Fascists, regimes and state sponsored genocide and it isn’t even 1939. 2025 is currently in a scary place and it has been mentally draining for most of us that are watching this all going down. Music has been a salvation and politically charged tracks an anathema to throw our ire and rage into. SchkeuditzerKreuz have released the single “Sirens Of Death” from the new album Swan Grinder that drops at the end of August.
Photo by PHOTOYUNIST
Beware the dogs of war and if you don’t like harsh rhythms and screaming electronics, only matched by the vociferous bald man, KierenHills, then maybe sit this one out. The beats are the rattling of the machine guns and the klaxons herald in the injustice of conflict on huge scales. ‘We have always been at war‘ is the observation, which is carried through in the amazing video, that over the last hundred years the world has seen so much unrest and the cycle is continuing.
For those that say music should not be political, you can renounce any alternative ties you have and then fuck off with the Nazi scum. There is no middle ground and this world needs voices of dissent. Hills is one of those genuine people that feels everything and in true punk style, tells it like it is. Previous Schkeuditzer Kreuz music has been more like blunt force trauma, but this single is more like cold fuelled angst, funnelled into a controlled tsunami… powerful and undeniable in its fury. “Sirens Of Death” is the industrial synth d-beat we need and Schkeuditzer Kreuz delivers.
We are going to touch the dark musical mire that is the harsh, ambient electronics of German based VERFÜHRERVERGELTER, in the new EP From the Void: Silicon Signals to a Dead Brain.
“Aschewüste” is the ash desert and that wasteland is present in your ears. Abrasive and sand blasted by storms, echoing with the past where something abominable happened. The looping electronics grate and gouge at your psyche. Next is the lurking “Deathpile,” which slowly consumes the will to live and the Reaper could be knocking on that door. The music vibrates and rolls with the death throes, in anticipation of a painful cellular end. Starting to to get saggy skin due to a lack of collagen? No worries for there is a “Siliciumsale,” and in truth I involuntarily shivered a little as it has a sharp cruelty to the tone. Behold the unbridled electric guitar as it brings you into the “Untitled Abstract Void.” Shards of light try to penetrate but this is pure darkness that will break the mind of the strongest if you ponder it too long. A yawning abyss of terror echoing the fear endlessly. Maybe there is nothing more terrifying than the thought of never reaching a weekend, perpetual groundhog day for the whole week, over and over again. “Bonus: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Monday Tuesday…..” drones on without joy or meaning, only with the intense ticking letting you know that there is no rest.
What does it all mean? Hmmm, I might take a guess that this could be about a body on life support. The brain no longer present but the nerves keep trying to contact central control with no response. VERFÜHRERVERGELTER has unleashed another release of infernal doom that can drag its cold fingers and nails across your soul and make you ponder From the Void: Silicon Signals to a Dead Brain.
On the day of his birthday, SebastianSünkler released the single “Bohdi” with his main industrial project, STAHLSCHLAG. The German noise master never fails to amaze with how productive he is, and before we know it, the new full-length album will be upon us.
Become one with the drone of “Bohdi” as STAHLSCHLAG take you into another realm, outside of your being, to where celestial souls transverse the stars, god like, as the rhythms continuously make you aware of your own heartbeat. The combination of luminous and mystical vocals with noise is perfection. The second track, “SriStuti,” continues this journey, with more purpose, demanding your attention be completely focused on the fragging beats while a winding synth line wanders though.
The maestro of power noise keeps his sound fresh whilst plumbing the depth of your spiritual psyche, pulling on ancient tendrils within our genetics. With the brilliance of “Bohdi,” we await the album and wish Sünkler another wonderful year making music around the sun.
Fredrik Keith Croona, Mathias Back and Anders Ström are the electronic triumvirate that make up Swedish aggrotech group, AgainstI. This is a relatively new project, where they have married Croona’s tortured vocals with some scintillating synth work, which culminated with the debut album, CarnivalOfExcess, plus a new single, “I Am The Way,” that is not so subtly a sledge hammer preview of the next album, threatening us on the horizon. So, it seems no better time than now to speak to lead singer FredrikKeithCroona about…well…all of this!
Welcome Fredrik Keith Croona to the tea rooms of the Onyx, where cake and coffee are compulsory.
