip talking etc. etc. etc. This kind of lyrics were first used for the album "Give Me Light" in 1999, before that we just wrote romantic poetic stuff. So I would say that since 1999 this definition is the definition of Darkseed.

Who started the band and what was the inspiration to make Darkseed gothic metal? Was there a scene for gothic metal bands in Germany when you started or were you going out on a limb by playing music that wasn't popular in the underground?
It was me who found the band together with my neighbour and former Darkseed drummer. We just did the music we liked, and in the early beginnings it was death-metal, mixed with my favor for melodic stuff. In the early 90th bands started to integrate more and more atmospheric stuff (a good example: Entombed Left and Path -> keyboards) and so we started to use this elements too. Later on Gothic Metal became popular in Germany, and I liked the fact that the music is hard AND melodic/atmospheric. So the Darkseed way was to combine melodies with hard riffing. We for sure were one of the first German gothic metal bands, but for sure not the only one. A fact that makes us a bit special is that we still survive.

What was the inspiration for naming the band Darkseed and how does the name reflect on your music?
We were in studio in late 1992 to record our first demo Sharing the Grave, and even in the final stage of recording we didn´t have a band name. So the former drummer Harald Winkler said "what about Darkseed, I know a computer game with that name" and that´s all about it. The name fits well to the music and lyrics. Darkseed´s lyrics since many years talk about the battle between good and evil in the meaning of being tempted to do negative things etc. (such temptations can be laziness, egoism etc. that cause darkness in many different forms). So the temptation, or the moment of being seduced to do negative things, can be called "seed." Yeah, even after 12 years the name fits well...

In the time Darkseed has been a band, has there been an increase in popularity for gothic metal? Do you foresee a time when it will be as prominent as black and death metal are?
Gothic Metal right now is VERY popular due to bands like Within Temptation and Nightwish. But well, the first zenith of gothic metal in Germany was around 1995-1998 with bands like The Gathering, Tiamat, Paradise Lost, Moonspell etc. etc. I think the biggest mistake was that many bands became more soft, they wanted commercial success or just were pissed of metal music which then lead to a loss of emotions in their music. Being commercial is no sin, definitely not, everybody should decide what kind of music he wants to perform, but often it destroys bands, and this is what happened to Gothic Metal. But I guess the next years will be good for gothic fans, simply because of those newer bands like Within Temptation or even Evanescence who are very popular now and deserve it. I don´t know whether it is more or less prominent than Death or Black metal because I am no expert when it´s about sales statistics etc.

How prominent was the German gothic metal scene when Darkseed got together? Since then, how much has the scene expanded and how many new bands have emerged?
When we started in 1992 this musical direction didn´t exist. I still remember that we wrote on our concert posters "Darkseed - Doom/Death" and we were really proud cause we thought this music description is exotic and special, and indeed, in 1992/1993 it was, at least in Germany. I cannot remember when the word Gothic Metal first came to my ears, but one milestone that COULD be the reason for this music name was Paradise Lost´s album Gothic, but I am not sure. In 1993/94 the label Century Media came up with many successful releases, like Tiamat, later Sentenced etc. I think this was the time where gothic metal was established as individual musical branch. Many gothic metal bands were formed in Germany after those releases, but most of them didn´t succeed in finding their own style, many of them sounded like "typical German gothic metal." That´s why most of them don´t exist anymore. There are two albums that touched me emotionally VERY much in this time, "Astral Sleep" and "Clouds" of Tiamat.

What is Darkseed's current lineup? Has the lineup been a steady one since the beginning or have you experienced your share of lineup changes searching for the right sound?
We had many lineup changes during our history, our current (and hopefully steady!) lineup is:
Stefan Hertrich: Vocals, Electronics (since 1992)
Thomas Herrmann: Guitars (since 1995)
Tom Gilcher: Guitars (since 1999)
Martin Motnik: Bass (since 2003)
Armin Dörfler: Keyboards (since 2003)
Maurizio Guolo: Drums (since 2004)

How much input does each member have in writing and composing music? In what ways is your songwriting unique compared to other German gothic metal bands?
I write most of the songs and all lyrics, Thomas also contributes several tracks per album. Hm, unique could be the fact that my songs in the beginning have NO guitars at all, everything just consists of electronics. Later on I add all guitars and more and more electronics disappear. So there exist two versions of each song: a darkwave/ambient version and later the real metal version for the album :-)

What are the band members' other interests, such as favorite movies and novels? Do these other interests find their way into Darkseed's music?
Speaking about my interests, well, military history (World Wars 1 and 2 -> these things don´t find their way into our music hehe), but also esoteric things which definitely influence the lyrics (everything having to do with morale, values, etc.).

