1. Can you tell us a little bit about the band for those that have never heard of you before?
Hi there, first we’d like to say thank you for the interest of the Variety of Death zine in our band, it’s always great to see that the underground gets support.
Well, we are Mental Killing Spree, since 2008 a Brutal / Old school Death metal band from Wilhelmshaven, Germany. The band and its name were originally founded in 2003 but we found our final musical style and final line-up in 2008, when we released our first EP called “Vae Victis” that was recorded at Rosenquarz-Studio in Lübeck, Germany. By exclusively publishing this demo via Internet (Myspace) we were able to establish contacts all around the world, that resulted in two gigs in Sweden (Gothenburg and Malmoe) and our songs being played in several radio-shows (Internet or “broadcast stations”) and in receiving several magazine interview requests from Europe, Asia, North- and South America, not to forget the very positive feedbacks we received so far.
Now, in October 2013 we finally published our first 10-track-full-length called “Centrifuge of Man” that was recorded mixed and mastered at the Sound Division Studio in Warsaw, Poland by Filip “Heinrich” Halucha, who is known as the former bassplayer of Decapitated’s “Carnival is forever”.
2.How would you describe the musical sound of the new album and how it differs from the previous demo?
Although the demo-sound already united a really powerful and pressing mixture, the current production of the Sound Division Studio on “Centrifuge of Man” is far more differentiated while keeping the essential dynamics alive. Each instrument and the vocals can be heard clearly without any loss of brutality and drive. Musically we remained completely loyal to our own style and interpretation of Brutal / Old school death metal; compared to the songwriting on the EP, we’d say that the full-length song structures have become more complex and compact without losing the permanent dynamic flow.
3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the new release explores?
Our lyrical topics are mainly deriving from psychology and sociology, they’re about human exploitation in capitalism, psychiatric sickness and common strains and stresses of the daily grind that lead to a certain common madness. Lyrically we follow the opinion that hell is always an entity of the subject’s brain, there’s no objective hell, the hell is inside the person’s mind and its interpretation and perceptions of life. Things that can be mentally imagined by Man can by far be more cruel and sick than the things that can be executed or achieved in the physical world. That’s what our lyrics are all about, the personified and personalized horrors that everyone experiences even in so-called civilized societies.
4.The band has been around since 2003 but so far have only released one demo and 1 full length, what has been the cause of delays?
As we mentioned above, MKS in the line-up and musical style of today started in 2008 after a complete reset due to the fact that from 2003 to 2008 we had an additional guitarist and more thrashy influences in our songs that had been drastically replaced by brutal death metal elements in new songs before we recorded the EP in 2008.
Further reasons for such a long timespan were organisational incompatibilities with our full-time jobs and the problem to get things organized for ourselves without a label and distro. Even planning the Warsaw-trip to record the full-length was quite difficult to manage due to a certain lack of leave days. But finally we made it!
5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name Mental Killing Spree?
The inspiration behind the name Mental Killing Spree is quite similar to the entire inspiration of our lyrics described in question 3, the hidden aggression that lurks in all of us but that can rarely be seen in its pure outbreak because it mostly gets blocked by morale or ethics or just fear, the only way for natural instincts or the unconscious in general to show up is in fantasies or dreams. The simple question behind our bandname is: How would our society look like when we all would just act as our raw drives and instincts are telling us to act? In some way we’re just animals equipped with a consciousness but the archaic source of our actions is still present deep inside our mind. We’re even able to partially shape our instincts but nevertheless they are still there.
6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and how would you describe your stage performance?
Well, our best shows we had here in our own region because we didn’t have that much gigs outside that radius, but with the new CD out we are now willing to change it! It’s always hard to describe how our own show might appear, but after a gig one of our fans once told us that “it’s like a fuckin’ freight-train with full speed mangling your body over and over again”, lol.
7.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
Yeah of course, we will now work on expanding our radius and apply for some gigs in Germany (festivals or open air) and beyond, if possible, so we are parallel working on spreading our word all around the world. We plan a small tour in next year’s summer through Poland at the moment but we are open for all gig-offers we can get!! So don’t hesitate to contact us via Facebook, which is currently our mainpage as well.
