Things in Germany's scene are going well. Let's ask Gorilla Monsoon's guys to learn about the rock climate...

Your new album ''Damage King'', is truly fantastic! I bet you are satisfied with it?
Chris: As far as I'm concerned, I'm very satisfied with it. Not only the songs itself, even the artwork, the production, the reviews…
Drumster: Especially the reviews. During the recordings I knew that this will become a fucking good record, but I never expected such good reactions.

How has it been received so far? Is it selling good?
Chris: Don't know…
Drumster: We don't have any figures yet.

Personally, I think your strength lies in the perfect mix of styles. How do you come up with your songs?
Chris: Every song crawls out of the dust and blood of our own chamber of torture (formerly known as rehearsal-room), where we all live and let die. There we rape and abuse every sort of musical style we can get, rip and tear them and mix them together again in cruel unspeakable genetic experiments. Finally we "test" the new songs, feeding the rats and gorillas with them. If the gorilla survives, the song is done and the monster comes alive…

After your 2003 effort, ''Demonstrating Heaviness'', it got kinda quiet... What happened with the band after that release?
Drumster: That was a point where we had to define us in a new way. Rumors where around, the band wouldn't exist anymore. But with this record we stroke back! Phil and Chris joined the band. To show that we are still alive we went on the road with Cause For Effect from Finland. We played awesome shows at the Stoned From The Underground and the Up From The Ground festival. Step by step the Gorilla Monsoon flags on the map became more and more. We did what we always did. We played as much as possible. So it was not quiet at all. But it was a kind of a new beginning.

Since the forming of Gorilla Monsoon in 2001, there have been a number of member changes... The current line-up is clearly the strongest one to date?
Drumster: Yes, for sure! Numbers of concerts and parties brought us closer together. Everybody has got his role in the band. Jack is the creative head, Chris the social part, Phil the one who repairs everything with a match and myself is the organizing one. Also when we write songs, everyone knows what the intention of the other is. It is like a band should be. There are disputes also, but every dispute makes the song better (often).

What are the bands own personal musical favorites?
Chris: DOOM of course! SAINT VITUS above all! Groovy death-metal like BOLT THROWER and BENEDICTION. Obscure '80s US-Metal-Bands like SLAUGHTER XTROYS and TYRANT.
Drumster: PANTERA, KYUSS, DOWN!!!!!!!!!, Rock'n'Roll like Danko Jones…

There's quite many really good German heavy rock bands out there... Is the musical climate in Germany good?
Chris: It depends on what you would describe as good climate. I think, metal has a long tradition in germany, so there are a lot of musical influences. And there are a lot of record labels, so you will always get new stuff. That's good. But on the other side, to my mind, metal still is stigmatized as evil in the media (and yeah, they are so damned right, hargharg) and so you won't rarely find metal played by radiostation (except a few independent stations) or on TV. But indeed, there really are some very good metal bands from Germany, so the climate can't be too bad…
Drumster: Very much bands are touring through Germany. So there is the danger of overfeeding the people with music. And sometimes I got the feeling, that the musicbusiness becomes like the real world: Very much undergroundbands and very much big bands, but there is nothing in between. The climate, I only can speak about the underground, especially in the doom/stoner/rock'n'roll-scene is still good. And as long as we see music as art and not as business, it will stay in a good way.

I read on your site that you're invited to play at festivals in and outside Germany. This usually is a sign of a band doing really good... Are you? Do you see yourselves as ''well known''?
Chris: Don't know… But sometimes I'm surprised as I realized that a lot of people know the name of the band…

What are the bands plans for the near future?
Chris: Be on stage!!!
Drumster: Rrrrrrrright!

THANX!


www.www.gorilla-monsoon.de

by [ JoseElArquitecto ]