Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Divine Wickedness With MATTHEW GREYWOLF From POWERWOLF

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Divine Wickedness With MATTHEW GREYWOLF From POWERWOLF · HEAVY Music Interviews

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  My name is Douck Maria. I'm the organ player in Paul Wolf. In
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  the meantime we were leased. I guess it's the ninth album, Wake Up
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  the Wicked in July, pure heavy metal music with church organ and theoretrical aspects.
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  I would say, beautiful. Thanks very much for joining us this evening.
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  Thank you, thank you, my pleasure. As you mentioned, Power
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  Boll do release the new album, Wake Up the Wicked on July the twenty
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  sixth. How you feel about it? You're you're excited about this one absolutely.
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  I mean, this is an album we just wrote when we came back
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  from the US tour, and we tried to deliver this atmosphere, this energy,
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  this power to the new album. And when we started with the songwriting,
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  the first song we wrote was Blessom with the Blade, and for us
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  it was a little bit like what are we doing here? Do we creating
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  a monster or something like that. We had this this feeling of this is
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  an album full of madness, metal and fun and something like that, and
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  this feeling existed for the whole songwriting process and even for the recording process.
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  I don't know, I never had that feeling before, because I mean we
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  had this pandemic situation when we wrote Call of the Wild, and then this
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  situation was more a feeling like now or never. We can only write new
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  songs because we weren't able to able to play live. And in this case,
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  we had the power from the life appearances, and we wrote that album
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  and we made a short break and then we played the summer festivals like Hell
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  Festival, Iron Maiden and so on, and then we came back and just
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  got some new energy from the audience and continued on the songwriting. And I
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  think you can hear that on the new album. Def sous a bit more
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  about the album from a musical point of view, and then what you've regde
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  for with it. I guess the new one is faster and more heavy.
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  It's always the same and never metal music, I guess, but in this
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  case it's it has more dynamic would I would say, as I mentioned already
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  called the Wild, it's still a strong album, but here and they're a
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  little bit, I guess, a little bit overloaded. So we decided to
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  let the song is more prief to give the guitars more power in some parts
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  of the songs and the other on the other hand, we had only the
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  fiano part like in fifty eighty nine. So we build up the song stepper
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  step to get this dynamic elements more and more in the music, and we
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  keep it a little bit fresher than the previous one. And we always tried
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  to keep the main story in the song, even a guitar solo, and
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  I'm super happy with the result in the end. And we worked with Huespundaprop,
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  the producer from the Netherlands the first time. He also did the mix
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  for this album, and I don't know, it's a little bit like a
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  family and we had this process, this discussion about what we want to have
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  for this album, quite in an early process and super part of the result.
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  Nice. Now you mentioned your previous album, So Wake Up a Wee
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  could follow this a highly successful twenty twenty one album called The World. So
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  how did the two albums differ from a musical point of view? Would you
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  say, I mean, we have our trademarks anyway, so but for example,
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  we had never sung before like fifteen eighty nine, or we had never
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  sung like Bargamore with this almost solo part of Attila. At the beginning,
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  we tried to have more details in within the songs. But I'm quite sure
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  if you if you show this record to a fan of having metal music or
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  to a powerful fan without that he knows that it's powerful, then probably he
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  will recognize this is powerful if you know what I mean. It's there are
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  so many thread backs in it and we want to keep it. But it's
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  still for me, this album is more different than Call of what it's It's
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  had just different approaches. Sins of the Seven Seas is different from from the
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  rhythm and everything, but in the end obvious it's powerful. However, how
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  the organ is playing, how we arrange things. Yeah, yeah, So
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  along those lines, my like, we mentioned that The Call of the World
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  was a very successful album for you, so was it temping? Was it
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  temping I guess to rehash that formula for Wake Up the Wicked? Or was
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  it important for you guys to make it different and make it stand alone.
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  We always want to make a standalone album, an outstanding album. The thing
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  is, we wrote so much songs all in our career, and of course
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  it's quite difficult to find a good starting point. And we are not a
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  band who is writing the songs, who write the songs during touring activities we
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  can because we are so focused on the live shows. But we always had
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  some melody, some ideas in mind, we reported them on the phone,
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  whatever, but then we focused. After the live season, we really focused,
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  like we are in a cave something like that. And then we try
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  to figure out what can we do next? And it's the first step is
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  always the most difficult part. But there's no master plan, like we should
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  sound like this, we show it sound completely different. It's more like,
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  let's write good songs and then everything happens. But it's not that easy.
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  We don't want to be in a sayings for example, a sing a long
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  song, but cheesy song. I would say, it's not that easy.