8.Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?
Yeah, we are very interested in getting fair contract-offers for distro and label-support, we haven’t received any interest requests yet but our CD has just been published, we’ll see what the future holds in store according to this.
9.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of brutal death metal?
According to the quantity and quality of reviews we received so far, we are very hopeful, the feedback since the official release has been awesome! The deathmetal-scene, as far as we can evaluate it by the received feedbacks now, seems to like our new stuff!
10.What direction do you see your music heading into on future releases?
Right now, we are already working on writing new songs and it seems that our main direction will remain the same, we will stay straight and brutal because that’s our way to interpret Brutal / Old school deathmetal!
11.What are some bands or musical styles that have influenced your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
This is always a difficult question, we’ve been compared with several death-metal bands like Morbid Angel, Decapitated, Asphyx, Hail of Bullets, Vital remains etc., every single comparison is a big compliment for us but we would never ever compare ourselves with one single band, well, when we are writing a song the final product is always a product of all the bands we ever have listened to in the past and we are listening to right now. I think it’s always better to just enjoy the music without thinking in stereotypes or similarities.
12.Outside of music what are some of your interests?
Our main interests are of course creating deathmetal and scanning the underground scene for new gems that we haven’t heard of before. Further-on we like to party and meet friends and fans for some alcoholic and musical orgies, haha. The other half of the day we have to hold down our full-time jobs.
13.Any final words or thoughts before we wrap up this interview?
We’d like to thank you very much for the possibility of this interview and the awesome review, further-on we’d like to thank all the other fanzines and magazines as well for the outstanding support they granted us! You’re the ones who keep the scene alive! Our special thx go out to Filip “Heinrich” Halucha and Tomek at Sound Division Studio in Warsaw, Poland and to Björn Gooßes at Killustrations.com for the creation of the great CD-artwork. We want to send out greetings to all our fans and friends and to those who haven’t listened to our stuff yet: check out our facebook page and listen to some of our brandnew songs there!
Horns up!
See ya!
Timm+MKS
Hi there, first we’d like to say thank you for the interest of the Variety of Death zine in our band, it’s always great to see that the underground gets support.
Well, we are Mental Killing Spree, since 2008 a Brutal / Old school Death metal band from Wilhelmshaven, Germany. The band and its name were originally founded in 2003 but we found our final musical style and final line-up in 2008, when we released our first EP called “Vae Victis” that was recorded at Rosenquarz-Studio in Lübeck, Germany. By exclusively publishing this demo via Internet (Myspace) we were able to establish contacts all around the world, that resulted in two gigs in Sweden (Gothenburg and Malmoe) and our songs being played in several radio-shows (Internet or “broadcast stations”) and in receiving several magazine interview requests from Europe, Asia, North- and South America, not to forget the very positive feedbacks we received so far.
Now, in October 2013 we finally published our first 10-track-full-length called “Centrifuge of Man” that was recorded mixed and mastered at the Sound Division Studio in Warsaw, Poland by Filip “Heinrich” Halucha, who is known as the former bassplayer of Decapitated’s “Carnival is forever”.
2.How would you describe the musical sound of the new album and how it differs from the previous demo?
Although the demo-sound already united a really powerful and pressing mixture, the current production of the Sound Division Studio on “Centrifuge of Man” is far more differentiated while keeping the essential dynamics alive. Each instrument and the vocals can be heard clearly without any loss of brutality and drive. Musically we remained completely loyal to our own style and interpretation of Brutal / Old school death metal; compared to the songwriting on the EP, we’d say that the full-length song structures have become more complex and compact without losing the permanent dynamic flow.
3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the new release explores?
Our lyrical topics are mainly deriving from psychology and sociology, they’re about human exploitation in capitalism, psychiatric sickness and common strains and stresses of the daily grind that lead to a certain common madness. Lyrically we follow the opinion that hell is always an entity of the subject’s brain, there’s no objective hell, the hell is inside the person’s mind and its interpretation and perceptions of life. Things that can be mentally imagined by Man can by far be more cruel and sick than the things that can be executed or achieved in the physical world. That’s what our lyrics are all about, the personified and personalized horrors that everyone experiences even in so-called civilized societies.
