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Hi Rene! What's going on in Slovakia? I think everything is fine here in Slovakia. We have quite sunny weather now. What can we wish more? First of all, I have to say, that your last two CDs are fuckin' brilliant! Did you get good reactions on your latest CD and how many copies did you sell? Thank you very much for compliments. I really appreciate it. Although you like there are also people who think it is not very good stuff. For instance German Rock Hard. I guess you had a possibility to read their review. They wrote we are just a copy of Morbid Angel. In the end we got less points than our previous album THE ART OF BLASPHEMY did despite I think ENSLAVE THE WEAK is better album. Well, I accept it because 100 people can have 100 opinions & lusts. I also have to say that we picked up more of positive reactions what delights us. The most important fact is that our fans like it more that another older DEMENTOR albums. The opinion of our fans is more important for us than any review in a influential magazine. I cannot answer your question regarding selling of our album. I did not get any precise numbers from OSMOSE yet. I just know that the first edition 3000 pieces has been spread among distributors and new one has been done. Although it does not mean that all this number is sold. How did you get in contact with Osmose Productions? Are they doing a good job and what went wrong with Qabalah Prod.? OSMOSE liked our release THE ART OF BLASPHEMY and wanted to edit it under their name however it was to late to deal about it because the contract had been already signed with Qabalah. Thus we agreed on another deal for following two albums. OSMOSE are real professionals what is the main difference between them and our previous labels. They are doing great work and we can constantly feel their support in our backs. I am proud of being on OSMOSE because this label still retains a statute of a Metal label. I always admired their work and honestly told I have never hoped in being signed on this label. Fortunately our music attracted them and we can co-operate each other. What was wrong with Qabalah? I would say everything what is OK with OSMOSE, if you know what I mean. They just edited THE ART OF BLASPHEMY after long delay, did minimum of promotion and that is all. Now THE ART OF BLASPHEMY is sold out and there is still demand for this stuff however Qabalah do not intend to make another edition. They also owe me a big part of our royalty. Therefore I asked them to give me copyrights. OSMOSE are ready to make another editions on their label. I think Qabalah did not treat well with DEMENTOR at all. I will never recommend this label to any of my friends! I have to say, that I really don't know your first CD "Kill The Thought On Christ". So, it will be great if you can give me the most important facts about the CD. Be glad you do not know it. Joking, I think this album is the weakest one among our children. It is not so bad as for the guitar links. It contains good riffs but it was our old drummer who made this album weaker then it deserves. We wanted to record really fast and brutal album but the former drummer was not able to play as we all wished. He was not also technically skilled too much however we could not find better drummer at that time. We just had to TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT! It contains 8 songs plus one cover song. In spite of mentioned default many people/ fans like this stuff what delights me a lot. Before this CD you made also an album called "The Church Dies", which were only released on tape. How were these recordings and do you plan to re-release these material some time on CD? Man, it looks you have totally complete information about DEMENTOR. Not many people know about our intentions to re-record THE CHURCH DIES on CD. Well, this cassette came out in 1994 on ISP. It was recorded in time when our band experienced a hard crisis. All those initial members were leaving the band and we were experiencing long lasting searches for new members. Moreover the drummer who recorded this stuff left shortly after the album came out. Despite all these problems we managed to record quite worthy stuff to pay an attention to it. It contains 8 songs which sound little bit thrashy but it gives them some kind of originality. We reached very original sound and put good ideas into this album. It is a portion of pure brutal death metal. ISP intended to put it on CD as well but they could not due to their lack of experiences, I might say. As far THE CHURCH DIES is sold out. And cause it's so nice, it will be great to hear something about your demo stuff. We recorded two demos during our career. First of them came out in 1992 under the name THE EXTINCTION OF CHRISTIANITY. This is good stuff which sounds little under influences of our early role models such as Pestilence, Death, Slayer. It contains 9 songs and was sang by our first drummer. Man, I think all people must evaluate good musical/ technical skills as well as the sound put on this record. It is worthy to mention that we recorded it only on 4 tracks studio recorder. The same with our 2nd demo MORBID INFECTION which was edited in 1993. This record got a new sounding as we took a new brutal vocalist and we also postponed our musical feelings thus this demo is more brutal in general than its