HOLY DEATH Story

 

HOLY DEATH`s first two releases: Megido and Abraxas were recorded in truly spartan conditions, using a four-track recorder. The quality was indeed bad and my singing skills virtually non-existent. Add some English language issues and voila; it all didn’t surely help at all either to reach the goals we wanted to achieve with our band. However, fans were attracted by this quite specific, raw music atmosphere of our first recordings, no doubt about it. Maybe that was why we managed to release our second demo (Abraxas) through Baron Records, the label which let us use a fully professional studio for theAbraxas` recording session. We were very excited to enter TR Sound Studio – we had a 108-track mixer at our disposal, as well as analog equipment to record music on a 2-inch tape (Ampex). Working with Tomasz Rogula turned out to be very nice and fruitful, so, after we`d recorded Triumph of Evil in 1996, we were sure that we had a bright future ahead. Baron Records released this stuff on tape, Norwegian Head Not Found were interested in the cd version. All seemed to be going really fine at the time. We were very proud to be the first Polish band to cooperate with a Norwegian label. All that was very inspiring and truly encouraging for us, we wanted to play even more music. Sadly, shortly after the cd was out through Head Not Found, our nightmare began. The release had not, in fact, been authorized by HOLY DEATH and, in result, featured plenty of errors. To the Christians, a very important song conveying a very crucial message was, weirdly, renamed as To the Christmas; that edition had plenty of misspellings, Metalion altered the description wrongly, and the “thanks” list which had been altered. He removed our friends and families from it to put his name in the first place. That was very, very annoying, indeed. Our studio expenses didn’t get refunded and we didn’t get our share of free cds either. The edition itself, despite its obvious flaws and ignoring my repeated demands to be recalled, was still being sold. We had, at my own expense, gotten a completely new layout done by a professional graphic design company and then we sent the new version over to the label. All they had to do was replace the wrong layout and add the Head Not Found logo. But they didn’t do that, they didn’t use my version at all and, in result, the wrong, completely faulty cd edition was distributed all over the world. All that made the things in the band sour. The other members blamed me for that unpleasant situation and accused of choosing the wrong label. In result, I travelled to Norway to clarify the situation and to make sure the deal`s terms would be fulfilled. In order to do that, to pay for that trip, I had to borrow money from my father. Our “excursion” didn’t however turn out to be overly productive since Metalion had already left for Australia. All we managed to achieve was make sure Voice of Wonder Records would recall all the defective copies (187 cds in total). Well, in order to pay for this unfortunate three-person trip I had to sell some of those faulty, utterly crappy copies. Shortly after, we learned that the album was re-released again by Head Not Found featuring the incorrect layout. That was the breaking point for the band, and, in consequence, Asphodelus left HOLY DEATH – and since that very moment we always had line-up problems. Despite all that, in 1997, we decided to record, at Manek Studio in Sanok, a three-song ep, titled Evil. Our line-up was strengthened up by Vexatus, who, at the time, together with Daren, were involved in BLADE OF THE SWORDEvil was supposed to be released by Sunset Records but after the recording session was over, we learnt that the label had already ceased to exist, so I had to pay for the session with my own money. I, nonetheless, decided to record some more tracks and release that stuff as demo. Shortly after, Exterminas and Daren left HOLY DEATH. I was the only member left. All my efforts to get a complete line up were desperately futile. Two weeks before I entered the studio to record the Forever Burning Ashes album, and after numerous lineup changes, Daren returned and replacedAtre, who lived in Warsaw at the time, and thus she wasn’t able to rehearse too often with our band, the fact which kept affecting our recording dates too. Additionally, our contemporary guitarist wasn’t too much into black metal at all, and the only band he knew of was EMPEROR which did influence, alas, our music a lot. I wasn’t happy with the fact that with each and every release we were getting farther and farther away from what HOLY DEATH was meant to be in the beginning. The issue was I am not able to