by Vpower
The Band: Devastatiön
Country: Belgium
Answers by:
Tim (guitars)
The story of DEVASTATIÖN started more than a decade
ago, around 2004, under the name ‘Black Fuel’. As young teenagers playing Heavy
Metal, it never seemed too hard or fast enough. So, they evolved into the
thrash metal monster they are nowadays. After signing with Empire Records,
DEVASTATIÖN are ready to unleash an EP entitled “Drink With The Devil”,
featuring five brand new tracks. Dark Thrash taking no prisoners!
Hello Tim, signing with Empire Records and new
songs on your EP "Drink With The Devil"? Who was first?
Well, we
already recorded the song Defilement before we got in contact with Empire
records. That song was meant to be on a Split with Agathocles and Indemnity, but
with the proposal for an Ep we decided to record 3 new songs and re-record
'Society will die (tonight)'. It was the first song we ever made and was
originally on our 2007 demo.
Devastatiön was born a decade ago, how do you
evaluate those ten years?
When we
started the band (about 14 years ago
under the name Black Fuel) some of us were barely 18, so we still had a
learning progress to go through. Every demo or album we released, shows how we
were as a band perfectly at that time. Every release has its differences and
its flaws, but you learn from that and try to make things better. We are very
proud of what we accomplished through the the years.
"Drink With The Devil" contains 5
demolishing tracks, but I wonder why you didn’t add 3 or 4 more tracks and we
would have an outstanding album…
We agreed
with the label to make an Ep first. Some of the songs weren’t even finished when
we got into the studio. I think the Ep is a perfect release at this moment and
there is plenty of time to make new albums. We already have some new material
for a new one.
Comparing your new songs with your previous
releases you would say that…?
…we are the
same band, but still on the road of evolution. Our music is evolving and
changing in a very natural way without pressure.
Always moving, that’s good. Listening to your
ep one feels that everything flows out so easy…? Is that true or you spend
hours and hours on rehearsals?
Actually,
we don’t rehearse that much, accept when we have a gig or whenever we have to
go into the studio. We all have busy lives and its not always easy to rehearse on regular base, but we try to
rehearse a much as we can.
So, maybe this is just the warm up for a new
album in 2018?
We’re
always writing new songs or have some jam sessions. The coolest thing about
being in a band is to write music and create songs. We already have some new
material, but lets focus on this Ep first before jumping on a full album
already. There will be a new full album
eventually, but we still have some more writing to do.
Devastatiön is a curious band, you started
playing heavy metal in the early times of the band and now you deliver crazy
and devastating thrash metal, how was the evolution?
As young
kids we started to play covers of Motörhead, Metallica, Black Sabbath, … so the
songs we made of our own were automatically
the same genre. It wasn’t until someone suggested to cover 'Flag of hate'
from Kreator that we noticed thrash was more suitable for us. We enjoyed
playing faster and harder and testing our boundaries, so it was obvious that we
went more in that direction
You started as ‘Black Fuel’, later on you
changed to Devastatiön, supposedly when you discover spikes, steel & thrash
metal, right?
We changed
our style, had a little reformation of the band, so naturally we chose too pick
a new name. We weren’t really familiar with the genre and about the fact that
there were a thousand other bands with the same name. We focused a lot on the
teutonic and european thrash metal scene. We kind of grew into it.
One of the things I most appreciate in your new
Ep is that you work as a perfect team, everything sounds so compact and
aggressive
We consciously
make music that isn’t very technical. When you play together for 14 years you
naturally play like a team. It’s the same when we are writing new music, we
work together very well and most of the time we are on the same track.
Many guys think that everything is invented in
Metal, thrash included or even worse than other styles. Devastatiön is the
proof that thrash metal still can sound powerful and appealing?
Not only
devastatiön. There are plenty of new bands out there that still suprise me. Bands
like Hellbringer, Ravencult, Vector, Warbringer, Violator,… are the living
proof that thrash metal is still around. Even in Belgium we also have some
fantastic bands like Evil Invaders, Carnation, Incinerate, Indemnity, … So we
can say Thrash is not dead yet. Maybe not as popular as 10 years ago when we
had a massive thrash revival here, but still, many young thashers around here.
You have played with bands as Vicious Rumors, Hobbs Angel Of Death,
Pro-Pain or Killer, that helped to get also a popularity around?
Those were
great shows and we sure hope that we can play some more big gigs in the future.
It might help us to gain some more fans. But more important to us is the thrill
of playing live gigs and specially when its with big bands for big crowds.
If your shows discharge so much energy as your
new EP you will loose more than a kilo by show…?
We try to
send as much energy tot he crowd as we can, so our shows are very intense and
aggresive. Its physically very hard, especially for our drummer. I think he
loses a gallon of sweat per gig, haha. But you don’t hear us complain a lot,
accept maybe the mornings after a live show. Bangovers can be really hard to
digest, still we love playing live and we try to do it as good as possible.
You are still too young to complain hahaha Any
shows programmed in the short-time?
We have our
Ep presentation 23 december were we are really looking forward to. Then some
shows in next year, but there are still many open slots. We are very busy
gaining new shows.
Good. What are your plans for the future?
The same as
we always do, but try to do it better. Writing more music for a new album, play
as many shows as possible. We hope to go on tour sometime in the future, but as
the guitarplayer and drummer both became father for the second time its hard to
find time for such things.
Family grows…Thanks Tim and congratulations for
your great EP!!!
Thanks! The
only thing I would like to add is this message: Support the underground and
stay heavy!!