precursor. Who wants to know more about all our records, just visit our web site www.dementor.nfo.sk You are playing a very fast and dark death metal in the vein of MORBID ANGEL or DEICIDE. Do you agree or what is your definition of your music? Yes, I agree and we do not shame for being similar to any of these mentioned bands. We do not want to be just an original band. We play what we feel and we do not deny our influences as well. We always wanted to play this kind of death metal. Creation of our music runs really naturally without forcing ourselves to copy Morbid Angel or any other band. You have very anti-christian lyrics. Is the church in Slovakia as big as the church e.g. in Poland and have very much power? I would say christianity is very strong world wide. It is not just problem of Poland or Slovakia. Christianity is the same everywhere in the world – false and greed. Many sick fanatics are for example in Peru. See the ritual crucifying every year at the event of Jesus cricifixion. But I do not give a fuck of this sick human trash. I am irritated by the activity of christian church oneself. Christian representatives abuse the content of the bible to reach their targets & get the control upon people. They encroach upon all the happenings in the world. They want people to live in accordance with christian rules but they break it daily themselves. We all in DEMENTOR hate this obscene hypocrisy and therefore our lyrics are full of criticism towards christianity. What‘s your taste of music? Do you only listen to brutal death metal or are there also other bands or styles that you prefer? You can easily guess we prefer death metal most of all. When I was younger I wanted to have all possible albums at home in my collection either on CD or dubbed on a tape. Now I sort the music and choose just the best of it. I do not like the most brutal kind of death metal that is almost sorted into grind core. I would say I prefer some “middle stream” of it represented by bands like Morbid Angel, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, Vader, Sinister, Luciferion, Krisiun, Hate, Hate Eternal, Carcass, Immolation. I also like black metal bands such as Dark Funeral, Immortal, Cradle of Filth, Emperor, Dimmu Borgir etc. And finally there are also older heavy metal bands like Iron Maiden, Ozzy Osbourne that I like very much. Actually I am able to listen to any kind of music that I find interesting for me. You played already some shows in Germany. Do you have some offers to make a tour in the near future? You will also make a mini-tour with VADER in June, but only in Eastern Europe. In April we graduated our second European tour with German band Into Darkness. Except of some great show it was rather disappointing tour as for the visit. Therefore we decided not to hurry up too much. If we decide to go for a tour we will have to feel any guarantee for more successful result. I hope you understand what I mean. Recently we played a tour in CIS as a headlining band and we liked it very much. It was completely different than the last EU tour. I mean we got everything what we needed for good performances. Therefore we did not hesitate neither one second when we were offered to play another gigs in Russian countries again. Moreover this offer is connected with supporting Vader what we can not refuse at all. I am more then sure with Vader we will experience even higher visits than the last time. Although we had more than 600 people in Kiev/Ukraine. If we decide to make any further European tour it will be done by our label or we will do it by ourselves but we start to prepare it in advance. Successful tour needs long time for preparation. 3 months are not enough at all! What is the Slovakian scene doing? I really don't know much about bands of your country. Are there any good death metal bands, which you like? Well, it seems there are not too many bands in Slovakia but it is not true at all. We have many bands and most of them play true death metal. We do not have many bands playing doom or black metal what is the main difference between us and Czech republic for example. I like some of Slovak bands. I think they are good and ambitious as well but they do not get enough attention from good Western labels. It is pity. I can mention names like Depresy, Typhoid, Pathology Stench, Erytrosy. The Czech scene is almost more popular in my ears, course of bands such as KRABATHOR, HYPNOS, GODLESS TRUTH, FLESHLESS, .... than the Slovakian scene. Do you have many contacts to Czech bands or are there some differences between the scenes? We have good contacts with Czech people & bands. Moreover we have a Czech manager who runs our management in territory of Czech republic. He is doing his job well and it really helps me to concentrate on another important things around DEMENTOR. Well, you named some Czech bands but in my eyes this scene is not too colourful. Maybe you mentioned the most known bands and that is all. In my point of view Krabathor is the only Czech band that deserves admiration. To be honest I do not like Fleshless at all. Finally I might add Pandemia or Intervalle Bizzare to your list of interesting Czech bands. Ok, Rene, that's it. Thanks a lot for your time and hope to see you live on stage some time. Thank you as well. I really appreciate your support. I also hope to play as much as possible in Germany & maybe meet you once. |