Harmony Dies are intense, sweaty and powerful
H.D. is an Death Metal band and was founded in 1992 in Berlin (Germany). Since that time we work in the Underground to become one of the most brutal bands here in germany. The first two Demos came out in ’92, “living corpses” and “slope”. After that the split single with Krisiun from Brasil were released by Morbid Rec. Next there came the Demo “third output ...” and the “promo ’95” . After that there was the time for an selfproduced MCD called “slaughtered”, this one brings a lot of good reaction from the listeners and the Zines. After that Harmony Dies released their CD “don’t trust” on Ars Metalli. This is a piece of brutality you can’t afford to miss. Actualy H.D. just released their new material, recorded once again in Soundforge Studio with Andreas Hilbert. ’ I’ll be your Master’ brings again brutal Death Metal into your CD player.
We released a Live Video in April `01 and record Tracks for the Split 7” “hybrid manifestation” with the guys from Spawn.
Actualy we are in progress writing stuff for a new release on Morbid Records in march/april 2003. Recording session planned for the end of the year. The line up of the Band changes sometimes but never lose the way of brutal music.
H.D. is a live band and tries to play as oft as can, we already did some shows with Vader, Deeds of Flesh, In Flames, Dying Fetus, Deranged, Krisiun, The Haunted, Incantation, Mayhem and a lot of others.
interview with Kai on 26-11-2003
Please give us a short introduction of yourself?
Harmony Dies comes from berlin /germany, and started in 1992. Over the years we did some recordings and try to play live as much as can. the actual line up is Drums - Torsten, Vocals - Chris Carl, Bass - Marco Obermeyer, Guitar - Kai Mertens, Guitar - Ulf Binder .
Why did you choose the bandname? Not afraid to limited yourself musically?
This lays long time ago young guys choose a name, and i still like this name, and the thing i like is that you can not only see the musical side of the name.
So we feel not that limited, we feel free to express our feelings in death metal music.
How did you came in contact with Krisiun for the split? Proud of that seeing their status now? Still left a copy left?
I cannot realy say that we do something for that, Morbid Rec. did this split with the brasilian label Rotherness Rec. and we had the luck to ’release’ our thirst 7’ on a label, so we take the chance, and after the rise of Krisiun it helps us a lot too.
But we have no copies left of them, they all were sold long time before the people start their interest in that.
Do you prefer vinyl or CDs? A vinyl collector yourself? Having the memory of certain scratches in some songs? Which ones?
I started with vinyl , yeah and i still like it, but i’m more interested in the practical Thing and therefore i prefer the cd, kill me that’s the truth. But in the end the most important thing is the music on the ..., so let there be any medium that will come.
Being a live band how difficult is it to catch that feeling on tape? Satisfied with your recordings? Ever though of doing all your albums live?
It’s impossible, i think that it should be divided, you can try to bring the live feeling on cd, but it never realy works, always something will be missing, so we try to concentrate on the thing we already do, when we record, we wanna do a cool death metal recording, with a good sound, catchy songs and a wall of sound, when we go on stage, we wanna make an intense, sweaty and powerful gig, i think that is what we get the most fun .
Yeah i still like all the recordings, of course i know that they are not perfect, but i try to learn and make it different next time.
We don’t wanna make a real liveCD, we put some livetracks on a split with Fleshart from greece, and we already did an Live VideoTape, for the people who interested, we don’t wanna cheat people with a live recording just on a cd. Livemusic should have both, music and visual impression.
Why should we see you live? And how do you get as many people attend the show?
What can i say, just give us a try to set the fire in your ass and let’s have a loud and intense banging party.
Describe the feeling you get after a show? Mentally as physically?
Physically, we are down, caused by banging and moshing around.
Mentally we feel great after a good show, and the feeling grows when we get some feedback from the crowd, thats the important thing if the people get into our stuff and give some noise and sweat back, we feel incentived and try to bring out more power.
Ever did a show for non interested audience? Still doing your effort to attract attention? Remember such show?
Yeah remember shows where the crowd was realy not interested only some guys liked it, but we do our thing cause if there is only one guy who have fun or maybe hundreds, it doesnt matter, we come to show what we are, and try to give the same intensity to our show. but ok it’s much easier when you get some cool feedback.
Do you visit shows yourself as a fan? Which bands do you enjoy? Watching with a beer or diving in the pit?
Yeah i try to get as much gigs as possible (main reason like everywhere, the money set the limits), i prefer underground gigs, there you get the chance to be surprised by a cool new or for me unknown band. and i confess that i’m not that guy who runs amok every show i visit, but i give my respect if i like the gig.
Personaly i like Death Metal stuff, more the american way than the swedish style, but i like Metal nearly all forms of them, if it’s well played and you feel the soul of the music.
Name your favorit export beer because german one is not the best?
Man can’t tell about that, i never drink any alcohol, but i can say that the other guys drink, more they booze, and they think german beer is good ;-), but then i think they like czech beer.
Do you have a favorit snack to go along with the beer?
maybe italian or chines food
How do you overcome a major hangover? Maybe some tips for starters?
as is seen by the guys, drink more or live with it (an ironic sight from an non alcoholic ;-))
How long are you making music? Having musical training? Still practicing every week?
I try to make music 1990, joined HD 1992 till now, i learned the shit all by myself beside my work , nearly the same is with the others , torsten our drummer started with some lessions , but in major we’re learned our intsruments in self studies.
Yeah of course we practice 2 times a week together, the whole set and checking new stuff, or jamming. And everybody play at home too.
What is the fun of writing your own tunes? And how difficult is it to stay original?
The fun is to see the song growing, and feel that something is in this song that you wanna play, and play again. if we write an song , we don’t look if it’s special or something new, we try to bring our ideas together and let the song running it’s ways.
Having some advice for people who want to start playing in a band?
That is a hard thing, if you believe in music buy good instruments of you will buy twice, and don’t believe all the things people say, critics should be welcome and never forget when you started making music.
Ever being screwed by some record label, gig organizer etc? How did you dealt with it? Think you make that mistake again?
Yeah i think every band had these problems, after some experience it is a little bit easier to manage this shit but i will not shut down all new contacts , cause there could be an Ripper, i believe there a lot of cool and good people out there. don’t care about the scum, the’re not worthy.
What is the best thing you have invented in your life?
The best thing in my life is that I never go the normal way of life, I can express myself in music together with some cool friends thats one cool thing in my life.
Is there something important thought you wanna share with the world?
Do not trust anything from comercial media, question life, believe in your dreams
Last rites?
Thanx for the inti, Twan, it’s cool that you support us, big hello to the readers and thanx for your patience and time.