4.The band has been around since 2003 but so far have only released one demo and 1 full length, what has been the cause of delays?
As we mentioned above, MKS in the line-up and musical style of today started in 2008 after a complete reset due to the fact that from 2003 to 2008 we had an additional guitarist and more thrashy influences in our songs that had been drastically replaced by brutal death metal elements in new songs before we recorded the EP in 2008.
Further reasons for such a long timespan were organisational incompatibilities with our full-time jobs and the problem to get things organized for ourselves without a label and distro. Even planning the Warsaw-trip to record the full-length was quite difficult to manage due to a certain lack of leave days. But finally we made it!
5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name Mental Killing Spree?
The inspiration behind the name Mental Killing Spree is quite similar to the entire inspiration of our lyrics described in question 3, the hidden aggression that lurks in all of us but that can rarely be seen in its pure outbreak because it mostly gets blocked by morale or ethics or just fear, the only way for natural instincts or the unconscious in general to show up is in fantasies or dreams. The simple question behind our bandname is: How would our society look like when we all would just act as our raw drives and instincts are telling us to act? In some way we’re just animals equipped with a consciousness but the archaic source of our actions is still present deep inside our mind. We’re even able to partially shape our instincts but nevertheless they are still there.
6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and how would you describe your stage performance?
Well, our best shows we had here in our own region because we didn’t have that much gigs outside that radius, but with the new CD out we are now willing to change it! It’s always hard to describe how our own show might appear, but after a gig one of our fans once told us that “it’s like a fuckin’ freight-train with full speed mangling your body over and over again”, lol.
7.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
Yeah of course, we will now work on expanding our radius and apply for some gigs in Germany (festivals or open air) and beyond, if possible, so we are parallel working on spreading our word all around the world. We plan a small tour in next year’s summer through Poland at the moment but we are open for all gig-offers we can get!! So don’t hesitate to contact us via Facebook, which is currently our mainpage as well.
8.Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?
Yeah, we are very interested in getting fair contract-offers for distro and label-support, we haven’t received any interest requests yet but our CD has just been published, we’ll see what the future holds in store according to this.
9.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of brutal death metal?
According to the quantity and quality of reviews we received so far, we are very hopeful, the feedback since the official release has been awesome! The deathmetal-scene, as far as we can evaluate it by the received feedbacks now, seems to like our new stuff!
10.What direction do you see your music heading into on future releases?
Right now, we are already working on writing new songs and it seems that our main direction will remain the same, we will stay straight and brutal because that’s our way to interpret Brutal / Old school deathmetal!
11.What are some bands or musical styles that have influenced your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
This is always a difficult question, we’ve been compared with several death-metal bands like Morbid Angel, Decapitated, Asphyx, Hail of Bullets, Vital remains etc., every single comparison is a big compliment for us but we would never ever compare ourselves with one single band, well, when we are writing a song the final product is always a product of all the bands we ever have listened to in the past and we are listening to right now. I think it’s always better to just enjoy the music without thinking in stereotypes or similarities.
12.Outside of music what are some of your interests?
Our main interests are of course creating deathmetal and scanning the underground scene for new gems that we haven’t heard of before. Further-on we like to party and meet friends and fans for some alcoholic and musical orgies, haha. The other half of the day we have to hold down our full-time jobs.
13.Any final words or thoughts before we wrap up this interview?
We’d like to thank you very much for the possibility of this interview and the awesome review, further-on we’d like to thank all the other fanzines and magazines as well for the outstanding support they granted us! You’re the ones who keep the scene alive! Our special thx go out to Filip “Heinrich” Halucha and Tomek at Sound Division Studio in Warsaw, Poland and to Björn Gooßes at Killustrations.com for the creation of the great CD-artwork. We want to send out greetings to all our fans and friends and to those who haven’t listened to our stuff yet: check out our facebook page and listen to some of our brandnew songs there!
Horns up!
See ya!
Timm+MKS
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