Since their formation in 1983, Destruction have been one of the key players in the European Thrash scene. They celebrate their silver anniversary with ‘D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N,’ an album that not only captures the feel of the early years, but also makes a statement that the band is very much on form with a healthy future ahead. They were a late but nonetheless well deserved addition to the Bloodstock Open Air Festival bill, and for forty minutes in the middle of the afternoon of Friday 15th they displayed the energy, chaos, raw power and aggression that made them stand out from their German contemporaries over twenty years ago. Shortly after the show, I was introduced to guitarist Mike Sifringer and we found a suitable spot to conduct our interview al fresco while Soulfly did their best to sabotage the acoustics!
Congratulations on Destruction's
10th studio album. What can we
expect with this one compared to previous albums?
Well, there is a little bit more variety, maybe. This time we tried to do some different things
and bring in a bit more melodic stuff, but I think it's still aggressive enough
for the old fans, so I hope everyone will like it.
What are you
personally most proud of with this release?
Well, there are some songs that I like better than others,
of course, but all the songs must be together to get the whole view of our
music, so I like the whole thing, even the fucking cover!
What have been the
early reactions to this album?
Pretty good, because people are seeing that we're getting
older and we've done so many fast songs in the past that we don't have to prove
that we can play fast. That's why we
turned the speed down a little and we tried different harmonies. We don't want to get bored ourselves, that's why
we tried to change things around a little bit and not just play the same riffs
that we have been doing for twenty years.
We don't want to sound like we did back then because we are so much
better now. But still, a lot of people
ask us why we don't make an album like we did back then. Too many people live in the past (laughs). Actually, I do too, but I go further
back. I like the seventies and sixties
stuff.
Well, since you've brought
up that particular era, can you tell us what or who was it that got you into
music in the first place?
When I was a little boy there was a TV show in Germany
that played mostly pop shit, but once in a while there were some good heavy
bands. The first metal song I ever heard
was a Slade song - I can't even remember when it was, maybe 1972 or something,
but I was too small to buy it for myself and my father didn't want to get it
for me because he hated that stuff. It
just developed from there. For a while I
was into Elvis Presley, but he was a good musician, so I don't have to be
ashamed of that. I liked the old stuff
by Status Quo a lot ... ‘Live at the Apollo' is great. Then I got into Rainbow, Deep Purple, UFO and
all those great bands, and Thin Lizzy is one of my favourite bands. Scott Gorham is a fantastic player.
As a Northern Irish
girl, needless to say I'm delighted to hear that you're a Thin Lizzy fan. Did you take lessons or did you teach
yourself?
Before I was in Destruction I used to jam with a good guitar
player who was about five years older than me.
He showed me a lot of stuff. He
was also a Status Quo fan and for beginners it's really hard to play that
boogie woogie shit, you have to reach so far with your little finger, but he taught
me how to do it. I don't think having a
teacher is necessary if you want to play rock music. Maybe if you play classical stuff it's
different, but if you have talent you can watch how others do it and just do it
the same. If you have ears and eyes,
what's the problem? For me it wasn't a
problem and when I first heard Metallica's ‘Kill ‘Em All' album, I knew I had
to practise that great right hand stuff.
After two months I managed to play all of it, not quite like they did
it, but it sounded kind of the same. If you
like something you have to work a little to get it into your head and into your
hands. Of course there are things I
can't play, no matter how hard I practised them; Yngwie Malmsteen for
example. I tried, but I'm not talented
enough for that stuff. But then he's a
shitty riff player (laughs). What's more
necessary in metal? It's the riffs, of
course!!
Is there any implicit
meaning in the album title, with the dots between the letters?
It looks better (laughs).
No, each letter is the beginning of a song, so the first song starts
with D, the second with E etc. We were
initially going to put the title on the back of the album and then the songs
alongside each letter, but we changed that idea. Have you seen the cover? There's a hidden thing in it. If you look closely at the main cover you
just see the figures and chaos, but if you hold it further from your eyes you
see more stuff. Check it out. (Actually,
I have subsequently received a finished copy from AFM, and he was absolutely
right - and the artwork inside is stunning, too).
Is there a theme
running through the album or does each song have its own meaning?
There is a kind of a theme.
We're not happy with what's happening on the planet. There is so much bullshit going on and we
wrote about the problems with religion and politics. We wanted to tell people not to believe what
the politicians say. It's heavy metal,
after all, and I always thought heavy metal should have a little bit of
protest, that's why I'm not a big fan of that kindergarten metal shit (hums an AOR tune) and I don't like
lyrics about knights, castles and dragons.
The only person who can do that is Ronnie James Dio, but he is allowed
(laughs). At least he writes good lyrics
that have deeper meaning, not like these bands that write storybook shit. It's not my cup of tea!
How does the writing
and recording process work in the creation of a Destruction album?
Well, first the drum computer decides what we should do (laughs). No, it's the same with most heavy metal
songs, you start with the riffs. You
don't need a piano as the guitar is perfect to check out the harmonies and
stuff. There are so many ways to play a
song, so the guitar player looks after that part, because it's hard to play
harmonies on a bass. If you play more
than two strings you get too much "boom" (mimics the noise of a distorted
bass). I play a lot of acoustic guitar
which helps. It's never one riff; there
has to be a few that fit together otherwise the one riff just sounds like shit. I fit some together and then Schmier tells me
what he likes because he has to do the lyrics and melodies, and sometimes he
has a following riff, so we are always talking to each other about what is best
because then it works for everybody.
Do you record your
parts separately or do you prefer a studio approach?
