Travel bans, concert cancellations - the Corona crisis caught many bands and organisers by surprise. Even the Berlin stoner rockers can tell you a thing or two about it, because they would have actually been on a world tour in spring. Guitarist and singer Christoph "Lupus" Lindemann explains how the experiences of the lockdown resulted in an unplanned album with unusually calm tones
eclipsed: Can your new album "The Isolation Tapes" be seen as a kind of sound document of your forced break?
Lupus: Exactly. We were in the middle of a big tour when it was suddenly over for everybody on March 18th. We had to break off, we came back from France to Berlin and then we got bored relatively quickly. Shortly before the lockdown we did a stream concert, the opener "The Lonely Child" came from there. And the idea to just keep on making music together.
eclipsed: How did the recordings turn out?
The Stoner psychedelic rockers Kadavar set out with "For The Dead Travel Fast" to teach their fans fear. So they went especially to Romania to have themselves photographed for the album cover in front of the "Dracula Castle" and used old scary films as sources of inspiration for music and lyrics. eclipsed spoke with drummer Christoph "Tiger" Bartelt about the latest developments in the group.
On October 11th the Berlin band Kadavar will release their fifth album "For The Dead Travel Fast" - the second, which was created in the band's own studio. The guitarist, singer and synthesizer player Christoph "Lupus" Lindemann explained to eclipsed why he is so proud of the result like no other album before.
eclipsed: Are you finally completely satisfied with a Kadavar album?
Christoph "Lupus" Lindemann: Finally I can get rid of the old musician's saying: It's the best album we've ever made!
eclipsed: No one else would I really take that statement for granted, but you were rather reticent with your hymns of praise, especially on "Berlin" (2015) and "Rough Times" (2017).
"For Kadaver, "Rough Times" will always remain the album that was created during the construction of their new rehearsal room, which also functions as a recording studio. Not everything is ready yet in the backyard area in the direct vicinity of several car repair shops. And so it is not surprising that even at the edges and outermost corners of "Rough Times", which is not stingy with its charms, some things are unfinished.
Perhaps the power trio Kadavar will and should always remain in this state. The Berliners of choice with origins in Westphalia, Thuringia and France have meanwhile arrived all over the Neukölln district and offer their media guests plenty of liquid food for album presentations.
Already the initial guitar sounds in the opener "Lord Of The Sky" show that Kadavar's third studio work is a completely different beast than his two predecessors. The sound is really amazing and since Black Sabbath's "13" there hasn't been a heavier heavy rock statement than "Berlin".
There are few German cities for whom it would be a matter of course if three "newcomers" confessed their new home with an album title. In the Berlin crucible, however, this is a relatively normal process. "About ten years ago we moved to the capital from all over Germany because we simply wanted to get out of the province and Berlin appeared to us as our natural new territory," recalls Christoph Bartelt. "Here we found each other and developed something together. We are all fundamentally different, but that is normal in a city like Berlin. In this respect, I believe the city has left its mark on us. So it goes without saying that the album should be named after her."
KADAVAR - Last Living Dinosaur (4:04)
Album: Berlin (2015)
Label/Distribution: Nuclear Blast/Warner
www.nuclearblast.de
The riff monsters from Berlin have set a heavy rock monument with this disc of their adopted city. From now on all Black Sabbath epigones of this world will have to be measured against this album. And at the same time Kadavar have set the bar damn high for their future studio works.
On 21.08. "Berlin", the new album of the German classic rockers Kadavar, will be released via Nuclear Blast. Here you will find a foretaste worth seeing and hearing...