Fredrik, you hail from Sweden, so we are wondering what the industrial scene is like there and how you found your way into it?
Thank you for the warm welcome! The industrial scene is well, different here, I feel like the most clubs either focus on old school ebm and or synthpop here in Sweden, and or goth/darkwave. But in all honesty you are asking the wrong guy here, since I am mostly a metal head myself and rarely go out hahaha. But to answer your question, I think the alternative scene in Sweden is doing ok, there seems to be a lot of stuff going on.
How supportive of local artists is it there?
Now that is a hard question to answer, it all comes down to what genre you play I guess. I don’t believe Against I has a big fan base and support in Sweden, but of course there are a few. Then again I know of other Swedish local artists that have a huge fan base here. So I guess it depends on the band.
What acts or musicians influenced you in the beginning?
The first ever artist that inspired me to become a vocalist was Pantera and Philip Anselmo, I just loved the music and diversity in Phil’s voice. When I found the industrial music scene it was God Module, Grendel and Suicide Commando. I think similar to a lot of dark electro/aggrotech acts tbh.
Who floats your boat now?
Haha it all depends on my mood! Everything from “Scooter” to say “In Flames” or “Night Rage”. But my latest find was “Orbit Culture” a amazing metal band from Sweden which I had the pleasure of seeing live a few months ago.
Fredrik, you are one of the founding members of Brutal Resonance, the industrial reviewing powerhouse. Do you think that experience made you more critical or aware of the sort of music you were making?
Well, I had a small part of its start up , yes. But Patrik Lindström was the mastermind behind the zine. I don’t think so to be honest. Always been trying to do what I like and experiment from time to time, but I always feel like I end up doing the same thing kinda hahaha. I’m a one trick pony it seems.
Even you, yourself, have mentioned that you are in a lot of different projects. For those unfamiliar, how many are you involved with and which are your main ones?
If we are talking active projects as of this moment , then they are the following “Feeding Upon,” “Against I” or “Curse of Eibon” . There are quite a few more but none that are making any music at this moment . Main one is Against I which I am constantly writing for together with Mathias and Anders.
Most people are familiar with Menschdefekt and your other project, Cynical Existence. This brings us to your current project, Against I, with fellow Cynic, Anders Ström. Mathias Back is yet another member, so how did the band come together?
To answer that we have to rewind back into 2020 when I started up “Curse of Eibon” and that’s when I found Martin who plays guitar and writes most of the music for that band, and through the same forum I found Mathias who can play bass and guitar. And together with Anders the four of us founded that band. From there we found out that all of us work very well together and we have a creative drive. And the diversity was just perfect for Against I.
First was the EP, O.M.G, that stands for Obscene Morbid Gore which was on the label Insane Records and featured the single “Scum.” How important was getting this EP out there?
If I could I would release something every month, but I think ppl would be fed up with me also I doubt Adovxya would want to release my stuff every month haha. So , naturally it was important to release the EP to get something released. IR was good to us , but sadly we had to split ways after the release.
The EP was followed up by the juggernaut debut full length album “Carnival Of Excess” out on Advoxya Records. Can you tell a bit more about the premise behind album?
“Carnival of Excess” was a bit of a roller coaster, because all songs stem from my mind and experience and its kinda dark. Its all a big experiment you could say, a bit of a rider on a theme park with different styles, moods etc. For me the first album is always a experiment to see which direction to go after that, you know?
Again there are a couple of remixes by Miss Suicide and Teknovore. How important for you is it to have guest remixes and am I correct in sensing George of Teknovore and yourself kind of see each other as brothers?
It’s not super important, but more fun to see what others will do with your songs. What kind of spin they would put on it. Well, since we are both straight and married loves was already taken, so next best things would be brothers. I’m kidding of course! But in all seriousness, I’ve known George since about 2009 and I hold him in such high regards because he’s one of the nicest and most talented people I know. And every time we work together everything just work, you know?
Do you have a particular track off the album that is a favourite or really stands out for you as the core sound of Against I?
“Fleshride” is probably my favorite of the album, it has a good drive in it. And I would say it has that core sound that we have on that album.
You just dropped the latest single “I Am The Way”, so can you tell us what it all about?
“I Am The Way” is the perfect way to showcase what the new album from Against I will sound like and the direction we are moving. It’s more aggressive and in your face .