Everybody does their own parts, but when we record the drums
we play along. It's better to do the
guitars separately. Everybody is doing
it. A few people say they play it live,
but I don't believe them (laughs). The
old bands had to do it, of course, but if you have the opportunity to do it
differently you should. We are not like those
bands who record a little bit and then re-sample everything, though. I hate that, and I'd never want to play like
that. If you listen to some American
bands it's impossible to play the guitar like it is played on the album. You can hear it's been cut and stuff, and
that's not the way it should be. If you
see them play live you get really disappointed because it sounds nothing like
it does on the album. I also hate that
the drums are always so correct and so clinical. Who plays like a machine? That's not a drummer!
How did the
collaboration with Gary Holt (Exodus), Vinnie Moore (UFO) and Jeff Waters (Overkill)
come about?
We meet each other once in a while and we are good
friends. They like our band and we like
their bands, and Jeff Waters always wanted to play with us. Schmier phoned them and sent the files to
them and they recorded their parts in the US.
It would have been nice to fly them in to Europe,
of course, but it's not possible with budgets being what they are. So they did it in their own studios and I'm
so glad they did because they are fucking great guitar players. I can't believe they played on my album (spoken with a wide grin).
Why do you think you
never achieved the amount of fame and adulation of your Bay Area contemporaries?
Well, if you are American some things are easier for
you. In Germany
if a band comes from America
everybody seems to lose their hearing and likes them just because they are
American. How come everybody is
listening to the shitty new Metallica bullshit?
I hate it. I know it's a matter
of taste, but there are so many people with bad taste who are not
educated. They go to a show to have fun
but they haven't a clue about the music.
So, the answer is I don't know.
Maybe we didn't deserve such recognition (shrugs his shoulders).
In Germany, of course, Destruction, Sodom and Kreator are
regarded as the "Three Classics of Teutonic Thrash". Is there a healthy rivalry between the bands?
No, not at all. We
are all good friends, like one big family.
Of course sometimes you have to argue like most families do. But I like those guys, they are great people.
What was the reason
that Schmier left the band for several years?
He didn't leave, he was kicked out. It wasn't an easy time. He wanted to do different things and that was
a problem. Going to practise sessions
and spending all the time talking and not playing isn't the way to progress
music, so we had to make a decision. It
was tough at the time, it was no fun at all.
Maybe we should have talked more about it, maybe we rushed into it, but
it happened and that's it.
What was the
motivation for him to return?
Actually he asked me.
He had some offers from Wacken to play a reunion show and he asked me if
I'd do it. I said I didn't want to play
just one show, and if we played Wacken and had fun doing it, we would take it
further. It turned out that we had fun,
so we carried on.
Jacob Hansen (Communic,
Tyr, Pyramaze) produced this album. Is
this the first time you've worked together?
It was the first time we worked with him at his own
studio. The last album we made with him was
the compilation ‘Thrash Anthems' when we re-recorded a lot of our original
material in Switzerland and it
was mixed in Denmark. For this album we were actually at his studio
in Denmark. He's a great producer and a good musician and
singer also. He has great ears and knows
about complicated harmonies.
You are a band that
likes to tour. Where in the world do you
believe your biggeset fan base resides?
It's always crazy in South America. The audiences are huge, and it kind of shocks
me that people get so emotional about our music that they come up to us and
cry! It's strange. Sometimes it's great to play in front of 200
people, too, it just depends. There are
a few countries missing from our list.
We never played Africa, for example,
but we will. And Greenland,
too (laughs).
What is it about the UK that has
been so hard to crack? For example, why do you think it has taken so long for
you to feature on a major festival bill such as Bloodstock?
Well, you need to ask the English people about that
(laughs). We had a little tour in UK and Ireland at the end of last
year. We played a few shit holes, but
generally it was alright. I really loved
Ireland. It was like a religious thing for me to come
to Cork because
I'm a big Rory Gallagher fan. It was
just nice to walk around the city. I
love Dublin too;
the people just love to party. I went to
see the statue of Phil Lynott, and now I'm blessed. I read a lot about the issues about the
statue and how his mother fought for it.
She's a great woman.
(With the admission
that he is a Rory fan, Mike had most definitely made his way onto my personal roster
of respected guitarists, regardless of his six string abilities! We took some time out to discuss Irish rock
music in general and discovered that we had a lot more in common. We were still deep in discussion when I
realised he had more interview commitments so it was time for the "wrap"
question and to get some photographs, for which he was only too happy to oblige.)
What's in the future
for Destruction?
Well, we are going on tour in South America for two weeks
then Europe in December which includes the UK
and Ireland
again. Maybe in another two years or
something we'll think about another album.
Or maybe we'll record a live album next.
We have a lot of good footage for a DVD and we are collecting some
more. We have the Wacken show from two
years ago - it was an awesome show with all the fireworks, so maybe we'll bring
that out.
In 1965 Barry McGuire warned that we were on the Eve of
Destruction. Now it's 2008 and it is the Year of Destruction. Get ready to "Thrash ‘Til Death" and blow
your speakers with D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N.
Yeah i loved mike´s words,the sound on Devolution album is really cool,and his interview here talk about the best thing that we love: guitars guitarz and + more guitars ;-)
Since their formation in 1983, Destruction have been one of the key players in the European Thrash scene. They celebrate their silver anniversary with ‘D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N,’ an album that not only captures the feel of the early years, but also makes a statement that the band is very much on form with a healthy future ahead. They were a late but nonetheless well deserved addition to the Bloodstock Open Air Festival bill, and for forty minutes in the middle of the afternoon of Friday 15th they displayed the energy, chaos, raw power and aggression that made them stand out from their German contemporaries over twenty years ago. Shortly after the show, I was introduced to guitarist Mike Sifringer and we found a suitable spot to conduct our interview al fresco while Soulfly did their best to sabotage the acoustics! 
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