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GODLESS TRUTH
Interview with Zdenek

Hailing from the Czech Republic, Godless Truth started in 1994, releasing a demo (Another Disease) that year and an MCD (Desperation) in 1996 before '98 heralded their first album (likewise called Desperation). Around this time manager Zdenek became the band's vocalist after their last vocalist left. From then on things picked up for Godless Truth quickly, with an extensive number of dates, mini-tours and larger tours with the USA's Pessimist and the Czech Republic's Fleshless in 1999. In September of 1999, their second album Burning Existence came, followed by some European tours with Belgium's Prejudice and Japan's Vomit Remnants. Self-Realization came out in 2001 and was re-released on cassette format in Indonesia in 2002 as yet another European tour was embarked on, this time with Americans Malignancy. In 2003 they started composing material that ended up on last year's Arrogance of Supreme Power.

What was the inspiration for naming the band Godless Truth? Was this the first name chosen for the band or were there other potential names beforehand?
We were named Mortality before Godless Truth. It was back in 1993 when I bought the World Without God album from Finland´s Convulse and one from the songs was named "Godless Truth." So we enjoyed it and decided to rename the band. We also used many different logos before we stayed with this actual one…which is done by Keisuke Tsuboi from Japanese masters of hyper groove brutality Vomit Remnants!

Godless Truth is based in the Czech Republic, a country known for its thriving metal scene. What other bands, young and old, would you recommend besides your own?
I´m not too much into Czech scene, so I can´t recommend you many new bands, but of course there are few ones which deserves support and are worth checking out! Most of them are also our good friends with which we´re sharing the stages often! So I´d say Despise, Imperial Foeticide, Fleshless, Pandemia, Poppy Seed Grinder, Alienation Mental, Cerebral Turbulency are few ones which comes to my mind at the moment. But personally I don´t think we have a strong death metal scene over here. It's much more about grindcore and hc/crust things here lately.

What are the differences between being in a metal band over there and being in a metal band in America, as far as how the music is perceived by the general public?
Of course the financial differences are most perceivable and are most probably the one and only big difference between us and US bands. I can also see little bigger dedication and more musical talent among the US bands… but speaking about how´s Death Metal perceived by general public, I think it´s absolutely the same, it has never been and probably never will be a mainstream and to have 150 people at the show, means a GOOD SHOW!

What is Godless Truth's current lineup and how long has it been together?
It´s me Zdenek “Godless Guy“ on vocals (in band since 1994), Petr “Svany“ on guitars [since 1994), Libor “Tata“ on drums (since 2002) and Tom“Smith“on bass as a newest member who´s with us since May 2004.

The band has had its share of lineup changes since its inception in 1994. What is the reason for so many changes in lineup and is the present lineup a stable one?
Mostly personal problems like luck of dedication or musical differences, so definitely just usual reasons like in the other bands. Some of them were kicked out, the other ones just left the band. I'm pretty much sure that we now have the most stable line up since the beginning, but of course I can´t say we´ll stay together till the end, cause people´s mood is always changing, so it´s never 100 percent sure that we´ll continue in actual line up for years. On the other hand our today´s line up is amazing because of great people, so I wish we can stay for long time together.

Godless Truth recently toured around Europe with Americans Prophecy and Germany's Despondency. Which places did you visit and how did you get along with the other bands?
Yeah we toured with them, but our most recent tour was the one with Inveracity-Greece and Despondency-Germany that we did in October 2004! We have toured with Prophecy in May 2004, so almost one year ago, but our memories are fucking strong from this one, cause we played almost every day over the whole Europe, we did like 18 shows and played some sick events! It was one of the better tours we have ever did!

Anything memorable from this tour, or any tour the band embarked on before this one?
There are always tons of memorable moments from each and every tour we have ever had. You know it´s always fun in the van with like 8 or 9 people in and I can´t say something exact…cause there´s too much stories that comes to my mind at the moment. Our drummer Libor is the guy who makes a lot of jokes and we´re all the time laughing in the van on the road…he´s great guy. But to mention at least something…on the last one we played Paris and then we had a great and beautiful day off after the show, so we visited the Paris Eiffel Tower and checked the whole centrum of Paris! It´s was amazing!Also crazy thing was that we played on the boat right on the Seine River in the centrum of Paris! Unbelievable! On the other side our bassist Tom have been busted in Germany for holding brass knuckle knife which is forbidden in Germany, so we had to pay for getting him back and we almost missed the gig in Switzerland! Not too funny…

How often has the band played outside the Czech Republic altogether? Which places would you most like to play again?
We played like 250 shows total in our history and more than 100 were played outside of our state by making tours and some abroad festivals! It's absolutely amazing cause we love to be on road and play other countries in Europe. I can say that Godless Truth is more international band than typical Czech national act! There are like 2 or 3 more bands coming out of Czech Republic who are playing many shows like us and playing abroad and we´re definitely proud to be one of them!!! We love to play in France-north/west and Switzerland is amazing too! Also the western part of Germany and Spain as well as northern Italy are great places to play death metal! We always try to hit these places again and again but if possible trying to play in different clubs or in different cities! I think the whole Europe is good for death metal! We like to be a part of it!

The band is planning a two-week tour of Europe with Japan's Vomit Remnants in 2005. Can you tell the readers a bit more about it? Where are you planning to visit?
I just started to work on it last week so at the moment I just have something like tour plan…so we´d like to hit Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Austria and Italy. We'll see, but hopefully it´s gonna work as the promoters showed a big interest in this tour so far, cause Vomit Remnants are fucking popular band in the underground, so we might hit all the dreamed places! It's gonna last about 18 days!