I want to touch on a compilation you were heavily involved in and very close to your heart. You lost your father to cancer (fuck cancer), and you brought together 23 musicians, each donating a track, where the money collected goes towards cancer research, with the combined help of Advoxya Records and Twisted Flesh Recordings. Can you please tell us how you orchestrated this mammoth task?
“A cure for darkness” is something I hold very close to exact the reason you wrote above. And when my father passed, I wanted to do something to help others who are battling and or know someone who is battling cancer. And an idea was to try and bring together some amazing bands and people to help out and create something amazing. All all praise should go to the artists and supporters and not me.
How much do you appreciate the musicians and labels championing your cause which touches everyone?
As cliché as it sounds, words can’t be written to say that. All people who are have helped are amazing and only earns the highest of praise from me.
Do you think you might make it a regular thing to release these compilations against cancer as well as to remember the victims and those affected by this blight?
Nah, don’t think so. If ppl wanted more then for sure, but I just want to focus on my music. It’s all I care about at the moment.
As you are constantly creating music, what is next for Fredrik Croona?
To create more music and evolve and move forward. I don’t want to release the same album every time. Then there is no point in making music. I have a job that earns me money, music is what I write for fun. The moment I get tired of making music, I will just call it quits. Simple as that.
Bats or no bats in the belfry, we wish you all the luck in everything you do.
Thank you so much, and I hope my answers has been satisfying.
Mmmmm, from somewhere in New South Wales, there is a man called Dan, though he might be an alien, however, still Australian (actually he’s from West Wyalong, which I had to look up to see where is was). Now Dan has a noise project called DEATHCOMET,and the most current release is DEATHCOMET 14…. yarp, so there is a lot more of where that comes from.
Like all noise music, a lot of this is going to feel like it’s shredding your ears off and brutalising all your senses all at the same time. It tastes of metal, prickles the skin, and smells of sulphur as we journey with the DEATHCOMET, while he decimates pedals “and flangers to kill“.
Even in these buzzing, throbbing, and most possibly sanguinary soundscapes, you can hear bleeding through vignettes of tunes in the miasma if you listen carefully. The final track, “in the lair of the satanic worms” brings the album full circle.
Honestly, who does not love satanic worms, skulls, and aliens?! To quote the man himself….
‘DEATHCOMET plays unholy space metal exclusively – cosmic sonic terror via electric guitar and fx pedals – “it’s like being probed in both ears by aliens with power drills!“‘
Really could say much better myself other than saying death by pedal… wwwoooaaahh! DEATHCOMET 14 is here, and your ears are not safe, but then that’s half the fun and amazing industrial noise all done on guitar.
[gelöscht], more or less means ‘erased‘ in German, and it is also the debut industrial harsh noise album for VERFÜHRERVERGELTER, also known as David Munster. The album has been released digitally on the label Produkt 42 and as a self release on tape.
Now here’s the challenge…. every track on the album is called [gelöscht] except for “Intro“. I’ll let that sink in. It is slightly terrifying territory for a reviewer where the only difference is the timing of each track.
Sooooo, this is a completely instrumental album, and I think it would be an injustice to break it down, so I’m going to give you the overall gist. My thinking is that if all the tracks are called [gelöscht], then this should be listened to in one sitting.
Whoever David Munster of VERFÜHRERVERGELTER is, they have come from the black metal scene it feels like. That aspect is like a morass of inky darkness that swirls under all, constantly threatening to take over and devour all light, yet never succeeds. The electronics are the most vocal, often glitching with static. They can be like starlight one moment and be screaming blue murder the next.
There are huge soundscapes that want to swallow you whole with their vastness as they drone on. Others are claustrophobic, filing every space with noise, a horror movie. The electronics oscillate, quiver, and even sometimes bear down heavy, while the nightmarish beings in the aether converse with you in their own language.
On the Bandcamp page, VERFÜHRERVERGELTER is described as death industrial noise, which I think sums up his style quite well. People who like harsh industrial noise are going to appreciate the effort and mastery that has gone into the creation of this album. Just listening to this makes me think it would be pretty amazing to see live. VERFÜHRERVERGELTER is giving you [gelöscht], and if you don’t get it…. that’s okay as well.
