Stefan Dietz is one of the more active members of the European underground !
‘’I am from Germany, I am a guitarist and also play Bass guitar and do Vocals. I am currently involved in Horresque obviously, but also in Crescent, Nocte Obducta and Slidhr and another recording project called Suel. I do occasional live session-bass in Schammasch, and I was doing live session-guitars in Melechesh back in 2016.
How did you come to be a part of Horresque ?
‘’Horresque's Singer M.R. and the band's original drummer had left their old band and just contacted me by chance over Social Media. I had seen them perform and they were aware that I play in Nocte Obducta, which is a well-known band here in Germany. We met in 2015 and hung out and started to jam, that was it.
‘’We sounded way more old school Death Metal-ish in the beginning, as you can tell by listening to our demo - but it was clear early on, that we were aiming for a colder atmosphere. As all of us are fans of both genres, we did not make that change deliberately, though. It just came to be. We are currently working on new songs and it's even going a step further in Black Metal territory, but also even more melodic than on our debut Full-Length.
Chasms Pt. I – Avarice and Retribution' is raw and brutal.
‘’Yes. We wanted it to be direct and raw, but also organic sounding. We recorded in a studio close to our home, it's called Ultraton and what you are getting there is a lot of analog vibes, and that was our goal. Musically speaking, it's like many bands experience their first songs, really. It's direct, the energy level is very high and pure, and we ended up blasting our way through the songs, it was just a relentless phase haha.
Yet Murder castle has a big groove section?
‘’We need that, groove is a very important musical aspect for us, although it's not dominant in every song. But we always come back to this, and it might be simply the Death Metal 'Foundation' to our sound, so it's like a homecoming feeling sometimes, if that makes some sort of sense. We shall always return to that, at least from my perspective.
It also deals with the 7 deadly sins.
‘’You don't plan these things, at least in my world it's impossible to. M.R. is going for a very direct use of language in his lyrics, but that is only the first impression, as we like the idea to dig into these topics and look for a deeper meaning. And symbolism is a very important part to extreme Metal, as well. So when we decided to hint at the 7 deadly sins, we were taking it as an aspect that could hold all the topics together very well. That Wrath and Greed are two main topics on 'Chasm Pt. 1', matches the immediate and brutal nature of the songs, but it just happened in the process.
On top of it all, we are fans of concept albums, so why not make a whole series out of it?
Deepwater Horizon in particular to greed and consumption
‘’This is what I was just giving a hint to, stuff like Wrath and Greed has many layers, and what happened in the particular case of the Deepwater Horizon Platform just portrays that there is no limit to greed and that this is rooted in human nature. But as long as it is disguised in serving a 'common good', there are no limits and no questions asked, at least not loud questions for everybody to hear. And at one point, it goes too far, obviously.
It is also from a factual perspective with the my lai massacre and the Baghdad airstrikes.
‘’Well, it's all out there. Nothing needs to be imagined, really. Which is striking, if you think about it. You don't need to dig deep for outrageous and real horrors, to stay in the picture.
Is it in our nature to destroy ourselves and everything around us?
‘’We've had this discussion in the band several times, and found no final agreement, as there are also many examples for humans that care for their environment and even the society around them. But if you ask for my personal opinion, I think the outlook is pessimistic, I think we're totally fucked. Just take the world we live in for almost 1.5 years now, with the pandemic, that is human-made. We're always thinking we're the smartest being out there and we find the solutions to every problem, but for this planet WE are the deadly virus. A parasite that exploits and destroys, not thinking that there will be future generations of our species – and more importantly – other species that have a will and a right to exist.
Horreque is grounded in reality rather than the fanciful.
‘’Definitely grounded in the factual, yes. We will not start to make up stories anytime soon. The factual is as brutal and challenging to the mind as anything you could imagine, in trying to make up horrific stories. We stick to the truth in our lyrics.
‘’Again, I can only put a personal opinion here, as there are layers of opinion on these topics that deal with human nature, also among Horresque-Members.
I think man is not willing, or able (?) to learn and do better, in case 'better' is something that applies to everybody everywhere. Short term interest will always dominate, that goes for who has power and who has not, that also goes for what crimes are being committed and disguised. Might well be, that it has always been like that, we just now get access to all of that information, with the Internet and all.
You also have a live Video with tracks appearing on Metal Injections Slay at home series .
‘’We've had a tough start – no doubt – with releasing our Album just a month before Covid hit Europe. After that, as for every band on this planet, all gigs had to be postponed, that was very bad timing in our particular case, to be honest, and we were not able to promote the album the way, a rather new band needs ‘’to, to get people to become aware and check us out.