compose music - I don’t play guitar. But I was aware of how HOLY DEATH`s music needed to be like. Alas, the musicians I worked with at the time did not quite understand what our music was supposed to be. I am sure that if those guys had been into same bands I was keen on, well, I think, our cooperation might’ve been more productive. Anyhow, they diluted the very essence of the music with their own ideas, and incessant lineup problems resulted in band`s stagnancy. Instead of working on new songs, we had to teach new members how to play old cuts. This process was repeated every couple of months with new musicians. Therefore, we performed a very limited number of (and usually quite poor, quality-wise) live shows. That constant struggle with unfavorable, adverse experiences became, with time, more and more arduous. Cracow is a very special city. Very few people can properly “feel” what black metal is all about. And these who can “feel” it, are usually busy with their own bands and not too keen on partaking in other projects. Therefore, our line-up was supplemented with “random” people, the situation which, alas, resulted in changes to our music. You can hear it very well on Luciferous Invincible, a demo of ours with plenty of heavy metal ideas in it. Ok, this is not bad, but not what we actually intended to achieve. All that sucked out a lot of my energy. It was all futile, I felt I had no support from other members of the band. They weren’t too “involved”, to say the least. In result, HOLY DEATH was put on hold, Daren was busy with MGŁA who were doing really well at the time, a band with plenty of potential, indeed. We used to jam a bit during MGŁA`s rehearsals and those jam sessions resulted in creation of a new band, which we then named DEATH FROST, and which later becameKRIEGSMASCHINE (KSM) We recorded our first demo, Flagrum, but that wasn’t actually my very cup of tea. The music was too aggressive and much faster than I actually wanted it to be. Therefore, another band was spawned – DEADLY FROST. Shortly before, HOLY DEATH resurrected for a short moment to record our farewell album together with Goolary (guitar). Pawel helped us create the said album but wasn’t able to help to sustain a stable lineup. He was too busy with his main band –HELLIASHOLY DEATH shared the same rehearsal place with MGŁA and KSM. We were getting along really well and supported each other as much as we could. In result, Mikołaj helped us record The Knight, Death and the Devil. This album turned out to be surprisingly similar to Triumph of Evil, yet much “denser”, in my opinion. Of course, Goolary was a more skillful guitarist than Asphodelus, despite the latter`s minimalistic, yet undeniably charmful style. I`ve always loved old SAMAEL, BATHORY, HELLHAMMER, and that was exactly what Asphodelus` style was all about. The “new”HOLY DEATH had plenty of this minimalism, but its music, on the other hand, became more aggressive and powerful. The recorded tracks had been mixed twice by both M and Goolary and, in result, stylistically speaking, became totally different from each other despite the fact these songs are identical. The M`s version was released on cd by Redrum666/Fallen Angel, and Goolary`s by High Roller from Germany (vinyl). Well, after years, I wish it had been the other way around since Mikołaj`s version is now closer to my heart, with plenty of black metal filth in its sound. I was hoping thatGoolary would, at some point, become a full-time member of HOLY DEATH. It was sheer pleasure to work with him. To no avail, it didn’t happen. After he left, I realized I was too tired of looking for new musicians and instead of living off our past, I decided that The Knight, Death and the Devil was going to be our final album and a “goodbye” to our fans. Now, I think that was the right approach. However, our final release turned out to be 20 Years of Devil Metal on Hard Rocker, not The Knight, Death and the Devil. 20 years is a compilation and our homage paid to our die-hard fans. It also buried the corpse of HOLY DEATH in the grave of oblivion. Interestingly, this compilation had some sort of a “cleansing effect” on us, because we finally got rid of this incessant, long-lasting pressure. We started from scratch again when we formed DEADLY FROST which, paradoxically, has become even more enjoyable than HOLY DEATH. Over the years, numerous times, we have been asked to resurrect HOLY DEATH. I have never said yes to this idea. First off, its corpse needs to stay in the grave, second, to reform HOLY DEATH with the Triumph of Evil lineup is not at all possible.

NecronosferatuS (Moonlight 30.11.2020)

Poprawiony (poniedziałek, 30 listopada 2020 15:18)