What instrumentation does the band write with other bands in your genre don't? In what ways would you say this makes Darkseed stand out from the rest of the gothic metal scene?
We use typical instruments and nothing special, I guess our advantage is the combination of hard riffs AND melodies for an intense emotional experience when listening to our albums. The all-over concept maybe is individual (caring about realistic problems every listener might personally have in a poetic way).

In what ways would you say your demos Sharing the Grave and Darksome Thoughts were innovative recordings? Would you say those demos had an influence on newer bands in the years that followed?
It´s always nice to hear when bands say that their paradigm is the music of Darkseed, but we were too unknown in the period of demo releasing that any band might have taken us for serious. I guess that we now influence other bands, but we for sure didn´t one decade ago. Hm, those demos maybe were special because we were one of the first bands that granted the listener a sort of time-out after several minutes of brutal death metal by adding atmospheric parts with keyboards or acoustic guitars. But in 2005 nobody would say it is special hehe.

Between 1997 and 2000 Darkseed released a handful of CDs on Nuclear Blast records, namely Spellcraft, Give Me Light and Diving Into Darkness. Then in 2003 you released Astral Adventures on Massacre. What were the reasons for the change in record labels?
Nuclear Blast simply had too many big bands so they were not able to support the smaller ones (Darkseed). This was the main reason why we changed the label. No offense towards Nuclear Blast, our albums were not strong enough in commercial concerns that they would justify 1000s of dollars for advertising.

Why did the band take a year off before recording Ultimate Darkness?
After having made 10 CDs (Darkseed and several side projects) I simply was burned out and worked in a normal job (computer gaming industry). This time-out helped me a lot to get new energy and understand what Darkseed really is or shall be. Ultimate Darkness for sure is our strongest album, mainly because of this break.

Where was Ultimate Darkness recorded? How painstaking was the recording process? Did you develop aspects in your sound that weren't there on previous albums?
We recorded it in the studio of Thomas Herrmann (Darkseed guitarist). He lead the recording process while I cared about the production itself (song structures, etc.). It wasn´t that painstaking because we knew the album is our strongest one, so it was a pleasure to record it. Even if recording vocals always is a pain in the ass (all those clean vocals, etc.). The new aspect of Darkseed´s songwriting and studio-work is: not being satisfied too early. We tried to investigate our limit. When parts were not good they were kicked out etc. We spent much time with song arrangements, making refrains catchy etc. A common behaviour is saying "3-4 good songs are enough, the others can be placeholders." We didn´t want to act like this, and I am proud of every song that can be found on the album.

You recently added samples for two of your songs to hear on your official website, "The Dark One" and "Speak Silence." Why did you choose these songs and has the response to them generally been positive or negative? How many songs do you sample altogether?
Right now we have 7 samples on our website, but I guess we will add 2-3 during the next weeks before the album is released. We first added songs 1-3, simply because we didn´t know which songs to chose. Since this songs are relatively aggressive, we then added two slow songs and later again 2 hard ones ("The Dark One" and "Speak Silence"). The feedback is unbelievably good, I didn´t expect so many positive comments (up to now NO negative one, and even a black metal magazine was surprised by the fact that we make "commercial" metal music but he anyway likes it!)

Describe the side projects the band have played in. Which are most worth mentioning? Do you see any of these projects possibly becoming full-time bands at some point?
Martin plays in a progressive rock/metal band called WHAT4, all infos about him can be found at www.martinmotnik.com. Tommy´s side project is metal music a bit in the style of HIM, infos on this band can be found here: www.helions.com. My current sideproject is Shiva in Exile, ethnic gothic music (www.shiva-in-exile.com) but I am currently considering a new ethnic project (this time darker than Shiva in Exile). My former side-projects were SCULPTURE (with members of ex-Crematory and Tom Angelripper) and BETRAY MY SECRETS (with guitarist of the famous German band MEGAHERZ). Our main projects definitely are Darkseed, but in the future I want to focus more on gothic/ethnic music than usual (of course without neglecting Darkseed!)

Where do you see gothic metal widely accepted outside of Germany? Do you expect this style to ever become widely accepted in the United States?
I guess that countries like Russia, Mexico and Southern European countries like gothic metal. But the USA will never accept this music in a wide range.

What else can we expect from Darkseed in the near future?
Many concerts in 2005 I guess, a good new record, I don´t know. You always can expect that once you buy a Darkseed album you can be sure it´s 100% self and handmade (songwriting, recording, etc.) and that the musicians behind this project believe in their music - even if the band exists since 12 years!

Any final remarks?
We´d like to tour the USA. We don´t have many fans there, but the most loyal ones are from the States! (greetings to Don, Jake, Brooke and Ken!) Thanks for the interview, it was nice to talk about the gothic metal times and analyze them. I didn´t do that for a long time.

http://www.darkseed.com
stefan@darkseed.com

- Dave Wolff

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