Well, if you are going to do Christmas music then may you Have Yourself ANoisy Little Christmas care of STAHLSCHLAG. Sometimes I think German, Sebastian Sünkler is half man, half machine, the way he puts out music and tapping that vein of cybernetics, the noise master has graced us with an EP of Christmas covers.
Honestly, you really haven’t lived until you have heard a rhythmic noise version of “Jingle Bells“, which does seem to be a firm favourite with people, as Sünkler ramps up a screaming sleigh ride to get the heart pumping, in a most delightful way, hey! For me, however, my interest lay with the rendition of “Carol Of The Bells“, which is a beautiful track, even if it is a Christmas tradition and one can appreciate the intricacies of its splendour. Could Sünkler really pull this off? Let’s just say that I was not disappointed. Like razor edged snowflakes, perfect in their icy glory, both beautiful and full of cold fury.
There are also covers of “WhiteChristmas” (no Bing Crosby in the mix), “Frosty The Snowman” and “Santa ClausIs Coming To Town“. If you don’t particularly like the Chrimbo music but want to kind of participate, then this is perfect. Christmas cyber party…. then you can’t go past STAHLSCHLAG’s, HaveYourself A Noisy Little Christmas.
November 21st saw the Norwegian’s Dødsmaskin, release their sixth full length out on the ant-zen label. Based on the master and slave morality theory of Friedrich Nietzsche, the album is divided into two parts to represent both sides.
Have you ever started to listen to an album and had to instantly stop doing anything else, stunned into silence? Rare occurrence, but I found myself slightly slack jawed as I played the first 30 seconds to “Trusselbilde“, suddenly turning off the music thinking, ‘I must play this when I am alone, so I can turn it up as loud as I want!‘.
Okay, almost every track has a Norwegian title, but I don’t see the point of looking up the meanings, as the music will speak for itself and it most definitely does. “Trusselbilde” is the single and it is brutal. Super heavy rhythmic noise and yet there are these points of synth lightness where you can ‘breath’. It doesn’t seem possible and yet the noise grows and consumes, until it’s abrupt end. The sludgy “Døpt IBensin, Renset Med Ild“, feels ancient and full of portent, while “Imperium” is on the move, ready to mow you down. There is the perceived horns of war, hammers of destruction and waves of domination.
This is just the first three tracks off the album and that quality is throughout the whole release. Dødsmaskin are known for their crunchy rhythmic noise, but this release seems heavier and even darker, intent on searing your nerves and probing your brain with a javelin. If harsh rhythmic noise is your thing, then you must listen to Dødsmaskin and experience their album,”herremoral | slavemoral“.
It seems the guys from Biomechanimal have slapped us with the single, “From The Mouths Of Beasts“, the latest unnatural, animalistic track from the London based band.
The sound from the outset is huge. There is their signature hardstyle mixed with industrial but also there is the introduction of something akin to symphonic metal, swirling in morass, while the vocals snarl and growl, for there is no taking back that which comes from the mouths of beasts.
I don’t think it’s my imagination, when I say, Biomechanimal are getting heavier. Sure there are the bass drops that you expect but a bigger, more epic metal aspect has been creeping in. How much heavier can they go? Watch this space.
You would have to say that those individuals that create harsh industrial power and rhythmic noise, are a pretty unique bunch, as they form strong and danceable music tracks. STAHLSHLAG is Sebastian Sünkler and he is also one of these amazingly talented humans. With the release of his latest album, A Zone Of Silence, we thought ‘hey, we have a few questions’ and we know the super lovely Sebastian was up for the challenge of answering those very questions. I have to say that Sebastian might have the coolest wife on the planet…..and if you want to find out why, then you better get reading!
Welcome dear Sebastian, to Onyx where all hopes and dreams can be built and perish.
STAHLSCHLAG has been around since the mid 2000s. What was Sebastian up to musically before your current project?
I started to produce music some years before STAHLSCHLAG. My first steps were kind of dark electro tunes in a project called Vicious Circle with German vocals. It was the time when I discovered so called trackers as software to make sample based music. A friend of my older brother showed Fast Tracker 2 for MS DOS to us and I was totally hooked and fascinated since using trackers is kind of nerdy programming music rather than produce in a more conventional way. I wrote two albums and also released them by myself but well it was more something I shared with friends. It was also a little different then because it wasn’t so easy to do self promotion on the web like we can do now. Also producing was more complicated in a way. I didn’t have money for good gear so I relied mostly on samples I ripped from tunes in tracker file format I downloaded on modarchive.org or I used free samples from download sites. Anyways this is how I started 22 years ago. I still work with trackers but they are modern now supporting everything I need. I just love the workflow to produce from top down in patterns putting the notes step by step and manipulate samples.
