Interview with Moder on July 3, 2007

Metalthai.com >> Interview Index >> Moder [Date of interview: July 3, 2007]
MODER [Date of interview: July 3, 2007] [Click here to read the review of Valley of no light 2003]
Aggressive Death metal from Germany. Interview with Nekro Nickel, Bassist and Vocalist who had great attitude and wanna spread some message to Metalheads who read this intie!

Hailz all thrasher-black warriors from Germany - country of Beer, Great! How 's your life there'
Moder: Hails...well, one word before...we don't really see us as a Black/Thrash Metal Band...we play Death Metal. Well, I guess our life here is relatively fine, we have a high wealth standard in Germany and so on, nevertheless I am very pissed by many circumstances that I have to face every day....Anyway, concerning Metal scene, I think we have a quite big one, many Bands, Labels, Distributors, Zines...unfortunately, the amount of stupid Mainstream Metallers is big as well (just like in any other countries), the big Magazines and Record Companies try their best to make a money business out of Metal and to push it into the Mainstream. Needless to say that I have only contempt for such capitalistic views and actions. Metal became nothing more than just another part of stupid Pop culture...But the true Underground will always be there..Boycott the rest!

How's the metal scene in Germany'
Moder: I guess I just answered it partly in answer one. Well, additionally one could say that there is way too much New school mentality to find (as everywhere). People who claim to be "Metallers" who sit before their fucking computers and download Mp3s, reading webzines and myspace-sites instead of writing letters and ordering copied Zines and Demos by mail. This is the fucking real Underground, not all this Internet-only shit. I have nothing against the Internet itself, but concerning Metal, it destroyed the cult of Underground in my opinion since it is accessable to every stupid moron. In the past it was all more mysterious. When I get a hand-written letter from someone asking about my band, I know it is a Maniac with real passion for Metal, while all these Internet-"Metallers" are too lazy to write letters at all. Another problem is that there are way too many bands, and many of them are either average or bad. Every shit is released nowadays, it seems. But well, a positive thing is that a big part of the german scene is very traditional, releasing Demos still on Tapes, holding up the spirit of the 80s and early 90s (both in music and attitude). So, after all, it is not so bad here...When you mention Thrash Metal, I see a return of the golden years of Thrash...although I am not a very big Thrash Metal fan and there many average bands too...it's good to see traditions held alive...

You talked about the computer maniac, who sit in front of the computer, reading the webzine and about the internet will be destroy the cult of Underground Metal, something. I knew you said you didn' t against the internet. Okay, just wanna know, why do you use the internet just like the media to publish and spread your songs, you have a website, you uploaded your songs onto website for the metalheads who interest and download its. You sent your album for review to the webzine, You had interview with the webzine, something like that. Why 's that,man' why you do that' just like the conflict and confuse or something of your answer, please clearify of your opinion,Bro'.

Moder: Yes, I know what you mean and of course I can understand that it seems a bit contradictive to answer an interview for a webzine while stating that Internet destroys the cult at the same time....

First of all, I have to say that I didn't have this view from the beginning....rather the opposite, cause when we got our homepage in late 2003 (if I remember right) I was quite enthusiastic about the possibility to spread our unholy music around the globe in such an easy way, I even wrote Reviews for a webzine back then for a time... But after a while I found out that the majority of people who look for Metal on the net simply don't support Underground music. The best prove for this is the fact that when we put the song "Valley of no Light" from our same-titled Demo (2003) and infos about ordering it on our page, many people downloaded the song, but NOT ONE SINGLE ORDER came for that Demo till today, from people who downloaded it. That says a lot, doesn't it'

The orders for the Demo came from people who got our flyers through normal mail, and read reviews or Interviews from us in small, xeroxed Fanzines. But to be fair, I must mention that some people ordered our latest two Albums because they checked our mp3s.... But not that many, though.

Another point is that by exposing one's own band on the band, theoretically EVERYBODY can have infos about our band and that seems a bit weird to me...I mean, I don't fear pressure or something like that, but it's a bit strange when you, just for example want to get a new job and your boss can simply put your name into "Google" and soon he knows what music you make and what kind of Lyrics you write....Thanks to Internet, nearly a whole German IMPALED NAZARENE-tour could be cancelled as the german "Antifa" got infos about them from related sites and started to make trouble. In the early days, this was impossible, you only got to know about Underground bands through small Zines and Flyers, which you couldn't get when you were not in the scene....but sadly, this is a development that simply cannot be stopped...even if we would turn off our website, there would be enough sources on the net to find infos about us.....But finally, I know there are of course also the "right people" who get their infos from the net, otherwise I wouldn't answer this interview, haha.

