Hi Mister! Everything alright at the TRAUMA camp?
Mister: Hello, we're doing just fine. Our singer and drummer are going to be married in the upcoming weeks so there will be a lot of occassion for a crazy party, he, he, he!
Your third offical release called "Suffocated In Slumber" is out since a while. What happened since the release? Did you make any gigs?
M: Two months ago we played a very succesfull tour with VADER, supporting them on their "Reign Forever Tour 2001" and it was really great experience for us, because we love to play live and it was great to see people raving at our shows. . We also recorded enough material for our live album. Right now we're busy with mixing and mastering and I hope the album sees the daylight somewhere in Autumn. We're also preparing for more shows this year, practice and write new songs - just what usually happen when you're in a band.
How were the reactions in general and are you satisfied with the work of System Shock?
M: We're pretty satisfiedm, but it's hard to tell something more just after a couple of months. I'll tell you more when I see our sale statement, ha , ha! Anyway, I believe System Shock will do their best for us.
I think, that your CD is a great old-school recording with very much technical influences. In which way is the new stuff different from the older material?
M: In the same way we differ from us being younger. Everything changes with time, we grow up as a people, gain some more experience as musicians. I'd say our music is in a way a mirror our personalities at a certaintime period. But two things remain unchanged - 1) we're Death Metal; 2) we love to play as perfect as possible, write complicated riffs and complex guitar lines. This is what we always tried to do and this is what we want to do until we end.
In your booklet there is for every text a picture. Are these pictures something like a
M: Each picture is a certain visual description of the lyric content. They all are kinda mysterious and enigmatic so you can explain them in a very different ways, just like our lyrics. But this is a question that should be asked to our vocalist, who's responsible for the lyrics on "Suffocated In Slumber".
Let’s go back to the beginning. You started in the middle of the eighties under the name THANATOS. How was it to start a death metal band in these days? Did you already know bands such as VADER or IMERATOR?
M: It was crazy time, especially if you notice we had communism back then, so everything was very hard and very, very complicated. But I call it "good old times". I think the scene was more honest back then, there're less money involved and not as much of backstabbing as today. People played music, released demos and Ep's not for money and fame, just for their dedication for music. But may be I'm wrong and I try to remember only these positive memories? I don't know. Yeah, we knew VADER and IMPERATOR since begining and we're good friends with them as well as with other killer and now sadly forgotten bands - BETRAYER, ARMAGEDDON, PIEKIELNE WROTA, THRASHER DEATH, PANDEMONIUM, SLASHING DEATH, DETHRONER...
In 1989 your first Demo called „Deo Optimo Maximo“ was released. Was it already death metal or did you play at the time thrash or something like that? How were the reactions back in these days?
M: It was Death Metal, we listened a lot to SLAYER, DARK ANGEL, early METALLICA - and that what inspired us back then, so obviously we had some Thrash influences as well, but really not much. The sound of the demo wasn't perfect, but the reaction of people was very enthusiastic. We sent out hundreds of copies of the tape and some people is still asking for it.
In 1990 your second demo, ah shit, you have to go on. What happened between the debut-demo and your first official release?
M: Our next demo was "Out of Sanity". It was recorded in a professional studio (exactly the same place where VADER did their "Necrolust" demo). That was our very first experience with sound engineer and studio equipment and we made a lot of mistakes. That made the recording stressy, because we have very little monet and we couldn't spend much time on the recording. But the final result satisfied us really. Later we changed our name into TRAUMA and recorded our third and last demo "Invisible Reality". It was profesionally released on tape through Morbid Noizz Productions.
Your first real album „Comedy Is Over“ were released only on tape. Why weren’t there a CD-release and what happened with Vox Mortis Records?
M: It's a whole long story I don't want to bore you with. To make it short Vox Mortis Records made a lot of promises and in effect they did nothing for us, we just lost a lot of time thanks to their unprofessionality. For example they made completely new, shitty cover for the album without even asking, they lost all the materials we sent them, lyrics, pictures and master tape! The list could go on and on... Fortunately soon after they ended their existence.