I always am curious about the scene in different countries. Where you are in Germany, what was the dark/industrial scene like when you first started out and what is it like now?
I loved my first years in the scene. I have been into it since I was 18. We had great Gothic and Industrial parties in Hamburg and awesome concerts and festivals, more than we have now. It was totally exciting. I also loved that we had many printed magazines to inform us about new music and I really loved to discover new stuff just by checking out CDs in a store. To me it was always mostly about the music and it is still like that. I think the scene here is still great. Many efforts to keep it alive even if it gets harder. COVID had a big influence on it. Small places and events closed their doors. But I believe the scene will always survive. We still have parties everywhere and the biggest European dark festivals in Germany. What I also love is the diversity in the scene in the past and now. Sure also the dark scene has its problems with weird people and idiots (like everywhere when people are involved), I still think in the end it is an open and peaceful group of people and we can be happy in Germany to have many ways to live it out.
What prompted you to start STAHLSCHLAG?
Well, the short answer is, my wife did. She asked me in 2006 to try producing music like Xotox or KiEw because she was totally into rhythmic noise and industrial. I can just say I wasn’t so much. I was more into dark electro and future pop. But well I gave it a try and STAHLSCHLAG was born. She also had the idea for the name. We produced an EP and two albums together. Fortunately Jay from the band reADJUST found our music on MySpace and recommend to a small label in Florida. It was the first home for our music and even if it didn’t work out well, the record label helped us to get noticed. I can also say that MySpace was the best platform to promote our music. I miss it. 😉
What is it about harsh power/rhythmic noise that you love and drew you into creating it?
I think noise is such a great creative tool. You can do so much with it and to me personally it has something very meditative. I can relax so well listening to harsh noise. For the rhythmic noise, I think it is just so powerful and is the perfect companion to any beat. I love how it just flows and even in my calmer tracks, I always need noise at least as textures. Noise is just wonderful.
This year has seen you release your latest album, “A Zone Of Silence”, 2 years after the release of “ALIVE!”. So we are just wondering….why do all the albums start with A?
The first albums I produced with my wife started with A. I found it interesting just to continue like that, always looking for the right word with A to describe the feeling and topic of an album. It is a nice little challenge.
“ALIVE!” was a stunning example of rhythmic noise. How hard or easy was it to write “A Zone Of Silence”?
It is actually always the same. I never have a real idea or plan when I start to work on new music. Everything can inspire me. Something I read, watched or listened to. Sometimes I just play around with sounds or produce something as a meditation. Making music is my escape from the world. It helps me a lot, kind of like therapy too. What really helps me too is that I never think about what’s trendy or what I should do next as a release. Of course I think you can always notice my sound but I don’t work by rules or genres. I do what I feel like and what I love. It was actually easy to write A Zone Of Silence because first I just planned it as EP with less tunes, all slower and darker but then I thought fuck it, I will mix styles on a new album as usual. I know that I tend to be diverse on every album but this is what I love. No rules, just doing what I am in the mood for.
There were hints in “ALIVE!” that your style was slowly changing to incorporate other sounds. Can you tell about these changes and how it affected the newest album?
One important thing to me is trying something new all the time. I love to challenge myself and since it feels like everything is possible now also in a technical view (so many tools, so many instruments, so much computer power), I don’t limit myself. In ALIVE! I wanted to combine cheesy synth melodies with noise just because I thought why not. I had the idea it would work well together. I did it already in the past but focused more on it on the album. A Zone Of Silence was a new challenge. I noticed that I love cinematic and tribal sounds more and more, so I decided to try to mix some of it to my typical STAHLSCHLAG sounds. In the end I will always do something like that because I never want to sound the same. It would just bore me.
This album sees guest vocalists, combining their vocal talents and lyrical skill with your music. Can you tell us about each of these artists and how they came to be on the album?
