December 2009 - LORD OF THE GRAVE
One of the musical highlights in 2009 was 'Raunacht', the debut album from Switzerland's LORD OF THE GRAVE. The concept is simple: heavy-weight riffs are piled up to form massive sonic sculptures, almost as gigantic as the Alps in their home country. Despite the sluggishness of their material they succeed in keeping it thrilling and exciting. While some other doom bands try to stimulate the hearing system with third-grade riffs, unbearable pathetic vocals and nonexistent songwriting skills, LORD OF THE GRAVE manage to attract interest within a very short time. And the best of all, 'Raunnacht' remains enthralling until the very end. Fans of Saint Vitus and Electric Wizard are at home here, but everybody else who likes his doom unbelievably heavy and impregnated with a Sabbathical solution of 1970's heavy rock should try this band.
2009 has been a very successful year for LORD OF THE GRAVE. As already mentioned, 'Raunacht' has been released thru The Church Within Records and received a lot of good reviews worldwide. Then there was the common tour with Revelation, Mirror of Deception and Lord Vicar that was rounded off by an appearance at Doom Shall Rise Festival. Reason enough for Cosmic Lava to get to the bottom of things and so I've sent a couple of questions to bassplayer Michael Greilinger, who belongs to the veterans of the Swiss doom scene and played also in Switzerland's first doom band Windfall. His career has included a longer stay in Voodooshock as well as in psychedelic deathrock outfit Phased. Furthermore vocalist/guitarist Robert took part in answering the questions of this interview, which we made at the end of 2009.
Before we talk about your colossal debut album 'Raunacht', tell me a little bit about the history of the band. There have been some changes of the line-up, right?
Michael: Yeah, we just had the last change a couple of weeks ago, when our old drummer Jukka left. Luckily, we've found a replacement quick in the person of Schmidor, who used to play with Rob. Also, myself has been been in and out and back in again. I was at the first couple of rehearsals, because Rob wanted to do a band with me. Funny enough it didn't work out back then in 2006 when Rob and Jukka founded the band. I wasn't too much into the songs at first, so...but like two years later, when Rob asked me, if I knew a good bassplayer, I was sneaking back into the band, so to say.
R: That's right, it's always a kinda struggle to find the right people who want to play music with you, and vice versa. I don't know...It seems to be a phenomenon throughout the genre. The only thing that's different with us is, it happens already in such a short period of time and before we launched the rocket yet. I hope it settles some time.
How do you write your songs? Is everything meticulously planned or is there also a place for improvisation?
R: Mostly I come up with the idea for a song, somehow it seems to be the easiest way to create something steady. But there's always space for improvisation in the song at certain points. But too much improvisation can fuck up a song as well. It's a thin line really. Sometimes I write songs out of an improvisation, sometimes a song becomes an improvisation. Sometimes a riff becomes a song throughout improvisation. Some songs need to age like wine others deflagrate. These are mostly impros because they only seem right for a certain span of time and are too fragile to get hold on to. Sometimes you can try to get a hold on to them, but it never quite feels the same afterwards. But then, they're not actual songs really. Also each song is played a little bit differently each time, but I guess that happens in every band, songs and players develop. I guess I'm missing the point here, what was the question again?
Hahaha...no, don't worry...it's ok. What is more important for you: The riff or the song?
R: Without a riff no song, is there? But you're gonna have to play something that makes a song, which has to be a riff, right? They are really depending on each other. To me it's more like how you arrange the riffs in a song, how you have the cherry on top of your cake. A riff may be great but it has to be super-genius not to fuck up a whole song in general, if it isn't arranged well. You know, it's such a fine line between stupid and clever.
Michael: I'd say that at first, there is a riff, a catchy riff. A riff that also has to sound good, even when the guitar is not plugged in. And then there's some more riffs and parts. And then we fiddle it all together somehow and tune it into a song. I guess, our specific sound is important also for the end result.
This year, you've released your first full-length 'Raunacht' through The Church Within Records. So, how long have you been in the studio and how did you get together with label owner Oliver Richling?
R: Oli saw us at the first Dawn of Doom Festival and he seemed to like us. We were planning to record some stuff that time and sent him the rough mixes. With time he seemed to like the material even further, so we've decided to work together, that's how... He's a cool guy, very supportive, also he has a good taste in music which shows in the other bands he has on his label. We got lucky there.
Honestly I have to say this record was planned to be ready one whole year before it was actually released, but the recordings got fucked up somehow and the master was unlistenable, also it costed us a bassplayer. So we've decided to re-record that stuff again.
Like at the first studio session it took us only a weekend to record everything. Everything played life, mostly first-takes. Some guitar overdubs on 'Bardo' & 'Ghosts of the Pyre', that's it. The whole recording of the vocal took like 2 hours. Oh yeah, there's a percussion overdub on 'Raunacht' as well, but it's not that obvious though.