Then finally in 1998 your first CD were released. Why didn’t you continue with Pagan Records? I think, that it was a very good label or am I wrong?
M: We're still signed to Pagan Records. They just licensed our last album to System Shock for a better promotion and distribution worldwide. We're very satisfied with Pagan Records so far. They do unbelievably a lot for us. I know they're small underground label and they can't afford a lot of things, but they support us as hard as they can. We really appreciate their dedication for underground.
Why do you put old songs from your third demo on „Daimonion“? Dindn‘ t youhave enough material for a whole one?
M: Yes, exactly. We had only these four new songs and we decided to add the old demo tracks because we wanted to give fans something more than just another mini album. On the other hand these demo songs still sounds good, even being 10 years old. With this release we ended a certain period for TRAUMA and started a new one.
Back in the eighties obviously very hard to get some gigs. Do you make many gigs in the eighties?
M: Not really, the 90's were quite hard time for us. We had a lot of problems with line up, rehearsal place, equipment and our own personal troubles, so we couldn't play as much as we wanted. But now it looks a lot better.
How is the situation now? Do you have chances to play live?
M: Like I already told you we played 10 gigs with VADER and we also preparing for another tour for Autumn. We try to play live as much as possible, however it's a bit complicated for us, since we all work or study so we can't to spend as many days on a tour as we wished. But usually we play live a couple of times a mounth. Not bad, I think.
What do you think about the Polish secene? I think that there are many very good bands such as YATTERING, DAMNABLE, INCARNATED, LOST SOUL, VADER or DECAPITATED. What’s the main difference between the nowadays scene and the scene in your beginnings?
M: I personally think that the scene in Poland is one of the very best in the world. We have a lot of killer bands with good, experienced musicians, especially in Death Metal genere. Unfortunately our economical problems stop many things painfully. For example it's very hard for a young musician to get a proper amplifier, guitar and drums - everything is very expensive. Also we have very little places for rehearsing and they also costs a lot. Since most of people in Poland lives in flats we can't practice at home and finding a good, safe place is definitely not easy. Also keep in mind we live in catholic country, where the word "Metal" or even "Rock" means almost the same as "criminal". Some brainless politics would like to see all Metal music forbidden.
You are from a town called Elblag. How is it to live there? Many metalfreaks?
M: I think the live is pretty the same as in any other town in Poland. We also have this bloody damn crisis, stupid politics, lots of unemployers and fucking high prices for everything. Oh, we're very close to Russia so we can go there and get some really cheap alcohol and cigarettes at duty free shops, ha, ha! As for Metal, there's some good bands in Elblag - us, LAFAYN, DEMISE, IMMEMORIAl - to name a few. At the weekend some pubs are full with metalheads, but we don't have enough of gigs here, definitely there's no place to play.
Do you know what happens to the great band called BETRAYER? I love there CD „Calamity“!
M: Some years ago their guitar player tragically died in a car accident and soon after the remained members decided to not go on without him. Pretty sad. They're a killer band that not had a chance to be introduced to a larger amount of metal fans.
OK, Mister, let's finish the interview with some future plans of TRAUMA? Do you have some new material?
M: Our next album will be live album. We recorded it in late Aprila nad now we're finishing mixing and mastering. There will be 10 songs taken from each of our albums plus a very special SLAYER cover we perform at our every show. The title will be "Crush Test: Live" and the sound will be killer! Definitely not worse than on "Suffocated In Slumber", wait and see. The album should be out somewhere in Autumn. We're also busy with writing brand new material for a next studio release, but since we spent a lot of time on every single song we'll be able to enter the studio in 2002.
Thanks to you Mister and hope to see you some day in Germany!
M: Tnank you very much for this interview. Good luck with your magazine and see you somewhere, sometime at our show. Support the underground and stay traum'ed!
Interview: Leif