One of my other ideas to challenge myself was to work with vocals in my music and because I suck at writing lyrics I was looking for guest vocalists. I got such a big feedback on a post on Facebook and I really would love to work with all people who want to collaborate but well I would have to write many more tunes then.
The artists on the album are all amazing people, I knew before already. I met them all on social media and we worked together with remixes. I sent all demos for the album to them and they could pick a track.
Aly-x from Sublimenal Stimuli is such a great vocalist and she writes such great lyrics. She actually did two vocal collaborations for the album and I will release the second one on the remix release later this year. On this album you can hear her in Lost Dreams. She also did vocals for another unreleased song. So you will hear more of her in STAHLSCHLAG tracks in the future. Working with her is a dream. I just send her instrumental tracks and she gets inspired, writing lyrics and sending vocals back in a few days.
Chris from Morbid Echo did the lyrics and vocals for Crushed March. Morbid Echo is a great dark electro project from Hamburg, so he is kind of my neighbor. Working with him was so great too. He got the emotions and my idea from Crushed March immediately. He wrote the lyrics and sent me the recorded vocals in 2 days. Really so amazing and I am sure to work more with him in the future too.
Rick from Mikrometrik wrote the lyrics and did the vocals for Dawn of Man. Mikrometrik is a great dutch dark electro project. I have been a fan of it from the beginning. It was the same experience with Rick like I had with the other guest vocalists. Rick totally got the idea and mood of the track which I wanted to use as an opener anyways. I changed the track a little after Rick sent me the first version of his vocals. In the end we both made it just better. I think it is really the best tune I could imagine for the album.
The fourth collaboration is with Lena from Ultra. This collaboration is even more special. It is not just her perfect German vocals but also the music video which wouldn’t exist without her. Working with her was just awesome. Without her Doomed wouldn’t have this deepness. And I am very grateful for the video. She shot it and produced it. I was just there for three hours, doing what she told me. I am so proud and it was the right choice to release it as a single for the album.
What have these collaborations meant for you as far as your growth as a musician?
They mean a lot to me because they can give my music a final touch I couldn’t imagine before. Also the experience to work with other artists is always fruitful and some of the most important aspects to me in my life as an artist. I look forward to doing more of them. It also means that I have to think different about arranging my music which I already did on A Zone Of Silence. I wrote some of the tracks in a way to leave space for possible vocals.
There are themes throughout the album, Sebastian, which seem to be related to makind and their seemingly headlong plummet into trying to destroy themselves and everything around them, either through environmental destruction or war. What does it mean for you?
I am a pessimist or maybe a realist. We all know that our planet is in danger but we don’t care. We know that war is going on all the time but we don’t care. I can understand why it is like that. Not because we are all just evil or stupid but I still admit that it is frustrating to me. I think a lot about it, read a lot of philosophy to understand the world and people better but it is just surreal. What I believe is that we all could be more open and kind to each other to make the dawn of man a little better. I don’t believe it will get better in the future but maybe we can at least try not to be too selfish and destructive. The current situation is also one of the main reasons why I don’t have children.
Even with the industrial power noise, “A Zone Of Silence” holds elements that are ancient feeling, voices, chants and dark magical places of our ancestors. Am I correct in this theory and if so, why did you incorporate this into the music?
Yes, you’re right about that. I was always into mysticism and shamanism. I discovered it while I read a lot of philosophy books. I am agnostic and believe there is more out there. For the album I was discovering great instruments while looking for cinematic sounds. I found these ancestor sounds in some instruments and felt they would be the perfect addition to the sound I was looking for. To me they match great with the whole mood of the album. They give it some more darkness.
I love the vocal tracks but admit there are many of the instrumental ones that I am extremely fond of as well. I found “Signs” and “Spem liberationis” really sparked my interested. Do you have any favourite tracks off the album?
It is always not easy to answer this question. I can’t say I have favorites but Signs was actually the first track I wrote which had some of the mystical and tribal sounds. It was more of an experiment. So I think without it, the album wouldn’t be like it is. I really like all the tracks, I never put tracks on an album when I don’t enjoy them so much. I always have to feel them or I wouldn’t release them. I have over 300 unfinished tracks which I could finish and release but won’t feel.
You did a Twitch session for the release of the album. How much fun was this?
