Updated: 06/17/04

Endstille from Germany play some of the heaviest blackened death metal your ears will ever bleed to. Thanks to the Twilight-Vertrieb label, the sonic art of Endstille is now ready to blast through the States with a vengeance! Read on as we trade artillery fire with mighty Endstille…

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Endstille, and how long the band has been together.
M.D.: The band was formed in December 2000. We play the ugliest aggressive Black-Metal. Iblis (Vox) and Cruor (Bass) were the founding members of Octoria, L.Wachtfels (Guitar) and me (Drums) founded TAUTHR, a German Death-Black-Metal legend, in 1991. Today the whole Black-Metal Scene here in Europe is contaminated by keyboards and synthetic sounds. It seemed that the knowledge of harmony, atmosphere and aggression as a unit was lost. We wanted to show that you can play Black-Metal with all of these. Our music has the power of heavy ship artillery and the fire speed of a MG42. We are all in Black-Metal since the early nineties and knew the rise and fall of this genre. We are too old to play such kind of Barbie-Vampire-Metal.

Where is the band from and what is the Black Metal scene like there?
M.D.: We are from Kiel in northern Germany. It’s directly to the Baltic Sea. Here in northern Germany we have some Black-Metal Bands (AEBA, Drautran, Frost), but they play a very different style of Black-Metal than we do. We don’t belong to this scene, cause we do our own thing and they make theirs. The scene here is dominated by the gothic style. We don’t like this...

What inspires you to write such symphonies of utter destruction, both lyrically and musically?
L.Wachtfels: My daily life... and some bands like Forgotten Woods, Katatonia and the old German thrash-trinity Sodom, Destruction, Kreator. Another reason for us to create such kind of mayhemic noise was to transform the ugliness of war, for example the second great war into a pure form of ugliest aggressive Black-Metal. A soundtrack for the final silence...

If you had to describe your music to a kindly old church lady, what wondrous things would you say?
L.Wachtfels: "Geh kacken!"

How influenced are you by the old style of Black Metal such as Burzum and Mayhem?
M.D.: We are not influenced by Mayhem, but the atmosphere of Burzum inspired us a little. He created a big wall of sound that is very minimalistic and cold. But I think that our influence is more the old Thrash-Metal sound, and the old Black-Metal stuff like Gorgoroth and Darkthrone. They have an own style, and we have too.

How do you think your sound has grown and developed over time?
M.D.: Our first album (Operation Wintersturm) was like a thunderstorm, and it sounds like that. It was our first declaration of war to the scene. The second album (Frühlingserwachen) sounds more homogenic. Its warmer and not so cold like Operation Wintersturm. It’s very fat and wide. Dominanz sounds like a big tank that comes over you with full speed. The sound is very compact and like a hit in the face. It’s the pure aggression!

In your band photo on your press bio, two members have corpse paint on and the other two do not. Does this spell dissention within the ranks?
L.Wachtfels: This is not a sign of “Wehrkaftzersetzung”, but a sign of the different influences of all members of ENDSTILLE...

Why do you write Fuck Hell! on your CD? That’s a weird thing to write on a Black Metal CD!
L.Wachtfels: If you believe in God – Fuck heaven! Satan is a good comrade of us and from time to time we drink some beer but never-the-less we feel free to say “Fuck Hell!!!” We are at war with all!

What do you mean by Conquest Is Atheism?
L.Wachtfels: The real reason for war is victory and to enlarge the sphere of influence. Not to spread the word of any gods.

Tell me about your support on the campaign against triggers?
M.D.: Koldbrann from Norway started the campaign. They are good comrades of us; we wanted to support this campaign. The most Black and Death-Metal bands have this clinical drum sound. This madness began in the early nineties. Its sounds too powerful and not honest. You can get a good powerful drum sound without triggers. This is the job of the sound engineer. And JAK the Black-Metal-Punk whore has given us a fat powerful drum sound. He knows how it has to sound! Triggers are the same shit like keyboards and all the other synthetic stuff. On the old Hellhammer album they titled the drummer and his drums as "hellish crossfire on wooden coffins" and not "hellish crossfire on digital or plastic coffins!" Our message: Never trust the digital shit!

Have you ever played here in the States or do you plan to do so in the future?
M.D.: We have never played in the states. For us its too expensive to come to the States, but if there is someone who will finance our conquering through the states we will come and burn down the states.... ups...burn down the stage. We don’t want to earn money, but we won’t pay any money just to give a concert either. Organize some gigs and we will come on the cheapest way to you.

What is a live Endstille show like for those of us who have yet to see you play?
M.D.: It’s a total fucking Black-Thrash-Metal show. We don’t need fire and candles, ´cause we are the fire! When we are on stage Iblis mutates to the almighty beast and thrashes everything down. Stage divers are welcome! But beware of his spikes...

Do you agree with me that Britney Spears is the goddess of all mankind?
L.Wachtfels: Britney Spears is an artificial chart-whore with popstar-tits. But I think she’s shaved, clean and ready. Das alte Moped!

What are the future plans for Endstille?
M.D.: We are planning to take the world. Next year we want to release our 4th full-length album. Nobody knows how it will sound, but it will be aggressive. Very aggressive.

Any messages for the metal hordes here in the Los Angeles/Orange County area?
L.Wachtfels: "Nicht wenn man den Glauben nicht hat, kann man nicht fahren!" (Rudi Radünz, Eggebek 1942)
M.D.: If you guys want the total Black-Metal warfare visit our homepage (www.endstille.com) and check out our sound files. I think you’ll love them. Hope to see you somewhere in the future and maybe in the states. Good night and fuck hell!!!

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