How did Godless Truth secure a slot on next year's first ever Tokyo Deathfest? How psyched up are the band for playing there? Who else is scheduled to perform the festival?
Zdenek: We were offered by our today's label Amputated Vein records to play there and we were like FUCK YEAH and confirmed this event in like 5 mins! We already have our air tickets booked and now are looking forward to play there! We´ll stay a week more after the gig, so we´ll have some party with our long time friends from there as well as with our American bros who are playing there too. The line up is finally complete and people should look forward for these bands: Disgorge-USA, Godless Truth-Cze (only European band), Eternal Ruin-USA, Mucopus-USA, Insidious Decrepancy-USA, Digested Flesh-USA, Vomit Remnants-Japan, Woundeep-Japan, Disconformity-Japan and Infected Malignity-Japan. I´m sure it´s gonna be the most memorable show of our lives and we plan to make some DVD footage from there. For those who are interested in more infos about this sick event, please visit the official Tokyo Death Fest web site at: http://www.tokyo-deathfest.cjb.net/

Godless Truth also has a slot on the upcoming Rotterdam Death Fest. What other bands are going to be there with you? Are there bands playing either fest that you know personally?
Zdenek: Yeah, we are also playing the successful Rotterdam Deathfest which is organized by our friends from Unique Leader records-Europe and our fave club Baroeg in Rotterdam!We´re again honestly happy to be a part of it! It's like a dream comes true for us to share the stage with bands like Gorgasm-USA,Vomit Remnants-Japan, Beheaded-Malta, Visceral Bleeding-Sweden and tons others…we´re great friends with all the mentioned bands and with the rest too, so it´s again gonna be a huge beer/weed party in Rotterdam this May! For interested people, here's the fest site: http://deathfest.uniqueleader-europe.com

How many releases does the band have out? Which of these best represent where the band is at in your opinion?
So far we have released : 1 demo tape Another Disease back in 1994,then a MC album Desperation in 1996 lately released on debut CD in 1998 by Deadsun Records-France. Then we have second album Burning Existence again under Deadsun Recs from 1999 year.Two years later we released our third album Self Realization thanx to Shindy productions and now we have Arrogance Of Supreme Power released by Lacerated Enemy records in late 2004 and now re-released by Amputated Vein records from Japan! We also recorded many promo songs and some compilation CDs It's our latest album Arrogance and the previous one Self… which are showing our actual face of sounding and also the brand-new stuff sound so similar to those albums so I should say we finally found our style!

Why is the band re-releasing Arrogance of Supreme Power on Japan's Amputated Vein records? How did you hook up with Amputated Vein to re-release it?
Zdenek: Masakatsu (the owner of Amputated Vein Records) is my long time friend and I wanted to release Arrogance under two labels since the beginning! One label to cover sales and distribution over the Czech Republic and our tours (Lacerated Enemy records) and the second one to release it remastered worldwide with bonus track and with new booklet-Amputated Vein recs. So it was used to be like that since the beginning of recording Arrogance and we´re happy with that solution! It's gonna be released by Amputated in late February, so check it out! We were offered by other 3 labels but decided to cooperated with Amputated because of their dedication and proof work! Hope we can cooperate with them also for our next album!

What label was Arrogance of Supreme Power first released on? Why did the band decide to re-release the album?
We released it back in October 2004 under my own label called Lacerated Enemy recs which is just a brand-new label on da scene I'll have a new and sick site with many new signings up and running soon at http://www.laceratedenemy.com so check it out! I´m also making European tours under the name of Lacerated Enemy… so it´s slowly coming to be more known name in the underground!

How much press has Arrogance of Supreme Power gotten since it's first release? Are there any aspects of it that you would like to improve on the next album?
We released more than 1000 copies under Lacerated Enemy records and the response from the scene is just amazing! We're doing interviews like this like crazy lately and our fans are absolutely satisfied with the final result. The only change we plan with the new GT release is the sound of drums. We´d like to push them more up and make a better sound of snare. These are the only changes we plan for the future release. Amputated are going to release more than 2000 copies I guess and also another 1000 copies of it will be released on tape format in Indonesia by ESP production this march! So we´ll have like 4.000 copies total out before spring 2005 and that´s more than excellent!

Where do you see Godless Truth and Lacerated Enemy records in the next few years?
If we´ll stay healthy and friends enough in the future, then I´d like to see us still active on the scene, you know creating some technical heaviness and maybe I wish to see us little bit more known band in the underground! That´s all!

Any final comments to end the interview with?
Yeah, thanx a million for your intie bro! We appreciate it a lot! Sending greetings to all US fans/friends reading this and if you have some time left…then check out our website, our forum page or some sound samples at myspace.com site. We'll have tons of new merchandise out in April 2005, so keep your eyes open! Also the new Godless Truth stuff will be out in May! We'll be releasing a 3-way split CD with our brothers from Vomit Remnants and Carnivorous from California! Check it out, cause it´s gonna crush the world! Out on Lacerated Enemy recs!

Thanx bro!
Zdenek // Godless Truth

http://www.godlesstruth.com
http://www.myspace.com/godlesstruth
http://www.discuss.ws/forum/viewforum.php?f=3&mforum=hyperblastclan (official GT forum)
http://www.laceratedenemy.com
http://www.amputatedvein.com

- Dave Wolff

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