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  That you're sitting there and it's there, just like it's development and I don't
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  know, but we are never a master plan. How should how won't we
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  sound for the next album. It's it's development during the songwriting process. Mm
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  hmmm. And the album ipens with the song you spoke about before, Blessed
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  with the Blade, which is a powerful and engaging track that sets the town
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  well for the album. So is that the reason that song was chosen to
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  start up just because of its impact? Yes, Normally we started with songs
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  like Faster than the Flame Fire and Forgive and something like that. In this
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  case, we wrote the song very short one I guess, not not even
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  the third not even three minutes long, just like a like a storm,
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  like a like a hurricane, something like that, and we said, come
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  on, that's that's the point for the new album. The wolf is not
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  a bit tamer and no prisoners are taken here, something like that. And
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  the title like Lisson of the Plade, of course, is not to be
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  understood, to be understood metaphorically, and deals critically with religious matters. Not
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  like the song title could bring you to mind that we use a blade or
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  whatever, But we love that starting point, like whoo bam, that's it.
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  We start with the wicked. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Today you've
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  released this single fifteen ninety nine, which tells the story of the werewolf a
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  bad bug. So it's an interesting, interesting content. Mite. Tell us
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  a bit more about the song. Well, that is, it's really really
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  a horrible story about Peter's Dumb, a farmer from Badburg who was sentenced to
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  death in fifty eighty nine and died at the stake and was tortured terribly.
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  It was really you couldn't you can't say you couldn't show that in the video
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  is terrible. And we like stories like that. A mixture between folklorathology historical
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  documents. We found, for example, we found flyers released in Denmark and
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  UK there reported about this very famous German verble tries in these times, and
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  very often some outseters were considered to be like scapegoards or are guilty for something
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  what happened in these days. By the way, that was the time of
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  war, you know. So this was really a strange time, I guess.
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  And we just released the documentary about fifty eighty nine yesterday when someone of
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  the actors was telling about the Black Times, and I guess it was really
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  a plaque time with tortures and which trials and wherewoth tribes and so on,
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  and that it's like, yeah, perfect for problem. We are. We
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  are entertainers, yeah, but we want to tell exciting stories in our songs,
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  and we are super fascinated by the leg and like that of Peter Stunt,
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  in which superstition, anger and fear and e woven into and story,
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  you know, and that's the story about And we did a very ubdulant video,
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  which we did in so in Southampton or in so in the South of
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  England with a huge cast, great actors. So we really wanted to deliver
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  to that story. You know, it's it's the suffering of Peter Stump is
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  really you can really see that on the video, so that the song sort
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  of focuses more on the human aspect of the story rather than the than the
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  wals. Exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean we
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  were also and stead. We had this original customs on. We had this
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  strange shoes on. It was wet, it was cold, it was November.
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  We did it for one week with the team and I really felt this.
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  I really felt a little bit the situation like it was probably like in
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  the day and everyone was screaming to Competer stam burn him or something like that,
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  he is skidity whatever. That was an awesome experience we made there there.
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  You just gave me a ship of down my spae by just saying it.
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  Then sorry, he just gave me a ship down my spine. When
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  we signed that, just said it's it's yeah, it's undersaid. Even I
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  played this piano part, for example, I add this, I talked about
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  the dynamic in the songs, and we we raised the dynamic in fifty eighty
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  nine and the last preros, I dropped my piano, my burning piano,
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  like like the outbreak of whatever, like an explosion. I really felt the
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  situation and this probably that also innocent people has died back in the days,
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  that that was really strange feeling. Yeah, yeah, best she was now
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  fifteen ninety nine, is or even RelA so far from album? Might so?
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  Is that a good sonic representation of what do you expect from the whole
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  thing? I don't know. I guess this song is a little bit different
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  than the rest of the album, but we're gonna release other songs as well,
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  like Sins of the Seven Seas. For that video, we ended a
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  boat, a real ship, the Now Victoria, or so to speak,
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  a replica of the world famous Now Victoria. That was a boat that was
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  able to sail the whole world for the first time on the reflect marg Alant
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  back in the days and came back Normally the ships didn't come back. And
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  we did it on a on location as well as we did with fifty eighty
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  nine, because we want to deliver real cinematic aspects because we are we want
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  to show real live situation or reality, you know, not only AI or
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  Queen screen. That's that's huge effort for us, for the team, but
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  it's worth to show that and it delivers the atmosphere of the song as well.
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  Mm hmm. You mentioned this before a bit mate, but you once
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  again you who spend vander Brock as producers? So what is it? What's
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  so special about the sound that he brings to your music? You mean you
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  stun in poke or in general? Yeah, just in general? What what
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  he brings? Well, it's difficult to say. We always had the goal
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  was always a little bit for us not to sign like a typical German heavy
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  metal power matter band. I don't know what what you know, what I
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  mean, it's it's more like our sound was always a little bit influenced by
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  Swedish have metal music, a little bit more, a little bit gloomy,
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  a little bit i don't know, more aggressive and so on. That was
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  also the reason that we worked for the first records always in Sweden with the
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  unspoken and and at the fascination street studios and so on. But in the
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  end we found already a little bit our sounds and our style of music.