It was so much fun also because there were such great people there, celebrating with me. I am always so grateful, if other people enjoy my music too. I also had technical issues and maybe talked too much but I still got great feedback. It felt so good to do it.
What pieces of equipment do you rely on the most when recording?
I actually don’t record much, just notes from a midi keyboard for melodies. Most of my work is inside the box which means I do it all in my digital audio workstation (DAW), the tracker Renoise. I load samples into it like drum sounds or load virtual synthesizers and instruments and then do a lot of sound design like my distortions.
You put the album on Bandcamp for name your price and all money made from sales is going to the charity, Equiwent. Please tell us about Equiwent and why you chose them?
Equiwent is a small international aid organization for animals and humans. They work primarily in Eastern Europe to care about working horses and emergency care for all horses. They also care about the street dogs in Romania and run a free veterinary clinic there. Their project Equiwent helps people is a program to support children, poor people and people with disabilities in Romania. Romania is a very poor country in Europe. They also care about refugees from the Ukraine.
I support them because it is a small transparent organization. I believe in what they do and can follow their hard work on social media.
You do a lot of remixes for other acts. This must be something you enjoy doing and is it a great way to network with other musicians?
I always love doing that. Destroying the great music by others is so much fun. Seriously, it is really always a great experience. I enjoy most remixing tracks of other genres. It is always a challenge. And yes, it is an awesome way to network. I found great people just because of it.
I have to ask about your other project, In Tenebris. Although electronic, this is so different to STAHLSCLAG, far more ambient. Can you tell us why you felt the need to create In Tenebris, will there be another album and if so, because “Abyss” was the debut, will the next album also start with A?
In Tenebris was born because someone asked me to do a soundtrack for a lost places video. Well, he didn’t enjoy what I did for the video but I loved what I created. Slow dark atmospheric music, so I decided to write more of it. The track Thanatophobia on the new STAHLSCHLAG album is actually a track I wrote for In Tenebris but I thought it fits great there too. Producing such music is even more meditative to me so yes I will produce more and for sure release a new album too. I am also sure I can’t resist looking for a way to start the album name with A.
Sebastian, you are now an independent artist without a label. Does this make things easier or harder for you?
It is totally fine to me to be an independent artist right now. I want to stay like that for a while but you never know. It doesn’t change so much since Crunch Pod gave me all artistic freedom too. I always did a lot of the promotion by myself and in terms of success. I can already say that A Zone Of Silence is my most successful album so far. I got great reviews, videos for it and also sold it at most. I am so grateful and happy that I can reach other people with my music and that I have fans for many years already.
I believe XoToX are a big influence musically and you can hear that in your music, so what bands and musicians got you into the electronic scene?
My first experiences with electronic music are great artists from the 80s. I always loved synth pop but my first experiences with darker electronic music were bands like Funker Vogt, Suicide Commando, Apoptygma Berzerk at the end of the 90s. I felt totally in love with that kind of music and it didn’t change.
Who influences you now?
I think now I get influenced by every artist I work with. I am lucky because I get to know so much music which isn’t so well known just because I collaborate and remix. This is my biggest influence now because I have to deal with the music in a different way when I have to remix it. So it is a long list because I have done at least 60 remixes so far.
If you could choose a favourite band or song to remix, who or what would it be?
I remixed Xotox which is so amazing already. I think if I could choose I would enjoy to remix something more calm and destroying it. Something by VNV Nation or Solar Fake would be nice. Or maybe something from a total different genre. Doing a STAHLSCHLAG remix of a black metal song could be awesome.
What is next for STAHLSCHLAG and Sebastian?
I have several plans for STAHLSCHLAG. First of all one or maybe more remix releases with remixes of tracks from A Zone Of Silence. I asked for remixers on Instagram and Facebook and got a lot of feedback. If all artists really do it, I will get over 30 remixes. I also plan to release a new EP or album on my birthday on January 31 next year. I know it is pretty early but I have some more tracks ready and vocal collaborations too.
Plans for Sebastian are more about his PhD work. I really need to do less for STAHLSCHLAG to get more time. So I plan to do a break of new releases and remixes after my birthday. But I will still perform at online events and on stage and new music by STAHLSCHLAG will always come.
Thank you for being one of the super wonderful people in the industrial scene and doing this interview!
Onyx Music Reviews 