With the pandemic going up and down in waves over the course of 2020, it became obvious that politics would reopen cultural life at the latest stage possible, at least in Germany.
‘’We then decided that we wanted to try to make people become aware that we (still) exist by doing something new (speaking in our terms). In our daily lives, some of us are professional film makers, so that was a natural selection for the format of choice. The video will put a spotlight on how Horresque will look and sound like if you come to one of our gigs.
‘’We feel quite honored that we'll be a part of 'Slay at home', especially as it's the grand final of the series. We'll be featured with two songs, like everyone else, but Metal Injection will hopefully put the full 30-Minute-Version online a few days later.
Horresque future plans?
Hopefully, we'll find a way to put out our debut on Vinyl in the coming months. Furthermore, we're working on Chasms – Pt. 2, two new songs have already been finished, a lot more are completely written, but we are arranging the stuff in the rehearsal space, so that needs a bit of time. We hope to record the second album in early 2022.
Crescent is a very different beast with its technicality and mental time changes. How did your involvement come about ?
‘’Simply through personal friendship. I've known the guys through a mutual friend of ours and as half of the band lives in Germany, anyway. Ismaeel, the singer/guitarist and main songwriter and I share a common taste in music, and we had been in contact almost daily for quite a while. When their bass player left the band, it was rather a friend asking a friend, 'are you in?' and that was a no-brainer for me.
Carving the Fires Of Akhet deals more with the divine and man's history. Are these topics important to you?
‘’Yes, very much so. I have always been interested in history and how it repeats itself, mostly due to that man has always been the same, only the symptoms have changed over time. And I do find it fascinating how religious belief has formed out of – let's say – an existential question arising in us and how that has always been a subject to be hijacked from people in power, and even – up to this day – is a very common reason for fighting, war and murder.
Have you always been drawn to extreme music?
‘’ If I remember correctly (I am 45 now) it didn't take me very long to jump from late 80s Hard Rock to Slayer and beyond, I still remember that crazy time around 1991 when all these albums came out one after the other, especially in Death Metal, just before Norway exploded with the second wave of Black Metal. To name two important musicians – my mystical masters – that'll be Chuck Schuldiner of Death and Jon Nödtveidt of Dissection, as controversial the latter might be.
What makes a Black /Death metal music unique ?
That's rather difficult – I will again hint at the aspect of atmosphere. There's simply nothing that grasps my soul like this music. It just makes me feel like myself, as odd as that may sound. There's no pride in it, though.
How do you find time for all these projects and are there any others you are involved in?
‘’I just need this. And I do make the time for it, at least at this moment in my life. It's more important than anything else, it has become my DNA somehow. I do live and breathe the guitar atm and I've never been in a more creative phase.
‘’But a part of the story also is that not all of my projects and involvements mean that there's regular meetings and rehearsals. Simply, as there are some multinational projects I am involved in. And, the different bands are usually not 100% active all at the same time, especially under the current circumstances.
‘’Speaking of Crescent, for example, Ismaeel is living in Cairo in Egypt, while the rest of the band is in Germany, but also living in different cities. But as long as there is no free travel, Ismaeel can't get here.
‘’Slidhr is another one of the Bands that is residing in different countries, which is Ireland, Iceland and Germany. We have some recordings scheduled this year , so that's going to be me recording bass guitar to drum and guitar files that are being sent to me.
The evolution of Black and Death Metal?
‘’These things all happen in phases, as we all know. So I have a difficult time imagining where this is heading. Just take the outburst of Icelandic Black Metal we've experienced a few years ago, who would have thought that this could happen and gain so much recognition? I am very fond of what is coming from latin America at the moment, with Bands like 'Los Males del Mundo', who have put out an amazing debut record, and 'Selbst', to name another band I really like.
‘’I think that there are many brilliant musicians in this field, so I feel a strong sense of contempt to be a part of this, and also to be a part for quite a long part of my life. But the question is really a tough one. You know just a tiny number of musicians can do this full-time, as a job, and most cannot. Maybe that's the thing that is so fascinating. Most stuff that extreme metal Bands make and release happens in their free time, they make space for this, to make it happen. That's such a cool thing when you see that in so many cases for so many years we've been granted all this awesome music!
Top 6 albums of all time
Here's 10 as I cannot limit myself!!!!
Death – Human
Dissection – Storm of the Light's Bane
Entombed – Clandestine
Cynic - Focus
Morbid Angel – Blessed are the Sick
Darkthrone – Transylvanian Hunger
Naglfar – Diabolical
Deathspell Omega – Si monvmentvm reqvires, circvmspice
Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon
Devin Townsend – Ocean Machine