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  So we worked with you was already for the full time, I guess,
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  and he also knows what we want to have and it's it's a good combination
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  about a sound. Yeah, yeah, we went before that. This is
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  probably your life for all your tenth album that you've done, so a songwriters
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  has become easier or harder to sort of come up with fresh new materials.
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  Both it's more it's it's it's more difficult because you wrote a lot of songs
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  already. It's always very very difficult to write good neurance and we have always
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  high expectations to ourselves. That's that's the hardest part, our own expectations to
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  write really good songs, and we always want to write that songs what we
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  want to have. You know what I mean When when I'm listening to music,
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  I love a maiden and I love new songs, but I have to
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  love them then it's good, you know. It's it's the same thing when
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  we write your own songs. And on the other hand, it's not easier,
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  but it's the thing is we do it already for twenty years. That
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  means we are quite familiar with our instruments. We are able to play the
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  songs and you know what I mean, we have this background already in mind,
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  but it's not easy. Sometimes sounds of problems, songs of problems,
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  sounds a liberate easy, like you can do it with a formula or something
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  like that. But no, not, it's not possible. It's always a
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  white paper, there's nothing on it, and we have to start it from
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  the first note and then oh shit, I need eleven other other songs or
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  whatever. It's not easy. It's not easy, but it's fun. It's
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  passion. Don't get me wrong. It's it's pure passion. It's not the
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  way like, oh I have to go to work, shit, I have
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  to write news songs. It's more like our high expectations and we're grateful that
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  we can do that. It's our art. That's that's very important. Yeah.
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  Now you've also announced the North American show with Unleash the Archers. It
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  kicks off on August of twenty ninethe in La. So tell us about that
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  run shows. The thing is, the first show we played is in La
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  August twenty nine and it's the world premiere of Wake Up to Wicket and it's
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  exciting, you know, it's it's under Hollywood Palladium. It's a beautiful venue.
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  It's I mean, Jimi Hendrix was playing there. It's an awesome venue.
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  And then the kick off for the TROE is in la I mean,
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  I would lie if I say it's a normal show. It's not. And
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  I'm super excited about the fact that we're going to play for our songs for
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  the first time live and we are super happy with the result. But we
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  don't have any reactions so far beside of fifty eighty nine on the video.
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  But the truth is on stage. That means when we're going to play the
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  new song's live and then we get to reactions, that is always very excited,
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  exciting. I'm nervous a little bit, to be honest, and that's
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  kinda say, yeah, that's very but you're looking forward to playing that show
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  anyway, And we don't have any summer festivals this year because we are focused
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  completely on our two activities. We're going to play the biggest tour in Europe
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  so far with huge venues and they're all ready sold out here. But it
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  feels a little bit strange not to go on stage in summer for the first
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  time for years, and that makes me a little bit more nervous because it
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  takes long to be on stage again. Is there any plans to bring it
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  over to Australia at all? There are plans. There are plans. I
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  can't tell you exactly when, but they are a concrete, detailed plans to
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  come over for the first time. And I'm looking forward to, yeah,
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  to play for the first time for you guys over there. Fantastic. All
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  right, well, thanks very much for your time. Makes me an absolute
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  pleasure speaking with you. Wake Up the Wind is out twenty sixth. The
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  single fifteen eighty nine is out now when it's a cracker, and make sure
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  you check out the video. But in the meantime, best of black with
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  everything mate, and we'll see you when you come earlier. Yeah, thank
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  you. I'm looking forward to playing that show for you. Sails in the
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  Wind and the Word of God in mind, failed by the sin, left
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  of Moroso behind, blessed by the Crown in the shore side, and we
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  run trails in the ways. By the cross we are alive, christ in
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  us the promacy we are line rests it. Then we are Naca Crown.
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  We find the Bible busycle sad as the lorry heroesommer, story, stray,
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  stay the father away us listen any day turns in us a sign west with
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  the tides and the Bible up the mast on what we say in under heavensmer
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  cast, pray to the Lord and the guiding storm bilast with belief in the
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  force of the sacraments. We bring the storm, with the faith in the
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  promises. Joseph in the Conquest is so faty demys We said on a frost,
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  he said, last worry, hero summer, stry the south side,
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  stay, stay the Father away. It's as personetics as praise, sure,
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  raise the sty Why don't Christal Doss raise her father on the race? He
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  says on the propos speaker hopeople snobby garden bats, the dorscory bo boby door,
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  snobby garden bos the noscory book say s bringers a surday seven for aday,
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  seven centers spring uselthing fonny ka saa doesn't tell us send a center phocacy