Another reason is that I am only one bandmember of MODER, and my bandmates don't see this matter so drastically as I do. For example, Michi Hate (our guitarist) sends all the promos for webzines, while I don't do it anymore as I'm more into paper Zines. Our Drummer Astaroth even has an own webzine and an own myspace-site. Personally I have nothing to do with the website (except for giving news sometimes), and if I would start a new Band/Project, I wouldn't even put up a site probably. But well, now we have one for MODER, and I don't go against it since I am not the band-boss or something...Remember, this is only MY opinion, not that of my bandmates.

So you see, these are the other sides of the coin....I also admit that the Internet is sometimes useful when it comes to things like organising gigs....But after all, it destroyed a lot of magic if you know what I mean' So you see, I don't totally boycott it, but at least limit my use of it to a minimum. I spend lots of more time with answering normal letters (related to my band) than e-mails. I hope this answer clearifies my views about what you asked.

Heard some news about your new album "Ewiger Tod" that you guys released in this year. How about this album,Bro'' Can you brief and explain about this album'
Moder: "Ewiger Tod" is our third Full-length Album so far. It was produced in Metalsound-studios in ten days and offers you 32 minutes of raw, yet variable Death Metal in the vein of older Bands like ASPHYX, MORBID ANGEL, UNLEASHED and many others, not like the new US-Death/Grind style. There are many Black and Heavy Metal elements to find, so variety is guaranteed. All in all it is heavy, shredding, dark and disgusting, just like DEATH METAL should be. Lyrics, as usual, deal with Death, Insanity, Decay and so on...We made a huge step til our first Demo, 2001... the development is undeniable, also the sound and our playing abilities got much better by the years. And not to forget about our graet new Drummer , Astaroth. He is the best Drummer we ever had, so we hope to keep him til the end. His playing style changed the whole sound, he is more precise and uses more blastbeats than our former drummers. By this way, "Ewiger Tod" will appear on Cassette via "Murder Records" and on LP over "Crawling shadows Records", both hopefully this year.

What's the meaning of "Ewiger Tod" and your band name "Moder"?
Moder: "Ewiger Tod" is german for "Eternal Death", "Moder" means "Decay" or "Mould".

About your lyrics, what's that about? Its wrote in German language,right?
Moder: That's right, many of our lyrics are in German language. They deal mostly about Chaos, Hatred, Insanity, and more personal thoughts and visions....but of course only dark ones, as DEATH METAL is not about happy things....German is a great language, especially for aggressive Metal it sounds really bestial... I cannot understand why not more bands sing in their mother-tongue, it would give a more specific note.

I listen to your sample songs 'Grotesque enlighment', it 's fasten raw than in the past but you guys added some melodics into your songs, why,Bro'? In my opinion I think that they are not match with the charecter of Moder.
Moder: I dunno, when we write songs we don't think about it much...if it sounds killer we use it, if not , then not, simple as that. By the way, I guess you don't know our Album "Fields of Devastation" from 2005. If you listen to "Valley of no Light" (2003), "Fields of Devastation" (2005) and "Ewiger Tod" (2007) you can see our development clearly. In 2003, we wrote mostly spontanous songs in our Rehearsal room (while "jamming", argh how I hate that gay word), while after that, we wrote them mostly alone and presented them after they were done. So the newer songs are more thought out you could say. By the way, we had always melodies in our songs, since our first Demo... But I agree that our new Album is more melodic than our previous stuff. We even have a quite melodic Instrumental song called "Doomed to be human" which is almost Heavy Metal. As long as it sounds good, why not? But of course, in Death Metal (and so in MODER), Hate and Darkness are most important, so I don't think we'll go further in this way...

Okay guys, what's your plan in the future with Moder?
Moder: First we have to write new songs, at the moment we have no new material....so I can't really say how it will sound...Maybe we'll release a Rehearsal Tape somewhen...Murder Records offered us to release a Split 7", but as I said, we need time....

Wanna say something to Metalheads who read this interview, go ahead,Bro'!
Greetings readers. Why the fuck are you sitting before your computer? Turn it off and order your copy of "Ewiger Tod", CD for 10 Euros worldwide. Read printed and copied Metal Zines and write letters to the bands and small distros instead of sucking Mp3s...If Internet is your only source of Metal, the don't call yourself Metal Maniac....call yourself Computer Maniac. Hail to the Underground, fuck the rest.